Melbourne Diaries

Travel is tiring. Short travel more so. So, earlier this year when I was asked to travel to Melbourne for a week, I was kind of not looking forward to it. But truth be told, these days, I don't look forward to any kind of travel, be it long or short, on any given day leave alone travelling to the other side of the equator. I do admit that traveling has its perks but it also comes with the big downside of packing. I am no Ryan Bingham - that character played to perfection by George Clooney - from 'Up In The Air' when it comes to packing my bags and backpack and catch a flight at a moment's notice. If you need evidence of my limited packing skills and strategies, you should read my earlier posts on packing and packing strategies in this blog. But with not too many options left - since such decisions are taken way above my paygrade -  I reluctantly packed my bags and headed southwards.

MCG as seen from Eureka 88

Thus, after a couple of flight changes and 18 sleep-deprived hours later, I was in Melbourne (or Mel as locals usually call it).

I had been to Melbourne a few years back on a different business trip. That whole trip had lasted half a day and so I had very few vague memories of that trip. I mainly remember giving a presentation to a Victorian Government organization and spending a few hours at the sports bar in Crowne Plaza (Melbourne's Casino hotel) afterward before taking a late evening flight back to Sydney. So this time, as soon as I landed and was on my way to the city from the airport, I tried to recollect my past trip. But it was as good as being there for the first time.

Eureka 88 from hotel window

Day 0

Since it was quite late by the time I landed (thankfully!), I checked into the hotel and settled for the night. But before doing so, I looked out of my 2nd floor hotel room window and all I could see was a tall building staring back at me. I craned my neck up to check how high it was, but could not see its top. It was one monolithic dark glass pillar shooting up into the dark sky. Realizing that I hadn't got a room with a great view and so having nothing much to do, I drew on the shades and began to count sheep. Not a good start to the trip. Hotel room without a view can be a big turn off. In the morning, thanks to Google and  the reception folks, I got  to know that the tall thing blocking my view was one of the tallest buildings in Southern Hemisphere simply known as 'Eureka 88'. Some view-blocker landmark that. Later in the week, I happened to go up the viewing platform located on Eureka 88. It did have a splendid view of the city. And of the MCG. Nevertheless, it did block the view from my hotel room window.

Days 1 - 4

Riverside View of the Hotel Restaurant

The next four working days passed like a blur. It's safe to say that the high points used to be breakfast and dinners. More than the breakfast menu and spread, it was the riverside view that the hotel's restaurant offered that was the highlight. Being in a new place coupled with jet lag meant not being able to sleep well. Not being able to sleep well meant having an early breakfast. Having an early breakfast meant enjoying a breathtaking view of the city waking up to a gorgeous sunrise and people milling into work from the Mel Central Station across the river. Just watching the scene unfold was enough to charge you up for the day. 

A view of CBD from Botanical Gardens

Dinners were no less fun but for a different reason. And that was because dinners were usually long affairs that would start around eight and go on late into the night. Since Mel's CBD has a great selection of restaurants which are manned by some really good chefs, we could pick and choose a new one every evening and not be disappointed with our selection. In addition to some great dining spots in and around CBD, there is also this long strip of restaurants serving different cuisines that lines Crowne Plaza's quayside where you can dine and wine and relax after a long day's work. And with each passing evening, it was becoming clear to me as to why 'Masterchef Australia' is such a popular program out here. Melbourne folks not only love their food but also love preparing and serving it to others. Before I forget, here I must mention that in any restaurant in Mel, the one thing you should not miss is the dessert. Desserts are really out of this world. Among all the restaurants, my personal favorite was the restaurant attached to 'The Royce' on St. Kilda aptly named Dish that has a sorbet and ice cream dessert which arguably was one of the best I have had in a while. My friend mentioned that he had once spotted Adam Gilchrist having breakfast here. So I guess my taste is not as bad. As a side note, the hotel gets its name from the Rolls-Royce showroom the building once housed before it was converted into a hotel. My other dining reco would be PM24, a French restaurant on Russell Street in Melbourne CBD.

