Jeez I can't believe I haven't blogged since Thursday....on second thoughts....I've just been into my inbox to see if there's any worthwhile mail to read and signed out immediately, so its hardly surprising....been a busy bee lately...with a social calendar that was full to its seams and forced me to make excuses to get some time off to relax and unwind, which is what weekends are meant to be for, not for running ard town till your looking like a a piece of dish-washing rag!
So anyways Friday passed in Veveina's lecture on Australian lit (yeah its happening at the fag end of the semester and I cudn't be unhappier about it, but one doesn't mind hauling one's buttt all the way to the Univ coz she is a good teacher, unlike some others for whom I simply refuse to waste my time, energy and commuting money!)...and then I bumped into Hana and Annika who were on campus for some lectures with the Socio profs...ended up having lunch with them...
Saturday, Saima had invited us over for lunch - that's Annika, Hana, Metschild, Hardo and me....spent the day at her place, had some amazing food (the phirni was by far the best - I had 3 bowls of it...muhahah!)....she was showing them the "garara" she wore for her elder sister's wedding and Hana (who's like excited about everything 'Indian') tried it on - I ended up being persuaded to try on aunty's wedding garara, by Hardo who felt the "colour was made for Geet"...was feeling soooooooooo thoroughly embarassed...luckily the outfit was not very typical wedding maal...only the dupatta was heavy and that was packed away, so I didn't look like a bride on her way to the slaughter house, though I did look might uncomortable! looking back on it...silly fun! Had to make an excuse to get out of going to a Kala Ghoda concert, coz I was feeling tired and wanted to return home and relax.
Sunday I took Annika, Hana and Dr.Wiemann over to Dr.Bharucha's place for lunch - it was fun, as expected. But by the time I left Annika at the bus stop (she came over for a while after Dr.B's just to see my place and well spend a lil more time with me!) I was like...dead tired. Dunno how I forced myself to study a bit....
Luckily today was the last lecture...it was with Veveina again...short stories...a terrible collection so the lec wound up fast, as there was nothing she could comment on....I mean we just skipped one of them coz it was SOOOO bad! The only decent story was Peter Carey's "Do you love me?" - with a lotsa magic realism and elements of the abusrd in it, it was interesting to read and analyse...the rest in my opinion belong in a Cosmpolitan, at the most are meant for light reading, not for MA level studying - even "Buddha of Suburbia" last year was more 'serious' lit than this stuff, and if you've read BOS you know what I'm talking of ...I was stunned when I got through BOS and still can't figure out why it's been put on the MA syllabus!!!
Monday, February 16, 2004
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Blah Blah and Blah...
Well dinner went well yesterday..Mrs Metzger seems tio have fallen in love with Mumbai - I'd taken her to BOmbay Stores and she went back with her "man" yesterday and made him blow up a HUGE amount of money!! Hehehe...plus she loved the way we live....she insisted on going around our area before dinner last night...went all ga-ga at the vegetable vendors etc...quite amusing actually!!! Anyways...that's behind us now...
Now today I hope to begin studying again...have suspended studies since Sunday and feeling quite bad about it - the Exam time table is out and here I am vella as ever... and incapable of any "exam fever/nervous breakdowns/traumatic tensions" !! Had to prioritise my studies as against meeting Annika and Hana, which kinda pains but well you gotta do what you gotta do! Will be meeting them on Sat and Sun anyways...until then I must try and organise stuff and get myself into the right mood to study...tough task eh? LOL!!
On a diff note, this morning I was surfing channels and stumbled onto "Mr and Mrs Iyer" on the cable movie channel - was quite delighted specially since it was on my favourite scene - the one where 'Mani' (Rahul Bose, in a very yummy avataar) tells a group of giggling college girls about their honeymoon in the forests of Kerala, the tree-house et al...the scene when they cross a village that had been destroyed by the opposite community and how they discover a child in the midst of burning huts...and the next scene in the guest house when they witness a massacre, and 'Mani' comforts 'Meenakshi' (I still can't get over how well Konkana acted as a South Indian!)...am so glad I saw the movie...all thanks to Kunu baba, ofcourse!!! Probably wouldn't have caught it first day first show if it hadn't been for his craze for the mother-daughter duo of Aparna and Konkana Sen, and have seen it several times since then on TV!! Another MUST WATCH!!!
Now today I hope to begin studying again...have suspended studies since Sunday and feeling quite bad about it - the Exam time table is out and here I am vella as ever... and incapable of any "exam fever/nervous breakdowns/traumatic tensions" !! Had to prioritise my studies as against meeting Annika and Hana, which kinda pains but well you gotta do what you gotta do! Will be meeting them on Sat and Sun anyways...until then I must try and organise stuff and get myself into the right mood to study...tough task eh? LOL!!
On a diff note, this morning I was surfing channels and stumbled onto "Mr and Mrs Iyer" on the cable movie channel - was quite delighted specially since it was on my favourite scene - the one where 'Mani' (Rahul Bose, in a very yummy avataar) tells a group of giggling college girls about their honeymoon in the forests of Kerala, the tree-house et al...the scene when they cross a village that had been destroyed by the opposite community and how they discover a child in the midst of burning huts...and the next scene in the guest house when they witness a massacre, and 'Mani' comforts 'Meenakshi' (I still can't get over how well Konkana acted as a South Indian!)...am so glad I saw the movie...all thanks to Kunu baba, ofcourse!!! Probably wouldn't have caught it first day first show if it hadn't been for his craze for the mother-daughter duo of Aparna and Konkana Sen, and have seen it several times since then on TV!! Another MUST WATCH!!!
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Germans Pouring Out of my Ears!!!
Ola....gosh I feel like I have Germans pouring outta my ears...LOL!! No I'm just kidding - on Monday I ended up going back to the Atma Darshan Ashram. After seeing their rooms, Saima and I took them to Mocha - and guess how we went there! Annika insisted we take the BEST - so we got into a crowded 422, the likes of which only a seasoned Mumbai-ite would get into!! I was totally amazed that Annika insisted they do this on the first day itself, and that they managed so well - I know Mumbai-ites who would never get into that crowded a bus, and well some more who've never travelled in a bus...LOL!!! Anyways we got down at Bhabha Hospital and walked down Hill Road to Mocha, so that they got a good idea of what that area feels like with all the street shopping, crazy amount of people, chaotic traffic et al! Mocha was bizarre - I think they've shifted the experienced staff to juhu...they were toally inept, forgetting our order, confusing it up, and getting my Currant cooler, like an hour after we placed the order and I asked them thrice what exactly they are doing with the currants and how long will they cool them! Gah...anyways they kinda liked it, so I hope meri naak kati nahi. I had to leave them for my AF classes at that time, but they went to Bandstand after that and then to the Crepe Station with one of Annika's friends whom they bumped into at Bandstand....
I had my expose in AF on Mon - it went pretty well. I got a good response for the topic and well I didn't refer to my notes even once, (thought that meant I forgot to say 2 things!), so Veeral was quite happy with me...ofcourse I had sent my expose to Pat for correction and it's come back full of red marks...so what you've read below is full of grammatical mistakes! *Sheesh!*
Yesterday I took dad's boss Dr.Metzger's wife around Mumbai...was with her all day, took her to Bombay Stores, Gateway, Malabar hill, Marine Drive, showed her the Oval Maidan, the District and High court buildings, the Fort Campus and Rajabai clock tower, before dropping her off at Taj Land's End and then heading back home for a quick bite....only to head back in the same direction (Bandra) for AF!!! Was so dead tired by the end...fell asleep rather early last night...today Dr M and his wife are coming for dinner....so am at home helping ma out with cooking, cleaning etc etc...must study a bit. Getting a bit worried now about all this vellagiri I have been doing, which is like not a very scholarly appraoch to exams...and well tho I'm not a scholar, I am a good estudent...so well...time to let the guilt rules over my vellagiri senses!!! LOL!!! Seriously tho, I must plan out carefully how I'll juggle my friends, AF and studies simultaneously- I'm glad my expose is over!!
I had my expose in AF on Mon - it went pretty well. I got a good response for the topic and well I didn't refer to my notes even once, (thought that meant I forgot to say 2 things!), so Veeral was quite happy with me...ofcourse I had sent my expose to Pat for correction and it's come back full of red marks...so what you've read below is full of grammatical mistakes! *Sheesh!*
Yesterday I took dad's boss Dr.Metzger's wife around Mumbai...was with her all day, took her to Bombay Stores, Gateway, Malabar hill, Marine Drive, showed her the Oval Maidan, the District and High court buildings, the Fort Campus and Rajabai clock tower, before dropping her off at Taj Land's End and then heading back home for a quick bite....only to head back in the same direction (Bandra) for AF!!! Was so dead tired by the end...fell asleep rather early last night...today Dr M and his wife are coming for dinner....so am at home helping ma out with cooking, cleaning etc etc...must study a bit. Getting a bit worried now about all this vellagiri I have been doing, which is like not a very scholarly appraoch to exams...and well tho I'm not a scholar, I am a good estudent...so well...time to let the guilt rules over my vellagiri senses!!! LOL!!! Seriously tho, I must plan out carefully how I'll juggle my friends, AF and studies simultaneously- I'm glad my expose is over!!
Monday, February 09, 2004
They are here...FINALEMENT!!!
I'm so excited today...Annika and Hana are finally here!!! If you don't remember, here's a quick recap - at OvG Univ, they had this course running simultaenously in the Depts of English, Sociology and Politics, on the case of Modern India as seen in Dharavi. We had attended the classes in the Eng dept as "experts" (LOL!)..anyways the course was to culminate in a 3 week excursion to Mumbai, with some 5-6 people from each group....today they arrived...I had gone to the airport to pick them up...since there was total chaos of how to get to their guesthouse (there were 21 of them), we ended up taking ALL the bags in Suku's Bolero (he's truly har marz ki dawah) while the owners of the bags followed in ricks...quite interesting, considering we were following 1 rick that didn't know the way and we didn't either! Ended up making a wrong turn, and asking some people for directions, before we found the right way again....and this with Schnappy along with us for added maskari...muhahaha...ta dum ti dum...early morning exercise it was!! LOL!!! Anyways all said and done...me totally happy to meet Annika again... :)
Sunday, February 08, 2004
Moving on or lingering in the past?
"Aicha aicha....aicha ecoute moi...aicha t'en vas pas"....hmmm...:) Feeling good in life generally...on Friday eveg I was feeling utterly depressed on my way back home from AF, and feeling that all-too familiar black hole engulf all positive emotions I have...scared as hell too, coz I had no one around me, as I did last time, to pull me out of that black hole...I'm glad it's gone...hopefully for good this time. I'm quite fed-up of dealing with this lingering bit of crap in my life...sometimes I wish I could turn back time and do things differently...but then I wonder what kinda person I'd be then? Coz all that i've gone through is definitely gone a long way in making me who I am today...and it's a pretty neat package right? LOL!! Ok there is definitely no remnant of Friday's depression!!! Muhahahaha....
Yesterday some of my classmates from MA had come over for lunch and to see my photographs from the trip - Madhavi, Deepa and Nazia - had a nice time with them! after they left I had more people coming to see my photographs..I should seriously do my album soon now...it's so embarassing to hand people this bunch of envelopes when they ask for my photographs of the trip!
Chalo gtg for breakfast now...mom says Sunday bfast doesn't comprise of internet!! LOL!!!
Yesterday some of my classmates from MA had come over for lunch and to see my photographs from the trip - Madhavi, Deepa and Nazia - had a nice time with them! after they left I had more people coming to see my photographs..I should seriously do my album soon now...it's so embarassing to hand people this bunch of envelopes when they ask for my photographs of the trip!
Chalo gtg for breakfast now...mom says Sunday bfast doesn't comprise of internet!! LOL!!!
Saturday, February 07, 2004
Mon Expose
Ok...I better explain myself before I launch into anything in French!!! For Niveau 3 in AF, one has to present a topic (Faire un expose) which has to be necessarily serious in nature, and lead to a discussion in class. So far we've had topics like Slums, Terrorism, Religious conversions, Euthanisia and Abortion. I shall be doing my 'expose' on Monday - my topic is Neo-Fascism...and well being me, I couldn't resist pasting it on my blog, even though I know many of you will comprehend next to nothing...
Neo-Le Fascisme
Bonsoir a tous!Au jourd'hui je vous parle au sujet de neo-le fascisme. Ce sujet m'interesse beaucoup et j'espere que ce vous interesse le meme.
En commencant, je vous explique qu'est ce que c'est 'fascisme.' C'est une forme de gouvernement comme communisme mais plus extremiste. C'est characterise par le controle complet des activites politique, economique, religieuses, culturales et sociales. Fascimese a origine avec Mussolini en 1919 apres la premiere guerre mondiale. Il etait influence par Napolean qui a eu le controle des publications dans son regime. Les Fascistes veulent etablir une societe de l'uniformite, sans des differences. Il ya beaucoup de persecution des minorites dans cette systeme. Les Nazis aussi sont les Fascistes, et vous savez comment ils ont tue les juifs pour etablir un pays des 'aryans' pures!
Depuis les dernieres 30 ans, neo-le fascisme a augemnte dans quelques groupes. En France il ya un homme politique, Jean Marie Le Pen, qui est tres fasciste. Il etait candidat pendant la derniere election presidentiel. Son solution pour le chomage et la pauvrete en France a compromise:
1. Reserver l'emploi pour les citoyens Francaises.
2. L'aid soicale seulement pour les citoyens Francaises
3. Interdire tous les immigrations et revoquer les permits des Algeriens et l'autres etrangers pour y habiter.
4. Arreter les immigres qui sont au chomage et leur exclusion.
Il aussi voulais revoquer le PACS (pacte civil de solidarite) qui donne les droits civil sans mariage. Cette action affectera beaucoup les gens, la plus les homosexuelles.
Si Le pen a gagne, beaucoup de Algeriens, qui ont y immigre apres l'independance de l'Algerie, sera au chomage. Le Pen voulait etablir une societe des vrais francaises! A cause de lui, il y avait de peur dans le scene internationale politique. Les gens a proteste avec les affiches : "Fascime nous tue. Touns Fascime"
Vous avez lu de la loi recent qui interdit les turbans, les echarpes etc dans les ecoles et les institutions publique? Moi, je pense que c'est une forme de fascisme parce que ce loi attaquer les minorites. Cette loi emporte le droit de pratiquer la religion comme on veut, s'habiller comme on desire! Est-ce que c'est bein etablir une societe uniforme?
En inde on peut voir ce facon de penser dans les mouvements comme Hindutva, les Shiv Seniks etc. A Mumbai, il y avait le mouvement d'exclure les gens qui ne sont pas Maharashtrians, qui ont immigre de l'autres etats pour le travail, base sur les rasions religieuses ou communs; c'est une formse de fascisme.
Moi j'ai peur de fascisme et je deteste ce facon de penser. D'apres moi, dans un age post-moderne, un age de globalisation quand le monde devient moins grand, nous avons besoin de tolerer les differences! que'est ce que vous pensez de ce sujet? Est-ce que c'est juste d'exclure les gens comme ca? Est-ce que c'est acceptable? Partagez votres avis avec moi!!!
Bonsoir a tous!Au jourd'hui je vous parle au sujet de neo-le fascisme. Ce sujet m'interesse beaucoup et j'espere que ce vous interesse le meme.
En commencant, je vous explique qu'est ce que c'est 'fascisme.' C'est une forme de gouvernement comme communisme mais plus extremiste. C'est characterise par le controle complet des activites politique, economique, religieuses, culturales et sociales. Fascimese a origine avec Mussolini en 1919 apres la premiere guerre mondiale. Il etait influence par Napolean qui a eu le controle des publications dans son regime. Les Fascistes veulent etablir une societe de l'uniformite, sans des differences. Il ya beaucoup de persecution des minorites dans cette systeme. Les Nazis aussi sont les Fascistes, et vous savez comment ils ont tue les juifs pour etablir un pays des 'aryans' pures!
Depuis les dernieres 30 ans, neo-le fascisme a augemnte dans quelques groupes. En France il ya un homme politique, Jean Marie Le Pen, qui est tres fasciste. Il etait candidat pendant la derniere election presidentiel. Son solution pour le chomage et la pauvrete en France a compromise:
1. Reserver l'emploi pour les citoyens Francaises.
2. L'aid soicale seulement pour les citoyens Francaises
3. Interdire tous les immigrations et revoquer les permits des Algeriens et l'autres etrangers pour y habiter.
4. Arreter les immigres qui sont au chomage et leur exclusion.
Il aussi voulais revoquer le PACS (pacte civil de solidarite) qui donne les droits civil sans mariage. Cette action affectera beaucoup les gens, la plus les homosexuelles.
Si Le pen a gagne, beaucoup de Algeriens, qui ont y immigre apres l'independance de l'Algerie, sera au chomage. Le Pen voulait etablir une societe des vrais francaises! A cause de lui, il y avait de peur dans le scene internationale politique. Les gens a proteste avec les affiches : "Fascime nous tue. Touns Fascime"
Vous avez lu de la loi recent qui interdit les turbans, les echarpes etc dans les ecoles et les institutions publique? Moi, je pense que c'est une forme de fascisme parce que ce loi attaquer les minorites. Cette loi emporte le droit de pratiquer la religion comme on veut, s'habiller comme on desire! Est-ce que c'est bein etablir une societe uniforme?
En inde on peut voir ce facon de penser dans les mouvements comme Hindutva, les Shiv Seniks etc. A Mumbai, il y avait le mouvement d'exclure les gens qui ne sont pas Maharashtrians, qui ont immigre de l'autres etats pour le travail, base sur les rasions religieuses ou communs; c'est une formse de fascisme.
Moi j'ai peur de fascisme et je deteste ce facon de penser. D'apres moi, dans un age post-moderne, un age de globalisation quand le monde devient moins grand, nous avons besoin de tolerer les differences! que'est ce que vous pensez de ce sujet? Est-ce que c'est juste d'exclure les gens comme ca? Est-ce que c'est acceptable? Partagez votres avis avec moi!!!
