Archive for March, 2006
St. Moritz – Society and Service
My first visit to St. Moritz was indeed a pretty exciting experience, this place is special this or the other way. One is for me the most beautiful skiing environment I have ever been to and the panorama when you look around.
But also, when you get up the first cable car, UBS-bank has placed a prominent advertisement according to the old rule “put your billboard where your target group is.”
Luckily, we had a great group with Frank Meissner running a seamless and fabulous organization of the whole event, Nina Neelsen from YEO Europe and many other YEO-members from Switzerland, from Germany, from Holland and friends from Sweden like Ola Ahlvarsson with the 100-percent light resistant sunglasses and me as his “guide dog” ;-)
As the reputation goes, one can certainly smell the wealth in St. Moritz, however one can also find tremendous differences in the service levels. On Saturday we had our lunch at “Paradiso” whose up-market name did not fulfill at all what it might promise. I have never in my life experiences such a miserable service. Not just benchmarked against a potential high expectation for high prices in a reputed place in Switzerland. When I say worst, I mean worst. My usual lunch place in Bangalore where I have food for around EUR 1.20 with its friendly and efficient service deserves the title “heaven” against this incapable and especially – sorry folks – shithole. It’s not that they might need one or two people more, no, those people would have to be organized differently and especially they would consistently need a different attitude which was simply appalling. I seriously wonder how as the owner of that place one with entrepreneurial drive can aim so miserably low. 0 out of 10 points. At least our group was fun to hang out with.
On Sunday, still at greatest weather, we went to Salastrains for lunch where you have unparalleled view in to the mountains.
The service was absolutely first class: Unobtrusive, friendly and efficient – a smoothing contrast to the experience the day before. Altogether, a rewarding weekend with good sports, friends and fun.
One more thing to mention, during the time I had fun, one of my best friends Joe (“Dr. Josal”) had night shift in the hospital. He is a doctor on a station of intensive medicine and basically had to take care that that the heavy cases come through the night alive. His work commands my highest admiration, his passion my highest respect for a task which lies certainly much closer to the very purpose to humanity than the stuff that I am doing every day. This is the picture he sent me at 4.48 am. Hope to meet him soon again.
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Good Morning St. Moritz, Mr. Bond
That’s the look out of the window right from my hotel room into a beautiful Saturday morning in St. Moritz with the cable car right in front to head straight to the slope.
I arrived yesterday for a skiing weekend and it’s my first time in this reasonably renowned skiing resort. When I told people that I was going there, I got to hear stuff like “ah, now you are also part of the jet set.” I guess who knows me at least a bit, that the combination between me and jet-set fits as much as pope and agnosticism. On the other hand, the place is beautiful and in the midst of the snow you can effectively smell the wealth which is around in the hotels, shops and overall ambience. All together, the place keeps on reminding me of the best James Bond scenes shot in Switzerland. So, if not jet set, ok, then for the weekend my name is Bond. James Bond. :-)
This whole event is an invitation from the YEO Switzerland and Frank Meissner is doing a fabulous job in organizing everything to the nitty gritty to give us the best experience of St. Moritz. Some of the guys like Ola Ahlvarsson and Otto Wiksell from Result were even coming down from Stockholm. .So we started out with some drinks in the Kempinski bar, moved on for dinner to the Italian Chesa Vellia (see our group picture).
For clubbing, we headed to “King’s Club” for a few drinks; the best part: thanks to the invitation of YEO: they were free. The by fat outstanding picture of the evening shows Anju Rupal whom I ordered to pose as my “Bond Girl” to express the highest possible level of jet-set-decadence.
If you look at the elegance of her three fingers from her left hand holding the bottle, then one could believe that the Princess of India doesn’t need any orders for looking like that, but that she is rather not drinking anything else the whole day than the liquid happiness from Moët & Chandon ;-)
Official Claim: “Incredible India”
Apologies for my absence, I have been deep diving in some exciting research work which tends to bring me in some nerd-mode with little attention for the outer world.
Just came again across the official claim which the Indian tourist department had created already a few years back: “Incredible India” with an according website as well. After living more than two years in this fascination county, being torn between love and hate, albeit the scales tend to shift increasingly towards the former, this claim hits the point. Incredible India is as true as true can be and says it all.