Yarra at twilight - Dinnertime!

Day 5

The action picked up on the fifth and penultimate day of my stay. Determined that I should also see other places in the city apart from the fine dining spots, I skipped breakfast (and the gorgeous view  that came with it) and set off on an all day exploration trip. Before I forget, I must Thank some of my colleagues in Mel for giving me tips about the best way to explore the city. You can cover almost the entire city by taking the public transport such as trams, buses and trains or take a free city tour offered by the Melbourne city in case you are hard pressed for time. If nothing else, you can walk along wooded avenues or take a walk in one of the many parks in and around the city. That is, if the weather is nice.

Shrine of Remembance from St. Kilda Road

I started off by walking along the St. Kilda Road past the WW II memorial (Shrine of Remembrance) and the Royal Botanical Gardens. Walking past, I couldn't help but marvel at how well the city was maintained. Staying on St. Kilda I crossed the Yarra and turned into Flinders St. and immediately merged into the bustling crowd of tourists, school going kids, college students and the rest of the city folks. From then on, for the next few hours I crisscrossed the CBD, went around Queen Victoria Market or the Vic as the locals call it, walked past street bands, bookstores, restaurants with cuisines ranging from Far East to Middle East and of course the mandatory fish and chips joints till the time I felt that I had made good use of my time. 

MCG up close

Despite the weekend crowd and traffic, at no point in time I felt that I was being jostled or pushed around and I had my space around me. I was beginning to like the experience. Never for a moment did I get the feeling that I was in a new city and a new continent. There was an innate sense of friendliness in the people. From the limited experience I have had, few cities around the world can give you that feeling. Mel certainly seemed to top the list. In this regard, the town planning council of Mel and the people truly deserve credit for making it such a well-maintained, tourist and pedestrian-friendly city.

But since I just had a day's time, I also made the best use of the hop in and out anywhere free tour that starts and ends at the Center of Arts to visit places such as MCG, the Museum and other touristy places that the tour covers.

See that white speck over the skyline?

As the evening drew to a close, I paused for a moment to see the city traffic rush by. It was around at this point I remembered that I was yet to take a souvenir back home. As I was pondering what curio I should buy (whether it should be a Kangaroo Crossing sticker, or a teddy koala, or a decorative boomerang and so on...), I happened to look up skywards and got my answer. The crescent moon shining over the dark silhouettes of the Melbourne skyline provided the scene that would long remain in my memory as a souvenir and also as a farewell gift from the city of Melbourne.

All in all, day 5 happened to be a very interesting and memorable day. Of course there was also a lingering regret that I had not seen much of the city due to lack of time.

Day 6 

Early morning flight back home. Thanks to a very gregarious Greek taxi driver the trip to the airport was not tiresome despite having to take a couple of long detours to avoid traffic. On the way, he also gave me some nice tips about what places to visit in case if I visited Greece. Ithaki or Ithaca seemed to top his personal list of favorites.

Evening Traffic crossing the Yarra

Despite ticking all the right boxes, the one spot that left me a bit disappointed was the Melbourne airport. The immigration line was pretty long and it took forever to clear the poorly ventilated and lighted hall into which we had been herded. It took almost an hour to get out and I was left with hardly any time to get onto my maiden flight on the Airbus A380.

Looking back, the trip was not as bad as I had first imagined it would be. Travel is indeed tiring. Short travel indeed more so. But this was one short trip that had tired me out for all the right reasons. Sometimes, mixing business with pleasure has its perks.

Changing Wheels

In the past one year to six months, most of my friends and colleagues have replaced their old cars with new ones. You can call it a coincidence but in my opinion it was about time they did. Most of our cars (including mine) had reached the end of their useful life or were no longer the kind of car we wished to drive. But as an exception to the rule, I haven't had the intention or the nerve to replace mine with a brand new one. While my friends are presenting me with several compelling arguments as to why I should, I have some equally valid points as to why I can't or don't wish to.

