Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
We@
Shapoorji Pallonji Corporate Magazine
Editorial
Hello, also got a feature on the making of The Imperial and the
challenges faced during its construction. As usual there are a
It has been a good quarter for India. The economy seems to be number of events covered in the Happenings section,
getting back on track. The growth percentages, stock prices including a report on the handover of the first lot of flats at SP
and the real estate market have all been showing positive signs. Shukhobrishti in Kolkata. Your Space features a short travel log
Hopefully, the trend will strengthen into a full fledged upward about Israel and Egypt. We hope you like it.
turn in the coming year.
We would once again request you to send in suggestions,
On the sports front, the much talked about Commonwealth articles and feedback to us to help us in our effort to constantly
Games have arrived, though there has been much left to be improve the magazine. The festival season is in its full swing;
desired in the run up to the event. Shapoorji Pallonji has also Ganeshotsav and Eid have just got over. Dussera, Diwali and
been a part of the CWG process, in a positive way, as we were Christmas are not too far away. On behalf of Shapoorji Pallonji,
involved in the upgrade and enhancement of the Jawaharlal the editorial team would like to wish each one of you peace,
Nehru Stadium. Shapoorji Pallonji has also been associated prosperity and happiness. Keep reading and contributing to
with a couple of other stadium projects – the famous Eden We@SP.
Gardens at Kolkata and the MCA Stadium near Pune. All these
stadiums have been featured in this issue of We@SP. We have - The Editorial Team
New Projects
• Design and Build Barwa City Phase 1 at Doha, Qatar for • Piling work for Raw Material Handling at Jamshedpur for
Barwa City Real Estate Co WLL. Tata Steel.
• Construction of a group Housing Project- Shillas for • Site Grading works for Asian Paints Plant Project at
Raheja Developers Pvt Ltd at Gurgaon, Haryana. Khandala, Satara, Maharashatra for Asian Paints Ltd.
• Piling and General Civil works for Lignite Based Thermal • Structural works and Flooring of Palnt Building at Ennore
Power Project at Bhavnagar, Gujarat for Bhavnagar Energy Terminal Project, Chennai for HPCL.
Company Ltd.
• Construction of World's largest Sterile manufacturing
• Construction of Five Star Hotel, Budget Hotel and Facility in the Ramky Pharma City at Visakhapatnam,
Convention Centre at Dum Dum, Kolkata for Kolkata Andhra Pradesh for Hospira Healthcare Ind. Pvt. Ltd.
Hotels Ltd.
• Civil and Structural works for Tara Aerospace Systems Ltd
• Structural Steel work for Raw Material Handling at Zone 2 facility at Hyderabad for Tata Advanced Systems Ltd.
at Jamshedpur for Tata Steel.
01
Main Feature
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi ring around the stadium to support 600 MT of cables and
castings. The entire roof structure is alive with constant
movement of various components considering that the steel
structure expands and contracts with change in temperature
and wind pressures. The steel structure is anchored on solid
foundations which consist of 272 numbers of 1500 mm dia
and 25 m depth piles. The Base Plates for each column are
fixed with a special cementatious Grout having compressive
strength of 100N/sq.mm and high tension pre-stressed
single tendon bars. The steel structure has been made with
an accuracy of ±1 mm per element.
Eden Gardens, Kolkata The major change is introduction of corporate suites for high
paying corporate customers. This would result in a decrease
the seating capacity, but increase the earnings of Cricket
A major tourist attraction, Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata
Association of Bengal. The structural steel truss and purlins
is one of the largest in the world with a seating capacity of
have also been replaced. Other works in our scope:
almost 1,00,000. built in 1840 and named after the sister of
then Governor General, Lord Auckland, it is India's oldest
• Proposed blocks “B”, “C”, “K” and “L” Foundations, all
cricket ground and home to the Bengal Cricket Team and
tiers, structural steel work, doors, windows, cladding,
IPL's Kolkata Knight Riders. The first test was played here in
railing, flooring and wall finishes, sanitary and plumbing
1934 and the first ODI match in 1987.
works.
