Life, The Universe and Everything

.... and Everything !

2008-11-11T08:54:00.002+01:00

I'm back to updating my blog through my heavy schedule. Actually i have some time at hand now, being the Armstice weekend... free time now poses a strange problem - we dont know what to do with it. We're so busy all the time, that work is like an addiction !

Anyway, the last 3 weeks have been BAD ! we had 3 midterm exams (stats, plus accounting and fin markets). We had classes alongside, which means the usual 3 assignments per week. To top it off, my group had to present on "Talent Management in China" for the HR course, and that happened to be on the same day as the accounting exam. Yeah... the last 3 weeks have been BAD !

I've been thinking a lot about Grenoble. I miss the place. The mountains, the first snow, the chilly breeze at this time of the year, the rain (as shitty as it can be at times). I even miss my hairdresser (Jouy en Josas has only 2 hairdressers, not much choice). I should go there more often... Geoffrey and Magali were in Paris last weekend, it was good to meet them. Reminded me a lot of the good times in Place Notre Dame in Grenoble. I think it's the people in Grenoble that make the place so special for me !

Oh, and i got my French residence permit, so now i'm a legal resident in France. The process was "incident free" (read : no questions about my Mauritian decent or origin).

This morning, I paid my income tax in France (yes, i worked here all of 2007). I now need a bailout plan to save me from certain bankruptcy !

Updates...

2008-10-19T17:52:00.002+02:00

My schedule is packed with classes, seminars, team meetings, presentations, mid-term exams and the likes, and i must be excused for not updating my blog more often.

I've been to Paris twice since i arrived on campus, so you can imagine how busy i am... besides, getting to and back from Paris on a saturday night is a real adventure (as we found out 3 weeks back) and i'd rather spend a quite saturday evening listening to good music than venture out into Paris !

I started climbing again, and it feels really good. The wall at the campus gymnasium is under repair, but the school organised for us to climb at a place close by. Nice wall, good routes and great company to climb with !

Had a big birthday dinner last friday, my classmates were nice enough to organise it in one of the 2 restaurants in Jouy (yes, not much choice) with a bottle of champagne and all !

I have 3 midterm exams coming up in the next 2 weeks, but i'm looking forward to the 4-day Armstice break in November!

L'Ile Maurice

2008-09-21T11:17:00.003+02:00

No, dont get too excited. I'm not travelling to L'ile Maurice. Not yet, atleast.... For the ignorant, "L'ile Maurice" is french for "Mauritius" !

The reason for this post - I'm surprised at the number of people who ask me if i'm from Mauritius !!

It all started back in November 2007, during this trip to the Netherlands. We all remember how i was stopped and frisked by the police in Paris Nord, which eventually led to missing the connecting train to Grenoble. What i did not mention in the post was the stupidity of this french cop who stared at my residence permit (which clearly stated my nationality as "indian") and still asked me "Vous etes de l'Ile Maurice, monsieur?"

6 months later, in April this year, i was back in Bangalore and on Commercial Street with some french colleagues. Obviously, i was taking every given opportunity to practice my french, and our conversation was overheard by some random customer in a saree shop where my colleague was deciding what to buy for his wife back in France... next thing i know, the guy walks up to me and says "Vous parlez francais, vous etes mauricien?"

And now i'm back in France, and in the past 2 weeks i have been asked thrice if i'm from "L'ile Maurice". This includes the security guard at HEC, one french classmate and a staff member of the MBA program. An american classmate thought i was indian by origin, but born in france...

Of course, i can assume that this confusion is an indicator of my level of french, but that wont be too modest. But it's funny i should be perceived as a Mauritian in this place. We had a session on "stereotypes" last week, trying to teach us that at a certain point our cultural/national identity stops and our personality begins, and each of us draws this line at a different point. I guess you dont meet too many indians who speak french !!

Integration Weekend

2008-09-15T20:29:00.003+02:00

After 5 parties in 8 days (and all the integration possible), my class headed out to Normandy on saturday (13th) morning for a weekend of "integration".

Agenda : Outdoor activities, picnic, party, Mont St.Michel, food etc...

We were about 120 of us, had 2 buses and 2 cars and drove for about 4 hours from Paris to get to Caen by around noon. Had a nice lunch in Mercure hotel before heading out for some "Accrobranche", which is basically a mixture of climbing trees, zip lining and the assorted monkey tricks one can think of on a tree... it was a good reminder of how unfit a bunch of late-20 year old's can be, and we came away mostly vowing to do more sport and stay fit (yeah right, i see that happening, no time to eat lunch at noon out here !)

What followed was nice picnic, over some wine and snacks, mostly discussing history, politics and culture among our new found friends. This part was really amazing, simply because of the sheer diversity of my class at HEC !

We drove back to Saint-Lo, chilled for a while, ate dinner and then off we went to party at a nightclub that had been reserved for us ! The party went on until really late (or early next morning), and people got back to the hotel at 4 a.m. on sunday morning !

8 a.m. generated some of the most comic scenes outside the Mercure hotel at Saint-Lo. People with hangovers, some tired, others sleeping on the steps, some with bad stomachs and others just unable to speak ! And off we went to visit St.Malo, which is a historic fortified town in Normandy... When we got to beach, there were some random jokes being made about how we all looked like terminally ill patients who were brought to the beach to fulfil their last wishes. I dont think some of my friends appreciated that...

But the beach had a good breeze, and that did us some good. People felt a lot better while we were getting onto the bus to head to Mont St.Michel. We had a huge lunch before heading to the real abbey, and once there, we were met by a dignified lady who was to be our guide. Honestly, i have never seen a guide speak so passionately as she did, and she even made tons of jokes in between and kept us interested throughout our visit of the magnificent and historic monastery.

Everyone slept on the way back to Paris, especially since we caught the sunday evening traffic. We made it back to campus by midnight, and crashed !

This morning we had a seminar at 8:30, and people were still walking in at 9:15....

HEC - First Impressions

2008-09-07T12:54:00.003+02:00

I had been waiting for 4th September for an unbelievably long time, and time had almost crawled to a standstill. I left Grenoble at 4:30 am and took the train to Paris. After a hurried walk to Gare d'Austerlitz, an automatic ticket machine that wouldn't accept my debit card, a turnstile that wouldn't let my suitcase through, and a 1-hour train ride, i finally made it to Jouy-en-Josas !

Allow me to go off on a tangent here for a moment. I once abused Shashwat for living in Angouleme. It wasn't his fault. He was just there. Angouleme just happened to be so "in the middle of nowhere" that i took it upon myself to poke fun at him. Dude, honestly, you can now go ahead and insult me. Jouy is 10 times smaller, has 7000 people, 3 main streets, 1 supermarket and really is "le trou du cul du monde" !

More importantly, HEC is located there, and i took a short bus ride (thank god for that, HEC is on a hill) to campus and went about my paperwork and check-in etc...

The more interesting aspect was meeting my new classmates, many of whom i had exchanged emails/messages with since the admissions. Meeting them and all the others was very very interesting (you will see why a litte later)...

The first party was the same evening, and what followed were 3 others in as many days, all weekend ! However, things did get a bit more serious today. We had a solid first day of orientation, along with a conference in the evening. Tomorrow starts with a French evaluation test, followed by French oral interviews.

Coming back to my classmates... To mention some of the backgrounds :

A French "gendarme"
A Canadian who was working in Panama
An Indian merchant navy captain
A "Quebecoise" who isnt really a Quebecoise
A Georgian woman entrepreneur
A Russian software engineer (who sat across the Georgian at lunch one day, but no gunfire was heard...)
A Portugeuse guy who wants to go to Goa !
A Greek electrical engineer with whom i discussed MV cables !
A Japanese automobile engineer (there's a cliche) who knew that Toyota has a plant in Bangalore
A German lawyer with a great sense of humour (he even said "ich bin ein Hamburger")
A Chinese guy who never worked in China !

I have a session on "Cultural Stereotypes" on wednesday. I'll keep you posted...

So Far, So Good...

2008-09-03T18:38:00.003+02:00

It's been a week already !
It was great seeing all my wonderful friends, catching up, walking those same streets again. I stepped into Grenoble and felt right at home. It didnt even feel like i had been away for 6 months !

Tomorrow morning i take the TGV to Paris, to start my new life at HEC. I'm a bit anxious, as to how it will turn out. But then it's part of the deal, and i'm sure i'll cope with the feeling once i get to school tomorrow, get my studio, meet my new classmates etc.

Oh, and i tried to change the address of my blog. Apparently blogger allows you to do that (good thing!), but unfortunately someone already took "lifeinparis" (bad thing!). So i guess i'll just have to keep writing at the same address, and ignore the fact that i no longer live in Grenoble !

I'll put up some pictures in my next post. Maybe of the HEC campus, my studio and the French Summer !

I'm Back !!!... Again !!!

2008-08-19T06:43:00.003+02:00

I know, I know, it’s been a very long time since I blogged. In fact it’s been so long, I actually wondered why I’m still using a such an old picture for my profile on blogspot !

For all those who have been in touch with me outside of the blogsphere, I guess you know what’s been happening…

For all those who don’t… here goes!

It seems like I’ve just returned to India, but it’s been 6 months already. Since then, a lot of things have changed. For starters, and this may shock some of you, I quit my job!! I came back to India in March, wrote the GMAT in April and applied to a few business schools in Europe. With 4 admits in hand, I chose the best of the B-schools at my disposal. I’m back in France, and will soon (like, next week) start pursuing an MBA at HEC, in Paris.

So, while I figure out how I can change the address of this blog to “lifeinparis”, rest assured that you will read a lot more from me in the coming days. Maybe I won’t be travelling as much this time around, considering I no longer have an income and my budget is the thinnest possible shoestring… but I’ll surely report the little happenings, my continued exposure to new cultures (HEC promises a lot of that), my personal learnings and as suggested in the title of my blog, “everything” !

Oh, and in the meantime, Bangalore has a new airport and I was lucky to be on the first commercial flight to take-off from there. On the flipside, the security checks are more stringent than ever before thanks to some lunatic who decided to pack explosives with nuts/bolts and place them in bus stops all over the city. Bangalore also has more potholes on the streets, thanks to the rains over the past month.

Otherwise, Shashwat got married, Tim returned to France after 4 months in India, and I am currently in Grenoble catching up with old friends before I can start school next week.

Talking of Grenoble....I took the bus from Lyon Airport to Grenoble yesterday, and i had a sudden flashback. I remembered the first time i landed in France 2 years back, and how i took that first bus ride feeling edgy, not knowing what was in store for me in a place where i didnt know anyone ! This time around, i knew the place (and i love it !). I knew people were waiting to see me in Grenoble... it felt strangely different from the last time...

Shots Fired !

2008-04-25T17:35:00.000+02:00

As usual, i've been a bit busy with work and other assorted things. I really dont want to make it a habit to write when someone urges me to write, but somehow that is how it turns out !

This time i have something really interesting to write. And i hope everyone (read : Indians) will take it in good spirit. Something i thought was very normal 2 years back, but now i am completely shocked by it.

Allow me introduce Timothee. A Frenchman, colleague and most importantly a very good friend. Timothee is now in Bangalore for 3 months as part of an internship that he needs to execute in a foreign country, to obtain his degree. He arrived in Bangalore about 10 days ago.

Last night, frantic call from Tim at 2:30 am (yes, ungodly hour). He sounds really disturbed, and says he hears gunshots in his building, and i can hear the same over the telephone. The stray dogs are whining on the street outside, and he thinks someone is shooting them. I called Hashir, who lives in Indiranagar, and asked him if he could check out the neighbourhood and see if all is well.

Hashir calls me back in 10 minutes and tells me that there is a huge crowd of people taking out a procession from a temple nearby. The procession included an idol, a truck and lots of firecrackers. I'm not surprised that someone who was a stranger to these sounds would mistake this to be gunshots.... We called Tim, explained the situation and personally, i was very embarassed !

Which brings me to my point of view on the matter. There is a lot i can say, but i will keep it short and sweet....

Firstly, we seems to think worship is effective only when it is done at the expense of someone else's peace of mind. What happened to privacy and personal space?

Secondly, what is the whole fuss about? Are our gods asleep? Is that why we go "Hey, listen, we're worshipping you now, so you better wake up" ??

The prodigal son

2008-03-29T14:49:00.003+01:00

It's been about a month since I stepped out of the Air France flight from Paris to Bangalore. Life has been quite hectic since then. Going back to work in Bangalore, getting a cell phone, setting up an internet connection (and putting with appalling low speeds), buying a car, meeting old friends, shopping etc etc.... they have all kept me too busy to really sit down and write a few words.

Through most of my "re-integration", I kept going back to Grenoble, mentally. Not a day has passed without me thinking about Grenoble, my apartment, the mountains, the cold. I still cant quite believe i wont take a flight back soon, and show up in front of 108 Rue d'Alembert. A few experiences in this past month wanted me to drop everything and fly back. But reality kicks in soon, and i realise i'm back in Bangalore.... atleast for now.

Going back to work here isn't easy either. I guess i picked up a lot of habits in France. Notice that i dont say "good" or "bad" habits. I'm not judging. But its true that the habits dont quite fit in to India and it's work culture...

Time to adapt again? Or do as i feel is right? Individualist or collectivist?

Of course, it goes without saying that i now notice small things about India (and Indians) that are odd. Mind you, i found these things completely normal before. But after the way the past 2 years have changed my life, i am downright shocked with a few things ! And i totally intend to write about these not-so-obvious things that seem to make a big difference in society. Especially in a society as populous as India !

Maybe my next post will be on the proper usage of "Please" and "Thank You"

Stay tuned !

Grenoble's Greatest....

2008-02-17T18:20:00.004+01:00

So here goes... as promised !
(in no particular order or ranking)

Friends/Acquaintances (Well, this one is surely rank #1)
People i met in Grenoble/France have all enriched this experience in several ways, big and small. I would not have made it without some of them (they know who they are) . Others taught me important lessons in life, even though they may not know it.

The mountains !

The Isere river, no matter how many times you hear the story of the 8 drowning students.

Sadistic tram drivers who refuse to open the tram door when they seeing you running towards one.

Wine and cheese !

O'Callaghan's and the saturday night crowd, even though it meant bumping into project managers from Schneider.

The Coke vending machine that never worked, below the telepherique station.

The telepherique and La Bastille !
(and the view of the Mont Blanc massif to the north-east)

The Chartreuse (the mountains and other things that go by the same name !)

"Grenoble. Ici, Grenoble"

Food !
(yes, all of it !)

Druid's and his awesome playlist...

Alliance Francaise, Monsieur Thomas, his map of France, and his 'par coeur' discourse on the origin of Kir.

The winters. Waking up to see the sun rise over the snow-covered mountains had it's own charm.

Travelling.... everywhere !

Attempting to ski...

Place Grenette and the wind that threatens to deposit you at Victor Hugo.

Saying 'bonjour' and 'merci' to the bus drivers everyday !

My neighbourhood boulangerie "Les gourmands disent".

Strangers asking you for cigarettes !

Monaco and how it tastes "like a dream"!

These are a few things that i am going to miss... I'm sure there are others, and i'll realise it only once i'm gone. Will report back.

I think this blog is going to move in a new direction now. I am inclined to start writing about my return to India, shocks i encounter, and how previously 'normal' things may not seem so normal anymore.

Stay tuned !

