Saturday, October 13, 2007

Where is Arvi - in Belgium for few months


Many of you know this by now, but for those whom I might have missed talking to or emailing (Sorry - its been a few hectic weeks!), Monami and I have just moved to Brussels, Belgium for a few months. I will be helping support the growth of the European business with their go-forward plan and helping empower and groom an extended leadership team to help Philippe, the regional director there.

I will still be involved with the APAC business management, albeit not on a day to day basis. I'm not worried since we now have a capable and mature extended leadership team in place in Bangalore that is doing a terrific job in my absence.

The move has been extremely hectic and stressful for Monami and I, literally turning our lives upside down over the space of a month. As I was tied down end of Q3 work and Q4 planning (sigh!), she had to handle most of the coordination needed with putting our stuff into storage (Narayani packers were excellent!), closing out utilities, rental leases, and the zillion other things needed for an international move. We've received tremendous assistance from our friends, family and colleagues without whom this would not have been possible.

And so, we got here on Oct 7th, just a day ahead of my birthday and quickly got busy getting setup at the service apartment we are staying at (click here for address on Google Maps for sending us post cards ;-))



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The perk of this temporary move will be the opportunity for us to get around and visit nearby places in Europe since Paris, Amsterdam, Florence and other lovely cities are just a few hours away by train. However, the trip is by no means a European holiday for me, as there's a lot of work to be done and the weeks have already been quite hectic. Monami continues to work her same job, interacting with her team remotely from the apartment. In her spare time, she hopes to join French classes and immerse herself in comic and graphic novels (Belgium has been home to some of the world's best comic artists). I've brought my tennis racket along, but I'm not too sure yet if I'll actually get around to playing.. but then, who knows?

And so, we are off to another brief adventure... If you are in Europe in the next few months, please give us a shout!





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