Over the years, Eden Gardens has witnessed changes from
• Modification of public facilities in “D”, “E”, “F”, “C” and “H”
erection of new stands to installation of four gigantic
blocks :
floodlights. To keep up with new media and corporate
a) Dismantling of existing toilets and food court including
requirements in today's age of global broadcasting and
reconstruction as per new design and drawing.
sponsorship, the venerable stadium needs to be
b) Flooring, painting, doors and windows
modernised.
c) Sanitary fitting and fixtures.
The renovation and refurbishment contract was awarded to
• External Infrastructure:
SPCL in Jan 2010 with a caluse that the work would be
Peripheral roads, Surface drains, Sanitary works, Fire tank,
completed in December 2010, before the 2011 World
Water tank, Pump house and Storm water sump.
Cup. The project is challenging as work has to be carried
out amidst stoppages to accommodate cricket match
In the Pre-IPL phase, work was concentrated on
schedule.
foundations and structural works in proposed blocks “B”,
“C”, “K” and “L”. In the post IPL phase, sanitary and road
The stoppages amounted to 28 days split in:
works were also taken up to augment revenues.
• Test Match vs South Africa: 9 days • IPL3 (3 slots):19days
The contract value is Rs. 53 crores but is expected to come
down to Rs 40 crores.
-Eden Gardens Team, Kolkata
04
The Imperial, Mumbai A glance at major quantities for the making, Excavation
30,100 Cum, Cement 11,85,000 bags, Concrete 1,34,795
A Journey, It's Making & Challenges in Construction…. Cum (M50- Grade), Rebar 20,230 MT (Fe-500, CRS-
TMT), Structural Steel 2,800Mt(Rolled & Tubular sections),
When we think of challenge, we think of climbing a Shuttering 4,54,800 Sqm (Titan & Doka), Block work
mountain, but has anybody thought of building a mountain. 9,81,676 Nos (AAC Siporex), Car park screed 32,700 Sqm,
Yes this is a story a snapshot of building a mountain, a Doors (Wodden & Laminated), Windows (Heavy Sections
challenging task, a decade long struggle, rising India to new with Dupont Glass), ACP 38,700 Sqm (Imported from
height, its building the Imperial Towers (61 floors) at Tardeo, Japan), Copper wire 300 Km, Plumbing Pipes 120 Km,
Mumbai. A bench marks for Mumbai, not only Mumbai but Marble 99,500 Sqm (Imported from Italy), C P & Sanitary
a benchmark for India too. At present The Imperial is the ware (Imported from Germany & Italy), etc.
tallest occupied residential building in south Asia.
Construction of Tower started around last quarter of 2002
The Imperial project, S D Corporation is a joint venture with main entry ramp & foundation works. The 2004 mid to
between Shapoorji Pallonji Co Ltd & Dilip Thacker. It's not
end of 2005 really went dry as no much work progress was
just construction of twin towers but 14 other building for
observed, as part work was hold for clearance at hill side
slum dwellers, enhancing the development & image
management for city's view. Renowned Hafeez Contractor excavation. Majorly from 2006 the work started in full swing
is the principal architect & SPCL is the General Contractor. towards completion of structure. In Dec-2007 Tower 1
RCC structure was completed. Now at this time the interior
A quick view of what hidden inside The Imperial towers, a & services works at lower levels was also in initiated. Also
fully residential 61 storied tower, 254M (827') in height with the works for podium structure begin in early 2008. The
218 high-end flats, starting area of 1,680Sft of 2BHK to construction of podium was a huge work, as the quantity
10,800Sft 5BHK with plunge pool, podium 9 levels reserved was more than 50% of tower. The works divided in 4
for parking of 937 cars; triple height main entrance lobby & phases & phase wise work was executed. At end of 2008
landscape at 9th level, a huge clubhouse of 70,000 Sft with podium RCC was completed (The Podium RCC works was
five star amenities, top 3 floors (58, 59 & 60) are occupied executed within a period of year) & by early 2009 the tower
by pent house which is measuring almost 27,000 Sft with 2 structures was also completed. Now works for crown,
swimming pool. The top portion of tower consists of glazed external façade, interiors & services was in progress. During
crown with observation area & above is galvanized structural mid 2009 the client SDC supported by SPRE HO team
steel spire. started directly releasing drawings & decisions required for
construction & this facilitated for faster execution. All major
The Imperial has awarded as Best High-rise development & works were completed in March 2010, with occupancy
Best renovation/redevelopment project at the CNBC Asia
certificate in hand. At present customers are doing their fit-
Pacific Property Awards 2009
outs, some also have fully occupied.