So Long, and thanks for all The Fish

2008-02-17T17:53:00.002+01:00

In about 10 days from now, i would have given up my apartment and will be ready to go out one last time with friends in Grenoble. 18 months have flown past in the blink of an eye, and as i said to Malene the other day : all good things must come to an end !

I remember how and when i arrived in France.
http://lifeingrenoble.blogspot.com/2006/08/so-this-is-it.html

I remember who and what i was at that time, and how my thoughts, perceptions and myself have changed over this period of time. When i first arrived here, i knew it would be a life-changing experience, and i couldn't have been more right ! It has been one hell of a roller-coaster ride, and i enjoyed every bit of the highs and took lessons out of the lows.

Life in France has been different and truly enriching. I guess when you stay out of home, especially alone, you tend to look at things with a certain benchmark in your head. For me, that benchmark has now moved. It may not be good to expect the same things again when i relocate again, but what's the harm in trying to change yourself if you cannot change things/people around you?

I will miss Grenoble dearly ! This place has been my home for the past year and half. I have been happy to come back here each time i travel, glad to hear the familiar sound of the tram when i get off the train. Some people have not understood this when i explained it, but in this town there is a certain warmth and character that i am yet to find elsewhere.

I took some friends out for a drink one evening last week, and as we raised to toast, everyone asked me to list out what i loved most about France/Grenoble. Obviously it was impossible to list out right there, since there is so much. But i promised to write about it in my blog. That list will soon be here...

The "Motherland"

2008-02-04T21:37:00.000+01:00

After 5 months of delay after delay, i finally took the TGV to Paris last week and applied for my Visa to the UK. The company payed (for everything, since it was a business trip), and what more, i got the visa on friday 25th and flew to Leeds on sunday 27th. 3-day stay, to return on wednesday 30th to Grenoble.

So away i went again, flying from Lyon to Amsterdam (i've lost count, honestly !) and then Amsterdam to Leeds. Both tiny aircraft. The first one as small as the Milan-Lyon flight i took on the way back from Greece, where one could feel every small air pocket and the descent felt like the pilot was dive bombing the airport. The second one was small too, called "KLM cityHopper"... So you can imagine !

Bumpy landing at Leeds !!!
The pilot warned us that there was a heavy wind blowing across the airstrip, and did we feel it ! It was the roughest landing i have ever experienced, the one where you really have your heart in your mouth and when it's over you realise your jaw is locked. The pilot promptly put us down with a thud, and then missed the runway exit to the terminal ! He braked hard, and when he started drifting to the right, i had a bad bad bad feeling. Thats when i realised he was actually making a U-turn on the runway, cuz he had missed the exit ! Either way, hats off to him for even landing that plane, i'm sure it wasn't easy !

Passed through immigration, where i got my first whiff of the "English".
"How long would you be staying Mr.Srinath?" with a thick accent ! I wanted to point and laugh, but i had to control myself...

Anyway, exchanged some Euros to Pounds (and noticed that there are probably 10 different varieties of 20-pound notes !!) and booked a taxi to the hotel. And even as i was doing that, there was a big commotion in the airport. Out of nowhere, a man of south-asian decent (read : indian/pakistani) was screaming "ooh maa, ooh maa" (yes, in hindi), and the cops were all over him. The general public obviously was convinced that he would blow up anytime, and were all shell-shocked !
Welcome to the "Motherland" (ref: Russell Peters)

My taxi driver greeted me with a "Are you alright?". For a moment i thought he meant did anyone get hurt with the fiasco in there... (more about this later !)
He turned to be very very talkative (in a nice way). In the 15 mins ride to the hotel, we discussed the following:
1) Where did i fly in from? What do i do in France?
2) Leeds Airport is on top of a hill, thats why the wind !
3) Indian Independance and Partition (touching upon Bangladesh too)
4) The floods in Leeds 2 weeks back
5) Kashmir
6) Why he didnt become a pilot
7) Curry and where you can find the best on in Leeds (place called Akbar's apparently)
8) How i should call his taxi company for the ride back, since all the others are "stealing".

The next 2 days was mainly work, sorry i cant speak much about that. Although i must highlight a couple of things about the general environment in the UK.

Everyone wears a tie at the Schneider plant in Leeds !!
Everday !!

The English always greet you with "Are you alright?". The first time someone asked me that, i wondered what was wrong. You know, I hadn't been hit by a truck !!! And then everyone was asking me that, and i figured that is just the way they greet each other !!!

The funniest instance was when the guy who was organising my visit actually said to me "You speak good English, where did you learn it?". I really wanted to laugh, but i did tell him that it was thanks to 400 years of his ancestors' presence in India.

I think the Security check at Leeds Airport needs a separate blog entry... more about that later !

Whats been happening....

2008-01-24T10:34:00.000+01:00

As usual, it has been a while since i wrote, and this time the only excuse is that i've been busy. I will not mention why, just that i have been busy.

Since my trip to The Netherlands, i have done the following :

1) Weekend at Sancerre with Caro, Louis and their friends (super wine tasting experience)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/swaroopsrinath/sets/72157603256679233/

2) Having a good time with friends in Grenoble

3) Work

4) Grenoble-Bangalore-Grenoble for Christmas ! Big surprise for my mom, and boy was she surprised to see me at the door at 6 am in the morning !
(also flew business class, thanks to my flying blue membership with Air France... too cool!)
http://www.sevenstarsandstripes.com/newsletter/newsletter34/AirFrance-BusinessClass.jpg

5) Weekend at Mehdi & Caro's place, a short distance from Grenoble.

6) Lightning visit to Paris for a UK Visa (which i still havent got !)

Voila !
Standby for more updates in the coming days, regarding my departure from Grenoble....

Hail, Drugs and Lots of Trains...

2007-11-16T11:06:00.000+01:00

After 5 days of exhaustion, a very boring training, recovery and another plan for the coming weekend, i've decided to write about my 4-day trip to the Netherlands last week. And what a trip it was !!

I took 2 days off from work, and left Grenoble early on the morning of 8th, and made my way to The Hague in Holland, passing through infamous Paris Gare du Nord and Brussels. I got there early in the afternoon, and hung around in the centre of town until Amogha could finish work for the day.

Amogha has a duplex apartment on the beach, paid for by the multi-national software company that he works for. Obviously this prompted me to get back to old habits, and i once again ended up abusing software engineers, the fact that they are spoilt, and how they dont deserve all the stupid perks that they get.(If any softies are reading this, you can leave your abuses in the comments column, and i will get back to you. But rest assured i will justify each of my points and leave you wordless)

Anyway, there was a storm that night, and on the morning of 9th i had the impression that i would not be able to visit the city at all... it was raining, accompanied by strong winds.The sun eventually came out by 10 A.M, i left for the city centre to do my usual "walking tour", and was warmly greeted by a hail-storm !! One which lasted all but 30 seconds, but rendered walking difficult !!

I spent the rest of the day discovering The Hague, and found that it is not a big place, and like most European cities, "all roads lead to the central square". I also found out how easy it is to get run down by a Dutch tram. They run everywhere, there is not distinction between a tram track and a pedestrian path, and they sneak up on you when you are looking elsewhere. And they cost a bomb !!

Dutch women, however... they have beautiful noses !Once you meet a dutch woman and you get a glimpse of her nose, everything else fades into oblivion...

Dont ask me why and how (i dont want to abuse Amogha's planning skills), but on Friday night we ended up watching Om Shanti Om. I dont believe i went all the way to the Netherlands to watch Shahrukh Khan act like a jackass (which is usually the case with him anyway)

On Saturday we took off to Amsterdam. Need i say more?
We went out again that night, and (i dont want to abuse Amogha's planning skills) we got back home at 3 A.M, despite the fact that i had a train to catch at 9 A.M

Sunday 11th Nov. is a day that will always be remembered !
I warn you, what follows is an account of a harrowing experience. As funny as it sounds, it was not !!

I got to the train station at 8:30 A.M, all groggy and droopy eyed, waiting to get into the train to Brussels so that i could catch some sleep. Can you imagine my consternation when i see that this train is cancelled, and my shock when the guy at the counter says i need to make 4 changes to get to Brussels???

I did it... Hague to Rotterdam by train... Rotterdam to Rosendhal by a bus... Rosendhal to Antwerpen by train... and finally Antwerpen to Brussels by another train... by then i was exhausted, hungry and had already missed by train from Brussels to Paris. To top it off, at the Thalys counter i was told that the next train to Paris leaves in 3 minutes, and i need to buy a new ticket if i want to take this train. I ended up loosing my nerve with the woman at the counter, and she then punched some numbers into the computer, promptly told me this ticket is valid since it is insured, and told me to take any seat in the train once it is moving !!

I ran !!
And got into the train even as they were announcing "Fermeture automatique des portes" !!

I spent the next hour calculating and planning my transit from Paris Nord to Paris Gare de Lyon for my next train, the one that would take me home to Grenoble. I calculated that i need exactly 25 minutes to do this one (yes, from previous experience and averages, taking into account shortest routes)

I arrived in Paris Nord at 14:10, and my train was scheduled to leave at 14:34... 24 minutes !!Could I?
I told myself i could, was the first one to get out of the train, and i made my way towards the centre of the station to get down to the metro.

Thats when it happened.

Out of nowhere, a cop jumped into my path and asked me to present an identification. And i knew i had lost my race already... Better yet, i knew why this guy was stopping me. I was coming from the Netherlands, and let me not even mention my appeareance. I had shaved last before leaving on Thursday, and a 4-day old stubble doesnt help the druggie look. I hadnt slept much over the past 3 days, and i sure looked like hell. Of course they were going to stop me.

So i waited while one guy check my papers and another frisked my bag for marijuana as he asked me the stupidest questions about my work, like he knew a lot about circuit breaker design !! I was at my wits end when he saw my onward tickets, glanced at his watch and then tells me that i am going to miss my train !! But i knew better than to lose my temper with a Parisian cop, especially in Gare du Nord. They do wicked things to brown men in that place...

I got to Gare de Lyon, in a record 25 minutes (including cop time)... only to see my train pulling out of the station...

I had to buy another ticket, the one i had was not insured. In fact this one wasn't even paid for. I got it from the miles that i had accumulated in France, and it wasn't insured or exchangable.

I was back in Grenoble at 7 P.M... I have never had a problem with trains in France (as much as they go on strike as often as they do), but apparently it is very common to cancel trains in the Netherlands !!! My return trip turned out to be a quick roadtrip... 6 changes in 1 day !!

Vallée de Valgaudemar

2007-10-23T08:15:00.000+02:00

I haven't blogged in over a month, and people are beginning to complain. That is a clear sign that it is time to write again, especially when there is something to write about.

Right. So Louis decided that he's going to take me up into the clouds (literally), by foot ! We decided to spend a weekend at 2500 metres, trekking all the way up. Saturday 6th October, 5 of us set off from Grenoble by car. Louis, Caroline, Jean-Eudes, Stephanie and myself. We drove south of Grenoble for around 2 hours, to a valley called Valgaudemar, not very far from Louis' hometown.

Changed shoes, clothes, equipped ourselves with the backpacks and started the climb towards a refuge in the mountains. We walked, crossed mountain streams, several chamois (i dont know what they are called in English, but they are like mountain goats!). 4 and a half hours later, we were are 2500 metres above sea level, and at the small wooden cabin that was the destination. We were lucky, because the weather changed drastically, got very very cold, visibility was very low and the rain came down soon after !

We shacked ourselves up in the refuge, played cards with some fellow trekkers who arrived at the same time as us and made a superb "Fondue Savoyarde" for dinner !!

The next morning the weather had cleared up, and at 7 am the sun was bursting through across the valley. That is when we saw that we were well above the clouds, and the valley below as covered in a bed of clouds !

We decided to finish what we had started the previous day, and we climbed up to the summit, at 3000 metres !!That is the highest i have been on foot, and i live to tell the tale ! I dont remember what the pressure reading on Louis' barometer watch was, but the air was quite rarified when we were at the summit, looking at the glacier on the north face of the mountain....

Our descent was quicker than the climb, but harder on the legs. After two and a half hours of buckling knees and tensing calf muscles, i got to the starting point with little energy in me. My legs were trembling, i was out of water, and starting to feel hungry. The huge pie that we bought at the nearby village did me a world of good !

All in all, a great great weekend, although very very tiring. It took me 3 days to walk normally again, but i'd do it again if i had the chance. (no Louis, not saying this just to please you. Write a comment if you want to add something that i forgot !)

All photographs with titles, at the following link :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/swaroopsrinath/sets/72157602331045323/detail/

A Little Adventure

2007-09-18T10:11:00.000+02:00

Just something i did the past weekend... The pictures speak louder than anything i can write !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swaroopsrinath/sets/72157602044691505

PS :
long pending : a write-up on 1 week in Sweden
been a bit lazy to write, and also a bit busy...

Was it always this way?

2007-08-02T09:46:00.000+02:00

I'm in Bangalore. Hometown.... which currently seems like a foreign land to me. Yeah i know, i know. Some of you must be saying that i'm just exaggerating the effect of staying out in India for a year, but if you continue reading this post, it only gets worse. So if you don't want to read the raving and ranting of a visitor to Bangalore, please... the "close window" button is at the top right corner of your screen !

Leaving Grenoble, evoked mixed sentiments. I knew i'm going away only for 3 weeks, but i knew i'd miss the place. I was over-excited that i'm leaving my adopted home, only to return to the place i've called "home" since i was born. But there were butterflies in my stomach as the train pulled out of Grenoble station.
Landing in Bangalore evoked even more mixed sentiments in me. I knew i was home, but i was missing Grenoble already. I knew i'd be meeting friends and family whom i haven't seen in a year, doing things and visiting places, viewing changes that have taken place in this rapidly growing city.

I reached Bangalore in the dead of the night, and it was only the next morning that the full effect of the change hit me like a thunderbolt !
It's difficult to put a finger on it, but this place is different. This doesn't even seem like the place i left behind. Maybe this place has changed, or maybe i have.

I woke up the first morning to the sound of blaring music being played by my neighbour.
I found myself reaching around for the toilet paper roll in the loo, only to realise that it isnt there, and my actions were by reflex.
I took a car ride, and was stunned by the sheer number of vehicles on the road, trying to make impossible manouvres at unmanned and uncontrolled junctions, mixed with the sound of horns blaring for no particular reason, to no particular effect. Cars, bikes, autos, all veering dangerously close to each other, several of the drivers utterly the most flowery language at each other.
Not many people on Bangalore's roads seem to have an inkling of patience. Each day that i have gone out, i have come close to being run down since i am stupid enough to believe that pedestrians have the priority !
I went into a cafe, popular with the young crowd in Bangalore, and i wonder why they play that blaring music that makes you shout at the top of your voice.
People speak loudly, and autos always ask for extra money !

I had a bad stomach the first couple of days... i guess all the French food has weakened my stomach lining, making it sensitive to "real" Indian food.

Too much to write, many tiny details that bother me out here...
People in France... i have a lot to tell you when i return to Grenoble !
(No, still no elephants on Bangalore streets !)

Counting the Days...

2007-07-18T14:46:00.000+02:00

So finally, the day is almost here. After a very forgettable 3 weeks of trying to resolve incomprehensible visa and residence permit issues in France, i'm finally going home on the 27th of July !!