Friday, February 06, 2004
Music Is My Porn
Been a long time since I have felt that way...it used to be my permanent MSN nickname at one time...and in the last few months I've gotten so out of touch with my music, it just ain't funny...wonder how I did without it..and why I let foreign influences dictate the stuff played at home...despite differences with others at home I always heard exactly what I wanted to, and well not that people went onto to satyagraha in protest or anything...clueless as to why I made so many compromises as far as my music is concerned...
Anyways today morning after a VERY looooooooong time I woke up early to study (partly coz Kunu threatened to stay up all night in order to give me a wake-up call if I didn't start waking up early to study!!!) and as is normal with me I put on the TV for some music...in those wee hours of the morning the music channels generally play classics...most of my favourites...so till 7 am I was listening to that...
It's been ages since I heard Madonna's 'I Remember' - my family is filled with Madonna fans...all my cousins were in their 20s when Madonna was the Queen of Pop, so I've grown up hearing her songs and can recognise most of them with just a single note...infact she is perhaps the only Western singer my mother also recognises by voice alone...she doesn't need a video and face to accompany the voice to say it's Madonna's song!!! Anyways...so as I was saying, oddly enough loyalty to Madonna is so deep that even though I'm not too fond of her newer stuff, I always give her a chance and end up getting accustomed to the new sounds (atleast), even if I don't fall in love with the song! The one I heard this morng was a big fav when it was released back in the early 90s, along with 'Rain'....
Later I was listening to my CDs of Oldies....songs like 'Doo wah diddy', 'Tell Laura I love her', 'Speedy gonzales', 'Georgy Girl', 'Summer Holiday', 'There's a kind of Hush', 'Smoke Gets in your eyes', 'Raindrops keep falling on my head', 'Rhythm of the Rain' etc etc...there's a medely running through my head even now...and i'm feeling so incredibly content I could almost let out a purr of a contented cat!!!
Anyways today morning after a VERY looooooooong time I woke up early to study (partly coz Kunu threatened to stay up all night in order to give me a wake-up call if I didn't start waking up early to study!!!) and as is normal with me I put on the TV for some music...in those wee hours of the morning the music channels generally play classics...most of my favourites...so till 7 am I was listening to that...
It's been ages since I heard Madonna's 'I Remember' - my family is filled with Madonna fans...all my cousins were in their 20s when Madonna was the Queen of Pop, so I've grown up hearing her songs and can recognise most of them with just a single note...infact she is perhaps the only Western singer my mother also recognises by voice alone...she doesn't need a video and face to accompany the voice to say it's Madonna's song!!! Anyways...so as I was saying, oddly enough loyalty to Madonna is so deep that even though I'm not too fond of her newer stuff, I always give her a chance and end up getting accustomed to the new sounds (atleast), even if I don't fall in love with the song! The one I heard this morng was a big fav when it was released back in the early 90s, along with 'Rain'....
Later I was listening to my CDs of Oldies....songs like 'Doo wah diddy', 'Tell Laura I love her', 'Speedy gonzales', 'Georgy Girl', 'Summer Holiday', 'There's a kind of Hush', 'Smoke Gets in your eyes', 'Raindrops keep falling on my head', 'Rhythm of the Rain' etc etc...there's a medely running through my head even now...and i'm feeling so incredibly content I could almost let out a purr of a contented cat!!!
Thursday, February 05, 2004
Study Habits?
Managed to study a bit yesterday evening, though I'm still not able to drag myself outta bed before 8 am...starting to feel like someone else is residing in me...I spoke to my school pal Amisha yesterday and she couldn't believe it when I told her I'm sleeping as late as 1 am and that I don't get up in the morning to study...I was famous in school for my "good" sleeping habits...LOL!! Germany seems to have ruined me...LOL! Seriously, I better get a hold of myself coz I only get mornings to study...I can never accomplish much in the day time, and evenings (my other golden study time) goes away in AF...again nights are out coz I never studied at night and now even if I want to, I'm too tired after getting back home from AF, making my calls, talking to my parents etc at home...no way that I can study after all that, unless under duress...even then, it would be mere pretense, which I've never done...as I would tell Amma as a kid...sure I'll take my books if you want me to study, but I'm just gonna be staring at them and flipping pages, so I might as well do as I please instead of wasting my time right? Was a truly stubborn kid and developed my own studying norms...now I seem to be developing new ones...I was complaining that my mom is probably the only mom in the world who doesn't push her child to study when exams are approaching...Pat came the reply, thats because she knows I'll just stick in my heels and make sure I don't study or else I will just push back!! What a reputation!!!Hahahaha!!!
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Phased Out....
Gosh...for the last few days I've been sooooooooooo phased out, it's beginning to scare me now...I'm like vague, confused, say bizarre things that make no sense, use much more nonsensical words than I usually do...it's wierd!!! I'm feeling so odd these days...time flying past me, and me stuck in a limbo not being able to achieve anything...gick I'm not making any sense...might as well sleep...shit I just remembered stuff I had to do today...damn...ah well...
Random thoughts....
- Valentine's Day...it's never held much significance for me, so I don't spend much time thinking about it, except that it's obviously very materialised these days. I have nothing against the concept of the day...but it's silly the way people go into a tizzy about it and how they MUST express their "love" for the "special someone" in their life, ONLY on this day...but well each to it's own..as long as it doesn't affect me!!! What I do like about this day is the number and variety of flowers all florists stock! It's a sheer delight for me and a temptation difficult to resist, considering how much I love all flowers...anyways I ended up buying a bouquet of roses, to put in a vase at home, the other day, while going to AF. Only prob was the number of question I had to deal with - Is it your birthday? No. Your mother's birthday? No. Your friends? No. OH! Your boyfriend gave them to you? I didn't know I had one!! Then why the bouquet? Just like that?
LOL!!!
- Was passing by Riverdale on my way home from AF, as I do every day (this is a shop selling gifts,cards and bouquets and it is right next to my building so I can't avoid crossing it when I take the bus home!)...anyways, since Valentine's day is coming up it obviously has a lot of lowers...and bouquets of every type on display...one bouquet caught my attention...it was shaped like a heart (DUH!!), but that's not why it caught my attention. Instead of a bouquet, this was a wreath!! *Shudder* How can someone send their beloved a wreath of red roses on Valentine's day? And to top this, this wreath was circled with little red and yellow bulbs...gross?
LOL!!!
- Was passing by Riverdale on my way home from AF, as I do every day (this is a shop selling gifts,cards and bouquets and it is right next to my building so I can't avoid crossing it when I take the bus home!)...anyways, since Valentine's day is coming up it obviously has a lot of lowers...and bouquets of every type on display...one bouquet caught my attention...it was shaped like a heart (DUH!!), but that's not why it caught my attention. Instead of a bouquet, this was a wreath!! *Shudder* How can someone send their beloved a wreath of red roses on Valentine's day? And to top this, this wreath was circled with little red and yellow bulbs...gross?
Monday, February 02, 2004
Is the Indian Public Deteriorating?
This was what my mother and I were discussing yesterday afternoon...in the last few weeks, as anyone who'd read the newpapers would know, there have been a spate of railway accidents....before I left for Bhopal, I read about the man who was hit by an oncoming train because he was standing too close to the edge. While the paper condemned the driver for this incident, I think the man was more to blame - this whole thing about people being too stressed to follow rail-safety rules is absolute crap...who told him to stand at the edge of the platform - and if he was, couldn't fellow commuters have pulled him back? Or were they all blind?
The next incident was ofcourse one that hit national headlines, since it was the PMs grand nephew who got thrown off a train - animals is what I'd call the culprits. The same goes for the people who threw the man off the local train between Borivili and Kandivili, and the man who tried to throw acid on his girl friend but ended up harming other women in the train...all articles are pointing fingers at the railways for lack of safety...but, pray, enlighten me how the railway is supposed to ensure the safety of people who insit on crossing the tracks, when there are bridges; nsist on standing too close to the platform, despite all that common sense says and the many announcements; insist on throwing ppl off the train and acting like savages from the prehistoric age and not the post-modern thinking man....
And then I wonder if I can blame the West for thinking that India is still stuck in the dark ages and isn't a safe place to travel in...if news of this sort reaches them...sigh...a minority of idiots are responsible for the labelling of a majority of people!!! Ick!!!
The next incident was ofcourse one that hit national headlines, since it was the PMs grand nephew who got thrown off a train - animals is what I'd call the culprits. The same goes for the people who threw the man off the local train between Borivili and Kandivili, and the man who tried to throw acid on his girl friend but ended up harming other women in the train...all articles are pointing fingers at the railways for lack of safety...but, pray, enlighten me how the railway is supposed to ensure the safety of people who insit on crossing the tracks, when there are bridges; nsist on standing too close to the platform, despite all that common sense says and the many announcements; insist on throwing ppl off the train and acting like savages from the prehistoric age and not the post-modern thinking man....
And then I wonder if I can blame the West for thinking that India is still stuck in the dark ages and isn't a safe place to travel in...if news of this sort reaches them...sigh...a minority of idiots are responsible for the labelling of a majority of people!!! Ick!!!
Classy Punju wedding?
I blogged about my feelings towards loud and showy wedings just a few days back, so, when I heard this little bit on the radio this morning I was extremely amused! The RJ reported his friend's wedding and acc to him - despite being so loud, noisy and having "wholesale" dancing Punju weddings still have some degree of "class" as compared to the "crass" Sindhi weddings...I was all but rolling with laughter at that point, for more than 1 reason!!! He went on to describe how much he freaked out when he saw the irish coffee counter and better yet, the description on the Salad counter as " Salad counter with Ice carving statue" - ROTFLMAO!!!!!
Sunday, February 01, 2004
Iris Murdoch, Alzheimer's Disease and Nissim Ezekiel
Last night I saw "Iris" - the film stars Judi Dench, Kate Winslet, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Bonnville, Samuel West, Pauline McLynn and Penelope Wilton. Directed by Sir Richard Eyre, it is based on the life of Dame Iris Murdoch. This film covers writer Iris Murdoch's and John Bayley's first encounter more than 40 years ago while teaching together at Oxford, their marriage together and the writer's subsequent struggle with Alzheimer's disease.
British writer, university lecturer and prolific and highly professional novelist, Iris Murdoch dealt with everyday ethical or moral issues, sometimes in the light of myths. As a writer, she was a perfectionist who did not allow editors to change her text. Murdoch produced 26 novels in 40 years, the last written while she was suffering from Alzheimer disease.
"She wanted, through her novels, to reach all possible readers, in different ways and by different means: by the excitement of her story, its pace and its comedy, through its ideas and its philosophical implications, through the numinous atmosphere of her own original and created world--the world she must have glimpsed as she considered and planned her first steps in the art of fiction." (John Bailey in Elegy for Iris, 1998)
Murdoch was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1987. From the mid-1990s Murdoch suffered from Alzheimer disease. First signs were seen on visits to Israel, where Murdoch, who always spoke slowly, had difficulties answering questions. Her last novel was a psychological thriller. In the story, Edward Lannion, an aspiring young poet and historical novelist, on the day before his wedding receives an enigmatic letter from his fiancée. Brad Leithauser wrote in The New York Times that Murdoch's prose is strewn with imprecisions and blatant redundancies - Leithauser also asked why the phrase ''then suddenly'' should appear three times in a single paragraph. The mistakes urged Murdoch's devoted readers to send these comments in letters to the writer.
During the last years of her life, Murdoch became like "a very nice 3-year-old," her husband said. She died in Oxford on February 8, 1999. In his memoir Elegy for Iris John Bayley portrays his brilliant wife lovingly but unsentimentally. "She was a superior being, and I knew that superior beings just did not have the kind of mind that I had." Murdoch's benevolent personality was not broken by her disease.
I have not read any of her works, keeping them rather at the bottom of my reading list, but after seeing the movie yesterday I've just pushed the books up the list. What struck me even before was how an author/poet would deal with Alzheimer's Disease - how difficult it would be for them to face not being able to complete a sentence they started, suddenly not knowing what words meant and so on...the movie captured this beautifully...
While on the subject I should also mention that Nissim Ezekiel, the father of modern Indian English Poetry passed away in Jan 2004 having battled with the same disease for several years. Dr.Bhaurcha, a former student of Ezekiel, told us how, despite the disease, he was still very welcoming towards young students of literature and how he gave advice to aspiring poets, for as long as he could.
Jerry Pinto on Ezekiel
An Ezekiel Poem
More on Ezekiel
British writer, university lecturer and prolific and highly professional novelist, Iris Murdoch dealt with everyday ethical or moral issues, sometimes in the light of myths. As a writer, she was a perfectionist who did not allow editors to change her text. Murdoch produced 26 novels in 40 years, the last written while she was suffering from Alzheimer disease.
"She wanted, through her novels, to reach all possible readers, in different ways and by different means: by the excitement of her story, its pace and its comedy, through its ideas and its philosophical implications, through the numinous atmosphere of her own original and created world--the world she must have glimpsed as she considered and planned her first steps in the art of fiction." (John Bailey in Elegy for Iris, 1998)
Murdoch was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1987. From the mid-1990s Murdoch suffered from Alzheimer disease. First signs were seen on visits to Israel, where Murdoch, who always spoke slowly, had difficulties answering questions. Her last novel was a psychological thriller. In the story, Edward Lannion, an aspiring young poet and historical novelist, on the day before his wedding receives an enigmatic letter from his fiancée. Brad Leithauser wrote in The New York Times that Murdoch's prose is strewn with imprecisions and blatant redundancies - Leithauser also asked why the phrase ''then suddenly'' should appear three times in a single paragraph. The mistakes urged Murdoch's devoted readers to send these comments in letters to the writer.
During the last years of her life, Murdoch became like "a very nice 3-year-old," her husband said. She died in Oxford on February 8, 1999. In his memoir Elegy for Iris John Bayley portrays his brilliant wife lovingly but unsentimentally. "She was a superior being, and I knew that superior beings just did not have the kind of mind that I had." Murdoch's benevolent personality was not broken by her disease.
I have not read any of her works, keeping them rather at the bottom of my reading list, but after seeing the movie yesterday I've just pushed the books up the list. What struck me even before was how an author/poet would deal with Alzheimer's Disease - how difficult it would be for them to face not being able to complete a sentence they started, suddenly not knowing what words meant and so on...the movie captured this beautifully...
While on the subject I should also mention that Nissim Ezekiel, the father of modern Indian English Poetry passed away in Jan 2004 having battled with the same disease for several years. Dr.Bhaurcha, a former student of Ezekiel, told us how, despite the disease, he was still very welcoming towards young students of literature and how he gave advice to aspiring poets, for as long as he could.
Saturday, January 31, 2004
Crash-course on 'How to Lose my Trust'!!!
I had my first Internal Assessment for Niveau 3 at AF on the 29th, after my return from Bhopal...needless to say my french is terribly rusty after such a long gap, and I was very unhappy with the way I spoke...was basolutely sure my marks would be not the least bit satisfactory. Yesterday we requested eeral, our prof, to tell us how we've fared...we can impove our oral exam marks during the remaining three months of class - if she sees an improvemnt then at the end of the course she will raise our marks..anyways she said I was hanging between satisfactory and unsatisfactory...so there's still hope for me...LOL!! I've been brushing up all my French grammar and vocab for the past 2 days, having abandoned MA studies for the time being.
Unluckily for me, my cousin who had borrowed my carefully made French grammar notes has merrily lost my book, so I'm sitting and making all the notes again. Luckily, on the other hand, my careful nature didn't permit me to throw away even the rough notes, so I fished them out and now I'm spending precious time making another book...ah well I'm finicky I know, but this is just so aggravating..I mean how can you misplace something that isn't yours..and that too, a book? Specially MINE...I mean if there's one sure-shot way of losing my trust, it's to go and misplace/lose/mishandle my book...my most treasured possessions are my books!!! Now I'm all worried coz she has also borrowed ALL my MA I novels which, well, are not only worth thousands, but precious in the other sense too...ick!
Been good and studying alot for the past 2 days, even if its French...gonna be following a regimentary schedule from now on, so that I don't embarass myself at either exam!! Today since Bhaiyya, bhabhi and papa have left for the north for Elecrama/maika visits, I cleaned up the entire house, transforming it from a 'warehouse' that it has been since the Elecrama work began, into a nice house that it has always been....Nothing beats a clean, well-kept, home, what say? Also been listening to my favourite 'study' songs to get me in the mood...all my 80's and early 90's favourites....there are too many to list right now...but it's Wilson Philips at the moment....getting all nostaligc about the days Mansi and I would discuss music, have arguments over Bon Jovi/GNR etc etc...damn but I miss the babe!!!!
Hmmm...c'est tout maintenant...bonne weekend et a demain!!!
Unluckily for me, my cousin who had borrowed my carefully made French grammar notes has merrily lost my book, so I'm sitting and making all the notes again. Luckily, on the other hand, my careful nature didn't permit me to throw away even the rough notes, so I fished them out and now I'm spending precious time making another book...ah well I'm finicky I know, but this is just so aggravating..I mean how can you misplace something that isn't yours..and that too, a book? Specially MINE...I mean if there's one sure-shot way of losing my trust, it's to go and misplace/lose/mishandle my book...my most treasured possessions are my books!!! Now I'm all worried coz she has also borrowed ALL my MA I novels which, well, are not only worth thousands, but precious in the other sense too...ick!
Been good and studying alot for the past 2 days, even if its French...gonna be following a regimentary schedule from now on, so that I don't embarass myself at either exam!! Today since Bhaiyya, bhabhi and papa have left for the north for Elecrama/maika visits, I cleaned up the entire house, transforming it from a 'warehouse' that it has been since the Elecrama work began, into a nice house that it has always been....Nothing beats a clean, well-kept, home, what say? Also been listening to my favourite 'study' songs to get me in the mood...all my 80's and early 90's favourites....there are too many to list right now...but it's Wilson Philips at the moment....getting all nostaligc about the days Mansi and I would discuss music, have arguments over Bon Jovi/GNR etc etc...damn but I miss the babe!!!!
Hmmm...c'est tout maintenant...bonne weekend et a demain!!!
Friday, January 30, 2004
Amelie
The only french movie I've seen isAmelie (2001)
I thought it was a brilliant movie...I was never a movie-buff and never impressed to hear that so-an-so 'star' sat here etc etc...but it was thrilling for me to be having coffee in the cafe where the movie was filmed, or go to the gardens where she left the album for the guy she liked...anyways I strongly recommend the movie for those who haven't seen it yet. Starring Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the movie is a rich and imaginative work that delights from the opening credits, a sweet confection that should be savored more than once.
Excerpts from a review by Bob Aulert
"The film starts with Amélie (rhymes with "Family") as a young child, born to a neurotic mother and emotionally distant father. She longs for her father's affection, so much so that her heart races every time he uses his stethoscope to examine her (he's a physician). He diagnoses a heart condition and she's kept away from other human contact. Her mother dies (in a blackly hilarious scene) and she's raised in the countryside until she's old enough to leave home and take a waitress job at the Two Windmills café in Paris. She discovers a tin box hidden at her flat that contains artifacts of a young boy's long-ago childhood. Amélie decides to find its owner and reunite him with the toys of his youth. Thus begins her new part-time job and full-time philosophy: making people happy.
But Amélie's own joy remains elusive. There's no special person in her life. Then she meets Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), a clerk in a porno shop. His hobby is collecting discarded picture fragments from automated photo booths and reassembling them in a scrapbook. Amélie is smitten - but just as her father didn’t judge her heart strong enough to withstand the rigors of a "normal" life, neither does she trust that it can bear the demands of love. So her strategies for meeting Nino are as convoluted and intriguing as the means she uses to enhance other peoples' lives and the practical jokes she plays on a local grocer who cruelly demeans his assistant.
"Amélie" presents an idealized Paris, far too sanitized and homogenized to ever pass for the real thing. It's more of a theme park look - a world that you suspect could never exist, but secretly hope could. But don’t let words like magical and charming lead you to dismiss Amélie as a fluffy trifle. It deals with some fundamental human themes: love, loneliness, self-confidence and insecurity. In many ways it's as light and sweet as cotton candy. But unlike the circus confection, its essence will stay with you long after you've enjoyed it."
I thought it was a brilliant movie...I was never a movie-buff and never impressed to hear that so-an-so 'star' sat here etc etc...but it was thrilling for me to be having coffee in the cafe where the movie was filmed, or go to the gardens where she left the album for the guy she liked...anyways I strongly recommend the movie for those who haven't seen it yet. Starring Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the movie is a rich and imaginative work that delights from the opening credits, a sweet confection that should be savored more than once.
Excerpts from a review by Bob Aulert
"The film starts with Amélie (rhymes with "Family") as a young child, born to a neurotic mother and emotionally distant father. She longs for her father's affection, so much so that her heart races every time he uses his stethoscope to examine her (he's a physician). He diagnoses a heart condition and she's kept away from other human contact. Her mother dies (in a blackly hilarious scene) and she's raised in the countryside until she's old enough to leave home and take a waitress job at the Two Windmills café in Paris. She discovers a tin box hidden at her flat that contains artifacts of a young boy's long-ago childhood. Amélie decides to find its owner and reunite him with the toys of his youth. Thus begins her new part-time job and full-time philosophy: making people happy.
But Amélie's own joy remains elusive. There's no special person in her life. Then she meets Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), a clerk in a porno shop. His hobby is collecting discarded picture fragments from automated photo booths and reassembling them in a scrapbook. Amélie is smitten - but just as her father didn’t judge her heart strong enough to withstand the rigors of a "normal" life, neither does she trust that it can bear the demands of love. So her strategies for meeting Nino are as convoluted and intriguing as the means she uses to enhance other peoples' lives and the practical jokes she plays on a local grocer who cruelly demeans his assistant.
"Amélie" presents an idealized Paris, far too sanitized and homogenized to ever pass for the real thing. It's more of a theme park look - a world that you suspect could never exist, but secretly hope could. But don’t let words like magical and charming lead you to dismiss Amélie as a fluffy trifle. It deals with some fundamental human themes: love, loneliness, self-confidence and insecurity. In many ways it's as light and sweet as cotton candy. But unlike the circus confection, its essence will stay with you long after you've enjoyed it."
Time Flies...
I got up this morning and looked at my Monet calendar, admiring the print and it struck me like thunderbolt that it's been a month since i was in France. on 30th Dec, 2003, I was boarding the train back to Germany, from Gare de Paris l'Est! Can't believe how fast time has flown by....was giving myself a memory test and seeing how much I still remember of my stay in France - the City of Bordeaux, with its labyrinth of streets and old hourses, wine warehouses in the Chartrons area, the banks of the river, the newly inaugurated tram lines, Christmas eve at Jacqueline's place, lunch at Rose's place...the wonderful French cuisine that still makes me mouth water : Onglet Grille, Ratatouille Provencal, Poulet et Carottes a la Vichy, Boudain Blanc , all the Cheese, the Wines and the Desserts, and last but not the least (rather the best) Foie Gras!!! My trip to Lacanau beach on the shores of Atlantic Ocean, which is just across NY on the globe, the trip to St.Emilion, the charming vineyard village....
Paris brings back a rush of memories from the Eiffel Tower, going all the way up, to roaming around Montmartre, Cafe de Deux Moulins (that's where Amelie of the film "Amelie" worked), Moulin Rouge, Sacree Couer, Le Pantheon with the crypt that has the tombs of Rosseau, Voltaire, Balzac, Marie Curie amongst many others, St Germain des Pres, an exclusive shopping area, the Louvre, Sanmaritaine, Galleries Lafayettes....soooooooo much more and more! I wish I could upload all the pics quickly, but I must wait till my brother resumes work and can get them scanned for me from his office....sigh!!!
I finished my last roll and this had pics of my trip to the Hartz mountains with Hardo and his prents on our last weekend in Magdeburg...they took us to a skiing resort so we could play in the snow!! That was cool....actually freezing cold!! LOL!! that day was great...we had gone back to Hardo's house picking up Annika en route and had left for our place at like 2.30 am!! Hehehe....nostalgia rules right now!!!
I was also thinking of how I managed to restrain myself from picking up my favourite perfume Contradiction by CK - I did have time constraints and budget worries towards the end....but the more i think of it, teh more I am surprised at my restraint! Now I'm almost itching for papa to go abroad so he can get it for me...this despite the fact that I have the other 2 CK perfumes I adore!! LOL!! I'm really quite spoilt I think...I'm already itching to shop...pick up some more junk jewellery and stuff...books too..but keeping myself in check coz i knw i'll end up picking stuff up when I take Hana shopping...LOL!!
Onto more serious stuff....the WSF drew to a close this week..and I'm almost glad...as it is i thought it was hyped way too much, and with that "rape" incident it was all one saw in the newspapers...but I just read an artcile at how badly it was organised and I really wonder whether it achieved anything...can't pass a judgement coz I didn't take the effort to go there, even though one of our faculty members was a part of it and even spoke there at some seminars...or so I understand!!!
Au revoir et a demain!!!!
Paris brings back a rush of memories from the Eiffel Tower, going all the way up, to roaming around Montmartre, Cafe de Deux Moulins (that's where Amelie of the film "Amelie" worked), Moulin Rouge, Sacree Couer, Le Pantheon with the crypt that has the tombs of Rosseau, Voltaire, Balzac, Marie Curie amongst many others, St Germain des Pres, an exclusive shopping area, the Louvre, Sanmaritaine, Galleries Lafayettes....soooooooo much more and more! I wish I could upload all the pics quickly, but I must wait till my brother resumes work and can get them scanned for me from his office....sigh!!!
I finished my last roll and this had pics of my trip to the Hartz mountains with Hardo and his prents on our last weekend in Magdeburg...they took us to a skiing resort so we could play in the snow!! That was cool....actually freezing cold!! LOL!! that day was great...we had gone back to Hardo's house picking up Annika en route and had left for our place at like 2.30 am!! Hehehe....nostalgia rules right now!!!
I was also thinking of how I managed to restrain myself from picking up my favourite perfume Contradiction by CK - I did have time constraints and budget worries towards the end....but the more i think of it, teh more I am surprised at my restraint! Now I'm almost itching for papa to go abroad so he can get it for me...this despite the fact that I have the other 2 CK perfumes I adore!! LOL!! I'm really quite spoilt I think...I'm already itching to shop...pick up some more junk jewellery and stuff...books too..but keeping myself in check coz i knw i'll end up picking stuff up when I take Hana shopping...LOL!!
Onto more serious stuff....the WSF drew to a close this week..and I'm almost glad...as it is i thought it was hyped way too much, and with that "rape" incident it was all one saw in the newspapers...but I just read an artcile at how badly it was organised and I really wonder whether it achieved anything...can't pass a judgement coz I didn't take the effort to go there, even though one of our faculty members was a part of it and even spoke there at some seminars...or so I understand!!!
Au revoir et a demain!!!!
Thursday, January 29, 2004
Bhopal Trip...
Lots to blog about...lots lots lots...I'm gonna start with my trip to Bhopal...there's more that I've jotted down notes for, and shall follow in a day or two...itching to blog all about everything on my mind!!!
I left for Bhopal on the 24th evening. We should have left earlier in the afternoon, but my dear workoholic father had to work till 4 pm...so we dropped Amma at the airport (she flew coz the drive would be uncomfortable for her) and then continued on our way towards Bhopal. We drove upto Nasik, where we halted for the night...on the way when we passed the ghats we saw a forest fire. Not one that was a hazard, rather one created by the forest department to clear the dry bush in order to prevent hazardous fires!! It was the first time I've seen a fire so I was quite awed by the sight...sadly I didn't fish out my brother's digicam on time and we couldn't get a shot of it!
We went by car coz we couldn't leave Schnapps behind and well...travelling with my Schnapps is entertaining, but very very tiring!! He simply won't sit still..curious about everything...barking at trucks, bikes, cows, goats, fields...clambering all over us to see from this window and that...whoa!!! And the hunt for a hotel which allowed dogs when we stopped for the night at nasik!!! Quite interesting, as I said...we finally got one hotel that said..."Dog will do as long as he keeps his pee out of our carpet"...I didn't know how to react at that statement!!! He attended most ceremonies and stole away all the attention from the "dhula"....hehe....he is a handsome dog after all!!! Even my new 'bhabhi' - Juhi - was enamoured with him!!!
We reached Bhopal the next eveg after having driven the whole day from Nasik onwards except for two short halts for meals - first after Dhule for "brunch" then at Indore for "high tea"....Indore was interesting to pass through, with the education zone road..which my brother compared to the "khau galis"...he said this was "padhai gali"...and then the flock of people from nearby villages who had come for some "mela"...they were all dressed in typical MP clothes, so all these women in sarees with their "pallu"s draped low over their foreheads, and big anklets, nose rings et al...and the HUGE "pagdis" of the men in vibrant colours...the way they commute piled up on tractors, or in matador vans...quite a sight....the drive itself is good...except for the bad roads in Madhya Pradesh and the number of animals I saw on the highways and ghats that had been run over, or the numerous over turned trucks, or the two sickening accident scenes I passed...I won't go into details coz it isn't worth upsetting your stomachs over!!! Its sad that ppl don't drive safely on highways and the narrow steep ghats! The amt of rash driving I've seen ppl do left me rather upset...
The city of Bhopal is awesome...I've been a few time sin my chilhood and last time was when I'd just given my 10th std exams...so like 7 yrs back....it used to be one dry mound of red earth...over the yrs the city has been transformed into a city of beautiful gardens...lots of greenery everywhere, charming bungalows, wide roads...quite a nice place to visit...it also has several lakes which are very very clean and a pleasure to walk ard in the evegs!!! Possibilities of there...you get wonderful Kosa silk, shoes and sandals much cheaper than BOmbay, the "Bhopali batuwas" famous with foreigners that are a work of art....ah well I dint have time unluckily...but did manage to pick up 2 pairs of sandals...LOL!! I could have done more if I had squeezed out more time in between catching up with relatives and attending ceremonies! Next time perhaps? Hehehe...
The stay in Bhopal itself was cool. Literally and metaphorically!! I got to meet all my chachas, chachis, buas and phuphajis...the marriage ceremonies themselves were ok...it was a small and simple marriage...keeping to traditions but not very loud and vulgar...except for the sangeet with the awful punjabi songs and the Baraat bit which I shall never be able digest!!
I sooooo abhorr the bit where you play this loud music on the road, have some poor kids carry lamps on their heads while you dance like idiots on the roads...extremely disgusting and declasse!!! I think the baraat arriving in a fleet of cars in a dignified manner is sooooo much more classy....I'll be damned if my "dhula" arrives in a vulgar display of music and gaudy dance!!! I have such a long list of "Will not happen at my wedding" I wonder if I'll find a guy whose family will bow down to my expectations of a classy, simple wedding!!! *Cross my fingers*
I got back last night...most uncomfortable flight...way too much turbuluence and a very wierd pilot!!! He swayed and kept dipping from one side to the other...I think he must have played alot with toy planes as a child and yesterday he was reminiscing!!! LOL!! Anyways I reached home safely without throwing up as I felt like several times during the flight...very wierd...not once did I feel odd when I was flying with Alitalia...guess thats the only point in their favour!! Hahaha!!!
Guess that's it about Bhopal....now it's back to Mumbai and studies...I have an internal assessment at Af today so I should get up now and revise my vocab and grammar...it's terribly rusty...sigh!!!
Until later, with lots more to add.....have a great day!!!
I left for Bhopal on the 24th evening. We should have left earlier in the afternoon, but my dear workoholic father had to work till 4 pm...so we dropped Amma at the airport (she flew coz the drive would be uncomfortable for her) and then continued on our way towards Bhopal. We drove upto Nasik, where we halted for the night...on the way when we passed the ghats we saw a forest fire. Not one that was a hazard, rather one created by the forest department to clear the dry bush in order to prevent hazardous fires!! It was the first time I've seen a fire so I was quite awed by the sight...sadly I didn't fish out my brother's digicam on time and we couldn't get a shot of it!
We went by car coz we couldn't leave Schnapps behind and well...travelling with my Schnapps is entertaining, but very very tiring!! He simply won't sit still..curious about everything...barking at trucks, bikes, cows, goats, fields...clambering all over us to see from this window and that...whoa!!! And the hunt for a hotel which allowed dogs when we stopped for the night at nasik!!! Quite interesting, as I said...we finally got one hotel that said..."Dog will do as long as he keeps his pee out of our carpet"...I didn't know how to react at that statement!!! He attended most ceremonies and stole away all the attention from the "dhula"....hehe....he is a handsome dog after all!!! Even my new 'bhabhi' - Juhi - was enamoured with him!!!
We reached Bhopal the next eveg after having driven the whole day from Nasik onwards except for two short halts for meals - first after Dhule for "brunch" then at Indore for "high tea"....Indore was interesting to pass through, with the education zone road..which my brother compared to the "khau galis"...he said this was "padhai gali"...and then the flock of people from nearby villages who had come for some "mela"...they were all dressed in typical MP clothes, so all these women in sarees with their "pallu"s draped low over their foreheads, and big anklets, nose rings et al...and the HUGE "pagdis" of the men in vibrant colours...the way they commute piled up on tractors, or in matador vans...quite a sight....the drive itself is good...except for the bad roads in Madhya Pradesh and the number of animals I saw on the highways and ghats that had been run over, or the numerous over turned trucks, or the two sickening accident scenes I passed...I won't go into details coz it isn't worth upsetting your stomachs over!!! Its sad that ppl don't drive safely on highways and the narrow steep ghats! The amt of rash driving I've seen ppl do left me rather upset...
The city of Bhopal is awesome...I've been a few time sin my chilhood and last time was when I'd just given my 10th std exams...so like 7 yrs back....it used to be one dry mound of red earth...over the yrs the city has been transformed into a city of beautiful gardens...lots of greenery everywhere, charming bungalows, wide roads...quite a nice place to visit...it also has several lakes which are very very clean and a pleasure to walk ard in the evegs!!! Possibilities of there...you get wonderful Kosa silk, shoes and sandals much cheaper than BOmbay, the "Bhopali batuwas" famous with foreigners that are a work of art....ah well I dint have time unluckily...but did manage to pick up 2 pairs of sandals...LOL!! I could have done more if I had squeezed out more time in between catching up with relatives and attending ceremonies! Next time perhaps? Hehehe...
The stay in Bhopal itself was cool. Literally and metaphorically!! I got to meet all my chachas, chachis, buas and phuphajis...the marriage ceremonies themselves were ok...it was a small and simple marriage...keeping to traditions but not very loud and vulgar...except for the sangeet with the awful punjabi songs and the Baraat bit which I shall never be able digest!!
I sooooo abhorr the bit where you play this loud music on the road, have some poor kids carry lamps on their heads while you dance like idiots on the roads...extremely disgusting and declasse!!! I think the baraat arriving in a fleet of cars in a dignified manner is sooooo much more classy....I'll be damned if my "dhula" arrives in a vulgar display of music and gaudy dance!!! I have such a long list of "Will not happen at my wedding" I wonder if I'll find a guy whose family will bow down to my expectations of a classy, simple wedding!!! *Cross my fingers*
I got back last night...most uncomfortable flight...way too much turbuluence and a very wierd pilot!!! He swayed and kept dipping from one side to the other...I think he must have played alot with toy planes as a child and yesterday he was reminiscing!!! LOL!! Anyways I reached home safely without throwing up as I felt like several times during the flight...very wierd...not once did I feel odd when I was flying with Alitalia...guess thats the only point in their favour!! Hahaha!!!
Guess that's it about Bhopal....now it's back to Mumbai and studies...I have an internal assessment at Af today so I should get up now and revise my vocab and grammar...it's terribly rusty...sigh!!!
Until later, with lots more to add.....have a great day!!!
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Exclusion, Indignation and more...
Have been missing for so many days eh? The last time I sat and blogged, something went wrong with the internet and I lost the whole big chunk..was so disgusted I just abandoned the computer..and I haven't been able to sit in peace and blog ever since then..that was Saturday!!!
Gosh I feel so odd...these days I don't even realise how time flies by...there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day to accomplish everything on my "To do Today" list! Hell but I'm not complaining..I'd rather be busy than twiddling my thumbs and wondering how to pass time...not for me the existance of a bored individual...I'd be suicidal if I had to live like that for long! Last week flew by, in getting adjusted to the old routine again...now I'm truly settled back in...and its fun to be doing that stuff again. I do miss Tasu on the bus journeys back home from AF, and get a bit bored, but then that time alone gives me time to think and generally 'be with myself' and sort things out in my head that I can't be bothered with during the day!
This week there were 2 articles on France in the papers...the first was about their new law concerning wearing anything that displays your religious affinities - I was very surprised to see it in the paper, because I had discussed this with Patricia when I was in Bordeaux. I personally think that the law shold be scrapped coz every person has a right to follow his religion and you can't impose rules on how he follows it...but then you wonder where one can draw a line? Yet banning the wearing of turbans/scarves etc to school is outrageous...next they will say that one shouldn't wear a 'salwar kurta' because that shows the community you are affiliated to and sets you apart as 'different' - is it so wrong to be different? And how can one live in such an exclusive culture today when boundaries are getting vague and people are spilling over borders into different cultures?
French Muslim Minister in Support of bBn
Muslim Women Protest Ban in France
British Sikhs Condemn The Ban
The other article did nothing to my blood pressure, luckily!!! It was just a travelogue concerning 2 cities in France one must visit - Paris and Bordeaux. Again it caught my attention because of my recent link wth both cities...what pleased me was that I'd seen all the places they mentioned in the article...and more!!! Unluckily I can't find that on the internet, so only those who see my Bordeaux album will see the article, for it is pasted on the last page of my album!!!
Speaking of french, I think I'll probably talk of this kind of movement to 'exclude' other cultures for my expose in Niv 3. Serious enought topic and I feel quite strongly about it....
Have some others things I wanna voice my opinion on, but that shall have to wait for later...SIMPLY MUST get up now and be 'productive!!!'
Gosh I feel so odd...these days I don't even realise how time flies by...there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day to accomplish everything on my "To do Today" list! Hell but I'm not complaining..I'd rather be busy than twiddling my thumbs and wondering how to pass time...not for me the existance of a bored individual...I'd be suicidal if I had to live like that for long! Last week flew by, in getting adjusted to the old routine again...now I'm truly settled back in...and its fun to be doing that stuff again. I do miss Tasu on the bus journeys back home from AF, and get a bit bored, but then that time alone gives me time to think and generally 'be with myself' and sort things out in my head that I can't be bothered with during the day!
This week there were 2 articles on France in the papers...the first was about their new law concerning wearing anything that displays your religious affinities - I was very surprised to see it in the paper, because I had discussed this with Patricia when I was in Bordeaux. I personally think that the law shold be scrapped coz every person has a right to follow his religion and you can't impose rules on how he follows it...but then you wonder where one can draw a line? Yet banning the wearing of turbans/scarves etc to school is outrageous...next they will say that one shouldn't wear a 'salwar kurta' because that shows the community you are affiliated to and sets you apart as 'different' - is it so wrong to be different? And how can one live in such an exclusive culture today when boundaries are getting vague and people are spilling over borders into different cultures?
The other article did nothing to my blood pressure, luckily!!! It was just a travelogue concerning 2 cities in France one must visit - Paris and Bordeaux. Again it caught my attention because of my recent link wth both cities...what pleased me was that I'd seen all the places they mentioned in the article...and more!!! Unluckily I can't find that on the internet, so only those who see my Bordeaux album will see the article, for it is pasted on the last page of my album!!!
Speaking of french, I think I'll probably talk of this kind of movement to 'exclude' other cultures for my expose in Niv 3. Serious enought topic and I feel quite strongly about it....
Have some others things I wanna voice my opinion on, but that shall have to wait for later...SIMPLY MUST get up now and be 'productive!!!'
Saturday, January 17, 2004
Changes....
Changes a plenty...I hadn't realised how much I'd changed in these short months...Can't converse on the phone at all..don't think of calling up anyone unless I have work and definitely can't talk to people at odd hours like 11 pm!!! Kinda makes life tough for me coz friends are wondering why I am acting snooty and don't call...sigh!
Plus I seem to have become even less tolerant...just can't say "It's alright anymore" as I used to...end up telling my friends how annoying or whatever they are being and getting this blank look from them...they aren't used to me being this blunt. No crap from others either...I just cut them off and walk off...jeez but I'm gonna lose my angel's wings very fast at this rate!!! LOL!!! I'm not yet complaining but well....
Ouch my mom thinks I must go shower coz it's lunch time..sigh...off I go...more laters....
Plus I seem to have become even less tolerant...just can't say "It's alright anymore" as I used to...end up telling my friends how annoying or whatever they are being and getting this blank look from them...they aren't used to me being this blunt. No crap from others either...I just cut them off and walk off...jeez but I'm gonna lose my angel's wings very fast at this rate!!! LOL!!! I'm not yet complaining but well....
Ouch my mom thinks I must go shower coz it's lunch time..sigh...off I go...more laters....
My Encounter With An American Bimbo!!!
This happened when I was in a restroom of a Parisien Cafe...it was on my first day, just after I'd walked from the arc de la triomphe, down the Champs Elysees upto the Place de la Concorde (where the guillotine was during the French Revolution)...picture a buxom blond with pink lipstick and blue eye shadow...
Bimbo (B) : I wanna see the Danish palace....
Geetanjali (G) : *smile*
B : Do you know where it is?
G : I am not from Paris..what does your guide book say?
B : Is it in Paris or in Denmark?
G : I wouldn't know..I'm not from France or Denmark!!!
B : Well I wanna see it...
G : Why don't you look up a guide book and see what it says? Or ask one of the guys in the cafe?
B : What city in the US did you say you are from by the way?
G : I didn't say I am from the US...
B: But you speak good english...
G : There are other countries in the world apart from the US where people speak excellent english...
B : So where in UK are you from?
G : Guess again...
B : Then it must be Australia...thats the only other country...
G : Nopes wrong again...I'm from India...
B : But isn't that a small village in Asia?
G : (Mentally) I wonder what the sentence for murder is???? *fake smile* No it isnt..It's a big country with a lot of very intelligent people who speak better english than most Americans...excuse me I need to use the loo....
ARGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Bimbo (B) : I wanna see the Danish palace....
Geetanjali (G) : *smile*
B : Do you know where it is?
G : I am not from Paris..what does your guide book say?
B : Is it in Paris or in Denmark?
G : I wouldn't know..I'm not from France or Denmark!!!
B : Well I wanna see it...
G : Why don't you look up a guide book and see what it says? Or ask one of the guys in the cafe?
B : What city in the US did you say you are from by the way?
G : I didn't say I am from the US...
B: But you speak good english...
G : There are other countries in the world apart from the US where people speak excellent english...
B : So where in UK are you from?
G : Guess again...
B : Then it must be Australia...thats the only other country...
G : Nopes wrong again...I'm from India...
B : But isn't that a small village in Asia?
G : (Mentally) I wonder what the sentence for murder is???? *fake smile* No it isnt..It's a big country with a lot of very intelligent people who speak better english than most Americans...excuse me I need to use the loo....
ARGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Friday, January 16, 2004
Busy Bee Me
Phew...yesterday was a hectic day...I kept going in and out of the house the whole day..or rather right upto midnight. But I've managed to get alot accomplished, even if my legs felt like stone by the end of the day with all that walking around. Posted all my 'thank you' letters and photographs today...feeling good about that! Also managed to finally get some texts photocopied and read up a bit...AF was good as well. The prof was still recovering from the illness that kept her away from class on Wed, so she didn't tear into me as she is normally known to do!!! *Jaan bach gayi, lekin mera carefully prepared speech went down the drain!!* LOL!!
Returned home in a hurry changing buses to save time of waiting for my tardy 222 - gobbled down puranpuris and headed out again. Mocha with Kunu - it was nice. We had the Kahlua Mousse Cake...divine...there was a hi-society party happening as well with Star News and NDTV cameras hanging around...that bit was funny! Caught sight of some minor celebs as well...oh yeah I'm back in tinseltown for sure!!! :)
Gonna be another full day today since I'm going out for dinner...was looking forward to relaxing and being 'askati' on the weekend but doesn't look like I'll have that luck either...with a visit to town on the cards (for tomm) and a pooja happening on Sunday that I must attend...ah well there's always next weekend...or wait I'm leaving for Bhopal that weekend...the weekend after? LOL!!!
Returned home in a hurry changing buses to save time of waiting for my tardy 222 - gobbled down puranpuris and headed out again. Mocha with Kunu - it was nice. We had the Kahlua Mousse Cake...divine...there was a hi-society party happening as well with Star News and NDTV cameras hanging around...that bit was funny! Caught sight of some minor celebs as well...oh yeah I'm back in tinseltown for sure!!! :)
Gonna be another full day today since I'm going out for dinner...was looking forward to relaxing and being 'askati' on the weekend but doesn't look like I'll have that luck either...with a visit to town on the cards (for tomm) and a pooja happening on Sunday that I must attend...ah well there's always next weekend...or wait I'm leaving for Bhopal that weekend...the weekend after? LOL!!!
Thursday, January 15, 2004
Dragging myself back into action...
Been going to the University...and well it's so terribly boring..I mean while I'm there it's like alright - specially since its Veveina's class so it's actually quite interesting ( we are doing Eugene Ionesco's "Amedee")...but the bit with getting ready to go there and actually getting there can be such a drag...and then by the end of the day I'm like, Ok the day is over and what have I achieved..NADA!!! I hope classes wind up soon so I can get down to some serious studying...guess I should have things in order by next week, coz by then I'll also be done with this initial "I need to go out everyday" phase!! With Kunu in town I've been out daily and well, just been loafing.
Yesterday I FINALLY went for AF...and guess what? My prof didn't show up..so I left within half-an-hour! It was such a joke...bah! ?Ofcourse I've discovered who the prof is - and she ain't the nicest of ladies..quite a bitch actually..Niveau 3 ain't gonna be fun at all..brilliant! Welcome back to the real world Geetanjali!!
Spoke to Hardo on the phone yesterday...really looking forward to having him and Annika here in Feb..really miss Annika alot...ah well just a few more weeks! :)
Yesterday I FINALLY went for AF...and guess what? My prof didn't show up..so I left within half-an-hour! It was such a joke...bah! ?Ofcourse I've discovered who the prof is - and she ain't the nicest of ladies..quite a bitch actually..Niveau 3 ain't gonna be fun at all..brilliant! Welcome back to the real world Geetanjali!!
Spoke to Hardo on the phone yesterday...really looking forward to having him and Annika here in Feb..really miss Annika alot...ah well just a few more weeks! :)
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Back Again...
I've been away for so long that I'm drawing an absolute blank on what to blog about now....I have way too much to update, so I dunno what to do...skip that stuff and resume from the present or update? Gah that can get tedious....guess I'll drop references as and when they strike me...
Been back 'home' for a week now....got back into the rhythm of things here. Yesterday I resumed with classes at the University and had planned to resume AF as well, but terribly lazy. Somehow I'm dreading it this time..but I think I'll start from tomorrow...the longer I put it off the harder it will be...sigh!!
Today I'm at home all alone with Schnapps...was supposed to have gone to the beach with Kunu baba who has come down for the week..but he ditched me! Hmpf...so I'm home feeling awfully guilty of having bunked AF again...shall defi start going from tomm...and before that I must organise my notes for MAII as well and write out all my thank you letters so I can post them soon....time to get back into order Geets!!
Been back 'home' for a week now....got back into the rhythm of things here. Yesterday I resumed with classes at the University and had planned to resume AF as well, but terribly lazy. Somehow I'm dreading it this time..but I think I'll start from tomorrow...the longer I put it off the harder it will be...sigh!!
Today I'm at home all alone with Schnapps...was supposed to have gone to the beach with Kunu baba who has come down for the week..but he ditched me! Hmpf...so I'm home feeling awfully guilty of having bunked AF again...shall defi start going from tomm...and before that I must organise my notes for MAII as well and write out all my thank you letters so I can post them soon....time to get back into order Geets!!
Friday, January 02, 2004
Soon to come...
1. Historical tid bits, Trivia
2. Restaurants, Cuisine
3. Places visited
4. People I met
5. Train journey and fellow travellers!!!
The blog below was just something to whet your appetite and this I hope shall make you hunger for more!! Hehehe!!
2. Restaurants, Cuisine
3. Places visited
4. People I met
5. Train journey and fellow travellers!!!
The blog below was just something to whet your appetite and this I hope shall make you hunger for more!! Hehehe!!
Mon sejour en France...
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
I didn't do much for New Year's eve -just stayed at home here with some friends with some good food and wine...and saw some incredible fireworks at the Uni-Platz at midnight and then settled in to watch a movie - 'O Brother Where Art Thou' featuring George Clooney - and talk till the wee hours of the morning...but it was nice and cozy..a bit odd not celebrating New Year with my closest friends as I usually do, but nice all the same to celebrate it with new friends!!!
Hmmm...my fabulous trip to France...it was pretty phenomenal I have to say!!! For one, the journeys to and fro were so wonderfully smooth..ofcourse as Patricia said after my adventure to Sweden I am an expert at travelling by train within Europe so anything would seem smooth...but I must say the pleasure of having trains arrive at the destination on time, and getting to the next platform by walking not running is great!!! Hehehe!!!
Bordeaux - that's where Patricia stays and I spent 4 days with her, spending Christmas with her family. That was cool...her fiance Bernard is a nice guy - very typical French I would say , could almost fall in a stereotype!!! I also got to meet her mother, brother, his 'paxi', daughter, Bernard's mother, friend and father...and with these people I had to talk in French...incredibly slow and rusty French but I spoke all the same - and understood most of what they said!! Felt pretty good after nearly 3 months of not understanding anything of the conversation that flowed around me in German!!! Met some of her friends too - she's got a cool circle of friends and I really liked how they are with each other - I guess that comes with so many years of knwoing each other...pretty darn nice !!!!
The stay was fabulous as I said- Patricia and Bernad showed me around Bordeaux, walking around the city centre which has amazingly beautiful buildings and this labyrinth of streets filled with cottages, shops and cafes!! The cafes and restaurants were the best feature of the trip - we ate out once a day, and were at a cafe/pub/wine bar twice...'THE' French way of doing things as I was told..and do I love it. As I told Kunu on the phone...do the French know how to live in style!!
On Christmas eve we were at Bernard's mother's house for dinner...a traditional dinner, but then I ate very traditional and typical French food through-out my stay in France - and loved the cuisine!! I am a big fan of 'Foie Gras' now - it is simply mouth wateringly delicious!!! *Smack my lips* LOL!!!
The next day for lunch Pat and I were at her mother's place, while Bernard spent the day with his father. After lunch we drove down to Lacaunau, which is a beach on the Atlantic ocean shore...as Pat told me, if I knew how to swim and had the stamina and will oer (and insanity to try) I could swim across to New York from there!! Luckily though it was cold the day was clear so we had a nice long walk on the beach...and I realised then that I do miss even the beache back home...that's on my list of things to do when I return - walk to Versova beach and watch the sunset from the rocks there.... On the 26th we drove to St Emilion which is a village where some of the world's best wines are produced...though the vineyards were dry, the day was charming. The village is a heritage site so you can imagine...maze of streets winding up a hillside, church and houses dating back to the 12th century, restaurants set in wine cellars...utterly captivating!!! And a most memorable day and great way to wind up my stay in Bordeaux!!
Pat and I spent 3 days in Paris from the 27th to 30th. Her friend who works at the National Assembly had let his stay at his flat while he was holidaying in Switerzerland, so we had an increbible flat (filled with books - he seems to be a voracious reader and I was duly impressed - more by the books than the locality, or his salary which was also mind boggling!!!)...I had a great guide in Pat. Bernard was living in Paris till a few months back so Pat knows her way around and knew just the right places to visit. Ofcourse I did the Eiffel Tower bit, going upto the top, despite my fear of heights!! Beyond that we walked around alot - Opera house, Invalides, Pont Alexander (the most beautiful bridge in Paris), Montmartre (seeing houses of writers, cafes where famous artists, writers etc had rendezvous, Moulin Rouge, the cafe in 'Amelie' etc etc), Sacree Coeur, Notre Dame, Village de Saint Paul ( an area where only antiques are sold), Hotel Ville, Galleries Lafayette, Samaritaine (in which we had coffee in a restaraunt giving us a fabulius view of the Seine and the city at sunset and twilight!!!) .....more so much more that I can't put in an email!!! My mind is bursting with memories of the trip...if I liked the way the French lived from my stay in Bordeaux I was floored by Paris...as I said...I want to go back and stay longer...and be richer this time!! HEHEHE!!!
Hmm...now I'm back in Magedburg...short stay here...just packing up, winding up....am I dying to return home. 6th...the day is approaching fast and I couldn't be happier!!!
Guess this is it for now, the details of my trip shall be filled in soon...perhaps on my return to Bombay...but they shall come for they are worth sharing!!! So be patient, and the fruit shall be sweet...LOL..it sounds funny translating the Hindi saying into English!! Ciao for now...
I didn't do much for New Year's eve -just stayed at home here with some friends with some good food and wine...and saw some incredible fireworks at the Uni-Platz at midnight and then settled in to watch a movie - 'O Brother Where Art Thou' featuring George Clooney - and talk till the wee hours of the morning...but it was nice and cozy..a bit odd not celebrating New Year with my closest friends as I usually do, but nice all the same to celebrate it with new friends!!!
Hmmm...my fabulous trip to France...it was pretty phenomenal I have to say!!! For one, the journeys to and fro were so wonderfully smooth..ofcourse as Patricia said after my adventure to Sweden I am an expert at travelling by train within Europe so anything would seem smooth...but I must say the pleasure of having trains arrive at the destination on time, and getting to the next platform by walking not running is great!!! Hehehe!!!
Bordeaux - that's where Patricia stays and I spent 4 days with her, spending Christmas with her family. That was cool...her fiance Bernard is a nice guy - very typical French I would say , could almost fall in a stereotype!!! I also got to meet her mother, brother, his 'paxi', daughter, Bernard's mother, friend and father...and with these people I had to talk in French...incredibly slow and rusty French but I spoke all the same - and understood most of what they said!! Felt pretty good after nearly 3 months of not understanding anything of the conversation that flowed around me in German!!! Met some of her friends too - she's got a cool circle of friends and I really liked how they are with each other - I guess that comes with so many years of knwoing each other...pretty darn nice !!!!
The stay was fabulous as I said- Patricia and Bernad showed me around Bordeaux, walking around the city centre which has amazingly beautiful buildings and this labyrinth of streets filled with cottages, shops and cafes!! The cafes and restaurants were the best feature of the trip - we ate out once a day, and were at a cafe/pub/wine bar twice...'THE' French way of doing things as I was told..and do I love it. As I told Kunu on the phone...do the French know how to live in style!!
On Christmas eve we were at Bernard's mother's house for dinner...a traditional dinner, but then I ate very traditional and typical French food through-out my stay in France - and loved the cuisine!! I am a big fan of 'Foie Gras' now - it is simply mouth wateringly delicious!!! *Smack my lips* LOL!!!
The next day for lunch Pat and I were at her mother's place, while Bernard spent the day with his father. After lunch we drove down to Lacaunau, which is a beach on the Atlantic ocean shore...as Pat told me, if I knew how to swim and had the stamina and will oer (and insanity to try) I could swim across to New York from there!! Luckily though it was cold the day was clear so we had a nice long walk on the beach...and I realised then that I do miss even the beache back home...that's on my list of things to do when I return - walk to Versova beach and watch the sunset from the rocks there.... On the 26th we drove to St Emilion which is a village where some of the world's best wines are produced...though the vineyards were dry, the day was charming. The village is a heritage site so you can imagine...maze of streets winding up a hillside, church and houses dating back to the 12th century, restaurants set in wine cellars...utterly captivating!!! And a most memorable day and great way to wind up my stay in Bordeaux!!
Pat and I spent 3 days in Paris from the 27th to 30th. Her friend who works at the National Assembly had let his stay at his flat while he was holidaying in Switerzerland, so we had an increbible flat (filled with books - he seems to be a voracious reader and I was duly impressed - more by the books than the locality, or his salary which was also mind boggling!!!)...I had a great guide in Pat. Bernard was living in Paris till a few months back so Pat knows her way around and knew just the right places to visit. Ofcourse I did the Eiffel Tower bit, going upto the top, despite my fear of heights!! Beyond that we walked around alot - Opera house, Invalides, Pont Alexander (the most beautiful bridge in Paris), Montmartre (seeing houses of writers, cafes where famous artists, writers etc had rendezvous, Moulin Rouge, the cafe in 'Amelie' etc etc), Sacree Coeur, Notre Dame, Village de Saint Paul ( an area where only antiques are sold), Hotel Ville, Galleries Lafayette, Samaritaine (in which we had coffee in a restaraunt giving us a fabulius view of the Seine and the city at sunset and twilight!!!) .....more so much more that I can't put in an email!!! My mind is bursting with memories of the trip...if I liked the way the French lived from my stay in Bordeaux I was floored by Paris...as I said...I want to go back and stay longer...and be richer this time!! HEHEHE!!!
Hmm...now I'm back in Magedburg...short stay here...just packing up, winding up....am I dying to return home. 6th...the day is approaching fast and I couldn't be happier!!!
Guess this is it for now, the details of my trip shall be filled in soon...perhaps on my return to Bombay...but they shall come for they are worth sharing!!! So be patient, and the fruit shall be sweet...LOL..it sounds funny translating the Hindi saying into English!! Ciao for now...
Saturday, December 20, 2003
Last update till 2004!!!
Hmmm....yesterday after I went home, I found Martin there. He had dropped in to give us the directions to his place since he forgot to do that on Thursday. Annika came a while later, so we left Saima and Martin alone (if looks could have killed at that time Saima's look would have murdred Annika and me!!LOL!!) and cooked dinner. Annika improved the left-over spagghetti from the party and we made some soup...voila - nice dinner for movie. We saw this really eerie movie - Picnic at the Hanging Rock - I've seen the movie before. It's based on a true story of the msterious disappearance of 2 young girls and their teacher when they went on a picnic to this hanging rock. The mystery remains unsolved - the whole movie has this wierd lazy, slow, and brooding feel to it, made intense with the music, use of colors and cinematography - its definitely an interesting movie to watch!!! After that movie they started another movie but I was too tired having been on my feet all day long and not even gotten a few hours of rest the prev night, so I went off to sleep.
Today we are meeting Dr.Ebeling in the anoon for icecream and coffee and early night. Tomm its an early night too, in preparation for my journey to Bordeaux, which I hope and pray shall be smooth!!!!
I promised to blog about Sweden - its much overdue and feels funny doing that now but it must be done (sounds like a punishment na?) - so here goes:
My first sight of snow in Sweden thrilled me to bits, even though I was already so tired. It was on the train to Stockholm - infact there were several people on the train who were going for skiing trips. It was so cool to see white landscape outside throught-out the journey. When I reached Stokcholm, Dini had told me that it had started snowing in Vasteras that day at 10 am and on their drive to Stockholm it was snwoing so heavily that they were scared my train would stop in middle...I'm really glad that didn't happen!! LOL!!
It was incredible - walking on snow for the first time, and Pauline even took a photograph of me with my first snow-ball - kiddish eh? I can't say how exciting it was to FINALLY see snow!!! I was expecting snow here in Magedburg as well coz on my retun journey I'd seen snow upto Uelzen but there's been no snow here so far, so I'm really glad that I managed to see snow somewhere!!! LOL!!!
During my short little stay in Sweden Dini, Bengt-olof and Pauline told me so much about their traditions and culture - thier folk-lore that is full of stories of gnoes, elves and fairies, about St. Lucia (who was blinded and late beheaded), and the speical food and drink for the festival. One drink I had there is found in stores only during Christmas and Easter time, and its sales are so much that they make Coca-Cola suffer losses during that period. It's a traditional drink, the recipe of which has been handed down one family through the years and is today avaliable in bottles!! Pretty darn cool eh? It tastes real nice too!! They also have a version of gluh-wine which comes in a non-alcoholic form as well, called Glugg. The meals I've already mentioned - with lots of pickled herring, meat-balls, ham, smoked salmon served with mustard sauce, 'Satan's temptation' ( it's amde with potatoes and anchovies), grilled ox-meat(for new year's eve) etc etc....the traditional dessert for Christmas is Milchries, which is quite like our kheer, only thicker. In it they put one almond and acc to legend, the person who gets it, is the next to get married - I wondered what it means if a married person gets it!! LOL!!!
Gosh I'm really lad I went there, even though I dragged my feet about it and was filled with so much apprehension before the trip and had such a tough time getting there - it was definitely worth it!!!
Shall stop now....but since I shall not blog now for a very long while - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2004!!! Party hard, but be safe!! LOL!!!
Today we are meeting Dr.Ebeling in the anoon for icecream and coffee and early night. Tomm its an early night too, in preparation for my journey to Bordeaux, which I hope and pray shall be smooth!!!!
I promised to blog about Sweden - its much overdue and feels funny doing that now but it must be done (sounds like a punishment na?) - so here goes:
My first sight of snow in Sweden thrilled me to bits, even though I was already so tired. It was on the train to Stockholm - infact there were several people on the train who were going for skiing trips. It was so cool to see white landscape outside throught-out the journey. When I reached Stokcholm, Dini had told me that it had started snowing in Vasteras that day at 10 am and on their drive to Stockholm it was snwoing so heavily that they were scared my train would stop in middle...I'm really glad that didn't happen!! LOL!!
It was incredible - walking on snow for the first time, and Pauline even took a photograph of me with my first snow-ball - kiddish eh? I can't say how exciting it was to FINALLY see snow!!! I was expecting snow here in Magedburg as well coz on my retun journey I'd seen snow upto Uelzen but there's been no snow here so far, so I'm really glad that I managed to see snow somewhere!!! LOL!!!
During my short little stay in Sweden Dini, Bengt-olof and Pauline told me so much about their traditions and culture - thier folk-lore that is full of stories of gnoes, elves and fairies, about St. Lucia (who was blinded and late beheaded), and the speical food and drink for the festival. One drink I had there is found in stores only during Christmas and Easter time, and its sales are so much that they make Coca-Cola suffer losses during that period. It's a traditional drink, the recipe of which has been handed down one family through the years and is today avaliable in bottles!! Pretty darn cool eh? It tastes real nice too!! They also have a version of gluh-wine which comes in a non-alcoholic form as well, called Glugg. The meals I've already mentioned - with lots of pickled herring, meat-balls, ham, smoked salmon served with mustard sauce, 'Satan's temptation' ( it's amde with potatoes and anchovies), grilled ox-meat(for new year's eve) etc etc....the traditional dessert for Christmas is Milchries, which is quite like our kheer, only thicker. In it they put one almond and acc to legend, the person who gets it, is the next to get married - I wondered what it means if a married person gets it!! LOL!!!
Gosh I'm really lad I went there, even though I dragged my feet about it and was filled with so much apprehension before the trip and had such a tough time getting there - it was definitely worth it!!!
Shall stop now....but since I shall not blog now for a very long while - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2004!!! Party hard, but be safe!! LOL!!!
Friday, December 19, 2003
Yakkity Yak
Hmmm...I'm here after a break of 2 days...on wednesday I'd blogged about our night partying - first the pub, then the impromptu party at our place. That was so incredibly cool ...I'm still like...'oh hog that night was so much fun' and today is friday!!!Hehehehe!!! Anyways on Wednesday we also got our letter from the Dept of Eng here stating our attendance and our participation in class - its not too fancy but I quite like it. It definitely states that we've done our bit here...after the last class of Janespotting (we didn't take a photo of this class coz we felt like stangers in this class) we saw 'Mansfield Park' - its an extremely thought-provoking movie and I'm very eager to go back home and read first the book, then Edward Said's article on it!!! I think it's the most 'intelligent' of JA novels!!!
I was sitting and thinking about what all I wanted to still blog about my Swden trip and I'm thinking I must do it tomm after making some notes about it, so I don't miss anything...gosh I can be such an organisation freak na? LOL!!! Anyways since I'm putting that off till tomm, which incidentally shall be my last blog till 2004 - coz I'm leaving for France on monday and when I return the comp room shall be shut for Christmas break and will re-open only on the 2nd!!! So well....before I digress too much and forget what else I still have to babber about....
We had our last presentation yesterday for Lange's class - had to compare what we learnt about city cultures in Britain with the case of Mumabi (but obviously!!)...it went damn well. Lange was impressed that we took the trouble to make a hand-out and get some statistcs and stuff from the internet and well the class responded damn well. After class we went and gave him the gift we had brought for him...he was very pleased. Infact all 4 profs that we gave gifts to as a little 'thank you' were pleased with the gifts...infact today when we gave it to Dr.Ebeling she insisted on taking us out tomm either for a concert if she gets tickets or for coffee at the least!!! Anyways so yest, we had a party for Jigi's friends..had also invited our own friends Annika, Hardo and at the last moment Martin...but the party was so frustrating. Jigi was trying her best to treat us like her poor country cousins who have no brains, and no knowledge of anything, by talking in German. Things have been boiling for several days but last night was the limit...I was anyways close to a foul mood and her behav put me off completely...so much that I walked out for 45 mins in bet and took a long walk to clear my head out, and prevent a violent outburst which is not desirable. So incredibly glad I'm going away for 8 days coz I think otherwise she'd have a volcano eruting one of these days and wouldn't know what to do!!! Hmmm....Saima has to cope..God BLess Her coz she's more put-off than me and aint very good at concealing her emotions and playing the diplomat!!!
Anyways yest party was pas-mal, Annika stayed till 6 am..I didn't sleep at all...just went straight for class today...this way I function as normal..shall sleep early tonight and sleep till late tomm morng and get back to normal...kinda like coping with jet-lag. I've done this before....so I know what I'm doing....anyways today we spent the entire day with Annika. It was cool...we ate at the Mensa, met Poonam while walking back so had tea with her (surprisingly she'be behaved well since she got the hint!!!) and then went to the video library...Annika took Wiemann's permission to take out videos and the VCR for the holidays...so these guys will see movies to entertain themselves...I want to see some of them -the novel based ones - so I've asked them to keep those for after I return...
Hmm....think I shall stop now...shall blog tomm...final blog of the year 2004!!!!
I was sitting and thinking about what all I wanted to still blog about my Swden trip and I'm thinking I must do it tomm after making some notes about it, so I don't miss anything...gosh I can be such an organisation freak na? LOL!!! Anyways since I'm putting that off till tomm, which incidentally shall be my last blog till 2004 - coz I'm leaving for France on monday and when I return the comp room shall be shut for Christmas break and will re-open only on the 2nd!!! So well....before I digress too much and forget what else I still have to babber about....
We had our last presentation yesterday for Lange's class - had to compare what we learnt about city cultures in Britain with the case of Mumabi (but obviously!!)...it went damn well. Lange was impressed that we took the trouble to make a hand-out and get some statistcs and stuff from the internet and well the class responded damn well. After class we went and gave him the gift we had brought for him...he was very pleased. Infact all 4 profs that we gave gifts to as a little 'thank you' were pleased with the gifts...infact today when we gave it to Dr.Ebeling she insisted on taking us out tomm either for a concert if she gets tickets or for coffee at the least!!! Anyways so yest, we had a party for Jigi's friends..had also invited our own friends Annika, Hardo and at the last moment Martin...but the party was so frustrating. Jigi was trying her best to treat us like her poor country cousins who have no brains, and no knowledge of anything, by talking in German. Things have been boiling for several days but last night was the limit...I was anyways close to a foul mood and her behav put me off completely...so much that I walked out for 45 mins in bet and took a long walk to clear my head out, and prevent a violent outburst which is not desirable. So incredibly glad I'm going away for 8 days coz I think otherwise she'd have a volcano eruting one of these days and wouldn't know what to do!!! Hmmm....Saima has to cope..God BLess Her coz she's more put-off than me and aint very good at concealing her emotions and playing the diplomat!!!
Anyways yest party was pas-mal, Annika stayed till 6 am..I didn't sleep at all...just went straight for class today...this way I function as normal..shall sleep early tonight and sleep till late tomm morng and get back to normal...kinda like coping with jet-lag. I've done this before....so I know what I'm doing....anyways today we spent the entire day with Annika. It was cool...we ate at the Mensa, met Poonam while walking back so had tea with her (surprisingly she'be behaved well since she got the hint!!!) and then went to the video library...Annika took Wiemann's permission to take out videos and the VCR for the holidays...so these guys will see movies to entertain themselves...I want to see some of them -the novel based ones - so I've asked them to keep those for after I return...
Hmm....think I shall stop now...shall blog tomm...final blog of the year 2004!!!!
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Busy Bee Me...
Whoa....me is really busy these days..hahaha!!! Yesterday after I left here I headed home, grabbed a sandwich and headed out again. Its our last week of class here, so we took a photgraph each in Wiemann's and Breunig's class - I'm gonna meet them today to big them adieu!! LOL!! Anyways class was cool as usual and it was so great that we got a photgraph of the class - now I do not have to rely merely on my memory...Anyways after class the group going to Mumbai for the excursion was meeting up for a discussion and then going to a pub. Wiemann invited us to join the group...so we went for the discussion and gave our 'vishesh tipni' on the project hypotheses and later we went to the pub with those who didn't head home. Jigi dint come..and boy did she miss the fun. We were at the pub till midnight..it was so cool...I can't imagine sitting that informally with ANY of my professors from back home...sat there and talked to quite a few people, exchanged stories about our travels in Europe/India, joked with the professors, has a tiny discussion with Wiemann about possibilites of doing Ph.D in Germany..etc etc...I finally had a glass of dark German beer and quite liked it, but I think I enjoyed my Irish coffee much more...and I am still a wine person!! LOL!! At around 11.30 some of us realised we've not eaten and are hungry...so well we all headed to our flat..and at midnight we walked in - Annika, Susanne, Hana, Dietmar Fricke(that's the prof of the Politics group!!!), and this other babe whose name I can't spell!! And then we cooked something and generally had an impromptu party....that was like soooooooooo cool. Jigi was upset coz we partied without her and then we had our friends over, but hell, we can't not to do stuff coz she doesn't wanna!! Last night was awesome!!!
Now this morning we got up early and discussed how to make the hand out for our last presentation and I've been here for nearly 2 hours working on that....just gonna blog now and leave. Gotta meet Breunig and Wiemann and then we have our last JA class. And ofcourse today is the last JA movie - Mansfield Park. Tomm night we are having that party...so I'm looking forward to that now...shall blog more tomm...still got loads to update on...but bloody tired of this comp room for now...until tomm...don't do anything I wouldn't!!!
Now this morning we got up early and discussed how to make the hand out for our last presentation and I've been here for nearly 2 hours working on that....just gonna blog now and leave. Gotta meet Breunig and Wiemann and then we have our last JA class. And ofcourse today is the last JA movie - Mansfield Park. Tomm night we are having that party...so I'm looking forward to that now...shall blog more tomm...still got loads to update on...but bloody tired of this comp room for now...until tomm...don't do anything I wouldn't!!!
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
My Grand Adventure in Sweden!!!
Whoa...I have ALOT to report!!! Lets begin with the party on Thursday night...that was cool. The buffet was truly amazing and we met quite a few of our classmates there...they also had great music playing and an extremely crowded dance-floor. So crowded that I decided not to step in!! Hehehe!!! But it was cool to just hang out with our classmates...even though we were the first to leave since we had to travel the next day.
