2003----- Quizzes, trips and a shorter commute

2003--- Quizzing and other activities

2003 was significant for me in various ways----- a revival in my quizzing activity, more trips abroad and a change in my office location

In January 2003, I undertook a trip to Seoul, Taipei and Singapore.I flew Malaysian Airlines via KL to Seoul. When the plane was approaching Seoul, the stewardess announced that the temperature was 2 DegC. However, I saw bright sunshine and assumed that it wouldn’t be so cold. As soon as I came out of the airport, an icy blast hit me and my nose turned blue in an instant. I had only my jacket with me and one of the first things I did was to buy a pair of gloves.

I spent a couple of days in Seoul and roamed around at will in the subways.I also visited Gangnam which is actually a suburb of Seoul but became world famous later for “Gangnam Style”. I looked up for Indian restaurants and found that “Ganga” Restaurant which I had discovered in Busan the previous year had a branch in Seoul also. It was a 45 minute ride by taxi, but was worth the money I spent.

I also had carried plenty of MTR food packets. I remember opening one Bisibele bath packet in my hotel room after soaking it in hot water for 5 minutes in the hotel sink. The karavensoppu ( curry leaves) aroma that I got on opening the packet still stays with me.

From Seoul, I travelled to Taipei via Hong Kong. This was my first visit to Taipei and I took some time off to explore the city. The Metro has been well developed in Taipei and I was surprised to see almost an underground city with plenty of shops below ground.

February 2003 saw me travelling to Singapore for a couple of days. As soon as I came back, my colleague Ramkumar Shankar and I represented Sanmar in the Chennai Regional Round of the AIMA Quiz. This was the first time we had teamed up. Ramkumar was already a veteran in the Chennai quizzing circuit and was catching up with his quizzing friends as soon as we reached the venue.

 To our great surprise, we won the Chennai Regional Round and were soon on our way to Kolkata to take part in the All- India Finals on 14^th Mar. Arun Lal, the cricketer , was the Chief Guest. We came third in the All- India finals and it was a proud moment for us.

Our seniors in Sanmar were very happy and promptly agreed to sponsor us in the many corporate quizzes that were being held---- Brand Equity, Tata Crucible,LIBA Quiz and many more. With all the prizes that we were winning, I had accumulated about 6 watches, around 4 pairs of Titan Fastrack eyewear, Rs.500 vouchers for everything from deos to a car ( just kidding!!).

Meanwhile, Sachin had got through his CAT. He first got admission to IIM, Kozhikode and we also remitted the fee of Rs.40000. He subsequently got admission to IIM,Indore and chose the latter. Sudha accompanied Sachin to Indore in June 2003.Her friend Kuckoo was living in Indore and , in any case, Sudha had grown up there, so it was familiar territory.

Sudha and I  were now experiencing the empty-nest syndrome. Sachin had gone to Indore and Sandeep was now into his second year in XIME, Bangalore. Sudha and I were both proud of the fact that both our sons were doing MBA. Sandeep had by now shifted to a room with two of his friends in Electronics City since he was finding the daily commute quite exhausting.

In July 2003, I made a trip to Bangladesh.I was given the name and address of a potential agent in Dhaka. When I visited their Office, I was surprised to see Rajesh ( Akhila’s brother-in-law).Rajesh was living in Dhaka and was working out of the Office of the person whom I had come to meet. I visited Rajesh’s house for dinner and also met his wife Aarya. I remember that we also went to Khana Khazana, which was a restaurant opened by Sanjeev Kapoor, the celebrity chef. I also went to Chittagong for a couple of days before returning to Chennai. This was followed up by another visit to Bangladesh in Aug 2003.

A major event occurred in Sep 2003. Our office got shifted from Karapakkam ( a 15 km commute each way) to Cathedral Road which was in the heart of the city and hardly 4-5 km from my house. Earlier, I used to leave home by 7.30 AM in a pool car and Sudha had to get up early to make my breakfast and also pack my lunch. Now, I could leave by 8.15 AM and , since I was using my own car, a couple of minutes here and there didn’t matter. This was a big relief for both of us and did much to improve our quality of life.

