I guess it’s been quite some time I have written anything new. Actually, I was not able to make my mind as to what should I write till I saw a few old pics. And zooooooom, I went down the memory lane, back in 2005, when I joined Amdocs, Cyprus.
*Note - If anyone wants his/her pic to be changed, please send me the one he or she likes :)). If you want your pic to be removed, send me a message, I will remove it :(.
Here it goes like this …
I took a flight from Cyprus to Israel for a business trip of one day:). Well those were the days IT was at it’s boom, so I went just for a day to present the Detail Design ;) or may be Video-conferencing (the IN thing today) was not so popular or thought of in those days. Anyways, I got this chance, I took it. I was very excited as this was my first trip to Israel and I would get chance to meet one of my old friends from my previous company in Delhi. So I was very excited for almost everything except the Detailed Design ;), which ultimately became very exciting at the day of presentation for me as you guys will read ahead. But before I write ahead here is the pic of my friend ...
For all those who don't know; she is Rinki Maheshwari. We were together in Newgen (well there are lot's of stories to write about the happening Group of Friends we had in Newgen, but probably I will have a seperate blog for that ;)) in Delhi back in 2003-2004. She had joined amdocs, Pune and this was a coincidence that I would meet her after a year or so on this business trip to Israel as she was also on a business trip to Israel from India. So that was something really cool I was looking forward to.
Well so the day arrives, it's Thursday morning, and I was in Israel, in the office, looking to meet my teammates from Israel. Obviously I was excited, but seriously till this time I was least bothered or worried about the Detailed Design ;). I was in a different mood, enjoying my first day in Israel :) and learning hebrew :). I reached reception. There was a beautiful lady sitting there. I think I should have a taken pic of her, but it didn't click me at that time. Anyways, I get my access card and I walk ahead to meet someone I have only heard on the phone. And someone I was lookign forward to meet. And here I reach in front of the room where he was sitting. Hmmmmm. A small pause as I stand in front of the door, well there is another lady in the room as well, Maya Laxer, sitting in the left hand side of the door. And straight in front I see the person I was about to meet, none other than Yuval Shani :). I went in as he saw me and we did a handshake. A small introduction and he welcomed me. Everything seems good and I was pleased to meet my teammates. BTW for all those who don't know, I am a big fan of Yuval since Lightspeed days :) and I admire him a lot.
He walked me through the corridoor and introduced me to few other team members and showed me the room where I could sit. Well I didn't really needed a place to sit as it was only a one day trip. Anyways, I was there for sometime, before I was told that the design review meeting is about to start. Hmmmm ... and I was like ok :). Actually, before this design review meeting I had never been in a Design Review meeting and that too in Israel, so I didn't exactly knew what will happen. All I knew was that there were a few technical things written in the document which we were writing in Cyprus, and the good thing was that I had read that once before coming to Israel :)). And to be honest at that time even my know-how for handling things like projector, laptop etc. was almost Zero :)). Well there is nothing too diffcult in handling a laptop now, but if you had never ever before worked on the a lptop, especially with the ones which have a circular button in the center to manouver the mouse, and if you are on your first ever design review, for the first time in Israel, it can be a very nervous experience, if not a nervous-breakdown altogether ;). 
Anyways, I certainly didn't had the latter one:).
And till this time I had no clue how many people would be there in the meeting etc. I never bothered to think about these things so that I could be mentally prepared, but now slowly all these things started flashing in my mind once I was told that the meeting is about to begin. So I also started to remember in my mind what the hell I had written in the design for EORS, Create Case API etc. (you can ignore these technical terms ;)).
So we went in the meeting room. I took a chair and sat quitely, looking here and there and not talking too much (yes, for all those who know me personally, there are situations I have to sit quitely ;)). Soon the room started flooding with people from almost all the teams like testing, infra, other development groups, and I realized that it is not at all what I was expecting :)). The most commonly used word in the room for quite sometime I could recognize was "SHALOM :)". Well for few minutes the things continued in hebrew till the projector was being started, connecting the laptop display to the projector etc. It really felt nice to see the Word document I use to see on my 15 inch monitor screen gettng displayed on the big projector screen :). So I could see the glimpse of my name being displayed in big letters on the projector ;). Ok, so everything finally seemed to be in place and we were ready to start. And there also came six DVCI Musketeres: Rajesh Sermadurai, Ashish Bisht, Rinki Maheshwari, Ramgopal Swaminathan, Srikanth Babu & Abhishek Priyadarshi :). Well it was really nice to see them.
