Dharamsala

I've been working in the state of Himachal Pradesh the last two weeks. On Sunday we went to Dharamsala, a four hours drive away. Dharamsala is internationally known for hosting the Tibetan Government in exile and His Holiness Dalai Lama.

For the Indian Dharamsala is mainly one of the famous 'hillstations' in Himachal Pradesh, others are Shimla and Manali. Shimla used to be the summer capital in earlier times. From Manali you can reach Rhotang pass which is more than 4000m above sea level, that's where people go to 'touch snow'. As hillstations are in the mountains, temperature are lower and people from allover India spend some 'refreshing' days in hillstations. The hailstorm we faced in Dharamsala was refreshing indeed :-)

clean up! Mumbai

The Dabbawallahs of Mumbai

Whenever I am in the office I can see this tiffin boxes at lunchtime. These lunch boxes get delivered by the famous dabbawallahs (or tiffin wallahs), a group of men collecting the lunch boxes in the suburbs and deliver them to the offices. Read more about this amazing service on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawallah.

Add's for free

While 'to google' was added to the dictionary recently, 'xerox' has been the common word for photocopies for many years.

This lunch safed my life...

South Mumbai

The world's largest gas based HBI steel plant

I just came back from Hazira, Gujarat province. I was part of the audit team of a large steel manufacturing company. The compound of the entity is huge including five modules for HBI production (capacity of 5.1 million tonnes per annum), a gas based steel plant with integrated hot rolling coil unit, a captive power plant, a seaport and a cold rolling unit. It was very fascinating to learn about steel production during a short plant visit. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take pictures. Here's an aerial overview picture from the company's website: