Sunday, September 30, 2007

New York, The Big Apple...

Well, i always enjoy my trips to the US, and New York has a particular interest for me...

Why not, with 1 £ fetching $2, it is a great time to be coming to the US, and sorta buying up the house... (oops pun not intended on the housing market) - i did end up buying a few baubles though...

My best experiences- this is a city with buzz, and one can see why this is the financial capital of the US, and it is always a pleasure dealing with newyorkers- no nonsense, focused, and very very competent...all my business meetings were jolly good fun...

I also found that it is not enough to have the address, but what is more important, possibly vital to ensure that your taxi driver will not end up screaming at you, are the "grid coordinates"- drop me off between the 50th and 51st on the 5th avenue is probably music to the taxidriver's ears... whereas 76, park avenue is met with a pained look, and possibly sorry, have just decided to take the rest of the day off...

And oh, plan your meetings around the taxi shifts- i found myself unfortunately requiring a taxi at 4:30 pm- and there is a shift change at 5 pm- so around that time, all taxi drivers will studiously ignore you, even if you did the whoopi-whoopi -war dance wearing bright yellow markings with your hair dyed in the colours of the rainbow...

the hotels were something else, though... Apparently it was the UN in session and the fashion week, but i very quickly found that getting a room for less than $500 was not possible, hence had to stay in a rather poor quality hotel right next to the JFK (the double tree) rather close to an interestingly named Jamaica. Rather strange, why it is so difficult to find a decent place to stay in New York for a pocket that is not a millionaire's, or one that does not require authorisation (or atleast raised eyebrows) from authorities to spend a princely sum sleeping in a bed...

Ofcourse staying in this hotel meant that i had to schlep across to Manhattan every day, and the traffic was quite painful- but i did make a few friends amongst the taxi drivers, who, seemingly were all from the subcontinent- found myself conversing in english, and very quickly moving onto hindi, punjabi and bengali... (did you know that the license to own and drive a taxi costs nearly $500 K?)

finally, a word to my airline- i was asked if i would fly EOS, and i must say it turned out to be a very pleasant experience...

Monday, September 17, 2007

Musings from Berlin...

Was in berlin last week..

did a guided cycle tour of the history of the third reich.. why the third reich? well, the guide, Wolf asked me this question and i answered- this was one of those momentous periods in history- of races and extermination, of ruthless effectiveness and of vicious crimes, of a city divided (Berlin) and of the start of the cold war... definitely something i wanted to learn a bit more about...

One aspect that emerged for me (apart from the very serious disquiet about the enormity of the atrocities against humanity commited by this regime) was the relative openness in Germany to examine this terrible period. It takes a lot of courage for a country to stand up and admit to its mistakes, and i must say- the amount of information available about this in Germany tells me something about its peoples.

Another thing that i hadnt known before- that the wall between east and west berlin was actually a ringfence around "west" berlin- it completely encircled a part of berlin occupied by the Western allies.

i wonder what it was like growing up in city to have 2 parts, both completely isolated from each other for almost 30 years...particularly for those in the East...

on a parallel note, unlike in China, i found communication a lot easier- everyone understands english, and i understand a bit of german, and found getting vegetarian food a lot easier (again, seemingly the chinese dont understand the notion of vegetarian food)

China Floored Me...

visited china the week before last...

have read, heard a lot about this country, but a visit is an absolute necessity to grasp the enormity of what is happening there...yes, i know. it is not a democracy, it is not a place for freedom, it is very regulated etc.

but...

it is the place where i experienced the highest speed i have ever reached on land (432 kmph, on a Maglev train to Shanghai Airport), i saw great infrastructure, and great development. The insight?

To me China resembles a company. A small group of people at the top decide what happens, and there is a sequence set in motion, where a series of incentives and disincentives ensure that people behave according to the rules. And follow the rules they do.

Whilst this may sound a bit restrictive, there is no hiding the fabulous results this has brought about for the . Am looking forward to the olympics, which, by all accounts will be a chinese showcase.

The link to Europe and India? My first thought of comparison to India was a sense of disappointment, and a comparison with Europe was like comparing sunrise and sunset... but then, i believe that this is a great opportunity for us. In my chat with the indian ambassador to china, Nirupama, she tells me that the india-china trade is growing really really fast.

Opportunity anyone, to try and do a business idea which had a triage between China, India and Europe?