(A new post appears on this webpage after almost 5 months. But when would one speak out, if not at this time?)
Few months ago, we Indians were talking our heads off about a group called NSG - The Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Politicians threatened to resign, the media speculated and sensationalized, the intellectuals debated, discussed and the indifferent ridiculed the whole circus about the Nuclear Deal.
Come November 2008, India was talking about another NSG this time. NSG, the elite group of commandos that was supposed to protect our...... err... great leaders against misbehaving crowds and the occasional assasin!
Did someone say they were also supposed to protect us? We the people? Are you kidding? They way they were stationed back there in Delhi, the way they were brought in to Mumbai in a plane borrowed from Chandigarh, the way they waited at the Mumbai airport for an hour, waiting for a 'best' bus (notice the irony) to take them to the scene of action, it certainly didn't seem so...
Looking at the way the NSG men worked non stop for 60 hours, I felt a sense of pride.
And I have never felt so proud and sorry for my country at the same time!
On one side there were the unselfish staff at the two hotels, the dutiful firemen, the unitiring police constables, the common people who quenched the thirst of the ones at the site, and of course the NSG themselves.
And on the other side there was the ever sensationalist media, and the juggernaut called Maar-khaa Dutt who ran amok pushing aside survivers, commandos and the onlookers, the spineless politicians profiting on the situation, all the bickering to get to the CM's seat, the Intelligence failure or the government's failure to heed to intelligence, and the complete bureaucracy which ensured that the NSG arrived at the scene not earlier than 9 hours after the attacks started.
Can somebody pls explain to the procurement department in the Government, police or whatsoever, that rifles and pistols from the world war 2 do not work in this new century! And yeah, Bullet proof vests are supposed to stop... you got it.... bullets!!
Guess any fundamentalist anywhere in the world might be thinking now... "Hell, I could just borrow my friend's fisherman raft, 'pak' my rucksack with the latest ammo, reach the shores of Mumbai and just bomb the hell out of the city! Wait, I need not do that myself. I'll just get a downtrodden guy in the 20s, brainwash him against the Western ideology and he will be ready to kill left-right-center even before you can say, 'Jihad'!"
This is simply not done!
And yeah, bombing the neighbouring country isn't going to help. Even though if it might, then the first thing is to get our internal security system in place. Someone needs to get tough and tax the junta a few percentage points more, just so that our police and the NSG get the minimum required equipment, the Naval guards get the right gear to monitor our porous shorelines and the people in the public security services get paid well !
Till the time we have malnourished-looking and underpaid policemen, who have to sadly cling to old time rifles and 'laathis', and till the time we all started respecting their profession just a little bit more, things wouldn't change.
I wish they would.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Football, flying and the feeling of irony...
Excuse the bad alliteration in the subject line, but its for want of a better phrase...
21st May, 2008, the biggest football match of this season in Europe will unfold.
Mancheter United take on Chelsea FC.
Thats tomorrow.
The 2 best English teams of today will fight out the highest trophy in Europe. Its already assured that an English club will be the Champion of the continent.
And the irony is - the English national side didnt even qualify for the EURO 2008 happening this June.
My Personal irony:
As I travel between 2 of the greatest footballing cities in the world, flying from Lisbon to Madrid (and the next day back to Stuttgart), the feeling of void, of having missed one of the best footballing actions ever, will stay for quite some time.
I wish they had live TV on flights :P
21st May, 2008, the biggest football match of this season in Europe will unfold.
Mancheter United take on Chelsea FC.
Thats tomorrow.
The 2 best English teams of today will fight out the highest trophy in Europe. Its already assured that an English club will be the Champion of the continent.
And the irony is - the English national side didnt even qualify for the EURO 2008 happening this June.
My Personal irony:
As I travel between 2 of the greatest footballing cities in the world, flying from Lisbon to Madrid (and the next day back to Stuttgart), the feeling of void, of having missed one of the best footballing actions ever, will stay for quite some time.
I wish they had live TV on flights :P
Saturday, May 17, 2008
What I now know about flying
- That a 3 hour flight journey is as bad as a 10 hour one, if you don't have something proper to read on the way, and/or you end up in a seat beside a 120 kg fella who conveniently spills over adjacent arm-rests.
- That 'Catcher in the Rye' is different, and good! Probably worth the accolades it has got, but it makes you feel like strangling that guy Holden Caulfield for being so irritating. (but thats what the author wanted I guess)
- That Air France stewardesses will go out of their way to freak you out (and always more than once) if you happen to get one of those seats at the Emergency Door.
"Sir, I have to ask you AGAIN - you must jock open this Emergency door if and when I tell u so. Is it FINE with you? (or should I ask some other ignorant fool to take your place?)"
- That the Emergency Door seats do have their latent advantages. There is so much leg room, you can almost tap dance there! (ok, that was a bit over the top, but you get the drift...)
- That Air France meals are actually decent, but if your crossiant topples out of your tray and rolls over to the bottom of the seat behind (and below the shoes of the guy sitting there), its actually not good news.
- That the laws of Physics do not work inside aircrafts compartments. (Murphy's laws do, though). So, no, the crossiant will NOT roll back to your feet when the plane actually applies its landing breaks.
