In Flight on Luftansa (Feb 2007)

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This is the first time in my 4 visits to US that Iam writing my experiences in conventional manner.I know my Sonu would love to read this since Iam writing this especially for her.This will also keep me engaged so that I can for some time think about something other than missing you!

The travel to MUmbai airport was decent.The bhaiya who drove taxi ultimately showed his true colours by attempting to manupulate the fare.After a small argument I settled for Rs.300.After I went in, the check in took quiet a long time.I guess the guy at Luftansa counter was new.After standing in queue for nearly an hour, I got my boarding passes. I middle seat from Mumbai to Frankfurt & Window from Frankfurt to Phili.Our plane took off by around 3.45 am against scheduled departure of 3.25 am.But inspite of this delay, our pilot managed well to reach Frankfurt in time...in fact ahead of scheduled arrival.I tried to manage the inconvenience of my middle seat by sleeping out for around 5 hours.I had only a few items in my meal & was on liquid diet thruout.How to manage food & time on long distance travel comes with experience.

I had a 5 hour break before by connecting flight takes off from Frankfurt to Phili.I thought that will not be a problem as I was very keen on exploring Froankfurt airport city.But it turned out to be opposite.I did explored the airport city at length but I guess the time proved to be too much.By 11 am FF time i was done with my exploration & had a good 2 hours before I can check in for my phili flight.WHile strolling around I picked up a few postcards as souveniers for Sonu.Made couple of calls home once immediately after reaching FF & one bofore departure.

After boarding on to Phli flight, its almost 6 hours now & I was sleeping for 5 hours out of that.I again kept myself in liquid diet.My TV screen tells me that Phili is still 2 hours 15 mins away & we are flying at 36000 feet@ the speed of 800kmhour.I Hope my immigration at Phili goes smothly & so does my travel till Marriot...Love you!

Sachin

In Flight from Mumbai to Phili (Mar 2007)

Its around 10.20 pm Mumbai time now & am just 2 hours away from arrival.Am pretty tired physically, but in my mind I was constantly thinking abt my experience abt my first visit to Delaware as Manager.As I look back over past 2 weeks & the takeaways of meetings that I had various stakeholdres there, the reasonable extent to which I have understood the process being migrated & our weekend visits to Phili & NYC, I think the visit was very much successful.Also a major part of success will also depend upon on how I execute the takeaways of my meetings from Monday on.Its going to be payback time as my manager told me today before I left office in DE.Some very precise focus areas have emerged out of my meetings with DE managers.One of them obviously is to ensure some "Sense Check" before recs are sent out by our team. 2nd equally important area to work upon is "Remove the Line" as Jeff New said in our discussions.

The travel so far has not been as good as it was while going to US.We ate some cup noodles before checking out of Marriot.The shuttle dropped us at the airport at 4.15 am & my flight was at 6 pm.I was feeling hungry so I had a McChicken & fries at McDonalds on the Phili airport.At 6 I was ready to board.The flight was on time but there I did a mistake.I had 2 glasses of Wine & what it did to me ? It made me more hungry at a place where I dont have anything to eat but juice.I somehow managed till I got down at Frankfurt.Tried sleeping also it didnt work.I had to buy an orange juice that cost me Euro 2.That almost Rs.120.But that was not enough.After boarding the FF - Mumbai flight, I had 3 glasses of apple juice & some good sleep inbetween.As a result I now feeling good enough to write this letter.

Overall last 2 weeks were very good.4th visit to US, 7th visit to NYC,2nd visit to Phili..overall my 21st internal flight. I also cooked on couple of days at Marriot & that was decent.But at all times, I missed my Sonu.Talks are on in Mumbai for a future migration from Equities team & as far as I know Sonu has been shortlisted for that.So hopefully she is get to see most of whatever I have seen here sp far.

Love you

Sachin.

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Photos

@ Marriott Residency
This is where I stayed during my visit In Feb 2007