Inder Sen blogging live from Goteborg, Sweden...coming after one month after I landed here. For the record, I am here on an overseas assignment from my   company.

Man Proposes and Destiny(God) Disposes....

I have heard this somewhere and felt the same thing during my 8 hours flight from New Delhi to Gothenburg, Sweden...and for a very good reason... After I got an admit in CMU, I thought nothing can stop me from going to CMU...but destiny was smiling seeing my confidence and this is what happened...I had an interview for an urgent requirement in my company(i had to attend that coz I did not yet receive my admission status :( ) and the very next day, I got the admit letter from the Carnegie Mellon, ha!! and here comes the twist, the next day I got a call from the person interviewed me saying I was selected and have to go to Sweden for 6 months work. Destiny is the player who toys us...indeed.

I was confident that I will reject the offer and go for my further studies...how can I let go the amount of hard work I underwent to achieve that (spare a bit of self-boasting here ;) ) But the series of events occurred due to which I had to take a tough call...THE RESULT: I deferred my admission to fall 2009 and accepted the assignment and here I am blogging from Sweden while my friends got the visas to US of A. I am not repenting the decision that I have taken but it pricks sometimes...isn't it?

Gothenburg... in fact Goteborg (in Swedish) is my first place out of India...so,there are many things that I have experienced... from the jet lag(though it was just 3.5 hrs ;) ), to the culture shock(btw it was nice ;) )                                                                                              

I will start right from beginning of this journey...

My flight was from Hyderabad to Delhi and from Delhi to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Gothenburg. Though Hyderabad's international airport has started, all the flights did not yet start their operations..so we had to experience the gruelling short journey. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is a real visual treat... the could really appreciate that only after I saw the pathetic condition of New Delhi Airport... Though it is not yet complete, in the little time I got to explore it, I could find everything a traveller longs for...you name it, you have it.

Well, I was taking a domestic flight to Delhi, so couldn't see the international departure terminal...but seeing the domestic terminal, i can imagine how it will be. Our flight's gate changed and the Kingfisher flight we had to take was delayed by 45 min. It was in a way good as I got some time to see the airport. The flight took off to Delhi at around 7 PM snd landed in Delhi at around 9:00 PM. The most arduous task was to get to the International terminal from the domestic terminal. The KLM ppl whose flight we had to board, made us the arrangement to get to the international terminal..Next, came the nightmare...the check-in...

I thought I had a bit of more luggage than the prescribed weight.So, I was a bit apprehensive about checking in. We were a total of 11 ppl going together,so I thought it would be fine if there is an extra luggage as I can adjust that in one of my colleague's baggage. First one to go the check-in counter was my project manager and I was in a line beside him.The person at the counter checked the weight calmly and with same serenity said that my PM has to pay eleven thousand rupees for extra weight...that’s it there swept a layer of panic in our group(coz most of them including me had overweight baggage). Some how my PM got back(of course followed by us) and in the frenzy dumped off all his baggage. In the mean time one of my colleagues checked off his baggage in a counter with a kind lady at it. That's it we all hopped there and completed our check-ins...After this task we went to the immigration check and the time was 11:30PM and our flight was at 12:00 PM...add to this the loooong queue at the counters and again add to this a man having an argument with the officer just when it was my turn...gosh...it was such a cacophony that I thought I will surely miss the flight...and did I mention you that it was around 40 degrees Celsius at that time in Delhi and I was wearing a POLO NECK SWEAT SHIRT and a JACKET(see the pic below which was in the Gothenburg airport) over it :) Sweat was almost dripping from my shirt inside...after i crossed the immigration check there was a security check and the kind person standing there wanted us to remove the Laptop from the bag...heights of things were going in my mind...amidst all these the flight official came and was scowling at us,as we were the only ppl left to board the flight...

We board the flight scrambling our cabin luggage as they were getting overburdened thanx to our exhaustion...I was so tired off that i went to a deep sleep even before the flight took off...after a good nap of one hour,I was woken up by the air hostess to have dinner(I donno if I can call that a dinner as the time was already 3 in the morning). After that, i tried in vain to go to sleep, partly it was because i was a bit uncomfortable(what more can you get in an economy class) and partly because of the boisterous laugh of a kid beside me(not at me!) to the some cartoons she was watching over the set. So, I thought its good time cover up on my pending "must-see" movies and could successfully strike Golden Compass from that.

at around 7:00 AM local time we landed at the Amsterdam International airport...I was told that it is one of the largest airports and really experienced that when I walked almost for 20-25 min to reach my next gate to board the connecting flight. The little time I got to see the airport was enough to tell that it can be the one of the finest airports on the planet. Though many stores were yet to open as it was early morning, there were quite a few coffee bars open to have a sip. I couldn’t get time to really have a look at those coffee bars but really felt the aroma near them…

The connecting flight took off at 8 AM local time and was about 1 hour flight. The flight was a very small one,small seats to sit. They supplied us with the breakfast and I tasted the European cuisine for the first time…really did not know what I ate but the ingredients showed that it had Egg(didn’t taste like that in any bite) and a cheese in that…just surfed some magazines and there we were above Goteborg…the pilot asked to fasten the seat belts as we were landing but there was quite a cloud cover beneath us….I was waiting to get the cloud cover cleared off so that I can have a clear bird’s eye view of the city but alas! the moment the we crossed the cloud cover there was the runway beneath it….I couldn’t imagine how the pilot knew the altitude…phew…anyways…after the landing we expected that we may have to do the same routines of security checks again to enter, but good for us they were hardly any…

We collected our baggage and came out into the lobby where we met our agent who looks after the ppl like us….One thing I understood immediately after meeting her was that Swedes dont work on weekends and unlike Hyderabad where the entire city is in the malls on any given Sunday, Gothenburg almost hibernates on sundays…wonder why?

We exchanged the money from the Forex counter in the airport(we were give traveller checks in India in Euros and we had to convert them into Swedish Kronas(local curency) and almost spend the next two hours in the airport(I still wonder why?) but this was my first pic in Sweden in the airport

So finally we came out almost at 11:00 AM and took a cab from the airport to our destinations and shelled out some 360 Kronas(2000 Rupees…man its almost one month and I still convert the kronas into rupees) for that…gud thing is that our company reimburses that… :)

We took some nice pics of the city when coming to the apartment and have uploaded in the flickr…

After reaching the apartment(U can view the pics here) we just dumped our baggage and were again on the roads to see the city and to search for a gud Indian grocery store…

The second thing I found out was that all the shopkeepers(read 5) were very acquainted with India and knew quite a few places.. they were asking which place in India we belong to.. and the still more interesting thing was that they were all fond of the country…I used to think that not many westerners like India(thanx to the Out-sourcing)

we walked down the entire Aveny road up to Nordstan(a huge shopping mall stands there) and also to hjalmar…only next day we knew that we walked almost for 6 kms) You can have a look at the map below the directions from our apartment to the Nordstan…. We were already starving(ate modestly before boarding the flight in Hyderabad to keep myself safe from any kind of sick feeling) and were strolling on the roads with no idea of what to eat…then there was just in front of us…. McDonalds…we were so happy that we felt that we found some one we knew from a long time….We hurried ourselves in and satiated our hunger(though not our taste buds). We then asked the counter guy to call in for a cab as we don’t know the language(swedish) the drawback which we are still facing, but to learned to live…. Got back to the apartment and just dozed off as we had to go to the office the next day and I didn’t want to look exhausted the first day at my office….

 Next Post I’ll write about the places we are visiting and hopefully I will complete the redesign of my blog till the next post…until then ciao

P.S do chip in your comments leaving your blog address so that I can read whts happening in your life….