Now my grand trip...it was an adventure!!! LOL!! I left Magdeburg at 2 pm...I was to change my first train at Wittengerge at 3.30..only my train was 30 mins late!! So obviously I missed the connection...I had to wait at Wittenberge station for an hour and a half...and the station is the worst I've seen in Europe..cold, unheated, no rest-rooms, no coffee vending machines, or cafes-nothing!! Anyways I caught the next train to Hamburg, after going 'sprechen zie english' and getting a translator who helped me change my reservations!!! At Hamburg I was forced to spend the night, coz the next train was in the morning...so I did the 'sprechen zie english' again..and found out that Hamburg being a big city has enogh ppl speaking english...and anyways went to a tourist info centre and then to a hotel and checked myself in for the night.
After settling in I roamed around a while...saw the Christmas market in Hamburg and just strolled through the streets...returned to my room for dinner and slept early. The next day I got a wake-up call at 6 am...my train was at 7.20...so I got ready and left...I figured now things shall go smoothly...little did I know what was awaiting me!!!
The train from Hamburg to Kopenhagen was a eurocity express....it goes upto Puttgarten on the German border and then onto a ferry which take the train across to Denmark -Rodby. That was soooooooo cool..the whole train on the ferry...and then you can go upto the deck and sit there while you cross the sea..its awesome. I went right up and even stood out for a while but I had to come in coz it was raining...
Anyways the train got later after that....so I reached Kopenhagen 30 mins late...I had 5 mins to spare so I ran to the platform for my train to Stockholm...only to find out I'm on the wrong platform...ran to the right platform...but there was no train...I thought I'd missed the train, but there were still 2 mins to departure time, so I caught a guard and asked him. He checked up and told me that the train was cencelled, but I could catch a train to Malmo Central from the next platform in 1 min....huff puff...just managed to get on the train...
At Malmo I got a reservation for the next train to Stockholm..so now I was going to reach Stockholm at 7.40 pm instead of 6.20 pm...over 12 hours late!! I was so misreable and depressed and tired and homesick...I was sitting there trying hard not to cry and getting all worked up in the process when a tissue appeared under my nose...the man sitting next to me asked what's wrong..and well, I just spilt out my dukh bhari kahani to him...he was very nice. He sat with me till his daughter arrived and offered to stay till my train came..but there were only 15 mins left so I told them not to wait...very nice people. But was I misreable at Malmo - I just wanted to go home...home, as in Bombay...made several plans to fly home from Stockholm...hahaha!!! But also decided to drop the trip to Amsterdam coz that will be too tiring - which was good, coz I later found out that the trip to Paris was very badly organised and Saima and Jigi were having second thoughts about the next trip anyways...
Anyways finally boarded the last train to Stockholm, which was on time!!! LOL!! It was snowing all the way to Stockholm....so yeah, I saw my first snow and once in Stockholm even felt it!!!! Yipppeeee!!! I reached Stockholm and met the Rabergs on the station....
They drove me straight to their home in Vasteras, a 2 hour drive from Stockholm...they are really very nice people...they made my trauncated stay in Sweden very very special. When I reached their home, they made me relax while dinner was prepared. I saw a video of the St. Lucia's celebration that morning with Pauline. Dinner was marvellous...Dini had prepared a traditional Christmas meal for me and they had palced 4 snow-men around my plate to cheer me up!! We chatted over dinner and it was 1.30 am before I slept. I styed with Pauline in her flat coz Dini and Bengt-Olof are re-decorating their house. Anyways Pauline's house is very charming and cozy...the best part of the house is her collection of 50 dolls from 40 countries. Bengt-Olof travelled alot, so he got back a doll from every country he visited for his daughter...and today she has an amazing collection!!!!
The next day they showed me around Upsaala, where Pauline is studying Commercial Law. The Upsaala university is the oldest university in Northern Europe and very prestiguous...the whole town is a university town...very charming and nice. My grandfather has also studied in Upsaala for 6 months, so as Dini said , this was the third generation of the family visiting Upsaala!!! That felt cool...even tho I have never met my grandfather, I felt like hey...now there's a link...sounds odd, eh?
Anyways from Upsaala we drove down to this Christmas market...that was cool. I tasted some Reindeer meat there and well...I've got some dried reindeer meat back to take home. They told me how to serve it in traditional Swedish style...cool eh? They had interesting stuff at the market...lots of gnomes, elves etc dressed for Christmas...I was told that Sweden has a lot of folk-lore revolving around gnomes and such creatures...so Christmas market is full of them...there were also ginger-bread houses made by school children..beautiful ones that reminded me of the story of 'Hansel and Gretel'....
From there we drove around Vasteras..they showed me a viking grave etc...and then back to their house. We had traditional Advent's tea and for dinner, Dini once again cooked a traditional Swedish meal - this time one that is served for New Year's Eve!!! As I said, they made my trip very special...I feel that I've returned with new friends - no longer just Papa's friends, now MY friends!!
We went to bed early but I was so nervous about my journey back that I hardy slept...got up at 3.30 to get ready and left for the station at 4am. We had to leave early coz of the snow...that makes driving tricky..and well...I didn't talk about all the snow...that shall follow in my next blog...coz that deserves a seperate blog by itself!!!!
I left them loaded with gifts and even food for the journey!!! Surprisingly, as hectic was my journey upto Sweden, the journey back to Magebdurg was just as smooth....trains were on time and I changed trains very smoothly...returned home and Annika dropped in to find out about our trips...so we talked and it was midnight before I slept....
So that was the story of my first grand adventure....very eventful and great fun, despite the tension in between....I shall blog more tomm, but for now I must stop...more details shall follow on my blog...about the snow, Swedish customs, etc etc...
Now my grand trip...it was an adventure!!! LOL!! I left Magdeburg at 2 pm...I was to change my first train at Wittengerge at 3.30..only my train was 30 mins late!! So obviously I missed the connection...I had to wait at Wittenberge station for an hour and a half...and the station is the worst I've seen in Europe..cold, unheated, no rest-rooms, no coffee vending machines, or cafes-nothing!! Anyways I caught the next train to Hamburg, after going 'sprechen zie english' and getting a translator who helped me change my reservations!!! At Hamburg I was forced to spend the night, coz the next train was in the morning...so I did the 'sprechen zie english' again..and found out that Hamburg being a big city has enogh ppl speaking english...and anyways went to a tourist info centre and then to a hotel and checked myself in for the night.
After settling in I roamed around a while...saw the Christmas market in Hamburg and just strolled through the streets...returned to my room for dinner and slept early. The next day I got a wake-up call at 6 am...my train was at 7.20...so I got ready and left...I figured now things shall go smoothly...little did I know what was awaiting me!!!
The train from Hamburg to Kopenhagen was a eurocity express....it goes upto Puttgarten on the German border and then onto a ferry which take the train across to Denmark -Rodby. That was soooooooo cool..the whole train on the ferry...and then you can go upto the deck and sit there while you cross the sea..its awesome. I went right up and even stood out for a while but I had to come in coz it was raining...
Anyways the train got later after that....so I reached Kopenhagen 30 mins late...I had 5 mins to spare so I ran to the platform for my train to Stockholm...only to find out I'm on the wrong platform...ran to the right platform...but there was no train...I thought I'd missed the train, but there were still 2 mins to departure time, so I caught a guard and asked him. He checked up and told me that the train was cencelled, but I could catch a train to Malmo Central from the next platform in 1 min....huff puff...just managed to get on the train...
At Malmo I got a reservation for the next train to Stockholm..so now I was going to reach Stockholm at 7.40 pm instead of 6.20 pm...over 12 hours late!! I was so misreable and depressed and tired and homesick...I was sitting there trying hard not to cry and getting all worked up in the process when a tissue appeared under my nose...the man sitting next to me asked what's wrong..and well, I just spilt out my dukh bhari kahani to him...he was very nice. He sat with me till his daughter arrived and offered to stay till my train came..but there were only 15 mins left so I told them not to wait...very nice people. But was I misreable at Malmo - I just wanted to go home...home, as in Bombay...made several plans to fly home from Stockholm...hahaha!!! But also decided to drop the trip to Amsterdam coz that will be too tiring - which was good, coz I later found out that the trip to Paris was very badly organised and Saima and Jigi were having second thoughts about the next trip anyways...
Anyways finally boarded the last train to Stockholm, which was on time!!! LOL!! It was snowing all the way to Stockholm....so yeah, I saw my first snow and once in Stockholm even felt it!!!! Yipppeeee!!! I reached Stockholm and met the Rabergs on the station....
They drove me straight to their home in Vasteras, a 2 hour drive from Stockholm...they are really very nice people...they made my trauncated stay in Sweden very very special. When I reached their home, they made me relax while dinner was prepared. I saw a video of the St. Lucia's celebration that morning with Pauline. Dinner was marvellous...Dini had prepared a traditional Christmas meal for me and they had palced 4 snow-men around my plate to cheer me up!! We chatted over dinner and it was 1.30 am before I slept. I styed with Pauline in her flat coz Dini and Bengt-Olof are re-decorating their house. Anyways Pauline's house is very charming and cozy...the best part of the house is her collection of 50 dolls from 40 countries. Bengt-Olof travelled alot, so he got back a doll from every country he visited for his daughter...and today she has an amazing collection!!!!
The next day they showed me around Upsaala, where Pauline is studying Commercial Law. The Upsaala university is the oldest university in Northern Europe and very prestiguous...the whole town is a university town...very charming and nice. My grandfather has also studied in Upsaala for 6 months, so as Dini said , this was the third generation of the family visiting Upsaala!!! That felt cool...even tho I have never met my grandfather, I felt like hey...now there's a link...sounds odd, eh?
Anyways from Upsaala we drove down to this Christmas market...that was cool. I tasted some Reindeer meat there and well...I've got some dried reindeer meat back to take home. They told me how to serve it in traditional Swedish style...cool eh? They had interesting stuff at the market...lots of gnomes, elves etc dressed for Christmas...I was told that Sweden has a lot of folk-lore revolving around gnomes and such creatures...so Christmas market is full of them...there were also ginger-bread houses made by school children..beautiful ones that reminded me of the story of 'Hansel and Gretel'....
From there we drove around Vasteras..they showed me a viking grave etc...and then back to their house. We had traditional Advent's tea and for dinner, Dini once again cooked a traditional Swedish meal - this time one that is served for New Year's Eve!!! As I said, they made my trip very special...I feel that I've returned with new friends - no longer just Papa's friends, now MY friends!!
We went to bed early but I was so nervous about my journey back that I hardy slept...got up at 3.30 to get ready and left for the station at 4am. We had to leave early coz of the snow...that makes driving tricky..and well...I didn't talk about all the snow...that shall follow in my next blog...coz that deserves a seperate blog by itself!!!!
I left them loaded with gifts and even food for the journey!!! Surprisingly, as hectic was my journey upto Sweden, the journey back to Magebdurg was just as smooth....trains were on time and I changed trains very smoothly...returned home and Annika dropped in to find out about our trips...so we talked and it was midnight before I slept....
So that was the story of my first grand adventure....very eventful and great fun, despite the tension in between....I shall blog more tomm, but for now I must stop...more details shall follow on my blog...about the snow, Swedish customs, etc etc...
Thursday, December 11, 2003
Shopping...
Hmmm....I went shopping again today. Got assorted little gifts and a jacket for bhaiyya. Unfortunately Saima was tired and hungry by then so we had to return home...I could have done a bit of window shopping after that as well, or even finished of my shopping today itself. Now I shall have to go one more day before I'm done with my money-spendig spree!! LOL!!! On our way home, Saima expressed concern over packing. So when we came home she started sorting out her stuff...she has just been dumping her shopping...so she had no idea how much she has shopped. Anyways I figured I'd also see how much place I have so I don't have to worry about how to pack when I get back from France. Saima will have enough time during Xmas week to do all this, but I won't. Put away the stuff I bought and the few clothes I know I won't wear any more. Think I can manage but not absolutely sure...if I need to, I guess I shall borrow a bag from Hardo or worst comes to worst buy a small duffel bag, tho I hope I don't have to do that. *Amen!*
Gonna go to the Xmas party tonight at the campus...thought we better attend atleast one party on campus, plus the buffet in this party has recd rave reviews for the past three years. But I shall leave early coz I wanna sleep early and be well-rested for my weekend travelling...can't afford to be tired. The butteflies have gone away for now, but I still hope that the journey is smooth...both ways...no missed trains or other hassles please!!! *Touchwood*
That's it from me till Tuesday...have a good weekend and prepare yourselves for a long blog/email from me on Monday!!! Hehehe!!!
Gonna go to the Xmas party tonight at the campus...thought we better attend atleast one party on campus, plus the buffet in this party has recd rave reviews for the past three years. But I shall leave early coz I wanna sleep early and be well-rested for my weekend travelling...can't afford to be tired. The butteflies have gone away for now, but I still hope that the journey is smooth...both ways...no missed trains or other hassles please!!! *Touchwood*
That's it from me till Tuesday...have a good weekend and prepare yourselves for a long blog/email from me on Monday!!! Hehehe!!!
Yosie!!
''So here I am, this is me, there's no where in the world I'd rather be...''
OK the last bit ain't true. There is another place I'd rather be...or shall be in a month, less than actually...whoa Geets your record is so getting stuck...skip to the next track b4 the blog loyals turn traitor!!! LOL!!
Hmmm....secnd last week of lectures. So, today we spoke to Wiemann about getting some kinda certification of our attendance and the presentations we've made - so that we have some kinda proof of this brief stint here, incase we decide to do our Ph.D - this would look fab on our CVs!!!
Had an interesting lecture. We've started 'Mansfield Park' in the Janepsotting class and this novel, as some of you might know and should know, is a very diff JA novel that can be read a from a feminist POV as well as a Postcol POV. Obviously this is the reason I was persuaded to attend the lecture initially even tho I was not fond of Ja then and I was getting just 3 of these lecs. Anyways I'm dying to get back home and read the book...unluckily its not available in the library here and this is one time when I'm restraining myself from buying a book - 2 reasons. 1. EXPENSIVE. 2. WIEGHT!!! LOL!! Sounds funny thinking of the other shopping I'm doing...muhahaha!!
After class we came here. Gonna sit today and plan out what we shall talk about in our last presentation next thursday. Not gonna have time next week to do anything except prepare the hand-outs. SO shall do this well in time and in an organised fashion. Also managed to find an amazing study of Mumbai as a City online, which I shall give Wiemann to copy for those who are going for the excursion. It will be a big help to them for their projects. Angelic am I not? Muhahahaha!!!
What else? Oh yeah....
THE CASE OF THE MISSING KNIFE!!
Our knife broke some time last month so we bought a new one. Now day before yest we cut the pizza with that knife. That was the last we saw of it. The next morning when we wanted to cut the apples we looked all over the house and even searnchd our trash, but its disappeared into thin air!! Totally bizarre!! -Infact yest when we came home we found the cake sliced and arranged on a plate and got totally spooked out. Later when Jigi had returned from Raghu's place, she told us she had cut it before we had to rush out. Were we relieved to hear that!! LOL!!! The mystery of the knife however remains unsolved....
Incidentally this is the last time I shall blog about this, but those two are REALLY amazing. Jigi was forced to stay at Raghu's place till we rescued her with a SMS, and they were making plans to gate-crash on us today again. She had to be blunt and say that we are busy. Man oh man...am I amazed!!! And that shall be the last....bitching about them leaves a sad, bad taste in my mouth....don't even feel wicked. Just pathetic....grumpf. I've lost my devil's horns...LOL!! JK!!! Just dont wanna dwell on this any longer...not healthy...
That's it for today....gonna go home and be nerdy tonight. YEEEHAW!!! :)
OK the last bit ain't true. There is another place I'd rather be...or shall be in a month, less than actually...whoa Geets your record is so getting stuck...skip to the next track b4 the blog loyals turn traitor!!! LOL!!
Hmmm....secnd last week of lectures. So, today we spoke to Wiemann about getting some kinda certification of our attendance and the presentations we've made - so that we have some kinda proof of this brief stint here, incase we decide to do our Ph.D - this would look fab on our CVs!!!
Had an interesting lecture. We've started 'Mansfield Park' in the Janepsotting class and this novel, as some of you might know and should know, is a very diff JA novel that can be read a from a feminist POV as well as a Postcol POV. Obviously this is the reason I was persuaded to attend the lecture initially even tho I was not fond of Ja then and I was getting just 3 of these lecs. Anyways I'm dying to get back home and read the book...unluckily its not available in the library here and this is one time when I'm restraining myself from buying a book - 2 reasons. 1. EXPENSIVE. 2. WIEGHT!!! LOL!! Sounds funny thinking of the other shopping I'm doing...muhahaha!!
After class we came here. Gonna sit today and plan out what we shall talk about in our last presentation next thursday. Not gonna have time next week to do anything except prepare the hand-outs. SO shall do this well in time and in an organised fashion. Also managed to find an amazing study of Mumbai as a City online, which I shall give Wiemann to copy for those who are going for the excursion. It will be a big help to them for their projects. Angelic am I not? Muhahahaha!!!
What else? Oh yeah....
THE CASE OF THE MISSING KNIFE!!
Our knife broke some time last month so we bought a new one. Now day before yest we cut the pizza with that knife. That was the last we saw of it. The next morning when we wanted to cut the apples we looked all over the house and even searnchd our trash, but its disappeared into thin air!! Totally bizarre!! -Infact yest when we came home we found the cake sliced and arranged on a plate and got totally spooked out. Later when Jigi had returned from Raghu's place, she told us she had cut it before we had to rush out. Were we relieved to hear that!! LOL!!! The mystery of the knife however remains unsolved....