SPCL Site team with Project In-Charge Mr. S. Srinivas (Standing in Centre)
The theme for the second and third day was methods,
systems, technology and resources. On the second day, Mr.
Mr. Varghese Mathew lighting the inaugural lamp S.Y.Karkhanis, VP (Pune Region) presented an overview of the
regional business to the GETs.
This year the Graduate Engineer Trainees joined the
Organisation on 1st August, 2010 and were inducted into the The third and the final theme was about career transitioning
organisation through an induction program held at Velvett from student to professional. It included speakers who had
Country Resort, Khandala. The new batch consists of 74 joined the organisation as GETs in the past. In this session, the
Graduate Engineer Trainees selected from different colleges. current GETs got many of their queries answered by the
Mr. Mukesh Rao introducing the Best Mentor- The winners from construction sector - Ahmedabad Team
Mr. Sandip Mahato (standing at extreme right)
along with the Best Presenter honour, two more special
The Project Presentation by the Graduate Engineer Trainees awards were recommended by jury members and the results
(GETs) of batch 2009-10 was held at SP Infocity, Pune on 8th & are as under:
9th Sept 2010. This year 09 teams from Construction Division • Best Presenter: Anurag Pal (Ahmedabad- Construction)
(8 representing regions + 1 representing EPC) were • Special Jury award:
competing for two prizes of best presentation. Also 03 teams 1) Azim Gunderwala (Hyderabad- Construction)
representing Real Estate Division competed for the best 2) Rajshree Sarkar ( Kolkata- Real Estate)
presentation.
In recognition of his efforts and dedication, Mr. Sandip Mahata
This year too regional eliminations were conducted (except (Sr. Manager, Process, EPC) was chosen as the Best Mentor of
for Chennai & Hyderabad region which had only one team) to the year. All prizes were given away by Mr. Cyrus Mistry on the
select the best team to represent the Regions. So out of total evening of 9th Sept. Mr. Cyrus stressed the importance of
227 GETs only 68 could make it to the finals at Pune. The learning by informing the GETs that learning has not come to
teams were allotted 45 minutes to present their understanding an end with the Graduation Ceremony but it will depend on
on the performance of and lessons learnt on assigned project the willingness of the GETs to learn from all possible sources.
before the jury of 4 senior officials- Mr. Debasis Mitra (Sr.VP. Mr. M.D.Saini, Mr. Varghese Mathew and Mr. Jayant Oswal
Operations), Mr. Kaustuv Ghosh (GM, Construction Methods also spoke on the occasion. Mr. Kaustau Ghosh shared a few
& Planning) , Mr. Prabal Kansal (Add. GM, Strategy) and Mr. words on the excellent presentation done by all the GETs on
Sohan Mohanty (Add. GM, Training & OD). Mr Jayant Oswal behalf of the jury members. The award distribution ceremony
(COO, SPRE) was on panel for the Real Estate presentations. was followed by a lively Question/ Answer session where
GET's got clarification on many of their queries right from Mr.
This time the efforts made by all the teams were highly Cyrus Mistry. The event concluded with a cocktail dinner.
commended not only by all the jury members but also by the
members of competing team. Almost every team performed -Prashanti Kutty, SP HO
over the expectations and made the platform difficult for jury
members to select the best ones. But finally, to conclude the
competition, jury members had to select the best and winners
were decided as under:
• Best Presentation (Construction)-
1) 1st Prize: Ahmedabad (TATA Nano, Sanand)
2) 2nd Prize: Hyderabad (EMAAR)
• Best Presentation (Real Estate)- 1st Prize: SP Infocity Pune
( Pune+ Chennai)
In addition to above two winning teams for construction
division, jury members did share that EPC team had also
prepared very well but lost the 2nd prize to Hyderabad team
with marginal difference.
