The big fat Indian wedding-1

I decided I will write a series of posts from now on about Indian weddings. According to me, its a waste of time and money. It tests your show-off skills, emotional quotient and it is the ultimate pressure handling test. Companies can use it as a tool to assess the candidates break down point.

They look grandiose, has a lot of merriment too but on the outlook. Do you know and/or believe the atrocities committed/undergone when a Hindu brahmin girl has to get married in India? I am not talking about the during-marriage phase yet, its the prior-marriage part of it. Let me list few of them for you. And of course we are talking about arranged marriages. I don't have to explain the concept since its got quite a reputation. Some favourable and some depiciting astonishment..

Of course, I am not saying all brahmin families are the same. As in case with anything, there are few exceptions but what is the fun in talking about them?? ;-) This tale could be of any ordinary or extraordinary brahmin girl. I cannot comment on other girls. But I guess its all the same. Lets talk about a happy little family which is not completely orthodox or has thrown all the traditions to the wind. A broad-minded loving family where the girl hasn't had too many restrictions.

The girl in question could be a graduate, a post-graduate or a doctoral degree holder. She can have the potential of being the next Sunita Narain, Naina Lal Kidwai, Indira Krishnamoorthy Nooyi or a Kalpana Chawla. But to the family that comprises of not just the parents, she is a mere mortal. An ordinary girl. Her dreams and goals could as well be treated like a mistake caused by her youthful zest and imagination! Once an ideal hindu brahmin girl makes a crime of turning 21 or 22 years old, all the aunties in the house start getting hormonically super active. Yeah, you read it right! The aunties of the house!

They all become mothers of the girl, crooning over her and start manipulating the actual mother's sensitive, scared brain and turn matchmakers at their own will without any prior consultation from the girl's parents. Oh yeah, forget the permission from the girl. Their estrogen production might have stopped ages back for good but the new estrogen rich kid in the block somehow activates the adrenaline in them and magnetically attracts them all like vultures towards meat! The uncles usually remain silent but on occasions they offer their advices nose-up in the air with a feeling that no man is born yet who can contradict them.

I remember a grand-uncle of mine telling "Good boys are like vegetables in the market. You go early in the morning, you get the freshest and the healthiest ones. You go by evening, you will have to settle for the rotten ones." Well, I so wanted to say "I'll go back the next morning". But I bit my lip. :-)

The poor parents in question, bound by the societal conventions now look into each others eyes. May be the only time after 25 years when they got married! But this time there is no pure, young romance in their eyes. Thy dread the near future. An overwhelming sense of danger is cast upon them. They fear getting into the "getting our daughter married" mode. But they treat it like a duty. A responsibility, which they were shouldered when they were born around half a century ago! They feel there is no escaping to it. If they fail to comply with the societial rules, they can be marked as bad parents. And they who have been the best of parents till then fear a black spot on their parenting record. They silently hold each others hands, once again may be after those 25 years when they first held it in their wedding, close their eyes and dive straight into the dark forces of horoscopes, matrimonial sites, Brahmana sanghas and of course the ever-helping relatives arms!

You can find a deep change in the way they talk to their girls. Fathers who treated their daughters more like sons, gave a high-five when they came back home in the evening, plotted together in pranks now start looking at their daughters more like- you-are-a-guest types. The mothers become unnaturally shrilly and start fussing about a simple acne that is sprouting on her daughter's face as though its a malign tumour that could kill her. Forget about sizes. If the girl does not look like a sleek designer flower vase, eternal doom is guaranteed! Lets talk about that later.

I will eat myself if a brahmin family does not look at horoscopes,the first thing, in times of crisis. Parents who generally do not believe in astrological influences start taking out the dusty old horoscopes of their daughters that was written when the girl was born. A natal record penned by a man, usually of whom the parents have atleast heard about, who people consider, to be bestowed with the knowledge of seeing the future. I do not know how, but this man can tell the exact year in which she will get married the day she is born. He can say which direction the groom will be found! I think the vicious process starts here. The quest begins with the aim of digging out the guy who had matching planetary effects when he was born. Wow, marriages here rely primarily on the day and time when the girl and boy was born!! Makes sense huh?!

Beat it, a man who is no way connected to the girl, sits in his private sanctimonious domicile feeling blessed about designing another human's life and people actually take his word on the girl's life. If he says the girl was born in the wrong time, she is chided after 21 years for not crowning out of her mother's cervix hours earlier or later! But if she did crown at the "right time" i.e something like during the fight of mars and saturn or during the mating of pluto and the moon for example then she can bring enormous fortune to the guy who holds her heart! I'd say who holds her dad's signed cheque book rather!

I am not saying this ancient study field is wrong or is senseless. I trust my country beyond any barriers. If some tradition/culture/a field of study was born in India, it definitely has a rational and intellectual dimension to it. If its been for so long, may be there is more to it.

Indian study of planetary movements dates back to the B.C's. Those noble men searched and found answers to several mysteries around human life. Those in the Vedic times(I don't claim to be an expert on Vedas, but having undergone few related lessons about religious history years ago, I can only think this as a probability.)wanted to know how man is related to the universe. They tried relating the microcosm and the macrocosm which research facilities all around the world are trying now! They predicted celestial phenomena which astronomers do today! Along with being brilliant astronomers, they were philosophers who tried to find the truths and tried to relate human activities to the celestial phenomena in the only purpose of finding a way to relate to the universe, beyond mundane. In that sense they became astrologers too. They couldn't be wrong in predicting the influences of planetary motions on natural disasters and human life. It is done even today but we know it with a different name! But what is happening today is men sheerly following a crude path to make a living. They follow a set of rules that has changed over the years to suit human needs. Today's astrology is something like an ABCD(American Born Confused Desi).

Is there someone who has actually studied the vedas completely and has full knowledge of the celestial occurrence? If so then he wouldn't be found on every other street of an Indian town. If so, he would be employed by the greatest research institutes in astronomy, meteorology and disaster management and the earthlings would never be less prepared for a disaster!

Now you are not expecting every Indian child's life to be predicted by someone like them, do you? Basing every important decision taken in a life on the word of someone who proclaims to know the heavenly bodies better than anyone else is outright foolish! What value does a person's will/desires hold then? If a certain star/planet/constellation was prominent a the time of birth, so be it. But how does it affect the later life? How does it determine a person's character?

Generally, in any hindu tradition for that matter, if the planet Jupiter is strong i.e in a certain position and the Mars is not creating any ruckus by being in the wrong position the girl is ready for marriage! Doesn't really matter if she is on verge of completing her thesis which could potentially cure cancer, she has to get married at that time or else she is doomed for loneliness, the rest of her life.

This is the point which brings parents to their knees. They would rather let the world die than conducting their daughters wedding after her thesis by which time Mr.Jupiter wickedly pulls out of his deployment! May be that is why there is still no cure to cancer! :P

Anyway the girl may well be ready to accept consequences. When so argued, the lectures begin. From every corner. At some point you will want companion blah blah... Agreed. Everyone needs a companion for life.. But who says if Jupiter decides to take a break form the same position, the girl cannot find a guy?! Of course if you are prioritize cast and creed, which is rather senseless, one would rather not bother after Jupiter decides to call it quits. And I wonder, how does Mr.Jupiter manage to act on all the billion hindus around the world? Why does it just stop being strong for a person? How can Jupiter be at the extreme of fitness for the person sitting next to you but be at the prime of infirmity for you?? Hundreds of girls are born at the same time. So all those hundreds should get married at the same time, with guys possessing matching planetary conjunctures at their birth time and in turn it implies that all of them will be found in the same place more or less. Right??

Oh we still haven't spoken about matching the zodiacs(rashis). How is it that constellations can be friends or enemies? And based on that humans getting married?! I am sure this was not what the Vedic people decided to pass on, atleast not in this way.

Ok will someone please explain that to me?!!

Ok, that topic can go on for days,. Didn't meant to write so much or get so serious! Pardon me. :)

The next step for parents would be to register their daughter in those money-minting small dingy offices calling themselves trusts and sanghas, in case they do not have "contacts" whose brother-in-law's, grandchild's maternal uncle's wife's sister-in-law's brother's son is available for marriage! Those old-fashioned staff in the offices set up rules that the house mates have to follow with no exceptions. A studio-picture where the camera man has a thousand lights on the girl who has no limits on her make-up and that photo which has been photoshoped with tens of editing steps clearly visible is the primary most requirement. The morons in there fail to realize that she is hardly gonna look like that daily! Mind you its not the groom's family asking for it yet!

Looking for the right guy. A brahmin guy. Parents who have never known internet, will become tech-savvy, register their daughters in all online websites, some named like 'asklaila' (doesn't it sound like a tabooed website or something? :P ) and start browsing the profiles of boys there!! I'm serious. It sounds rather gross, don't you think? The very concept of it makes me nauseous. Its the same case with guys I suppose too. The same parents who wouldn't allow their sons to check out a "girls website" and proudly tell everyone "Our son is such a good boy. He never looked at any girl also before, you know?" oblivious to their son's hidden talents, will encourage, flaunt and in fact use the technology to the fullest extent in browsing profiles and pictures of girls, commenting and having a good time of their lives! Hypocrits!!

I love bhel puri and dahi puri too! :P

There is more to it. Once they start finding interesting profiles, some coming from those dingy offices, comparison starts. Salary, Place of living, Status are the top priority. Mind you, at this stage, the horoscopes will mysteriously be matching and of course the relatives and parents-turned spies would have found the link in their contacts and would have extracted all the details of the boy! You see, in certain sects of brahmins, it is known that everybody within the sect is related one way or the other. Its like the pure-blood concept from Harry Potter series. Find the missing link, you find the true CV of the guy!

The entry of girl and guys still awaits. May be you first need to digest this post. I shall soon get back to you.;)

Tot ziens!

aeroyogi

27/03/2010

Agent Kats in the house! (Story 1)

Well, if you are wondering who this Agent Kats is, you are one of those who did not read my blog at the right time. She had shown herself to the world for few hours today. She is my character, born out of me. Actually she had never surfaced any day before. Few circumstances yielded in her rising.. A character that stole me away from me. I wish you all could read about her. But Vignesh just showed me how dangerous it is for the world to know about Agent Kats right away! Not that it hadn't occured to me but I was so in love with my intrepid, audacious, invulnerable and dominating character that I wanted the world to read about her. I still do. But may be a little change in perception was called for. You will get to know her better in due course of time.

Agent Kats. She was born out of abhorrence. She has a split personality, but any form she adornes, her ultimate motive is to cause misery and destruction, a gruesome end is what she craves and strives for! Destruction of those who torture, drill, bore and grind your senses and absolutely get to the worst side of you. I love Agent Kats, not beacause she is me, its because she is not me!

She is super sexy, carries an athletic body that probably won her medals in the Olympics, wears black leather, has a ruler straight hair that brushes her back just beneath her shoulder and a tuft of hair always falls on her eye. She has an OMG3 console that acts as a weapon manufacturing database for her. But she hardly needs it. She can move with the agility of a snake while can balance herself better than a cat! Not unlike a spiderwoman, her brain is razor sharp that can work on different areas at once and her confidence alone could just obliterate you. She thrives in an invisibility shell that senses the need of her services. Half a thumb tall in her shell, when risen from her slumber transforms into a dark, translucent, six feet tall woman with rage tat could ignite hell. She is simply amazing.. I love her!! I feel sorry I never gave her a chance to face up these many years!

She has had a couple of ventures too in the recent past where she valiantly destroys the enemy with her ingenuity, exuberant skills and robust weapons. Grown men those who obviously have undervalued her, have experienced the worst of brutal destiny. Her most recent one would rock your ground. Literally. What else can you expect with a 200 dB sound level?

