Today afternoon, I am leaving Chicago for the SF Bay area. My travels, which began on 11th October, are almost over. Saturday I will drive to Los Angeles and return on Monday Dec 5th. That is when I will finally be home. It’s been a very very long journey and I am aching to be back in Santa Clara. Happy travels to me!

I am leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again. Could be the words of a song When I reach Chicago tomorrow, I will write again. Until then, bye.

Greeting from Thiruvananthapuram, aka Trivandrum. I arrived here yesterday evening from Mumbai. This is the city of the famous Mahavishnu temple in South India, the Sri Anantha Padmanabhaswamy Temple. Thiruvananthapuram means “The land of Sree Anantha Padmanabhaswamy”. A few months ago, that temple’s treasures were valued at Rs 90K crores (around US $20 billion.)

I am on my way to Kolkata — the city most likely to be mispronounced in airport announcements. What’s so hard about “coal-kaa-taa”? Three simple syllables with equal stress on each. In any case, the plan is to meet people and talk about things related to India and its political future. Just BTW, for the rest of my visit, I am going to be in the following cities:

I am off to the old motherland. I will be the guest of Lufthansa flight from SFO to Frankfurt on their Airbus 380, and then on to Mumbai (on a Boeing 747, I guess.) First time on A380 — I am looking forward to it. I will catch up after I land in Mumbai on Oct 13th Thursday at 1 AM. Take care.

I am attending the “2011 Experts Meeting” of the Uberoi Foundation for Religious Studies is being held at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA (September 30th to October 2nd, 2011.) The theme is In Our Own Voices – Dharma Education in North America: “to facilitate the emergence of innovative / creative theories, approaches, methods to education / scholarship in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh Dharma traditions.” You didn’t know that I was an expert, did you? Just kidding. I have been invited only as an observer. So off to LA …

This is a personal post about where in the world I am. I am in Pune for a couple of days, and then in Nashik for the weekend. Of late, I have been traveling a lot. Last Saturday I was in Goa for six hours — landed at 1 PM and left at 7 PM. I had gone there to have a chat with Manohar Parrikar, the ex-CM of Goa. Next Saturday I will be heading off to Hyderabad for the Takshashila Foundation Roundtable. I should mention …

This is a travel alert. I am going to be in Bangalore 29th Jan through 31 Jan. On 29th Saturday, I am speaking on “Why is India poor?” between 4 and 6 PM. Venue: To be announced. After Bangalore, it will be Hyderabad. I am speaking at the Indian School of Business on the 1st of Feb. The Center for Emerging Market Studies at ISB is holding a round table discussion on “Where do new cities fit on India’s urban roadmap?” My job there is to take a wide-angle view …

I’m leaving on a jet plane. For friends and family who want to check where my flights are, go to Track Flights, and enter EK as the airline code (Emirates) and flight number 226 to Dubai. This will work only after the flight departs at 15:45 Sunday PST. Later I will take flight EK 500 from Dubai to Mumbai which departs on Monday 10:30 PM Dubai time. That flight arrives in India at 2:30 AM on Tuesday.
Modern technology is amazing.

I got here last night from Washington DC. I love being around New Brunswick, the home of Rutgers Univ. Lots of fun times and lots of heartaches. Khalil Gibran’s words best describe how I felt when I moved to California from here many years ago. “Nay not without a wound in the spirit shall I leave this city.”

Hi. Second time in Washington DC within the same month! I am meeting someone at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel — which is a stone’s throw from the White House. More about my excellent adventure in DC later.

Left Mumbai at 4:30 AM on Emirates. Now I am at Dubai after a short 3 hour flight. The next leg will be rough — 16 hours to SFO. I hate flying economy. Anyhow, I guess I will survive. Right now I am sleepy, tired, and wondering why on earth I decided to fly Emirates.

My friend Rajan Parrikar’s recent photo shoot in the Mojave Desert. He calls it Light and Shadow at the Trona Pinnacles.. “During a recent visit to Death Valley in California’s Mojave Desert, I overnighted in the desert town of Ridgecrest to shoot at the nearby Trona Pinnacles. This atmospheric locale has served as a setting for several well-known sci-fi movies and commercials. The basin with its Trona Pinnacles, the adjacent Searles Lake salt pan serviced by an unlikely railroad, and flanked by the Slate Range to the east and the …

Our journeys have a destination. But they have a starting place also.

Happy Fourth of July!
On this day in 1776 the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress which announced that the 13 American colonies were no longer part of the British Empire. That was the culmination of the American Revolution.

Hi from Edison NJ. Got here from Mumbai on Wednesday morning at 4:40 AM, nearly an hour ahead of schedule. Too damn early. I suppose if the flight was arriving at 11 PM, then it would have arrived an hour late. Natural perversity of the universe. OK, I am done with the complaining bits. Now for the good bits.

“The Economics of Urbanization” is the title of a course that I plan to teach at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, starting next week. I am looking forward to being at the ISB for the next five weeks.
The course is an exploration of the idea (related to the theme on cities and urbanization explored on this blog) that economic growth and urbanization are bidirectionally linked. I hope to argue the case for urbanization of India based on simple economics.

Good news!
“Where’s Waldo Now” has been reissued. Worth having around the house. Kids of all ages would love it.
I have copied bits from one of the reviews at Amazon below the fold.
(If you are considering a gift for me, I strongly recommend “Where’s Waldo: The Complete Collection.”)

OK, so where am I now? I am in Mumbai on my way to Hyderabad this afternoon for a meeting at the Indian School of Business. I’ll be back.

I am off to Delhi for a few days. I hope Jet Airways — the same airline that ferried me back and forth to San Francisco just a few weeks ago — gets me there from Pune uneventfully tomorrow afternoon. I am attending the 19th Skoch Summit in Delhi on 22nd and 23rd. Then I will spend the weekend with friends in Delhi and return on Republic Day, perhaps after attending the republic day parade.
I am excited about this visit to Delhi. As you know, politicians are my favorites …

So here begins a bit of travel. I will be in Mumbai tomorrow and in Hyderabad at the TiE-ISB Wednesday through Friday. Saturday 8th I will be back in good old Pune but only for a short while. Back to Mumbai on Friday the 14th of Nov and go to the US on 15th of Nov.
I expect to be in back home in the SF Bay area on the 15th itself. A couple of weeks there. Which means that I will be celebrating Thanksgiving (Nov 27th) with friends in …