Too many mixed feelings as of now. I know i'm going to miss Grenoble the moment i take my flight. I guess it's not so much the place, but the people in France that i will really miss. But i know i'll be back in 3 weeks, so i guess it shouldn't be so bad... i hope ! Besides, i am looking forward to going back, considering i haven't been to Bangalore in a year (already!!).

I'm wondering how i will react to things when i get to India.
I get there at midnight, so i won't see too much traffic i guess.
How would the next day be?

I want to meet so many people. People i should have met before leaving, but couldn't (or didn't bother to). People i missed in the past 1 year, every time i was reminded of them by something around me. Parents, Shwetha (haven't seen you in almost 2 years!), Amit, Ram (too bad you aren't around)... and so many others...
People i didnt think i'd miss, but i missed nevertheless.

I wonder if the food would be too spicy !
I wonder how i'll react when my mom makes "beley saaru"... the same curry i cursed a million times, saying "again??"... i think i'd gulp it down all too willingly, but please, no tomatoes !

Airlines Hotel. Just one really oily plain dosa will do. Likewise, some Kesaribaath please !
A Corner House Super-Scooper Ice Cream !

How has Bangalore changed?
Any more shopping malls?
Any more changes in names of roads?
Any more Victorian buildings torn down?
Any more politicians staging a dharna in front of Cubbon Park?

I haven't driven in a year !
I miss my motorbike !

At the end of this entry, i'm sure i've missed out something... or lots of things !I'll keep updating before i leave... 9 days to go !

Been there, done that - Part 2 !

2007-07-15T12:05:00.001+02:00

some pictures from the Formula 1 weekend !!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swaroopsrinath/sets/72157600831469498/

Been there, done that !

2007-07-04T20:27:00.000+02:00

I realised a long standing dream, last weekend... I was at the 2007 Formula-1 French Grand Prix !!

I started watching Formula-1 in 1998, when Mika Hakkinen was standing at the top of the podium every other Sunday afternoon. Of course, McLaren runs in my blood, and i cant stand the Tifosi. Nor can i stand Michael Schumacher (just laying to rest any doubts). Yes, it broke my heart to see Kimi Raikkonen leave the silver team, and put on the scarlet red :-(

Anyway, getting back to the race this weekend. I had planned it well in advance, and had booked the Grandstand ticket in February, and a hotel room, and train tickets... all organised. Off i went on friday 29th, early in the morning. I arrived at Nevers at 11am, and went straight to the circuit. Even as i entered the stands to take my seat, i heard the revving of those magnificent machines in the pit garages, and i knew how my weekend is going to turn out !

Friday :
2nd practice session for F1
Practice session, GP2
Practice session, Porsche Super Cup

Saturday :
3rd practice session for F1
Qualifying, GP2
Qualifying, F1
And a nice little cameo appearance by Schumi and Zidane, for a charity event.

Now, i paid through my nose (and every other conceivable orifice) to buy the best seat in the house, across the pit straight, and the start finish line... So for 3 days, i got to watch all the stars walk in and out of the paddock club, all the team bosses like Ron Dennis, Jean Todt and Flavio Briatore... totally worth it !

Sunday was the real big day... awesome race, except the result was not what i would have ideally liked to see. But hey, i guess the entire weekend was an experience, and it would be an understatement to say "a great one"... it was completely awesome !

Will put up pictures soon, and add the link to this page... keep coming back !

Note :
I have to mention this... because i found it wierd. Before the race, the French National Anthem was played. For some reason, i seemed to respect it more than the Frenchmen around me. I stood up, and i kept quiet while it played. (come on, it is my adopted home for the time being). The French didnt seem to care !! Also, when it ended, they clapped !! It was all a bit new to me, because as far as i know, we dont clap for the Anthem in India... isn't that considered disrespectful?? Well... i'm not saying it's wrong... it's different, which is the only reason i noticed!

Calanques Pics

2007-06-13T06:57:00.000+02:00

Sorry for the delay... my blog has been acting wierd lately !!

Venelles and Calanques

2007-06-04T16:56:00.000+02:00

(side : i hope i got those spellings right)

So it's been a while since i've written, and it's about time i wrote, considering what i'm about to write occurred almost 4 weeks back !

Exhausted as i was after my Greece trip, Louis and Caro tricked me (to put it mildly), into going down to the south of France for the weekend, 11-13th May, to Caro's parents' place. A place called Venelles, not very far from Aix-en-Provence, a bit further away from Marseille. We drove down on Friday evening, a nice picturesque drive of 2.5 hrs... And a hefty fine of 90 euros for speeding at 130 kmph. (No, not me... Louis!)

Saturday saw me getting tricked over and over again. The day started with the proposition of a nice hike in the hills, around the bay area where you could see Marseille on one side and the Mediterranean on the other... the nice hike turned out to be a gruelling 6 hour trek, during which i was further tricked into descending down a steep "cliff", with the prospect of a nice beach below. Well... it was worth it !

The day ended with tired legs, a bent back and lots of sweat !

Sunday was more peaceful, except for the wind on the beach. Caro did some windsurfing, and i was more than glad to be a spectator to something new, especially since it meant i didnt move my already battered body.

All in all a good weekend. We drove back to Grenoble on sunday evening, watching the speed limit all the time !

Oh, the days are getting longer and longer in Europe. That's something i haven't mentioned yet in my blog so far. It gets dark only by 9:30 pm. When you want to go out and have fun, it's nice... when you want to sleep, it sucks !

Disclaimer : apologies to Louis. please dont beat me up. i enjoyed every moment of that trek, and i'd do it again if i had to !

Whoa !

2007-05-29T11:29:00.000+02:00

It's been 15 days... and i've forgotten what i've done in this time !

Allow me to recall, and i'll be back soon...

Greece !!

2007-05-15T17:04:00.000+02:00

Well well well.... this entry has taken a long time to be posted. I came back from Greece on 6th, and today is the 15th. My apologies. I just haven't been free from work and fun. I ran away out of town again last weekend, much to the astonishment of my dear mother who has been shouting her lungs out that i need to get some rest.

So, Murali and I took a flight from Lyon to Athens, via Milan, on 30th April. The flight from Lyon to Milan was the smallest damn plane i've been in (not that i've been in many). This one was a 2 engine turbo prop, i dunno how it got into the air. The flight lasted only 50 minutes, but it was the best view ever as we flew over the French and Italian Alps, still covered with snow ! At Milan, i had the worst pizza ever possible, in a restaurant worst than a railway canteen in Jhumritalaiya... to top it off, i was expected to eat a crust harder than steel, with a plastic fork and knife !

We landed in Athens that evening, and crashed after a nice Greek meal. Fried Shrimps !

May 1st turned out to be a big holiday in Athens, and Greece is a 'slightly' communist country. We found ourselves in the midst of red-flag marches, disfunctional metro trains and closed museums and monuments. We strolled around Athens on foot, making the most of what we could. We settled in the Plaka for lunch, which included a Greek salad, Moussaka and a filling Baklava... burp !

The highlight of the trip, however, was the next morning, when we took a ferry over the Aegean Sea to Santorini, one of Greece's beautiful islands. This one is a sunken volcano, and is simply breathtaking ! We got there that afternoon, and immediately headed out to a village called Oia, to witness a brilliant sunset...

More Greek food... squid, saganaki cheese !
A word about Saganaki cheese... if you haven't tasted it, do so !!
Your life cannot possibly be complete without it !

Next morning, another trip by boat, this time to the Volcano spewing sulphur fumes, and to the hot springs... nice to take a dip here, except you come out covered in mud laden with sulphur.

We spent another day at Santorini, chilling out, beaches, food and drink...

We got back to Athens quite late on 4th night, and 5th was reserved for visiting Athens. We even went to the 2004 Olympic Games Village. Awesome place !
Got back to Grenoble on 6th evening, tired but happy. Unfortunately, we had to work on 7th :-(

A few notes about Greece.

Food : Wow !
Everything includes olive oil.

Greeks in general : Quite curious to know who you are and where you are from. Most people want to know what you do, and where you are coming from. In 1 week, i think i explained on 10 different occasions that i'm Indian, but live in France ! In some places, people did not expect "brown skin boy" to speak English !!

Greek women : Well well well.... some of them have that divine Aphrodite look... but on a general note : greek women have big noses !

Greek Language : holy crap !
I was under the impression that alpha, beta and theta and gamma and kappa and ohm were all only for physics equations. You go to Greece, you find out thats a real language ! You read any line of Greek, it's the world's biggest physics equation.

Athens : Bangalore !
You go near the port area, its like walking in Majestic. Only difference, the bus ticket counters are replaced by ferry ticket counters.
Greeks (atleast in Athens) drive like Indians. Traffic light... what's that?
I think i'm too used to living in Grenoble now. On my first day in Athens, i almost got run down by a car that wouldn't stop for a pedestrian !

Tourists : Some of them need to shut the hell up ! Why do you feel so obliged to talk all the time?
(some of them = Bush's comrades)

photos : http://www.flickr.com/photos/swaroopsrinath/sets/72157600187741149/

Back !

2007-04-21T09:46:00.000+02:00

I notice that i'm writing less and less nowadays. I havent written in 3 weeks ! I wonder if i have any avid fans who miss my pointless ranting...

The days have been quite busy, and work is keeping me occupied. The days have also become long, the sun sets at 8:00pm and there is broad daylight upto 8:30pm ! Some colleagues have started to complain of the heat (mind you, it is still only 23 or 24 degs). I have thrown them an open invitation to Chennai, in the month of May...

Next week i take a one week vacation in sunny Greece. I'm looking forward to that !

This pisses me off....

2007-03-30T09:09:00.000+02:00

We are more concerned about reservations and the likes, and on the other hand we are depriving the next generation of something essential in 21st century India. This is the generation we all talk about, this is the generation we say will take India to the top. Then why are we being all morally upright (read : uptight) and saying "no" to good health ??

Do we still wear blindfolds and believe that high school kids in India do not explore their sexuality?

And even greater uncertainties...

2007-03-28T20:46:00.000+02:00

Looks like "post-SL" is becoming some kind of terminology. Like post-trauma, or post-surgery, or post-coital (ok, that was unnecessary)

I'm getting badly humiliated by my French colleagues, for India's sad and pathetic exit from the Cup. My quick response to the French is that they do not even play the game. However, i am also getting taunted by the sole Englishman in the plant. Now this guy doesnt even like the English team, and he says "Even we are still in!". Now, that is where i draw the line !

Not to mention the endless string of jokes in the email, about the "post-SL" syndrome mentioned above... The humiliation is complete !

A Game of Great Uncertainty...

2007-03-18T09:06:00.000+01:00

And unfortunately, this time the uncertainty has come all the way around to bite Team India in the backside. Well, im sure you all know what i'm talking about... Cricket !

How on earth can we lose to Bangladesh???

I'm disgusted. Thoroughly. I even paid $55 for an online webcast to watch the matches, because no one has heard of cricket in France. Twice, people have asked me why i am interested in a sport played with horses ! (What the .... ??)

I even hooked a couple of my colleagues onto the sport, by showing them tons of videos on youtube. They went to the extent of finding out that France does not have a team, but we could form one with me as coach. Trust me, if we did, we would be playing better than team India against Bangladesh yesterday !

I'm going to watch the tournament, not for the lndian team, but for the love of the sport. Maybe we'll have more gritsy 6 sixes in an over from the likes of Gibbs, and more stupid remarks by a very shit headed Ponting (who, i think, should learn to shut his stupid mouth)... he's like the Schumacher of cricket !

Talking of Formula-1... the season is off the blocks, and what a start it was! Bot McLarens on the podium, and it's great to see Kimi win as well (why oh why did u go to Ferrari). This season is going to be a great one... and i'm going to be a part of it on 1st July, at Magny-Cours !!

The 'Far' West

2007-03-12T17:48:00.000+01:00

I've taken another rather long break from blogging. The last week was quite hectic at work, AND i went out almost every evening with friends... so... well...

Anyway, i took Friday off from work and travelled to Angouleme for the weekend. Stayed at Shashwat's place for 2 days. We spent the whole of Saturday at Bordeaux, and the weather was perfect for doing just that. We also ate some Sushi, and won a FM tuner in a random fairground, thanks to my amazing shooting skills (thank u, thank u !)

Only disadvantage of the trip - 2 hours wait in that hellhole called Paris. If anyone (read Shashwat) abuses me for abusing Paris, well, go to hell !

I dont have the energy to type anymore... will provide anyone with more details if you leave a comment.

And NO, for the Nth time... i did not drink wine in Bordeaux, because we get the same wine all over France !

trip pics : http://www.flickr.com/photos/swaroopsrinath/sets/72157594584454928/

I cant think of a title for this one....

2007-03-01T13:47:00.000+01:00

It's funny that i should be repeating myself on my blog, writing about the same subject in a short span of time. But as Joseph Heller once said, oh well, what the hell?

This time its the Jehovah's Witnesses. Now you can imagine my utter consternation when one such fanatic ends up putting a leaflet in my letterbox, inviting me to a "Talk on the Kingdom of God", at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Grenoble. To add to it, he wrote down his phone number and email id on the back, and expects me to call him ! I have a good mind to call him. To ask him how he got into my building !

Well, on the more serious note. I'm beginning to wonder more and more about where we (yes, we, all humans) are really headed. First i encounter some Mormons in a tram and then some complete fanatic cult member lands up at my place saying i'm going to burn in hell if i dont join his little club. Elsewhere in the world, more and more people are getting more and more intolerant towards each other, and calling each other "infidels".

I wonder when all this is going to end. But i guess the real question is, how is it all going to end ?

Finally...

2007-02-28T19:25:00.000+01:00

I finally found out that a colleague Geoffrey is a big Formula-1 follower, and i finally have someone to discuss the 2007 season with !

What more, to add to it, he supports Ferrari. So i wont be missing out on any of the weekend fights between friends as to which team is better than the other !

Meanwhile, my (well, i didnt pay, but its mine nevertheless) March edition of Playboy arrived. This month i'm reading a complete review on the new Apple iPhone, as well as the truth about how NASA lost the original moon landing tapes.... *blink blink*

Losing My Religion

2007-02-23T06:47:00.000+01:00

Disclaimer : The following entry is of highly sensitive nature. The opinions expressed are purely mine, and i urge you to exercise discretion in reading and interpretation.

Last evening, i left work and headed home. I was waiting at the tram stop, to take my short 2-stop tram ride. Beside me were 2 very well dressed Caucasian males. A business suit, tie, and a name-badge that i couldn't quite read. I assumed they were business students... Until one of them (lets call him BWAWA, with no further need to expand the acronym) made conversation with me.

BWAWA : Bonsoir, vous allez bien? (thick american accent)
S : Oui, mais si vous voulez, vous pouvez parler en anglais !

BWAWA : You speak English?
S: Yes

BWAWA : Well?
S : (probably better than you, idiot)
Yeah, quite well.

BWAWA : I'm a missionary, from America
S: (yeah, i figured from your nasal accent)
I see, how long have you been here?

BWAWA : 7 months, and you?
S: 6 months now.

BWAWA : So what religion do you follow?
S : (aha, come on, now i'll kick your ass.... come on Swaroop, tell him you're primarily a human)
I dont practice.

BWAWA : I know it's difficult to believe in God, given all the things that are happening in the world today.
S: Are you a Mormon?

