Kolkata

As usual it was one of those last minute decisions – at 5pm on Thursday the other week I’m asked to get suppliers into our offices in Kolkata for meetings on Tuesday & Wednesday – as well as be there to conduct them.

It didn’t work out that way – the dictum “no plan survives contact with the enemy” – certainly applied as none of them wanted to go there. So instead I ended up going there and conducting teleconferences. At least it was easier than a three way teleconference................

Getting there meant an early flight from Chennai at 8.15 – arriving there 10.30. I was picked up and taken to the hotel – the Grand Hyatt Regency – before arriving our offices in Salt Lake about midday. It seems we are very much on the outskirts of the city – there appears to be a lot of scattered big buildings being put up all over the place. There didn’t seem to be quite as much traffic – but the quality of driving was just the same.

The hotel itself is very nice – just one odd compliant – the washbasin in the bathroom had no plug – which makes having a wet shave difficult.

I quite enjoyed the mixed buffet – plus the Kingfisher Beer – and had that well known British delicacy Bread Pudding for desert.

Coming back I realised that Kolkata Airport makes Chennai look modern. Checking in you put your luggage on the scale – it’s then passed to some chap with a trolley who wheels it off to wherever.

Nevertheless both luggage and myself made it back into Chennai around 8.30 pm – so two days back in Chennai office before packing my bags yet again.

But this time it’s for a week’s vacation in Thailand.

Getting through January

There’s not really much to report from India as regards January. I returned to work to face the usual 200 or more e-mails – though quite a few of those were Christmas & New Year Greetings.

There was a “Festival Holiday” on Thursday 14th – Tamil New Year I believe – but as us ex-pats are only allowed eight of the ten holidays the locals get we were allowed to work this one.

After all, only 1 ½ weeks after Christmas a Thursday off in Chennai isn’t that attractive a prospect.

In the final week of January India had a National Day Holiday – which meant we had to take the day off. So I used up 4 days of my R&R allowance and went to Thailand for the week. The Thais were complaining it was cold – can’t say I noticed – and it rained three of the afternoons when I was on the beach.

The place was still quite busy – though some people are worried by threats that “the Red Shirts” and “the Yellow Shirts” are going to kick off protesting against each other soon and try and close the airport at the end of February.