JetLag,House Search and Ts...........

Into the fourth day of my 2nd US experience and things are finally beginning to look up ! First, I have been able getover the so called JetLag (I prefer to call it Lateral Time Shift ) which meant that I was awake for most of the time it was dark here ( Night Shift from USA for India ? Quite possible in the future) . Then in the day time I had to fight off the sleep (which I needed so badly) because I needed to search for a place which would be my home sweet home for the next one year. Finally my body seems to have got adjusted now to the time shift now.

And the house search meant I am talking to and meeting people completely unknown to me (like I talked to John, a Macho Realtor born in America for a 2 Bedroom Apartment, a Lithuanian Mother of three who wants to rent out her 3 bed Apartment,a Indian American who somehow wants to rent out the place to Indians only and so on ). Finally I have choosen the apartment being rented out by the American as my home for the next year and will signing on the dotted line sometime next week and moving into the place.

The search for the house took me to places like Wellington ,Somerville, Medford, Malden and some 20 T stations in between .( Ts are Bostonian way of saying Subways or Metro ). And had it not been for the convenient T systems, I think I would have spent a fortune in searching for my home. A 15$ weekly pass meant that I could travel any number of times to these places and the experience has been great to say the least. On Boston Ts , you are sharing space with students from India, China and what not countries talking in their respective Native languages, with old Bostonians who prefer the charm of the train to the hassles of Driving , with Spanish migrants from Latin America and perhaps most importantly with young Boston couples going for a date. (Boston Gals have off clean spotless backs, Necklines,hands and legs and thanks to hot "summer" days, they on display for free in the Ts.)

Another strange thing about the Boston Ts is that each of the routes have their own pecularity. The green line(each route is signified by a colour) for example turns into a tram/city bus once it is out of the underground tracks and in fact has to wait for the traffic lights to turn green (along with the cars/buses) before moving forward !!! The orange line trains are as long as a long distance train in Europe (ok they are not in 1/4th of the trains in India but for a city train,they are long). The red line trains don't have automated Voiceovers for station Information and the driver of the train himself shouts top of this voice "Attention everybody. The Destination of this train is Braintree. Brrrrrrriiiiinntreeeeeeeeeee.".

All in all a completely new experience. If you ask me if this is the most efficient subway System, I would say it is the best I have seen. Although somebody told me Delhi Metro is better but can't vouch for it myself.

First Impressions:Jet Airways will go places

Well my first blog from Boston !. Reached here yesterday evening after a 22 hr long journey. And luckily the flight journey turned out to be a really good one. Kudos to Jet Airways for starting a service from Mumbai to USA and setting high standards in terms of service and convenience. Having already travelled in the likes of NorthWest Airlines(NWA),Lufthansa and Air India, I can very well claim that the service which Jet offered was the best among these. So what did Jet so differently ?

For starters Jet Airways is using a Boeing 777-300 ER, which is a brand new long distance aircraft from the Boeing stable. Apart from offering a 3 class configuration, the best part was the ample leg room which it provided for the economy/cabin passengers. That Apart , the aircraft has personal LCD screens for every individual. Now this is not new of course, but the quality of the screen and the movie/music collections was amazing. ( Especially for we Indians, loads of Hindi movies both old and new). Again the in-flight cabin crew were the best ( both in looks and the service which they offered :)). The flight attendents were really courteous and helpful. This is really required on flights originating from India. Quite a few of them are travelling in flights for the 1st time and are not even sure as to how tighten the seat belts.(The Flight attendents of NWA were the worst I would say. They never respond to any of your requests).

We were given Menu cards for the food/beverages and the beverages on offer were really good. Like how many of the airlines offer Old Monk Black rum on flights ? Also the Indian Food on offer was really tasty and edible(by Airline food standards) when compared the stuff which other airlines offer. Another convenience is a small kit which contained the essentials like Toothpaste and brush. (These may be Small things but go a long way in improving the overall service). All in all, a long international flight where I did not get bored at all. (And No, there was no pretty gal sitting next to me in the flight.).

Full marks to Jet Airways and I do sincerely hope they maintain the same service levels in the years to come . Interestingly, by the next year , Kingfisher Airlines will start off it's international operations and going the benchmark Kingfisher has set in India's domestic flight service levels , I think the stage is set for an interesting battle between the two India based Airlines to grab a pie of the growing travel on the India-USA route.