BWAWA: (stunned) Yes ! How did you know?
S: I know about Religions, and i know about Mormons, and your book, and Joseph Smith.

BWAWA: (totally stunned, jaw dropped) We're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ, part of the Mormon faith. So do you think God exists?
S: Tough to say.
(what are you talking. your founder supposedly saw God in a dream and wrote a book the next morning!)

BWAWA : So why dont you practice any religion?
S : Because, its a free world, and thats my choice. I like to believe in things i can see and feel, and trust my own abilities.

BWAWA : But you must have the desire to have faith.
S : (you idiot, do u know how stupid you sound right now?)
Well, i have the desire to do a lot of things.

BWAWA : It is a matter of priorities.
S : Seems like my priorities are quite different from yours.

BWAWA : I'd ask you to have some faith, and to believe, and to pray.
S : Well, i just said the existence of God is tough to prove, whom do i pray to?

BWAWA : (cornered, no answer)
S : This is my stop, and i must be going.

Well well well.... I remember "the brethren" knocking on my door once in Bangalore, and reading some verse from the Bible about the second coming. I think i was quite rude and direct when i told them that i am not interested in converting, given that i dont follow a particular religion to really convert from ! These guys had a puzzled look on they're faces, before i told them about my religious roots (which i am very very proud of, and very happy about). They left in a hurry...

Give me a break. Religion, faith and belief is a very very private and personal thing. Let me keep my faith, let me believe what i want, and i will let you keep your faith. That is the concept of co-existence. Unfortunately, some people don't understand that.

Sunrise

2007-02-19T16:57:00.000+01:00

The weather has been a bit strange over the past 10 days. It has rained, and then on the odd day, the temperature has gone up to a nice 16 degrees. The sun has come out, and then it got hazy again.

I woke up saturday morning, my room flooded with an orange glow. I ran to get my camera, stumbling out of bed, all sleepy eyed... and this is what i caught on film (well, not really... on memory card)

I've got mail - 2

2007-02-17T09:34:00.000+01:00

Sometime this week, i had a notice from La Poste (the postal department) to come and collect a parcel in the post office, since they could not open my mailbox to put it inside. (I didnt even know they were supposed to be able to do that !!)

Anyway, i went this morning, and got a small white package.

Inside was a letter from "Playboy", thanking for the one-year subscription which i never bought. Also enclosed were some "free" gifts.

A cap : black, with a bit white playboy bunny image on it. Personally, i wouldnt be caught dead in it.

A watch : Nice digital display, with stop watch and alarm and all. But it's bright torqoise in colour. Again, wouldnt be caught dead wearing it !!

Well, apparently i'm in line to recieve 11 more issues of the magazine !!

Whats up?

2007-02-12T20:38:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since i wrote... and usually when that happens, it means i've been doing too many things and didnt have the time to write.

So quickly, here is what i've been doing during the past 10 days :

1) Fell ill

2) Went on a team outing from work, to a ski resort, 2 days. Enjoyed myself thoroughly with the team !

3) Passed on my illness to other people. (Sorry, if i name them, they will surely kill me. Bad enough i passed on my flu to them)

4) Ate a fondue. Damn, there was so much cheese in it, i couldnt eat the next 2 meals !

5) Went to the supermarket (What's new?)

6) Stayed home on sunday and turned up the heat to a nice 26 deg C. Felt like India again !

7) Read news about the Indian Cricket team. I hope they win the cup this time !

8) Watched Terminator-3 in French. It is damn funny to hear Arnie go "Elle reviendra" to actually say "She'll be back"...

I got mail !

2007-02-01T14:59:00.000+01:00

I got home yesterday, and opened my letterbox expecting my payslip from work (yday being the 31st) and a package with 2 Tintin comics from Amazon. They were there, as expected... but what i did not expect was a white plastic cover, with "Playboy" printed across it ! It had my name on it, printed along with my address, no typos or spelling mistakes. No room for a mix up.

Now, i cant imagine who may have decided to send me the February 2007 edition of "Playboy" magazine. I've never read one, only seen them in the newstands on MG Road (you know, that one next to Deepam Silks) when we were in 7th/8th grade, giggling schoolkids. I took it up to my apartment, and was quite curious to see what was in it. Well, i was not disappointed ;-)

Apart from some very tastefully nude women, the magazine also had articles about bikes and football. That pretty much makes it a complete "guys" magazine, except for the lack of articles on food ! To add to it was a free DVD, which turned out to be the video footage of "Playmate Photoshoot" for February !!

Hmmm... only one drawback. The magazine is in French, and it takes me some time and patience to read this language. But may, however, be a good excuse to increase my vocabulary...

Ski Pics

2007-01-31T08:29:00.000+01:00

Finally, some pictures of the skiing escapade !

Off the Blocks

Fallen for the n-th time

See that black dot, thats me !

Faster, Faster !!

Happy Republic Day

2007-01-26T08:07:00.000+01:00

This is another one of those entries that are of sombre mood, and rather pensive, and abusive !

Happy Republic Day everyone !
I suppose this is the one day (or 2nd, after August 15th) where every (well, almost) Indian suddenly gets all patriotic and emotional and waves a flag... I think Upendra was right in "Raktha Kanneeru" (Now if you didnt get this oblique reference, email me and i'll send you the sound clip)

On the one hand, we have Putin as chief guest at the parade at Rajpath, and we showcase our cultural and military might to a world that believes India is Shining/Arrived/Poised. On yeah, "poised"... Some strange new campaign after a big fuss about India Shining. This one has the Big B in it.
On the other hand, we have role models, some as big as the Big B and his newly extended family of stoneface former Miss World Aishwarya Rai, who actually do completely stupid things and send a garbled message out to millions of Indians. Maybe we're still in some middle age dark time, because Miss Rai actually married a banana tree to ward off some evil fhodhfosfjsdfkfd... Oh sorry, did you lose me there? Thats only because this story completely lost me... Read more here.

I know she cant act, but atleast she is educated, well-travelled, and aware of the world around her. For heaven's sake, she's a Miss World ! I never heard of a Miss World from Latin America marry a kilogram of cocaine, or a Miss France marry a block of blue cheese ! It's complete idiots like these that become role models, and set examples to our billions...

Now, this is a funny take !

Oh, by the way, you can check out India Poised here.

My experiments with skiing....

2007-01-21T20:56:00.000+01:00

Before i go into the details about my totally crazy skiing adventure, you should know a little about the relation that the French have with skiing. You see, skiing is to the French, what cricket is to Indians. It is a religion, something pursued with great passion. The French swear by skiing, and Indians will stay home from work to watch a great game of cricket !

So, off i went to a ski resort called l'Alpe d'Huez, about 60 km from Grenoble, up in the mountains, a drive of an hour and a half. Jean-Eudes promised to give me a decent lesson, so when we got there we just had to buy the ski pass and rent the skis.

My first shock was the ski lift itself, which took us straight up from the base of the station up the slope for 2 kms or so! What? It's my first time, for god sake !! Fully equipped, skis on, when you get to the top, you have to jump off the seat and slide down a small slope to be ready to do bigger things. I got my first negative vibe when i went face flat into the snow, right after i got off the ski lift !

Believe me, snow is nice to see. It is cold !! When you fall and have it inside every possible piece of clothing that you are wearing, it is not a nice feeling....

I should also speak a bit about ski shoes/boots. Ever heard someone say "my feet turned to lead"? Well, i know where they came up with that. Ski boots make you sympathise with Darth Vader. They are so heavy that you cannot move your feet to get up, once you fall. You cannot bend you ankle joint either, and that does not simplify things !

So i got my few basic lessons, and was ready to start "skiing". Or what i called skiing atleast. Because it included falling every 10 metres, and sliding the next 2 or 3 after falling. Each time i fell, by backside felt a bit more sore, my neck got a bit more stiff, and i regretted my decision to come here a little more.

Well, after about an hour or so, i finally got the hang of it, and could go about 30 metres at a stretch (yeah right, big deal!). The problem now was that i didnt know how to stop or turn, and my only method : engineer a fall ! So i started to fall more and more, and ended up in all kinds of sprawled positions, with skis and sticks in 3 different directions, and me looking up at the sky, or face down in the snow.

I figured a bit about turning while on the move, but the sheer problem with this move is that you face the slope directly. I could even do that... but the problem is that once you face the slope, you go straight down, picking up speed very very quickly ! I was shit scared of the high speed, simply because i was not good at controlling it. I would stand tall, and that would result in yet another fall !

After about 30 falls, i was about 100m from the base of the station. That is like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. That is like taking warmth from the distant lamp. Thats when i hit a patch of ice, slipped, and kept sliding for another 10 mts, before injuring my left wrist on another chunk of ice. I lay still for a few seconds, thinking my hand was broken. I took off my glove, to see my wrist all red and sore, hurting like mad. Then to add insult to injury, a 5 year old kid does a screeching stop next to me and asks me "ca va?". Kids !

Anyway, i walked back down the slope (actually stumbled, thanks to the boots), since my hand was telling my brain to not do anymore skiing that day...

There i waited, and did some serious thinking... I guess there is a difference between learning a sport when you are young and once you grow a bit older. Especially a sport where you risk a limb or two. Kids are not afraid of anything. I mean, anything ! I saw kids yesterday go down the slopes yesterday like it was childsplay (well, how ironic). I think as adults, we start to set limits for ourselves, mentally. I learnt how to play cricket as a kid, and i was never afraid of the red cherry. I know now what it can do if you get struck by it, but nobody told me when i was a kid. I found out years later, but by then i was already conditioned to not be afraid !

I have to reconsider skiing a second time. I want to go back, i dont like to give up on something so easily. Besides, it was fun, except for the falls. But none of us likes broken limbs, and i surely cannot afford one right now !

Anyday, put me on a 22 yard stretch, and i'll face up to a Kookaburra !

(I'll put up pictures soon, once Jean-Eudes send them to me)

The Mahatma, 2007 !

2007-01-19T17:07:00.000+01:00

As hilarious as everything i say next is going to sound, it is not the surface that i want to touch. It is the deeper rot...

So about a week or 10 days ago, the Indian Government "banned" a video in the country. (Read, not allowed to watch). We will come later to the question of the ban really being effective, because i firmly beleive that nothing (NOTHING) stops information from flowing. Anyway, the video in question depicted a standup/clown/yoga teacher of Indian origin, Gautham Prasad, doing a 4 minute bit on Gandhi. The newspapers claimed that the video depicted Gandhi "doing things one can never imagine the Mahatma do". I dont know how many in India have really seen the clip, that depends on how effective the ban is. But i have seen it, and i will take the liberty to describe the video as well as the alleged perpetrator of the "crime".

So i watched the video here.
For those who cannot see it, well, Gandhi (played by Gautham Prasad) jumps around to a rather stupid song and is supposed to be doing a strip tease. Accordingly, he takes of his dhoti and is presently dressed in just a "langoti", and is rubbing himself up against a pole. For some strange reason, his nipples are pierced and he has gold chains hanging from them ! The pole then dislodges itself from its place and Gandhi is feeling quite embarassed. At this point of time he pulls up a lad from the audience and makes him do a pole dance. The audience by the way doesnt seem to be greatly amused, except for a couple of giggly girls who probably had a couple of drinks before watching the show.

Now, the clip apparently offended a lot of people and people sent a lot of hate mail to this guy. Personally, i was not offended at all. We have the capacity to see Bollywood actresses do all kinds of things with all kinds of equipment, as well as some item girls in skimpy clad clothes. But the moment we see Gandhi in a langoti, we're all offended, even if the langoti was made from swadeshi cotton !

On the other hand, i would still like to send hate mail to Prasad, because the clip was not even remotely funny. Come on buddy, when you mock someone, do a good job of it. If people like me are not offended, good for you. But atleast amuse us in the process !

I looked up this guy on the internet, and he's a struggling comedian. He means no harm, apparently, and frankly i wouldn't take him seriously for a minute. You can visit his website here. See the sample clip of his comedy, and you will realise that he fails to even make you smile. Such guys bring a bad name to humour and comedy, not to Gandhi.

Our stupid government needs to grow up. People make jokes on Gandhi (and many others) all the time. For goodness sake, i'm not an admirer of the man, or his principles. If that is what you call them. I'm not sure how relevent his principles are in the 21st century. But i'm often reminded of their irrelevance by examples all over the world. Look around us, the truth is often bitter, but that doesnt make it any less true !

Into that heaven...

2007-01-19T16:53:00.000+01:00

Heaven of Freedom
by Rabindranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee to ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.

I learnt to sing this poem/song when i was in the 4th standard. It was only 5 or 6 years later that i realised what it meant, it's context and deeper meaning, given the period of time during which it was written.

Now, sometimes, this poem jumps forth from the depths of my conscious mind, as i read the news from India. I was thinking again a few days back about how i'm now and "NRI", and what it means. I'm looking at my country from the outside, and it gives me a genuine opportunity to put things in perspective. Notice i dont use the word "compare", because that is not what i intend to do. Sometimes i read, hear and discuss things that are happening in India, and i wonder if this is the way things should be, or if this is the way things were envisioned 60 years ago?

For the answer, read the poem again.

I'm going to write about a few serious things, in the future. Things i say may not go down too well with everyone who reads. But there are so many things in this world that don't belong, but they exist nevertheless.

First up... Gautam Prasad and his impersonation of Baapu.

Blitzkreig !

2007-01-16T18:07:00.000+01:00

2007 has hit me like a thunderbolt, and the efficiency levels at work have moved up several notches. I have had the time to blog a bit, but have been just too exhausted to do anything after i get back home in the evenings...

What have i done in the 2 weeks since i got back from the vacation? I went to work, i worked, i came back home, cooked (yeah right !), ate and slept. Then the cycle repeated... oh no ! I also started going for a small run in the evenings, since several fingers were pointed at my increasing weight, in the recent weeks.

Meanwhile the French (and other European neighbours) are sulking that there is not enough snow and skiing is not as fun as it used to be... i plan to go for my first ski lessons with some friends this weekend. Let's hope it is as fun as people claim !!

What the ......

2007-01-05T14:08:00.000+01:00

For some strange reason that I am yet to figure out, the so-called "good" sports brands sell absolutely pathetic shoes in France. Ive been searching for a decent pair of sneakers for more than a month now, and have been all over Grenoble looking for a nice pair of Adidas shoes.

First, I discovered that Grenoble does not have an Adidas showroom in Grenoble !!! Now, for the ones who don't know me, i swear by Adidas. It's been MY brand for 6 years now. And for a brand that claims that "Impossible is Nothing", it was impossible to find a decent pair in Grenoble !

I went about looking for shoes all over the sports shops in Grenoble. I found Adidas, and Reebok and Nike as well. But for some reason, these shoes looked worse than the rejected stuff that is sold in Safina Plaza in Bangalore. I didnt find a single Adidas that has the 3 band logo. Apparently the ones you get here still have the good old Trefoil logo !!! To add to that, the ones that looked neat were all white !! Where the hell do you get good sneakers in France? It's bad enough that every kind of sports shoe in France is randomly called "Basket".... what?!?!?

Then, to make things worse, the 12 day vacation took a toll of my favourite pair of sneakers. It's still wearable, but a tiny hole has rendered it useless with white socks...

I bought a pair of shoes this week. Rather, i was forced to... i settled for Puma. It was like choosing the best of the worst. How i have degenerated !!!

Atleast i know what i REALLY need to buy when i make my trip back to India this time !