This wrong-doer (we shall call him enemy target) smelling cigarette-ish had caused a lot of annoyance and misery. He challenged the powers of the all-prevailing Agent Kats and her endowment. Thats when Agent Kats exploded out of her invisibility shell. I felt like someone was giving her drum rolls behind! She flew out like a Ninja with fury undefined. As she landed straight on enemy target's shoulders, she transformed herself into the six-feet phantom. A spectral delicacy for the eyes! He could already feel her weight. Aha! Pay back! He began crumbling while Agent Kats only stood her ground! When the enemy target could no longer tolerate, he buckled on his knees. Agent Kats zipped out her console and threw it in the air high above. As she did, the audio command prompt bleaped. She muttered something to it and then I couldn't believe my eyes and ears. There were all sorts of weapons that lined up and then formed a delta. Odd sounds emanated from those vibrating artilleries, none that I could recognise. But I saw the target down on the floor screaming clutching his ears. I did not understand. The noise wasn't that bad. Perplexed I look at Agent Kats. Her lips twisted wickedly and pointed at a small screen on the gizmo that had stationed itself in mid-air right at the center. It was then I realised she was directing all the 200 db worth sound towards the target. Normally, threshold of pain is 120 db.When exposed to sound levels greater than that, constantly, it could lead to a variety of misfortunate abominable ailments. Agent Kats did nothing but to stand on his chest nonchalantly with folded arms. I wonder how she shielded herself and me against the sound! Pressure built up and blood started oozing out of his ears and nose. She hadn't touched him and yet he couldn't stand against Agent Kats' mightiness. His body was contorting like as though he was being electrocuted in a cold water bath. Sensing he had enough after a while, Agent Kats lazily pulled out the center most contraption and muttered in a strange language into it. All the gadgets fell into a single line, roved around the target in an involute fashion and swept themselves cleanly into the OMG3 console.

Agent Kats zipped the console to her waist and walked gracefully upto me. She never spoke to me but something in her eyes told me that she would always be there for me. I held her up in my palm and she stood there wit a benign smile. I thanked her and she calmly walked right into her invisibility shell. The shell simply floated into me. All of a sudden I felt light by a thousand pounds.

She exudes an aura around herself and anyone in her vicinity. Her power is ineffable and she is enigma personified. I am yet to discover lots about her. Atleast it looks like there is a lot more to her than this. When I do, the world shall be enlightened better.:-)

aeroyogi

26/03/2010

Life in Netherlands-Part 4-Studying differences...

Somewhere in the early dawn, still lying on my bed, I groggily parted my window blinds to see the wet road, multi coloured spaceboxes and the little glowing stars from the lamp posts and other buildings. Of course you can attribute the "star effect" to my poor uncorrected vision! Its become an usual ritual of mine to get a glimpse of the blurry morning outside the window before I get out of bed. I dunno why but I just do it!

Its also another ritual of mine to curse under my breath (I dont want that to be the first word I utter every morning) seeing my alarm clock showing 8:00 am when it just looked like 5 am outside!

Welkom bij Holland!

But this quarter, I had decided I wouldn't repeat what I did in my first quarter. Learnt few valuable lessons that will shortly come across you. I decided, rain or snow(forget sun) I would go to all my morning classes that started at 8:45 am. And so am I following my decision very tediously.

Back in India I'd wake up comfortably at 6, catch the bus at 7 :30 and sit happily in the bus till the traffic was conquered and then go about the day like a happy soul. That was so easy. The fact that I had to travel about 25 km just one way now seems like a child's play!

I hurried through my morning activities and got down to see my cycle lock totally disappointed with me and refused to open in the cold! Seeing that my faculty is on the other end of the campus,(about a kilometre) I had to hurry now. It had snowed the previous night and the temperature was pathetic enough to just freeze it all over. I hate walking or biking on ice owing to the fact that I have hurt quite a few "sensitive" parts of my body slipping over. I must have made a mistake in fulfilling my karmic duties somewhere along the line. The vengeance is appalling! But still undeterred I tread carefully as fast as possible literally frightened of the viciousness beneath me. Nature decides to push its clairvoyances further in trying my grit and starts showering some snow flowers and tugs the winds to crusade past me almost pushing me back to my room.

Frozen canal on the left and the icy-salted road!

My conscience thinks of me as a woman with fortitude and yes I wouldn't betray my conscience any day. With a deep frown between my brows I squint up to look at the sky that was still lapping all the different colours. It looked like one of the modern art paintings where in only the artist himself can decipher its meaning. Pondering over the pink, blue, grey and orange and dreaming of the clear blue skies back in India, I just pushed myself against the winds and after what felt like an hour of this drudgery, finally! lo behold! I reached the faculty. What a relief it was!

My faculty lobby.

I was so glad for the warmth inside there. I was already 5 minutes late but you know what? the teachers here couldn't care any lesser as to what time you walk in or out of the class. Unlike in India where the teachers (albeit a few) stop their teaching, look at you like a piece of smelly toe-rag and question you- "What I-say?? No time sense? You think this is your in-laws house to enter whenever you want??" and that which evokes an equally adept answer from the student if the teacher can be played around with. A million of which I am sure you can think of. And walking out of a class in between meant you would either end up in HOD's room or/and screw up your internals marks next time!

This professor did not bother to look away from his presentation slides and went on about the effects of flutter on different components connected to the wings. I sat down and started taking notes while the guy behind me bites off noisily on his apple. I have got used to this now but initially this struck very strange in fact offensive too! In India I was once told off by my harassed lecturer in a noisy class that did not listen to him, for drinking water "Swathi, I am an old man standing for 2 hours and lecturing and you are drinking water!" Like I denied him the privilege! Like any student could deny any privilege to any teacher!! That was for water. I couldn't imagine anyone in any class bringing anything that even smelt good. Forget eating except probably in my former HODs class 'cos he had real thick glasses and he could hardly make out what the front benchers did! May be some of the teachers took it as an offense too.

Through out school and college life, we have followed the custom of not eating inside classroom religiously even though no hoardings were put up. Guess its sort of inbred into us. Until and unless we decided to get naughty in the class, hardly could we set up a lunch table when the teacher is chalking out equations once derived by "noble" men that solved complicated questions for which, answers weren't even requested!

But here, I still remember the first day vividly. I was out of my wits. This guy walks in half an hour after the class, sits in the front row, pulls out his new coke bottle and uncorks it. It makes an unusually loud gurgling sound in the silent room with the gas trying to escape. I look around and no one is least perturbed by it. Its like they hadn't noticed this guy at all. The professor declares a break of 15 minutes while people go out, get coffees and chocolate bars. I did take a coffee too, but I hastened to finish it before the break was over. Back in the class again, I was taken for a surprise.. All around people started ripping open their packets and sipping drinks even after the professor had resumed the lecture. In India, only the notorious lot or those who wanted to get out of class did that! And to a bigger surprise, the prof himself was sipping coffee while changing slides. Now thats something I hadn't seen at all! Soon another guy just stood up in between the class, picked up his coat and walked out silently. I was waiting for the professor to say something. I didn't know how they abused students in Holland and I wanted to hear it! But the prof couldn't have been more impervious to the situation. I was dumbstruck. I then realised may be this is all common here.