First of all, considering the crowded car market we have today, it’s not easy to zero in on the one car in particular and say with confidence that you’ve made the right choice. Imagine you wanted to buy that sleek, stylish, future-tech red sports car like sedan. Even before you could begin to convince your near and dear as to why you want to get yourself the car you want, you will first need to convince your heart and head to reach a compromise. Needless to say, your heart and head will always be at loggerheads about your selection.
 

Which car do I need?

Heart: SUV! Dude, you rule da road. And off-road. Face it. You always wanted one. Or maybe the other wedge-shaped, aerodynamic, wind-tunnel designed sleek baby which makes your original Ray-Ban Aviators that much more you.

Head:  Sleek, yes. Feline, yes. But think practical. Small, compact, stylish (make that boxy), fuel-efficient hatch. Everyone has one these days. Do you think they all are morons? And no one's going to check out your Aviators unless you are a Tom Cruise or a fighter pilot. And fyi, girls prefer guys who drive sensible cars at reasonable speeds. And there's this small problem of finance. You don't even have the budget to buy a good two-wheeler.

Do I need top-end or mid-level variant?
Heart: Pimp up your drive. Top-of-the-line leather with DIN so that you can listen to those Dev Anand oldies at full volume (Rafi's voice doesn't require a full blast but nevertheless, who knows you might even start to like heavy metal over time). And fake Recaro seats to add. And LEDs. And ...
Head: Do you really need a SUV and all that bling and chrome? Just go for that mid-level hatch variant I was telling you about. Maybe you can add some decent seats and an aftermarket stereo. Cheaper on insurance too. Until and unless you are having a mid-life crisis. And dude, did you forget? Limited budget. Make that very very limited budget.

Auto? Manual? 
Heart: Six-speed DSG. Your left hand has better things to do than fiddle with the gearstick. Like finding that right iPod track or umm picking your nose while you are stuck in stop go traffic.

Head: A simple, cheaper 5-speed manual. Easy, smooth and fuel-efficient. And admit it, you are a pro in shifting gears. And you don't like snot in your car.

Color?
Heart: Dude! RED its gonna be and RED its gonna stay!
Head: Go for the easy to maintain silver or grey. Few scratches and Red looks bled.

Engine? 
Heart: Petrol.
Head: Petrol it is! What!? They don't call me a petrolhead for nothing.
Enter Wallet: Are you nuts!? DIESEL!

Final result: A boxy, tallboy design, stay on road, everyday workhorse (or a mule) in non-metallic white. And yes, as a compromise with the heart, an afterthought aftermarket Rs. 50 Scuderia Ferrari sticker stuck on the rear windscreen. The sticker’s just to tell the guys behind you what car you wanted to buy and what you ended up with and how recklessly you are going to drive it.

In short, the car which would appeal to no one’s taste nor offend them. Neither your head, nor your heart. Nor you wallet. And nor your friends. Or your family. Or your dog. So what’s the point?

Needless to say, even before that smell of the new car wears off, every time you get behind the wheel you'd be taking a minute or two to figure out why you bought this car. Luckily, when I got my current car, I did not have as many choices nor did I have to take time to convince my head, heart, wallet and the rest of the world because truth be told, it was the perfect choice (as far I was concerned) that wasn’t a compromise. Sadly, this is no more the case with newer cars.