- That having a connnection at Paris - Charles De Gaulle, and catching it smoothly is equivalent to expecting the Deccan (Dis)chargers reach the semifinals of the IPL.
- That if you happen to be dropped off at a CDG terminal other than your connecting one, then you could might as well say adeiu to your flight if it leaves in less than 45 mins. (forget asking why on earth did the airline offer you this impossible connection anyway)
- That Air France does have Boeing aircraft too on its fleet. 'French connection' doesn't come in way of free-market dynamics. (My solitary MBA gyaan for today. No such observations anymore)
- That at 2200 hours, due to the low flight traffic, the quick-as-ever ground handling staff at Lisbon airport will deliver your baggage to the conveyer belt in record time. In just less than 32 minutes. Really.
- That having an actually decent flight is not half as interesting as pretending it was lousy and cribbing about it online. :)
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Of 'guilt at the stoppages' and megapixel rains
Imagine....
Its a nice sunday afternoon and you are just done with a family lunch. Then you get to your fav place in the drawing room and get glued to the television. It hasnt been a few minutes of visual joy, when the screen goes abruptly still! (much like the blue screen of death in Windows) And then there is a flash with the very familiar words:
'Rukawat ke liye khed hai'.....
Rings a bell?
And the 'Guilt at the Stoppage' doesn't stop there. Its very smoothly followed by a black-and-white mesh of haywire pixels, juxtaposed with a sound which is oddly similar to heavy rain falling on a metal sheet.
No other channels to jump to, the disappointed yet hopeful spectator had nothing else to do but to wait till the black-and-white rain subsided.
Circa early 80s: Television had arrived!
Its difficult to forget the eerie DD signature tune that reminded of graveyards and the ugly-looking DD logo that looked more like a top-view of a Mexican hat gone slightly awry. See that and you will agree >>
And what characters! The kid called Swami in small town South-India, the carrot-eating investigator, the forgetful day-dreamer, the Sherlock-Holmes-styled white-clad bengali detective, the huge bunch of myriad characters at a roadside corner (nukkad), white-haired ghosts taking a ride on the shoulders of unnerved Kings, bunch of youth hanging out on campus, a prime-minister telling us stories of India's glorious past, families with a member-count higher than the population of Australia, and badly-done special-effects of mythological characters throwing at each other, weapons of every possible dimension.... just to name a few. They were the ones who made the evenings and Sundays enjoyable for every middle-class home in India.
So starved were we of motion pictures or anything remotely similar, that on lazy Sunday afternoons, we ended up watching regional-language movies (forget about understanding a word of it), and even news bulletins for the deaf-and-dumb!! Now thats desperation.
These were just a few lines about the hey-days of old-time idiot-box, fully garnished with doses of nostalgia and memorabilia.... but hey, don't pull out your tissues or mom's pickles just yet.
On a philosophical note, the memories remain at their pedestal, as long as they are those faint memories. The moment you take them out of the grandma's closet and wham - there goes the charm! It hits you right there in the face that something which you always cherished from the past, actually tips precariously towards mediocrity, and towards a big disconnect with the immediate present.
But more about that later...
(Next post - a few of the favorite old-time shows...)
Its a nice sunday afternoon and you are just done with a family lunch. Then you get to your fav place in the drawing room and get glued to the television. It hasnt been a few minutes of visual joy, when the screen goes abruptly still! (much like the blue screen of death in Windows) And then there is a flash with the very familiar words:
'Rukawat ke liye khed hai'.....
Rings a bell?
And the 'Guilt at the Stoppage' doesn't stop there. Its very smoothly followed by a black-and-white mesh of haywire pixels, juxtaposed with a sound which is oddly similar to heavy rain falling on a metal sheet.
No other channels to jump to, the disappointed yet hopeful spectator had nothing else to do but to wait till the black-and-white rain subsided.
Circa early 80s: Television had arrived!
Its difficult to forget the eerie DD signature tune that reminded of graveyards and the ugly-looking DD logo that looked more like a top-view of a Mexican hat gone slightly awry. See that and you will agree >>
And what characters! The kid called Swami in small town South-India, the carrot-eating investigator, the forgetful day-dreamer, the Sherlock-Holmes-styled white-clad bengali detective, the huge bunch of myriad characters at a roadside corner (nukkad), white-haired ghosts taking a ride on the shoulders of unnerved Kings, bunch of youth hanging out on campus, a prime-minister telling us stories of India's glorious past, families with a member-count higher than the population of Australia, and badly-done special-effects of mythological characters throwing at each other, weapons of every possible dimension.... just to name a few. They were the ones who made the evenings and Sundays enjoyable for every middle-class home in India.
So starved were we of motion pictures or anything remotely similar, that on lazy Sunday afternoons, we ended up watching regional-language movies (forget about understanding a word of it), and even news bulletins for the deaf-and-dumb!! Now thats desperation.
These were just a few lines about the hey-days of old-time idiot-box, fully garnished with doses of nostalgia and memorabilia.... but hey, don't pull out your tissues or mom's pickles just yet.
On a philosophical note, the memories remain at their pedestal, as long as they are those faint memories. The moment you take them out of the grandma's closet and wham - there goes the charm! It hits you right there in the face that something which you always cherished from the past, actually tips precariously towards mediocrity, and towards a big disconnect with the immediate present.