Oh, students are never abused by teachers here whatsoever! Students are respected and treated as equals just like the teachers, may be not in terms of knowledge but in every other human way you can think of. Of course you have no hitting businesses here and the situations and people you deal with seem so sensible and full of maturity. I wonder why is it mostly never like that in India.

But you cannot deny teachers hitting you meant they cared for your development. You wouldn't realise it when your getting beaten up but atleast you'd realise it some day that some teacher cared for you so much and because he/she beat you, you have learnt something really worthwhile and good! I cannot see how you would realise if a teacher cared for you here. Actually I'm not sure they do!

As days passed by, I realised my previous realisation was true but I still couldn't take a coffee cup inside the classroom forget eating when the lecture is being delivered. But today, in the break, I zip up a coffee from the vending machine right outside my class and sip it slowly- as slowly as the lecture was going. I still cannot bring myself to eat something in midst of a class! I think after coming here, I am addicted to coffee! With huge books, monotonous lectures and hours in front of laptop, I need caffeine now. Oh! Hollanders are coffee lovers as well..

The coffee, chocolate and drinks vending machines outside the class in the corridor.

There are other changes too.. Hardly any professors used lecture slides to teach students in India. It was just chalk and board. But here along with those two, everything was in a presentation format. Its later put up on a portal where one can access the class notes online. The teacher-student relationship is much better in India where we get to speak more often! Here everything goes online. From schedules to meetings to assignments. One mail to all in the group and the job is done. No professor would ever know your name or your existence until you are acquainted with them for a good reason. And then students print out every single thing- slides, lectures, assignments-even those which can be read from the net!! I kinda feel the westerners waste too much paper.

My coffee mug and my nemesis! :-o

But one really likeable aspect of the faculty is its brilliant classrooms! Well decorated, well lit, well equipped for both students and teachers, its got space and the aura for learning. They have something called the smart boards- you can see to the left of this picture. You mark on it, you have it marked on the presentation slides! So the profs need't use long sticks or laser beams to point out above their heads!

One of the classrooms.

Anyways, after 4 different courses at the finish line of the day, I am again at the bottom of my well brooding that I may never end up getting my degree! For one though its not all that difficult to understand he subjects, its just bad enough to give answers in the exam which is never related to the text! Everything here is application based. Students are bred in such environments from their early bachelors. They are used to it. But me coming from VTU, where a question like- Derive Euler's equations- can be found in Pg 150 of one particular text book, its difficult to answer a question such as-Derive the condition for Euler's equation-the condition unfortunately pops out of nowhere in all the books! You are given a hint and the rest is left upto you to use your brains! These guys are terrific in math. I mean real math! not mere arithmetic. Series functions, PDE, ODE, are all second nature to most of them here. We hardly used them back in India. We were only aware of its existence!

You could say because of this factor and also me underestimating the exam standards, I have done hopelessly here. the main reason I have transformed to a new leaf in the 3rd quarter!

Hopefully it goes better from here. Got so many more differences to list, but I need out now. I will continue this post soon enough!

aeroyogi

4/2/2010

A lie...

The yellow of the leaves, strewn on the streets,

Bespeak of the dour glowering gloom,

The ripple in the puddle when my foot heaves across,

Elicit my nerves to a frightening bloom.

Smell of the wind, fresh off the barn

The spirit of battercakes baked beyond,

As full a promise it might seem,

Takes a toll on the kernel within.

Departing from a lie, did I dream so forth,

Envisaging a life of ecstacy and gold,

Riches spent on another falsity,

The gusts of merriment could speak out bold.

I erred and I look, now, for I find the truth,

I clipped my self to the lie I had brewed,

A life now I see marred by swamps,

I cannot walk without a stain on my back..

My hair trips across my face,

Stings like a mother redeeming her tiddler,

Frozen, I brush aside the afro and held,

I see them standing with a smile never so rare.

Overridden with guilt and shame,

A drop of tear escapes my essence,

I pity my term, and look for escape,

From the fear, gloom and the made mistakes.

And yet they say, you will return,

The stain just admonishes your further trials,

I hope with my heart they are true to the core,

For the fear of failure is nibbling the lesions galore..

aeroyogi

28/01/2010, 11:21 pm

Life in Netherlands-Part 3-Hoi Mr.Weather!

Moving towards the north pole didn't come across as a threat when I was basking in the tropical sun.. Little did I know of the effects the temperate zone climate would create on my happy little brain..

Here seasons are so well defined unlike in India. You realise you are breezing through summer or falling through autumn very explicitly.. You see the vivid colors in fall and leaves strewn all over, lest fall on you while your biking on the road unlike in India. Atleast in Bangalore you could hardly make out when the rain sets in and when the heat decides its his turn!. Forget winter,..you have the sun blazing all day long,.

When I first reached here, I was taken aback with the phenomenon of cold winds rushing past your face during summer! I braced my jacket then and always hoped the wind would die down.. The temperature in summers do not cross 20-23 degrees! And that was maximum in winter back home for me..People are so ecstatic about the summers here that everyone is outdoors and dressed as minimum as possible.. I did not understand when I landed here why people were so freaky about summers like they'd never seen sun before..Only when autumn set in I agonised on not enjoying the sun more couple of months back.

Happy , sunny initial days...

This is kinda a fair in the square set up during summer..

Lots of events, outdoor activities and parties are held and people make it a point to attend them. Now that I have witnessed the autumn and winter here I am sure I too will during the summers.. Sunlight is precious here..a rare commodity! I had a very short time with summer here though.. Hope I get to enjoy full summer next time.. I wanna go visit places too as they say summers are the best to tour around Europe..May be I can write more about it then....

Once autumn started setting in, the sun slowly faded away.. so much so that we live here without seeing the sun for weeks! No exaggeration. I never was a big fan of sunny days in India. I loved the showers there, had made it a point to get drenched every single time.. but here, a million efforts to like the rain here went futile.. Rains in India meant hot saucy Chinese Bhel puri at the near by chat shop and a hot cup of granny's coffee. While rains here only bring so much fog, chill, dampness and make you relive your past...its like the dementor effect!! You do not feel like cycling out to get a bite of your favourite hot Vietnamese Loempia even though every cell in your body is begging you to have mercy on them!

