Ramblings from my wandering mind....

Technology and me

2010-09-01T21:51:00.008+05:30

A very good friend of mine is in depression – why? Because she lost her blackberry! According to her “she feels as if her arms are cut”. I know I am like that too. I need my cell phone around me. It gives me a sense of security knowing that I can reach anyone anywhere and anyone can reach me anywhere. And I love phones with email and internet options as well. In my opinion technology has made communication so simple that there is simply no excuse for not communicating – unless obviously you don’t want to. But then I love technology – laptops, GPS, high end phones, iPods all of that is like music to my ears. My car for example has an iPod connector, a really cool Bluetooth, rear parking sensors – basically the works!

I sometimes wonder what we did when we didn’t have cell phones and such an easy access to the internet. How did we search for stuff before “Google” arrived? I cannot even remember!

But I also know people who hate technology. They believe that technology has somehow replaced human touch. A for example reminisces about the days where hand written letters were the common mode of communication. He hates using the GPS; getting lost and asking the way by stopping at garages is a more fun way to get around for him. And he hates cell phones – he believes that cell phones have taken away his privacy from him. He now is forced to communicate even when he doesn’t want to. He has a point – but still my counter argument to that is that you don’t need to wait forever to get a letter; an email takes second! And its seriously not safe to get lost here – GPS is safer! And you can always shut your phone off if you don’t want to answer it

Now where is this technology thought coming from – the place I work at! Some of the people are so technologically backward that sometimes they will print a document, proof-read it and then change it!!! I was amused, amazed and shocked all at once when that happened. The sad part of it all is that they are happy to do nothing about it. I truly believe that you will get lost and left behind if you do not embrace technology. What do you think??

...

2010-07-03T00:18:00.001+05:30

So I have started working. Yesterday was my first day at work after what seems ages, but actually only just a little more than a year. I have learnt quite a bit in the last one year, being out of my comfort zone that is….

• Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a control freak I like to know that I am in control of my life and have planned everything to the T. Hence the last year was more difficult for me than it should have been. Every time I planned on what I would next, something truly unexpected would happen and spoil all my plans… I realised that life cannot be planned and sometimes you really do need to go with the flow….Life would probably surprise you and throw back something really nice at you…if not - convince yourself that everything happens for the best :-)

• Work is important. But not everything in life. Once you stop doing the thing that occupied your most part of your waking day, you realise you have hidden hobbies and talents… I reconnected with photography and took on gardening…

• It’s a choice that you make to be happy or sad with your situation. I always thought you needed to be content to be happy; and to be content you needed to attain nirvana. I guess that’s not necessarily true. You might not be content or satisfied with your situation in life. But you can be happy in the moment and know that you are doing your best to change things. That’s all that you can do.

• I remember at B-school someone once gave a famous quote for us to ponder upon “Even this will pass”. I truly appreciated the meaning of the phrase now. Whatever that we go through as emotions – whether it be good or bad, they all change. And what seems eternally linked to our happiness seems “not that important” once we achieve it. We always want more. I am not saying it’s bad to want more. I feel it’s essential to want more to develop. I guess the key is not to give it more importance than it deserves!

• I learnt to be on a budget. I realised the value of saving! And that’s something I didn’t learn in years! A has been sweet about and never refuses anything. However, it’s different blowing up your own money vis-vis someone else’s, even if that’s your husband. I actually started to think of all the productive things I could have put the money I spent on shoes and clothes I hardly ever wore. Its an important lesson and I hope to remember it when I want to do impulse shopping!

I guess it’s been sort of a heavy one…

On a lighter note... I also learnt to drive and now am driving to work… ok correction it’s the first day of driving alone with hubby dearest following me in the car for moral support and to make sure that I reach safe. The true test will be from the coming week when it will be just me and my car.. on an after thought and another million crazy people trying to get to work!

Cars, lights and all that in between

2010-02-09T00:58:00.002+05:30

Two blogs in a row.. Its some sort of a record for me… But this something which I have noticed over the last 8months I have been here and especially noticed on the trip and wanted to share it. Simply because I find it amusing and very polite at the same time

After being on the Indian roads, Jo’burg traffic to me is very nice. But ask the locals here and they can go on and on for hours about the supposed traffic and rude drivers. I don’t really find them rude, just that if you drive outside of the city, they actually have conversations through their headlights/ flash lights and indicators.

Here go some pointers for anyone wanting to be polite or simply make sense of what’s happening on the roads:

-If you give way to someone they thank you by flashing their emergency lights. You say welcome by flashing an indicator light

-If the driver from the opposite side flash lights when he comes close to you, it means that there could be cops ahead and you should adhere to speed limits

-If the driver behind you flash headlights, it means he is in a hurry and you need to give him way

-If it’s a 4- way stop sign, there is bound to be confusion on who goes first, you show a thumbs-up sign to signal to the driver that he can go first. They actually allow people to go first!!

I am sure there are more that I am missing. I will add them along the way. The thing is in India we just honk, And giving way is almost unthinkable so there is no need to go beyond honking. Why waste precious mind- space to remember all this!!!

1717 kms in 4 days….. phew!

2010-02-07T22:05:00.005+05:30

Not that I am complaining. I did what I love to do – travel, see new things, take a zillion pictures and be driven around. I pity A though, since he did most of the driving!

A had been promising me a vacation for sometime now. It was part of the “you will begin to like SA campaign”! Anyways, we decided to head to what is called the Panorama route. It is in the North-east part of the country and was truly panoramic

Our holiday started off by driving A’s parents, who were back from their vacation in India to their house. His dad was amused and surprised that we had just a “general idea” of the route and no map to guide us. The thing is A hates technology of any kind. Tom-Toms are not his kind of a thing. I on the other hand love technology and hate maps and old fashioned methods of asking around. But since the driver was convinced that we would find our way, who was I to argue! A’s dad knowing fully well that we would get lost gave us his 20 year old map as our guide.

DAY I: We started off from A’s parent’s place bidding farewell to A’s parents and Kiwi ( our puppy), with our head full of Do’s and Don’t from them. Our first stop was Echo Caves. Echo Caves were formed by the erosion of the rocks by a river centuries ago. It was nice to see the different shapes that were made by nature. It was a good exercise too – climbing steps, crawling and sliding down. I realized how fit/ unfit I was! From there we headed to a little town called Pilgrim’s rest. The town is preserved as a old English town and is a world heritage site. We were transported back to the days of horse carriages and small quaint shops. It reminded me a bit of Goa. It was a nice feeling to be able to walk on the roads without feeling insecure or weird. We spent some time roaming around the street and then left for Hazy view where our resort was. The drive was just breathtaking. I think I made A stop every 15 minutes to take pictures. It was a completely different view of SA. The landscape reminded of north of Sweden. The hills were green with pine trees and because its summers the grass was green. We finally reached the resort way past 8 pm and all I wanted to do was crash. Now the resort is another story.

I believe in budget travel. It includes staying at B&Bs and hostels. Where as my dear husband believes in staying in nice (read expensive) places. I do not see the logic of spending money on a place where you would only go to sleep. I would rather spend that money on something else during the holiday. So A and I came to a compromise that if he could find me a nice place which costed only marginally more than my B&B would I stay there. And he did! He pulled some strings and got us some fabulous B&B prices for a 5 star resort. Was I impressed or what. Some benefit of getting married to an hotelier! Needless to say that the resort was just beautiful with its own crocs and hippos. And I realized the difference between a good hotel and a B&B when I managed to find a US adapter for my camera battery to be charged. A was amused at my reaction and I think secretly gloating with the “I told you so”.

DAY 2: Back to the trip now. We started our day by taking a nice hour long walk around the resort and then headed out to see some places. Now like I said before we didn’t have a real route map but just a general idea. And hence thanks to A not listening to my intuition we drove 300 kms for something which was just 70 km away. But no complaints as I got to see some spectacular scenery and click some more pictures! Plus I also made a “boo-boo” with some planning. A really wanted to go boating in the Blyde canyon river and I went by the directions to the canyon itself. The two are separate and more than a 100 km apart and were on the way that we got lost!... Since we already left it more than a 150 km away there was no way of doing it that day. We saw the three Rondawels. They are basically three hill tops in the shape of three African huts. But the view of the canyon from there is just marvelous. We spent a long time there, just enjoying the beauty and the calm that came along with it. I think I took pictures in every possible angle and A got involved as well. The next stop was the Portholes. They were created centuries ago by erosion of the rocks by water. From there we headed to the Lisbon falls. The whole panorama route is full of such waterfalls. And though they are not majestic, they are charming. We also managed to see the view from God’s Window and the wonder view. At the risk of repeating myself the view was to die for. I haven’t ever been that shutter happy for a long time and I loved every minute of it.

Day 3: Was reserved for Kruger. It’s the national reserve which is bigger than the state of Kerala and shares borders with Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Its not possible to complete seeing Kruger in one day. Tourist and nature enthusiasts stay at the Kruger for days to observe animals. There are options of going on private game drives where you are guaranteed to see the big five. However, we decided against it since we wanted to experience the Kruger on our own. Plus I knew I would visit the Kruger again so seeing all the big five in this one trip was not a priority. We did manage to see a lot of animals and two of the big five. A lot of the times I forgot that the animals that we were seeing from such a close distance were actually wild and could be dangerous. But the adventure was outside of Kruger. We got out of one of the gates of Kruger and need to travel around 90 km back to our resort. Now it was dark and we needed to cross of townships. Its not the wisest and the safest of things to do, but I wasn’t really worried, until my dear husband mentioned that he didn’t feel comfortable with the car in front of us and was scared of hijacking. That was it.. I was nervous and fidgety for the next one hour and had a sigh of relief when we reached the resort. So much for A knowing me and my sense of paranoia well!!

Day 4: We originally decided to stay for 5 days. But by day 4 we though we were having fun, we were also missing Kiwi terribly, and bugging A’s parents with daily reports on Kiwi. I am sure they thought I was obsessive! We decided to cut short on day 5 and head back home after doing the things we were meant to do. Our first stop for the day was Mac-Mac falls. Again a very charming waterfall. But I liked the old ladies who were selling curios more. A showed me some of his bargaining skills and charmed an old lady for selling us some stuff for a steal... Happy from all the shopping we did, we needed to rush to the Blyde river for the boating we missed out on earlier. I could see clouds gathering up on the horizon and hoped and prayed that the rain gods would stay away for one more day. And in case I forgot to mention, we did a detour of another 150 km just to get there. Was it worth it?? Well both of us were a little disappointed and thought the boat ride would be much more than the guide chattering away non-stop. But then the way I see it, we would have thought about it with regret if we didn’t see it. From there we headed back on a long journey home, which became even longer since we decided to go the safer way and not take any short cuts due to “safety” reasons.

I for one was dreaming of some nice home cooked food after eating 4 days of pure junk. And yes I think we both dreamt of Kiwi and smiled through the long journey home. And boy were we welcomed. Little Kiwi went crazy and didn’t leave us for the next couple of hours. One day less was completely worth seeing that reaction :-)

Tips for the panorama route:

- Research the hotel to book. Ensure its not out of the main route and lonely
- Do a private game drive for Kruger if you are in SA for a holiday. If not enjoy it the old fashioned way.
- Boating on Blyde is possible only through one resort called Forever Resorts. You need to book in advance.
- Get a map!

T.I.A

2009-10-10T13:33:00.002+05:30

I know I promised to write about Africa/ Jo’burg a long time ago. I guess my mind has been pre-occupied with stuff and just couldn’t get down to writing. I’ve had a series of weird things happening to me in the past couple of months. First the terrible, unexplainable backache, and when that got better a sprain in the neck mixed with a fainting spell and then a couple of days back a weird dislocation in the jaw. Let’s just say that I’ve been keeping the doctors happy! They say that everything bad happens in threes. I hope this is the end of bad stuff and the beginning of good things… Do good things also happen in threes?

