June 1st,2005

I left Twickenham at dawn. I mean literally...I tool the first train from Twickenham to Feltham,the 5.36am and then the bus to Heathrow. I have had some strange experiences on Airlines, but never thought I would spend half an hour waiting to get a boarding pass. This happened because the world is a small place and every 6th person in the world is an Indian. The AA official decided that he was getting really bored and began chatting with me and elicited my life history. You know the one thing Indians can always talk about is cricket and Politics...and this trait doesn't disappear when you become an expat.
Some things I now know about the person who checked me in :
1. He has been in the country for 28 years
2. He has worked at AA for 15 years
3. He has two children
4. His brother-in-law's son's name is Sridhar
blah blah blah...


Anyway, to cut a long story short I reached JFK safely and passed through immigration easily and quickly. I was guinea pig for trainee induction, "This is his name..check it in the computer","This is the pasport number, enter here and see if it matches".. without any check in luggage I sailed through customs and shared a taxi with other Rhodies to the Peninsula Hotel, NYC. The taxi provided me with my first near-death experience. Our driver swerved into a car while coming out of an exit and was exactly(no exaggeration) one foot away from hitting another car which was trying to cut into the same lane. All this at about 60 miles an hour. Of course, he then proceeded to call up his friend and swear at the whole world and us in Punjabi!!

The Peninsula Hotel is without doubt the most luxurious and opulent hotel I have ever seen... My room is a suite and I am sharing it with another guy called Jeff from the States. We have a huge sitting room ( about the size of my whole sitting room back home) with a flat screen 51' TV. A sofa, working desk a couple of chairs and a small round table. This leads to a small corridor which ends with the bedroom(with a king size bed and another TV..Am I getting tired), a dressing area and a bathroom the size of my room.The bathroom has a separate TV just above the bath. That my friends, is true luxury!!!

After just about reaching the hotel intact, I picked up my tuxedo and got ready to head out into NYC. Went for a walk around Central Park with some people and got back in time to have a quick shower and get ready for our first event.

A quick student orientation where we were introduced to our host Catherine B Reynolds and we were whisked off in huge coaches to the MoMA. We were treated to a speech by President Bill Clinton, which he later repeated on Larry King Live later in the night. This man just exudes charisma and knows how to work a room. Obviously he had a prepared speech but it never once seemed like he had prepared it. He spoke about the increasing interdependence in the world today and then fielded questions.
Then we had Sr.Susan Hockfield, President of MIT(first woman Pres), Yogi Bear(baseball legend) who had this great quote for all of us.
He said,"When you come to a fork, take it!"
Then we had Catie Curtis, host of NBC's Today Show who really seemed to speak from the heart. I was really impressed by her although I usually am quite sceptical of these journalists.

Anyway, the treat was after..and all that in my next installment. Dinner at the Temple of Dendur and Rodin...