Anyways, just in case if I crossed this first hurdle and hypothetically decided to buy that dream car by convincing everyone and annoying no one, the next problem would be even more taxing. And that is taking a spanking new car out into the traffic. A traffic that would be considered illegal even in the Wild West. In the past few years, driving through the ever-increasing sea of unruly traffic has been like driving through choppy overflowing storm drains filled with debris that clog every major junction. Or to put it mildly, it is like navigating through rough and choppy seas filled with flotsam and jetsam. And through icebergs in the form of abnormally high road dividers. At any point in time, one can expect being dinged by something from behind or from the side or from the front. Or you could just end up hitting something or someone in a bid to avoid hitting something or someone else. And of course there are always those morons who drive as if they just robbed a bank but could not manage a clean getaway. Such incidents especially while driving a new car can cause enough damage to ruin your peace for the next few months or years for that matter. No matter how good your seamanship err steersmanship is, you cannot avoid these ding wars once you are on the road. Over a period of time you certainly get to know how that Captain of the Titanic felt when that darned iceberg dinged his brand-new boat on its maiden voyage. But with my old car, I do not have to worry about this problem. No one likes to nick a car that’s already scratched and battered on all sides.

If you still think that the above argument is not compelling enough and that I should be man enough to weather the ding wars and go ahead with purchasing a new car, think again. My next argument will stump you with just one word: Parking. The perennial problem of parking. Every time you take your car outside your garage and need to park, you end up paying “parking fees” that usually ranges from ‘not nominal’ to ‘outrageous’ to 'extortion'. In the past few years, I have spent a small fortune on parking and valét tips. Despite that, valéts across town are not too happy with my tipping. But then when you see a guy stepping out of a car that’s no longer in production and is no longer having a paint job that it once used to have, valets should not expect much. Which could be the probable reason why I usually see my car being parked at the unlikeliest of spots that otherwise would be off-limits for newer cars. For a new car, the tip would be more of an extortion in the form of keep-my-car-safe protection fee. Or to avoid valets, I'd have to park at a safe place (such as my garage) or a few kilometers away. And take a bus.

Last but not the least, the price of new cars. Thanks to the way our governments think about development and arresting development, the prices of cars in the market are enough to make you do a mental somersault about your car-buying decision. One glance at the pricelist and the words that come to mind are mind-numbing, heart-stopping and wallet-burning. Words strong enough to discourage you from entering that car showroom for a simple test-drive. No test-drive means no new-car experience and so no new car purchase. Finis.

All in all, it’s not going to be easy for anyone to convince me to buy a new car because my mind's made up on it. But before I forget, as my final trump card, I would like to mention that my battle-scarred, battered car has been like an old reliable fishing trawler that’s still seaworthy despite weathering some of the ugliest storms in its lifetime. I simply cannot part with it. Enough said. And no, it does not have a Rs.50 Scuderia Ferrari sticker on the rear windscreen and I definitely don’t drive it like I stole it.

Address That Has Become A Landmark

Baabaai Hotel, M.G. Road, Vijayawada

Baabaai Hotel is a major landmark in Vijayawada. Known for its South Indian snacks, the place can give any Udupi Hotel a run for its money. As I walked out of the hotel after having a splendid breakfast, I noticed that the hotel's signboard indicated that it was located near Alankar Theater (another famous landmark in Vijayawada). However, the signboards of shops surrounding the hotel proudly displayed that they were near or adjacent to Baabaai Hotel. An address that has become a landmark for others.

Dreaming for Ideas

Even as the world mourns the passing of Steve Jobs, I am slowly beginning to understand how dreamers can change our lives. I now realize that when such dreamers make it their life's ambition to turn their dreams into a reality, persist with their dreams, become successful innovators and entrepreneurs, they change the way we live. Imagine how the world would be if Michael Faraday had given up working with dynamos and electricity because he was not sure how electricity can be used once it was generated. Or, Edison not bothering to perfect his Electric Bulb and discard it as a failure. No wonder such entrepreneurs, innovators and inventors are remembered for a long time. Mostly for all the right reasons. They also happen to be good idols for kids with dreams.

While I was still in college, a bunch of friends of mine wanted to go down the path of innovation and entrepreneurship following such idols. Whilst some did eventually become entrepreneurs, others took up jobs with their 'dream companies'.

