Mumbai - Mumbai - Mumbai

Greetings from the monsoony Mumbai! Here's the forecast for the next couple of days - not surprisingly, there are thunderstorms. Yup, the Mumbai monsoon!

Russia Visa: Mission Accomplished!

Yup. I submitted my application today at the Russian consulate here in Mumbai, and my application was approved almost instantly!! Yaaay! My long wait of about a year and half finally paid off and I'm planning to visit Russia sometime this fall.

More news, perhaps even photos, to follow.


Pssssst! I'm in India right now and havin' an awesome time!

"You o'right?" from London!!

I made a (surprising) stop at London on my way to Mumbai. I stayed over there for one day - I made a blitz trip all over London. I loved the city and it's building. I snapped over 500 photos in 1 day. Here are some of the photos from my Facebook album. Enjoy! I will post some full-resolution photos and, if possible, the story here. Until then, enjoy the photos....

Album 1: London

http://umd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2168981&l=7fb65&id=5734033

Album 2: London - More of it...

http://umd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2168984&l=56a43&id=5734033

Album 3: London - Oh Man, even more photos!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2169260&l=abec5&id=5734033

Peace!

Vacationing in India...

Yo! I'm off to India for a 2 week vacation. I'm really looking forward catching up with people and spending some chill time over there. I will try to post some photos and stories from Mumbai here, IF I get a chance.

Visiting South Africa...

Hello! One more travel update - I'm visiting South Africa. Yes, it is super exciting SA! This will be my first ever visit to the Southern Hemisphere.

Here's the story:

In my line of work, I develop web-based geographic/spatial information systems for conservation, environmental protection, etc. Cutting out the boring stuff, I recently developed a global alerting systems for wild fires and it became, well, wildly popular. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Meraka Institute in South Africa wanted to employ my alerting system for their purposes and asked us to customize our system for them. Now the system is ready, and they invited me to South Africa and sponsored my trip there! The purpose of the trip is to help them install the system and train the folks out there on it. Plus, there will be a good opportunity to share research knowledge from both sides. So, it should be fantastic.

I got my South African visa yesterday. And yes, the visa process to SA is not as crazy as the Russian visa - I just had to go downtown DC and give my passport to the embassy. My visa was ready in 3 days! What a relief! Any lessons learned, Russia? No? OK, I thought so!)

I will be flying to Johannesburg and from there visiting the CSIR-Meraka campus in Pretoria! I will definitely post the stories and photos from that wonderful country! Stay tuned, as always!

Another nice birthday present...

While the wonderful greetings from friends, colleagues, and family made my day on my birthday, I was pleasantly surprised in totally different way.

Last month, we wrote a paper and submitted to the Free and Open Source Software for GeoSpatial 2007 to be held in Victoria, British Columbia, up in the Canadian land. They emailed their decision on July 15 - my birthday - and our paper was accepted! What a fantastic news to add up to the joy of the day!

This selection was special because the conference used a public voting system to choose what presentation they should accept. People can give a score on scaled of 0-2 (0 - not interested, 1 - somewhat interested, and 2 - VERY interested and won't miss this). The sheer fact that my paper appealed to the public is plain thrilling!

So, I will be heading up there to "Canadia" to present my research and this conference is one of the top-notch spots to present my research! Cool, no?

A year older now...

Yes, I celebrated my birthday yesterday, July 15. I had a small gathering of my colleagues and friends at my new apartment. It was such a great evening. It got even better with friends and family calling me all day wishing me. Man, it was one of the best birthdays I had!

Thank you for all your wishes! I truly appreciate it!

PS: I initially planned to write a philosophical piece on how many lessons I learned during last year. Could this itself be a sign that I'm getting older? HAHAHA : )

Fourth of July

Fourth of July is Independence Day here in the USA. Here are some of the photos / videos from the Barbecue parties and fireworks at the National Mall in Washington DC.

Photos:

More Photos:

Check out more photos on my Facebook album http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2163558&l=280c2&id=5734033

Videos:

Part I : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfUzr20Jobc
Part II : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOkxCMZwBuc
Part III : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIqeo7emM3A
Part IV : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfoLJNJWJco

Ahh, the Приглашение, finally!

So, finally, my Приглашение, or invitation, to visit Russia has finally arrived. As you can imagine, this will a HUGE step in my Ruski travel saga! Just to make this fool proof, my friend Sasha has arranged for two kinds of Приглашение - 1. Personal Invitation and 2. Tourist Voucher from a tourist company. Ain't that awesome??!! I'm totally lucky to have friends like these! So, I'm forwarding the Russo-Travelo-Meter to 75%. The only major thing remaining is actually obtaining the visa when I visit India in the end of this month. So, yes, I am VERY excited about this! Hurrahhhh - Урааааааа!

Update: Russo-Travelo-Meters at 60% !

Yup!! I just received an update today, and the papers I require to file at the embassy in India are all done and ready - and are on the way from St. Petersburg to DC! I should have another update in about a couple of days, and that'll be when I receive the papers. Super cool...I'm excited!