Manners!

A few days back, I've read about the survey conducted by Readers Digest. That survey states Mumbai as the rudest city in the world :( That survey considered three good manners like whether people hold the door open for the person coming right behind them, whether they helped pick up papers dropped on a busy street and whether a shopkeeper said "thank you" when a purchase was made. Definitely these criteria are too western. So, I don't think we've anything to worry on this.

Anyhow, this made me think about the manners I learnt during my stay in Belgium.

The most important of them all is saying thanks to the person helping us anywhere & apologizing for any inconvenience we cause to others. This has a very positive impact everywhere, especially when I thank waiters, their face lits up immediately (Is it because it could be a hint for bigger tip? hope not.)

Next is holding the door open for the person coming right behind you. I couldn't follow this any more. In my company, tail gating is considered as an important security breach. So, we are encouraged to close the door, even if somebody is coming behind you.

Next is giving way to people coming in the opposite direction in a congested street. I tried to follow this in the initial days & soon I realized I am standing in the same place for a long time. So, alas, one more thing dropped totally!

One manners I really liked in Belgium is greeting even the strangers you come across. When you walk in a street, suddenly the person coming in the opposite direction will smile at you, will say "Good morning" and keep walking. Just imagine you trying the same thing in any of indian cities. I am sure the response won't be encouraging. So, I decided to try that only in a few selected places like elevators. Surprisingly, almost everybody responds positively. When someone wishes you with a warm smile, can you think of anything better to start a fresh day?

2/4 wheelers stopping for pedastrians to cross the road in zebra crossings. This is obsolutely impossible in India. If there is a zebra crossing, that means every minute a minimum of 2 people (in a few places, it could be as high as 20) will cross the road. So, if vehicles are going to stop for them, the traffic will never move. So, I think the current strategy, where considerable number of people gather in the road side & they demand vehicles to stop for crossing, is more practical.

Though I prefer to follow these manners, I would like to add a final word. In India, we give importance to the intention than the way it is done. There are lots of things we do to help people in different occassions. IMO, a bus driver stopping the bus in between two stops for a old man to get in and auto rickshaws giving free rides for delivery are more important than keeping the door open for a woman.

I am back!

Finally I am back to India! And finally, after more than a month, I am getting time to blog about that!

My two years stay in Belgium has come to an end. These two years were very different from my previous period in many ways.

1. The life outside office was so organized to the extend I was feeling a bit bored after office hours.

2. Healthy: Playing squash once a week, walking to office covering a distance of 2kms one way, regular work outs, pollution free environment, stress free work, sticking to healthy office working hours, regular eating & sleeping timings, relaxing on weekends... what else is required for a healthy life

3. Educative: understanding & appreciating good things in a different culture, totally different way of working & discussing (you know, there can be teams which wrapes up all discussions within 2 mins! I still remember a 3.5hrs meeting we had in my previous company :( ), effective use of open source products, an excellent practical introduction to XP/agile methodologies. I couldn't expect a better team than the one I had Very friendly, helpful & highly talented.

Most important of all, I learnt cooking! One good thing about on-site is everybody learns cooking! You know, even ladies cook while on-site! :)

Now I am back to bangalore. There are many things to crib about: traffic, pollution, pressure at work, etc. In spite of all these, I feel happier here. Easier access to family and friends, more intimate work place, feeling like company is on my schoulder (!), etc. One more thing I love in bangalore is weather. Summer in bangalore is lot better than that in Belgium. Then think about winter. Belgium weather is horrible.

In short, so far no regrets about my decision to come back. That is really a good feeling, right? :)

A trip to Keukenhof!

If you've seen the movie Annian, you wouldn't have forgotten the song with tulip background. The heroine running in tulip field taken from top angle... amazing shot. For those poor people, who don't have time to follow kollywood news closely, that scene was taken in keukenhof, holland.

The tulip garden in keukenhof is open for visitors for just two months every year, march end to may end. Last year I went there. It was a wonderful sight. The garden contains tulips in all possible colors, very neatly showcased. Next to the garden, in a very large field, different colored tulips were planted in long stripes. That is the exact shooting spot for the above mentioned song. We've clicked hundreds of fotos & spent a long time in that place.

With the same expectation, we went for that garden again last saturday. But it was very disappointing. Many plants had only buds... many more not even that. We were discussing why the organizers allow visitors, if the garden is not ready yet. We realized the reason, when we came to know about the procedure followed to bring up those flowers. The process starts as early as november (actually the seed preperation starts even earlier). The life time of tulips is just about three weeks. To have flowers for longer period, different kinds of seeds are planted in three layers at certain depths. This causes the plants to grow & blossom one after another. Ultimately tulips everywhere for two months.

We came to know an interesting fact too. In 17th century, a big house costed around 4,500 euros, while one tulip bulb costed 13,500 euros! Quite amazing, isn't it?

My Dreamland!