Back to the blog. South Africa (SA) is similar to India in a lot of ways. They have the same sense of diversity with a lot of national languages which make English the most commonly spoken language. They wear a lot of color and thank God for that. I was dreading this would be the repeat of black, white and grey of Sweden. And there is as much noise and chatter in a public place. The economic disparity among people is also present. There is a super-rich class, rich, middle and then the poor class.

But there is a lot that we take for granted in India, which you cannot even dream of doing here. Walking on the road for instance is almost unthinkable here. Try and imagine not being able to walk for even the shortest distances. Here if you go for an evening walk on the road, you can be sure some people looking back from their cars and wondering if you are crazy. Imagine living in a place with alarmed response security, electric-fenced gates and security guards and still looking over your shoulder to make sure all is ok. People tell me that one gets used to it. But as of now, I feel as if I am caged. My day-dreaming while walking days are over for sure :-(…..

It’s been 15 years since apartheid ended, yet they have black areas and white areas. And for some strange reason the visual difference is stark. Not just that, even the new developments end up having the un-official tag of “white” and black areas. The real estate prices also vary depending on this tag. I wonder who is to blame now.

In India the necessities are cheaper than luxury items. You don’t need to shell out a lot of money for education, doctors, medicines etc. However it’s quite the opposite here. Diamonds go on a discount, BMWs and mercs are the order of the day and yet good private education and good doctors can wipe your savings account out!!

The “under-privileged” here are given free houses, water, electricity and education. They get sponsored by companies to study if they wish to. They also get reservations for jobs. All they need to do is study and they almost never do that. They don’t mind resorting to theft of all sorts to get what they what. But never do they put the same effort to try and get a decent education.

The difference between India and this place is that in India each generation learnt from mistakes of their parents and did better. Here they never learn and end up repeating the same old mistakes. That’s the reason why you here you would find a teenage mother whose parents dies of AIDS. That’s probably the reason why the country is far from progressing. You have the infrastructure here but no will to do anything. No wonder my husband’s reply to my amazement is always T.I.A.

Something to remember when travelling to SA

- Robots mean traffic lights. I wonder what in a traffic light resembles a robot.
- Garage is a petrol station. I remember an Indian travelling here told me she hunted for a garage for an hour before realizing what it means here :-)
- “Shap Shap” means ok.. I wonder in which of the 12 languages though
- Always start a conversation with anyone you meet with a “ How are u doing?” no matter how artificial. I still haven’t mastered that art and get the dirty glares from A :-)
- Never ever hitch hike and I mean Never

Out of my comfort zone

2009-06-24T20:22:00.002+05:30

The title is from the book of a cricketer I really admire. It’s the first thing that came to my mind when I thought of writing – perfectly describes what I am going through right now. I got here a month back and thought of taking time to settle down before writing about it…however, settling down is taking more time than usual, so here goes…

What does one think of, when you first say Africa – Wildlife, forests, wilderness, etc etc. Well Johannesburg at least is very different from all that – it’s a city alright (for the benefit of all my friends who thought I was going to live in a jungle resort). The infrastructure is like any developed country – wide roads (though they still have traffic jams), huge shopping malls, clean surroundings (at least the places I have been to). Basically all of the infrastructure woes we suffer from in India are taken care of. I, however am taking time to settle down.

I strongly believe that for us to grow as people, we all need to experience new things, be in new situations and meet new people. And because of this belief, I have never shied away from anything that’s new. This time around, I am truly out of my comfort zone. I don’t remember the person I was before I started working. Work, for me was my security blanket. It was there in my happiest times and there for me in my lowest hours. I counted on work to keep me going for the longest. So not working is taking time to sink in. The idea of not working was appealing. But now being officially unemployed for over two months and not seeing any work in the line of sight scares me crazy sometimes. I have hated being dependent on anyone for travel. I never needed to learn to drive in India since I love walking on the streets, and taking ricks. In Sweden, I could take a bus and walk. Here however, walking on the streets is a strict no-no and with no safe public transport to speak of, maybe its time to start driving. I never picturized myself as a typical “house-wife”. And that’s exactly what I am now. I cook, I clean… I take care of the house…

Let me be honest here…I don’t really have any right to crib…I am really lucky to be married to a really nice guy… A loves cleaning the place and does more than his share of the work… I am very lucky that way… A irons clothes, cleans the place since I am allergic to dust and washes up the dishes too!! He is extremely patient when I hyperventilate about finding work, or go paranoid about vegetating at home, and drives me around anywhere I want to go without a murmur…What more could a girl ask for :-)…I still feel unsettled….I guess some people (read me) are never satisfied and want it all!! Maybe this experience will ease out the control freak in me and I will learn to take life as it comes… I just hope this lesson in life is a small one and doesn't extend beyond my patience level :-)

PS: I realized that I haven’t written much about Jo’burg and my impressions of this place… I promise to do so in my next blog…

From a long time ago….

2009-04-29T18:03:00.003+05:30

I was sorting out my stuff at home today and came across some stuff I had written when I was 15/16… just thought of putting it up here….

Life according to me…
It seems like a deep ocean, so deep and vast, with mysteries of its own. I know not what lies in store for me. Its like a challenge which I would love to accept. Its like a dream that I would wish for, to come true and joy I would love to share. To me its been both good and bad and at 16 I have so much more to see. Life is full of surprises; some good, some bad. To me, life is calm, quiet, deep, on the move and so very mysterious.
----------
Curious are his ways
Curious are his ways – the one who is above us all, and whose puppets we are. He sometimes gives us joy, much more than we can handle and then suddenly puts us to test by giving us all the sorrows of the world. He makes some so rich that they don’t have account of their money and some so poor that they do not have any money to keep account of. Sometimes we feel that he has spoilt our lives, and then by the same bad things we are saved from the worst of worst. He knows us in and out and knows our every need. But still many of them remain unfulfilled. Yet we call him God – the one who loves us all!! He wishes for us to pray for favours and thank him for all that he has does for us. So isn’t it recognition that he wants? Isn’t he as human as us?? That’s why I say… curious are his ways
-------------------
The Journey
Life, as someone said, is a road. It can be rough, it can be smooth. Its both – at different times. The journey that we make, we make all alone. We do have company for short periods though – families and friends are just part of this journey. Its us, who actually faces the sorrows and the joys, all alone. Its is alone that we need to cross the hurdles of this difficult yet beautiful road. People come and people go. Our lives may be affected by them, but nothing changes us completely. It is finally us who make all our choices our self, not making a choice is choice too. It is us who face the consequences and us who finally live through the choices we make. So lets break the shackles created by others and finally learn to live life the way we want to live it. Listen to others, but take your own decisions – good or bad. After all, even if it’s a bad choice, its your choice! Remember this journey that we make, we make all alone…

Its that time again…

2009-04-13T10:52:00.000+05:30

…when I need to pack up from the place I am comfortable with and know too well and move to a completely new place that I know nothing of. I should be a pro at it by now. I have never lived in any place beyond 3 years, and the record still stands

My biggest fear is being stuck in a place too long. I do not understand phrases like “settle down” or “permanently move” someplace. Even now when I am asked if I am moving for good, my answer is 3-4 years and not more. No matter how good any city is, beyond a point I want a change. I love change... I thrive on change. For me the more different the place is and newer the people, the better it is. It’s the sense of adventure in a new place that keeps me going.

I have always believed that distances do not spoil friendships… almost all of my close friends do not live in the same city as me, and yet I remain the closest with them. I haven’t seen one of my best-friends in years and we still seem to have loads to talk about every time we talk…So change of place never bothered me…

Why is it then, that it’s hitting me much more now? Why is there this sad, unexplainable feeling I am going through right now? A feeling that things will change and I will never be the same again… or that all the relationships I share with my friends will change forever… And while I say my good byes to friends, colleagues, acquaintances in this last week here, I feel sad, scared and I wonder whether all will be same again…Whether I will meet these people again… Whether we will still share the connection we share right now… I wonder how will I be able to pack so many memories – the good and the bad s in one tiny suitcase and take it with me to an unknown land….

This is not the me I know… I am known to be stone hearted… I never feel bad, I never cry… and I for sure never wonder about change…Don’t know if it’s a late reaction to shaadi… or my true Taurean self has finally emerged and the thought of change is scaring me…whatever it is… just want my friends to know that this one post is dedicated to you all… I am bad at expressing emotions and hence this post …Thanks a ton for being there through thick and thin and never ever giving up on me….I love you guys and will miss you lots and I hope once again that things don’t change……

The Great Indian Tamasha

2009-03-25T17:29:00.001+05:30

Various news channels have given various names for the count down to the elections. I choose to call it this….
Politicians amuse me :-)…I think they are better than any reality, or saas bahu show coming on the idiot box… Think about it, which reality show will give you as much entertainment? And as the elections come closer I think they are loosing whatever little sense they had.
So now we have vague/ weird polictical parties who have no ideology in common (if they know what it means) coming together and making the 3rd , 4th or is it the umpteenth front. I somehow do not understand the point of all these fronts being formed. Even if they come to power, they never seem to last beyond say 6 months. Didn’t we all see it during the VP Singh, Deve Gowda and God knows who time… Ahh I understand – they want their names in the list of prime ministers, even if it be for a few days… I pity school children though. The poor things need to cram the whole list.
Then we have some politicians whose only claim to fame is inflammatory speeches against different communities, threatening police officers for doing their job or banning Valentines Day and attacking women as if these were the priority problems that India had – whatever gets publicity right!
We also have betrayals and all of the “you stabbed my back” drama as well. Parties moving out of coalitions, friends turning foes. Not just that, they also call each other names. I wonder how opinion changes so soon, especially when the same political party formed the crux of their coalition. Its amazing to see the so called leaders of our country bargain for seats to contest in the elections. Its almost as if they are bargaining for vegetables with a local vendor.
I wonder where people like Mr. Nehru, Mr. Patel etc have disappeared.. I wonder how these idiots have come to rule our country… I wonder whether the jaago re, lead India sort of campaigns will work and our educated class along with the “youngistan” will vote…. I wonder whether the votes will actually make a difference since it’s a case of one worse than the other…

12 hours of music and much more

2009-02-24T11:13:00.002+05:30

What started out as a quest to experience something new, ended up being a magical night that I would remember for a long long time. The heady cocktail of different kinds of music, the ambience and the crowd is nothing short of being unforgettable.

The all night music festival is an annual event conducted by fire flies international. They have a theme every year and this year’s was, working towards a greener planet. I thought the idea of reaching out to the youngsters for a much greater cause, in a language they would understand was just brilliant. The event is conducted every year at the fire flies ashram. The ashram is in a village far away from the city, which helps retreat from all the harsh realities of the world to touch something much deeper in your soul….

An old banyan tree was the focal point of all the “happenings” of the night. And it glowed with all the attention it so aptly received. It was surrounded by an amphitheatre with sitting of not so even, unpolished stone - it just added to the beauty of the place. We were welcomed with some classical Kannada music which I couldn’t understand. To be honest I didn’t listen to much of it, since we were busy hunting for a place to plonk ourselves for the evening. We finally found a place from where the view of the stage was good after some five shifts. We decided that all of us would just be content with what we had rather than move around anymore. The decision came at a right time, since next on the list was a classical performance with a twist.

The group incorporated an Indonesian instrument called the Angklung. It’s made of bamboo and needs to be played with two other bamboo sticks. It was nice to see the use of this Indonesian instrument with pure Indian classical music. In fact, most of the night was confluence diverse cultures in the form of their music, whether it be this classical piece, or the dohas from Kabir so beautifully put together in Sufi music by Shabnam Virmani or the folk rock by Swaratma.

Swaratma… hmmm.. they took like a good 30 minutes to set up their system with constant request to someone called Dinkar to “up”or “down” or “cut out” either the violin or the guitar. They were a crazily dressed bunch though, completely living up to their “rock band” image. They sang in hindi and mixed some nice messages with rock music. My friend tells me, they sang the same songs last year too.. a tad disappointing for her, but not for me…

Shabnam Virmani is someone who I will not be able to forget in a long time. She mesmerized the audience with her voice and her compositions of the dohas. You could make out that she was a favourite by gauging the reaction of the audience. Her connect to the audience was brilliant and what helped even more was her explanation of the dohas.

How can I not mention this person called Prakash Sontakke. His group played fusion music with the Hawaiian guitar, tabla, mridangam and the drums coming together to create music. What struck all of us however was his attitude. He started of playing this beautiful piece of music and when the audience applauded said that it was played to show he was tired!! His one-liners mixed with dry wit and sarcasm were amazing, not to mention his almost pleading the audience to send some pictures of the performance to his email id. I am sure all of us remember the id even now.
I also heard this highly enthusiastic and energetic group from Kerala perform. They are supposed to be India’s only bamboo band. Their enthusiasm got the already “high on music and ….” crowd to its feet, despite none of us understanding what they were singing.

A group of just singers came on the stage. The highlight of that group was this one guy who would take out drum beats from his mouth. So they had no musical instruments but some amazing song and music. After initially booing down the group since it had softer music, the crowd begged for more from that one guy. He actually played out a DJ mix without any instrument. Some effort that would be!!

Speaking of the crowd, I was impressed by the younger Bangaloreans wanting to hear anything other that club music. The place was crowded with people prepared for an all nighter. I saw people who’d come with pillows, mattresses, sheets, blankets and even emergency lights!! And for some the motivation was alcohol and cigarettes. We had these two guys sitting in front of us well stocked with whiskey, soda, water and a never ending supply of cigarettes. One of them didn’t move an inch through the night :-)

Coming back to music, they also had Qawalli which I was disappointed with. The group missed the energy which is required for qawalli. Or maybe it was the expectations that were set, since last year the qawalli was supposed to be really good.

That’s when we realized that we’d been sitting for close to 8 hrs and needed a walk. We went around the stalls to look at some really good jewellery (girls yes!!) and had some strong tea to give us some warmth. We welcomed the dawn with some soulful fusion of the Veena, mouth organ and the guitar. And though the musical strings pulled us to stay back a little longer, we knew it was time to get back to reality and head to the city….

It’s an experience for which words are few and needs to be experienced to understand the connect it has with you. I can’t thank my friend enough for the 12 hrs of music she introduced me to.

PS: Fire flies does not publicize the event and its spread through word of mouth. You can however visit the website http://pipaltree.org.in/ for details.

Blue, Blue and more Blue…..

2009-02-05T13:11:00.006+05:30

Lakshadweep’s been on my list of places to visit for a very long time and going there for my honeymoon just happened to be an added bonus (thanks A). It’s been 3 weeks after I have come back and the hang over still continues!!

My first impression of Lakshadweep was – Wow!! I have been to a lot of beaches, but have never seen something like it before (for once the travel brochures weren’t wrong). The white sand beaches with crystal clear blue water just took my breath away. Speaking of blue, my definition of “sea blue” has undergone a change now. There can be so many types of sea blue – the light/sky blue, the greenish blue, royal blue, ink blue, etc. I got to see all of those colors in the water there- all in a span of a 2 km radius!!

Let me keep the raving for later and start from the start :-). We stayed at the Agatti resorts which is govt. run and the only resort on the island. Agatti has the highest population among the island (of about 8000 people). It’s also the only island with an air strip. Statistics apart, it’s a beautiful place. The beauty of the island hits you while walking from the airport and just the feeling of awe just stays with you for days to come. We started the trip with what the rest of the tourists were doing – sun bathing!! I cannot imagine having so much fun lazing around in the sun and doing nothing but stare at the water and the turtles in it. To my surprise I enjoyed it; maybe it was the rest from the constant mode of doing something, whatever it was, the rest and the remote place worked for me. Apart from all the lazing around and being total beach bums, we also went coral reef watching and spotting turtles. It was really nice to see such an amalgamation of colour in the reef and the fishes. We saw all types of colored fishes (I thought they existed only in aquariums). After the first day of learning to spot turtles, I saw so many of them swimming/eating very close to the shore. The highlight of my trip was to see them not being afraid of human beings. It was also good to see that us human beings respected them and left them alone.

The other highlight of my holiday was the visit to Bangaram. Bangaram is one of the 35 islands in Lakshadweep and has only a private resort. So why visit it? Its one of the most beautiful places I have seen till now (and I have seen many). It’s breathtaking!! That’s the only way to describe the place. The waters that surround the island have so many different shades of blue due to the varying depth of water. During low tide you can even walk from one island to the other with water just touching your ankles. The place is a vision, but the highlight of the trip was the boat ride to Bangaram. We went in a small fishing trawler crossing the high seas in the opposite direction of the winds, when it was very windy. Well, the less said the better, but at one stage I thought we would topple over. What bugged me was the boatmen and A enjoying looking at the worried look on my face. A especially since he doesn’t even know to swim. I wasn’t scared of drowning (I know how to swim) and neither was I scared that A would drown. There was enough supply of life jackets to save him till help came and the water wasn’t cold either. I was scared for my camera. I knew toppling over would mean death of my buddy (yeah I am in love with my camera). Anyways, nothing happened apart from me being the butt of jokes!!

The good thing about my vacation was that I got a chance to visit the village in Agatti, even if it was in the pretext of visiting the hospital. It was very quaint with coconut strewn all over. We got to know that the auto we went in was the only auto on the island! I also met a German couple who ran the diving school in Agatti. For 9 months in a year, they stay in India and the rest monsoon months in Germany. They’ve been here for more than 10 years and that’s the job – scuba diving and teaching people to scuba dive. I was so envious. I wish I had a cool job where I could actually make money out of a hobby!!

Tips:
# You can go to Lakshadweep by ship. However incase you plan to travel by ship, make sure you are flexible with your travel dates. The ship schedule is most likely to change last minute.
# Always plan to either visit or stay in Bangaram. Bangaram is much more expensive than Agatti. However it’s completely worth staying there at least for a day.
# Alcohol is prohibited in Agatti. Another reason to visit Bangaram :-).
# Be prepared to get used to salt water. Its in the sea and your bathrooms.
# If you know Malayalam, use all of it there. Since most of the tourists are foreigners, the locals completely like Indian tourists and if you are Mallu you are adored!

Are you ever prepared to get married??

2008-12-06T11:14:00.005+05:30

Since there is less than a month for the wedding now, I keep getting questions featuring around the subject of shaadi… some of the common ones which amuse me, get me hassled and the real answers of which I can never tell them…

1. Is your shaadi shopping done?
Almost everyone who meets me asks me that for the last few months. I am sure people will conjure up things that I surely need to buy even till the last day. I never knew a day would come when I would be sick of shopping. Well its come and I sure am sick of shopping. I loved shopping – agenda less, impulsive shopping. But shaadi shopping has got to my nerves. Deciding on a guy was hard enough, so deciding on the ring, the clothes, make-up, jewelry for the “forever moment” is probably the most difficult project I have ever done. I do not want to look at another sari or jewelry I will never wear after the wedding!!

2. Are you prepared to get married?
Can anyone really be? Or this there a way to be prepared? I don’t even know in how many ways my life going to change. How can I be prepared for how to deal with it right now? The best possible thing I can maybe do is to hope that I can handle it in the future.

3. So how do you feel leaving home, mom and dad and going to a strange unknown family?
This one is the best… I am delighted you see!!! I am going to strange country where I have no friends and the comfort of running away home whenever loneliness strikes… yeah you could say I am happy…. Duh!! How would I feel??
Not that I believe in the funda of leaving mom and dad… Can you ever leave mom and dad? I left home and by that I mean the physical state of home more than eight years ago so going someplace else is not weird or sad. I guess what’s not so nice is the fact that I will not be in close physical proximity to visit them as often as the luxury of Bangalore-Kerala has provided me. That will take getting used to. Secondly, the family I will try and fit into, is not strange anymore… after almost a year they cannot be strange. I guess it will take adapting from both ends… but am sure we will figure out a way.
What I will miss the most however, is the familiarity of India. I missed India when I was in Sweden for a year. And I know for sure I will miss it now. I will miss the luxury of picking up the phone and talking to my closest pals and make adhoc plans to meet them some place, will miss the place I work at and the people here, its been the only institution which has remained constant in my life for more than 3 years...

Could go on with the list… but am senti all of a sudden, and scared and nervous! I guess its time to wrap this up right now, or else will start as to wondering why on earth am I getting married… A won’t be too pleased by that one :-).

Resilience – an abused word

2008-11-27T22:04:00.003+05:30

I am sad, disgusted, confused. I get madder as I watch the news. I feel helpless. There are a million questions/thoughts in my head. Who are these guys?? What religion teaches you to kill innocent people?? Are these people even fit to be called human?? I wonder what is it that these animals want?? A part of me says – whatever it is just give it to them… nothing is worth a hundreds of lives and the sense of insecurity that has become a part of our lives…

The other part of me wants to stand up and tell these %^*^^&& to get out of my country and let me live in peace. A part of me looks to my government and implores it to do something about the vulnerable country that we have become. I now hate the words like resilience and phrases like “spirit of India”. I now feel that it is an excuse to not do anything about these attacks. I now do not want the country and me to forget about this in a few days and get on with life. I definitely do not want life to go back to “normal”. I want to be like the Americans who still haven’t forgotten the 9/11 attacks and bombed a couple of countries in their supposed quest for the culprits. I don’t want India to go that far. But I also do not want my country and the politicians to become the “peace loving” country that we love to be. I want the politicians to remember that the number of people who died are not just a statistical number but they meant the world to someone. I want the same politicians to remember that tomorrow it could be them. I do not want to listen to things like intelligence failure. I do not want the lives of the people who died fighting these terrorists go in vain. I want the law makers of this country to now to something to take the bulls by the horns. I want to now become like an Israel or maybe even like the Arab world. I almost believe that an eye for an eye is the only thing that works. I want these jerks to be scared of even thinking of attacking my country. I do not want India to become like some of the countries I do not want to visit due to fear of safety. I do not want my foreign friends to ask me if it was safe to travel to India. Most of all I want each one of to stand up and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

Dedicated to the necessary evils of my life

2008-10-13T17:57:00.003+05:30

You can love them, you can hate them… you can surely never ignore them, especially if you rely on them to get from one place to the other!!... No am not talking about buses, and since I’m not in Bombay, it’s not the local trains, but the famed auto rickshaws of Bangalore… They’ve had such an affect on my moods that this one’s dedicated to them.

I have been tormented, frustrated and sometimes pleasantly surprised by them (the drivers of these autos that is). But no this is not a auto bashing blog, but some of the funny/amusing incidents I’ve had with them. And since I don’t know their names, have taken the liberty of naming them

The Nana Patekar of Taxi 9211: This guy is first on my list. He managed to shock, anger and amuse me all in a time period of 15 mins. Well this guy agreed to come to my place without batting an eyelid and wonders of wonders, did not ask for extra money….well anyways… the journey started… The guy was unusual since he followed a lot of the traffic rules, did not jump lights and change lanes. But what caught my attention was that he kept honking at some pedestrians ignoring the footpath and walking on the road… this when there was enough space for him to pass… when they turned around and glared at him, his reply – “there is a footpath meant for you to walk on, don’t occupy the roads unnecessarily”.. As if that wasn’t enough to shock me, he returned my one rupee change and insisted I keep it since he didn’t take charity!!!

The Senile old man: I usually walk it to work… It’s my way of reducing carbon emission. But there are days when I am either late or plain lazy when I seek out to these ricks. On one such day, I met an old auto driver. He prayed for about a minute before he started the rick. In my mind I thought “what a religious old man.” The guy went of to sleep on a traffic light, with the rick moving backwards and almost hitting the car behind us… and when I woke him up, he tells me that driving ricks is boring!! He then looks everywhere else, but the road while driving… That’s when I knew what he prayed for before driving – my safety!!!

