I’m back!!

For the uninformed, the reason why I had not been writing any blog posts for the past two months was that I was in the US for professional purposes and my daily schedule did not allow me to think beyond usual, an essential prerequisite for creative writing!

But, that was then! Now, I’m back in India with tons of interesting things and experiences to share with you guys! Most of these things are ones which you already know or have heard about, hence my motive would be to impart a fresh perspective to these experiences.

Also, upon request from a few of my friends from international blogosphere, I’ve decided to keep the vocabulary simple in my posts. This is to ensure readability and easy understanding. Certain posts shall be flagged for advanced vocab, so don’t throw away that dictionary just yet!

That should be all for now. Be sure to check out the announcements in the next post! I’m also planning on launching another blog with medical content. That is subject to finding enough contributors!

Cheers and thanks for the support!

Arpit

 

From New-Delhi to Abu-Dhabi

With so many things to be packed and so less time, it was expected to be a hefty schedule! So many clothes, food and what not! Since it was going to be my first trip to the US, I didn’t quite know what to put in and what to leave out. Anyways, after toiling hard for many days, 70 kilos of ’stuff’ was packed into three bags and I was set to go!

I had a flight with Etihad Airways (the official airline of UAE) on 02 March (One might ask the question that why did I not take Air India or Jet Airways? Well, these are 3-star while Etihad was 4, so I guess it was a safe bet!). The flight was on time and I bid India good-bye at around 11:30 PM IST. I was sitting with a gentleman from Amsterdam and since he was a globe-trotter and a fun-loving guy, we had a very interesting conversation. And yes, being from the drug capital of the world, he increased my knowledge about certain* things!! By the way, it was a wonderful flight with superb food and beverage** but a rather cold hospitality (not unexpected from a new airline!). We were right on time and landed at Abu-Dhabi at 11:30 PM (UAE time).

The airport was a beautiful sight with marvelous architecture. My next flight was in 2:30 hrs, so I went window shopping in the duty-free zone at the airport. I found out first hand that all that glitters in Abu-Dhabi is really really expensive. With all the ‘most-famous’ brands at disposal, it was a feeling that I had never experienced! Then… we boarded the next flight to John F. Kennedy Airport, NEW YORK at 2:00 AM (UAE time).

…. to be continued!

 

International Book Fair 2008

YES!!! After making me wait for sooooo long, the International Book Fair 2008 is finally here. It’s on from 2nd of Feb till 10th of Feb at Pragati Maidan, New-Delhi.

I must say, it keeps getting better and better each year. This time around, there is an increased no. of stalls with an amazing variety of books on display. Of course, the big names are all there.. Penguin, Oxford, Cambridge, Orient-Longman and a lot more.. But what I also liked were stalls from organizations like International Labor Organization (ILO), UNESCO, World Bank etc which can be categorized as unusual yet totally engrossing.

The stalls have a huge collection of the world’s finest literature of authors like Kafka, Toni Morrison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Anita Desai, Kushwant Singh, John Grisham and hundreds of such great names. There also is a myriad of classics by Leo Tolstoy, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway etc and practically a million other books by lesser known writers. Also, there are stalls from several countries like Russia, Canada, Japan, Spain etc featuring their most famous works.

Overall,  I must say, for book lovers there can be no better place to hang-out this week except the book-fair. Believe me, you’ll thank me that you went!  But if you don’t follow my advice, I’m sure you’ll be sorry for missing out on such an awesome event!!!

- Arpit