But more about that later...
(Next post - a few of the favorite old-time shows...)
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Elect me! I'm a woman and he is black!
The American President elections - everyone knows it 'different' this time.
But why on earth do these polls need to continue for almost an year? The whole cicrus began late last year and the finals would take place in November 2008! Thats really long... I mean, within that much time, the Chinese would have cooked up a bit more of the world's share of greenhouse, Pakistanis would have killed 4 more politicians (assuming there are any more left) and 20 new bomb attacks would have been manufactured in the the Palestine-area!
Ever since the drama has started, CNN, the lone English channel on my television has been covering it 14 hours out of 24, robbing viewers like me of many more important topics - world peace and global warming, for instance! And football.
No, really! :)
I like Obama by the way.
I think its something to do with the confidence that shows on his face when he is on the stage. And its good that a colored person is coming so close to the White-House for the first time. He is somewhere between a rightist and a leftist. Besides, he isn't even completely black! The best part is that he never plays the 'Racial Card' to downplay his origins of his skin-color.
Nice.
Which reminds us of Senator clinton, who never misses out on reminding the world (and the gullible voters) that she was born with two X chromosomes. (We already know that, Ma'am!) Playing the gender card comes as easy to her as it comes to Bush on sending more troops to Iraq. Why do half of the Democrats like her so much? If she could handle her shaky marriage and kept it strong, she would probably do the same to a shaky United States, right?
You bet!
And speaking of confidence, I couldn't trace that at all on her face, which more so showcases a makeup experiment gone horribly wrong. That, topped with an pageant-like artifical smile that refuses to disappear from her powdered chins.
John McCain looks like that solid-old senior citizen who has promised his great granddaughter a seat to the White-House. But he might even end up winning the seat, just because the Republicans would probably rig the polls, or because of the Bush magic, which surprisingly has shone (and still shines) since the last 2 terms.
Poor Democrats. You should have known that the government is for the people, of the people and rigged by the people.
Speaking of rigging, the American polls are a total sham on the delight of elections! I mean, look at the Indian elections. What interesting scenarios here - rigging, violence, booth capturing, mud-slinging, back-stabbing, threatening, bribing, horse-trading, hung-parliament and what not! The candidates in the US are so diplomatically-correct, so cordial to each other, never maligning each other - so much that they make our own politicians seem like satan's offsprings!
Footnote PJ:
Why is the US-head a President, and not a Prime Minister?
Because otherwise he/she would have been called 'Sub-Prime Minister'!
:)
But why on earth do these polls need to continue for almost an year? The whole cicrus began late last year and the finals would take place in November 2008! Thats really long... I mean, within that much time, the Chinese would have cooked up a bit more of the world's share of greenhouse, Pakistanis would have killed 4 more politicians (assuming there are any more left) and 20 new bomb attacks would have been manufactured in the the Palestine-area!
Ever since the drama has started, CNN, the lone English channel on my television has been covering it 14 hours out of 24, robbing viewers like me of many more important topics - world peace and global warming, for instance! And football.
No, really! :)
I like Obama by the way.
I think its something to do with the confidence that shows on his face when he is on the stage. And its good that a colored person is coming so close to the White-House for the first time. He is somewhere between a rightist and a leftist. Besides, he isn't even completely black! The best part is that he never plays the 'Racial Card' to downplay his origins of his skin-color.
Nice.
Which reminds us of Senator clinton, who never misses out on reminding the world (and the gullible voters) that she was born with two X chromosomes. (We already know that, Ma'am!) Playing the gender card comes as easy to her as it comes to Bush on sending more troops to Iraq. Why do half of the Democrats like her so much? If she could handle her shaky marriage and kept it strong, she would probably do the same to a shaky United States, right?
You bet!
And speaking of confidence, I couldn't trace that at all on her face, which more so showcases a makeup experiment gone horribly wrong. That, topped with an pageant-like artifical smile that refuses to disappear from her powdered chins.
John McCain looks like that solid-old senior citizen who has promised his great granddaughter a seat to the White-House. But he might even end up winning the seat, just because the Republicans would probably rig the polls, or because of the Bush magic, which surprisingly has shone (and still shines) since the last 2 terms.
Poor Democrats. You should have known that the government is for the people, of the people and rigged by the people.
Speaking of rigging, the American polls are a total sham on the delight of elections! I mean, look at the Indian elections. What interesting scenarios here - rigging, violence, booth capturing, mud-slinging, back-stabbing, threatening, bribing, horse-trading, hung-parliament and what not! The candidates in the US are so diplomatically-correct, so cordial to each other, never maligning each other - so much that they make our own politicians seem like satan's offsprings!
Footnote PJ:
Why is the US-head a President, and not a Prime Minister?
Because otherwise he/she would have been called 'Sub-Prime Minister'!
:)
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Blog in oblivion
Hello! Anyone there? Koi hai ????????
Seems this webpage has been left alone all along. (I can even visualize weeds growing from the sides of the page... See that?)