The Himmesh Reshamiya fan: There are a lot of autos in India with music systems. But this one had blue disco lights in the rick. And yes much to my irritation and the delight of my roomie the driver played Himmesh Reshamiya songs… The volume was loud, and his singing even louder…. It was good fun to see someone enjoying himself without any care for the world or his customer’s ear drums! And yes my roomie tipped him for the entertainment he provided her :-)

There are a lot more funny incidents that have happened with these guys, but these three were top of mind… and am sure my tryst with these people will not end here… will keep adding as I keep experiencing

To my friends….with love

2008-07-10T09:40:00.003+05:30

I watched Jaane tu ya jaane nah last weekend… my verdict – an out and out masala movie with a story which is age old. Having said that, it worked for me as the treatment was fresh and the actors really nice….well this blog is not a review of the movie, but what it made me think about – Friends….

All my life, I always thought that I connected better with guys. I knew what they talked about and I believed that I liked their discussions (barring the ones on girls) on cars and gadgets as compared to make-up and lipsticks and yes character assassination of girls prettier than me!! It irritated me to no end when my girl friends never believed that my really good guy friends were actually just friends and nothing more…However when I thought about it after watching the movie, I realized that I have out grown most of my guy friends who were really good friends at a particular stage of life, and all most all my lasting friendships have been with girls… Most of my closest friends are all girls. They relate to what I am going through much better and I do not hesitate talking to them about my deepest fears…. With guys, I discuss tennis, cricket politics or maybe my travel adventures… Not that they are not dear to me just a bit superficial according…So here’s to my closest girl friend’s… I cannot imagine my life without everything that you all bring to it – the shopping, the never ending emails/conversations on life’s ups and downs and even the non-stop gossiping….

Then comes the question that can a girl and a guy be just good friends and nothing more… Well according to most of my friends they cannot. According to them, all good friends of the opposite sexes at one point of time or the other have been attracted to each other, or its been one sided for sure. I always believed and still do that this is definitely not true.. I have debated this for hours with a very good friend of mine who also happens to be a guy. His take – I might not be attracted to someone, but how can I be sure of what’s going on with the other person. Reflecting on my relationship with most of my guy friends, I think he has a point; there has always been an attraction from either side. It’s another matter that for me what starts as a crush, graduates to friendship and then remains strictly that. One of my friends’ once told me that that my definition of friendship was very elastic. That is probably why I was shocked/surprised if a good guy friend of mine ever expressed feelings beyond friendship. For me a friend was a friend, it was immaterial whether he was a guy or a girl…

Is it possible that I have to change my opinion after 27 years of my existence?? Were my friends right about what they said??? Is it possible that the cheesy Hindi movie dialogue “ek ladka aur ek ladki kabhi dost nahi ho sakte” or what they portray in every single Hindi movie on a girl guy friendship actually true??? Can a girl and a guy actually not be just good friends?? ……

Am Back

2008-06-25T19:46:00.006+05:30

I am back to writing on popular demand. Ok I construe demands by a few friends as popular, but anyways…

I’m getting married!! The feeling has not yet sunk in and I sometimes need to remind myself that it’s forever and now there is no turning back (at least I hope so). Knowing me, I am sure that I’ll be wondering even when the priest asks me if I want to get married, if this is the right thing to do…I really pity Ashwin on that one!!...

Gauging all the excitement I could happily outsource all of those preparations to family and friends. However there was something I had to do on my own – attend the marriage counseling course. This post is for all those friends of mine, who have been so curious about what happens in these courses...

For the uninitiated, you need to go through a marriage counseling course before getting married in a Catholic Church. I was quite skeptical on what a priest would tell me on marriage when he had no experiential learning on the subject itself. Anyways, since it had to be done, it had to be done. There I was last weekend sitting in the class and hoping that this course would be worth my salsa class when this lady walks in and starts asking us questions like why we want to get married and why to that particular person. I was blank for a moment before I really started to think… Well that was the beginning…. During the course of the weekend we had some interesting sessions on psychometric tests and how they could be used for good marriages.. I for one was quite amused by this new purpose of a psychometric test. Well there was a lot more on understanding basic differences between men and women and how both must learn to understand and adjust…etc etc…

My take and learning from the weekend – the church is after all not all that age old. Some of the stuff that the counselors talked off impressed me beyond limits. They talked of why individual spaces were important and getting married need not necessarily mean changing a 100 % (I was glad I was proved right yet again!) and how it was important not to let any other relationship get in the way of your relationship with your husband/wife. On the hindsight I feel that though the 2.5 days could have been covered in a 1.5 day session, it was quite useful. If nothing else to at least open up a platform for discussion on difficult topics like when to have children, career choices, finances etc. All in all a weekend well spent..

I hope to remember all of it until I am married, coz thanks to dad who loves to plan everything way ahead of time and hence I have attended this course some 6 months before getting married!!

Leaving on a jet plane

2008-02-01T20:38:00.004+05:30

I finally got down to packing yesterday and that’s when it started sinking in; I was leaving Sweden for good. I am catching my flight tonight and all sorts of mixed feelings are running through my mind at this moment. I am happy that am finally heading back home to India, but am sad too.

While saying my goodbyes to everyone here, I realized that I will miss this country and these people a lot more than I had thought. I have so many memories of this last one year and each one so different from the other that all of them together will make this year unforgettable. A friend of mine told me once that it was very important to learn to live alone and be happy about it. After being here for a year, I have learnt to truly live alone and enjoy my own company. I know now that if I talk to, or spend time with someone then it’s not because I have to, but because I want to. I rediscovered my writing here not to mention taking photography up seriously – happens when you have a lot of time during the weekend and few people to interact with. Strange as it may sound, I have lived for a year in a hotel and its home to me and the people working there my family. To my pleasant surprise I learnt that a country could survive on trust, and thank God for that or else would be stuck a million times without any form of transportation!! I learnt the meanings of words like “hit the wall” “unmarried wife/husband” and “plastic kids” or “plastic parents” and am no longer surprised by a completely new concept of family. I learnt that the meaning of the word "OK" could range from "alright", to "I understand" to "I don't think so"!!I learnt a whole new way of working – from being highly objective to having being forced to develop relationships to get work done. And speaking of relationships – I learnt that you don’t necessarily need to show how much you care when you really do.I discovered that it is possible for more than 50 people to be sitting somewhere and still there being pin drop silence!! I saw some of the most beautiful places here, and was awed by Mother Nature and all that she had to offer. I also realized how much I loved India and everything Indian – the food specially!!

I could go on and on, but in short I think Sweden and the last year opened my mind up to various things and whether it be good or bad – will not forget the last year.

PS: Having written all of the above, I am still looking forward to heading back to India – Home is home and no other place could be better

About “The” trip - Finally!!!

2008-01-27T21:02:00.012+05:30

It’s been a while that I am back from my whirlwind trip so have finally decided to stop being lazy and write about it.
My trip started with a bit of adventure. After packing, repacking and checking my checklist of things to carry umpteen times, I still managed to forget my cell phone at the hotel and remembered when I reached the airport. I couldn’t take a chance traveling without my second love hence I asked people at the hotel to send my cell phone by taxi to the airport and requested the airport authorities to wait for my cell phone to reach. I got the plane to wait for me, boarded the plane, and got someone at the airport manager to come and give me the cell phone in the plane. I thanked my stars that it was Skelleftea since I don’t think I could have pulled it of in any other city. Anyways here a quick snapshot of the trip.

Rome : I fell in love with the city!! The feet are killed by the walks, thanks to the cobble stoned roads, but walking is the best way to absorb all that Rome has to offer. Walking through the streets of Rome to me was like walking in a place 200 years old. Each building seems to talk to you and tell you stories of its own. It almost makes you want to go back in time and see how Rome was in its prime. You can spend weeks in Rome, but since we had just 2 days, we decided to see the most important monuments and started our sight seeing trip by visiting the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.
The Colosseum is an imposing structure, especially when you try and go back to when the gladiators would fight there. The Roman Forum which is right next to the Colosseum is basically the ruins of the old Rome. It’s magnificent to walk through all of it and just soak in the surroundings. The Pantheon is a beautiful monument too. It has been converted to a church now and I am sure mass there would be beautiful. Both these structures need to be visited during the day since they do not have any artificial lighting. My pick of Rome would be the Vatican Museum and St. Peters Cathedral. Apart from the religious importance it holds for me, the beauty of the place would mesmerize just about anyone. Especially the paintings at the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel would take anyone’s breathe away. The colours, detailing and the magnitude of the paintings on the walls and the ceiling are astounding when you think of the times they were painted in. It shows the passion and dedication that the artists had. It also shows the interest that the emperors of those times had in art, not to mention the money to fund it. The first thing that goes through your mind, when you see St. Peters is- is that a church?? The biggest church in the world is really big!! I attended the midnight mass on Christmas Eve and that’s an experience I will not forget – the church is beautiful under lights and it has a feel of a carnival before the Mass starts, not that I would want to repeat it, considering the crowd and the cold!!!
One of my “Rome moments” was sitting on the Spanish steps and listening to two Italians sing along with their guitars. I also realized that some of the more popular Hindi songs were lifted from Italian music!! Another one of my “Rome Moments” was sitting by the Trevi and seeing various people pose for pictures. I think we spent more than an hour there and had a good laugh
Rome reminds me of India in so many ways, the crazy traffic, small cute cars, the abundant use of two wheelers and the incessant loud chatter, maybe that’s why it worked its magic on me and it is one place I would want to go back again. I hope the coin that I threw in the Trevi works its magic….

Florence/Pisa: Florence is quite the opposite of Rome. It’s quaint, small and less crowded and very charming. To me however it’s a town which had some of the cutest streets and restaurants. We saw the Dome, which is the third largest church in the world. Again the architecture here was very different from the churches I had seen in Rome. We walked around the town savoring every bit of the place and looking through the windows of the all clothes stores (What can you expect of two girls). One observation – the Italians sure so have a sense of fashion!!
Florence can be combined with a visit to the leaning tower of Pisa since it is only an hour by train and definitely a must visit if you are in Italy. The leaning tower of Pisa is about a 20 minute walk from the station right through the town center and it truly is a wonder. You almost feel like it would fall on you any minute (it’s a wonder it hasn’t as yet). The work on the tower is worth a look, but what impressed me more was the cathedral next to the tower. It’s a beautiful church with some really delicate work done on the outside. I think in Italy I have completed my lifetime quota of visiting churches and yet each church had a completely different character.

Venice: Though Venice was very different from any other city I had seen, I was a bit disappointed by the city in itself. It highly possible because I had heard/read so much about the place so my expectations were hitting the roof. Having said that let me not take away from the city.
The charm of the city is the small streets where you will invariably get lost – no maps, direction sense would help you there. It is also nice to see how life goes about without cars and through the water. We saw some DHL people deliver couriers by water, also saw the water police, public transportation by water and even the post being delivered by boats!! St. Marco is beautiful and the pigeons there just really greedy for food :-)…We were in Venice right before the mask festival, so we got a chance to see the various colorful masks on display through the streets. I was amazed by the intricate work done on the masks; some of them even had Swarovski crystals on them. It made the whole place a lot more colorful. We also went to one of the islands close by, and thankfully enough it wasn’t as crowded.
My amusing story however is about a Indian- Canadian couple we met during dinner. They talked about bollywood, asked us what our opinion of the Abhi-Ash wedding was, and whether Shahrukh had back cancer etc etc etc. I think they were a wee bit disappointed that we weren’t all that updated…
Tips for Italy:
# Women please wear flats, and the most comfortable pair of shoes you can find. The cobblestones will really kill your feet.
# Take the tour to the Vatican Museum. It’s a little expensive, but worth it since the lines to enter are killing and you would want to know what to see and what not to.
# Be ready to spend much more in Venice. It is one of the most expensive cities in Italy and hence the prices are double as compared to the rest of the cities.
# Walk as much as possible, that’s how you would get to see the place much better
# Try talking in Bengali with the souvenir shop owners on the streets. Most of them are Bangladeshi and will give you a discount if you manage a bit of Bengali.
# Do not miss the yummy Italian food, whether it is the breakfast which consists of Chocolate croissant and coffee, or the yummy pastas and the pizzas along with some amazing Tiramisu not to mention the house wine. I think I need to stop now or else my mouth is going to start watering!!!

