Orderly Disorder

‘Good Morning. Can I help you with your bags?’ The London sky was crisp and bright for this early October morning. Having got up just a few minutes before I heard his doorbell ring, I was rushing to reach the airport and board the plane back to Bombay and be with my family. I glanced down my shoulder to see the cab driver, probably in his sixties, offering to help me with my bags. With years of travel behind me, my instinctive hunch was that my cab driver was from the Indian subcontinent. My response was a respectful – ‘No thanks, from where I hail we do not bother our elders with such tasks’. I could not see his reaction as I was struggling with my golf set, my suitcase and my briefcase. Having set my suitcase in the boot, I kept my golf clubs on the backseat and strapped myself in the front passenger seat. Quickly gathering my breath, I gave him my current destination – ‘Heathrow Terminal 3, please’. I have never had trouble striking conversation with anybody and especially ne

Travel is the biggest teacher – I have read somewhere, it indeed is. It's my second trip to America this year ,I share with you’ll some of my observations and experiences as I hope this will be of use to both of you sometime later in life.  Once you drive away from the airport ,the first thing that strikes you about America is the sheer size of things – especially since we come from India. Big roads, multi lane highways, huge size pickup vans, long limousines, big cars, tall buildings and of course many big and huge Americans – both men and women. Next a few things that irritate you are that they are among the only nation’s in the world which uses 110v electricity while the rest of the world uses 220v. So you need a different set of adaptors with a step down transformer to keep your electronic accessories charged.  Americans don’t walk – they drive. American’s drive on the right side of the road which again is a visual departure for our Indian eyes. Most American cars are automati