Journey within

Hello all,
I have just returned from one of my trips, and I never expected that I will ever go on a onsite trip, this came totally out of the blue. I had expected a trip sometime before, when I was told I will be traveling, but that never happened, and I never imagined anything about it later. Now that it happened, I went to some places, which I have never heard of, and some which we all have seen in movies. The trip was good, the main reason why I went, to code,  that also went good.

Now that I am back, if I look back at those 15 days, I learnt a lot, with respect to my profession, as well as personally. It was my first experience , as to go to a totally unknown place, I was quite nervous about it, as I had always been accompanied by many friends, whenever I go to any place. When I moved to Coimbatore, for my graduation, I had a lot of school friends already when going there, so I never felt out of home there also. When I joined my first job in Bangalore, I felt a bit out of place, as number of people I knew before was less, but then it was all in India, and somehow that feeling comforts one, and I managed well, and I joined there as one guy in a batch of 31 fresh graduates. So the age group was pretty much the same, so it was okay being with that group. But when I joined SAP, I guess it was a 30 member batch again, but I never knew anyone there, but I got some good friends in that batch, but again it was in India, so I never felt out of home.
So frankly, I have never felt anywhere totally out of place, and I always had some people to help me out always. This trip on the other hand, where most of the times I was alone, I learned more about myself than anything else. Not to forget my colleague's effort to teach me some basics, how to eat with spoon, fork, knife, which I have never done before, and many more small small things, which I never knew before. Special thanks to him !

PARIS Metro Rail Map

We landed there one saturday noon, and had to start back 2 weeks later on a sunday. So essentially there was only one full weekend, which I went to Paris, all alone. Though I never expected it to be alone, that's how it turned out to be. I was told by my friends that many Indians prefer going to these places with a particular tourist agency, and I also went through them, but then I was the only Indian in that trip, and I was hell-shocked seeing that. I spoke with the guy sitting next to me, he conveyed that he does not speak English, in sign language, and I was more worried. Later at the last boarding point, one more Indian boarded the bus, and I felt a bit comfortable, and a small light appeared in the end of the tunnel. Later in the morning, when I arrived at Paris, I was greeted with a bad news that, his hotel and mine where our stay was planned,was at almost 2 corners of the city, and we never had any phone to communicate with each other. The small light which was flickering over the night in my mind went off. So I checked in my hotel, and started to roam out, I had done some googling about the places to see, and some history of it. That's the first lesson I learnt, when visiting a unknown place, first google what is to be done there, and what not. I thought the tourist agency would do it, but it does not work out that way, their responsibility lies only till getting the hotel room, and to drop us back where we boarded. I found that there were 2 Indians in the hotel I was, so I just spoke with them, and they have not done any googling like me, so I told them what I did, and the list of places which one needs to check out. The first thing I did after checking in the hotel is to get the map of the city, so we had a map, and planned out the sequence, and started. The map had a detail of the metro of the city, which I was not able to interpret, it was so damn confusing with almost all colours on it, and each colour representing something, and it was not in English too. But then, it started raining, so the people who came with me, said they are returning back to hotel, as they did not want to roam in rain. So I was alone, I went on with my plan, then I realized touring some places is actually fun alone too, as I can decide what I want and what I dont want, and I can do things at my own pace, as they say, to walk fast, you need to walk alone, I did . As I had my plan clearly, I set out to make it, I visited the places I wanted to. During that time,where I had to walk, I had to speak with myself to continue the trip, as I felt whats the point in doing it alone. I felt motivated , though I was alone because I knew what I was doing , as I had planned it myself, and I was not a part of any stupid plan, which someone else did. I convinced myself that the plan which I had is not stupid, so thats the second thing I learned, to have the confidence in oneself, and to proceed in it, whatsoever happens. One has to take a decision boldly, and has to stick to it. Its not the question of adaptability here, its the question of ones maturity in taking the decision.
And then I proceeded, I was fully walking, as I was alone, I enjoyed doing it. I had my plan, and I had the confidence that I will complete the plan. And again, I met some Indians on the way, when I took a short break for a coffee, and then we discussed the plans for the day, they had an altogether different opinion than mine,they just visit places here and there as they walk. They tried to change my plan, but I refused, and I again walked alone, Thats the next thing I learned, if someone  who was not part of your plan, gives opinion of the plan, think before acting on it, if some one changes your plan, you have to be more careful. A plan is a plan, only if its acted upon, deviations in the plan is acceptable, but not switching between various plans. If there is a difference of opinion, its better one sticks to his plans, than to follow some person's opinion who did not even have a plan to start with.And most important, convincing others about one's plan is even more difficult, when there is a fundamental difference in the perspective.

Metro Map of Paris

So I stuck to my plan, and I proceeded, I finally landed at my destination for the day, the Eiffel tower, and I met the other Indian who was with me for a brief amount of time in the journey from Germany to Paris. We proceeded, and when we finally came out of the tower, it was midnight, and I got to know that there is no direct bus to the hotel I stayed, I was forced to use the metro, which is very complicated. I had to switch between 3 stations, and no stations had any station master or ticket counter guy, whom you can ask opinions of, it was fully automated, and none of the locals spoke English.
I met a good couple in the queue to the tower, and they were Tamilians from UK, and they helped me out to decipher the map which had the details. After I got to know the details of how the metro works, I was just awestruck , and honestly, that's the best metro which any city can build, with various levels of underground passages, fully automated, wow !
That's the next tip  I learned, when in trouble seek advice of experts, who have already faced similar issues. They will ensure that, we don't fall to the pit holes which might come on the way. The difficult thing is to find who the expert is, so one should not follow what someone else told plainly, have to think on it, and then decide. One has to think on it because, it might have somethings to be clarified, and the moment where it needs to be clarified, the person might not be there to help you with. So any plans needs to be run along with the timeline, and then decided. And the better the plan, the better the trip will be.
So most of the effort should go in planning, as then implementing the plan would be easier, if the plan is perfect. As Hannibal in the movie A-Team says, 'I love it when a plan comes together', my plan went well, and I loved it.

Bye till nex,