Amsterdam: The city is an eye-opener!! Drugs and sex is so out in the open that you wonder if it is such a big deal. The city sells on both of them, since most tourists go to Amsterdam to see the coffee shop and the red light area. Its quite a surprise to find the Dutch so open about subjects which are a taboo in any other country specially around Europe. I came back from my trip and discussed it with my Swede friends and they were shocked to say the least. I also had a rather interesting conversation with my Dutch colleague who told me why it’s all that open. According to him Dutch follow the law to the T. And if you ban narcotics, then it wouldn’t even be possible to use it in the hospital, hence its regulated. His explanation on prostitution as a business was that it happens everywhere, if it’s out in the open and made legal, at least these women have decent education, social security cover and a decent living – he does have a point there, doesn’t he? But apart from all the usual stuff, anyone visiting Amsterdam should definitely visit the Van Gogh museum. The museum has a collection from Van Gogh’s work from different stages of his life. His work leaves you confused in the end, since it varies so much from the beginning stages of his career to the end – its definitely a must see.

Berlin: We drove from Amsterdam to Berlin, and driving through Germany without the mention of the famed German roads and no speed limits. Just one word – awesome!!! You know when you get into Germany by the roads and the sudden speeding of the cars. We drove at and average of around 190 km/ph and we still had cars overtaking us at regular intervals. The view outside was beautiful too – from the flat Holland to the small hills in Germany, it was quite the contrast. Berlin in itself was an amalgamation of the old and the new. Its an extremely modern city with huge sky scrappers, but it also has the Brandenburg and a whole lot of history which goes along with it. The Reichstag is also worth a mention. I felt it was a little too beautiful to be a parliament house!! We saw it under lights and I think it just added to the beauty. Though Berlin is supposed to be the party capital of Europe we took a rain check on partying and settled for a good German dinner since all of us were just so exhausted and headed out the next day to London which was a 10 hr road trip.

London: The first two days in London were spent recharging all our exhausted batteries by lazing around and shopping!! And just went the relatives and friends thought that we would never head out to see London, Mona and I started the sight seeing once again. We started with the Buckingham Palace and quite frankly I don’t know what the big deal was about the changing of guards. I felt that the crowd in the Vatican was nothing compared to the one in front of the palace trying to catch a glimpse of the ceremony. From there we walked to the Trafalgar Square and visited the National Gallery. We did the whole touristy walk to the London eye, Big Ben and finally the Tower Bridge. At the risk of repeating myself the walk was really nice, though we had a really long walk trying to find a tube station – as usual we were lost!!! The next day started with a visit to Madam Tussads. We had fun looking at all the statutes and yes getting our pictures clicked there. From there the next trip was to The Lords – the Mecca of cricket lovers. The guide made the tour wonderful and interesting even for people who weren’t all that knowledgeable on cricket. Thanks to the impromptu trip to the Lords, we discovered Abbey Road and the famous crossing on the Beatles cover. I felt a bit silly clicking pictures while crossing that crossing and making the traffic wait – I am sure they are used to it though. I also liked Covent Garden a lot. The environment there was brilliant. The building had an old world feel to it. It had magicians, street musicians and whole lot of open restaurants – it was magic.

After a whole lot of traveling in the two weeks, I realized that I was looking forward to getting back to Skelleftea to my hotel and I knew that it in my heart I felt that it was home now. I also realized that though they don’t always show it, the Swedes are one of the friendliest and the most helpful people in Europe – well what to do, I have to be loyal to people who welcomed me and made me feel comfortable in an alien country.

A fraction of a second – that’s all it takes…

2007-11-18T02:02:00.004+05:30

… to change your life that is. You can plan all you want, but it does really just take a second to unravel all those plans. I realized that today

For all those wondering why I am philosophical – I was in an accident today. I have been in accidents before, two actually. But I don’t remember a thing of what happened in those accidents, I heard about what happened from people. This one however was different. I remember every moment of those few seconds clearly, and it’s a memory which will stay with me forever. I have heard people say that when death passes you, what you see is a flashback of your life and all your loved ones flash in front of your eyes. Well nothing like that happened to me. Weirdly enough, I watched everything happen as if I were watching a movie. My first thought was that I was wearing a seatbelt, so I was safe even if the car toppled unless of course I got trapped and the car exploded (watching too many movies does that to you). The second thought was to hold on to my SLR so that it doesn’t get damaged (I guess I love it a little too much). Even after the car came back into control, the only thing on my mind was to get out of the mess. I even went sightseeing, shopping and picture clicking after dropping of the car. And if anyone sees the pictures that we have clicked after the episode, they would never guess that we were in a car crash just hours before that. I guess all of our reactions would have been different if anything would have happened to any one of us. Thank God that nothing did and it was just the car which bore the brunt of it all.

Learnt some stuff today:

Miracles do happen and fate is not a “concept” – it does exist: it was nothing short of a miracle and maybe our fate, that though the car was at a 120 km/ph and we hit the divider resulting in the car going completely out of control for about 3-4 kms, all five of us came out of it without a scratch. In the previous two, it was just me who bore the brunt and the others were unscathed. This time fate was on my side too!!

People do care – just don’t show it: A couple of Swedish colleagues are our 911. They always bail us out of trouble. Until today I thought they did it just to be nice to some crazy Indians. But the concern and care that I sensed in their voice today, took me by surprise and a pleasant one at that. I cannot explain in words, what a comfort it was to realize that far away from family and friends, people geniunely cared. It was comforting to say the least.

Nagging is good : Today was the first day I didn’t nag my friend while he was driving. People say I am a control freak, which is why I chew someone’s brains out if I don’t trust his/her driving (which is almost always). I guess it’s my way of being in control. But today, I let it go and let him drive the way he wanted. Seeing the result…hmmm… well I am going to revert being a nag. Nagging is better than getting injured or killed!!!

Should always be dressed for the weather: Now this one is for my friend (he knows, and hence am not mentioning names :-)). We were waiting outside for assistance to come in a -15 degree C for an hour. And though we froze our jackets came through for us. I am sure without them we would have died of hypothermia, okay that’s exaggerating it a bit, but am not far away from the truth. So my dear friend always carry warm clothing with you - like someone says, there is a thin line between courage and stupidity, why cross it??

Retail therapy doesn’t help: I shopped after we sorted out stuff. And shopped not for necessities but for things which were not needed. I told my self that it was my way of dealing with things. Well it doesn’t work, and things do catch up with you. My mom tells me that I always have delayed reaction to traumatic experiences, and its only after around 8 hrs have passed is this experience beginning to sink in and I am a nervous wreck. In short – what a waste of money!!

I guess I have had enough of learning that I can take for one day and am off to try and do something to put my hyperactive mind to rest. For all the people behind the wheels – be extra careful, coz it does take just a second….

Ps: this was my second attempt to visit the IKEA store in Happaranda. The first one was when we landed there on one of the 3 days in a year that IKEA is shut, and well the second one is all over my blog… I’m all the more determined to break the jinx now

Its official now - The winters are here

2007-11-04T04:22:00.001+05:30

Skelleftea had its first proper snowfall today!

It was a pleasant surprise to wake up in the morning and find everything white... It reminded me of the time when I first came to this place sometime in Feb. I woke up a desi who hadn't seen the snow and ended up going for a nice long walk with him and my camera for company. His enthusiasm was infectious to say the least. I took some pictures of the snow and me in the snow (Something I didn't do even when I first came here). For a change, I resisted the temptation of practicing my photography skills and just let someone else take pictures of me... It also made me realise that I should myself a normal digicam to make it easy for people to take decent pictures of me ( The SLR gets a little too complicated for normal people!!)-- Any volunteers-- Donations are most welcome :-)

Skelleftea is back to the normal, dark days with the snow almost melting now...Today was a glimpse of the winter wonderland this place will turn into - hopefully sooner than later.....

Here's to the season of Winter Jackets, never ending nights and the subzero temperatures!!

Just some random gibberish

2007-10-24T17:00:00.004+05:30

It’s been a while since my last blog and have been meaning to write for a long time now, but just haven’t managed to find the time, energy and anything interesting to write about. Or like my friends say – maybe I finally have some work to do!!

Speaking of work - I have been enlightening the Swedish junta here on Swedish labor laws. The expression on their faces when they listen to their own laws is priceless!! It just got me wondering to how some people can manage a business without knowing where the money goes. I guess it’s my fault for having been here for this long and still manage to get shocked but such things. Let me just stop ranting about work right now, or this blog will go on forever…

What is it with Indian cricket fans all of a sudden- They have suddenly become all too aware and intelligent enough to relate monkey chants with racism!! Either that or it was Symonds’s imagination in Baroda and the second time, well after so much of hype in the media, how could the infamous Mumbai crowd resist?? Not that Australians should be the ones complaining about it considering their obsession with Muthiah Muralitharan was no less than racism. However I hope that what happened in Mumbai was not done with a racist mentality. Considering we are a society still obsessed with the fair skin, this incident could be a mirror of what our society is all about. We still have matrimonial adds by educated men stating that they want fair wives. How on earth is fair related to being a good life partner is something beyond understanding. It however doesn’t take away the credit from us to blend as easily despite being a country full of diversity, and this is why I hope that the incident was purely fun and not racist. India has an image of a good blend of different types of people and it’s good to keep it that way.

The other piece of news that caught my attention was the whole fiasco in Bangalore politics- A complete abuse of democracy!!! It was disgusting to see the “supposed leaders” of the country reduce themselves to clowns for power. I know expecting integrity from politicians is too much an expectation, but this kind of stooping low was dumb founding. It is high time that we change some bits of our constitution to make it an efficient democracy. First of all we should have a retirement age for politicians. Our corporate houses have a retirement age of 58, and we should follow the same for politicians too. We do not need leaders who have one foot in the grave, making any sort of policies for the country!! Secondly, similar to corporate houses, there should be a background check on all candidates, and people with any sort of criminal history should not be allowed to stand for elections. When we do not trust people with a murky background in business, how can we trust them to run the country? And lastly, we should have a bi-party system similar to the US – the problem of not having majority, coalitions being formed just for seats and not ideology and then pulling out for the flimsiest of the reasons will be solved. When I was growing up my parents always told me that I had no right to ask for freedom of choices if I didn’t behave responsibly. I guess the same applies for every sphere of life!!!

The Young Guns of India

2007-09-27T03:07:00.005+05:30

Yes this title is taken from one of my favourite movies, and like that movie, this blog is dedicated to the generation next or the Young India as its being termed now. A couple of days back I was reading the results of a survey on the youth in different parts of the world on a website. It mentioned that the Indian youth were the happiest, focused on work and the most optimistic about the future as compared to the youth of the rest of the world. The survey ironically was done by a Swedish agency.

Then a couple of days back the Indian cricket team won the world cup. Well the cricket team features yet again, but this time it’s not cynicism, but pure admiration for the way they won the cup. They were fearless, brave, calm and played like a team after a long time. It was pure joy to watch the semi-finals and the finals (courtesy the internet and cricinfo), though I didn’t think I would survive the heart attacks that I almost got!! It was more special since we put the Aussies at their place and a win against Pakistan is always special (looks like that record will take a while to break). The celebrations all across the country are warranted for, as the cup comes to us after 24 years, and no one really knows when the next time will be. It’s a pity that I am far away from all the fun in India, and have given up on explaining to the Swedes, the part that cricket plays in our lives!!