Rains in India always had a soothing effect.. it would clear your brain and ease the frown on our face but here it just did the opposite. Cold drops of rain that sting you all over sending shivers in the oddest of places especially if you are not in gear.

Nothing stops life here unlike in India where you get a holiday for heavy rains or where your allowed to skip classes when the weather is too bad.. everything works as normal as ever. When the weather was bad, it meant you were allowed to wake up late.. Still unaccustomed here I have woken up late so many days that there is one course that I have missed altogether because of the early timing. Not that the teacher was great and would have instilled "knowledge" in me if I did attend.

But come on.. you don't wake up when it still looks like morning 4 or 5 just because it is indeed 7 or 8 am! ;D

Trust me when I say the flash has added a lot to these pictures!

(You could also check my Amsterdam pictures)

Even after turning your clocks one hour back to save day light you see "light" only for 5-6 hours a day. Note I am not talking about sunlight.. Its just the left over light reflecting from the sun shining in some other part of the world!

Biking during the rains is anguish in its own right.. A terrible pain in the wrong place.. And as nature always conspires against me, it rained worst when I had to bike the most. Fridays!! darned fridays...I had to bike to and fro to attend classes at different faculties and there I had Mr.R(P)ain Casanova feeling me all over even with my protective gear on..

And don't even get me started about the profound effects the gloom has on your psyche.. I as for one suffered home sickness in varied forms, hallucinations, desired for things/people that never existed in that form, depression, self pity, self hatred so on and so forth..

Just a week back when the sun showed up all of a sudden full and bright with no clouds along the horizon, I was so sure I was still asleep. I had only expected it to the gloom to grow worse for winters. But lo! I was in for a surprise...I opened the door and the sun was standing right outside my door with a mischievous grin something that said- "You there lassy.. did ya miss me??" Yes Yes Yes!! Only the light years stopped me from kissing the sun! ;) I stood outside for half hour doing nothing but soaking in all the vitamin D that I possibly could..

See... The sun in my room! :):):) Yeah I have kinda grown romantic about the sunlight...;)

Couple of days, it started getting colder.. The small canals around started freezing and soon even before we realised it, it started snowing. All my neighbours here and me celebrated the first snowfall in Delft with so much enthu in the middle of the night..It was F.U.N. period.

I love the snow..Absolutely! After a all night session of playing in the snow, building a snow man the next night, and walking quite a distance in the snow at around -10 degrees; I am satiated.. :) A peculiar oxymoron in this weather is that its so damn bright when it is snowing. The sun is out in all splendour and yet it shows minus degrees on the temperature scale. Its comparatively less windy too.. I really like it.. Its all white around you and you have the sun adding on to the brightness too...

I fulfilled mychildhood dream of building a snow man too along with my Dutch friend Anouk.. Building snow man is quite a task. Not as easy as I thought. I suffered from a muscle pull in the night and a bad backache the next day.. But it was worth it all. I finally built a snow man and yeah he looked good for a rookie! ;)

Today there is heavy snow fall and its few inches deep on the ground. Its utterly fantastic to see this color waking you up.

Outside my doorstep.

View from my window that I woke up to in the morning today.

And the cycles covered in the snow are so beautiful. Its quite a task to recognise your bike amidst those many, all covered by the white fairy..:)

To avoid this confusion and to de-freeze my cycle locks , I have had to accommodate my bike as a guest for few days in my room! sigh...

But I am perfectly loving this weather..Though it requires layers of clothing and yet sometimes gives you the chills, its much better than the rains.

Waiting for the canals to freeze a little more so that I can go walking/skating over them!

That's the effect when you throw a snowball on the frozen canal.. Isn't it sort of spectacular as though shot in split second of a blast?? Its actually taken almost a minute after the snowball was dropped on the ice!

Spring is yet to come..but when it does, I'll be all ready to let you know about the beauty of Europe!

As of now, I'm getting a call for a snow fight.. ;)

Tot ziens!

aeroyogi

20/12/09

Life in Netherlands-Part 2-Ms.Nalapaka!

Whoa! Its been a hectic start of the week.. And I'm already drained out.. I need a bit of my writing therapy.. :) So I thought Ill let you all know a chunk about my life in the land of cheese!

I have been getting repeated questions about what I do about my food, especially how I deal with the 'boon' of being a vegetarisch (Dutch for vegetarian) in a country where everything starts with a 'kip' or a 'vis'! (Your right, I know these words cos I try to identify them first on the menu! It means chicken or fish!)

Well, well, I manage beautifully and how! ;) I do not miss home food and all thanks to the spices mom has sent and my culinary skills within the 3X4 feet kitchenet in my spacebox. I do miss eating junk on roadside though.. :'( The outside food here will come to you in another post!)

Thats an awfully maintained kitchenet of mine!

When I first landed here, Schipol airport smelt like pancakes.. sweet sweet pancakes.. For many this may be a flavour to drool but I hated it instantly. Let me get this straight to you all, I hate sweets, I hate the smell of it, I don't eat chocolates or the wedding confectioneries except peni, chiroti and doodh peda; even that has a limit of just one 'stuk'. ;) If you don't find chilly powder or chillies glaring evilly from your plate, then I haven't brewed your meal! I am the Mistress of Spices! ;)

The Dutch survive on bread and cheese alone of various forms. Naturally pancake smell wasn't unexplained! For them spice means salt. If you ask them to spice it a little more all they will do is add pepper to it and wrap it in a neat paper with a smile! I was petrified of the very thought about spending the next 2 years or so here.. I wasn't too sure of my skills in the kitchen except for making crispy, tasty akki rottis and that's hardly a thing you can do daily when you are supposed to be managing studies and a 'house' of your own!

For the first few weeks, mom's ready to cook and eat stuff saved me from starving. I binged on it all day long even when I wasn't hungry. That was my way of getting rid of homesickness. When the booty baggage started looking empty, trust me I checked for all the compartments a thousand times, I was forced to go shopping. Another time sucking menace that I hate!! Specially when you are spoilt for too many options, it can seriously hinder your decision making capabilities whether or not your a libran like me! So many brands of super markets with price and quality tags of their own and not to mention, the safe haven for all Indian food lovers like me-the Turkish shop..

One markt named Aldi..