A view of SP Shukhobrishti Mr. Rana Gupta, regional head of SPRE with the dignitaries
On the 6th of September 2010, the ceremonial handing over The proceedings began with some melodious songs by the
of keys of the first lot of apartments of SP Shukhobrishti, the famous singer of the region – Mr. Shibaji Chattopadhyay. Mr.
mass housing project of SP Real Estate, took place in New Kekoo Colah, CEO, SP Real Estate welcomed the apartment
Town, Kolkata. This lot comprised of 1,500 LIG units. This owners to their new abode and also gave assurance of the
event was covered by most electronic and print media of the finest quality and form that is associated with any Shapoorji
region. product. He also requested WBHIDCO and the Govt. of
W.Bengal to review and improve the existing communication
The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mr. Buddhadeb and infrastructure facilities of the project by including some
Bhattacharjee was the guest of honour on the occasion. He mass transit bus lines and other required services. Mr.Gautam
personally handed over the keys to seven flat owners, much to Deb said this project, besides providing affordable housing
their joy. Speaking on the occasion, Mr.Buddhadeb solution, will also create job opportunities for the local
Bhattacharjee applauded the effort of creating such low cost population. He also declared that for improving connectivity to
housing with all modern facilities and congratulated Shapoorji the project, WBHIDCO had plans to procure around 10
Pallonji on this commendable achievement. The ceremony buses.
was presided over by Mr. Gautam Deb, the Minister of
Housing & Public Health Engineering Dept., Govt. of SP Shukhobrishti is the country's largest mass housing project,
W.Bengal. In his welcome address, Mr. Saurabh Das, MD, which will have a total of 20,000 units in the LIG and MIG
WBHIDCO said that every new satellite township is segments, spread over an expanse of 150 acres of land. In
symbolized by an iconic project that defines the character of addition it will also feature various amenities such as retail
the place and expressed his belief that SP Shukhobrishti was stores, club facilities, medical centre, school etc. With more
going to be that iconic project of New Town. than 70% of the land area open to the sky, green corridors,
extensive landscaping and abundant greenery, SP
The event had a large presence of dignitaries which included Shukhobrishti is not just a beautifully executed project but an
Mr. Abdur Razzak Mollah, the Minister of Land & Land eco friendly one too. When completed, it will be home to a
Reforms, Govt. of W.Bengal, Mr. Abdus Sattar, the Minister of population of around a lakh people.
State for Minorities Development and Welfare & Madrasah
Education, Govt. of W.Bengal, and Mr.Rabindra Nath Mondal, -Ranjan Sengupta, SPRE Kolkata
Member of Legislative Assembly, W.Bengal.
Mr. Joerg Meyer and Ms. Usha Venkatesan with the students of Batch 5 & school staff
SPIAPL Team with Mr.Shapoor Mistry, Mr.Cyrus Mistry and Mr.Jimmy Parakh at the inauguration
The new office of Shapoorji Pallonji Investment Advisors Pvt. SPIAPL was set up in April 2010 for advising third party overseas
Ltd. became operational on the 30th August 2010. It is located institutional equity funds on investments into the SP Real Estate
at Mittal Court in Nariman Point at Mumbai. On the 27th projects as well as third party developer projects with the
August, 2010, a “Jashan” (Parsi religious ceremony) was objective of generating attractive returns for these investors.
conducted at the premises marking its auspicious opening. We look forward to SPIAPL establishing SP Group's strong and
The second phase of the SP Real Estate office premise became the same basic interior décor pattern as the first phase. It also
operational on 23rd of September, 2010. This phase is also includes a small cafeteria space. The new premise will
located in the B-Wing of SP Centre at Colaba and is connected presently accommodate personnel from the departments of
to the first phase. A small “Puja” was performed to mark the Legal, HR, Liasioning and Accounts. The total seating capacity
opening of the new office. This ceremony was attended by the of the SP Real Estate office has gone up to approx.90 with the
entire real estate team including the CEO - Mr.Kekoo Colah, addition of this new space.
all heads of departments and the staff. The new office follows -Saurabh Chaturvedi, SPRE HO
(Lto R) Mr. SC Dixit, Mr. MD Saini & Mr. Varghese Mathew releasing the site policy manual
A comprehensive Site Policy Manual covering all aspects of Project Management team and for the Regional Admin staff. It
statutory compliances has been prepared and formally is hoped that this document will act as a handy reference book
released by Mr. M. D. Saini & Mr. S. C. Dixit recently. The for all involved in statutory compliances.