A lot has been said about Dhoni, and the team playing fearlessly, enjoying what they do and not being bogged down by the past etc, and I find no sense in repeating it here. To me it’s a reflection of how “Young India” is. And I see it everyday, especially now that I am here in Sweden and I can appreciate the difference between the youth of the two countries and hence two very different cultures. People here get surprised when my colleagues and I (all below 30) talk to them about various aspects of business and get involved in decision making. They cannot imagine how kids are sent for such important assignments, and get all the more bewildered when I tell them that it’s a common feature in the company to give responsibility to youngsters, more so because the average age of the employees of the company is around 26. That shocks them beyond belief!! Almost all of them who have visited India talk of the young people there, how educated they are, and how they are willing to stretch, and how seriously they take their careers, this apart from complaining about the traffic there!! While it’s nothing unusual for me; after living here, I can understand why it shocks them. Most people here start taking their careers seriously only after they turn 30 or more. And even when people work, the attitude to work is very different from what it is in India. Here work is as aptly put by a Swedish colleague, a method to sustain their hobbies; very different from India, where it’s a social symbol, a means to a good living and a lot more…. Obviously when these people meet 22 year olds who know exactly what they want, and are prepared to work hard and take all possible chances to get there, they do a complete somersault!!

While at one hand when I look around here, I feel these people here are lucky not to have as many people as we have in India making their lives easier and more content, on the other hand I feel I am lucky to be born in India in this era. Its good to be a part of the club termed as an achiever, fearless and willing to go all the way!! It’s possible that all this due to the excessive competition that we face from childhood that makes us aggressive and give our all out to win. Maybe the fact that “if not me, then someone else is going to take my place”, or maybe its only because we live in a society where education, the kind of work someone does, the kind of money someone earns decides his or her social standing that propels us to give it our best and not fear from taking risks to win.

Whatever the reasons are, I feel it will do us good in the long run. Its already proved by the Indian economy doing so well, the rupee rising, the sensex being around the 17K mark, a lot of Indians abroad wanting to get back, some Swedish colleagues of mine expressing interest to work in India and now even with us doing so well in Hockey, soccer and winning the world cup!!

PS: I am aware of the contradictions in the previous blog and this one on Indian cricket… cannot help it, I am the original fickle Indian cricket fan!! Also wanted to spew venom against that statement made by Shoaib Mallik, but then let it pass, since its either a reflection of his poor English, or ignorance or pathetic thinking - in any case, completely unworthy of any comment.

An Eternal Optimist

2007-09-15T03:35:00.003+05:30

This is a story about a friend who believes that the Indian cricket team can do no wrong…if the team bats miserably – the pitch was bad, how could they help it, the bowlers will surely do a good job and win the match for us …oops they got hit all over the place – poor guys, some of them were suffering from injuries but still played, fielding is bad – they try but somehow cannot seem to see the ball due to bad lighting… when he cannot convince himself longer, he also puts the blame on Dawood Ibrahim and his devious methods of earning a quick buck through cricket!!! This is a cycle that goes on and on, but my friend doesn’t lose faith and still believes that Indian cricket team is the best…

And best it is…I mean who can refute the fact that its one of the best batting line ups on paper, it is another matter that this famed line-up chokes on most of the crucial games …Bowling is an area that India has always been weak in, but when we get a decent fast bowler, in the hope of creating a Kapil Dev, we ensure that he forgets how to bowl too…then there are this list of fast bowlers, medium pacers, spinners that I cannot seem to remember because they keep flitting in and out of the team…some of them we remember more for their in-field behavior as compared to their performance…but then whatever catches attention right? My friend tells me it is because we want to develop the second line of talent that we never seem to have a permanent team, a permanent opening pair I guess is too much to ask for… how does it matter if we lose a million matches in the name of developing talent! Fielding is something I don’t even want to start with.. I think Indian fielding has been a subject of a million jokes and was even a successful ad campaign for a washing powder brand, need I say more….but despite all this, this eternally optimistic friend of mine bought a subscription to watch the match online, went to office to watch the match with a LAN connection on a big screen, hooting for India to win…. Just to come back moping yet again!! But like I said the cycle repeats over and over again, so this friend is disappointed that the wireless connection does not work at the airport, is secretly thrilled that the flight is delayed and there is trouble with our tickets just so that he could stay a little longer at the airport and call home in India to check on the scores of the match between India and Pakistan in the 20-20 world cup… I am hoping for his sake and the sake of a million others like him that India at least keep this record of beating Pakistan in the world cup matches… It’s the Indian team – you never know… they love breaking these type of records!!

I guess it’s just too much to ask a team of 12 players to carry the hope and expectations of a billion people… I guess it’s too much to ask of them to perform well…at least to make us feel that they tried their best… but then again I guess its not too much considering all the money they make out of the sponsorship that they get – all thanks to the expectations of the very same billion people…

Today the captain of the Indian team has resigned, we are a team without both a captain and a coach…My friend says, things cannot get worse than this…we have to go upwards at least now.. I thought we already hit rock bottom when we lost to Bangladesh and Srilanka, didn’t make it to the Super eight and the team winning against Bangladesh in Bangladesh was making news!… Oh but then I forget my friend is an eternally optimistic Indian cricket fan…

PS: we reached Skelleftea and got to know that India finally managed to win the tie breaker...never mind that after reducing Pakistan for 59/5 in the 11th over there should not have been left a scope for a tie breaker in the first place…the good news my friend tells me is that they managed to keep this one record intact – at least for now…..

Contradictions Galore

2007-09-13T09:58:00.003+05:30

A new Indian, or desi as we call ourselves here, has come to Skelleftea recently, and as always, I treated (read dragged) him to my famous 5 km walk by the river, on our walk he threw a wrapper on the road… and this became the topic of discussion on the dinner table… how conscious are we as nation towards cleanliness of our environment??

The answer comes easy to all of us, since we do walk/drive on streets with out eyes wide open – its there for all to see!! It’s amazing how we Indians generally insist on keeping our houses spic and span, but don’t follow the same rules when it comes to the streets…..most of us do not think twice before throwing something on the streets without a care for what will become of it, how unhygienic it is, or what impression it would create on the minds of foreigners coming to visit one of the fastest growing economy...we don’t care since its not our house getting dirty!!!

One major excuse that I get to hear whenever this comes up is that there is a lack of infrastructure (read sufficient dustbins), but come on guys, how much of an effort is it, to keep the wrapper, or any other kind of garbage with you until you find a garbage can and then just dump it… its basically just a mindset issue… on my last visit to Cochin, the burning issue was the garbage disposal system, and I am not exaggerating but there was an ever-growing pile of plastics bags full of rubbish every 100 mtrs on the streets.. The whole city was stinking and there was a hue and cry created on this issue, which finally needed the intervention of the high court…well yes the blame was put on the municipal cooperation, but what do they do in a state where almost no land is owned by the government and everyone is ready to go on a strike for just about nothing….I saw some really well dressed people, living in beautiful big houses come early morning and throw their bags on the street … the question on my mind was that hadn’t they heard of the age old method of disposing waste - the decomposition pit!! You don’t really need a court to tell you something which is basic common sense…but then again common sense is not so common after all…

The amazing thing to see, is that these same very people who have no regard for the surroundings in India, become an epitome of following rules in every aspect when go abroad, so much so that they surpass that the locals living there ( my friend was an exception though)…the heartrending thing is that we have become so insensitive to the whole issue in India that we don’t even notice it as a problem …its only when you come abroad do you see a stark difference…. its not that the Swedes are extra clean, they are far from it….its there for anyone who wakes up and takes a walk early in the morning before the cleaning happens – there are beer bottles and wrappers everywhere. They have the advantage of being so scarcely populated for the place and the money they have that they can afford to look spic and span despite not being that… We don’t have that in India, so isn’t it as dutiful citizens our duty to keep it clean?? I know it’s a fairly basic issue but then shouldn’t we get the basics right before we aim for the stars??

PS: I know a lot of us are conscious about what we do.. this is targeted at the other 75% of the population

The battle is on...

2007-09-06T04:12:00.003+05:30

My blog has started looking more like a National Geographic write up or that’s what my friends say. And hence I have decided to finally write about something which has been on my mind for a while now, but just didn’t seem to have the courage to write about it for fear of backlash!! Read on and you’ll know what I mean…

For years I have heard my male friends cribbing about how women were confused people who didn’t know what they want, they kept changing their mind, and to please a woman was an impossible task – this among a whole list of other cribs…and when I heard stories of how those “poor” souls were tortured by their girlfriends, I felt a tad bit sorry for them as well….

However have realized completely on what a waste my sympathies were since it was either lack of tact, or insensitivity or some other stupidity that led to such behavior( if at all it wasn’t anything but mere figment of imagination)…

Experiential learning - I am going through the whole arrange marriage process right now and if I wasn’t the one going through the pain of conversing with guys, it would probably be down right hilarious, though I do end up laughing about it while sharing similar stories of guy behavior with my friends…

Most guys tell me they want their wives to be independent, consultative and have opinions.. however there’s a rider to this – she cannot have a different opinion from him and the skies fall down if she voices it openly too….another funny one “ she should be smart, beautiful, intelligent, witty, homely etc etc” – question if she was all this, why would she marry you and why not Tom Cruise?? And this from a guy, who looks like anything but Tom cruise, I mean get realistic dude!!!! It’s alright for the girl to have a job, but her taking her career seriously is concept alien to a guy… its okay for a guy to be opinionated, go getter, well traveled and ambitious , but a girl be that and she’s labeled as unmarriageable!! Then there is a breed of guys who are working in the US – and OMG do they think they are god’s gift to woman kind or what – they are definitely not going to settle for anyone else than an Aishwarya Rai look alike, how does it matter if their scope is limited to the one place in India where they lived in forever before being transported to a city in the US (some of them have a combination of pathetic English with that horribly fake American accent)…am just wondering now on who is the more confused species – the girl or the guy….

It gets funnier when you actually start talking to them that sometimes you actually believe that we women are such a superior race!! While women talk to compatibility, understanding, ease of communication etc, the guy ends up talking of are we comfortable speaking the same language (literally and not metaphorically) - now I understand communication is important, but shouldn't you look at ideas, views etc rather than the language they are spoken in, how difficult is it to master a language if you really like someone; similarities in the kind of movies we like – am still to understand on how that can be a criteria for someone to decide on marriage but whatever, oh yes how can I forget the all important question – do you know how to cook?? wonder of wonder, if you do manage to find one remotely decent guy among this crazy pack – then he for sure will turn out to be the commitment phobic kinds who is looking at girls because he’s getting older by the day but is so damn cautious about committing that he might just take years to decide!!!

Some of my married friends tell me that what I am going through with guys is just nothing; they live with these confused, erratic souls so they need to be pitied more... Living with creatures who are highly disorganized, moody, dirty, lazy, ill mannered and ungrateful am sure is not an easy task!! Its hilarious how a guy is bewildered when his wife sulks coz he commented that some chick he saw was hot – honesty yes we are all game for it, but tactlessness is a definite NO…they get mad when the wife nags on them being untidy, but quite honestly who wants to live in a place which closely resembles a pig sty!! Well I guess the list just goes on and on…

I am sure some of the guys reading this must be thinking, if men are so bad, why do women get married to them. The answer is simple, women being superior want everyone to try and be perfect like them.. men for us are like a project… we take pity on them and try to make them better, since perfection, is beyond men :P

Note to all my guy friends: don’t get angry at this one – learn from it!!

The story of 14 islands

2007-08-31T15:31:00.003+05:30

Just before I came to Sweden for the first time, someone told me that Stockholm was the most beautiful city that he had visited. Since he is a very well traveled person, my expectations hit the roof!!