Incidentally this is the last time I shall blog about this, but those two are REALLY amazing. Jigi was forced to stay at Raghu's place till we rescued her with a SMS, and they were making plans to gate-crash on us today again. She had to be blunt and say that we are busy. Man oh man...am I amazed!!! And that shall be the last....bitching about them leaves a sad, bad taste in my mouth....don't even feel wicked. Just pathetic....grumpf. I've lost my devil's horns...LOL!! JK!!! Just dont wanna dwell on this any longer...not healthy...
That's it for today....gonna go home and be nerdy tonight. YEEEHAW!!! :)
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
GROWL!!!
I do not believe this. We called up Raghu to tell him that we want to return his VCR tomm, but b4 we could broach the subject he demanded it back...juvenile behaviour if I ever saw one!!! Anyways Poonam also arrived uninvited and forced us out ofthe house. We are in the library on the pretext of studying at 8 pm for chrissake...HELP!!!!!! WAT A DAY!!!!!!
More tomm...until then...Lord save me from such namunnas!!!
More tomm...until then...Lord save me from such namunnas!!!
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
La di da...
Hmmm....yesterday after I left from here I found out that Poonam and Raghu are both trying to invite themselves over. Managed to give Raghu an excuse but couldn't avoid Poonam. Most aggravating...to keep things short and simple, we gave an inch they want a yard. Seriously it amazes me how people try to get so close to you and act like they have full right over your free time and property even though you hardly know them. I mean sure it's nice to have people over and do stuff with others, but how aout giving us some time for ourselves? We have less than a month left and I'm gonna be gone most of the time, so we really wanna do stuff by ourselves now. I mean Raghu even wants to come shopping with us for chrissake!! Most pile-on behav...and irritating the hell outta me. Was saying we must return the VCR to him. I definitely don't want his VCR if it means that he must come come to our house daily and gen sit on our heads in our free time. And make us create free time when we have other plans. GRUMPF!!!!
Anyways yest we did see 2 movies -both total TP so I shall not talk about them!!! Today we have 2 lectures and then we are planning to study while Poonam bores Jigi wo couldn't get out of another session with her. Saima and I said we shall study(or atleast pretend to) so she gets the hint....god, they could learn a thing or two from Annika, who knows how to ivite herself over and well gives us some spcae as well. Plus she never forces herself on to us, the invitation just comes from us coz she asks if we are free and if we are not re-schedules. And she doesn't pile on, but shares the burdan...ugh!!!! Most irritated today with this state of affairs...why must people be like this and ruin things? Grumpf!!!
Also manged to burn my finger yest when I was taking the pizza out of the oven...wah!!! It's not that bad coz I immediately put my finger in running cold water and kept it there for like 5 mins till my finger started going numb with the cold and then applied Burnol. But well it still urts when you touch it..and I DID burn myself...wahhhhh!!!!
Getting more and more excited about my trip to Sweden as the days go by, but also praying the journey is smooth....pray for me people!!
*Crossing my Fingers Tight!!*
Anyways yest we did see 2 movies -both total TP so I shall not talk about them!!! Today we have 2 lectures and then we are planning to study while Poonam bores Jigi wo couldn't get out of another session with her. Saima and I said we shall study(or atleast pretend to) so she gets the hint....god, they could learn a thing or two from Annika, who knows how to ivite herself over and well gives us some spcae as well. Plus she never forces herself on to us, the invitation just comes from us coz she asks if we are free and if we are not re-schedules. And she doesn't pile on, but shares the burdan...ugh!!!! Most irritated today with this state of affairs...why must people be like this and ruin things? Grumpf!!!
Also manged to burn my finger yest when I was taking the pizza out of the oven...wah!!! It's not that bad coz I immediately put my finger in running cold water and kept it there for like 5 mins till my finger started going numb with the cold and then applied Burnol. But well it still urts when you touch it..and I DID burn myself...wahhhhh!!!!
Getting more and more excited about my trip to Sweden as the days go by, but also praying the journey is smooth....pray for me people!!
*Crossing my Fingers Tight!!*
Monday, December 08, 2003
Luneberg, St.Nikolaus, Movies and More....
I must say at the outfront, that most of this has been copied-and-pasted from my email but the bit about the movies is new info so I guess you can just cruise down to that section and simply read....
As I'd mentioned on my blog, this was a trip organised by IKUS that organises such trips and other events for students Anyway we were to meet at the station at 5.45 am for this trip...god that was the only minus point in the whole trip...getting up at 4 am to get ready...and then walking to the stn...it was raining and well it felt like we are taking a midnight walk!!! Anyways once we got to the stn it felt nice n warm. The train journey was of 3 hours...so we reached luneberg by 9.30. They had organised bfast for the group at Cafe Melzer in the town
center. We had the top floor of the cafe reserved for us and the whole group at down to a sumptuous bfast for buns, ham, salami, eggs, freshly sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, a variety of sliced cheese, home-made strawberry and peach jams, and hot coffee....mouth watering yet? :)Tho I myself ate well, I was amazed at how much some of the others packed in...it was truly like making the most of a buffet...and this wasn't even the main buffet in the cafe, for we got a speical one at a discounted rate. The actual brunch buffet on the ground floor looked like way tooooooooo much to think of eating.
Anyways, after an extremely leisurely bfast, we walked on to the town hall where we had a guided tour organised for us. B4 we set of, however our lil group of Jigeesha, Saima, Raghu and myself managed to get a photograph with ALL the Santa Clauses in the town centre...ended up setting a mini-trend...LOL!!! Anyways the guided tour was cool. It was in English for one thing - LOL!!!
We saw St Nikolai church, which is where St Nikolaus is said to have come when he first landed on the shores of Luneberg. The panels in this church are very interesting...one panel shows blood flowing down which represents the crucifxion of Christ. And ofcurs the usual stain glass panel,s the altar, the bowl for baptising babies etc. Then after walking thru the old part of town and seeing the diff in the various facades which all seemed the same to me after a point, we saw the Old Crane. This crane was used to lift cargo when the river flowing thru the city was still used for water transport. It's operated manually by a treadmill...and our guide told us that the saying of walking the treadmill originates from this activity.
After we finished the guided tour, we met up again (Jigisha had gone on the gerna guided tour unlike Raghu, Saima and myself), and headed to the Christmas Market..this was down a slope. Luneberg was a salt producing city and in the 16th cen, salt production made so much profit that the city dwellers referred to it as 'white gold'...anyways since the city has a soft soil, the houses kept sinking till the idea of stabilising them with concrete came about. On ths one slope houses sank alot and there are even some houses that tilted backwards...they have been stabilised that way and preserved like that itself!!!
In the mkt we discovered that one of the organisers, Karin, was working in a stall serving gluhwine...obviously we all stopped there and had some!!! She was dressed in medieval costume...looked quite cute!!! After that we visited the St Michaelis church and St Johaniss church. In the latter, they have this MASSIVE organ that was lit up specially
for St.Nikolaus day....beautiful doesnt even describe half of how impressive it looked. Next we went up the water tower. The water tower is no longer used to churn water from the river (obviously), but they re-newed the struc in the 80s and opened it to public in 2000. Now one can go up to the top for a smal price and soak n the most breath-taking panoramic view of the town. It came quite close to the view of Heidelberg from the castle....I went up by lift while the others climbed up...and those 5 mins alone at the top were marvellous. The wind that day was insane, andI actually had to hold on to the railings so I dint get pushed back.
We spent a long while there, b4 walking back thru the town to the Salt Museum and then meeting the group again at the stn. Sadly the pub hopping plan got cancelled coz trains were re-scheduled due to some work on the tracks. Our trip back included a small bus trip as well from Bad Beevensen to Uelzen where we caught the train to Magebdurg. Reached home at 10 pm.
Poonam came up with us and we saw 'Great Expectations' and had dinner. I had waited to see this movie and now I'm dying to read the book and see what Charles Dickens wrote. And Oh, I finally understand why after seeing this movie so many (atleast of the male species) end up falling in love with Gwyneth Paltrow!!! LOL!!!
Through out the day I kept seeing the time and saying, at this time in another mthI shall be on the flight home, landing or at home. When we reached Mburg at night I said 'HomeSweet Home'..then I looked at the watch and said....hot damn in a mth it shall truly be 'HOME SWEET HOME!!'. The countdown begins...and wat a way to wind up my stay...coolies!!! :)
Sunday was spent lazing, watching movies and studying. In the eveg we went to Raghu's room for dinner. He stays in the univ-hotel. Cute lil cozy room with a tiny kitchenette. We made rotis/parathas for him in his room...and there was egg bhurrji and mixed sabzi and this south-indian style rice made by him. Good fun... on our way back we crossed the temp board... it was -1 deg!!!! We were so excited....Saima suddenly started feeling cold reading that and ran home.B ut Jigi and I stood there marvelling that we are not feeling cold, even tho temp was in the minus!!! Infact since it wasn't windy, I commented that I had felt cold the prev day but not at the moment!! LOL!!! This morng there was frost on the grass and our windows were all fogged....hope it snows soon.
I woke up this morng when I thought someone knocked on our door. But then thought it must be imagination, coz no one can get up without getting past the buzzer on the ground floor first. 2 mins later the buzzer rang... I ran to the door and Hardo was on the intercom saying'open the door'..so I pressed the buzzer, he repeated 'open the door..ur flat door'..I was flummoxed and asked him to come in first...then I went and got the keys..opened the door. And was stunned...there were 3 stockings filled with gifts hanging on the door handle, and a packet full of more gifts on the doorstep. Hardo had left them there...there was a note in the packet saying St Nikolaus visited us, tho it 2 days late. HEHE!!!
Hardo and his parents have truly made this very special for us. The girls last yr defi didnt have this.....:) Goody goody...our trip shall be double special!!! :)
And wat a way to wake up!!! Anyways after that we hung up the stockings on the windows as well as the window decoration biscuits ....as I told saima, we may not have celebrated Diwali/Id this yr, but we sure are celebrating christmas...the trad way. Advents calendars, baking, stockings et al!!! Feels damn good!!!!
The movies we saw ton Sunday...I've never seen so many ever before in such a short span of time!!
Thie first movie is based on Arthur Miller's 1953 play. It presents a convincing portrait of the way Americans consistently have denied personal responsibility for evil and projected it onto others. Here a sex-driven young woman (Winona Ryder) seeking to avenge herself on her estranged lover's wife, a zealous judge (Paul Scofield) who puts order above truth, and a self-serving minister (Bruce Davison) who wants to hold on to his power conspire with other members of the town to bring down a nonconformist (Daniel Day-Lewis), his godly wife (Joan Allen), a spiritual elder (Elizabeth Lawrence), and a handful of pariahs.
Although the original drama was meant to reflect upon the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s, this film directed by Nicholas Hytner, has more universal implications. It cuts to the heart with its revelations about the potentially destructive power of the urge for self-preservation, the chaos created by a society's fear of the unknown, and the great courage it takes to stand up to authoritarian zealots.
As one of the most sobering and prophetic films of the 1996, The Crucible compels us to recognize the shadow side of our lives, including the evil inside us. The ending also compels us to think about whether there is anything that we would be willing to die for.
The second movie I had seen earlier, but didn't know the name...I found out when I saw it...LOL!! Buffalo 66, where Vincent G (the director of the movie) stars as Billie Brown. Upon his release from prison and while desperately looking for a restroom and a pay phone from which to call his parents, Billie Brown meets Layla (Christina Ricci), a voluptuous teenager, whom he decides to kidnap on the spur of the moment (as if his new freedom has instantly ignited the old criminal drive). After a ridiculously funny monologue by which he delivers his naive motives, Billy convinces the young girl to succumb to his plan of visiting his alienated parents, Janet and Jimmy (Angelica Houston and Ben Gazzara) and fooling them into believing that he is something he is not: happily married and very successful.
The movie reminded me of the theatre of the abusrd - the repetitive dialogues, the make-up, the characterisation,the feeling of aimlessness,....quite an interesting movie to watch!!!
We started seeing 'The Death of a Saleman' after we got home from Raghu's room, but fell asleep after and hour, so shut it. Shall probably finish seeing it tomorrow or day-after! Lets see....today Saima and Jigi are seeing P&P once again...they are addicts...LOL!!!
Hmmm..I think this is it for today...been here for over 2 hours now. Kinda tired of the sound of the printer which is right in front of me...and of typing too!! LOL!! Ciao!!
As I'd mentioned on my blog, this was a trip organised by IKUS that organises such trips and other events for students Anyway we were to meet at the station at 5.45 am for this trip...god that was the only minus point in the whole trip...getting up at 4 am to get ready...and then walking to the stn...it was raining and well it felt like we are taking a midnight walk!!! Anyways once we got to the stn it felt nice n warm. The train journey was of 3 hours...so we reached luneberg by 9.30. They had organised bfast for the group at Cafe Melzer in the town
center. We had the top floor of the cafe reserved for us and the whole group at down to a sumptuous bfast for buns, ham, salami, eggs, freshly sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, a variety of sliced cheese, home-made strawberry and peach jams, and hot coffee....mouth watering yet? :)Tho I myself ate well, I was amazed at how much some of the others packed in...it was truly like making the most of a buffet...and this wasn't even the main buffet in the cafe, for we got a speical one at a discounted rate. The actual brunch buffet on the ground floor looked like way tooooooooo much to think of eating.
Anyways, after an extremely leisurely bfast, we walked on to the town hall where we had a guided tour organised for us. B4 we set of, however our lil group of Jigeesha, Saima, Raghu and myself managed to get a photograph with ALL the Santa Clauses in the town centre...ended up setting a mini-trend...LOL!!! Anyways the guided tour was cool. It was in English for one thing - LOL!!!
We saw St Nikolai church, which is where St Nikolaus is said to have come when he first landed on the shores of Luneberg. The panels in this church are very interesting...one panel shows blood flowing down which represents the crucifxion of Christ. And ofcurs the usual stain glass panel,s the altar, the bowl for baptising babies etc. Then after walking thru the old part of town and seeing the diff in the various facades which all seemed the same to me after a point, we saw the Old Crane. This crane was used to lift cargo when the river flowing thru the city was still used for water transport. It's operated manually by a treadmill...and our guide told us that the saying of walking the treadmill originates from this activity.
After we finished the guided tour, we met up again (Jigisha had gone on the gerna guided tour unlike Raghu, Saima and myself), and headed to the Christmas Market..this was down a slope. Luneberg was a salt producing city and in the 16th cen, salt production made so much profit that the city dwellers referred to it as 'white gold'...anyways since the city has a soft soil, the houses kept sinking till the idea of stabilising them with concrete came about. On ths one slope houses sank alot and there are even some houses that tilted backwards...they have been stabilised that way and preserved like that itself!!!
In the mkt we discovered that one of the organisers, Karin, was working in a stall serving gluhwine...obviously we all stopped there and had some!!! She was dressed in medieval costume...looked quite cute!!! After that we visited the St Michaelis church and St Johaniss church. In the latter, they have this MASSIVE organ that was lit up specially
for St.Nikolaus day....beautiful doesnt even describe half of how impressive it looked. Next we went up the water tower. The water tower is no longer used to churn water from the river (obviously), but they re-newed the struc in the 80s and opened it to public in 2000. Now one can go up to the top for a smal price and soak n the most breath-taking panoramic view of the town. It came quite close to the view of Heidelberg from the castle....I went up by lift while the others climbed up...and those 5 mins alone at the top were marvellous. The wind that day was insane, andI actually had to hold on to the railings so I dint get pushed back.
We spent a long while there, b4 walking back thru the town to the Salt Museum and then meeting the group again at the stn. Sadly the pub hopping plan got cancelled coz trains were re-scheduled due to some work on the tracks. Our trip back included a small bus trip as well from Bad Beevensen to Uelzen where we caught the train to Magebdurg. Reached home at 10 pm.
Poonam came up with us and we saw 'Great Expectations' and had dinner. I had waited to see this movie and now I'm dying to read the book and see what Charles Dickens wrote. And Oh, I finally understand why after seeing this movie so many (atleast of the male species) end up falling in love with Gwyneth Paltrow!!! LOL!!!
Through out the day I kept seeing the time and saying, at this time in another mthI shall be on the flight home, landing or at home. When we reached Mburg at night I said 'HomeSweet Home'..then I looked at the watch and said....hot damn in a mth it shall truly be 'HOME SWEET HOME!!'. The countdown begins...and wat a way to wind up my stay...coolies!!! :)
Sunday was spent lazing, watching movies and studying. In the eveg we went to Raghu's room for dinner. He stays in the univ-hotel. Cute lil cozy room with a tiny kitchenette. We made rotis/parathas for him in his room...and there was egg bhurrji and mixed sabzi and this south-indian style rice made by him. Good fun... on our way back we crossed the temp board... it was -1 deg!!!! We were so excited....Saima suddenly started feeling cold reading that and ran home.B ut Jigi and I stood there marvelling that we are not feeling cold, even tho temp was in the minus!!! Infact since it wasn't windy, I commented that I had felt cold the prev day but not at the moment!! LOL!!! This morng there was frost on the grass and our windows were all fogged....hope it snows soon.
I woke up this morng when I thought someone knocked on our door. But then thought it must be imagination, coz no one can get up without getting past the buzzer on the ground floor first. 2 mins later the buzzer rang... I ran to the door and Hardo was on the intercom saying'open the door'..so I pressed the buzzer, he repeated 'open the door..ur flat door'..I was flummoxed and asked him to come in first...then I went and got the keys..opened the door. And was stunned...there were 3 stockings filled with gifts hanging on the door handle, and a packet full of more gifts on the doorstep. Hardo had left them there...there was a note in the packet saying St Nikolaus visited us, tho it 2 days late. HEHE!!!
Hardo and his parents have truly made this very special for us. The girls last yr defi didnt have this.....:) Goody goody...our trip shall be double special!!! :)
And wat a way to wake up!!! Anyways after that we hung up the stockings on the windows as well as the window decoration biscuits ....as I told saima, we may not have celebrated Diwali/Id this yr, but we sure are celebrating christmas...the trad way. Advents calendars, baking, stockings et al!!! Feels damn good!!!!
The movies we saw ton Sunday...I've never seen so many ever before in such a short span of time!!
