May 18, 2006 05:02 PM
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(Updated May 18, 2006 05:03 PM)
Udaipur was very beautiful, we stayed in a small hotel beside the lake, the foreigners dominate this area and the local people give importance only to them. We reached here past midnight and everything in Udaipur was silent at that hour of night. Had to wake up some hotel guys, one of them even turned us away. Ultimately we settled at lake ghat hotel, we got a room on the 5th floor adjoining a rooftop restaurant.
The hotel was practically empty with only few foreigners. I was enchanted by the scenic view of the surroundings, small, narrow stone lanes, small shops, and silence, beautiful still lake guarding the famous lake palace. (Now run by Taj Group of Hotels, but still owned by HRH group). The whole lake was shimmering with the moonlight. I was just spellbound by the beauty. There were some cots kept in the rooftop restaurant with those round pillows, enough to entice me to sleep in the moon light rather than in the room.
The morning was as beautiful as the silver night; I woke up with the most beautiful music ever heard by me, played by the band of birds. The moon was getting diminished as the rays of sun started getting stronger and lightening up the whole lake surrounded by the aravali hills.
One night I was astonished by the powerful wind that started blowing in the middle of the night, at incredible speed giving a feeling of strong waves of the ocean.
The effect of the foreigners in this area is so much, you find the stores flooded with goods that they need, imported as well as local and even the menu of all the restaurants was based on their taste buds, I enjoyed the English breakfast each morning.
All the beauty and the love for nature made my mind haunted by memories of my loved ones, was missing my family too much after a long period of 10 days. Each moment during the trip I missed them. While eating, while observing the nature, while driving, while listening to song, I have missed them very much.
We had started our trip from Mumbai at noon on 21st March. We reached Baroda at around 8 o’clock. Spend the night following up with DHL for my consignment from USA, which was, suppose to reach Udaipur before I reach there. Had to co-ordinate with USA and Delhi.
Next day we started our rounds of marketing calls in Baroda Started with SABIC research and technology Pvt. Ltd., an affiliate of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation. It was a phenomenal Institute; the whole place was made with the finest material available and made very luxuriously and lavishly. We were invited to have lunch there and were served with a proper simple but 5 star quality of food, served by properly dressed waiters with gloves and all. The demonstration was given to the concern person and even the Director of the Institute came to have a look at the product. It was quite a successful effort.
Our second round of trip was to Railway Staff College; their Library was very unique. They had a huge collection of videos including that of old classic Hindi movies. I was really pleased to see movie Anubhav displayed too. They have a made video streaming available on their intranet (local Area Network). They also had a massive collection of audio books with them.
From Baroda the next day we left for Nadiad, the road to Nadiad was in excellent condition, 4 Way-Highway thanks to our government. While driving through Gujarat one cannot miss the kind of progress the state has made in terms of infrastructure. The whole state was beaming the progress. Nadiad is popular for what you know? Guess………… PAPADS J I was surprised; there were series of shops displaying the famous papads of Nadiad. The trip to Nadiad was not too successful in terms of business, but since it was on our way to Ahemdabad it was ok. We did have a good discussion with the computer in head of their University. Might get a positive requirement from them in coming months.
Reached Ahemdabad at evening and started the work next day, started with INFLIBNET and then PRL followed by EMRC and NID. The more interesting part of all the companies I visited would be NID, National Institute of Design. This Institute is worth seeing, excellent infrastructure, very smart and qualified staff and beautiful students. I even saw a Peacock loitering in their gardens.
On Sunday we went to Rajkot, since there was nothing else to do in Ahemdabad being a holiday, we decided to visit relatives of Bharat at Rajkot. A drive of 250 Kms from Ahemdabad. The road was so good that it took only two and half-hours to reach. We had an excellent lunch at a restaurant – a proper traditional Kathyavadi thali. I really enjoyed the food, followed by the best coolant in the world – Butter Milk. We also had the most famous Ice Golas of Rajkot, it was real good sweet dish.
From Rajkot we reached Ahemdabad and from there the next day to Udaipur.