While I was busy quizzing in Chennai, Sandeep was active in the quizzing circuit in Bangalore. He had teamed up with his class mate Sai Venkat and they were winning quiz competitions left and right. Like me, he had also built up a good collection of watches, eyewear and 1 Philips DVD player which he had won at the TAPMI, Manipal quiz competition.

I visited Sachin once in Indore during an official visit and also managed to meet up with Sandeep at XIME on his birthday in Oct.

So that’s how 2003 ended--- an empty nest, Sudha and I busy with our respective careers and the boys on the threshold of completing their studies.

2002---- Another momentous year

2002 was a momentous year for me for two  things---, my career and  my exercise regime. It was also a momentous year for Sachin and Sandeep as you’ll see below.

 But let me start from the beginning.

Sandeep had sat for his XAT exam in Dec 2001 and the results came in Feb 2002. He had cleared XAT and was to attend  the Group Discussion and Interview on 10^th Mar. I was to leave for Mangalore on that day and dropped him off at the IFMR Campus in Nungambakkam. Around end Mar, we got the information that he had been selected for MBA Course in XIME, Bangalore. The XIME Campus was in Electronics City and he had to catch the bus from Koramangala. My sister Sandhya absolutely insisted that Sandeep should stay with them , particularly since my upstairs flat was also vacant.

Sudha and I travelled to Bangalore in June 2002 to drop him off. I also remember that we attended the 80^th Birthday Celebrations of Mr.S.Nagaraja Rao ( my dad’s colleague from KGF and the father of my good friend N.Patanjali.)at Woodlands Hotel . It was nice catching up with my KGF friends at the function.

 I was still handling the domestic marketing for Xomox in India. In the beginning of Aug  2002, I had planned a trip to SAIL, Bhilai. Since Raipur was close to Bhilai and Sudha’s college friend Sunanda was staying in Raipur, she came along with me. We took the Tamilnadu Express up to Nagpur and then changed trains to get to Raipur.

Sunanda and her husband Amit had come to the station and we stayed with them. After spending a lovely couple of days with them, we returned to Chennai by train on the morning of  Monday 5^th Aug.

We had barely got home at 8 AM when I got a call from my Deputy Chairman. My boss who was the Business Head had been transferred to another company within the Group. A new Business Head had joined and I was asked to take him that very afternoon to our factory in Viralimalai and introduce him to the Plant employees. I was also informed that I was now responsible for Marketing of our India-made products in the Asia-Pacific Region ( mainly through our JV partner).

A joint trip had already been planned to Japan, Korea and Singapore starting from 14^th Aug and I was now told to get my visas for these countries and accompany the Director ( Asia-Pacific) who was coming to India from Germany and then visiting these countries.

I first got my visa photos taken and then went to the Office for filling up the visa forms. With that out of the way, I flew to Trichy that afternoon and returned the next day ( 6^th Aug).Then I had to prepare for a review in Viralimalai on 12^th Aug prior to flying out on 13^th Aug night.

Meanwhile, my Singapore and Japan visas had come but there was a delay in my Korean visa.That’s when Thomas Cook advised me that I could get my visa on arrival in Korea from Japan. The football World Cup had just been jointly hosted by Korea and Japan in 2002. To encourage more visitors, Korea had issued a notification that visitors flying in from USA, Europe and Japan would get a visa on arrival. Since I was flying in from Japan, Thomas Cook assured me that I would get my visa after landing in Korea.

I took the Singapore Airlines flight on 13^th Aug night and the connecting flight from Singapore to Tokyo on 14^th morning. Wolfgang Schlett ( the A-P Director and a very good friend of mine) had already flown ahead to Singapore and Taipei and joined this flight at Taipei. We reached Tokyo at around 7 PM and then caught the bus to Le Meridien in Tokyo. This was my first visit to Japan and the sights and sounds were quite interesting.