Except for the lone visitor here and there, (and a few regular ones who just come in between days just hoping the the blog owner would pull his lazy fingers and type something on the keyboard), there has been NO activity on this blog! Nothing, Zilch, Zuke, Nein, Nowt!
Anyways, as all good things should come to an end, yours truly has decided to restart putting down his random thoughts (or made up ones) on this discarded piece of HTML.
Discarded no more, now...
Reader, pls pull out that weed sticking out from the bottom left, will you?
There! Thanks!
Seems this webpage has been left alone all along. (I can even visualize weeds growing from the sides of the page... See that?)
Except for the lone visitor here and there, (and a few regular ones who just come in between days just hoping the the blog owner would pull his lazy fingers and type something on the keyboard), there has been NO activity on this blog! Nothing, Zilch, Zuke, Nein, Nowt!
Anyways, as all good things should come to an end, yours truly has decided to restart putting down his random thoughts (or made up ones) on this discarded piece of HTML.
Discarded no more, now...
Reader, pls pull out that weed sticking out from the bottom left, will you?
There! Thanks!
Sunday, February 25, 2007
4 AM Morning, snowless European winter and a flat-flat country
Caution: Long. Very long. But not uninteresting :)
Since last 4 months, visits to the Netherlands have become quite frequent - due to official necessity that keeps arising at expected and unexpected times. These visits start with a extremely early morning flight to Amsterdam, then a 1 hour cab ride to Utrecht at the client office.
Then, back the same way.
Waking up at 4 AM in the morning. Catching the cab at 4:45 AM. And getting my boarding pass at the Stuttgart airport. Ah, doesn't leave me in such a fresh mood at all. But yours truly too bizy dozing off....
Wait! is that cheese sandwich and orange juice on the flight? I'm awake.
And hungry.
Its winter. Its a snowless winter.
6:15 AM
Flight begins on time. Stuttgart airport is never congested. No buses. Direct down the alley into the aircraft door. There you have (sometimes) nice looking Dutch air-hostesses wishing you that your morning is good.
Well, it is.
The usual civilities of aircraft safety - spoken in assortment of German, Dutch and Englees. I am done with skimming through the in-flight magazine in few minutes. This month's issue has a feature on Hyderabad!
Good.
I am now trying to sleep again. Read: make believeing my eyes that I am asleep.
7:50 AM - Arrival in Dutch-land!
Windmills. Tulips. Cheese. Bicycles. Football. Sex.
(the last one was just to draw some attention, in case the reader is already dozing)
I look out of the small window beside and I find a flat landscape with criss crossed lines that are actually canals. I try looking through the other window on the opposite side as well, and the blonde sitting there assumes I am staring at her. Oops.
I turn back my gaze. Of course its the same view from there too!
Digression 1: Prologue to the Netherlands
Haven't seen a flatter country! Its at the sea coast and its so flat (also below the sea-level) that the high tides enter the land areas and flood them outright. For this reason, one can see canals all over Holland, just to keep the tide water in flow. These canals - objects of neccessity, give Holland a distinctive identity, that is even oh-so visible from the sky! And then there are dikes that prevent the sea-tides at the shores outright. For these tall countrymen, the war with the sea is a never ending one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_Netherlands
Quick fact: Canals of Venice are murky, dirty and close ended to the buildings. In Holland, they are more like rivers. Clean. Asthetic. Occassionally inhabitanted by gorgeous swans and bunches of noisy ducks!
Nice.
Digression 2: Prologue to Amsterdam (well, once I DO see the city properly, I might have more to add)
Its bad enough to miss seeing this city during summer. To top it, havent been able to experience the city in this winter as well! Yes it's beautiful in the summer months. Tulips that bloom, canals that meander through the heart of the city - cafes and bistros that are lined up on the sides, some good architectural visuals, and of course, the famous red light district.
(I happen to look up a map of Amsterdam while waiting at the airport, and voila, there I see an area marked specially as 'Red Light District' - a rarity for sure)
Well, the city is famous for that area ridden with so many caberets, massage parlors, sex shops, strip bars and of course the women (and men!) engaged in the 'trade' - full time. Holland isn't called the sex capital of Europe just like that!
Did someone mention sex? :P
8:15 AM
Sitting in the cab on the way to Utrecht.
Way out of airport driveway leads to the cross-road between Utrecht and Rotterdam.
Spotted a huge signboard of TCS visible from the airport driveway. Europe is getting faster on offshoring. Whats MY employer doing?
The soothing back-seat upholstry in the Mercedes Benz is a treat to the.... ahem... hinds. :)
Our cab guy is the extremely amiable Soerish. (loosely corrupted from 'Suresh' if you are curious) From an Indian family originating from Surinam, had been in Netherlands as far as he can remember. Indian roots are very much intact though - and bollywood music is one branch to cling to, passionately.
Surprise! Amsterdam and Utrecht have their own Hindi Radio channel! Its called 'Ujala Radio' and if you excuse the weird accent and half Dutch that accompanies the nattily written script of the RJ, it does manage to entertain. I mean, sitting there in the comfy back seat of the E-class, I am treated to numbers like 'Suhaani Raat dhal chuki...' (classic!), 'Aye Dile Nadaan...' and 'Khalbali'! Funny how after listening to an array of bollywood songs, I am tempted to sing aloud James Brown - 'Whoa-oa-oa! I feel good...!
