A Date with the Grand Canyon

  

A lone tree stands tall in the Mojave Desert

The summer of 2009 was among my most memorable ever. A trip to the US, night outs of bone jarring raw hard work and a spectacular adventure called the Grand Canyon. Stationed out of Santa Ana, California, after 6 weeks of continuous work and doggone weary and sleep deprived, I finally get a weekend off. Given a choice between Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, I easily opt for the latter. There is something about the wilds that gives peace to the soul. From Santa Ana to the Grand Canyon's south rim in Arizona is somewhere near about 400 miles and almost 9 hours of drive. Most of the ride is through the Mojave Desert. The roads are smooth and the desert ride is delightful. Nowhere in the world can one feel the taste of freedom as you do in the USA. You can just take off in a rented car and traverse for hundreds of miles, living in lonely motels in middle of nowhere and stuff yourself on a healthy diet of French fries, burgers and coke. You also get to spend quality time with yourself...To me, that is living a dream. 

The Mystique of the Canyon

I read up on the Grand Canyon. The canyon has been carved by the Colorado River a lot many years back. Maybe a million. And boy what a carving. 10 miles wide and a couple of miles deep in the ground and a few hundred miles in length. Its late afternoon by the time we check in at a hotel a few miles away from the Canyon. There is an awesome I-MAX theater that plays a 30 minute clip on the history of the Grand Canyon. It's a story of the early pioneers who dared to explore the canyon. The movie is wistful and very lifelike on the gigantic I-Max screens.

The trip to the rim of the canyon is filled with woods. We park the car and take off in a bus to various points overlooking the canyon. The view across the Grand Canyon is staggering. The sheer vastness and scale is unlike anything I've ever seen before. Miles and miles of jagged mountain peaks and valleys. The sun hits the Canyon Mountains and sends showers of dazzling rays of red, brown and gold. I am mesmerized. We go from one point to another soaking in the sight. Late in the evening, we watch the sun setting in the canyon. As the sun sinks beyond the peaks, the skies are washed with gold and smoke. I close my eyes and utter a prayer. This is the closest I've come to seeing god. I sit alone with my thoughts for a long time.

The Hiking Trail in the Canyon

Next day, we set off for a 5 km trek into the Grand Canyon. The trail is well laid out and the walk down the canyon is a song. If the view from the top was spectacular, hiking inside the canyon is something else. The air is still, it's warm and the views close up of the ridges and valleys in the canyon is awesome. It's spread miles and miles. A lone eagle glides in low and silently from the sky. It's evident we are in middle of a once in a lifetime experience. Immersed in the magic, we walk on at least a mile and a half beyond the original plan. Soon, there is not a soul in sight. We are in the wilds. No phone signals. No shade. No emergency services. No Nothing. One can glimpse the Colorado River far below. We decide not to push our luck further and turn back. Within 5 minutes, I realize we are in trouble. Walking down is one thing. Climbing back is entirely something else. The air is thin and one runs out of breath in less than 5 minutes. The climb back is an endurance test and full of pit stops. We have run out of water long back. Finally 5 hours after we started, we are back up where we started. As I double over gasping for air, a sign stares at me - Do not underestimate the Grand Canyon!!  Sigh, I’ve never learned to read signs in time.

The trip back to Santa Ana is nice and uneventful. I am tired, happy and completely tanned brick red from the Arizona sun. With the fresh memory that brings a smile on the face and a song on the lips, I am ready for yet another day...

A Glimpse of the Colorado River

A hike to Cedar Ridge

Mules !!!

Quite a distance from South Rim

The Magic of the sunset at the Canyon

An Autumn in Tokyo

August 2011. My weary destiny takes me to Tokyo. Japan and Far East has never really  been on my radar and yet, here I am. After stepping out of the Haneda Airport, we board the airport bus to the city. The bus handlers bow reverently every time the bus leaves the terminus. That's my first impression of the famed Japanese work ethic. The trip to the city gives us a feel of the country. The countryside is lush and beautiful. There is a light rain as we enter the high speed freeway. The ride is as smooth as silk. The hotel in Kudanshita is cub-sized. There are no cupboards and clothes are hung on the wall. It's very neat and comfortable though.

Flyover over water

In the night, I quickly Google up the history of Japan. Japan was a developed nation as early as the 18th Century. This is one country which has never been subjugated in its hundreds of years of history (except in World War II). It's a proud race who clearly sees and conducts itself as second to none. The history is filled with warlords and shogunate and the stories of the samurai makes fascinating reading. For a couple of hundred years, the Japanese quarantined themselves from the rest of the world till the Americans forced them to open up to the world with a naval blockade.