My first visit to Stockholm was sometime in March for a day – and I was thoroughly disappointed. It was pretty no doubt, but definitely not out of the world. I couldn’t understand what was that special in the city. It could be because the weather was terrible, it wasn’t all that cold in terms of the temperature but I didn’t really appreciate the cold winds and the rain. This is why I decided, to visit Stockholm in all its glory before the winters came in - And finally, I understood the magic of Stockholm.

Stockholm has a lot of water channels since this is where the Baltic Sea meets the lake Malaren. It’s very common to see regular ferries connecting the 14 islands that form Stockholm. I decided to ditch the regular sight seeing by bus kind of stuff and travel by boat to all the places I wanted to visit. Though it takes a little more time to see the place as compared to taking the bus or even walking, I really felt that the whole experience made it worthwhile.

The first place I went to was the Vasa museum. This is where the sunken ship Vasa is restored and kept. Vasa was a famed ship of Sweden which sank just after sailing for 1300 mtrs. It was found after 300 years, restored and kept in the museum. It was all that, the Swedes had promised it would be- it’s a massive ship (for the day and age it was built it) and the carvings on the ship are intricate and beautiful. You almost end up feeling sorry for the people who made the ship with so much of care. The whole museum is darkened and the effect of the yellow light highlighting just the ship is brilliant. From there I walked to the Nordic museum, which gave a quick snapshot of the culture of the ancient Vikings. The Nordic museum also had an exhibit of private collectors going on. It was good to see people being encouraged to display their collection of coins, stamps, matchboxes, openers, dolls etc. You name it and they had it there!!

Stockholm is often called the museum city since it has more than 70 museums, but lack of time meant I had to choose between museums and other flavours of Stockholm. Hence I decided that the next stop would be Gamla Stan or the old town. The old town is basically the original Stockholm area sometime in the 17th century or earlier. Just walking in the streets of the old town, takes you into a completely different world – the small open cafes, the numerous antique shops, and the street musicians whose music you can hear everywhere you go, just wove a spell around me. I saw one of the most enthusiastic and fun street musician group there. They were just so full of energy and amazing music that the half and hour I spent listening to them seemed like just a few minutes. It was time then to break away from the magic cast on me to see the world’s first Ice bar in the hotel that I was staying. While walking towards the main Stockholm center, the change of architecture was dramatic that I could almost feel the transition between the old and the new.

The ice bar is a bar where everything, from the tables, to the chairs to even the glasses are made of ice. The temperature of the bar is maintained at a -5 degrees Celsius all year round and its quite a popular tourist destination that appointments are needed to get inside, since they do not allow more than 30 people at one time. It was good to see something so different and so crazy. I had my drink served in a glass made of ice… Cheers or Skall as the Swedish say to crazy ideas!!!!

The next day was reserved for the famed archipelagos of Stockholm. Stockholm has around a 1000 small islands surrounding it. A trip to Stockholm is definitely incomplete without visiting at least one of these archipelagos. It takes quite a while to get to even the nearest of the archipelago and get back. But it’s a trip was well worth it, some of the views were just out of this world. I got down at one of the archipelago called Grindo, walked around and then had a cup of coffee in one of the most beautiful restaurants I have come across – I could spend the entire day, just sitting there and gazing at the sea, however reality sunk in and I caught my ferry to the mainland.

Before I set out for Helsinki, my Swedish colleague asked me to tell him, which capital was prettier – Stockholm or Helsinki. He also assured me that I would be killed either by him or my Finnish colleague!!! ( the Swedes and the Finns share a love hate relationship and its good fun to see them joke about it – a more tamed version of India and Pak). But coming back to his question – I really don’t know....each had its charm – Helsinki was small but fun, and Stockholm enchanting, comparing them would be unfair to both… I told my colleague the same, he wasn’t too convinced though!!!

Sauna Land

2007-08-23T22:48:00.003+05:30

When I planned a work week to Finland in a place called Pernio, I decided that this time I would definitely visit Helsinki. That would be the only way I would be able to compensate one week of living in a place which to me resembles a meditation camp (it’s just got our factory and the guesthouse and nothing else) .

Finland in spite of being neighbours to Sweden and having being ruled by Sweden for a long time, as quite different from the Swedes. Finnish for example, is completely different from Swedish and English and quite difficult to learn at that ( not that I am trying, Swedish is enough for now). Their love for saunas is unbeatable. The ideal Finnish holiday is having a sauna party, in a summer house close to the sea, and cooling off by swimming in the open sea. I was lucky sample a little bit of this idyllic holiday, if only for a few hours. We were taken to the company’s summer cottage close to the sea, and though I didn’t go into the sauna with the guys, spent a lot of time just soaking in the nature….. After that brilliant evening, I set out to Helsinki by train the next day . The train was not as extravagant as the trains in Denmark, but definitely comfortable and not to forget a whole lot cheaper!!

I instantly fell in love with Helsinki! It’s not as big as the other cities I’ve been too and there are not many monuments to see there, but to me it was charming nonetheless. It was bright and sunny, and there were people happy and celebrating everywhere. I guess that played a part in creating that magic. The city is a perfect blend of being big enough so that you don’t feel like you are in a small town and a feel of a small town where everything is in a radius of 5 kms so that everything is in walking distance.

One blooper – the hotel refused to check me in before 2 pm, so instead of wasting time, decided to make full use of the good weather and went to Soumenlinna fortress. The fortress in itself was pale in comparison to the Agra fort and the Red fort in Delhi, but what stood out was the beauty it was surrounded by. Some of the views were just unbelievable with the grass lush green and the sea surrounding it on all four sides, I really don’t think any words or even a lot of my pictures can do full justice to the beauty that I saw there. Its because of that, its really not a surprise that the fortress is a popular picnic spot for the locals and a top tourist spot.

After spending close to three hours in the fortress, we headed back to mainland and went to rock church. The church is built from one massive piece of rock, and the architecture inside is worth noticing. It was about to close so we needed to leave early, but otherwise would surely have loved to spend some more time inside.

The next stop was the Cathedral, which is right behind the market square. It’s stark white and hence impossible to miss. The insides of the church were as pretty as the outsides, and once we were done with being a little religious, we headed out to have some good Indian dinner after a long time – all in all a good day!

The next day, we went visiting a zoo, all on my insistence. I went into a zoo after a really long time (can’t even remember when I went last). It’s quite a small zoo, but what attracted me was that it was on an island. It was heartening to see the animals healthy and happy. That’s when I remembered why I stopped visiting zoos in India - they always left me with such an unpleasant feeling! Anyways the rest of the day was spent in walking around on the streets of Helsinki, and not to forget one of my major hobbies – shopping!!....

Breathe free... You are born in a free country!!

2007-08-15T22:56:00.005+05:30

At the breakfast table today, we had a long discussion with the Vikings on India’s independence. Surprisingly the Swedes are very aware of the Indian Independence story a little bit due to us talking about it for days, but more so because it’s been in Swedish papers and the TV channels here are showing Hindi movies this whole week!! (Pity I am missing it all because I am in Finland this week)

During the course of these discussions, when we talked about Sweden, Finland, their development as a country, a few things just struck me deep, and I was proud I was born in a free country – free in every sense of the word.

Sweden for example got its freedom of religion as late as 1950 in spite of never being ruled by someone else. It basically meant that anyone born on Swedish land would automatically be Christian. I was taken aback by that concept, since I could not fathom a life like that; where I would not get a right to practice any religion I wanted to. It made me appreciate the true meaning of being born in a secular country, and no I am not denying that there are numerous riots that happen in the country in the name of religion, but still for a country diverse in every aspect of societal norms, most times we coexist peacefully. There are yet some other countries, where the freedom of press and speech is an alien concept, and in some orkut is banned ( poor those guys), when I think of living in such places, is when I realize how important freedom is. And most times, you are free in India (except for when some crazy people try and be the moral police)

Another thing that I realized when the Swedes talked of 1930s being recent was that how young we are as a nation - I am ignoring the long history of the pre- independence era, since we were not free and definitely not one country. And when I realized that, I grew immensely proud of what we have achieved as a country in this short span of time despite the three wars. For a country which is just 60 years old the economic growth that we have had is worth mentioning, specially the past 4-5 years have been really good for India, with everything going its way, be it a string of acquisitions putting India business houses on the global map, or the Indian movie industry stars gracing Madam Tussauds in their statue forms.

Not that I believe totally in the “India shining” story, or that I believe that we have truly arrived , and I know we have miles to go before we are called a developed nation, before we can be close to a developed country…but like the rang de basanti dialogue goes - koi bhi desh perfect nahi hota, usse perfect banana padhta hai…..

Sleepless nights

2007-07-18T10:24:00.003+05:30

I have been meaning to write about the summer festival in Skelleftea which happened last week but have been extremely busy working, getting ready to go India and trying to catch up on the Harry Potter mania. The Potter bug caught me a little to late in life, with me finding it extremely boring and childish the first time I tried to read it. This time, it truly caught me (me thinks its just coz I haven’t read a book in a really long time). Anyways, almost all nights were spent trying to finish the books, and have finally managed to finish all the seven books (at least I hope the 7th one is the same as what’s given on the internet).

Getting back to the festival – Skelleftea has a summer fest every year for 3 days to celebrate the coming of the summer and the start of the summer semesta (vacation). We could actually notice the transformation in the city square which suddenly came to life. There were rock shows, a lot of games, shops on the roads and bungee jumping too. For the first time in the 6 months I have been here, I got to see so many people in one tiny place for an extended period of time. Malmia (the hotel I call home now) which usually has a deserted look was taken over by the neighbouring Norwegians and some others from nearby towns, there were people buzzling around just everywhere. Skelleftea underwent a complete metamorphosis – was good since it reminded me a bit of India. It was good to see some life coming into the otherwise drowsy town. Though beyond a point in the nights, I just wanted to get some sleep, which was almost impossible with all the loud music and people shouting downstairs (imagine sleeping in a pub with the loudspeaker next to your ear!!). That’s when the Potter bug caught me, and I had something to do in the nights over the weekend. Didn’t really think it would go on for the whole week. Anyways Harry potter is done with now and am on my way to India.

Yippee!!! That’s what I thought at first. But that was before I saw my itinerary to get to India. I have almost 10 hrs of waiting – 5 each in Frankfurt and Dubai airports. I am sure that by the time I finish this travel, airports and planes would feel like home to me!! Have managed to kill 30 mins at the Frankfurt airport writing this completely uncoordinated piece – I guess it’s a reflection of my tired mind….

PS: this is written sitting in the Frankfurt airport about 10 days back....managed to post it only today

Midsummers

2007-06-27T20:22:00.002+05:30

One of my friend asked me the big deal about midsummer since I was talking about is for quite a while. Well technically speaking – nothing, since its nothing but the sun shining for 24 hrs. But it’s the biggest celebration here in Sweden, with people talking about their midsummer plans much in advance, not that it proves anything, since the Swedes talk about all their weekends and specially long weekends a lot, anyways point being Midsummer is big here.

The Indians (as we are called here) decided to go to Happaranda and Storforsen to celebrate midsummer and do some sight seeing ourselves. Happaranda is about a 3 hr drive north of Skelleftea on the Finland border. It’s a beautiful town no doubt just that everything was shut due to midsummer, and everything basically means everything, from restaurants to supermarkets to shops – everything! When we walked around in the town hunting for food it was almost like a ghost town, with just us five Indians walking on the street, something that we don’t see even during a curfew in India. We finally dashed our hopes of finding food, and managed to find a shop which sold chips etc. That was breakfast, the only plus being that we had the chips and ice-cream beside a really beautiful river. But being here now for 6 months, have started taking clean rivers, the greenery and nature beauty for granted!!

One of the major motivating factors to make the trip to Happaranda was the IKEA store there. The IKEA store in Happaranda is one of the largest IKEA stores in Sweden, and we were quite looking forward to seeing it. But Alas, I guess they were celebrating Midsummer too, and hence will need to look for some other time and place to finally get a chance to visit the famed Swedish furniture store.

