Category: Travelling Places

Greeting from Thiruvananthapuram, aka Trivandrum. I arrived here yesterday evening from Mumbai. This is the city of the famous Mahavishnu temple in South India, the Sri Anantha Padmanabhaswamy Temple. Thiruvananthapuram means “The land of Sree Anantha Padmanabhaswamy”. A few months ago, that temple’s treasures were valued at Rs 90K crores (around US $20 billion.)
Continue reading “It’s Raining in Trivandrum”

I am on my way to Kolkata — the city most likely to be mispronounced in airport announcements. What’s so hard about “coal-kaa-taa”? Three simple syllables with equal stress on each. In any case, the plan is to meet people and talk about things related to India and its political future. Just BTW, for the rest of my visit, I am going to be in the following cities:
Continue reading “Off to Kolkata”

I am off to the old motherland. I will be the guest of Lufthansa flight from SFO to Frankfurt on their Airbus 380, and then on to Mumbai (on a Boeing 747, I guess.) First time on A380 — I am looking forward to it. I will catch up after I land in Mumbai on Oct 13th Thursday at 1 AM. Take care.

I am attending the “2011 Experts Meeting” of the Uberoi Foundation for Religious Studies is being held at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA (September 30th to October 2nd, 2011.) The theme is In Our Own Voices – Dharma Education in North America: “to facilitate the emergence of innovative / creative theories, approaches, methods to education / scholarship in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh Dharma traditions.” You didn’t know that I was an expert, did you? Just kidding. I have been invited only as an observer. So off to LA I go. I am driving down. Back to the SF Bay area on Oct 4th. And then off to India on Oct 11th.

This is a travel alert. I am going to be in Bangalore 29th Jan through 31 Jan. On 29th Saturday, I am speaking on “Why is India poor?” between 4 and 6 PM. Venue: To be announced. After Bangalore, it will be Hyderabad. I am speaking at the Indian School of Business on the 1st of Feb. The Center for Emerging Market Studies at ISB is holding a round table discussion on “Where do new cities fit on India’s urban roadmap?” My job there is to take a wide-angle view of the big picture. Back to Mumbai 2 Feb and then leave for New Delhi on Sunday 6th Feb for a week. I am considering writing a very interesting post on the blog. Perhaps I will later today. Cheers.

Hi. Second time in Washington DC within the same month! I am meeting someone at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel — which is a stone’s throw from the White House. More about my excellent adventure in DC later.

Left Mumbai at 4:30 AM on Emirates. Now I am at Dubai after a short 3 hour flight. The next leg will be rough — 16 hours to SFO. I hate flying economy. Anyhow, I guess I will survive. Right now I am sleepy, tired, and wondering why on earth I decided to fly Emirates.