Tokyo is a lovely city. Space is a premium here and one does not see the normally sprawling campuses of corporations. Parking space is very expensive and most citizens prefer travelling by public transport. The city has superb infrastructure. There is a network of flyovers which just go and on over the city. These seamlessly melt into individual roads below. I am suitably impressed. There is also a maze of underground metro. The space is so well optimized that one can easily miss a metro station. This is also one of the safest cities in the world and crime is virtually non existent. Moreover, the people on the streets are polite and quiet and one feels comfortable strolling around at all hours. This is also probably one of the cleanest places on the planet.

Looks real :)

The number of food joints in Tokyo are unbelievable. The menu along with an exact plastic replica of all dishes are displayed outside on the street. Language is problem here and we can't understand either the menu card or the waitress. We finally figure out by dragging the waitress outside and pointing to the plastic replicas outside. As for the local populace, I don't recall seeing so many pretty girls in a single city anywhere. The skin is flawless and the dress sense exquisite. The guys are tall and everyone seems to wear white shirts and black trousers. The weather is too warm for suits. It's amazing how slim the Japanese are. It must be a combination of genes and noodles I guess.

While the average Japanese on the street is very polite, working with them is a different ballgame altogether. The velvet gloves come off revealing an iron fist. The focus on planning is extraordinary. The Japanese go into the minutest of details. No wonder these guys come up with the most reliable products the world has seen. There is also a clear work place hierarchy here. Decision making is group activity and never an instant process. The culture also appears to force people into long hours. A Japanese I met remarks wryly "It doesn't seem to matter what you deliver, but how long hours you keep". It's a culture of conformation. A homogeneous race and work ethics entrenched from the womb is what helps Japan work as a team and maintain supreme levels of efficiency.

Outside the Imperial Palace

Our hotel is quite close to the Imperial Palace, which must be at least 1000 years old. The palace is a picture of serenity and surrounded by a lake. There is a paved track along the periphery which must be at least 5 kilometers in diameter. The walkway is paved with lush green trees which makes it one of the most beautiful walking tracks I have ever seen. There are scores of joggers pounding away. Whatever little time we get, we go for long walks.

Two weeks later we are on our way back home bidding Sayonara to Tokyo and with a brand new set of memories. This was one helluva trip. Another city traversed...A thousand still remain.

My tryst with my first batch of CRM SETs

2005. The year unfurled with 3 new babies making a cautious entry into the SAP world (There were 4 actually, but we shall stick to 3). It was the time when we formally started the SAP CRM practice with induction of these SETS (software Engineer trainees). Being a new technology at the time and no experience within the organization, the goal was to build the technology competency. There we were,

three complete rookies in their first job and me closeted in classroom mode trying to figure out SAP CRM for the next 6 months.

My first CRM SETs was a curious study of contrasting personalities. The oldest of the lot, Sarabjeet Gulati (Sabby) from Punjab, stern, hardworking and focussed was whole of 25 at the time, Julius Pereira, a stylish dude from Goa with a great sense of fun and gloom was 24. The baby of the batch was Sharif Inamdar, from Nagpur and a born charmer was all of 23. The first few days saw sabby quietly dozing off after lunch (till a firing on valentine's day saw him go wide awake for the rest of the days).

The next few months turned out to be amongst the most eventful and delightful time one can ever hope for. Spending 8 hours a day in the classroom, we would touch on every topic under the sun (apart from SAP, that is) - so the discussions went on touching life, marriage, friendships and the like. Between the fun, songs, stories, philosophy, scores of photoshoots, dinners, movies, birthday celebrations (and lots of scoldings) we also learnt SAP CRM at a breakneck speed. The defining moment came on July 26th 2005, the day mumbai went under torrential rains. While the whole company was trapped in the deluge and panicking , the CRM team was busy training at 8 pm till the lights went out :)

All good things eventually come to an end, and from training my SETs moved on to projects steadily honing their skills with time. In the next couple of years, all my three SETS became experts and one by one said goodbye to pursue their destinies in life. Today, Sabby and Julius are in the USA and Sharif left and has since joined back my team. As the years went by, the teams changed and grew, flourished and changed in profile.  But, through time and distance my first SETs will always be my favorites and remembered with a lot of love and warmth for just being themselves and for creating that magic in 2005.



Sarabjeet Singh

Sharif Inamdar and Julius Pereira