Thursday Club

Kingfisher has some great people and I by virtue of the nature of my job, get to interact with most of them. However, I could see that most of them did not know each other well enough nor did they have the time or inclination to make the effort to forge closer ties. So I took the initiative to set up the Thursday Club. The idea was to create a platform for people to interact with work colleagues once a month in an informal setting and get to know each other, appreciate each other and in the process break down barriers.

Some of the ground rules:
- Open to anyone from Kingfisher.
- There will be no hierarchy.
- No discussion on work. (difficult but the idea was NO serious discussion on work).

We started off by meeting on the rooftop of the Orchid and then graduating to popular restaurants and finally we have found that it is best to meet at Bunty Marwah's place. It is a time for all of us to let our hair down and release the pentup stress and enjoy ourselves.

It has now been over a year since I started the Thursday Club. It has given me a lot of joy and pleasure and I get a real boost when people send me emails to enquire when is the next one!!

Some of the things I love about it............

• The interaction between the very senior members in Kingfisher and the very junior. There truly is NO hierarchy.
• The support, love and care shown amongst the members.
• The way they refer to me as the President; makes me feel so important.
• The initiation ceremonies for new members (a product of Sanjai and Smitaa's imagination) and the way I "anoint" the new recruits.
• The pictures I take of everyone.

Some of my favourite TCs are:

• The one where Tushita cooked us her famous Burmese Khowsuey.
• The one where they brought in my birthday with the beautiful cake and Smitaa had to drop it!
• The one at Hard Rock Cafe where everyone was totally smashed.
• The one at Escobar where we had the tallest from Seabury and the shortest from Accenture!
• The one where we played drinking games (courtesy Prabh Sharan).
• The one where Smitaa and Sanjai hosted Big Boss.
• The one where we croaked at Karaoke.
• The one where Smitaa did a headstand and Tushita walked like a duck.
• The ones where Sheikh's wife cooked her yummy biryani.
• The one where we had the shiny disco ball and wore retro clothes.

Each of them had its uniqueness and it is difficult to actually pick a favourite one.

At Escobar in Bandra with all the staunch supporters of TC -

Bunty, Smitaa, Sanjai, Chenna, Harsh, Harshit and Arun

Big Boss - Sheikh as Oongli Baba

(Bunty holding the umbrella, Sanjai supervising the proceedings,

Arun making a joke of it all and Capt Puri enjoying the madness)

Big Boss - Ron

(Bunty in the foreground with a goofy smile and mischief in his eyes)

Sanjai, Aarti, Prabh, Capt Puri and myself

Myself, Chenna and Tushita

The beautiful picture on my birthday cake.

Iceland and Volcanic Ash

Poor Iceland...............am feeling quite sorry for them. Last year the country went bankrupt - a financial meltdown. And now, in the last few days, there was a literal "meltdown"! The Eyjafjallajökull (wonder how you pronounce that!) volcano in Iceland erupted about a month ago and a few days ago, it erupted for the second time melting ice, shooting smoke and steam into the air and forcing hundreds of people to flee rising floodwaters.

The result - volcanic ash cloud has drifted over Northern and Western Europe forcing closure of airspace. This in turn has resulted in flight disruptions and cancellations, thousands of passengers being stranded and total chaos at airports. IATA estimates that airlines have lost about USD 200 million per day!!

Was I affected? Yes, even though I am in India, which is in Asia and far, far away from Iceland!
How have I been affected?
We at Kingfisher have had to cancel both our London flights for the past few days and we have no clue when the situation will stabilise and schedules can be recovered. Our guests have been totally inconvenienced but truly the situation is beyond our control and we have tried our best to minimise their pain.
Personally, I was off to Adelaide, Australia to attend a conference. Guess what? The world is a global village. The Icelandic volcanic ash had an impact on Qantas' operations out of Singapore. All passengers were being checked in only upto Singapore and from there on we were advised to contact the transfer desk. However I did not have a Singapore visa and so they would not allow me to board the flight from Mumbai.
Anyway, so I went back to the office and proceeded to cancel my travel plans. Only to find that Kingfisher is so important to the conference that the organisers were willing to purchase my ticket. So am now going to Adelaide on Sunday.

Some pictures of the volcano and its effects.....................

Smoke billows from an erupting volcano which seems to be close to the top of the Eyjafjalla glacier on April 14, 2010 near Reykjavik. All London flights, including those from Heathrow, will be suspended from noon (1100 GMT) today due to volcanic ash from Iceland that has already caused almost 300 cancellations here, officials said. (AFP/Getty Images)

An aerial handout photo from the Icelandic Coast Guard shows flood caused by a volcanic eruption at Eyjafjalla Glacier in southern Iceland April 14, 2010. The volcanic eruption on Wednesday partially melted a glacier, setting off a major flood that threatened to damage roads and bridges and forcing hundreds to evacuate from a thinly populated area. Picture taken April 14, 2010. (REUTERS/Icelandic Coast Guard/Arni Saeberg)

