Made a trip to Germany for ten days last month. Got tied up with work on my return and never did get around to writing about it at all.

Visited Interzum (interior products and services fair) in Cologne and Ligna (for the wood industry) at Hanover. Both were huge – the latter needed bus routes inside the grounds! Finally went to Wismar on the Baltic coast to visit a factory that manufactures OSB. It’s a material that should do well in India provided the price is right. The only city I didn’t like was Frankfurt. Dirty, crass and very very cold (not the temperature – I sweated there).

Had a fairly good (if hectic) time and saw a new country. Was very impressed by the public transport systems and the fact that people went out of their way to be helpful.

The French could learn a thing or two about how to treat tourists…

Was in Rajkot from 16-18 June and quite disappointed with the architecture – or lack of it. Expected to see beautiful Havelis and old style houses but my hopes were dashed on the concrete boxes that have sprung up like weeds in an unkempt garden.

On a single trip to the town of Wankaner I didn’t get an opportunity to visit the old Palace – it was undergoing repairs for the damage suffered during the terrible earthquake of 26 January 2001 – our first Republic Day in the new millennium. I’m talking about the real start of the 21st century and not Y2K. I hope there isn’t still some confusion about that!

On a personal note, I took the monsoon there with me. It poured cats and dogs (and fish and frogs) in Rajkot – an area that suffers from almost perennial drought. I hadn’t even carried an umbrella and I encountered low-level flooding on the streets!