Thie first movie is based on Arthur Miller's 1953 play. It presents a convincing portrait of the way Americans consistently have denied personal responsibility for evil and projected it onto others. Here a sex-driven young woman (Winona Ryder) seeking to avenge herself on her estranged lover's wife, a zealous judge (Paul Scofield) who puts order above truth, and a self-serving minister (Bruce Davison) who wants to hold on to his power conspire with other members of the town to bring down a nonconformist (Daniel Day-Lewis), his godly wife (Joan Allen), a spiritual elder (Elizabeth Lawrence), and a handful of pariahs.
Although the original drama was meant to reflect upon the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s, this film directed by Nicholas Hytner, has more universal implications. It cuts to the heart with its revelations about the potentially destructive power of the urge for self-preservation, the chaos created by a society's fear of the unknown, and the great courage it takes to stand up to authoritarian zealots.
As one of the most sobering and prophetic films of the 1996, The Crucible compels us to recognize the shadow side of our lives, including the evil inside us. The ending also compels us to think about whether there is anything that we would be willing to die for.
The second movie I had seen earlier, but didn't know the name...I found out when I saw it...LOL!! Buffalo 66, where Vincent G (the director of the movie) stars as Billie Brown. Upon his release from prison and while desperately looking for a restroom and a pay phone from which to call his parents, Billie Brown meets Layla (Christina Ricci), a voluptuous teenager, whom he decides to kidnap on the spur of the moment (as if his new freedom has instantly ignited the old criminal drive). After a ridiculously funny monologue by which he delivers his naive motives, Billy convinces the young girl to succumb to his plan of visiting his alienated parents, Janet and Jimmy (Angelica Houston and Ben Gazzara) and fooling them into believing that he is something he is not: happily married and very successful.
The movie reminded me of the theatre of the abusrd - the repetitive dialogues, the make-up, the characterisation,the feeling of aimlessness,....quite an interesting movie to watch!!!
We started seeing 'The Death of a Saleman' after we got home from Raghu's room, but fell asleep after and hour, so shut it. Shall probably finish seeing it tomorrow or day-after! Lets see....today Saima and Jigi are seeing P&P once again...they are addicts...LOL!!!
Hmmm..I think this is it for today...been here for over 2 hours now. Kinda tired of the sound of the printer which is right in front of me...and of typing too!! LOL!! Ciao!!
Friday, December 05, 2003
Update
As I said we saw a movie that dealt with the holocaust..atleast partially. Alan J. Pakula's adaptation of the William Styron bestseller, `Sophie's Choice' (1982) shows considerable hubris in reducing an epic tragedy to a paragon moment of melodrama. That gesture already risks an extreme understatement of the horrors that comprised the Holocaust of World War II, an event that the movie takes care to demonstrate was a nightmare afflicting several people besides the Jews. It incorporates one woman's narrative as a survivor of the Holocaust into a larger, crushingly banal story of a young, Southern writer's coming of age in the big city of New York.
The movie by itself was not that great...but the character of Sophie, played by Meryl Streep was very touhcing and ofcourse Streep herself is marvellous. Oh...the movie also has Peter Nichol - a very younf Peter Nichol, with a Southern accent - it was great seeing him in a role besides John Cage in Ally McBeal.
Today in Ebeling's class we were discussing New English literatures...my area of interest....I was the expert amongst the students and I have to say it felt bloody good to be quoting critics and talking about who said what, and what are the features of which author!! Ah....great thanks to Bharucha for teaching the subject so well as to inspire my interest in it and urge me to read more about it and understand it better. I'm still highly ignorant, but I'll get there someday and after today I'm even more encouraged!! :)
Not planned much for today, just studied for a while here at the library. Initally had planned to go to Annika's for baking but I got late, so I came back to the library to study since Saima and Jigi were watching P&P again and I can't see it again so soon!!! Gonna sleep early tonight coz for the Luneberg trip we have to meet at the HBF at 5.45 am!!!YAWN!!!
PS Did some more shopping today...Muhahaha!!!
The movie by itself was not that great...but the character of Sophie, played by Meryl Streep was very touhcing and ofcourse Streep herself is marvellous. Oh...the movie also has Peter Nichol - a very younf Peter Nichol, with a Southern accent - it was great seeing him in a role besides John Cage in Ally McBeal.
Today in Ebeling's class we were discussing New English literatures...my area of interest....I was the expert amongst the students and I have to say it felt bloody good to be quoting critics and talking about who said what, and what are the features of which author!! Ah....great thanks to Bharucha for teaching the subject so well as to inspire my interest in it and urge me to read more about it and understand it better. I'm still highly ignorant, but I'll get there someday and after today I'm even more encouraged!! :)
Not planned much for today, just studied for a while here at the library. Initally had planned to go to Annika's for baking but I got late, so I came back to the library to study since Saima and Jigi were watching P&P again and I can't see it again so soon!!! Gonna sleep early tonight coz for the Luneberg trip we have to meet at the HBF at 5.45 am!!!YAWN!!!
PS Did some more shopping today...Muhahaha!!!
Thursday, December 04, 2003
Toodle Ti Tum!!!
Yesterday I finally got my tickets reserved for the return....and it feels soooooooooooo good! I'M flying back on the 6th Jan, 2004....shall be back home by 6th night...OMG just a lil over a month and I shall be smelling Mumbai's foul, polluted air again...hot damn but I can't wait to get back!!! Muhahaha!!! In high spirits since yesterday...LOL!!!
Hardo had dropped by yesterday and we had a nice little chat....the excursion to Mumbai seems terribly organised...I had no clue what the criteria was when they selected students, now I also find out that they are flying from Frankfurt...and not only are they taking the flight from an airport further away (Berlin is ideal for Magdeburg), but they are also paying more and are gonna have 2 stops in between. Logic? I see none...and I'm damn kicked to be saying that....you know how proud the Germans are about their efficiency and oragnisational skills right? Well...lets not bitch too much about them since I am still here!!
Saw Emma yesterday as a part of the screening of the Austen movies...when I'd tried to read it in FYBA I'd fallen asleep thrice before I gave it up...and I think that is one of the reasons why I never liked JA before this -I associated her with a sleeping pill!!! Anyways the movie wasn't bad. It pales in comparison to S&S and P&P, but well better that what I expected...Gwyneth Paltrow and the others were good...but I do have one question...why exactly do people swoon over her...she's good...but is she THAT good? Hmmm......
Also saw 'Colour Purple' yesterday night, at home. I had done the book (by Alice Walker)for my paper on feminism in TYBA. Infact that's the reason why Saima and I wanted to see the movie...and we are both so glad we did. Its got amazing performances by each one the cast and well....brilliant movie to put it in nutshell. DIrected bs Steven Speilberg, it stars Whoopi Goldberg in her debut, and Oprah Winnfrey amongst others.....oh god!!! I gotta post a review of this book on my Literary Mosaic..its a MUST READ!!!
Colour Purple - Synopsis
Went for a shopping spree today after class. First we dropped by the video library to see if Annika wanted to see a movie with us tonight, then we headed out...I picked up some cool maal. And as usual, shopping has worked wonders for my spirits and moods!!! Looking forward to dinner tonight with Annika and then the movie...I think we are watching something that delas with the holocaust...shall obviously blog about that tomm!!!
Hardo had dropped by yesterday and we had a nice little chat....the excursion to Mumbai seems terribly organised...I had no clue what the criteria was when they selected students, now I also find out that they are flying from Frankfurt...and not only are they taking the flight from an airport further away (Berlin is ideal for Magdeburg), but they are also paying more and are gonna have 2 stops in between. Logic? I see none...and I'm damn kicked to be saying that....you know how proud the Germans are about their efficiency and oragnisational skills right? Well...lets not bitch too much about them since I am still here!!
Saw Emma yesterday as a part of the screening of the Austen movies...when I'd tried to read it in FYBA I'd fallen asleep thrice before I gave it up...and I think that is one of the reasons why I never liked JA before this -I associated her with a sleeping pill!!! Anyways the movie wasn't bad. It pales in comparison to S&S and P&P, but well better that what I expected...Gwyneth Paltrow and the others were good...but I do have one question...why exactly do people swoon over her...she's good...but is she THAT good? Hmmm......
Also saw 'Colour Purple' yesterday night, at home. I had done the book (by Alice Walker)for my paper on feminism in TYBA. Infact that's the reason why Saima and I wanted to see the movie...and we are both so glad we did. Its got amazing performances by each one the cast and well....brilliant movie to put it in nutshell. DIrected bs Steven Speilberg, it stars Whoopi Goldberg in her debut, and Oprah Winnfrey amongst others.....oh god!!! I gotta post a review of this book on my Literary Mosaic..its a MUST READ!!!
Went for a shopping spree today after class. First we dropped by the video library to see if Annika wanted to see a movie with us tonight, then we headed out...I picked up some cool maal. And as usual, shopping has worked wonders for my spirits and moods!!! Looking forward to dinner tonight with Annika and then the movie...I think we are watching something that delas with the holocaust...shall obviously blog about that tomm!!!
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
Movie Time!!
We saw the first three of the 16 movies we got from the video-library yesterday. Annika came over again as I said so we saw movies that were her recommendations..actually this morning when I saw our pile I realised that ten of the movies she insisted we take...LOL!! Anyways she's this BIG Renee Zellwegger fan (she even made us see 'Bridget Jones' Dairy') so yesterday we saw two of RW movies...the first was 'A Price Above Rubies' (1998). In it Sonia (RW) is a member of a closed Hasidic community, who doesn't feel comfortable about religious rules and restrictions, and constantly breaks them, upsetting her relatives. Pretty interesting movie...the second one was a silly light movie for TP - 'Nurse Betty'(2000) with RW, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock and Greg Kinnear...no comments coz well, it was a TP movie.
After Annika left, I made Saima and Jigi watch 'Little Women' (1994) with Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon. This was one of my favourite books as a child and I've read it umpteen times...Jo was one of my favourite characters and pretty much a childhood idol I guess. I had seen the movie the first time when our school took us for it and then again on TV, yet I was amazed when I could quote lines from the book/movie and remembered scenes so well....truly love the book...and so glad that both Saima and Jigi liked the movie!! :)
Today we went and paid up for another trip - to Luneberg...like for Wittenberg this is also organised by the IKUS. The trip includes a visit to the famous Christmas market in Luneberg and well sight-seeing and pub-hopping...cool eh? Its on 6th -Nicholaus Day...there's a legend behind that too. Nicholaus was like a herb-man(shaman type of guy) of ancient Germany. He is said to have roamed around with a huge sack giving people herbs and medicines and curing them. After his death children were told that if they were good Nicholaus would come and give them sweets...so on 6th Dec all children leave their shoes outside the doors for gifts and sweets. Very similar to Santa Claus and the stocking hanging..only that comes from Sweden.
Guess this is it for now....until tomm...:)
After Annika left, I made Saima and Jigi watch 'Little Women' (1994) with Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon. This was one of my favourite books as a child and I've read it umpteen times...Jo was one of my favourite characters and pretty much a childhood idol I guess. I had seen the movie the first time when our school took us for it and then again on TV, yet I was amazed when I could quote lines from the book/movie and remembered scenes so well....truly love the book...and so glad that both Saima and Jigi liked the movie!! :)
Today we went and paid up for another trip - to Luneberg...like for Wittenberg this is also organised by the IKUS. The trip includes a visit to the famous Christmas market in Luneberg and well sight-seeing and pub-hopping...cool eh? Its on 6th -Nicholaus Day...there's a legend behind that too. Nicholaus was like a herb-man(shaman type of guy) of ancient Germany. He is said to have roamed around with a huge sack giving people herbs and medicines and curing them. After his death children were told that if they were good Nicholaus would come and give them sweets...so on 6th Dec all children leave their shoes outside the doors for gifts and sweets. Very similar to Santa Claus and the stocking hanging..only that comes from Sweden.
Guess this is it for now....until tomm...:)
Monday, December 01, 2003
Ice.skating,Baking and More....
On saturday after I left the library and gt home, Saima informed me that Annika had come by with a suggestion that we go ice-skating in this rink near the Elbe River... and I was like YES YES YES!! Raghu also came...he's the same guy who was explaining the silent movie to Annika...hes doing his PhD here,; his thesis is on cure of epilepsy and he conducts experiments on rats' brains!!! Nice guy...a bit boring initially but later u realise its coz he's so simple and well, quiet, unlike me!!!
It was really great...apart from Annika, who obviously knows how to ice skate, I was the only one who'd done any skating at all....anyways initially at the rink we were like kids grasping the wall and trying to get our balance right...luckily the lil skating I did as a kid helped and by the 3rd round I was skating without support...and without falling even once. Till I got all confident, saying I'm the only one who hasn't fallen so far and I wont now, coz I'm skating fine (conceited lil me thought I was an expert within 2 hours!!), and skated straight into the middle....with that many ppl ard I lost my sense of oreintation and splat went down on all fours...ouch, but my knees still hurt and I'm sporting a gigantic purple bruise on my right knee. Ah well, it was still great fun....later that night we invited Annika and Raghu over for dinner. Annika got along 'bhaji-ish pulav' and I made alu ki sabzi (again) and egg curry(again)...I am cooking alot but I cook the same stuff over and over again...LOL!!! Since Raghu wasn't getting any food he got his VCR which he left with us for as long as we want....yeah we raided the video library with Annika today and have gotten like nearly 15 movies to watch....shall post the complete list soon, but some of them are Great Expectations, Colour Purple, The Crucible, Death of a Salesman and others too.....
Sunday we spent at Hardo's place for the first advent sunday...oh god that was brilliant. OK..before I plunge into the details, before xmas they have, like, wat's called advent sundays...so they get this advents calendar in which there is a window for each of the 24 days preceding xmas and behind each window is a chocolate. Annika had given us one, but Hardo's folks gave us one each..so we have 4 of them now...LOL!! Hardo's parents ar really nice...I mean...they were treating us like we are their daughters or some thing!!! Anyways we had gone there to bake cookies and window decorations....that was cool. We first made cookies with wheat flakes and coconuts in the dough, then simple biscuits with normal dough but we decorated those biscuits with all sorts of sugary stuff and last, but not the least, we made window decorations which we can string up till Xmas and later eat up!!! I made a ginger-bread man, or rather a biscuit man...which turned out quite funny actually!! LOL!!! What was a bit awkward was that we ended up being gifted all the cookies we baked, plus lotsa more stuff along with the advents calendars... OH!!!! How could I forget!!! The feast his mom had prepared...Jesus!!! My mouth still waters. I'm SO glad I eat all meat...there was this thing with pork slices in a yummy sauce made with apricot and spices, chicken on a layer of sauerkraut, green cabbage with ham....and the Xmas cakes and the pies...ok I am drooling just remembering the peach tarts!!!! We were there at his place the whole damn day, saw his computer, played with Loki(his dog), browsed their library (all in German sadly) and well had a great time ...got home at night...
Today we spent the day with Annika...I got up late coz I was studying till 2 am last night...anyways after getting ready Saima and I went around to Annika's to say hullo, but ended up staying there the whole day...we got the cassettes from the video library and now we've invited her over for macaroni and soup and movie-watching session tonight...yipppeeeee!!!!!
It was really great...apart from Annika, who obviously knows how to ice skate, I was the only one who'd done any skating at all....anyways initially at the rink we were like kids grasping the wall and trying to get our balance right...luckily the lil skating I did as a kid helped and by the 3rd round I was skating without support...and without falling even once. Till I got all confident, saying I'm the only one who hasn't fallen so far and I wont now, coz I'm skating fine (conceited lil me thought I was an expert within 2 hours!!), and skated straight into the middle....with that many ppl ard I lost my sense of oreintation and splat went down on all fours...ouch, but my knees still hurt and I'm sporting a gigantic purple bruise on my right knee. Ah well, it was still great fun....later that night we invited Annika and Raghu over for dinner. Annika got along 'bhaji-ish pulav' and I made alu ki sabzi (again) and egg curry(again)...I am cooking alot but I cook the same stuff over and over again...LOL!!! Since Raghu wasn't getting any food he got his VCR which he left with us for as long as we want....yeah we raided the video library with Annika today and have gotten like nearly 15 movies to watch....shall post the complete list soon, but some of them are Great Expectations, Colour Purple, The Crucible, Death of a Salesman and others too.....
Sunday we spent at Hardo's place for the first advent sunday...oh god that was brilliant. OK..before I plunge into the details, before xmas they have, like, wat's called advent sundays...so they get this advents calendar in which there is a window for each of the 24 days preceding xmas and behind each window is a chocolate. Annika had given us one, but Hardo's folks gave us one each..so we have 4 of them now...LOL!! Hardo's parents ar really nice...I mean...they were treating us like we are their daughters or some thing!!! Anyways we had gone there to bake cookies and window decorations....that was cool. We first made cookies with wheat flakes and coconuts in the dough, then simple biscuits with normal dough but we decorated those biscuits with all sorts of sugary stuff and last, but not the least, we made window decorations which we can string up till Xmas and later eat up!!! I made a ginger-bread man, or rather a biscuit man...which turned out quite funny actually!! LOL!!! What was a bit awkward was that we ended up being gifted all the cookies we baked, plus lotsa more stuff along with the advents calendars... OH!!!! How could I forget!!! The feast his mom had prepared...Jesus!!! My mouth still waters. I'm SO glad I eat all meat...there was this thing with pork slices in a yummy sauce made with apricot and spices, chicken on a layer of sauerkraut, green cabbage with ham....and the Xmas cakes and the pies...ok I am drooling just remembering the peach tarts!!!! We were there at his place the whole damn day, saw his computer, played with Loki(his dog), browsed their library (all in German sadly) and well had a great time ...got home at night...
Today we spent the day with Annika...I got up late coz I was studying till 2 am last night...anyways after getting ready Saima and I went around to Annika's to say hullo, but ended up staying there the whole day...we got the cassettes from the video library and now we've invited her over for macaroni and soup and movie-watching session tonight...yipppeeeee!!!!!
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