Dammit! There's a Himesh track thrown as well!
Maybe I'll try that 'I feel good' song next morning in the hotel room shower. :)
9:15 AM
Arrived at the client office. From then, the 'I feel good' counter is backwards!
Meetings. email. Coffee. Meetings. Lunch. Conference call. Meetings.
Wishing it to get over soon.
6:30 PM
Time to go!
Reach hotel room. Check in. Check out the room. Go for dinner.
11 PM
Hit the bed.
Its been an early morning actu.......zzzz
Friday. Next day
Checked out of hotel. Reached office again.
Done with the regular stuff of knocking heads with clients.
5:30 PM
Time to go.
Rush hour. Long drive. Hasty arrival. Schumacher-ish driver.
7 PM: Amsterdam Schipol Airport
Long queue at security check mocks at us. "Hah!" I say.
Digression 3: Crazy EU flying rules
The new EU rules tell me that I am not allowed to carry liquids, and if any, they should be in less than 100 ml packaging (why?) and carried in a transparent plastic bag. Ah, I already know that from Stuttgart, but its much strictly enforced here.
I see an attractive blonde being held up for not complying. She shows her bag to the attendent. The overwhelming contents of the bag emptied on to the table. Voila! Out comes a complete survival kit of sorts! At least 40 items!
Lesson learnt: If you wanna see how one can survive on a stranded island with a smal bag full of stuff (Castaway?) - check out such a woman's purse.
Frustated by the snail-pace of my queue. I see that the queue next to mine is smaller. I apply my quick logic - so I decide to shift to that one. It seemed that the people at the security check were not amused, because from that moment on, my queue started getting slower and slower.
~~~~
Murphy's law of serpentine queues:
Amongst a number of queues at the same place, the queue that you choose will be the slowest!
Corollary to the law:
If in the middle, if you decide to shift to a queue adjoining that is moving fast, from that moment, your new queue will become the slowest of all.
~~~~
8:10 PM
Quick dinner at the food-lounge over. Waiting for boarding. Gate C 22 to 28 seem worse than a State transport bus stop in India. Only cleaner.
8:35 PM
On board. Bring on the sandwich and the juice!
10:30 PM
Home sweet home. Sleepy again.
PS: Did someone say Amsterdam is the.... .... capital.. ?
PS2: That blog post promised in the previous post below will come soon, of course.
Since last 4 months, visits to the Netherlands have become quite frequent - due to official necessity that keeps arising at expected and unexpected times. These visits start with a extremely early morning flight to Amsterdam, then a 1 hour cab ride to Utrecht at the client office.
Then, back the same way.
Waking up at 4 AM in the morning. Catching the cab at 4:45 AM. And getting my boarding pass at the Stuttgart airport. Ah, doesn't leave me in such a fresh mood at all. But yours truly too bizy dozing off....
Wait! is that cheese sandwich and orange juice on the flight? I'm awake.
And hungry.
Its winter. Its a snowless winter.
6:15 AM
Flight begins on time. Stuttgart airport is never congested. No buses. Direct down the alley into the aircraft door. There you have (sometimes) nice looking Dutch air-hostesses wishing you that your morning is good.
Well, it is.
The usual civilities of aircraft safety - spoken in assortment of German, Dutch and Englees. I am done with skimming through the in-flight magazine in few minutes. This month's issue has a feature on Hyderabad!
Good.
I am now trying to sleep again. Read: make believeing my eyes that I am asleep.
7:50 AM - Arrival in Dutch-land!
Windmills. Tulips. Cheese. Bicycles. Football. Sex.
(the last one was just to draw some attention, in case the reader is already dozing)
I look out of the small window beside and I find a flat landscape with criss crossed lines that are actually canals. I try looking through the other window on the opposite side as well, and the blonde sitting there assumes I am staring at her. Oops.
I turn back my gaze. Of course its the same view from there too!
Digression 1: Prologue to the Netherlands
Haven't seen a flatter country! Its at the sea coast and its so flat (also below the sea-level) that the high tides enter the land areas and flood them outright. For this reason, one can see canals all over Holland, just to keep the tide water in flow. These canals - objects of neccessity, give Holland a distinctive identity, that is even oh-so visible from the sky! And then there are dikes that prevent the sea-tides at the shores outright. For these tall countrymen, the war with the sea is a never ending one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_Netherlands
Quick fact: Canals of Venice are murky, dirty and close ended to the buildings. In Holland, they are more like rivers. Clean. Asthetic. Occassionally inhabitanted by gorgeous swans and bunches of noisy ducks!
Nice.
Digression 2: Prologue to Amsterdam (well, once I DO see the city properly, I might have more to add)
Its bad enough to miss seeing this city during summer. To top it, havent been able to experience the city in this winter as well! Yes it's beautiful in the summer months. Tulips that bloom, canals that meander through the heart of the city - cafes and bistros that are lined up on the sides, some good architectural visuals, and of course, the famous red light district.
(I happen to look up a map of Amsterdam while waiting at the airport, and voila, there I see an area marked specially as 'Red Light District' - a rarity for sure)
Well, the city is famous for that area ridden with so many caberets, massage parlors, sex shops, strip bars and of course the women (and men!) engaged in the 'trade' - full time. Holland isn't called the sex capital of Europe just like that!
