The Year that was....2008!

Well it has been more than a year now in Dubai, and it has been a mixed bag.

2008 started with me coming out of a period of extreme activity, into a period of dullness.

By April, I was all set to be married, but I probably had the most distracted and busy weeks of my life just days before the D-Day! 

The highlight of the year! - I got married and spent the most wonderful time in India, and then it was time to move back to the grind in dubai.

Then, I got into a series of business development activities and the moved into a project in Egypt.....

And then started another remarkable set of experiences..working mostly out of Cairo....and ended the assignment with a fabulous trip to Europe (Spain, Germany and France!)

Then came the gloom in the form of this global crisis we all face.....inerrupted by some brief yet fun personal moments.

As I end this year, I have moved into a new house, but all the while Iam now thinking of one thing....What next, Stay or Move, India or Dubai, enjoy the present or work harder for the future.

As this year winds down, Iam just hoping for the new year to present opportunities which will keep me excited and stimulated.

I just want to be keen on Work and Life! 

Hoping for a fabulous 2009...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Later

Back on the banks of the Nile

Well....Blogging again after a very loong time.

Well thats coz I got married in May and man,......now I understand why married people are just so busy all the time!

There seems to be so many more interesting things to do :-)

Anyways, now Iam back to being a bachelor again now! I recently cracked this deal with a spanish client looking to enter egypt. Iam currently working out of cairo doing a market assesment and entry strategy for this client.

For starters, Working in cairo has definitely not been the most professional experience! Language is a barrier, Too much politics even to get a simple interview going and very opaque when it comes to releasing information.

But, of course the plusses are, the hours are not half as bad here compared to dubai....very chilled out people here. Further, we are located on the nile....a simple breathtaking view everytime we look out the window.

Next weekend we are off to alexandria and the following weekend to luxor and aswan! Looking forward to these and of course my trip back to india the following weekend to see the missus.....it feels stragely odd to say that, ill settle into it soon enoug i guess.

Well Ill leave you with an interesting fact about egypt: The men to women ratio here is about 1:4, but its not easy to get married here because the prerequisite here to get married is a car and an own house.....I mean lotsa choices for dating (slightly difficult in conserrvative circles), but Cant gett married easy :-).......You cant have your cake and eat it too :-)

Neways....more soon.

In a Holding Pattern

First things first.....ISB has been ranked as the 20th Best B-school in the world by FT. Well timed before placement season i should say.......its going to be a mad rush on campus this this year....hats off to the ISB management team.....Somebody please write a Case study about ISB will ya?

On to more mundane updates, The past few weeks can be best described as me being in a "Holding Pattern". Let me explain.....Work has been hectic with meetings everyday and deadlines every other day! But somehow, I seem to be holding and waiting for something around the corner....its a wierd feeling, that something significant is just around the corner....

On other things, since my last post, I did a quick trip to india.....as always it was a great trip! After that I had been to muscat for a day trip.....This period at work has been my attempt at serious Business develpment work. Iam just realizing that BD can be fascinating and frustrating at the same time, especially in the consulting / knowledge based businesses. Its really not about selling a product or service, but its about scoping the need or even sometimes creating the need.

Now, I know that sounds fancy, but its much tougher than that because one has to keep thinking and adapting at all points......Well, fancy this: I have gone from Mechanical engineer to Research associate and then Product development engineer; onwards to Business strategy and marketing then flipped over to Management consulting and now slipped nicely into Business development.....Whew!

I really need to figure out what exactly i like out of all this soon, frankly I like it all in bits and can be good at most of it!

Well lets see whats next around the corner for me......Hopefully a really strong career and some realy good money :-)

On other things, last week my mother had visited and we had a blast...or at least she did. All I did was run around behind her and provide as much cash as I could :-). Sign of things to come??? Hmm....

Well next trip to india in early march and hopefully my holding pattern will break then.

Thought for the day: Lets get going already!!

Giza Gazing!

Another interesting day started off with a visit to the famous pyramids at Giza.

Of course they were magnificent, but i seemed to be rushing through the sights of this great monument. Such brilliance, yet come to think of it, this entire area was secluded as a cemetery in the ancient times! They seemed to be obsessed with the thought of life after death...these Pharoahs!

As it ought to be, i got hassled by salesmen on the site, and was made to buy some worthless trash at some exorbidant rates, but i have to agree that egyptian sales men have mastered the art of push selling!

Also I visted the burial chambers inside one of the large pyramids, but the route to get there was this 3ft X 3ft tunnel, which got me very claustrophobic! Post this, I saw the Sphinx which was a huge disapointment.....it was like small broken down monument, not really worth all the hype.

The highlight of the day however was my visit to the perfume factory, where i was treated to a wide array of concentrated perfumes...quite exotic i should say!

Later on I also visited a Papyrus shop, where i got my self a couple of neat soveniers for family back home.

After all this, I had a very insightful meeting with the minstry which rounded off a very egyptian day for me at Cairo!

Thought for the day: 1 Wonder down...6 to go!

Clueless in Cairo!

Well well.....Iam in cairo, and not in my wildest dreams would i have imagined being here like 6 months ago. Iam Here on a business trip which has been reasonably successful so far.

Iam back from a long hiatus for finally i do have some inspiration now! My visit here has been interesting from the moment I landed here. Firstly, I dont understand arabic and noone here understands english!! So currently iam learning the art of sign language and body language to get a simple thing like a loaf of bread!

Cairo is one of the most polluted cities I know, and one of the very strange things here is, everyone seems to own a car!.....and Egypt is not one of the richest countries i know....it is similar to india in many ways.

Yesterday I visited the Cairo museum and the highlight was visiting the Room of the mummies! That was a scary but interesting tour. Iam now looking forward to visiting the pyramids and the local market Khan el Khalili.....old style market place here.

This is my first visit to africa, and so far it has been an interesting visit, even though i have been greeted with some very very cold weather. More to come and Iam looking forward to my third trip back to india later this month too!

More later.
Arabic word for the day: Ezayk : How are you?