Anyways then began My experiments with truth! boy oh boy! some major experiments with standard rules of cooking! On electric stoves that too.. I hadn't gone close to one in India! I defied everything that mom fervently shouted to me through skype, just cos I was lazy/suffered a problem of inattention and hence I brewed and concocted my steps of cooking.. Burnt rice, overheating the pans such that the teflon coating gets eroded, over spiced(yeah even for my standards) 'curries', forgetting what's on stove while chatting with a friend, the fire alarm friggin' ringing its bells off only to get stares from my chinese neighbour, spoiling a birthday treat of a friend(will post it in a topic called "How not to make kesari bath!"), burning hands, cutting fingers instead of onions, overestimating the freshness quotient of food items and having to throw away the yeast ridden saucers were some of the astronomically enlightening results!

However I strongly believe in the phrase "Try, try and try till you succeed". I dutifully tried everyday (and I still do!). I still didn't listen to mom much mainly cos I never had half the ingredients of what she mentioned. Abiding by her rules only meant extra shopping, nah! forget it! not worth it. Saying that I'd never compromise on the quality/taste of food I eat.. NEVER! I'm a connoisseur of food.. ;) Cooking is like chemistry you see. You need to know which ingredient behaves as what when added to another ingredient(s), the catalysts to enhance taste and the splendid products and by products that come out of it.. Tabulating the experimental results in my brain and applying corollary theorems to each of them, I noted a set of patterns in the conventional cooking styles. I deviated here and there slightly to get modified versions of many "difficult" dishes cooked by mom's in India who start preparing for it early in the morning. And all within half hour's toil between classes! I know,I know,,,, I'm smart.... :D

<==Here is one of my creations. Its close enough to Vegetable kurma and tastes yummmm.. believe me or else I wouldn't have survived here this long!

Aha! To the right(above) is is the pic of a bloating roti! that too on an electric stove!!muhahahah... Although I'm yet to decipher why making rotis fat is a mark of good culianry skills, I was happy when mom said its difficult to get bloated rotis on flames most of the time. And yet, there I had a cute bloated roti on the tava standing on an electric stove! Its become a routine these days! What do I say, I'm just good at it! Or else I'd simply not be called the Roti expert by my Indian neighbours! :D I could make good ones even when my "intelligent and nutrition freak" friend added egg yolk to the atta and asked me to make chapatis out of it!

<== There you go, another night's dinner.. parathas and cheese cum spice dipped capsicum!(capsicums here come in orange, red and yellow colors!)Oh yeah I make use of the Dutch items too!

Below is food for a couple of days! Saves me time at the kitchen counter during rough days ;)


There have been lot of innovative dishes tried in my room till now, some terror inducing and some hunger stimulating!

Beans gojju,

pasta with sambhar powder(it actually tastes good!),

carrot spread for the bread, bread-o-nion(its one word,careful, I termed it!),

cauliflower fry,

brinjal twists(an accident-I didn't want it to look like twists!),

raddish treats(it was the worst of my experiments I think...that was the raddish marathon week-one raddish was so big that I had to eat it for a week! a case of underestimation..I haven bought another since then..:D) etc etc and of course some conventional items like

channa masala,

fried rice,

bisibele bath,

raithas,

capsicum masala,

potato bhaaji's,

all types of sambhars

and of course rice. May be plain rice is the only thing I haven't tried manipulating. Its easy and I'll leave it that way! ;) And none of them exceed my time limit for cooking of half to 3/4th of an hour a day!

Indianized Pasta!

Wheat Pakodas! ;) 

Of course mom's parcel of pickles,chutneys n chutney pudis are all there to compliment my dishes perfectly to the last taste bud!

So lay out your plates people, the new chef is in town!! ;)

PS: If you have a phobia to spices even by a tiny percentage, you should stay away from the dining area! :) I am not liable to consequences arising from your foolish confidence in trying my dishes! :D

aeroyogi

2/9/09

Life in Netherlands-Amsterdam-A walk of a lifetime!

I didn't think I would post about Amsterdam so soon.. but yeah, today right after being back and even though every muscle of mine is refusing to work after going for 2 days with little sleep, I still want to write this down. The magic word is Amsterdam! The name never meant much to me before, I never understood why people always went ga-ga about it.. But today I realised it. Whatever the others may perceive about Amsterdam, one cannot ignore the pulse throbbing in the heart of the city. Absolutely scintillating to walk down amidst hundreds of people in those bi-lanes of Central Amsterdam.

Unlike Delft, its not calm, green or peaceful but has all the crowd, the traffic, the old buildings sticking to each other along with the canals n boats! A typical European city that complains of traffic and trams..It was such a change from the university's serene surroundings. And I was surprised I liked it! May be it was too long since I saw that kind of madness..:)
Every step I took today(and let me tell you I took lots, I didn't realise the time or where I was headed to) was so gratifying! After the helicopter simulation session in NLR, (its the National Aerospace Laboratories in dutch) Dion helped me sneak through the gates as I didn't have my OV chip like he did. ;) Mike and Robin were also helpful enough to show me the way out of Sloterdijk and the tram stop. I began self exploring the city and it felt wonderful.

I lingered out of the central station finding information in the tourist info counter.. Nothing suited my budget or time so I just set out exploring by myself.. and that was a super decision taken I must say..

Waving in and out, the cobblestone road holding the most eccentric shops I have ever seen in my life unfolded itself with intricate glass chandeliers hanging above a s a part of the christmas celebrations..yeah its started a month in advance!

Some magnificent clothing and accessory display on either side with variety of cuisines lined up next to each other, your eyes just don't get enough of it. Be it "Vijaya Restaurant-Best curries in town" :D or the Argentinian hotels, even the Venezuelan cafe, they all stood so calmly hand in hand adding to the glamour of the streets.. Countless coffee shopsplaced all over..phew, initially the excited me took a picture of almost every coffee shop (that looked quite different from the other) along the way.. But I had to stop it.. they rack up innumerous on either side of the roads and every small lane you turn into!

(I hope you realise I wasn't taking pictures of "coffee" shops.. :D For those who don't know, coffee shops are the places where you can roll up ANY joint you want! Its all legal here! ;))

Then there were roads n roads of impregnable beer shops and wine shops lined so glorious, I just couldn't help remembering Vipin at that time.. :P Took few special pics just so that I can mess around with him(Amsterdam is his dream destination!) :D And of course a thousand casinos and gambling centres all over!