Did someone mention sex? :P
8:15 AM
Sitting in the cab on the way to Utrecht.
Way out of airport driveway leads to the cross-road between Utrecht and Rotterdam.
Spotted a huge signboard of TCS visible from the airport driveway. Europe is getting faster on offshoring. Whats MY employer doing?
The soothing back-seat upholstry in the Mercedes Benz is a treat to the.... ahem... hinds. :)
Our cab guy is the extremely amiable Soerish. (loosely corrupted from 'Suresh' if you are curious) From an Indian family originating from Surinam, had been in Netherlands as far as he can remember. Indian roots are very much intact though - and bollywood music is one branch to cling to, passionately.
Surprise! Amsterdam and Utrecht have their own Hindi Radio channel! Its called 'Ujala Radio' and if you excuse the weird accent and half Dutch that accompanies the nattily written script of the RJ, it does manage to entertain. I mean, sitting there in the comfy back seat of the E-class, I am treated to numbers like 'Suhaani Raat dhal chuki...' (classic!), 'Aye Dile Nadaan...' and 'Khalbali'! Funny how after listening to an array of bollywood songs, I am tempted to sing aloud James Brown - 'Whoa-oa-oa! I feel good...!
Dammit! There's a Himesh track thrown as well!
Maybe I'll try that 'I feel good' song next morning in the hotel room shower. :)
9:15 AM
Arrived at the client office. From then, the 'I feel good' counter is backwards!
Meetings. email. Coffee. Meetings. Lunch. Conference call. Meetings.
Wishing it to get over soon.
6:30 PM
Time to go!
Reach hotel room. Check in. Check out the room. Go for dinner.
11 PM
Hit the bed.
Its been an early morning actu.......zzzz
Friday. Next day
Checked out of hotel. Reached office again.
Done with the regular stuff of knocking heads with clients.
5:30 PM
Time to go.
Rush hour. Long drive. Hasty arrival. Schumacher-ish driver.
7 PM: Amsterdam Schipol Airport
Long queue at security check mocks at us. "Hah!" I say.
Digression 3: Crazy EU flying rules
The new EU rules tell me that I am not allowed to carry liquids, and if any, they should be in less than 100 ml packaging (why?) and carried in a transparent plastic bag. Ah, I already know that from Stuttgart, but its much strictly enforced here.
I see an attractive blonde being held up for not complying. She shows her bag to the attendent. The overwhelming contents of the bag emptied on to the table. Voila! Out comes a complete survival kit of sorts! At least 40 items!
Lesson learnt: If you wanna see how one can survive on a stranded island with a smal bag full of stuff (Castaway?) - check out such a woman's purse.
Frustated by the snail-pace of my queue. I see that the queue next to mine is smaller. I apply my quick logic - so I decide to shift to that one. It seemed that the people at the security check were not amused, because from that moment on, my queue started getting slower and slower.
~~~~
Murphy's law of serpentine queues:
Amongst a number of queues at the same place, the queue that you choose will be the slowest!
Corollary to the law:
If in the middle, if you decide to shift to a queue adjoining that is moving fast, from that moment, your new queue will become the slowest of all.
~~~~
8:10 PM
Quick dinner at the food-lounge over. Waiting for boarding. Gate C 22 to 28 seem worse than a State transport bus stop in India. Only cleaner.
8:35 PM
On board. Bring on the sandwich and the juice!
10:30 PM
Home sweet home. Sleepy again.
PS: Did someone say Amsterdam is the.... .... capital.. ?
PS2: That blog post promised in the previous post below will come soon, of course.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Unity in Diverse-cities
Finally found it!
Had been looking for this video for quite some time now.... And there it was - the very tv-show filler that I'd seen ages back on our very own National channel.
Remember the video - 'Ek-Anek'?
Does 'Ek chidiya, anek chidiya' ring a bell?
This is one of those few tv-shows that I practically grew up on!
One of the simplest lessons that explained grammer - how plurals worked, simplified mathematics - how counting should be done, and put this damn simple thought in the little children's heads that 'Unity is the way to go!'
Ah, those were the simple days of Doordarshan....
(and I shall continue this discussion in the subsequent post...)
Had been looking for this video for quite some time now.... And there it was - the very tv-show filler that I'd seen ages back on our very own National channel.
Remember the video - 'Ek-Anek'?
Does 'Ek chidiya, anek chidiya' ring a bell?
This is one of those few tv-shows that I practically grew up on!
One of the simplest lessons that explained grammer - how plurals worked, simplified mathematics - how counting should be done, and put this damn simple thought in the little children's heads that 'Unity is the way to go!'
Ah, those were the simple days of Doordarshan....
(and I shall continue this discussion in the subsequent post...)
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Further from the previous post....
The few lines in the previous post about wars in Europe remind me about something that happened last week in Stuttgart. A construction group was busy in activity at a site, and they unearthed something which we have only heard stories about, but its fairly common across this place. I'm talking about bombs. And huge ones!
