In Hyderabad

Hurray!!!!.. I am finally here.. In true bollywood/tollywood style, I wanted to kneel down and kiss the ground... that would be too much Over Action [ Or was it the stuff on the ground that changed my mind ? ]. Once in the terminal, I learned that we were the first plane to land that night and others that arrived before ours were redirected to Chennai and Bangalore due to the rains.

First leg of the flight to amsterdam was very relaxing on a new A330 used by Northwest. My son enjoyed the video on demand that allowed him to watch various shows including Dora and Sponge Bob. Airline food in the NW flight seemed sub par to what was served on the KLM flight. Child Meal was very good on both NW and KLM, it was a combination of health+junk food that kids love [ Nuggets, Yogurt, Juice, HashBrows, Cookies, String Cheese etc.]

Forming a line to check-in at Amsterdam schipol airport was an eye opener even before I entered India. The KLM gate staff could have done a better job in controlling the overall process .."Nothing new... everyone wants to get in first as if the flight is going to leave without them.." quipped, one of the staff members in his dutch accent while checking my passports . KLM had a MD-11 on service which I thought was a good choice considering the short runway at HYD.

KLM flight crew was the best I had seen in my travels over the past 14 years. They were very patient, friendly and I saw them going beyond the call to help families travelling with infants. Not sure if its normal or not, but I noticed that there were atleast 8+ infants in the section of the plane I was in. Most of them seem to be going back home with their grand parents and the crew was very helpful to them even carrying the infants and while the custodians took a bathroom break.

As we descended into Hyderabad, I could clearly see that the sky was overcast with streaks of water on the window. I suddenly remembered the short runway and the number of times international flights had near misses of overshooting the runway. As expected the pilot slammed the breaks as soon as he hit the ground. MD-11 screeched to a halt at the end of the runway and I could see the Scooty parked in a house not too far from my window..

Immigration, Customs were a breeze [ did I mention that this was the only flight that landed for the night ] and we headed home with family.

D-Day Leaving for the Airport

The last few days have been pretty hectic with a quick business trip to a nearby city to meet up with an existing customer and the team. Today, I am leaving for Hyderabad, India via amsterdam in Northwest/KLM.

It was a very emotional and enjoyable weekend.. spent a lot of time with everyone [ friends, family, acquaintances ] we have relied upon for support over the past 13+ years in the US. A last minute trip to McyD's, Starbucks and a night at the Fox & Hound with friends wrapped up stint in the US.

Let me reiterate that my expectations are Very Very Low about having a smooth transition through the rest of the process. I hope that the lower expectations will keep me motivated during the tough initial months in Hyderabad.

Container Shipped today , and 3 days to Go

Local team of packers/movers were here yesterday to get the items ready for the container thats due to arrive tomorrow. This team was really careful in handling and packing the items with extra foam and some times they went overboard by enclosing pillows in padded boxes.

20" container arrived today on a truck after a 30 minute delay. The team of packers that I hired locally loaded the container. As expected, the additional volume created due to boxing of the items left little space to load the last 6 chairs and a couple of other items that we have to leave back. It was a measly 100 cuft left in the garage.. will deal with that later..

Looking back, may be a 40' container would have been better but the value of the left over items does not justify the additional $2+ k. Looking back, I now realized that the cu-ft estimation tools need a 25% adjustment mainly due to the additional volume created by the packers. So, if you use a tool like air7seas for cu-ft calculation, add 20-25% to it and then get the appropriate container.

Now that the shipment has left, we loaded our suitcases etc., and moved to a friends house.

Here is how to get on IT List of High Spenders ?

I always wondered about the folks who were outside the rings of taxation in India, ie, folks who do not have a deduction at the source.. ran into this interesting article on ibnlive .. may not get all those politicians and the big fish that use benami accounts .. but its an excellent start..

..."Government gets information through AIRs on spending of at least Rs 30 lakh in property, Rs two lakh in mutual funds, cash deposits in banks over Rs 10 lakhs annually and credit card spending over Rs two lakhs yearly besides large purchases of equity and purchase of high value plasma television, pen and other luxury items including cars."

3 Weeks to Go..

I had been too busy with activities over the last 2 weeks and forgot to post the updates, will try to summarize the details of the past 2 weeks in this entry.

Shipping : Received exorbitant quotes from corporate movers, so I decided to go with a local mover who will be packing and loading up the container that I booked through Air 7 Seas. Air7Seas also offered packing services, but I decided against that since I didnt want to deal with a subcontractor that I would have no control over. Packing and Shipping is scheduled for 1 week before my move and a 20ft container has been ordered to ship most furniture, personal goods, electronics etc., to Hyderabad.

Travel : Booked my tickets 2 weeks ago through NorthWest and the date has been finalized as 24th of July for my trip back to Hyderabad.

Shopping : Last minute shopping for some kitchen ware and dinner ware was complete over the last 2 weeks. I am still loading up on any critical electronics that I would miss in India, but considering the 220v issue, I am only picking items that can support 220v. Got a new vonage line so that I could stay in touch with friends and colleagues in the US without spending the extra Rs for international calls.

House : Showings were high, we had 42 showings in 4 weeks, and towards the end of last week we received an offer on the house. If there was one challenge in moving back to hyderabad in 7 weeks, it was the sale of the house. Now that its taken care of, we are much more upbeat about the move.

RemoteControlMail : Found this interesting service by DCI, at remotecontrolmail.com. Completed the required forms to start forwarding my mail to this company and will keep it for 1 year until my W-2's etc., are received for this year.