Weekend trip

Last week I went to Hyderabad to recruit MBAs at the Indian School of Business.

Here's a picture of a big lake in Hyderabad that I took from the car. There's a big Buddha statue in the middle.



The ISB campus is amazing. This is their main building, taken from the near the executive suites (on campus hotel), with a close-up of the central part of the same building:



The architecture is... well... strange. I'm not sure if it's pleasing or not. But it's definitely striking. Here's a picture from a stairwell, and then a closeup of the strange structure that's in the background. It looks like a huge wine glass to me.



After coming back from Hyderabad I immediately took an overnight bus to Belgaum to spend the weekend with relatives. My Mama lives in Belgaum. I spent Friday there and then, on Saturday, we drove to Sangli where his daughter lives. Her husband owns a factory that makes PVC pipes; here's a picture of all the cool colors:



On the way back from Sangli I took a train (first time this trip). Unfortunately, I had to buy a first class ticket because there was no availability otherwise. I say unforunately because you don't really get the true indian railways experience by travelling in first class. Anyways, it was my first time travelling first class on a train so there were a bunch of things that surprised me.

There's an indicator in every cabin letting you know which bathrooms are vacant. And the bathrooms are actually pretty clean.

You can ring a bell and a 'Jeeves' will come ask you what you need. This light shows him who called.

There's a laptop/mobile phone charging outlet that actually gives 110V AC power (instead of 240V which is the indian standard)

Let me just say that you have to have travelled 3rd class to really appreciate how out-of-place all of these ameneties seem! :)

Finally, here're some pictures of the wonderful sunset caught from the train: