Jaipur with Gang Macmillan - Aug 1999

This was one of those trips we planned and planned and planned yet more, numbers kept changing, people kept changing their minds – it got so tiring, yet JC and I kept at it and organized the trip :) A total of 18 of us – all from NIIT, KSB, D185, Macmillan project – for those who want more information about this, ping me, will explain the 2-3 letter acronyms so famous at NIIT!

We spent a total of 3 days and 3 nights away, traveled by the Rajasthan tourism buses and stayed at a Rajasthan tourism hotel. Was not the best, cause we wanted economy stuff. But was good fun nonetheless. A word on the Rajasthan tourism buses – they are one of the best in the country in terms of economy, neatness, and comfort.

So, finally the D-day arrived - all the guys and gals assembled at Bikaner House in Delhi (those familiar to Delhi know this landmark, I guess) all pretty excited about going away for a few days. And to add to the excitement, we had some people running in just 5 minutes before departure time, looking harassed and desperate for their morning cuppa :) So, ok, doing the headcount all 18 in the bus. Hip hip hurrah, let the good times roll!

Like normal, enthusiastic tourists, we sang and danced and had a whale of a time. Reached Jaipur by around 4 pm and by the time we settled in was time for dinner. So all we did that evening was to go to the nearest shopping place and buy a whole bunch of clothes and what not – as ever, give some time and money to a woman and she’d show you just how many things she can buy ;). Later that night, we just had fun at the hotel and talked well into the night.

Day 2: Hired a bus and visited
1. City Palace (not so grand as it is claimed to be)
2. Jantar Mantar (one of the oldest observatories in the country)
3. Amber Fort
4. Birla Mandir. Have to say we were not too impressed with the state of the places (most seemed washed out and completely unkempt).

Post lunch we saw the Jal Mahal, a sight no one should miss as is the Hawa Mahal. Ahh, Hawa Mahal… the guide here was really cute, telling us about the list of movies shot at this location – he reeled off a whole bunch of movies, actors names, songs and poses and more details than any of us cared to listen to :) We ended the evening with a darshan at the Kanak Vridavan (a mountain top temple) and a surprise bhajan session; you have to hear the melody, and witness the grace of the women who sing and dance. Was one of the really nice experiences I have had.

So now all that done, we got the bus driver drop us off at a market (sorry, forget the name of the market, is one of the biggest in Jaipur. And as ever the girls vied with each other to buy more than the other! It was close to 11 by the time we realized we were hungry… hunting for food at that hour was painful though we finally managed. Finding transport turned out to be yet another expedition that finally we got into autos meant for cattle (hee hee) – have some pix of that too :)

Day 3: Since the bus back Delhi was in the afternoon, we didn’t plan much – and broke up into groups and went out ways – we discovered a lovely restaurant that served yummy south Indian food – aaahhh, before u roll your eyes, you need to know that this set of human beings were south Indians, away from home for close to 3 months, and so the thought of good yummy palate-familiar food was totally exciting…

Of yes, we had yet more confusion about getting to the bus terminal – some very enthusiastic shoppers forgot the time of departure and so we had to pack their stuff, get some food packed and hold up the bus for them! He he.. interesting lot, wont you say?

More information from:
http://www.pinkcity.net/
http://www.ent.ohiou.edu/~kartik/jaipur.html

Old post - What I felt while in Finland!

Weather took its toll! In the 15 days I was here, the weather changed soo much and so often!!! - It was cold and windy thanks to all the lakes- Drizzling and windy- Sun and rain, one after the other, chaging every hour- the last few days of my trip have been really hot and I got this wonderful tan, never mind all the sunblock I had on! :)

Food: Contraty to popular belief, getting vegetarian food is not soo difficult, though I coudnt really digest all that cheese, pasta and bread! Started cooking on day 3, though limited myself to rice, veges, and stew types, was not so bad... garam masala zindabad!!! bought some maida one day and made rotis... duh. quite horrendous. Then found an Indian store and freaked on buying daals and masala!!! Hee hee!

Sleep: Took me about a week to get used to the fact that its broad daylight when i go to sleep and the sun is stil shining when i wake up :) i really had a problem for 3 days, got better later, thanks to the blinkers I got with me! Lets just hope I dont sleep like this back in Hyd... would be 2.5 hrs later... hee hee... the people here are apparently tuned - biologically that is - to handle 5 months of daylight (sun sets only for 2 hrs, and even that is like dusk for us) and complete darkness for 6 months in winter. i dread to think about being here in the sleet and snow!

Weekend life: is nothing so great, most places close early on Saturday and Sunday is like a ghost town! Nothing much to do, but relax and chill out. Its only the malls that are open! And all one can do is window shopping.. lordy! Everything seems so expensive! Duh… don’t have the heart or guts to spend so much on stuff. But, am on the lookout for anything uniquely Finnish, will try and pick up stuff if I find anything.

Walking and bicycling: People seem to live on their feet or peddling!!! Really, I mean it! Everyone, I repeat, everyone had a cycle and they use them to get around to places that are near (5 kms for them) and anyplace in the range of 2 kms is to walked! Simplo!

More laters!

Old post - Weekend trip to Helsinki and Espoo!!

This was a trip I had been really looking forward to! And it was indeed memorable. Don’t know how many of you have traveled by road across Europe, but its so amazing and it’s a real treat to the eyes, and I believe we were treated to a display of weather of all types.. There was rain, sun, and a hailstorm too in the 2 hours we spent on the road! The number of flyovers and green fields… and guess the most exciting part is locating all the houses and lakes peeking from behind the forest pine! My friend was happily off to sleep (we had come back from the tiring evening before and talked till the wee hours, so…)

Reached that place around noon and started by exploring the city center! Boy, was it crowded or was it crowded!!! This place is onehappening place and it was 31st May, Graduation day in all of Finland when High schoolers get a cap and the certificate in a ceremony! And are these kids wild! Beer bottles, loud music and what not! For the otherwise sober Finnish people, this seemed like another extreme! I am told that this is one day when the kids are really allowed to go all ‘out’ and they do just that!

Took this guided tour around Helsinki, and must say, was not worth the money we paid! My soul still cringes thinking about the money I paid! Yeah, I know, I shouldn’t convert, but… the tour took us around to the churches and places of cultural importance (the ballet theatre) and also to place like the Olympic stadium and others. What struck me most is that there is a lot of Russian and a lil British influence in the architecture… and some of the buildings!!! Its amazing to see them!

Anyways, will put the pictures and explanation some place, doesn’t seem to make sense to just type and type! Though must add that we walked so much more that day, going back to the places the tour took us to. Was fun but our feet were dead by 6 in the evening, and yet we had to kill time till 11 (my friends from Espoo were going to pick me up then, and my friend was to take a bus to the airport to catch a flight the next morning!) so what do we do!?! Off we went to see the movie ‘Troy’!

Don’t know how many of you has been to the theatre in the West, but this theatre is like one of those one sees in movies! The gallery has seats that look so cute! Ah! You need to see the pictures I clicked to understand what I mean!

Dinner after movie, meeting pals and off to Espoo in that order, though dinner was one of the worst I have ever had! Yueck! Anyways, made up for that by having good desi khana the next day at their place.

Espoo is a lovely dot on the map! Green and lush, small town, very very finnish, with 3 churches, 2 malls and few restaurants! Am told most residents go to Helsinki for work, leisure and whatever else in between! :)

Got back to Tampere late Sunday evening, feeling totally tired, happy and not too ready for the Monday at work!

Old post - May 04 Tampere, Finland

Last weekend was in a word, hectic! Friday evening we went to a lot of places…
The first stop was the Doll museum and Arboretum park (one of the biggest gardens in Tampere). You should see this place to believe it! It sits on the edge of water by the Nasijärvi (pronounced nasiyarvi) river, and is famous for its gardens. We had this very informative guide who walked us around, telling us about the flora and fauna and also the history of the place. Unfortunately we were too late to see the museum.. but then it is one problem! Most public places close by 5 pm, and office closes at 4.. no way that one could actually get to see the inside of a lot of these places :)

The next halt was the Tampere Ballet Auditorium cum city hall. Its this awesome structure which houses a total of 5 theatres and 2 recording studios.. we went into a lot of the theatres and also watched a rehersal for a musical cause out guide works in that place, couldn’t go back for the actual show cause I was happily roaming in Helsinki at that time! We walked around the park that is adjacent to the Hall, can you imagine, the temprature was + 7 degs, and we were walking around this place filled with ducks and seagulls and magpies? It was really really vey very nice! Duh.. superlatives galore, huh?

Since we were starving by this time, we started looking for a place to eat… ya, started at looking at 8 pm, found this Chinese resturant at 8.40 pm! Hhmm.. most places here close by 7.30, and so we really had to walk and walk yet more to locate a place that would feed us.. And boy, did we stuff our faces! This was pure Chinese Chinese, not the Indian Chinese one eats back in India!