Manual is an answer to many critical compliance issues which
are relevant for the Project Managers as well as the Admin The whole project was completed with active involvement of
Personnel. The Manual is written in a simple and non-legalistic Mr. Lalit Jaywant and Mr. Anil Deshpande.
language along with a section for FAQs. Subsequent to the
release of the Manual, Mr. Lalit Jaywant, General Manager – IR
& Admin has conducted a series of workshops for the Sr.
-Varghese Mathew, SP HO
14
Donation of Raincoats, Hyderabad
SPCL, H1 Emaar site,Gachi Bowli, Hyderabad donated 15
sets of rain coats to police personnel of Raidurg police station in
special recognition of the services rendered by this police
station.
This police station retrieved stolen material & hand tools and
resolved theft cases which had occurred at this site apart from
offering assistance in labour welfare cases. This police station
has always rendered their best services and help when ever
required, with a smiling face. On SPCL's request, they also
commenced night patrolling near the labour colony.
Flag hoisting ceremony in progress at Aga Khan Site Flag hoisting ceremony in progress at ITC Bhadrachalam Site
India's 66th Independence Day was celebrated with a lot of speeches on the freedom movement and spoke about the
vigour at various labour colonies across the Hyderabad region. great leaders of the freedom movement. They also recited
Almost 2,500 workers, their families and staff members patriotic verses and dedicated songs to these great names. It
actively took part in celebrating the day. Flag hoisting was great to see such enthusiasm and patriotic feelings
ceremonies along with distribution of sweets were carried out amongst the workers.
at most sites. Some of the workers delivered informative -Aziz Tayyaba, Hyderabad
Workers attending the program A banner at the event highlighting the ill effects of alcoholism
Alcoholism is one of the major concern areas in many The event featured a talk accompanied by a slide show
construction site labour camps. An awareness program was followed by a question answer session. Over 2000 workers
held at the TCS Pune site on the eve of Independence Day to were present and most of them actively participated. The
educate the workers about the negative effects of this habit. NGO has also offered to train SPCL staff members who are
The event was held in association with the NGO – Muktangan. interested in counseling.
In view of the above, the top management has decided to This approach means that OHSAS 18001 can be applied to
implement an Occupational Health & Safety Management any type and scale of organisation. An OHSAS 18001
System (OHSMS) in our organization. management system will mean that:
• You understand all of the hazards and consequent risks
Not only does an effective Safety Management System your organisation poses to employees and neighbours
(SMS) improve existing and establish new controls, it also • You know what you are doing to manage and reduce or
installs and drives a system of continual improvement in eliminate these risks
Occupational Health & Safety performance. • You put good Occupational Health & Safety management
into all your future plans and the heart of your business
Without a formal management system in place, issues tend
to be tackled on an ad-hoc basis or in a fire-fighting manner, MAIN REQUIREMENTS
simply attacking each issue as it arises. Similarly, simple 1) Identification of Legal Requirements
auditing of an organisation's activities, identifying its health 2) Establishing & maintaining Safety Objectives
and safety problems, and then resolving them, could well 3) Establishing & maintaing OH&S Management Programme
mean that you could come back a year later to find that all of for achieving its objectives
the problems have reappeared. 4) Emergency preparedness & response to incidents and
emergency situations
5) Establishing & maintaining procedure for defining
Management Policy Planning responsibility & authority for handling & investigation of
Reviews accidents, incidents, non-conformances & audit.
--OSHA Risk
--Legal Requirement
--Objectives Structure of OSHAS accd. to 18001
Act Plan --OH & S Programe
•How to Improve •What to do?
next time? •How to do it?
--Structure &
responsibility
--Monitoring & Check Do --Training Continual
Measurement •Did things happen •Do what was --Communication
--Non confeormance according to plan? planned --Documentation Improvement
CAPA --Document & record
--Incident & accidents control
investigations --Operational Control
Records --Emergency preparedness &
Audits Response plan OSHAS
policy
Checking & Corrective Implementation
Actions Operations Management
review
18
Focus on our group of companies
Mr. Ashok Barat takes over as the Vice President of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and
Industry
In its long history of nearly 175 years, the 143 year matured
relation of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (BCCI) with was cemented further when the latter's
Managing Director and CEO, Mr. Ashok Barat, took over as
the Vice President of the Chamber for the year 2010-2011.