As I moved along, even without realizing, I was in front of Madam Tussuad's. Well, it was almost closing time and I dint want to go in at that time wasting money. Instead I hovered around there and my my! that's some city square.. Bustling with life, activities, tourists and hundreds of pigeons flying upto you nonchalantly.... Literally you could feel a positive spirit oozing out of everything there..The best part in that square(though it may sound silly) was the masked men pretending to be straight out of scary movie. It was quite appealing(I know, I'm weird). I just loved those three guys brandishing swords and silver axes!

I was just savouring the view in the middle of the square when I read a board called Amsterdam Diamond Society.. I started walking towards it and lo! there were diamonds on display.. All kinds, colors and sizes.. Diamond studded watches, brands like Gucci and Rolex made me dizzy.. I was swearing to myself all along! I decided the first thing I'd do when I have a job and a constant inflow of currency was to buy one of these Gucci watches!

And what was that above? Diamonds- wholesale-tax free??!! Like ads in India for rice and wheat grains?! That struck me.. A factory?! What are these people into???

I walked, I walked till I could no longer walk and found a lot of gift shops, coffee shops, flower shops, coffee shops, cheese shops, coffee shops, wine bars, coffee shops, and ah ha! finally tulips!(and of course coffee shops! :P :D) had never seen tulips since I arrived here.. Its the national flower of NL if you don't know! A long winding street full of multi-colored tulips- buds, full bloomed ones and plants which are yet to be sown in the soil!All for sale! Loved the flowers for once!

After another hour of exploring, taking tens of pictures, admiring the art(grafitti on walls-you find lots of it) I was trying to locate the way back to central station. I dunno how, may be the magic of Amsterdam just got me to Tussuad's again. Had never felt happier in Netherlands before.. Don't ask me why or for what. I received a message from Sniggy and I had to call.. I was missing her! Poor thing, bitten by a dog, she must have been wanting some empathy from me but all I could shout out was "I am in Amsterdam, I am in Amsterdam..In front of Madam Tussad's!!" This never was a dream destination or anything, but I was literally screaming into the phone... I wanted her there with me.. :) Again don't ask me why.. It sometimes is beyond explanations you know.. Probably you have felt it too at one point or another in relation to a particular person..

After all this I had to return back..It was getting late and I grudgingly was heading towards the station. Even in the train, my head was filled with the walk through Amsterdam.. I must have coverd a major chunk of it.. Cos' I remember seeing the museumplein and the other museums on tram quite behind and I saw them while I walked too! :)

So many more things I want to say, so many things I saw, I felt...the darker side of Amsterdam..but I don't want to create an impression on the first go! I'd explore more again and then add that up in some other related posts..

Hard fought for sleep and a minor accident the previous day, coupled with all the walking today, My legs refused to carry me home from the Delft station. It was drudgery.. But I loved it.. I was elated. I still am.. I repeated the same story with Vignesh too just now! (The "I was in Amsterdam, I was in Amsterdam.." thingy..)May be I should stop before people throw things at me.

I have always been this way. I feel things others just can't see.. and vice versa...May be if you go there you wouldn't find it all this exhilarating, but its all in the way of how you perceive it you know..;) I reached my room and here I am writing down with droopy eyes and sore feet.. I'd better pay some attention to it. Thanks to few others, I realized what a dumbass I've been in certain matters.. Got truckloads to handle before tomorrow can come to an end! :( God, Can't just one day be perfect?

Anyways, I absolutely loved the place.. Truly worth visiting, and what? I haven't gone into the depths of the city yet! People find Amsterdam attractive for all the "legalized reasons", whatever they say, but I'd say Go Amsterdam! Go Vibe!!

aeroyogi

25/11/09

Life in Netherlands- Part 1

I'm in love with the new place I live in.. Delft, The Netherlands.. Moved in here 3 months ago for pursuing my long standing dreams...Frankly, not in my weirdest fantasies did I dream I'd be here.. in this country. I never talked about Netherlands before Mr.R.A, a scientist from NAL, Bangalore mentioned TU Delft to me. For me Netherlands didn't exist then! But now, I love this peace loving country where prisons are being shut down due to low crime rates and of course for various other reasons mentioned below and that will be mentioned in the future posts too.

At the city center in Delft.

This has been beyond my expectations. Delft though has a city status now still has the making of country side and boy! do I love that and how!! Its green, all around. So pleasing, so soothing and yet technologically as good as any city in this country. I just love the overall effect it delivers. Friendly people, neighbourhood shops, a mind blowing university, a student town literally, a culture so different wrapped around by cheese and wine!

This is a picture from a recently held cheese and wine tasting event. TU Delft holds such events every now and then.. Lots of friday night events where you can relieve the week's stress and learn and savour different cultures and festivities.

THE mentionable trait of Netherlands would be its countless canals and wind mills.. In Delft there is just one windmill and it hasn't captured me enough, for me to take out my camera and capture it! I hope when I go country exploring I get to find more of them..

But the canals are the best part of this country. I so totally love it.. The water so pure, silent and enigmatic always eases the frown between your brows when you are done for the long fought day.

I'm bowled over by the Dutch in general. They are so so tall.. ;) In India I was a 'tall' girl.. Most of the guys were either almost as tall as me or shorter than me.. Rarely you could find a guy actually tall so that I have to crane my neck to look at him. Here, I realized how tall the Dutch are when, during one of the breaks, I ventured out to get some coffee..It was so crowded and it hit me as I was trying to make my ways past them. All I could see was shoulders and chests or shoulders and bags! I actually had to crane my neck a complete 90 degrees to get a full view of the face! :D I felt like a little kid amidst grown ups trying to find my way back into the class! :P And that's saying something.. (you'll know why I said that if you have seen me!)

The Dutch are pretty strong and athletic too.. They have perfect bodies-men and women alike. I think it comes form constant cycling. Cycling to them is the 2nd natural thing. In India, use of cycles are limited to high school and at the most pre university.. But here, its surprising as well as exhilarating to see working class use cycles. They are so good wit cycles that, when my cycle had a problem, a friend suggested "Just catch hold of a Dutch guy yaar, He'll fix it in no time!" n its true! Cycles (more so called bikes here) just add on to the city outlook perfectly!

That's near my department..