Next day ( 15^th Aug—Thu), we travelled to Yokohama and visited the Xomox Office. That night, Wolfgang and I had finished our dinner and we were just strolling close to a Metro station in Tokyo at around 9.30 PM. Streams of people were coming out and then, all of a sudden, I heard someone shout “ KP Sir”. It turned out to be a young Engineer from Fisher Sanmar who was deputed on-site to a customer in Japan. Talk about coincidence!!  Out of all the millions who were on the streets in Tokyo that day, he found me. This was the second time I had such an experience. The first time was in 1988 when I had met my senior colleague from Sanmar while out shopping in Jackson Heights, Queens in New York. One more experience in 2005, but we’ll come to that later. We had an ice-cream together and then he went on his way.

Wolfgang introduced me to teppanyaki and a vegetarian sushi with wahabi . The wahabi was green in colour and was made from horseradish. One bite and the wahabi went straight to my nose. I almost fainted--- so pungent was the sauce.

On 17^th Aug ( Sat), we caught the morning flight from Tokyo to Incheon Airport in Seoul. Wolfgang got past Immigration, but I was detained. The problem--- I had no visa!!. I showed the Officer a copy of the official notification and said that I had not applied for the visa since I was entering from Japan. He took me to his Superior’s Office and they were talking in Korean which I could not understand. After a 30 minute wait and a few phone calls later, my passport was stamped and I joined Wolfgang outside. We then took a connecting flight to Busan which is in the South coast of Korea. Busan is a seaside resort and we were staying in one of the hotels by the beach. It was already around 3 to 4 days since I’d had a full Indian meal. I was subsisting on fruits, bread and ice creams.

After checking in and taking a stroll, I spotted an Indian Restaurant “ Ganga”. My joy knew no bounds. We promptly went there for lunch and generally lazed around during the weekend.

On 19^th Aug, we spent the day in the Office and then my hosts took Wolfgang and me to a traditional Korean dinner . There was a separate room reserved for us and I was the Guest of Honour.  We all sat cross-legged around a low table and a girl dressed in the traditional Korean costume sat next to me. Korean custom was that she should feed me with her own hand, but I shouldn’t touch her. So there she was, feeding me tiny morsels and then daintily wiping my mouth with a napkin. I took some photographs of this and then told Sudha that this is how I would like to be treated during our regular dinners at home. I’m sure you all know the reply I got.

Karaoke is a major form of entertainment in Korea and it is very common to take customers for dinner to a Karaoke Restaurant. I’m told that some Sales Engineers have bagged some major orders on the strength of their singing alone !! The Koreans also drink a lot during customer entertainment. There was a shot glass placed near each person. Every now and then, someone would propose a  toast and we were supposed to down our drink  which would then be immediately refilled. Pretty soon, we lost track of how many toasts we had and what the toast was proposed for .

Next day, we caught a flight to Singapore. One day in Singapore and I was back in Chennai.

I made one more trip to Singapore and Jakarta in Oct 2002.

The other major event was the opening of the swimming pool in Madras Boat Club. It was located on the 1^st floor and had excellent facilities. The best thing was that it was open up to 9 PM, so I could go for a swim after coming from Office. I soon became a regular and the swimming regime continues to this day, albeit in a different Club.

Meanwhile, Sachin had quit his job in Career Forum and was back home to prepare for his CAT. He really sweated it out with all the mock tests and had given strict instructions that he was not to be disturbed. He finished his CAT exams on 10^th Dec and since he had nothing else to do till the results came, he joined ICICI Prudential in a Sales position. His Office was in Nungambakkam, but I used to see him going here and there.

He had a big notebook with him and , one day I happened to go through the entries in his register. This is how it read:-

18^th Dec. Appointment with Mr.Palaniappan at Besant Nagar Beach. Very exciting prospect.Seems certain of taking a policy. Next meeting scheduled at Taj Coromandel on 22^nd Dec.

19^th Dec: Appointment with Mr.Chandrasekhar at Park Sheraton. Hot prospect.  Very good potential. Next meeting scheduled at Connemara on 23^rd Dec.

And so on. I’m told ICICI Prudential made a loss that year. I wonder why.

So that’s how the year 2002 ended.