Mr. Ashok Barat is also a Fellow Member of the Institute of
Chartered Accountants and a Fellow Member of the
Institute of Company Secretaries of India.
2. Euro Enviro Quiz: “Euro Enviro Quiz” for school children was At Eureka Forbes, CSR is a way of life in our policies, practices
launched in 2003. We reached 1,40,000 children in 170 and actions. We go beyond the traditional view that CSR is
schools across 12 cities. Over 5,00,000 students have been philanthropy or community involvement. We include the
exposed to this program since its inception. workplace, marketplace in addition to environment and
community and all our actions are towards becoming a Socially
3. USE Course: The USE course (Uniting to Safeguard the Responsible Corporate and a 'Friend for Life'
Environment) is specially designed for corporate employees to
understand Climate Change and Global Warming. EFIE has
conducted the USE course for Corporates like BPCL, TCS,
Deutsche Bank.
20
Your Space
The Changing Face of Online World – Emergence of Social Media Platforms
The online world is changing and it is changing fast. Till • The social media bandwagon is like riding a tiger in some
yesterday, if you had an online identity, it meant you had an ways. You cannot just get off at any point. It must be a part of
email address and if you were very tech savvy or an your everyday life in order to keep the momentum and
organization, you had a website. That was the final frontier. But attention you need for it to be successful. You cannot afford
that was yesterday…and in the digital world, yesterday means to be non responsive, inconsistent or nonexistent after a
an era long time back! while. It creates a serious negative vibe and is a wasted
effort.
Today, the website is a given, especially if you are an • There has to be a dedicated team of skilled and informed
organisation; no accolades for having one. What defines and personnel whose sole job should be to monitor the online
differentiates your online presence now, is social media. What space to create the necessary presence and to interact with
is social media? Social media means easily accessible low-cost people with respect to the concerned brand, product or
platforms that combine technology and social interaction with service.
the use of text, images, video etc. These are typically internet • You cannot just depend on social media; you must integrate
or mobile based. A few that you must have heard of and might it with other vehicles of marketing. While social media
be using are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut, MySpace and creates awareness, it will not start selling your products
YouTube. There are many more such sites and then there are tomorrow.
blogs too. • Reflect you brand's personality. There are no "right" or
"wrong" rules when it comes to social media, only
Social media, apart from helping you to connect at an individual experience can determine what will work.
and personal level with friends, family, and acquaintances gives
marketers an avenue to communicate with peers, customers Today, the social media platforms are attracting marketers due
and potential consumers. It personalizes the "brand" and helps to the sheer volume of users and the rapid growth in these
you to spread your message in a focused, relaxed and numbers. It is no longer just something that the teens use to
conversational way. The main drivers of this platform are – the interact with each other and for recreation. Social media has
desire to share and the need to communicate. Today, a large emerged as the new face of online presence, both for
number of organisations around the world are using social individuals and for organisations. Headhunters use it for
media platforms to connect with their target group. It is recruitment, companies use it for brand awareness, marketing
especially beneficial for consumer products and services, and feedback, individuals use it for connecting, recreation and
though it has its advantages in corporate or B2B segment as sharing and what drives this all is easy access to an economical
well. platform for communication. This is the future of marketing.
So what is it that social media does for organisations? Here are some numbers to give you an idea about the
• Social media can be used to provide an identity to volumes that some of these platforms command. Though US
organisations and its products or services on offer. It can still has a lion's share of these numbers, other countries
create relationships with people who might not otherwise including India are moving up in numbers rapidly.
know about the products or service or what a company
represents. • Facebook: Over 500 million active users. India has over 13
• It helps organisations reach the relevant target group at million users. Expected to triple by 2015 as per a BCG study.
practically negligible costs.
• Social media makes organisations "real & accessible" to • Twitter: Over 75 million users worldwide. India has an
consumers. It creates a feeling of association. estimated user base of over 2 million people. Signups have
• Social media can be used to communicate and provide the increased over 100% in India in 2010.
interaction that consumers and organisations look for. It
allows two way communication and feedback in real time • YouTube: Over 48 million users worldwide. Approx.13
from the target group directly. hours of video content is uploaded every minute on
YouTube.
