Technology and me

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??

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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!

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Cars, lights and all that in between

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!!!

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1717 kms in 4 days….. phew!

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!

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T.I.A

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

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Out of my comfort zone

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…

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From a long time ago….

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.
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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
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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…

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Its that time again…

…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……

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The Great Indian Tamasha

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…

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12 hours of music and much more

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.

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Blue, Blue and more Blue…..

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!

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Are you ever prepared to get married??

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 :-).

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Resilience – an abused word

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!!!

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Dedicated to the necessary evils of my life

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

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To my friends….with love

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?? ……

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Am Back

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!!

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Leaving on a jet plane

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

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About “The” trip - Finally!!!

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.

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

… 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

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Its official now - The winters are here

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!!

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