I was molested - and loved every minute of it

It was not just me. My wife and son was with me during the molestation!! We were kissed, sucked on, nibbled upon and tickled and enjoyed every single minute of the experience. In fact the tickling was so pronounced that I broke out in guffawing laughter to the amusement of all who were in the room. I recommend that all of you should try it.

Try what you may ask!! Try Fish Spa. Try having tiny little fishes nibbling at your feet and calves. There are apparently 2 types of these fishes. There are the kiss and nibble ones and then there are the suckers or vacuum feeders. The latter is what we call Bandaraya (or City Hall for the English speakers). These looks like your typical bottom feeders in many of the aquariums.

The nibblers also come in 2 sizes - big and small. I go for foot reflexology regularly and thought that I would start off with the larger nibblers. Big mistake!! The tickling was so intense that I broke out laughing uncontrollably. The attendant suggested that I try the smaller nibblers first (before I distract the other customers in the Spa)!!

The one I went to is Kenko at Mid Valley Megamall - Second Floor, North Court.

Try it at least once if nothing else - just for the experience.

Little Falls, Delaware - April 2008

Another trip to the USA. Another very long trip (the travel, not the duration of stay in Little Falls)!! Why? For another face to face meeting - this time for the training optimization project. All those late nights meetings (for me) can only achieve so much. The whole team needed to get together to get some decisions and commitments going.

So from KL to Philadelphia (airport to airport, including transit times), it took all of 30 hours. I left KL, headed to Hong Kong (because I flew Cathay), transit in San Francisco and ended up in the Christiana Hilton at 2 minutes before midnight on the same day that I had started. But of course, it was already a day later back home.

There was nothing to excite me at the various airports that I transiting through. So when I saw these 2 cops patrolling the vast territory in San Francisco airport (the terminals are really extensive!!), I did not hesitate to ask then if they minded having their photos taken. I wonder if I would have gotten shot if I did not ask permission??

Many people were envious of my temporary home in Gurgaon last month. So I will extend their envy by showing off what my room looks like in the Christiana Hilton. First of all, the TV comes with a games controller so that one can play Nintendo games when one has the time (which I did not - sigh!!). And if you did not have your own laptop, you can always surf the internet on the TV with the keyboard that was provided.

In addition to the king sized bed, (with a lounge seat besides it), there was also a desk for me to work and of course the TV, coffee machine, etc.. Don't the room look expansive (big lah)?

Everyday, in the late afternoons, there is also a swan feeding event. The hotel has a very nice lake next to the front entrance (which I aptly named as swan lake). They have quite a few swans enjoying themselves and occasional storks visitations (at least I think they are storks). Too bad, time did not allow me to see this happening (the feeding I mean).

And as with most of these meetings, we had at least one team dinner. Of all the places that they have in and around Little falls, the place for the team dinner was called Potstickers Asian Grill. Their menu was a mish mash of Chinese, Thai, Western, etc. And the portions were huge. If I had known the portions were so much, I would have volunteered to share the dinner with someone, instead of seeing a lot of it go to waste - especially in these times of WW food shortages looming.

Last but not lest, here is a team photo taken on the last day. I took the liberty of photo shopping in my boss (Mark D) as he was not able to be physically present. He called in 2 times to contribute to the meeting. So you can say he was spiritually with us. Heh heh heh!!

And then it was another 30 hours back from Philly to KL, airport to airport. But I lost Thursday. I left on Wednesday evening and arrived home in the afternoon of Friday.

I want to report a missing Thursday!!

Teaming - I must be doing something right!!

The new team that reported for duty on 31st March seems to be coming along well. I was a little apprehensive in the beginning, given India's culture of caste (some levels of insularity) , language (only Hindi and English is a common language) and backgrounds (educational, environmental, religious etc).

By the third day, I could observe a lot of team communications and self help, especially in the areas where they had some common issues.The first was transportation. Hena who probably stays the furthest from the office compared to the others (she stays in Noida) was having issues with getting to the right site to get her transport. She was given the runaround as to where she was supposed to wait. Her bus was also missing her (departing 2 minutes earlier than scheduled - though maybe it could have been her watch out of sync!). The other team members called up each other to make sure they got their transport and to let me know if anyone was going to be late because the bus missed them.

A few common words suddenly held special meanings to the team over the past 2 weeks. Randeep was assigned a huge CRT monitor instead of the slicker LCD monitors with the smaller footprint. I referred to it as Ganapathy (the Indian God that looks like an elephant). The name stuck.

If you were to say out loud - BANANA TEST- you could probably get a laugh from the team. I was sharing with them a story of why it was important to listen carefully and understand the details when they receive calls. As an illustration, I gave them this story
There was a coconut tree somewhere along one of the beaches in India and along came 4 animals - an orangutan, a monkey, a chimpanzee and King Kong.

Which animal managed to get a banana first?

And of course, everyone answered one of the above. Which made them stupid, idiotic, moronic and so on.

Because.......... you cannot get a banana from the coconut tree!!!

Another couple of words which raises a laugh with this team - BICYCLE PUMP!!
I had another story to break the monotony of training

There was this girl who had been shielded and sheltered from the realities of the world almost all her life. She never knew about sex and so on - that's how naive she was. But lo and behold - she did find someone to love and got married. And in due course, she got pregnant. She gets worried as her stomach grew and went back to mum - "Mum, why is my belly growing bigger?" Mum, in her eternal wisdom told her daughter - don't worry. It's just air!!

When she got home, her hubby happily asked her - so dear, are you all ready for the pitter patter of little feet in the house? Naive girl goes - what pitter patter?
Hubby - you know, the precious gift you are carrying in your belly?
Naive Girl - oh this? Mum says it is just air!!

Hubby blew his top, went to the mum in law and pulled downed his pants. Mum - what do you think this is? A bicycle pump???

Okay - Back to work!!

http://www.engrish.com/

This update is dedicated to the misuse and abuse of English!!. A colleague sent me a series of photos showing really hilarious sign boards purportedly from China. As most of them has the www.engrish.com watermark on them, I thought I would go to the site to have a look.

Hilarious!!! I wonder if those signs will still be there during the Beijing Olympics??

I have cropped and made up the following montage for easy reading. If you want more of the same - go to the site in the subject header.

Marriage - Indian style

Marriage is serious business in India. Seriously!!!

In a Sunday copy of the Times of India - a reputable piece of mainstream rag, there was a pullout section that totalled 8 pages of individuals looking for life partners (or alliances as they had been termed).

India has been termed as the world's largest democracy and it truly is. There is no discernible discrimination in how the ads are placed when the individuals were looking for alliances. They have the not so easy to cubby hole ads like these.

With even special interest groups being catered for

And ads based on vocation

And religion

And Castes

How much more democratic can you be? The most common theme that I observed in all these ads were that the individuals tends to be Handsome/ pretty, Slim/ healthy, good family, professionals, have USA residence through Green Card, Highly educated, etc., etc. If this was true, why do they find it so difficult to find a life partner?? Hmmmm.....

I brought back the pullout for the single people in the office. There has been at least one who was willing to consider an overseas "investment". Good Luck Ian!!