The Big Trip

2007-01-03T09:34:00.000+01:00

It's been a long and tiring, but totally enjoyable 11 days !! There were a couple of very very minor hiccups, and the best part was that most surprises were pleasant ones !!

Here is a chronological account of what I did in Europe during the Christmas vacation, interspersed with my comments and criticism.
(Disclaimer : Shashwat is too lazy to write in his blog, so he claims that he will simply put up the URL to my blog, in his blog. All views expressed here are personal, and have no relation to the those held by Shashwat.)

Venice - 22/23/24 Dec 2006

Shashwat arrived in Grenoble a day early, and we made out last minute arrangements. Copies of passports, visas, permits, bank documents etc etc... in case we take the wrong train and land up in the eastern part of Eastern Europe, or beyond. (ok, just kidding). We took the train from Grenoble to Chambery, and then the TGV from Chambery to Milan. Now i must tell you what Italy can do the best train in the world. Italy slows it down. I have no idea why, but once the train crossed the border into Italy, it crawled. It stopped at every goddamn village and hamlet, the names of which i bet half the people in the train could not pronounce ! Also, the lack of speed forces you to notice the Italian countryside (or rather the lack of it). "Italian Countryside" is an oxymoron. It does not exist. Throughout the train ride, spanning the width of Italy, all we saw were bulldozers, heavy industry, big cramped up apartment buildings and garbage cans.

We got to Milan half an hour late, and promptly missed our connecting train to Venice. Great! The next train was an hour later, and when it arrived we were not thrilled. Less space than Indian trains, and more crowded than them! Hardly any luggage space, and Shashwat and I had a lengthy discussion about our new found pride in Laloo and his establishment.

We got to Venice by 6pm that evening, but the sun had set long ago. We walked along the canal(s) to the hotel we had booked, and had a nice Italian pizza for dinner.

The next day was to discover Venice. Before i left, people warned me that i will get lost in the streets of Venice, and that i should keep my eye open to ensure I don’t end up in a canal, given my inability to swim. I did keep my eyes open, and it helped. We did not lose our way, for most part, and we explored most of Venice on foot. We even took a "taxi boat" ride, just for the heck of it. Venice has no metros or tramways. The only form of transport is the boats, that are organised like buses and actually make stops every 100 metres along the Grand Canal. We also strolled into a cafe at Place San Marco, and was it a wrong choice ! A cappuccino for 6.3€ !!!

I must also tell you something about Italians. I follow a Canadian-born Indian comedian Russell Peters (you can find his videos on Google Videos). He's a guy who makes fun of races. Chinese, Whites, Blacks, and of course (mostly), Indians. Now, in one video i saw, this guy said that Italians will approach you and speak to you like you are a native speaker of the language. I cannot agree more !! In just 2 days in Venice, i have lost count of the number of times people walked up to us, only to hear us say "No Italiano". It's totally bizarre....

Anyway, we explored a bit more on the morning of 24th, and that afternoon we took another train out of Venice, towards Munich. This train was empty, some kind of ghost train.... we were the only 2 people in our compartment, and i don’t think i heard anyone else in our bogie !!

Somewhere in Austria - just 2 minutes (24 Dec 2006)

So the train crossed the Italian-Austrian border at a place called Brixen, and we decided that we can claim to have been to Austria as well. So we jumped off the train at the station, got into the next bogie, and came back to our seats, feeling victorious. I've been to Austria as well... (read : stepped foot on Austrian soil, breathed Austrian air)

Munich - 24/25/26 Dec 2006

Our train then crossed the Austrian-German border at Innsbruck, and this is where we got our first taste of German efficiency. The station was totally deserted, with piles of snow outside. (Ardent gamers would know of a game called "Medal of Honor", which has a mission where you infiltrate a German train station and sabotage a stockpile of explosives. Lots of sniper action. This station reminded me of that.) Then suddenly out of nowhere, the so-far-dead public address system crackled to life and the captain announced that a German crew had just taken control of this train, and within seconds a stewardess was giving us the complete details of the scheduled arrival and departure of the train at forthcoming stations. Along with the names of the stations, were the different connecting trains you could take from the respective stations. To top it off, the train arrived and departed from each station at the EXACT time written on the booklet. It was unbelievable to see how they could be organised like that !!

We were already dazed when we arrived in Munich, only to realise that Munich was so far the most modern city either of us had seen in Europe. It was freezing, and we made a short walk to our hotel. The guy at the counter already had our bill printed, and only wanted our signature ! We crashed, feeling so happy that our room was worth much more than the 22€ we were paying for it....

The next day, also Christmas, was freezing... with the mercury standing (or sinking) at -3°C, we set out to map central Munich on foot, making regular stops for adequate intakes of coffee, but mostly to bring the core temperature back up. We later met Shane, a Singaporean colleague from Angouleme, who was with his girlfriend in Munich at the same time. We set out to the Olympic Park and the BMW museum...

I have one word for Munich's metro rail system... rocking !!!
Very very modern, very very fast. Unlike other European cities i have visited, Munich almost has a complete underground city, running parallel to the one on the surface. You have the option of taking the metro, or the underground pedestrian passages !! Along the passages are shops, eateries and other essential services... brilliant !

Also in the Munich metro, i saw one of the most creative advertisement mediums ever.. an Adidas ad, with a series of still images along the metro tunnels. As you go past in the metro train, you look out and you see an image of a woman running alongside the train, thanks to persistence of vision... it is so simple, and yet to creative. The images had to be planned according to the speed of the train !

All along the day, we kept getting tastes of the German efficiency and the "Achtung" attitude, and I totally loved it. But the best one came when we went to the train station to try and change our next train, given than we had to change trains at Mannheim within a gap of 7 minutes. We explained to the guy at the counter, and he looked at us in disbelief, with a look of "How is that a problem?"... I'm sure he was going to have us arrested for proposing that 7 minutes was too short, because he kept telling us that the train can never be late. He reluctantly changed our ticket, in utter disbelief, and increased the transit time to 20 minutes !!

Germans don’t talk much. Shashwat and I developed a theory for that. We think Germans keep a tab on the efficiency ratio (information transmitted / words spoken) and are obliged to keep this value above a certain threshold. They always answer to the point, no tall stories, no beating the bush. This way, this efficiency ratio is maintained, and all is well. I don’t want to find out what happens when this ratio goes below the threshold value.

Germany is also quite cost-effective, as compared to my adopted home, France. I don’t know if it’s the habit of being in France or something else, but when I bought something in Germany, I feel I’m getting the same quality for much cheaper. Maybe someone can tell me why (!?!)

On 26th, around noon, we took the train to Amsterdam. The world “train” is an understatement to describe this machine. I thought the French TGV was good. The German ICE (Inter City Express) puts it to shame. The interior is like an aircraft, far more comfortable than the TGV, and every seat even has a display that shows from where to where it has been reserved. German efficiency. The train touches 300kmph, and a display screen lets you keep a tab on it !!

The train from Munich to Frankfurt was spot on time (why did I think otherwise?) and we made our transit in 2 minutes. That’s when we realised why the guy at the ticket counter looked at us like we were lunatics. However, the train from Frankfurt arrived at Amsterdam 2 minutes late, and we expected to see German guards whisk away the train crew for lack of efficiency….

Amsterdam – 26/27/28 Dec 2006
(Warning : Read only if you are above 18 years of age)

Well well well… What can I say about Amsterdam. This is not a city that can be described. It needs to be experienced, to be believed. Beautiful canals, very different buildings, lots and lots of “theme” musuems (including a Madame Tussaud) and a very liberal lifestyle.

I think most people know Amsterdam as the world capital of sin. But once you get there, you realise that even the wild side has a spin in Amsterdam. We spent the first day visiting a couple of museums, like the Torture Museum, which turned out to be very interesting. We also hit the Heineken Experience, a museum right beside the first Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam. It was nice to see the process of brewing, and all the old Heineken ads, and even a souvenir shop.

Later that evening was when we got out first taste of the wild side in Amsterdam. Let me tell you a little bit about the history of Amsterdam’s attitude to what the rest of the world calls sin. Amsterdam used to be a big stop for sailors and traders, looking for sex and drugs. Once upon a time, prostitution was rampant, and the Dutch legalised it somewhere down the line. Soft drugs are legal as well. You can walk into a cafe and order a strong coffee or a roll of cannabis !!

Amsterdam has a quarter called the Red Light District. In it, are rows and rows of full-length windows, lit up with red lights, with prostitutes standing inside, attracting passers-by to come in. It’s quite amazing to walk past, and see a scantily clad woman throw kisses at you, or tap on the window with her lipstick to attract your attention. Some are dancing inside, and when they manage to find a customer, they simply let him in, and pull a curtain over the window ! These women come in all shapes, sizes and colours, to match every possible taste. The people who walk by are quite diverse as well. All kinds of tourists from all over the world. But they all have one thing in common : a shocked look on their face !! You can talk to any of the women, with no fear at all, and a cop could be 2 feet away from you !!

To add to this, there are “Sex Shops”, selling all kinds of gadgets and accessories. Then there are the live cinemas, where you can pay 30€ to watch a “Live Show”. No points for guessing what that is ! To add to that, the Museum of Eroticism showcasing the history of eroticism and the Sex Museum, talking about the history of sex, and how this side of human nature has never changed throw thousands of years of evolution. Everything around the Red Light District has an innuendo. We even had dinner at an Indian restaurant called Kama Sutra !!

I know, I know. The whole thing sounds shady and demented. But believe me, when you walk through this area, it sets your mind thinking about a few things. In this place, there is such an excess of “bad”, that crime isn’t a problem at all. Prostitution is legal, but pimping can get you into trouble. That way, the women are not exploited. As shady as it sounds, the whole environment is quite classy. Personally, some of those women in the windows were bloody beautiful !!!

Brussels – 29/30 Dec 2006

We arrived in Brussels on the morning on 29th, and we hit the city right away. Had lunch at a Thai restaurant, and headed out to a place called Mini-Europe, where every big monument or spectacle of Europe is modeled in miniature. It was great to see, and I have a few ideas for my forthcoming travels ! Right beside the Mini Europe is the not so famous Atomium. A splendid steel structure built in the 60s to show Belgium’s industrial development.

We went back to the city centre to watch a great lighting show at Grand Place, and some good food ! Enjoyed some great Belgian chocolate before going to sleep.

The next day we visited the Belgian comic strip centre, and the Tintin Boutique. Great to be at the home of Tintin, the stuff I grew up reading. I was like an excited child in a candy store !

Later in the day we took a sightseeing tour in a bus, which lasted a while. Quick way to go around a city, especially after 10 long and tiring days.

Paris – 31 Dec 2006 / 1 Jan 2007

Arrived at Paris on the morning of 31st, and watched Casino Royale again. Hmmm, the movie is not so bad on the big screen. Maybe I should have seen it on the big screen, but unfortunately the English version is not released in Grenoble.

We spent New Year’s Eve on Champs-Elysees, where there were an estimated 400,000 people !!! Now that is something I will always remember. What I will also remember is that the French do not know how to make noise. Believe me, 50000 cricket fans in Chinnaswamy stadium can make more noise when Tendulkar comes out to bat, than 400000 people of Champs Elysees !!!

Made a great start to 2007, by visiting the grave of one of the greatest musicians ever – Jim Morrison. He died in Paris in 1971, and is buried in Pére Lachaise. The grave is almost a tourist spot, and at any time, you can find atleast 50 people there. Some leaving flowers, some saying a prayer.

Got back to Grenoble that night, by the last train from Paris. Exhausted, drained… but very very happy !!

photos : http://www.flickr.com/photos/swaroopsrinath/sets/

A well-deserved break...

2006-12-18T10:46:00.000+01:00

It's my penultimate day at work for 2006... from wednesday, i'm going to chill at home, but only for a couple of days. On friday, 22nd december, Shashwat and I will be off on a trip that we have been planning for 2 months !

Grenoble ---> Venice ---> Munich ---> Amsterdam ---> Brussels ---> Paris

I was feeling kind of jobless this weekend, so i thought i'l make one of those maps that they show in these adventure movies, typically like "Around the world in 80 days", or "The Mummy"... the red line going all over the place, showing plane crashes and shipwrecks...

Here is my version for the upcoming trip !
See you all next year. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !

Enter the Matrix !

2006-12-15T15:08:00.000+01:00

The mornings in Grenoble are particularly hard, with the temperature hovering around -4°C when i leave home every morning. I step out of my building, and when i see the ice on the cars parked in the street, i know the temperature is below 0 !

Apparently its going to get worse, since winter "officially" begins on 22nd December, and i've chosen that day to start my 10-day Europe trip... Great!

I noticed a very wierd thing in Grenoble. When it gets cold, everyone (including me) are wearing black. You remember that scene in "The Matrix" where Morpheus is leading Neo through a crowded street, and everyone is wearing black... it's exactly like that. In the buses, in the bars, in shops and even the lovey-dovey couples in the tram stops are all wearing black...

But yeah, there is the occasional "Woman in the Red Dress", and you cannot help, but turn and "look again"...... ;-)

A New Discovery....

2006-12-11T15:31:00.000+01:00

We're having a Christmas party at work tomorrow, and to my consternation, my colleagues demanded that i bring "something Indian" to the party. Now where in this land of wine and cheese, will i find something salted and spicy??

I made my way to Rajah Market on saturday, which is the only place in Grenoble where i may find something "Indian". Ironically, this store is run by a Tamil. I say "ironically" because he is not an "Indian" Tamil. He is a Sri Lankan Tamil !! Here is how i found out...

On saturday, at the store, when i was rummaging through the piles of Haldiram's soan papdi and aloo bhujia, i happened to look up at a wall in the back of the store and caught a glimpse of a poster. Staring back at me was LTTE supremo Velupillai P(i)rabhakaran !! Army fatigues, pot belly and all. To add to it, he had his hands on his hips, and i couldn't help but think "Whats that? The MGR look !"

So Mr.Rajah Market is an Eelam sympathiser. Ok, accepted... but where, oh where do you find a P(i)rabhakaran poster??

I paid and left... a myriad thoughts in my head.
Incidentally, that day, Murali was wearing a T-shirt that said "Peace sells, but who's buying?"

Anyway, i'm glad i found a can of Haldiram's Rasgullas !

The name is Bond...

2006-12-05T11:17:00.000+01:00

Holy cow!

This is the most pathetic Bond film i've seen to date!

For some reason, Daniel Craig takes the Bond image in your head, smashes it against a wall repeatedly until you cry out loud, then lets cold water run over it and watches you make up your mind never to watch a Bond film ever ever ever again.

So he's tough. Nice action hero stuff. First scene, kills a guy by smacking his head on a toilet seat. No finesse, and has the smile of a goat.
When asked whether he wants the martini shaken or stirred, he says "I dont care".
And i dont remember Bond ever (EVER) falling in love with a woman.

He runs like Forrest Gump, and walks like Arnie in T2. The difference being that Arnie did that after having half his face and 1/3 of his internal mechanism ripped out by Mercury Man, and this guy does it to get to his car !

And to top it off, the trademark "Bond, James Bond" is the very last dialogue of the film, just before the credits roll in. Frankly, i think it was put in just for the heck of it, after they finished the production and then realised "oh crap, we missed something"

Chamrousse

2006-12-05T11:04:00.001+01:00

It's December, and the French are now worried that it hasnt snowed yet. Everyday i get to hear sighing colleagues who claim that last year by now, they were skiing and enjoying the winter.