However, care needs to be taken with social media route, if an
organisation decides to use it for marketing efforts. • Linkedin: Over 65 million users worldwide.
-Saurabh Chaturvedi, SPRE HO
21
Trip to Israel and Egypt ( A brief travel log by Sarang Tribhuvan, SP HO)
The remains of a Roman Aqueduct. The Mediterranean Sea can be seen The famous Persian Hanging Gardens located on the slope of Mount Carmel
in the background.
This is a brief account of my trip to Israel and Egypt, which I In the Holy Town of Bethlehem, we visited the Grotto of
visited in May this year with my family. The cities we covered Nativity – the place where Jesus was born. We also went to
were – Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem in the Holy Land of the place where Jesus was sentenced to death and took a
Israel and Cairo in Egypt. walking tour of the old city and his final path – Via Dolorosas.
The road is paved with cobble stones and paving stones of
There are a number of places to see in Israel. The remains of Herodian period. Later we went to Golgotha, the place where
the Roman Aqueduct on a beach along the seashore of Sharon Jesus was crucified, the Holy Sepulcher Church and the
Valley, the famous Persian Hanging Garden and the Bahia Original Tomb where Jesus was buried and had risen again on
Founders Shrine in the city of Haifa were some of the locations the third day.
we visited initially. Post that we went to the Church of
Annunciation where Archangel Gabriel had appeared to In Cairo, we visited the museum where the mummies are
Mother Mary and announced that she would bear Jesus as her kept. We also saw the famous Pyramids, though their
son. condition was quite bad. We went to Alexandria to see
Pompey's pillar and visited St. Catherine's Monastery located at
The Church of Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle the foot of the Mount Sanai, south of Cairo. This is the place
when he turned water into wine and Sea of Galille, where where Moses received the Ten Commandments. This place is
Jesus calmed the storm and walked on the water, were on our sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
itinerary later. We also visited Jordan River, the Baptism Site of
Jesus and the Church of Multiplication of Loaves & Fishes. The weather was pleasant and the trip was smooth overall,
Later, we departed for Jerusalem via Jordan Valley and visited though communication with the locals was a bit difficult in both
Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth. It is said that Dead Sea is countries as language was a barrier. However, we thoroughly
full of minerals and substances which are supposed to be good enjoyed our trip and consider ourselves privileged to be able
for skin. We all went for a swim in the Dead Sea, post which we to visit the Holy Land.
went to Jericho, the oldest city of the world.
The Sphinx at Giza Plateau near Cairo in Egypt. The statue is crumbling
today because of the wind, humidity and the smog from Cairo.
Pompey's pillar is most well known Egyptian monument in Alexandria. It was
constructed by King Theodosius to celebrate the Christianity's victory over Paganism. 22
Unwind
3. GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS - Spends lots of 13. EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD JUDGEMENT - Lucky
time on phone
14. KEEN SENSE OF HUMOUR - Knows a lot of dirty
4. WORK IS FIRST PRIORITY - Too ugly to get a date jokes
6. INDEPENDENT WORKER - Nobody knows what 16. LOYAL - Can't get a job anywhere else
he/she does
17. PLANS FOR PROMOTIONS / ADVANCEMENT
7. QUICK THINKING - Offers plausible excuses Buys drinks for all the boys
8. CAREFUL THINKER - Won't make a decision 18. OF GREAT VALUE TO THE ORGANISATION - Gets
to work on time
9. USES LOGIC ON DIFFICULT JOBS - Gets someone
else to do it 19. RELAXED ATTITUDE - Sleeps at desk
Editorial Team
Designed and Printed by 3BF
S. P. Bagli
Mukesh Rao
41/44, Minoo Desai Marg, Colaba, Mumbai 400 005. Prabal Kansal
Tel:+91 22 6749 0000 • Fax:+91 22 6633 8176 Saurabh Chaturvedi
Email: we@shapoorji.com Prashanti Kutty
Disclaimer: We@SP is for private circulation only. The views and opinions expressed or implied herein are of the contributors and may not necessarily reflect those of SPCL.
Material in this publication should not be reproduced, in part or in whole, without the consent of the editorial team.