The final destination that evening was the city cemetery!, but hey, its one of the best I have seen, so neat and clean, and the spring flowers in full bloom. But the highlight of this place is that its on one of the highest points in the city… and of course, there are memorials for all the soldiers who dies in the independence war, and if you ask nicely, wil show you pictures that I clicked from this place…

Must have walked some 5-6 kms that evening!

Old post - May 04 Tampere, Finland

First 10 days in Tampere:I was the 2nd person traveling to Finland, the other gal was here when I came, she was my partner in crimes for the first 10 days, after which she left. So if you find a ‘we’ , it means her and me.

10 days in Finland so far - been pretty good. Thursday (20 may) was a holiday, ascension day. Went to one of the biggest lakes (Pynikki, prounced puniki) around here yest, some office ke bande took us, nice lot of people, seem aloof, but they are nice enuf actually. Guess all human beings are wary of people from other cultures initially, hai na? then we went to an amusement park (Särkänniemi: http://www.sarkanniemi.fi/english/index.php) have clicked pictures...

Bbbrrrr, the park is close to another lake…. Bbbrrr getting close to water is enough to make anyone shiver. Came back home with the people and cooked dinner for all of us.. they really loved the food I made! hee hee trust us to have a social life wherever we go, eh?

We stayed in a service apartment, pretty decently furnished, right in the middle fo the city, in the heart of the Tampere shopping district. So you can guess just how pampered we were, 10 mins walk to office, every street corner has a department store, and every alternate shop is a eatout! Hee hee

Despite the abundance of eateries, I started cooking around day 3 or 4, couldn’t really digest the pasta and bread.. and meat-less food is tough to come by here. Eating out is limited to pasta and bread, so was not too enthu about it. Mostly cooked some rice and stew types, its not so bad... garam masala zindabad!!! bought some maida yest and made rotis... duh. quite horrendous. Then discovered this Indian store, so bought a few pulses and spices. So by this time, has a fully stocked kitchen!!! And hey, I don’t want to hear comments about how I haven’t lost weight! Hmph!

Weather: was pretty windy and cold when I got her.. and thanks to all the lakes, it was like freezing! Imagine putting a human being in + 32 degs one day and dropping the same human being in windy, drizzly + 7 degs kind of temprature… sigh! Wasn’t the best of fun, but then had wollens that helped me in the initial days… brrrrrr.. Really tired hard to enjoy the weather and walking and biking.

Thought of buying a 2nd hand bike, needed it for commuting around the place, most places are 15-20 mins mostly, so a bike made a lot of sense. But couldn’t get one, but it was ok, started using buses and walked more than I ever have back in India!

And boy, did it take a while to get used to the fact that its broad daylight when i go to sleep and the sun is stil shining when i wake up :) i really had a problem for 3 days! And I still wear my blinkers (the ones they give you on flight) it got better with time… lets just hope I dont sleep like this back in Hyd... would be 2.5 hrs later... hee hee... the people here are apparently tuned - biologically that is - to handle 5 months of daylight (sun sets only for 2 hrs, and even that is like dusk for us) and complete darkness for 6 months in winter. i dread to think about being here in the sleet and snow!

During weekends, this place resembles a ghost town! Nothing much to do, but relax and chill out. But that weekend we walked a lot! Close to 14 kms! And my feet do protest!! But they get a nice hot-water soak when I get bac each evening, so guess they don’t really have an opportunity to protest too much, huh?

Oh, yes, I actually came to Finland to work… heehee, office is okay, people so different from India, unless they have work with you, no one even looks at you. Though have been lucky that 2 of these people are really friendly people and have been taking me around in the evenings! And work has only about started now!

More later!

old post - Finland Busines trip, May 04

Ah, so here I am, finally, out in the big mean world, on my own for the most part and doing fine too! ‘What big mean world?’ you may ask… I am in Finland, 5500 Kms away from home, living in temperature 30 degress lower than my hometown and you have the temerity to ask me that question!!! Hrmph!

Anyways, so where was I? Oh yes, I was going to chronicle my stay here in Finland. Been here 10 days now, and lordy! What a time, its been!

Nothing, but nothing on earth would have prepared me for this! I mean, here I am sitting in Hyderabad with temperatures hovering around + 39 deg cel on the maximum… imagine my shock when I landed in Tampere, it was drizzling, windy, no sun and the maximum temprature was + 7 degs cel… And I was told this is summer time!! Duh duh duh! Anyways, I quickly got out all the wollens and wrapped myself (pictures of my ‘stuffed’ state only for those who promise not to laugh!).