That's near my studio..(individual bachelor rooms with basics, kitchenet and bathroom are called studios in general)

The other day Anil and me were biking with heavy shopping bags on our backs and cycle handle bars trying not to lose balance. Riding with too many add ons is not advisable in India amidst the raging traffic.. We were wondering about the same topic and lo! there goes a dutch super mom with 2 seats for her kids-one toddler and one may be a 5 yr old, bags hanging on the rear end from both sides and a basket of flowers perched on the front handle bar while she herself wore a huge bag on her shoulders and was munching a sandwich held in one hand.(teh Dutch do it often-eating while biking is what their lunch hour means!) The kids weren't excatly sitting still and helping her either. And yet she whizzes past us with such ease and grace.. We couldn't stop laughing at our own state after that..

And now I'm totally loving cycling.. After a long time I have got a cycle of my own and I love it! I love it! here is my cycle below..:)

And my university is absolutely fantastic.. Every field is developed in every sphere and equal opportunities for all without any bias.. Universities in India have to change in this aspect. Plus the aura inside the campus is so adept; be it just for walking, cycling or studying.

That's my department entrance..

That's the library from outside.

I get to see such beautiful sky and contrails(many which are due to our faculty experiments!) on my way to the faculty and back..

This is one of the tallest building in Delft..EWI faculty.. Lost your way? just look out in the sky for this building, follow the roads that lead you here and you'll reach home safely! :)

There is so much more to explore and exploit in this city! I'm hoping myself I will be able to post more about life in Delft soon! :)

aeroyogi

Nov 22 2009, 11:17 pm

Random paranoia...

*Disclaimer- This could possibly be the most nonsensical post of mine till date! Read at your own risk although I kinda like it cos I 've never done this before!*

Today, I want to write so many things and yet I'm not able to. No that I have a mind block on ideas or anything, but just that I dunno how to put it. Poetry? Paragraphs?And neither way, I'm getting the right words..What comes after what? I want to encrypt it and yet want the message to be out loud and clear. I'm jittery, scared, angry with myself and hating so many things today. Lot of negative aura.. I dunno what is wrong with me.. I dunno if I really want to publish this post too..

I want to write a poem, but all I get is lines from my previous ones.. I want to direct certain things to few people and the world alike, but what is holding me back? I cannot see sense in most of the stuff happening around, happening within me.. And I want to scream out loud...I have a raging headache today and no amount of coffee is helping me.. May be I'll just write what comes to my mind first!

I just heard about the bomb blasts in Assam and I'm paranoid. Its so maniacal that people think so viciously.. Isn't the world everyone's home? I realise this statement after being in a foreign country for 3 months. There is nothing like your country, my country or your religion, my religion.. Just because you stay in one piece of land for a long time doesn't mean that land becomes great and you have to despise, disrespect and entomb the other. The more you travel, stay and try adapting to a new place, you begin to realise that you are glad being a human on this earth. That's when you realise how much you are mistaken about another country. You begin to understand the existence of human race when you meet people from all over the world, some with great philosophical and scientific temperament, talk continuously and delve deeper into the myths and facts. The entire world is your place and all the rules are man made.. But for what?! I do not understand. Why is there division at all? The globe is yours, your foreign only when your out of it! The war for survival begins there.. Against odds, against alien conditions, against life if there is so. But why here?

Well, again this was not what I wanted to convey but yeah, I just did it.. This wasn't exactly my problem a while ago...Have I lost it completely?

I am angry with myself for a lot of reasons here today. For starters, I am suddenly upset about leaving India where people like me are needed. I'm not saying that I will conquer the world for India by my ingenuity or brains but yeah, there are thousands of villages that require some dedicated engineers to help develop. Tried convincing myself that I will go back and help build but I'm still dissatisfied! Not convinced..Feel like a traitor. And I'm contradicting my own view here with respect to the above para.. I know that. But what the heck! That's what I felt! I think I have lost it completely today!

You would think I'd learn my lessons fast but I haven't apparently, atleast with respect to one particular chapter of my life. Why is that? I can never try and test my firmness in this one particular instance. Have never been so wavy in my decisions. Never have let my essence override the mind's determination. But why on this issue, is it all going topsy-turvy?

Also I wish I had loads of people around me now. Now that's really weird, even for my standards! Never actually wished for something like this before. Am I just being homesick? They say there are lots of ways to find out if your home-sick.. None of them are matching what I feel..May be its different for me.. weird that I always have been.

My mom has begun reading my blog. I dunno if she does it on a continuous basis but she knows my blog address now! Initially I thought it would be nice cos' I wanted her to read my poems. But after she read a couple of my posts, I have almost lost my sense of freedom to write! A terrific critic that she is, she is also the cabinet member, minister and the president of censor board for my blog! I have already had to remove certain material that she thinks will ruin my "prospects" in future.

I'm just tired.. I'm scared.. I'm not happy with my progress in various fields. Loads of expectations to meet.. but I'm just so not into it! And I know I can't go on like this. But I'm still in it!!

Hold on...

(After a break of an hour)

I just spoke to Vignesh..One another friend I'd treasure. He always is so calm and can soothe you down if you want. Feeling much much better. I really don't think above paras make any sense but I guess Ill post it anyways. They are all so random and do not make a point anywhere I guess. But after writing for so long, I don't have the heart to delete it. My problems aren't solved. But I just realized, I always have had them and I have dealt better with it...may be I needed a break and writing always has helped.. Dunno if it was Vicky or it was just me, I'm getting back to my normal self...

May be this is an anti climax sort of thing for the post.. Something not expected...but hey, I bet you remember the disclaimer put before!:)

aeroyogi

Nov 22, 2009, 10pm

I asked...

Flying through the clouds,

I touch down estranged,

Amidst a sky clearer than the mind

And water cleaner than the soul.

Days spent were many,

On the dreams so uncanny,

When realized, so precious,

Pride and mirth, reign so vicious..

The past seems a distant drone,

Struggle seems a forgotten parole,

All I see is the life I asked,

The glory of it all, so can I bask...

As success becomes common,

And glory isn't mine alone,

The thrust of it all gets on,

And the dorsum snaps, but I am not gone..

I fear, I shiver,

The cold biting through the fog,

Realization again dawns and shines,

While the mask of clamber smiles so sly.

A life I asked is no less unsound,

Disarray evinces in the felt ground,

No conflict from what I forever ran,

Is this life I asked so utmost blank.....

aeroyogi

3/11/09