So amidst all the hype, or rather the lack of it, i took off to a ski resort last sunday. Not to ski, but just for a walk in the mountains, and to get away from the weekly boredom called "sunday".

Chamrousse is about 45 minutes drive from Grenoble, in the mountains called Belledonne, south-east of Grenoble. Around 1800m high, and still no snow on the slopes. Yet. The resort claims that it will snow this week, and the slopes will be open to public next saturday, 9th.

The 3 of us (Jean-Eudes, Stephanie and I) took a 3 km walk in the mountains, to reach a lake "Lac Achard", which was partially frozen. The place was really really cold, and on 3 occasions we lost our way.

I also saw and touched snow for the first time!
And it isnt going to be the last... we're planning to go back in 2 weeks time, for some real skiing action. Hopefully by then, my colleagues' fears will be buried in a metre of snow !

(Will post some pictures soon)

Deadly Cabbage

2006-11-28T14:47:00.000+01:00

I now have a stomach that is quite sensitive to very spicy food. It has been almost 4 months since i had the chilli chicken from the neighbourhood Andhra restaurant. Last sunday, i had been to Prashant's place, where Siju decided to cook for us. The occasion was quite simple. Another friend, Arvind, was visiting Grenoble on business.

The dal was great, and so was the rice.
However, the object of attention was the cabbage. Turns out it was too spicy, even to taste !
Most of us had running noses by the end of the meal. Siju was beaming, i should have put my foot in his smile !

Prashant woke up later that night to calm his burning stomach.

My visit to the loo the next morning was not too pleasant.

Murali didnt go to work on Monday.

We haven't heard from Arvind since.... maybe he decided that the guys in Grenoble are a bunch of chilly-eating, masala-guzzling bunch of freaks.

My french colleagues had a good laugh, and i can think of a couple of others who will be laughing as they read this.

It's a bomb !

2006-11-19T11:02:00.000+01:00

I was at the supermarket yesterday, buying some veggies and fruits.

Turns out, the French word for Pomegranate is "Grenade"
What????
Is it just me, or is this highly misplaced ! In effect, i picked up some grenades at the supermarket yesterday ! I suppose tomorrow, after i'm done eating one, i'll have shrapnel inside my tummy.

I hope, since France is like a second home to me now, that the French Troops deployed in Lebanon are not lobbing pomegranates at the Hezbollah, while we are busy eating grenades back in France !

What a lame excuse !

2006-11-19T10:35:00.000+01:00

Staying in touch with what is happening back home is a bit of a challenge, when you're overseas. I try my best to keep up with the latest news from India, and i manage it to a certain extent.

The tough part is to keep up with Bollywood. The rate at which films (ahem...) are churned out is absolutely insane, and watching the films is almost impossible. I decided however that i'll try my best to watch the occasional Indian film.

I downloaded and watched "Don", with Shahrukh Khan in it, remake of the original 70's super hit starrring Amitabh Bachchan.

Well, what can i say? Shall i start with the good or the bad? I think i'll start with the good. There's less of that, you see, so its easy to get it out of the way.

So the film is slick. Really slick. The look of the film is great, and is executed well. No purple pants, no yellow shirts, no jumping around trees, no fake love scenes (in fact no love scenes at all). Of course, the slickness is derived from Hollywood. A fine mix of Matrix (the fights are all kung fu style), Mission Impossible (do all theives wear a black skull cap?), James Bond (who the hell detonates a bomb from a watch?) and Con Air (do they really have those planes with caged seats?)

Period. There is nothing else watchable in this film. Khan cannot act, and the film only re-affirmed my long standing conviction that if you take off his eyebrows, he is like a blind man in a dark alley. No one, repeat, no one can step into the shoes of the BigB as Don, and halfway through the film, Shahrukh makes you cringe, keel over and puke your guts out. His portrayal of any negative character is stuck in the time warp of "Darr" !

There is absolutely no characterisation in the film. The other actors are just walking zombies. I lost all respect for Boman Irani after seeing him play the wuss-iest villain ever. Priyanka Chopra should hang herself, even if without reason !

The biggest disappointment : Farhan Akhtar !
Dude, what happened? I loved Dil Chahta Hai, and you gave us a superb film in Lakshya.
What even made you think you could re-create Don?
Some things are best left untouched, especially the classics. I hope you have learnt that now !

On the other hand, Casino Royale will release soon in France. I'm waiting to see Daniel Craig as Bond, especially after someone said that if he wants to continue playing Bond, he should get a botox injection to relax his furrowed brow. Figures, considering Bond is supposed to be a cool customer even if Russia is going to fry the globe with a death ray from space.

I want to watch this film in English, and i hope i can. As funny as it may sound, i do not fancy hearing Bond go "Je m'appele Bond, James Bond", or "Martini... agité, pas remué"

France Strikes

2006-11-15T15:42:00.000+01:00

So thousands of Grenobloises (people of Grenoble), were stranded yesterday after TAG (transportation de l'agglomération grenobloise) the transport company that handles the very very efficient bus and tram service, went on a typical French strike...

Cause - Effect :
The employees demanded a raise in salary ---> small protest last week, lasting a few hours ---> Bus service interrupted for a while ---> Pissed off commuters ---> 2 idiots rough up a tram driver ---> Angry employees ---> BIG Strike.

And yes, i walked to and from French class yesterday, 25 minutes each way with a bone chilling wind blowing across my already frozen nose*

* - read earlier entry "Frozen!"

Renault F1

2006-11-05T19:26:00.000+01:00

I went back to Paris on 4th, to meet a friend who is in Germany on business, and was visiting Paris.

The Louvre sucks (i'm not the art type), and believe me, Mona Lisa is just another painting on the wall !

However, i took a walk down Champs Elysees, and boy oh boy!
On display at the Renault showroom, was a real Renault F1 car, used by Fernando Alonso for one of the races this season ! Totally made my day !

Frozen !

2006-11-03T14:20:00.000+01:00

I've never been in sub-zero temperatures. Bangalore never sees less than 10°C, and the lowest i've been in is 2°C, in Pune during the winter of 2000.

Grenoble set a new record for me today. Last night recorded -4°C. I left home this morning for work, as the thermometer in the neighbourhood pharmacy stood at 0°C. As i arrived at work, my workplace being well outside the city limits, the temperature was even lower. The usual morning dew had frozen on the grass, and the cars in the parking lot had a film of ice on their windshields.

Apparently every day from now on will record lower and lower temperatures. In the meantime, i've stopped feeling my nose. It now resembles a kulfi stick, of course, blue in colour !

I'm also reminded of a short poem (in hindi, "shayaree") which i heard when i was in Pune, during that cold winter of 2000. Of course, the content of this poem is highly objectionable, and is best not written in this blog. I did, however, send out an email to a few friends, reminding them of the low temperature, and the shady jokes we cracked !

-4°C... and counting...

(Mis)adventure

2006-10-30T19:44:00.000+01:00

Turns out, i can make a killer curry. In the literal sense.

I added too much masala to the curry, and by the time i could put a spoon to my mouth, my nose was dripping.

Well, i guess i'm having curd rice for dinner today !

Kids these days....

2006-10-29T19:50:00.000+01:00

I've been reading the news from back home in Bangalore.... I heard the kids (read Adam Bidappa and Nikhil Gowda) have run amok !!

Looks like these kids are living upto their father's names !!

Given that Adam's father was caught with dope in Dubai, what was this kid doing abusing and beating up policemen? Under the influence of alcohol and drugs?? And how in the name of the good sweet lord is he allowed to leave the country??
Did you ever see those hindi movies?
"Yahaan sab theek hone tak, tum Switzerland/London/Dubai/Mausi ke ghar chaley jaao" (followed by the shot of an Air India flight taking off)

And did Nikhil really believe he could trash up a restaurant and not be splashed all over the papers himself? And for heaven's sake, can anyone shut his dear grand-daady up !!

Kids... please, GROW UP !!!

Whats happening?

2006-10-29T19:39:00.000+01:00

It is the last Sunday of October. Winter is officially here !! Which means, at midnight you turn the clock an hour back, pretend you are gaining an hour of daylight every morning (which you lose every evening really), and sleep an hour extra on saturday night !

So i got 10 hours of sleep last night, and pretended i slept only for 9....

Its also the first time i'm turning the clock back (or forward), and i couldn't help shaking my head and thinking "How foolish is man..."

Oh yeah, today i was completed disoriented.
For those of you who dont know, my lunch time is now 12 noon. You see, the French take incredibly long lunch breaks. Typically, the post-lunch table conversation is longer than the meal itself. Also, sometimes i get the feeling that they fool themselves by going early for lunch, hence believing that the break was "not so long after all".
Anyway, getting back to the point. My usual breakfast time is 7, and lunch is at 12. In the summer, that is. I start feeling hungry by 11:30... But now it's winter... Can you imagine? Today i was feeling hungry at 10:30 !!! My body clock obviously doesnt believe in daylight saving time !!!

It's 7:30 pm now, and my stomach is crying for dinner....

Pont du Fossé

2006-10-25T15:18:00.000+02:00

Oh by the way, i spent the weekend at a beautiful village, Pont du Fossé, around 100 km south of Grenoble, close to Gap. Louis' parents live there, and they were kind enough to host me for the weekend.

Spent the weekend playing tennis, table tennis and cycling. The last activity was particularly tiring, and when i got back to Grenoble on monday, my backside was all sore.

You can see the pictures here :

Pont du Fossé

Traumatised !

2006-10-25T13:56:00.000+02:00

I now have over 100 channels of television !!

Last night, I watched Southpark. In French. It's not quite the same when Cartman doesnt sound like himself.

Paris and back...

2006-10-20T11:16:00.000+02:00

Last weekend, i went to Paris. Of course, like everyone who plans to go to Paris, i had heard tons of stories about where to go, and what to do, and things to buy. No way would i be able to do all that was said in just 2 days. So i relied on a friend in Paris to plan everything. She's been in Paris for 3 months now, so i figured she would know whats hot and whats not.

I took the train from Grenoble very early on Saturday morning, and got to Lyon in 1.5 hours (100 kms, yeah a bit slow). And then, i boarded the TGV, which lived up to all the stories i had heard about it... This train did the next 500 kms in under 2 hours !!! It was still dark when i boarded at Lyon (the sun rises now at around 8 am) but as the day got brighter, i realised that the train was quiet, but super super fast. It rolled through the countryside at around 250 km/hr.
I must also tell you what it is like when two TGV's pass each other. I was reminded of those speed-time-distance math problems, where they say a train is going at so-and-so speed and how long will it take to pass a man on a cycle. Well, here's my own question :
Two TGV's at 250km/hr each, are moving towards each other.
1) What is the relative speed
2) How long does it take to pass a guy looking out of the window in one of the trains
3) Mention any side effects
Answer:
1) 500 km/hr !!
2) A blink of an eye
3) You feel a gentle jolt as the trains go by (the first time u think your train is going off the track, and wonder what just happened)

I got to Paris at 9, and travelling 600 kms in 3.5 hrs still intrigued me. But the feeling was lost when the train entered the suburbs of Paris. I felt like i was in Mumbai !! Parisian suburbs are not very welcoming....

Amruta recieved me at Gare de Lyon, and the Paris metro ride only added to my shock and surprise. The subways are smelly, dirty and dingy. They even have white tiles on the walls, and i felt like Neo in the subway station in Matrix Reloaded (ok, wierd comparison, sorry). For some odd reason, the chairs in some metros are 4 feet apart. If a friend and you take the seats, you have to carry out a conversation like its a long distance telephone call. In the "newer" subway stops, the seats look like suspended animation space travel chambers from a sci-fi film (did you ever see Event Horizon?)

Anyway, we visited lots of places on Saturday. The opera, Galleries La Fayette (any womans shopping dream, i suppose), Sacré Couer (Sacred Hearts church, in English), Les Invalides (Napoleon's tomb), Tour Montparnasse (brilliant view of the Eiffel), Concorde and The Louvre (not all of it, just the outside and the glass pyramid). We also went to La Defense, which is the business district in Paris. Later in the evening, and rightly so, we walked along the one and only Champs Elysees, and up Arc de Triomph.

This point, was the highlight of the day. See, the Eiffel Tower is lit up by serial lights every hour between 8pm and 3am for the first ten minutes of the hour. And it is a brilliant sight. It cannot be captured by camera, and is simply breathtaking !! We saw this at 10 pm from the top of Arc de Triomph. Then we walked down to Trocadero Garden to see it again at 11pm !!

Got home, crashed !!

Woke up early the next morning, and headed to Disneyland outside Paris. Even took the wrong train and headed in the wrong direction before finding our bearings. Disneyland was fun, and we spent the day trying out the different rides. (Note: my friends claim i'm a scared cat, and i guess i am. i dont mind accepting that i dont enjoy being in topsy-turvy roller coaster).

Pirates of the Carribean - seriously well done sets and scenes, but nothing fun or extraordinary in the ride... just a boat ride
Big Thunder Mountain Mine - now, this was a good roller-coaster !
Star Wars - highlight of the day. kick ass simulator, where you fly in a X-wing fighter during the bombing of the Death Star (must do for star wars fans)

Took the train back from Paris to Grenoble (direct TGV), and this time the train i did 600 km in less that 3 hours. That was fast !!!

Overall impression of Paris: Paris Sucks !!

I know i know... u must be thinking "he's nuts". But Paris reminded me of Mumbai (yeah, i dont like Mumbai either). People here have no time for anything apart from their lives. Everything is costlier than the rest of France, and some places in Paris are really dirty, which i really really did not expect. Having said that, it is still a great place to visit, and you will find tourists everywhere (i think Parisians dont particularly enjoy that).
Women in Paris are hot !!! But its not natural beauty. Everyone is TOO conscious about fashion and make-up is a second skin !

Halfway through saturday, i actually missed Grenoble! Thats when i realised how much i like being in Grenoble, a small town (which Amruta calls a village), but content with itself. People in Grenoble will smile and greet you. I dont think people in Paris even know how to smile. Finally, when i got off the train on sunday night, i heard the familiar sound of a Tram on Line-A go past the station, and i felt i was back "home" !

I'm back !

2006-10-18T10:07:00.000+02:00

I've been unable to write all these days, since a certain telecom enterprise in France randomly decided to keep me disconnected. I like to call it "solitary confinement", or "information impairment". It is a story i dont want to repeat, because it was more of a nightmare than a story!

Anyway, while i was living the nightmare, i did some travelling over 2 consecutive weekends. On the 7th, i went to Annecy, a small town close to Grenoble, close to the Swiss border (in fact, just 40 km from Geneva!)

You can see the photos here :

Annecy Pics

Then on 14th and 15th, i was in Paris.
I roamed Paris on 14th, along with an old college buddy, Amruta. On 15th, we hit Disneyland just outside Paris, along with Shashwat (a friend and colleague from Angouleme, near Bordeaux) and his Singaporean colleague Shane.

You can see the photos here :

Paris Pics
Disneyland Pics

More about Paris later. There is a lot to write about this trip !!!

