An interesting day at work..

It was a rather surprising day at work. Work seemed easy today. Different from the normal painful days that I encounter. The most interesting part was that I got up early today, a thing which had been almost unachievable for me. Days started with alarm on snooze and me reaching late to work. This morning I woke up 2 minutes before the alarm and rather than waiting for it to buzz I decided to take off from the bed. After passing through the daily chores of morning I found my cell ringing. Thinking it to be another of those alarms I picked it up and found it to be one of my friends who works in a night shift in India. Talking to her as I was dressing up I realised it had been long since I spoke with her. Reaching my office at an ungodly time was a first for me. I finished my work soon as I had to leave for Malaysia. Malaysia carries both pleasant and unpleasant memories depending on whether I went there for leisure or work respectively.
I started off in the taxi sleep deprived with my colleagues. Hungry as I was I searched some food in my bag. My luck I found a fruitcake slice I kept in my bag yesterday. Having that I slept off for a nice 45 minutes sleep in my cab. I was woken up by my colleagues just 2 minutes before I was about to reach the site.
The site was paint coatings manufacturing site. Paint manufacturing sites generally send shivers down a environmentalist's spine. But me being an environmental consultant and not an environmentalist, I repeat not an environmentalist (there is a big difference between the terms, try wikipedia), was looking forward to it. I had recently researched a lot about paint manufacturing sites and even did a site walkover at a Singapore facility. I was confident of conducting a Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment (ESA).
In my job Phase 1 ESA are very common. The work involves going to a site and assessing whether the current or historical site practices contribute to any environmental liabilities. In short, whether the site is doing any damage to environment or not. The job is very much a protocol job. That is you follow a set of questions and fill in the questionairre. I was unhappy last few months because I felt I had not much to learn as I was doing the same thing again and again and not learning much. Also I am not a protocol person. I like to do things in an intuitive way not bounded by anything.
This day was however different. I realised that even though I was doing the same things again and again, I was gaining some wisdom. I had been to many different industrial facilities in many countries. And I was learning something which no school would teach me. I was being enlightened to how an industrial facility works. What is recorded in the documents and what really happens.
The facility was awesome. Kickass as I would say in my newly picked up word. All the documentation in place. Air emission, water emission, hazardous waste all the tests done and in order and below the regulatory limits. I was happy that such a facility playing with all the hazardous materials can be in such a nice shape. The site representatives were one of the best I had seen.
But along my site walk I saw the wastewater treatment plant was overflowing. The site representative tried to put it in order but it took me ten minutes. Wonder how long that plant was overflowing and dumped how much of chemicals into the nearby sea. I was already thinking about the fishes. They would be cursing us I thought.
Anyways, the day came to an end at leisurely pace. I knew what to do as part of the job. Unfortunately I could not help the fishes a lot as my job was very protocol oriented. I finished my job and sped towards Singapore, but the traffic gave me enough time to finish this blog. Another thing that I was procrastinating. What a satisfying day!!!

Young Expats Dream Destination

Continuing with my story on what goes into the making of a dream destination for the expats, I go further into a few countries in some detail.
I asked you guys which country was preferred after the top 2 ( Canada & Australia ) in the expats survey. Well the answer is an Asian country. Surprised! Yeah even i was, but after giving a thought to it I feel that it certainly deserves the place. With a strong tourism industry and the politest of people you can find, I feel Thailand truly come of as a nice destination for expats. I have travelled to the country and can roger that. The climate of the place is great and with tourism so important there is bound to be a lot of jobs for the casual expat. On the otherside Thailand is a big manufacturing hub for many of the multinationals and hence you are bound to find a lot of foreigners there. One of the most interesting pointers from the survey was that Expats rated it as the most easiest place to make friends.
Interestingly, Thailand figured out on top of the places where expats found love. This maybe because there is already a big expat base present in Siam (Thailand). The country that followed in the ease of making friends is Vietnam. Interestingly I myself have close friends from both the countries.
Other factors favouring Thailand are cheap access to healthcare. Medical tourism is big in Thailand. Accomodation is easier to find. This was one of the bigger factors in the rankings. I don't have much info about that. But certainly the Land of Elephants is one of the dream destination for living. Signing of on this post, you can find much more info on the original report (http://www.offshore.hsbc.com/1/2/international/expat/expat-survey/expat-experience-report-2009).