And then Yuval realized that they cannot continue in hebrew as I am also there along with six other DVCItes. And so he told everyone that we need to talk in English & gave my introduction to all. As he introduced me " ... Since he is here just for today, we will try to make most of his time, and we will start with his part in the design", he slided the laptop in front of me so that I could start explaining my part in the design document. Well I can never forget that moment :). The first thing that came into my mind was why do I have to present it first :), as first I had to get used to using a laptop. I was about to use a laptop for the first time in my life ... hahahahaha :)). Well but there was not time for all this as the laptop was already slided towards me and I had to somehow start using it to explain my part in the design.
Well I dragged it further closed to me to have a better look at it & started speaking something. I don't remember what I spoke, but I am sure no one laughed :)). So I am assuming I must have spoken something that made sense. Then I started to present my part of design. And the only keys I used were the arrow keys & Page Up & Page down ;). But somehow I managed it :).
And there were lot's of questions as I progressed :). There were few questions for which I didn't had answers, but I think I even said something for them :)). Actually I was so excited that words were automatically coming to me ;). Well I guess the DVCItes can better describe what was I speaking :). Anyways, things progressed fine (atleast it looked fine to me ;)) & I completed my design. Few more people presented their part and the meeting was over. I was feeling pretty happy about the day & now it was time to go out and enjoy Tel-Aviv.
But the question was what to do. I only had few hours before I had to catch my flight back to Cyprus the same night. So Rinki & I decided to have dinner in a place called "24 Shekels" at 14-16 Shocken Street. Well everything I excperienced that day was exciting as that was my first day in Israel. So we took a taxi to this restraunt & finally reached there. The palce was jam packed & there seemed to be no place at that moment where we could sit. But I was curious to see so many posters of Indian God/Goddesses. And as we stood in confusion there as to what we should do, came a girl assuring us not to go as she would definitely arrange some place for two of us.
Well that is good, I said in my mind as I was really feeling hungry. 
So finally we got a place to sit. We ordered some stuff to eat and talked for quite some time, remembering about our friends & time in Newgen. I don't exactly remember any specific topic, but it was good to talk after a gap of a year. We talked about how is it in Pune and how is the friend circle in Pune. Well the friend circle included some people I knew & some that I didn't. And the friend circle also included a very special person ;) ...
Well there will be lot more to talk about that person in my future blogs as most of my Israel trips were for meeting that person. Bhai bahut pappad bele hain & aur bahut jugad laayein hain sahi din aur sahi waqt pe Israel pahunchney ke liye ;).
I guess that was nice & kool surprise to meet one of your friends unexpected in another country. And before I move ahead above is a pic showing 24 Shekels from inside.
Hmmmm .. so that was some tasty dinner. Now it was time to go back to hotel, pack my bags and leave for the airport. On our way back, we decided not to take taxi but walk on foot. So we walked from Shocken street to Dizengoff Square :). Well I guess that was also an experience as we met so many people on our way back. Specifically one girl which stopped for a while to talk to us and also said to Rinki, that she didn't looked like Indian ;). Well I also looked at Rinki quite minutely after that. and yes she was right ;). Rinki is also better known as Chinki ;).
Finally, we reached back at the hotel and I packed my stuff, said bye to all my friends and left for the airport. I was so tired that I slept in the taxi. When I reached airport, I was questioned by Security staff. Well everything was jsut fine except that I was feeling very very sleepy. And when I was asked that when did I arrive in Israel, I went almost blank and even forgot what day it was ... hehehehe. Well not difficult to guess they made sure that wake up properly and answer all their questions with accuracy :)). Finally, after I satisfied them with my answers, I boarded the plane and slept again.
Before I end this blog here, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed being in Israel. It was an awesome first experience.
Hope you people will come back for reading next parts ...