Food for Thought

2006-09-29T09:15:00.000+02:00

I miss Indian food at times. The curry, the dal, the spice and the roti. A friend and I discovered a good Indian restaurant called Punjabi, where we go once a week. In the process, the punjabi owner of the restaurant gets to see a couple of Indian faces (mind you, this place is FILLED with French people, much to my amazement). He even ensures we get a complementary fruit juice, on every visit !

There are others... There is Taj Mahal (in heaven's name, i dunno why a pakistani restau is named so), Namaste, and a few others, with typically indian names. I'm yet to find a place that will serve a good masala dosa. I think its going to be a long search....

In another part of town, i discovered another Indian restaurant. I haven't tasted the food here, but i heard it is substandard. The reason i mention this restaurant is it's name. It is simply called "Indira Gandhi". I cannot imagine a person in his right mind naming a restaurant after the former Prime Minister.

I pointed this out to Louis one evening as we were strolling through Centre Ville, and asked him to imagine the following : You come to India 10 years hence, and find a French restaurant called "Jacques Chirac", how would you react?

I have never seen Louis laugh as hard as he did.... well, i guess that pretty much sums up the way i feel when i see a restaurant named Indira Gandhi !!!

At the Movies....

2006-09-26T16:00:00.000+02:00

Last evening, i finally went to see a French film, with Louis and Caroline. The movie was called "Quand j'etait Chanteur" (When i was a singer), and starred Gerard Depardieu, who by the way, is like the Big B of French films.

Not much to write about the movie as such. My friends claimed that it wasnt a typical french movie, given the fact that the hero plays an aging singer who falls in love with a young woman, who for some odd reason kept crying at different points in the movie (i think the "odd reason" was my inability to catch the almost insane pace at which the French was spoken). The hero also coughed up blood in between, and the 3 of us were in splits, realising that it was on the lines of a Bollywood flick. In between, almost all characters slept with all the other characters (all straight though), which pretty much made everyone happy and miserable at the same time.

Anyway, the point is that i understood a huge amount of the language, and even got a few jokes. So i'm improving in the language department. In fact, i even spent most part of the evening speaking French !

My Addiction and Withdrawal Symptoms

2006-09-17T11:57:00.000+02:00

I am a self-proclaimed net addict, and not having internet access really messes me up. I'm writing this from a internet cafe, and it sucks... but the feel of the keyboard relaxes the symptoms that i've had for the past 10 days. I now feel the familiar tingling on my fingertips... the feeling that i'm finally typing into cyberspace again... yes, i'm a net geek, and i love it !!!

One thing i've learnt in France is that u need to be patient for everything. When i applied for my broadband net in India, i thought 4 days for an Airtel connection was too bad... and i thought 1500 rupees a month was costly.
This prompted me to tell my mom that once day information will flow like water from a tap, thanks to some strange deeds of mine. (yeah, but then again, i also told my mom that someday India would have a national holiday in my name : like a "Swaroop Jayanthi")

Now i'm waiting 3 weeks for an internet connection, and realising that maybe 4 days was actually quite fast !

Hopefully someday, information WILL flow freely, like water from a tap... whether it is because of my actions or someone elses, who cares??

McDonald's and the Maharaja

2006-09-08T09:01:00.000+02:00

So last night, i sat down to watch "8 Simple Rules to date my Teenage Daughter", which by the way is telecast in French (Touche pas à mes filles = Dont touch my daughters).

During the commercial break, i got up to scan the fridge for some fruit. Thats when i heard the familiar sound of Hindi !!! I turned around to see a Hindi ad, with French subtitles.

This is how it went. In true Mughal-e-Azam style, with a flourish of cornets and all, the emperor is pissed with his daughter for falling in love with a commoner (a role reversal of the classic Mughal-e-Azam). Just when he orders "off with his head", the guy offers the king a burger, which looks delectable, and the king forgives the guy and lets him have the daughter.

The burger, by the way, is a McDonald's and i have no idea how McDonald intends to sell burgers in France if they dress people up in clothes from a 'nautanki' company and make them eat junk food. They probably know something about French consumers, that i dont !!

addendum : for heaven's sake, if u dont have a blogger id n want to leave a comment, PLEASE put ur name on it. especially for the brickbats.

&#ç°$¤ù

2006-09-07T09:50:00.000+02:00

Cell phones in France are costly. I dont like that.

For 30€, you get 1 hour of talktime. 1 hour. Or 300 sms. Not both, one of them.

30€ = Rs.1800
I dunno exactly how long you could speak for that price back in India, but i'm sure it is well over 10 hours.

Damn it !!

The French Riviera

2006-09-05T08:42:00.000+02:00

Early saturday morning, i took the shuttle from Grenoble to Lyon St.Exupery, and boarded the 1-hour flight to Nice. I was a bit disappointed to get the aisle seat again, but as my luck would have it, the guy next to me didnt turn up. I promptly moved to the window seat, and thoroughly enjoyed the take off. Of course, the last 15 min of the flight was the most exciting. The pilot takes you south, and turns left near Cannes. He then flies along the coast, over Cannes and Antibes. I cannot explain in words how beautiful the french riviera looks from up there. The water is clear turqoise in colour, and by 9:30 in the morning, the adventure sport fanatics are on the waters. To top it off, Nice airport is on a peninsula, and as the plane descends, you feel like he's landing onto the water. When your heart is in your mouth, you will see the runway below you, and he touches down on the edge of the land. Absolutely worth the money you pay for the flight (which, by the way, was only 15 euros more than the train!)

I took the shuttle to the railway station, and met Shashwat, who was cursing me cuz he hadnt had breakfast on his overnight train. I hadnt either, thanks to Air France idea of a breakfast (un petit cake aux fruits). We had an early lunch, and dumped bags in the room we had booked. Took a 20 minute train ride to Monaco, along the coastline.

Monaco. This is the place to be on a summer day. It's a stinking rich place, and i think every house here has a yacth in the bay. Even better is that it hosts one of the most challenging F1 races, and thats why i was here. We walked the streets that form the F1 track, a good 4 kms. Felt absolutely exhilarating to walk the streets where men have raced and won... Senna, Hill, Mansel, Schumacher, Hakkinen... I even got a picture of the pole position on the start-finish straight, and a video of a car driving through the famous tunnel, albeit slowly. We ate at a cafe that is located on the stretch that forms the pit lane during the race weekend !!

Boats at Monaco

Pole Position for Monaco Grand Prix

We got back to Nice later that evening, before the sun set (which is like 9pm or something), and learnt that there was a "fete du port" at Nice port. So off we went to a carnival, with a parade and eateries and dance and music. But the feature of the evening was the fireworks, or "feu d'artifice". Brilliant, 20 minutes of nonstop fireworks. Got back to the hotel by midnight, and crashed.

"Fete du Port" at Nice

Nice Coastline at Night

Had planned to go to the beach on Sunday morning, but went a bit haywire thanks to the weather. Nice gets 300 days of sunshine in the year, and we woke up to a rainy morning. We were totally disappointed, and headed to a nearby hill and chateau. By the time we were up there, the sun was out, and people were starting to head out to the beach. When we got down, the beaches were crowded, and that is wat Nice is famous for. Beaches without sand, only pebbles. And crowded.

Nice Port from the Chateau

What i am about to describe next, absolutely dumbfounded me. Of course, i had heard before going to the riviera that the place is famous for sunbathing, and there is no distinction between a "clothing optional" and "public" beach. But i was still amazed to see people (read women), just basking in the sun, and not feeling one bit conscious about onlookers. And mind you, this beach is not outside the city or anything. It is the heart of the town. It is like going to Marine Drive in Mumbai, standing near the wall and seeing a topless woman sunbathing just 10 metres from you !!

Well, who's complaining ??!!?? But yeah, i guess for me it was a big big culture shock !!

We had lunch at a private beach, and walked the length of the "Promenade des Anglais", and noticed that the beaches were getting really really crowded. The whole of Nice seemed to descend on the beach when the sun came out !!

Had another snack in the evening, and boarded the TGV back to Valence. This TGV track was not a superfast one, but surely fast. A stone hit the train when another TGV went past, and the train was delayed by 14 minutes, for a thorough inspection of the damage. Got to Valence, and took a local train back to Grenoble, and got home well beyond midnight.

Awesome, awesome weekend !!
In 7th/8th Standard, we studied world geography, and out teacher told us about "hot dry summers and cool wet winters" of the Mediterranean region. At that time, i'd never have dreamt of ever visiting the place, but here i was !! The entire trip, i kept thinking "I'm in Nice, i'm in Nice"

Electricity, Automation and the Flip Side

2006-08-31T19:27:00.000+02:00

So there are a few things i've noticed about electricity in France. Of course, being the electrical engineer (and a geek, as some people reading this wud say), and this being my trade, its obviously the first thing i notice.

First things first, the plugs and sockets in this place are a spectacle. In India (and i dont know where else), the earthing pin is always on the plug (For the electrically impaired, or the plain ignorant - the earthing pin is the big one on the plug, that forms the top vertex of the triangle), is bigger and longer than the other two pins. In fact, even during school and engineering, we learnt that this pin is made bigger than others so that it makes electrical contact first. But in France, the earthing pin is on the wall, and not on the appliance !!! On the other hand, the plug on any appliance has a hole in it, to accomodate the earthing pin !!! Also, the earthing pin is the same size as the other pins, which completely busts the theory of the earth contact being made first. I'm coming to believe that in France you actually put the socket into the plug, and not vice versa.

Maybe i'm being a bit critical, and i'm sure the experts who designed this system know more than me about electrical engineering. Ok, let us assume that this system is better than the conventional 3-pin system. But then, the French don't beleive in using a switch when u plug in the appliance !! So the moment you put the plug into the socket (or socket into plug), your appliance is running. Of course, someone told me that the reason for this, that it is a foolproof method to avoid accidents. For example, an iron box is safer when unplugged, rather than switched off and left in the socket. I suppose that makes sense, but i'd still prefer a switch to go with my plug, thank you.

Back in Bangalore, my colleagues and I had the habit of leaving our workstations on overnight. Saved us the trouble of starting up next morning, cuz it took forever on the Dell Precision 670. A friend (he'l know i'm talking about him when he reads) once told me that in a country like India, which already has a shortfall of energy, we're abusing the availability, and advised me to turn the system off.
In France, everywhere, i've found automated lights, that go off after a certain time lag. You switch them on, they stay on for a fixed period, and then turn off. You can find them in dark staircases, corridors in apartment buildings, lavatories etc.
It's a great idea. You get out of the lift in your building, the corridor is dark. You turn on the light, walk to you apartment at the end of the corridor, open the door, and by then the light goes out. Fair enough.

But sometimes, it's not so cool. For example, this morning, i decided to take a leak in the men's room, at work. The light was already on, so i didnt bother about it. Can you imagine my disorientation when the lights go out halfway through a pee??? Damn it, i didnt know if my direction was correct, or i was hitting the wall !! To top it off, once i was done, i had to feel my way along the wall, and then turn on the light.

I went back to the men's room later that afternoon. The light was on again. This time, i thought i was smarter, and hit the light switch anyway. But then, again halfway through, off goes the light !! Apparently if the lights are on, it doesnt help if you press the switch again. But twice in one day???

I suppose automation is good, especially when it saves effort, energy and money.
But seriously, i dont want to be like a blind man in a dark loo, twice a day, for the next 1.5 years !!

Pigeons... and other things.

2006-08-28T18:23:00.000+02:00

I've been wanting to write about this for a while now. French (or atleast in Grenoble) pigeons are a spectacle. And here is why...

Firstly:
1 French pigeon = 3 Indian pigeons

Yes, these birds are huge, and round, and fat. They're well fed, and they fear nothing and no one. You can walk upto them on a pavement, stand beside them and take a photograph, and they probably wont move and inch. In fact, they may even pose for one !! (ok ok, i'm exaggerating).

And you find them in every street. They're there on the windowsill of the apartment i'm going to rent next week, and my landlord claims that "i'm doing something abt it". At a busy interesection, you will see pigeons walking (yes walking) in the centre of the street, even with a bus bearing down at them. I have hardly ever seen them fly. I dunno whether it is because they have nothing to fear, or the above mentioned corpulence. Occasionally, you will come across the odd pigeon run over by a car, pasted across the road....

Talking about buses, I might as well go off on an unrelated tangent. Traffic in Grenoble. It's almost non-existent (by Indian standards). Very very well organised, drivers who respect the rules, and pedestrians. If a light is green, and a pedestrian (albeit stupid) is crossing, the car will invariably stop and let him go. Why, there have been times when i was waiting to cross the road, with a red pedestrian light, and cars have stopped for me to go first. And all they expect in return is a polite nod of the head. In short, i dont think there has ever been a pedestrian being run over in Grenoble. Maybe there has, but i'm sure it was a crazy Indian trying to jump across the road, being run down by an equally crazy Indian trying to get past the light before the pedestrian can cross !!

In the past 2 weeks that i've been here, i have heard a car horn ONCE !! No, i'm not kidding. Just once. And i distinctly remember the incident. I was in a Ford Fiesta, with my relocation agent, and we came up to an intersection, and a mercedes almost hit us from the opposite side. My friend honked, and both cars stopped. Later, my agent said the other guy was "a tourist". I thought it was some kind of insult, but actually, he WAS a guy from the neighbouring state, and was driving through Grenoble. My agent could tell from his number plate.

Anyway, the point is that the horn is a mere formality in cars out here. Maybe some cars are manufactured without any, for lack of use. We have some lessons to learn in driving. Out in Bangalore, if a car brakes in front of you, you have to honk and say "aeee, side ge hogo ley" !!

I plan to make chicken fry tonight. Got back a bit early from work, so have prepared the chicken, and it's marinating right now. So i'm taking this chance to write a bit.

Oh yeah, i'm going to Nice this coming weekend. A friend n colleague from another part of France will meet me there, so we plan to hit the Cote d'Azur for 2 days. I'll fly from Lyon to Nice on Saturday morning, and take the TGV back to Grenoble on sunday evening. It's my first time in the TGV, and i hear it's quite an experience. Will report on that. Will also report on French pigeons from another part of France.

Another thing i did not expect. Rather, a notion that has been busted (so far atleast). Most people say that English doesnt work in France, or if you speak English, you wont last long. On the contrary, people i've met so far have been very very accomodating. Maybe it's a bit early to say this, but i'l say it anyway.
Some of my French colleagues at work try to speak to me in English. I try my best to speak to them in French. Works both ways i suppose. One lady asked me if i would prefer if she spoke to me in English. I said no, French. She was surprised, but continued in French anyway.

Even outside work, many a time i've felt very welcome by people who dont speak English at all, and pardon my absolutely pathetic French. Like waiters, shopkeepers, bus drivers. What i really like is that an attempt is made to make you feel as comfortable as possible, even though you're a foreigner. But i suppose France is such an Eclectic society, that you're bound to be treated as "French", rather than "outsider". Again, maybe too early to say, but saying it anyway.

Of course, it's funny when I speak my broken French, in present tense only. It's also funny when the French speak to me in English. In fact, today i went to the Air France counter to book my flight to Nice. I resolved on my way there that i would carry out the entire conversation in French. So there i was, trying very very hard to speak French with the pretty lady at the counter. And she was trying equally hard to speak to me in English !! The flight to Nice was 65 euros, but when she spoke in English, she said me it's "65 hundred" euros !! For a moment, my heart was in my mouth, and i thought "For that price i can go to the Moon".