Day 1 and 2 went off in a stupor! jetlag and constant headaches... sigh.. guess the headaches were from the cold wind... whatever it was, I dont remember those two days too well... not that i did much, just getting a hang of the way to and from office, the departmental stores and the feeling that i was eating paste... bah... that's what pasta tastes like to me.. atleast here in the West! Indians seem to have their recipies for most of this stuff, Indian Chinese food, Indian pasta, Indian Thai food.. hee hee.

to be continued!

Old post - February 11, 2004

One for the road - just got thinking today about how we all view our lives.... Any takers for the stuff I thought and wrote down??? May sound a little off-the-rocker, but this is me!!! :)

What is my life?
Is it...…a parody?
…a satirical tale?
…an ideology?
…a non-stop gobbledygook?
…a straw in a gale?
…a passing storm?
…a floating cloud?
…a minute’s pause?
…a moment’s thought?
…a wisp of light?
…a ray of sunshine?

Hhmm.. in my own mind, I would define MY life as
A thing to be lived
Just another life
A few dreams
Some unfulfilled
Some realized
Some undreamt
Some ironic
Some almost real
A role model to a few
A triumph over mortal problems
An ongoing saga
A story unfolding
The one chance to be here

If I havent had a life... what have I had?

Old post - February 07, 2004

One of those rare times when I have pulled a fast one! and how! even the dude I played the prank on agreed that wit was a good stunt! what more could I ask for??

The story: this dude hasn’t been in touch for a while now - 6 months give/take... and now is back, telling me that I must forgive him the lapse and be good buddies... the mature part of agrees and is ready to get in step. the other part of me is bristling... lordy... heaven's be praised, but then am not a vengeful person, but he gave me the opportunity I really wanted...

He pinged me yesterday - completely sloshed - kept telling me that too - yet did manage to have some kind of conversation... Later, we had another convo... and unfortunately for him, he had to tell me that he had no recollection at all of the previous evening and what he had told me :) aaahhhh... you can imagine the stuff I made up - poor chappie, fell for all the stuff I told him he had told me! ha ha he he ho ho!

I couldn’t stop laughing all of this morning, got to work as usual - and find that this chap is waiting for me to surface and tell him what he really had told me! poor guy, really had no recollection...

Would dg let that go? Nope, she wouldnt. She milked it some more - made him answer some questions she had for him - if he wanted the details of their convo... ha he ho!

Am still smiling! :))

Old blog - February 06, 2004

Been talking to different people - seems a majority are ready to be cases for the loony bin, down in the dumps, feeling trashed by life, on the 'i-hate-this-world' mode... i was there too - but then takes a while to get over some stupid nonsense, but then I guess all of have our share, eh?

The past week has been an experience - have met so many new people, made new friends - they have kind of made life different - and made me realise that life is NOT about remembering the silly things that happen to us... but to cherish the new moments as they happen....
Read this some place recently, liked it :) read on...

I Love The Word Impossible
It's like joy after sorrow.
People being friends after being enemies
Rainbows after drenching rain.
A wound healed Sunsets on quiet evenings after Hot noisy days.
Paralyzed, injured limbs learning to grow Strong and useful again.
Forgiveness after wrong Truth after fog.
New love-made babies.
Birds learning to fly and own the sky Bitterness turned to mellowness
Fresh, genuine hope .. once abandoned
People finding each other at right moments
In unexpected, obscure places ..
For reasons unfathomable.

I love the word impossible because my God believes
In adventure
And extraordinary mountains
And he dares to be alive in a world
Crawling with terrible situations
He promises to be bigger than any impossibility
Because He is hope..
And hope always finds a way through, in time.

Old post - dated Dec 2003

Sunday evening... sitting at home listening to some lovely music - lovely instrumental stuff – the guitar being the focal point. Just got back from a pal’s place – we had a very nice afternoon and evening, rounded it off with “music shopping”.

Took a minute to reflect how life’s been this past 2 months.. so much travel, having a pal over, my parents visit (as tiring as ever! Hee hee!) work at office and demands on my time which I otherwise would have loved to spend with myself. And just as I was preparing myself for the hectic and long week ahead, some online friends stopped by to update me about their lives and ask me how mine is.

As ever, I said am okay and doing good… Don’t know why I paused after typing that and asked myself if I was being honest and wondered what the reactions would be if I did say that I was not ok, albeit doing good… I know my friends would care and shower me with concern and loving words of encouragement.

But then did I want to burden them with this stuff? And what exactly do I lack/crave for in my life? Hhmmm on the surface nothing at all.And to these people who love seeing me as a cheerful, happy human being I doubt I would have made much sense.

So, yes, am fine and doing good! Ah, there I feel better already :)