While digging through the layers of earth, the site workers happened to come across a HUGE bomb, unexploded since last many many years - which apparently was dropped there during the world war 2. And there it lay, untouched and undestroyed....
That was enough to cause frenzy all around and soon the area was cordoned off, while the special bomb squad folks jumped in. Traffic and movement of trains came to a standstill around that area.
By the way, Stuttgart was one of those cities that was almost completely destroyed by bombing during the World War, and had been newly rebuilt. Thats the reason for its modernistic public transport and its public buildings. In and around Germany, its a fairly common thing to discover these sort of things, but hey, a bomb is a bomb! Who can beat that...?
On a lighter note, an interesting theory I read, about how the World War I started:
"A Serbian rebel killed an Austrian prince, so everyone declared war on Germany."
:-)
While digging through the layers of earth, the site workers happened to come across a HUGE bomb, unexploded since last many many years - which apparently was dropped there during the world war 2. And there it lay, untouched and undestroyed....
That was enough to cause frenzy all around and soon the area was cordoned off, while the special bomb squad folks jumped in. Traffic and movement of trains came to a standstill around that area.
By the way, Stuttgart was one of those cities that was almost completely destroyed by bombing during the World War, and had been newly rebuilt. Thats the reason for its modernistic public transport and its public buildings. In and around Germany, its a fairly common thing to discover these sort of things, but hey, a bomb is a bomb! Who can beat that...?
On a lighter note, an interesting theory I read, about how the World War I started:
"A Serbian rebel killed an Austrian prince, so everyone declared war on Germany."
:-)
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The Inscrutable Europeans
Firangs are weird people!
I'm sure half the population of Europe would find ME, the asian, weirder, but as the owner of this conversation I'll just let that point of conflict pass.... :-D
Ya I know, each society has a way of norms, behaviour and lifestyle and blah blah... but puhleese let me have the menial pleasure of ripping apart the ways of some foreigners that I find really surprising or stomach-tickling or both!
With all due respect, they (my clients) are the ones who provide the bread and butter for my employer, which in turn does a (half) decent job of giving me my daily bread.... so...
Firangs have a way of doing EVERYTHING systematically. Thats a good thing, considering that they usually end up doing a quality job. (especially engineering and sports!) But 'systematically' usually has an after-effect of turning into 'boringly one thing at a time'!
Try getting towards a salesman here when he is attending another customer, and all you'll get is a big IGNORE! Of course you'll have to wait till he is over with the current person that has occupied all his limited attention.
Try telling a foreigner about 2-3 different things simultaneously, and you can be damn sure his processor will hang! Good-ol' multitasking - I dont think its exists in the foreign dictionary.
And they in no comparable ways can get closer to us desis in terms of money-management, cash-optimization! (I'll tell you what it means... by an example)
A friend of mine in Amsterdam had the following interaction with his client. (he was offered the luxury of being given a lift to office by the client Project lead (PL))
Friend: Hey, I'll wait at the R-square and you can pick me up from there.
PL: Okie, what time you'd be there?
Friend: Oh, just gimme a miss-call on my cell just when you leave, and I'll be there in 5 mins.
PL: What is a miss-call? why would I give you a 'miss-call'?
Friend: Oh, its when you give me a call and I don't pick it... Just to let me know that you are on your way.
PL: (confused) But why would I not pick the phone if you call me?
Friend: (aaaaaaahhhhh !!!!!)
Once at a shop I managed to cough up a bill of 5 euros and 18 cents. I paid the cashier a 10 bucks crispy note and wished I wouldn't be stralled with a handful of loose change of cents. Then I realized I had 20 cents with me that might save me (and her) some bit of trouble. So I handed that to her with a new 5 euros note and asked for the 10 rupee note back. That did it! Her system totally crashed! Firstly because she had already entered 10 in her cash registers, and secondly bcos she totally lost track of the transactions that we were mutually were into! (whatever happened to math classes in junior school?)
And of course there is this vast cultural difference - which a desi is duly subjected to, from the moment he/she enters phoren land. Be it the Public Displays of Affection, or the way senior citizens are treated (bad, really bad), or the way individuality and professionalism is rooted here, or the way they eat, drink and party - everything is oh-so different here!
A greet to everyone you meet - its the norm. Its really a good thing to have around - politeness and 'assumed' nicety, but after a while when you see everyone speaking the same thing artificially, EVERYDAY, it can get to your nerves.
(Prakash seems to think on simlar lines) :-)
A friend of mine who had recently moved in with her husband to Stuttgart was asked by her landlady whether the guy was her husband or boyfriend! (ya, I know live-in relationships are slowly picking up in India too, but a question like this?)
Another friend of mine had this conversation: (oh so typical :-))
Foreigner: Are you married or single?
Friend: Single :-)
Foreigner: Do you have children?
Imagine this being spoken in India. Something like this would send the person on a minor heart attack!