Melting ice caused by a volcanic eruption at Eyjafjalla Glacier in southern Iceland April 14, 2010. (REUTERS/Icelandic Coast Guard/Arni Saeberg)

Photo taken on April 14, 2010 the Markarfljot glacial river, west of the Eyjafjalla glacier. Iceland's second volcano eruption in less than a month melted part of a glacier and caused heavy flooding on April 14, forcing up to 800 people to evacuate and grounding some flights over Norway. (HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP/Getty Images)

Flooding caused by a volcanic eruption at Eyjafjalla Glacier in southern Iceland April 14, 2010. (REUTERS/Icelandic Coast Guard/Arni Saeberg)

A man takes a picture of a road that has been washed away by flood water following the melting of the Eyjafjalla glacier due to the eruption of a volcano on April 14, 2010 near Reykjavik. (HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP/Getty Images)

In this Wednesday April 14, 2010 photograph, smoke and steam are seen rising from the volcano under the Eyjafjalla glacier in Iceland, which erupted for the second time in less than a month, melting ice, shooting smoke and steam into the air and forcing hundreds of people to flee rising floodwaters. (AP Photo/Icelandic Coastguard)

This picture taken on March 27, 2010 shows lava spurting out of the site of a volcanic eruption at the Eyjafjallajökull volcano some 125 km east of Reykjavik. With lava still gushing, a small Icelandic volcano that initially sent hundreds fleeing from their homes is turning into a boon for the island nation's tourism industry, as visitors flock to catch a glimpse of the eruption. (HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP/Getty Images)

Lava spews out of a mountain on March 21, 2010 in the region of the Eyjafjalla glacier in Iceland. (RAGNAR AXELSSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Lava spurts out of the site of a volcanic eruption at the Eyjafjallajökull volcano near the Eyjafjalla glacier in Iceland on March 27, 2010. (HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP/Getty Images)

Lava spews out of a mountain on March 21, 2010 in Hvolsvöllur in the region of the Eyjafjalla glacier in Iceland. (Fior Kjartansson/AFP/Getty Images)

Steam and hot gases rise above lava flowing from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano on April 3rd, 2010. Original here. (Ulrich Latzenhofer / CC BY-SA)

Source: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/icelands_disruptive_volcano.html

Global Freeloading and Couchsurfing....................

Couchsurfing aims to bring the world closer one couch at a time. It is a great concept and I can definitely vouch for it. Check it out on http://www.couchsurfing.org/

How did I get to know of it? Eons ago, I had read an article in Jetwings about Global Freeloaders (http://www.globalfreeloaders.com/) where people hosted others or were hosted in turn for free. I immediately signed up and started to receive requests from travellers. However I was sceptical and did not respond to any of them. Why? Because I did not believe in the concept and there were issues on trust!!

About 4 years ago, I was in the midst of planning a trip to Europe commencing in Amsterdam. It was the Easter weekend and I could not find any cheap accommodation. I did not want to postpone my trip nor did I want to skip Amsterdam, so I decided to send out a message on globalfreeloaders. I sent out a request to about 17 people in AMS and I received only 1 reply. It was from a lady called Sigrid who offered her home to me for the entire weekend. The only catch was that she was going to be away and I had to be at her place by a certain time to collect the key. If I was to reach later, she would leave the key with her friend. I could not believe the email! I thought there had to be more to it than met the eye! Why would someone give me their home whilst they were away? I was nervous. Was she for real? Was it a trick?

Anyway, I gathered all my courage and I showed up at her doorstep at the appointed hour. My heart was beating away quite rapidly. But she was so sweet and so was her partner. She offered me a cup of coffee and explained how everything worked in her apartment as well as where all the essentials were kept. When I asked her if she had done this before, she replied that she was hosting for the first time and the reason she responded to my request was because she was planning a trip to India later in the year. Me being Indian was the connection that triggered off her generosity. Anyway, she and her partner left shortly thereafter and I had the entire place to myself for the entire weekend. It was in a central location in AMS and I found it very convenient. I left the key under her doormat at the end of my weekend and from there proceeded to Hamburg.

This incident proved to me that people are genuinely kind, caring and trusting. Sigrid made the trip to India but did not travel to either Bombay or Goa where I could have returned the favour of hosting her. She wrote to me saying that I was always welcome as I left her house cleaner than before!

Well on the same trip, I wanted to go to Vienna for another weekend. Accommodation in Vienna is also extremely expensive. Now having had a positive experience with global freeloading, I thought of trying it out once again. So I sent out a message to potential hosts in Vienna. I got a response from a girl who was a couch surfer who had in turn received my message from a global freeloader who I had contacted. Once again, being Indian was the trigger. Evelyn loves hosting people from India and she is an active couch surfer and hosts someone or the other almost every day of the year. She was a great host and took me around the city and introduced me to her friends.

Since then I have returned the favour by hosting 3 people - 1 global freeloader Angela and 2 couch surfers Cheryl and Sascha.

Angela

I think it is a great way to make friends, meet new people, discover other people's cultures and learn about their stories as well as experience a place through the eyes of a local. And the best part, it is for FREE!