Living an Expat Life

This evening while listening to the radio, I heard an interesting conversation about the countries expats like to stay in and the ones they hate. The data was from a survey of 3200 expats which put Australia and Canada on top while UK on the bottom. Interestingly the radio channel I was listening to was the BBC.What followed was a long discussion as to why UK is at the bottom of the list. Major issues that came up from the discussion were the fact that expats find difficulty in finding accomodation, maintaining health and its is troublesome to commute to work. However random interviews also pointed out the fact that the stress as can be seen on the faces of public on the streets can be another reason. People might be trying too hard for a simple living.

I guess that's what makes Australia and Canada more favourable. Relaxed living and close to nature I guess. Another idea that came out was that income and overall quality of life does not match. That is higher salaries does not correspond with good living.

In my next blog I will talk about the country where I live as an expat. And I would also discuss about the country which comes third on the ranking after Canada and Australia. Any Guesses?

The College

Just recently i got a message in my orkut scrapbook saying do i remember the person messaging.Well i thought how to reply to that.Its been some time now that we left college. Time has taken people apart. It was in college that we shaped each others destinies. We shared each moment together. Tat was the time of being together, learnin frm each other n having fun.but now everyones busy. They dont ven have time for ppl around them leave alone ppl they have been associated with them in the past.And one of them is SaurabhBut I have somethin 2 say.. Its not that i have forgotten my old friends.. they are still there in my thoughts sumwere and also a dream if i could go back 2 same old college wit the same old friends n the same old friends.I did come back frm the US to India for two weeks and I even went 2 the college.I was happy tat i comin back 2 the same old college. The memories preserved in my mind were coming in front of my mind.But the same old college hit me the time entered there. it was tough to even stand there. While movng around the same old lanes my legs moved automatically , my eyes anticipating someone around but no one to see. With n friends arnd the same place looked like eating me.Meeting an old friend who is serving at the College as a lecturer was a relief. Meeting old friends is always heartwarming. Spending a day with him was like the best thing that happened in recent time.
Sharing whats going on in each others life and chatting about others was the order of the day.We find sometimes find that though we can go and meet our old friends but its always not like before. I think thats life. The time that goes doesnt come back at all..... [:(]

my time at stanford

hi
i just finished my work over here for today.. we were provided breakfast lunch n will be provided dinner for today cos today was the orientation.. our courses start from tuesday.. its still sunday here now but it ll be monday in india.. i settled in here have bought some foodstuffs like milk juice bread butter n other stuff..
we will be paid $900 tomorrow for food by the ssp staff.. so we can use that money to buy food plans.. actually there r some ppl who provide indian food in the evning n tats around $6 a meal for one day.. so ill try tat.. morning i ll try to cook my own food like bread butter juice or noodles.. lunch we can have outside in restaurants like subway cafetaria..
the atmosphere here s very great.. ppl work a lot n very smartly.. the standard of living is very high.. n ironically clothes r cheap here.. a levis jeans i saw cost around $19 only.. food though is a bit expensive.. weather is good.. though in night it gets cold.. i ll try to rent a blanket if i can.. we can all time water.. water is very soft here its very pure n u can drink tap water also.. 24 hrs we can have hot water cold water anything..
i have to buy a laptop n i ll see to it that i get a good one n at a cheap rate.. there r clusters or computer rooms that can be used to access net.. there s free internet acess in rooms also but i dont hav a comp right now.. wifi is ther in the whole campus n u can do net sittin anywhere..also i ahv to buy digicam so tat i can send photos..
ppl r good here .. i share my room with a indian of the same course as mine.. so we did a bit of shoppin together.. ther r ppl frm vietnam china malaysia also n its talkin to them n understandin there accent is fun..
this place is cool n i m kinda startin enjoyin but don know wat happens if i start classes..
i met deepika yeaterday night.. her flight was delayed by 24 hrs.. shes fine n also enjoyin..
anyways tahts it for today
bye
take care

A great start!!!

Just started today... Feelin sleepy.. ok we ll do somethin abt it tomorrow..