I did not have any 'Dream Company' or a 'dream' to begin with because I was not sure where I was headed. A series of fortunate and sometimes not-so-fortunate events led me to be where I am today. In a sometimes dull, sometimes monotonous, sometimes direction-less and sometimes not-so-creative but overall a not-too-bad job. And I'm not complaining. That's because one can't complain when he is set all adrift in the sea on a rudderless raft and hopes to end beached up on a lovely sun-kissed island - or at least an island where you can survive by still being a vegetarian - one fine day.

While 'adrift', I did gather some survival experiences that helped me understand how things worked in the world of entrepreneurship. I had joined a small start up (started by a very bright entrepreneur and his very bright brother-in-law) that took up back office and Quality Assurance work of Silicon Valley start ups. These Silicon Valley start ups were mainly headed by IT wizards who had left their cushy jobs in their 'dream' companies and now felt that they could venture out on their own. Every venture was a ".com" whose two foundations were 1. a good/very good/brilliant/not-so-brilliant idea and 2. "HTML & ASP for Dummies". Our company took up QA work for such ventures. Though some of the ideas were neat, some of them were downright stupid. One even came up with a keylogger concept to capture stock trading done on the internet so that user need not bother with the additional step of saving his data on an excel sheet at the end of each transaction he did on several stock-trading websites. In today's terms this would have been a classic case of security breach and would have landed a lot of people on the other side of the law. Thankfully, it never worked. For some weird reason, despite being a newbie, I knew that not all of these ideas might work out. I was not wrong. Six months later, if I tried to type in the URL of the websites that I had painstakingly QA'ed, I'd get the 404.

Starting up is one thing but sustaining the idea (provided it was good) till it succeeded was a whole different ball game altogether. I must say that some of the websites did survive the six-month test but not for long. The only company that stood the test of time and still continues to outlive all others today happened to be the startup I worked for. It had taken up the dirty job of QA'ing webpages and became a leader in the world of QA. Yes, QA projects. Boring QA projects. A job no company would want to take. That's because while every self-proclaimed hotshot programmer and start up guru dreamed of writing zillions of lines of adventurous code, a QA engineer tested someone else's bug-infested, error-ridden, pathetically documented code while cursing his luck for ending up in such a job. Doing QA was not a new idea, nor a great idea (in fact a very boring idea) but building expertise in QA helped the organization grow to extraordinary levels. Lesson learned.

So, looking back I now realize that entrepreneurship need not always require a new or a non-boring idea but instead requires the will to survive with whatever expertise you build. No matter how boring it is. Till the time you don't have such a plan or a 'dream' or have a 'dream job' in mind, stick onto your sometimes dull, sometimes monotonous, sometimes direction-less and sometimes not-so-creative job. As they say, a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. And it might actually work till the time you hit that sun-kissed island. There is a fortune waiting in taking up things which others don't want to do. Till that time, as someone once said, "Stay hungry, stay foolish". And dream.

Whodunits or Howdunits?

Whodunits have a special place in my bookshelf. In fact, that's about the only genre I read apart from comics. And just like any other traveller, whenever I am on the go, I buy a paperback to make my journey a little less tiresome. Good ones keep me engrossed to the extent that sometimes I don't even realize that I have arrived at my destination. The not so good ones act as Valium and put me to sleep even before the journey starts. So either ways, they work for me.

And just like any whodunit connoisseur would agree, I like my detective fiction to be served in a particular way. The story should not have too much violence, should provide a lot of exercise for grey cells, should keep one guessing till the last page and last but not the least be ‘unputdownable’ (NY Times Bestsellers list parlance for top thrillers).

