Going WILD

Sunday we traveled to Guwahati in Assam, the North East tip of India, behind Bangladesh and close to China and Burma. It's a long way from Bombay; first flying to Calcutta and then on a plane to Guwahati, total trip of about 5 hours. In Guwahati IDBI Federal has a branch which we visited. From there we drove (another 5 hours) to Kaziranga National Park, the place in the world to spot the rhino in the wild!

Early Monday (5:30 am ...) we went off on our safari; spotting the rhinos from the back of an elephant. And we saw many, even with babies. After the elephant safari and breakfast we went on a jeep safari. It was marvelous! Many, many animals we saw like rhinos, elephants, kingfishers, swamp deer, water buffaloes, pelicans, otters (we spotted a group of about 15), eagles, etc. etc. The only animal we missed was the tiger ...

park entrance

only wild cat I spotted ...

on our way with Rahul

Star performance in Jaipur

Next steps in Buddism

Last Thursday I was in Bhopal for a press conference. After this we drove to Sanchi, the location of the very oldest Buddhist monuments (dating from 3rd century BC!). It was a very nice visit, absolutely very nice to walk around in between these magnificent old stupas and temples.

Rock Garden

Chandigarh (Le Corbusier's planned city in the north of India, capital of two states) is home to the world famous Rock Garden, next to the Sukhna Lake. Some pictures.

Secure flight from Chandigarh

Last Tuesday I flew up and down to Chandigarh. In India you have to add a name tag to your hand luggage (name is not necessary). After the security check the tags are stamped. And before entering the plane you have to show your bag and the stamped tag. This time in Chandigarh there was a double check of the tags, before walking onto the platform and to the plane. Of course the tags have a date stamp, else you could try to fool the system ...

Fly smart and secure from Chandigarh

IDBI Federal unveils new pension plan

These days we are presenting our new pension plan to the world. Part of that is a series of press conferences throughout India. This week it was for me Mumbai and Hyderabad, next week Ahmadabad, Chandigarh, and Bhopal.

Parsee Garden Party

Yesterday evening Ivone organized a party in the garden for 50 guests. It was all in Parsee style; the food, table setting, decoration and lightning. The pictures show the long tables were everyone is seated at one side to allow the waiters to serve the food continuously on banana leaves.

(Setting up the long tables)

(At the end, behind the white frame, the kitchen was constructed)