South-India’s Heat vs. South-Germany ‘s Snowchaos
Life is intense at the moment, keeping me more than busy. A travel schedule that could match that of a foreign minister does not really alleviate that. But nothing to complain, I wanted it like that and I have exactly what I wanted. Arrived on early Friday morning in Bangalore, had a few hours of sleep, flew to Mumbai, next early morning to Channai for the annual YEO Bangalore Chapter retreat to the Taj’s Fisherman’s Cove, then yesterday evening to Hyderabad for a business breakfast and returned today to Bangalore. Nothing to be really proud of, apart from, …, apart from: the weather which is about to reach is peak for the year at this season of the year. And that means damn hot. Here a picture which I took yesterday from the Fisherman’s Cove at the Andeman Sea, I admit it might raise some sort of envy, …
… especially as I am getting apocalyptic messages from my friends in Munich who have conveyed to me that there must have been the worst snow blizzard since humanity can think. The infrastructure collapsed, busses and trains simply couldn’t move. In a few hours half a meter of snow must have fallen from the sky. That’s too much of the good, definitely, especially for beginning of March when there should be the first signs of spring instead. Pretty heavy. In that light nothing to complain from my end as of too much heat and little sleap because of that despite the busy fan.
Surprising “Statistics” about Bangalore
Happily moving again towards my “Bangalore Mood” by flying there, just checked my mails on board the Lufthansa flight and got an e-mail from Anna Libhen, a friend from Bangalore, very sharp mind, born in Moldovia, living in New York for the last decade(s) and now working with Thompson as a software architect. She sent around some statistics, one of the kind where you don’t have a clue whether all these “facts” are true, but at the same time don’t care at all. Enjoy:
1.Bangalore has the impeccable record of highest growth within a span
of 20 years.
2. Bangalore has highest number of pubs in Asia.
3. Bangalore has highest number of cigarette smokers in India.
4. Bangalore has the highest number of software companies in India -
212 followed by Hyderabad -108, Pune
- 97. Hence called the silicon valley of India.
5. Bangalore has 21 engineering colleges, which is highest in the
world in a given city. Bangalore university has 57 engineering
colleges affiliated to it, which is highest in the world.
6. Bangalore is the only city in the world to have commercial and
defence airport operating from the same strip.
7. Bangalore has highest number of public sectors and government
organizations in India.
8. Bangalore university has highest number of students going abroad
for higher studies taking the first place from IIT-Kanpur.
9. Bangalore police has the reputation of being second best in India
after Delhi.
10. Bangalore has the highest density of traffic in India
11. Bangalore has the highest number of 2-wheelers in the world.
12. Bangalore is considered the fashion capital of east comparable to
Paris
13. Bangalore has only 48% of local population (i.e.Kannadigas).
Hence a true cosmopolitan with around 25% Tamilians, 14% Telugites,
10% Keralites, 8% Europeans, 6% a mixture of all races
14. Bangalore is rated the cleanest city in India
15. Bangalore has produced the maximum international sportsmen in
India for all sports ahead of even Mumbai & Delhi.
16. Bangalore has produced the maximum number of scientists
considered for Nobel Prize nominations.
17. Bangalore has produced the highest number of professionals in USA
almost 60% of the Indian population abroad is from Bangalore (except
Gulf).
18. Bangalore is famous for THREE: Software Professionals, Girls and
Dogs.
19. Bangalore is famous for its dog bites, an average of 12 people
are bitten by stray dogs per MINUTE somewhere in Bangalore
Live: Online aboard LH 754 overhead Turkey towards India
The technology is in place at Lufthana quite some time effectively, but today it is the first time that it is also live on the Frankfurt-Bangalore flight LH 754. To keep the proper Captain’s speak given my own pilot license: “We are presently cruising at Flight Level 350 or 35,000 feet overhead Turkey heading in south-easterly direction at clear sky and calm flight conditions.” Internet from Boing Connexion is working perfectly, I actually also just had a Skype-chat with Dildar who is at present in India.
With fast internet on board of a long-distance plane, in fact the last remaining gap in the flat world has been closed. Hence, your seat on the plane becomes your fully equivalent globalization-office-desk. Once again the evidence: Geography is History – now even in the air :-)
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