From my childhood, Switzerland had been my dream country. Fuelled by lots of indian movies, I guess that is true for many indians. Once

the crown of India, Kashmir, became a risky place for shooting, indian film makers chose switzerland as their main foreign shooting spot.

From that time, lots and lots of song sequences have been shot in ice covered alps mountains. While the hero dancing in full suite, the

costume designer always falls short of cloth for heroines!

When my trip to Belgium got confirmed, one of the first things went in my mind was about visiting switzerland. But for some reasons (no

company, not good weather, etc, etc.), I couldn't visit their, though I have been here for the past 1.5yrs. Since my assignment completes

in the coming april, I thought I wouldn't have a chance for that much awaited trip.

All of a sudden, two of my friends over here decided to go there in december. When they asked me if I was interested, I got very

confused. December, one of the winter months, isn't the right time to visit such a place. That too this winter is predicted to be a lot worse

than the lost one. Even in Belgium, there was heavy snow fall in November end. I've not noticed such a one even in January last year.

Anyhow, after a short one-sided war, my desire to visit swiss won over the other odds. So, finally we set out to go on December 3rd for

a four day trip.

Though we've visited many places over there, three things blowed me away completely.
1. Goldenpass panoramic train journey:
This is a very famous train route from Geneva to Luzern. We took this trip from Interlaken, the city where we stayed to Luzern. It was an

amazing sight all the way through. Since it was winter almost all mountains on the way wore white cap. For people like me, who rarely get

a chance to see snow, it was a feast. There were a few beatiful valleys & landscapes too.

2. Mount Titlis:
One of the most famous peaks in switzerland. It won't be fair, if I don't appreciate the effort & money invested by the government in

building those cable cars till the peak. It was a nice experience watching the snow becoming thicker & thicker as we went higher &

higher. In the peak, the temperature was -15deg C (Shhhhh... don't tell anyone... it was only -11, we all decided to state increased cold

to increase the excitement of our listeners ;-) ). Before leaving, all weather forecasts sounded like they were ready to bet millions on

cloudy/shower. Damn them! Just like italy trip, this time also they were wrong completely. It was very bright sun throughout the day. We

were playing in snow for a long time. I'm sure those snow fights, walking in knee high snow heaps, sliding in ice slopes, etc. will remain

green in my memory for a long time.

3. Mürren:
The train route to Mürren was in mountain slopes covered with x-mas trees everywhere. When we were travelling, it was snowing heavily

& all the x-mas trees were covered with snow. It was just unbelievable view. We also travelled in sledge! It was fun.

Finally the question: Is it winter a bad time to visit Switzerland? Hmmm... I'm not sure. Though I've not been there during summer time, I believe, the winter experience will be a lot better for people, who are from hot regions. I have a feeling that during summer there won't be much snow in mountains except peaks & also murren won't be that impressive. So, it is upto you, what you want to see. If you are interested in nice landscapes & want to escape from hot sun, come during summer. If your aim is to enjoy snow & snow based views, may be winter is the best time.

Reviews of Sivakasi & Majaa - Very funny

I've come across a very funny review about Sivakasi & Majaa in teakada. I'm sure it is very biased, with the only aim of teasing those movies & everybody involved in those movies. But, still, it is hilarious.

Sivakasi : A film that must definitely be watched first day, first show, so that you can warn all your buddies at the earliest.

Majaa : One that had a director bold enough to make a movie without any story and fail.

The final joke is too good.

Baby mosquito : Mom I am going to the theater.
Mother mosquito : Take care dear. People will clap hands, its risky.
Baby mosquito : Don't worry mummy, am just going for Sivakasi.

26 million cases pending in India!

I was shocked to read the Deccan herald's report stating 26 million cases are pending in the country! That is a staggering number. If Indian government doesn't take any immediate action to dispose these cases, people will lose confidence in the judicial system completely, if at all they have some confidence left.

Hope they try out some of the suggestions put forward by Dr. Abdul Kalam to reduce this number.

Around Italy in 3 days!

Last year November, few of friends planned a short trip to Italy. But, due to bad weather, the flight got cancelled. Now we planned a 3 day trip to Italy. Coincidently we booked the flight exactly on the same date (Nov 12) as those people. Fortunately this time weather was very good while leaving Belgium & throughout the trip in Italy. All weather forecast stations were confident of showers both in Belgium & Italy during that period. Heck, it was bright sun everywhere. When we reached back, it was very foggy in Belgium. Still lady luck followed us & the flight landed without any trouble. The very next flight was redirected to another airport for landing. Escaped by a hair!

We've covered Rome, Pisa & Venice during this trip. Though the buildings in Rome were beautiful, IMO, Venice is the best part of the trip. It wasgorgeous and very soothing.

Overall, it was very much enjoyable. Still, since we tried to cover too many places in a short period, we ended up in spending half of the time in journey. Should avoid that in future trips.