From there we left early for Storforsen so that we could make it on time for lunch. The combination of antakshri and deers on the roads made it a nice drive to Storforsen. Storforsen is a place where the river Pite forms rapids which is one of the largest in Europe. Pite is also one of the only four unharnessed rivers in Sweden. For a country which is famous for its large number of lakes and rivers, 4 unharnessed rivers is quite a small number. We decided to refuel ourselves on some food before checking out the rapids, the noise of which we could hear far away in the restaurant. After waiting for a really long time the food thankfully arrived before some of us fainted with hunger!! The patience level that the Swedes have dumbfounds me everytime. They wait patiently while driving for their turn to overtake, almost never honk, never follow up on anything, and wonder of wonders they wait in queues for a waiting ticket in shops!!

Anyways back to my trip, the disappointment of Happaranda was compensated completely by just seeing the rapids. The sheer power of the river was amazing, just felt like getting into the water and go flowing away with the river (for how long I would be alive, is a different matter altogether). The river almost has three different colors in a short span of length - the absolute white where water crashed against the rocks and formed the rapids, the green some places where it took the color of some rocks, and the sky blue when the rocks got over and the river became silent in the delta – a true haven for a nature photography lover like me.

Since it was a holiday in Sweden, the place was crowded with around 200 to 250 people there, but unlike any tourist place in India, you almost felt you were alone there, thanks to the absence of the numerous amounts of roadside shops, very large and noisy groups of people and the presence of the quiet “in my own world” Swedes. Silence – its something that takes a little getting used to in Sweden, and when you do get used to it, you wonder why people talk as much - I haven’t reached that stage yet!!!

The trip back was uneventful with all of us, just absorbing the scenic beauty, got back to Skelleftea on time for dinner and to make the day perfect, had some really yummy Indian food. Or maybe I found it yummy (since I usually hate the place I went to that day) because I was really hungry and it was the first real food for the day.

With the Midsummer gone, its time for the Skelleftea festival on the weekend. Amazes me to see a country designed only around having fun!!... more about it soon

Cravings

2007-06-12T01:28:00.001+05:30

I crave for the sun to set and then to rise,
I crave for colours other than black, grey and white,
I crave for my morning paper and chai,
I crave to go out and eat dinner at nine,
I crave to see people just everywhere,
I crave to see more than five cars at one time,
I crave for what people here call noise,
I crave for the time when weekends were fun,
I crave for the time when days were spent with movies and friends,
I crave for when life was more than just being online,
Its funny I crave for things I never thought I'd think of anytime...

Of cycles and carnivals

2007-06-04T21:26:00.004+05:30

When I imagined Copenhagen, I imagined it to be a fun place, warm and sunny since it was on the coast. I visited it this weekend, and found out that for once, I was right.

Copenhagen in itself is a very beautiful city. One can almost imagine how Hans Christian Andersen was inspired to write such beautiful fairytales, The city in itself is out of the fairytales, with the sea on one side and the various lakes and the beautiful architecture on the other. The statue of the little mermaid is small as compared to what I thought it would be, but surely worth seeing for anyone who has read and loved the story as a child.

I spent the weekend roaming around Copenhagen and seeing most of what was famous. My favourite of course was the Nyhavn, Copenhagen’s old harbor where you can almost sense the old world charm. I liked it more since there was more of a festival going on there due to the soccer match between Sweden and Denmark. There were a lot of Swedes in Copenhagen on the weekend for the match, and there was quite a bit of friendly and sometimes not so friendly banter between the Swedes and the Danish fans. Sweden won with quite a bit of drama (one of the Danish fan’s hit the referee resulting in the match being suspended, and Sweden winning). The scenes after that quite reminded me of the cricket matches in India. It was a pleasant surprise to see emotion that strong from the usually reserved guys…

I also liked Tivoli a lot too, though I for the life of me cannot understand why people pay money to be on risky and completely crazy joy rides. But the whole concept of amusement parks in the 19th century left me wonder struck. It’s a little cramped, but I am guessing that since it was built long back, no one really imagined it to be as crowded coupled with the fact that’s its in the center of the city, which leaves the option of expansion out of question. It is however, really pretty and like a continuous carnival. For me , what set it apart from other amusement parks, was a sense of character that it had.

Apart from the beauty of the place, there were a few things that caught my attention. The first thing that struck me when I reached Copenhagen, was how cycles were a very normal method of commuting for people. The most amusing sight I saw was a person on the railway station, waiting for a train along with his cycle (couldn’t get a snap of that one though). I then found out that they renovated the central station at Copenhagen and made a two-storey parking place just for cycles! I tried to get a snap of some people taking their babies in the prams on cycles, didn’t manage to do that, but I did see quite a few of them. – Eco friendly and an extremely healthy way of living, You bet!

The one another thing I noticed in Copenhagen, which was different from the rest of Scandinavia was their carnival culture. The atmosphere at the city square was almost like that of a carnival with music, songs and a whole lot of people just having a really good time. The city seemed much more relaxed and less reserved as compared to the other places I have been in Scandinavia; I guess it’s the coast that’s playing its part there.

Well I surely had a great weekend, marred by the fact that my luggage along with my laptop are stuck somewhere in the middle of Copenhagen and Skelleftea (had to check in my lappy, due to the EU rules of not carrying a lot of liquids as cabin baggage and my aversion to carrying more than one bag). I need to mention this one last bit though – the conveyor belt at the airport wasn’t working and we had to go behind the airport to deposit our luggage in, along with heap of bags, almost making it certain that the bags would never reach Stockholm on the right flight. Now this has never happened to me in India, but am sure if it did, everyone including myself would crib about it being a third world country , nothing ever works here etc etc… Here no one so much so as murmured and people didn’t even complain when as predicted the bags didn’t reach Stockholm. To top it, the airport authorities took in our baggage, without any screening or anything. Am just wondering, with such amazing security, why the need to fuss about liquids!!

PS:

Got to know once I got back to Office, that Skelleftea was the warmest city/town in the whole of Europe yesterday! Cannot get over it, since have seen it being -30 degrees in the winter and sometimes colder... Yippee!! looks like the summers are finally here... more about it later

My retirement plan Ver 100.1 :-)

2007-05-30T20:06:00.002+05:30

One of my Swedish colleague took pity on me (I am in the south of Sweden in another plant right now) and took me boating on his speed boat in the lake nearby. He did warn me though, since it was windy and drizzling, that we might come across rough waters, and that his boat was small, so if I was scared, I needed to rethink.

My love for water, and the sense of adventure, just couldn’t stop me. The combination of the cold wind on my hair, ice cold water splashing all over my face, the waves which were small to look at but gave us a scare more than a couple of times and the fact that we didn’t have our life jackets on made it an experience I will never forget. My thoughtful colleague also brought along with him some coffee which we had on one of the islands – as the Swedish say, it was "Perfekt".

While sipping our cups of coffee, amidst all that beauty, we decided to go try and see some moose. So after the sailing adventure, we drove a little away into the woods, to see if we could get lucky. Didn’t get lucky with the moose, but saw a deer, and witnessed the country side, which was good enough for me. The respect and love that the Swedes have for the environment is something that I am still getting used to. In anything they do, they take into account the effect of it on the environment. No wonder this place is breathtakingly beautiful (not forgetting that there are far less people here).

After experiencing a little bit of the Swedish adventure, I plan to quit working when I am 40, buy a cottage on one of the islands here and spend the rest of my life pursuing wildlife photography. That way I guess I’ll have enough food for my never ending appetite of the nature, good photographs added with a lot of fun!

What’s the harm in dreaming!!....

Billiards anyone?

2007-05-28T20:40:00.003+05:30

I still remember the day I landed here in Sweden sometime in February, to a small place called Skellefteå( pronounced as Shell-ef-teo). Everything I saw was white, from the ground to the trees to even the sea and the rivers!! I couldn't’ imagine as much snow anywhere and what amazed me more is people going outdoors to have fun in all that snow. I remember while driving to Bodo (North of Norway), where all I could see were mountains covered with snow, and amidst all that snow, far away, I would find a tiny “thing” moving, and would discover it’s a person skiing, fishing or simply taking a walk! At first I did think they were crazy! But then I realized that it was simply a way of life...

The Swedes are sports, nature and outdoor lovers, and six months of winter gives them no other option but to welcome the winters and the snow with open arms. And that’s precisely what they do – skiing, ice hockey, snow mobiles, dog sledging, curling, you name it and they have it. I didn’t even know of the existence of a game called curling, let alone there being an Olympic championship for it. Coming from a country where cricket is (or should I say was after the world cup debacle) an obsession and where Rediff till very recently had different sections for sports and cricket, how could I be blamed for my ignorance!

It’s a different experience to be among people, who give sports and outdoors as much importance as the Swedes do. It’s amazing to see how children are encouraged by their parents to be a part of at least one sport along with their studies. I guess it’s the fact that the parents know that the children do not need to worry about their future and that the government will take care of him, and the fact that the child will not be looked down upon, if he is not as good in studies but plays ice hockey, or soccer or something else. I am sure that there are exceptions in India as well, but they sure are few and far, and that too in very few sports. I guess its all a matter of security and what the future holds for people in sports, especially when the media of the country goes ballistic over the highs and the lows of the Indian Cricket team, and is obsessed with Sania Mirza’s T-Shirts, but doesn’t really bother about the likes of Viswanathan Anand, Rajyavardhan Rathore and Joshna Chinappa (does anyone even know where Geet Sethi is??).

Yet while I am here I cannot help but wonder and feel despondent, on why amongst a population of over a billion, we cannot consistently produce a world class team or a sportsman, be it in cricket, soccer, hockey or anything else.

2007-05-24T00:38:00.001+05:30

I got my ears pierced today (second one, the first doesn't count since it was done when I was a baby and I have no memory of it) !!! Landmark in my life!! For the people who don’t know me, my fear of needles and pain of any kind is legendary. From the time I remember, the stories of my visits to doctors of all kinds have been a great source of entertainment to my family and friends. And for a person like me, to voluntary inflict pain on myself was sort of a surprise – for me!

I don’t know what made me do it, maybe was the boredom (most of the radical decisions I make in life are out of boredom, but lets save that for another day) or maybe it was seeing the Swedes with piercings everywhere – if they can have it at the weirdest places, why can’t I, or maybe just my never ending quest to try just about everything. Whatever the reason was, I am glad I went through it, not because I look any different from what I did, or that I have changed from the person who cries so much as sitting in front of a dentist, but because I have overcome my fear. And that for me is a sense of achievement.

From Chai to Kaffe

2007-05-21T20:10:00.002+05:30

Being from an army family and having traveled to different places in India, I always prided myself on being able to adjust quickly to any place. After all I shifted from Goa to Mathura and was equally happy in both places (people who have stayed in both these places would appreciate my sense of achievement better). So when I decided to go to Sweden that’s what I thought - How different could it be from India?

And well that was what struck me first when I landed here in Sweden – How different it is from India!! There is not one similarity between India and Sweden. Well no similarity is an understatement. It is safe to say that the two countries are opposite of each other in every possible way.

My life has changed in every possible way - from drinking strong, milky tea to having strong black coffee; from the various vibrant colours in India to the white, grey and black of Sweden; from people just about everywhere to actually hunting for people; from all the traffic jams to not crossing a single car for an hour while driving; from cursing yourself for being a pedestrian while trying to cross roads for nearly an hour to just walking across and making the car wait for you; from the famous summers of India to the harsh winters of Sweden, from the sun rising and setting on time to it either never rising or never setting; from the chatty, emotional, loud, inquisitive Indians to the reserved, calm, “we mind our own business” Swedes (except for when they are drunk); from “I have no time to eat because I have work”, to “ I need an hour for lunch, the world’s not going to end”, the list just goes on and on.

I have been here for almost three months now, and somehow this place still surprises me. I can safely say that I am still getting acclimatized and maybe I will continue to do so till the day I get back!