However, of late, I have come across novels that have plots that compel me to digress from what I'm reading or have a plot where technology solves the mystery in a matter of few pages. Stuff like hi-tech wizardry, special gadgets and procedures that are used to bust crime, description of the locales, their history, and so on have become an integral part of modern thriller fiction. Just like those CSI series on TV (which, of course I like). Though I am not against special stuff being included, sometimes they simply don't help in maintaining the unputdownable feel. For example, a Tom Clancy novel gives you so much info about weapons, aircraft, etc., that once you are through with the novel, you can’t but resist Googling about the weapons and the science behind them. But if you asked me about the plot, I would be hard pressed to recollect it.

When I was reading the “Da Vinci Code”, I stopped halfway through the novel and ended up reading so much about the Templars, the Freemasons and the Opus Dei that I could have written a separate thesis on each one of them. In the process, when I got back to the novel from where I had left, I had forgotten the main plot and some characters and so had to go back 50 pages to recapitulate what had happened thus far. Though it was annoying, in a strange way it was also satisfying. I am sure I would not have done as much research as I did even if the history of Templars had been my main project during Graduate School. But then, it was no longer an ‘unputdownable’ for me.

And then there are these other types of thrillers where a Doctor is a protagonist. In such stories, usually, the human characters take a back seat and the research and scientific work done by the Doc to unravel the criminal or a special cutting edge clandestine project that creates zombies or something to that effect becomes the main character.

Before I forget, the mobile phone is another invention that has taken some sting out of thriller fiction. In recent years, the mobile’s ubiquitous presence has helped in solving many cases. After the plot meanders for a while, someone finally remembers to figure out who last called the victim or establishes a pattern of calls from the billing details and et voilà, mystery solved!

I could go on but then I’d no longer enjoy these novels any more. Nor would you. In short, one does not need special skills to figure out the advancement in science and technology has changed the way thriller fiction is written. I’m sure that going forward things will change some more but I hope they don’t change by much.

And it is precisely for this reason that I long for the old-fashioned novels penned by Dame Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when things used to be lot simpler. Though a little less sophisticated, a lot depended on human nature and instincts than on anything else. Stories dealt with complex people hiding secrets and were set in an atmosphere that had well, atmosphere. In these stories, any kind of scientific research would be rudimentary and would not overshadow the main character’s quest for truth or the characters he would encounter and thus make them memorable forever.

For instance, have you ever noticed Hercule Poirot walk into the Coroner's office and ask for information on how the victim died and the established time of death? Or see Sherlock Holmes use fingerprinting techniques to identify a potential suspect? Or did Perry Mason ever depend on GSR (that's gunshot residue for non-detective fiction buffs) analysis and DNA (Di-oxy something.. just Google DNA) sampling to get his clients acquitted (Yes, DNA sampling did not exist then but that’s exactly my point) in the court of law? More than scientific evidence, it was the perseverance of these fictional heroes (and the genius of the authors thrown in for a good measure) and their constant study of the human nature that solved crimes. The stories made us relate to the characters, understand their emotions and intentions and finally break into wry smiles thinking, “Oh! How did I miss that? It was staring right into my face all the time.” Or how many times did you fervently wish that one of the characters who grew upon you was not the sheep in wolf’s clothing? Nevertheless, it was a totally different but efficient approach to solving fictional crimes back then. People might argue that this is no way to go about unravelling mysteries in the real world, but then that's the whole reason why I read fiction.

For me, whodunits are essentially complex math equations that can either be solved using a paper and pencil or by using a computer software. Using a paper and pencil takes time but it gives immense satisfaction. That’s because you spend considerable time mastering various formulae and techniques to understand, memorize and then analyze them thoroughly before applying them to solve such equations. Whereas, if you used a computer, all you would need to do is just type in the key parameters and it would spew out the results in a jiffy. This means that even if you are just about skilled at using the computer software but have not done your due diligence in Math, you can still solve the equation and get all the answers. But then you would never be an expert. For me solving how it was done does not always mean finding who did it. But if you are the type of person who thinks that the end justifies the means then I’d argue no further. Instead, I’ll pick up my copy of “The Adventures of Feluda” and enjoy Feluda solving crimes the old-fashioned way. So long.