On a serious, more factual note:
Europeans have been at the crux of the Industrial revolution. They have been the foremost in science, technology, the arts and monarchy. They are responsible for all the development around the world (and also responsible for all the backwardness due to colonization - thats the irony) Such a small continent, so beautiful to the eyes, divided in small small pieces of nationalities, each speaking a different language, each weirder than the other! Europe is one its kinda continent (ok, ok - we don't have many continents anyways)
The funny part is - most of the nations have ended up fighting each other throughout the centuries and still have remained the most developed and rich nations. Except beautiful Switzerland which hasn't fought wars, probably explained by Scott 'Dilbert' Adams' theory that cooler nations have had lesser battles, ha ha.. Maybe while the whole world was busy killing the world, the Swiss were too busy freezing their chocolate covered nuts! lolz!
But all things apart.... there are hundreds of things we Indians could learn from these goras, of course! (too big a discussion - might take a whole new post and a very hopeful mood for that, maybe for later :-) )
Prakash and me both are seeing the ways of foreign land (in separate continents), and that is naturally accompanied by a mental comparison between that place and our very own motherland.... so be it! :-D
Peace.
And, Jai Hind!
I'm sure half the population of Europe would find ME, the asian, weirder, but as the owner of this conversation I'll just let that point of conflict pass.... :-D
Ya I know, each society has a way of norms, behaviour and lifestyle and blah blah... but puhleese let me have the menial pleasure of ripping apart the ways of some foreigners that I find really surprising or stomach-tickling or both!
With all due respect, they (my clients) are the ones who provide the bread and butter for my employer, which in turn does a (half) decent job of giving me my daily bread.... so...
Firangs have a way of doing EVERYTHING systematically. Thats a good thing, considering that they usually end up doing a quality job. (especially engineering and sports!) But 'systematically' usually has an after-effect of turning into 'boringly one thing at a time'!
Try getting towards a salesman here when he is attending another customer, and all you'll get is a big IGNORE! Of course you'll have to wait till he is over with the current person that has occupied all his limited attention.
Try telling a foreigner about 2-3 different things simultaneously, and you can be damn sure his processor will hang! Good-ol' multitasking - I dont think its exists in the foreign dictionary.
And they in no comparable ways can get closer to us desis in terms of money-management, cash-optimization! (I'll tell you what it means... by an example)
A friend of mine in Amsterdam had the following interaction with his client. (he was offered the luxury of being given a lift to office by the client Project lead (PL))
Friend: Hey, I'll wait at the R-square and you can pick me up from there.
PL: Okie, what time you'd be there?
Friend: Oh, just gimme a miss-call on my cell just when you leave, and I'll be there in 5 mins.
PL: What is a miss-call? why would I give you a 'miss-call'?
Friend: Oh, its when you give me a call and I don't pick it... Just to let me know that you are on your way.
PL: (confused) But why would I not pick the phone if you call me?
Friend: (aaaaaaahhhhh !!!!!)
Once at a shop I managed to cough up a bill of 5 euros and 18 cents. I paid the cashier a 10 bucks crispy note and wished I wouldn't be stralled with a handful of loose change of cents. Then I realized I had 20 cents with me that might save me (and her) some bit of trouble. So I handed that to her with a new 5 euros note and asked for the 10 rupee note back. That did it! Her system totally crashed! Firstly because she had already entered 10 in her cash registers, and secondly bcos she totally lost track of the transactions that we were mutually were into! (whatever happened to math classes in junior school?)
And of course there is this vast cultural difference - which a desi is duly subjected to, from the moment he/she enters phoren land. Be it the Public Displays of Affection, or the way senior citizens are treated (bad, really bad), or the way individuality and professionalism is rooted here, or the way they eat, drink and party - everything is oh-so different here!
A greet to everyone you meet - its the norm. Its really a good thing to have around - politeness and 'assumed' nicety, but after a while when you see everyone speaking the same thing artificially, EVERYDAY, it can get to your nerves.
(Prakash seems to think on simlar lines) :-)
A friend of mine who had recently moved in with her husband to Stuttgart was asked by her landlady whether the guy was her husband or boyfriend! (ya, I know live-in relationships are slowly picking up in India too, but a question like this?)
Another friend of mine had this conversation: (oh so typical :-))
Foreigner: Are you married or single?
Friend: Single :-)
Foreigner: Do you have children?
Imagine this being spoken in India. Something like this would send the person on a minor heart attack!
On a serious, more factual note:
Europeans have been at the crux of the Industrial revolution. They have been the foremost in science, technology, the arts and monarchy. They are responsible for all the development around the world (and also responsible for all the backwardness due to colonization - thats the irony) Such a small continent, so beautiful to the eyes, divided in small small pieces of nationalities, each speaking a different language, each weirder than the other! Europe is one its kinda continent (ok, ok - we don't have many continents anyways)
The funny part is - most of the nations have ended up fighting each other throughout the centuries and still have remained the most developed and rich nations. Except beautiful Switzerland which hasn't fought wars, probably explained by Scott 'Dilbert' Adams' theory that cooler nations have had lesser battles, ha ha.. Maybe while the whole world was busy killing the world, the Swiss were too busy freezing their chocolate covered nuts! lolz!
But all things apart.... there are hundreds of things we Indians could learn from these goras, of course! (too big a discussion - might take a whole new post and a very hopeful mood for that, maybe for later :-) )
Prakash and me both are seeing the ways of foreign land (in separate continents), and that is naturally accompanied by a mental comparison between that place and our very own motherland.... so be it! :-D
Peace.
And, Jai Hind!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