So... thats it for today i guess. My chicken is looking good from here, and i think today is a day for a good meal. Chicken and Rice, with some Haagen-Dazs ice cream for dessert (my first ice cream in France) !! Hope the chicken fry turns out good. Maybe tomorrow i'll put up a nice picture of what i hope will be a great culinary triumph.

Le Cirque - Jour 2

2006-08-24T08:20:00.000+02:00

The next day, i went back with my camera...

Tony tries to be-friend a llama !

And Fails...

Le Cirque

2006-08-22T18:25:00.000+02:00

So this morning, Tony, Nicholas, Geoffrey and I got off the bus and headed in the usuall direction. Usually we walk through a lawn, just beyond the gas station in the corner. But today, we had to go around, cuz someone had put a trailer on the grass !!

Thats when we realised what it was... a Circus !! No no, not like our Gemini and Rajkamal Circus back in India. This one was like a touring party, with a trailer full of animals. And beleive me, what animals !

Tied to pegs in the lawn were:

A goat (an unusual one, maybe a mountain goat)
A bull (with the biggest horns i ever saw !)
A Llama (first time i ever saw one)

Inside the trailer, and being offloaded with some difficulty, was a donkey... no, i'm serious... a donkey !!

Running all over the road, probably trying to get itself killed was a fuzzy little ball of hair, which we later discovered to be a dog. There was also a camel, which was getting a good wash from a jet-spray. I wonder if this guy borrowed it from the gas station.

We stood there looking at this spectacle for 5 minutes, and walked on. Only to find that there was a baby Llama running all over the Intermarche parking lot, just across from the plant where i work !!

This circus is going to have two shows. One today and another tomorrow. Then they move on. I regretted not having my camera. Tomorrow, i will click some snaps, and update the blog with them. Come back and take a look !!

So elephants in Thippasandra are not so bad after all ;-)

Surprise Surprise !

2006-08-17T08:06:00.000+02:00

A few French friends of mine in India (namely Mehdi, Louis and Jean-Eudes) asked me to specifically tell them what really surprises me in France. I've seen so many things already that have raised my eyebrows, i think i might have to make this a feature of my blog from time to time.

I plan to call it What I Did Not Expect To See (aka WIDNETS)

So, here goes. This is part 1 of the feature.

1) Graffiti, everywhere in Grenoble. Usually along the tram lines, where it passes under a bridge. But beleive me, some of these spray painted artwork is quite amazing. One wrong stroke of the spray can, and you cannot even wipe the board clean...

2) A gentleman in the late 50's using a bluetooth headset !! Someone suggested it might be a hearing aid, but i dont suppose people speak into hearing aids, do they? I didnt expect someone his age to be so tech savvy. But yeah, a lot of the young crowd are hooked onto mp3 players, which is quite normal.

3) Beggars. With all due respect, i never expected to be approached by a lady saying "peut-etre, une petit piece monsieur" (perhaps, something small sir).

4) Gothic girls in France !! Oh yes, i saw quite a few. One of them stands out in my memory, cuz she sat next to me in the tram. Dressed in all black, her hair was coloured a deep red, totally unkempt (or was that her hairdo?). 2 rings on each finger, nails on left hand painted sky blue, nails on right painted red and yellow alternately. A ton of bracelets and other assorted trinkets on wrists, a dragon tattoo on her left arm. Also, her eyeliner... was like 1 centimeter thick, on her lower eye lid. Almost onto her cheek !!

5) Guys... i saw this one guy dressed like Jeetendra in a 70's Eastmancolor movie. White shirt, white pants, white shoes !! Do u get white shiny shoe polish?

6) I've also seen guys kiss each other on the cheek, as a greeting !!

7) A lingerie shop called "Darjeeling". Is it just me, or is this name highly misplaced !!

8) I never expected French women to smell so great !! My vocabulary runs short of words to describe the way they look, behave and ... smell !

9) Lastly, i walked into a shop in St.Bruno to buy a calling card, on my first day here. I greeted the guy at the counter with a regular "Bonjour", and got an "As-salaam-alai-kum" in return !!

I-Day in the Countryside

2006-08-16T19:36:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was the first time I was not in Bangalore during Independance Day, and it was the first time in 3 days that I felt homesick. I woke up in the morning wishing I'd be at Victoria Statue, seeing the Queen on my left, and Gandhi in the park across the road... the junction lined with boys selling plastic flags at the traffic signal, and everyone proudly displaying their patriotism, as plastic as it is.

!'sigh'!

I went down for breakfast, and sat there eating my croissant, when in walked Kaustav's boss and invited me to join a small party of 4, for a small trip to the mountains around Grenoble.

So off we went, driving into the Vercors. At this point i must tell you a bit about the geography of Grenoble. The city is essentially triangular, with 3 mountain ranges on the sides. The Chartreuse in the North, the Vercors in the west, and Belledonne in the east. Maybe i'll post a map later, cant find one readily.

Anyway, we drove for an hour into the Vercors. I must tell you more about this drive. The road was cut through the mountains, and at a point, the cliff face is on the right, and a deep gorge on the left. At the bottom of the gorge is a thin stream, and on the far side are 25-30 metre tall conifers !! It was beautiful... and when we reached about 400-500 metres up the mountain, we broke into pastures of green green grass. The kind you generally see in Bollywood films, where Salman Khan is trying to woo Karishma Kapoor (ok, stupid joke). But seriously, its like those Alpine meadows we see in postcards, where you pass through villages with a local cheese factory and the village centre has pavements replaced by flower beds ! Oh, and there were cows in the pastures, which had the "i'm-better-than-u-cuz-i-give-milk-from-which-u-make-great-chocolates" look.

So finally after an hour we stopped at a place called Choranche. It has a very normal looking cave, atleast from the outside. When i entered, i figured why i was paying 8 euros to get in !

This cave is about 30 km deep, and inside the mountain, an underground river flows. The interesting thing is that it is so cold in there, that a glacier has formed, and hasnt melted ever ! All over the cave, u can see ice stalactites from the roof, just about a centimetre in diameter, but some over 3metre long, formed over 6000 years !!

From this place, we drove to a village called Pont en Royans (meaning "Bridge at Royans"). The river flows through this village, and you can enjoy a picnic lunch on the river. It was quite crowded, even by French standards. We enjoyed a great meal here, at a resto (french slang for restaurant) called Cafe du Royans. They served an amazing ham salad, albeit a bit raw, and the best lemon pie i ever had. Of course, the wine was kick-ass !

After lunch, we drove to a ski-resort (no snow though), and took a 2 hour trek in the mountain, to reach a peak called "La Mucherotte", overlooking Grenoble. The view was breathtaking, and our host showed me my to-be-office, from the top of the mountain ! I must also mention that we plucked some wild raspberries on the way up. Believe me, these fruits are extremely delicious, and no "Amul Raspberry Duet" ice-cream can replicate the real taste.

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The walk down from La Mucherotte took another hour. And just when we reached the car, we had a downpour !! Perfect end to a perfect day !

I got dropped back to my hotel, and crashed for the day.
Exhausting, but totally worth the effort !!

And i finally went to work today, after a long long weekend.
But this blog isnt about that.

Images from the Town

2006-08-14T08:08:00.000+02:00

TGV at the Gare SNCF

Trams - Supercool !

A Bridge over the Isere

Fontaine du Lion - At the base of La Bastille

Way up to La Bastille

Confluence of two rivers - Isere and Drac

A few more comments...

2006-08-13T11:54:00.000+02:00

Some things I must appreciate, having fallen totally in love with them, in just one day's time !

1) The shuttle buses in CDG, made by Renault. Just awesome !! You should travel in one of them to beleive it. No amount of explanation can fully capture the essence.

2) French women. Each time i saw a pretty lady, i thought she was prettier than the previous one. I wonder when the saturation point will come. But yeah, they're pretty alright. And tall... some taller than me !! (not that i stand a chance anyway....)

3) Traffic rules. The bus i took entered Grenoble, and then stopped at a "junction". I didnt know it was a junction, cuz i didnt see any vehicles !! But he waited anyway, patiently, for the light to turn from red to green. If it were a BMTC bus, he'd have killed 3 pedestrians, 4 cyclist and 1 motorbiker, while trying to jump the red light...

So... this is it !

2006-08-13T08:32:00.000+02:00

After a nice hot bath, and a good night's sleep, i'm finally able to type freely. It's been a long long 36 hours, and I've done and seen so much already.

2 memories to leave Bangalore with. Getting soaked in the rain on my very last day there, along with Louis, on my way back home from office. And then, reaching the airport EARLY, and having to stand in a 300m long queue for check-in. It was a stark reminder of all the calls for growth of infrastructure in Bangalore, and the desperate need for a new airport. 3 international flights were to take off, and all were delayed due to lack on security check counters, and long long queues. Of course, had the occasional laugh, like when this German guy who was flying Lufthansa to Frankfurt went "Ol ze ladis, please muv to ze security countar neer zat woll". Apart from that, there was some crazy guy who was working for Fidelity Investments, and was flying to the US. This guy just kept cursing anything and everything. He even cursed the fact that Bangalore is probably the only airport in the world where you find ceiling fans. I am sure i can dispute that, if i do some research.

Not much to say about the flight. We left an hour late, and being my first flight, i was really looking forward to it. Didnt have any issues with my ears popping. But yeah, i loved the experience of take-off. Was like a roller coaster-ride, and is was over just when i was beginning to enjoy it. Landing was even better ! In the 9 hours in between, they fed up thrice, and didnt let me sleep. There was a cute air-hostess, but she was serving the other aisle. Damn it ! She looked nice giving those safety instructions.

Ah the flight food. The breakfast was good. Croissant was very very nice, and so was the juice and yogurt with cereal. But guess what the following description on the menu is :

Spicy Potatoes in Deep Fried Indian Bread

Oh yes, that is the Air France description for "Poori Saagu". No further comments !

We landed in Paris half an hour earlier than scheduled ( i was very very surprised). It was 11 degrees, and had rained all night. Was really really cold.

My first encounter with French was at the security check. Usually, these guys speak English with the international travellers. But this guy noticed that I have a work visa, or something to that effect... and goes "Vous allez a Lyon?".. and must have thought i'd reply in fluent French.. took me 5 secs to frame my reply... and then in the worst French accent EVER, i said "Oui, je vais a Lyon, mais apres je vais a Grenoble". I think he was glad to just stamp my visa, and go "Voila!"

I was actually able to make it to a connecting flight that i earlier thought i'm sure to miss.

This aircraft was like a toy. Was an Airbus A-318, very very small, seating capacity must have been like 80 or so, not more. And guess what, there was an even cuter air hostess on board !!
Anyway, this flight was very short, only about 30 mins to Lyon. Were just gaining some altitude, when the pilot announced that we're making our descent to St.Exupery airport !

It was just as cold at Lyon, as it was in Paris. And I broke into a cold sweat when i heard my name on the public address system, asking me to come to the Air France office. My baggage didnt make the connection, and they volunteered to send the bag to Grenoble later than afternoon. Damn it... all these days i kept thinking the baggage will make the connecting flight, and i wont. And finally it was the reverse !!

Took the bus to Grenoble, and was surprised to get stuck in a huge storm. It was pouring all the way to Grenoble, and I was even more surprised to see that it was bright and sunny in Grenoble. Well, i guess this is the "mountain weather" that my friends told me about...

First thing i notice about Grenoble. Where are all the people ??? It was a saturday, and the place was to be "crowded", but i couldnt see a soul. It was like a ghost town in one of those western movies. The only thing missing was a foul-mouthed sheriff and a few tumbleweeds.

So i met Tony at the bus station, and we grabbed a bite at a nearby eatout, that served an awesome Kebab Roll. Hung around a bit, took a couple of tram rides, did some small shopping for essentials, and landed at the hotel.

Waited until my baggage arrived (thank god, else i wudnt have clothes for another day) and then crashed. Woke up this morning feeling refreshed and determined to explore my new home town a bit... opened the window, and voila !!

It's raining in Grenoble !!!
And it's supposed to be summer.

The Eagle has Landed...

2006-08-12T17:56:00.000+02:00

Finally here, in Grenoble.

So much happened since i left home for the airport last night. I kept making mental notes of all the things i should write into this entry. But i'm sure i'l miss something when i finally pen it...

More later... need to have a bath now.

So much to write. Stay tuned !

7 days and counting....

2006-08-03T10:45:00.000+02:00

Exactly 7 days to go (not counting today, its post lunch, and next friday, it'l go too fast), and i'm beginning to feel the first butterflies in my tummy. Not nervous or anything, but a bit apprehensive about how my "new life" will be.

I'm sure i'll miss Bangalore like crazy, and i'm bound to appreciate certain things about this place, which i probably never noticed or respected before. Will surely report on that.

On tuesday, i had what will probably be my last (for another 2 years) "Super Scooper" at Corner House. (If you havent tried this stuff, it's a crime !!). Was at commercial street yesterday, and as usual I was cursing that there was no parking space at 11 in the morning, and i couldnt help but think "Oh well, maybe the last time in a while". A friend of mine was talking about "last times" before leaving to the US a couple of months back. I didnt fully comprehend, but i do now !!

Yesterday morning, my mother's idli tasted different... I suppose I know why...

Visa Woes and Wows !!

2006-07-08T06:37:00.000+02:00

So, after a long tense 2 weeks, I finally figured out that I need to apply for the Visa at the French Consulate in Pondicherry. This is what it was like :

Migration Dept in Paris : Please apply for the Visa in Pondicherry, we've approved and sent your file there.
Consulate in Pondicherry : Huh, what? You live in Bangalore, please go to Mumbai.
Me : But my file has been sent to you !
CP : We cant find your file here, sorry! Please check if it's in Mumbai
Me : What the.... !!
Consulate in Mumbai : File? What file?
Me : Oh damn !
CP : Hey, come over to Pondicherry any weekday between 8am and 11am, we'll give you the Visa !
Me : Oh good, can I take an appointment?
CP : Call the help desk in Chennai and fix one.
Helpdesk : But you live in Bangalore, you have to go to Mumbai.
Me : Damn it, the Visa officer has asked me to come to Pondi, can you gimme an appointment, for goodness sake?
HD : uhhh... Call in 5 min, we'll get back to you.
(5 min later)
Oh, Pondicherry doesnt have your file. Please go to Mumbai.
Me : What????????????????
CP: Yeah, I've seen your file, but i cant seem to locate it now. Why dont you come over anyway, and I'l give you the Visa, I dont care about the file !
Me : %!&~?%&*!%

2 days later, i landed up in Pondicherry. I waited 2 mins in a queue, submitted my application, with my heart in my mouth. I kept thinking the lady at the counter will throw my application back at me for some odd reason (thanks to the mess mentioned above). But she entered my passport number into the system, and voila!! All my details popped up, and afterall, my file WAS there !!
I waited another 5 mins in the queue that same evening, and I was a happy man when i opened the passport that she returned to me, and saw my visa stamped on it!!

Wow !!

August 12th it will be... Early that morning, at 2:05 am, I will board Air France AF 191 from Bangalore to Paris !

Introduction : The Final Countdown

2006-06-23T11:29:00.000+02:00

I guess most of you know who I am, and for those who dont, you will find out if you keep returning to this page. (yes, please hit Ctrl+B and come back atleast once a week) I intend to write quite frequently, and here's why:

I'm moving to France, for a year and half. I'll be living and working in a place called Grenoble, in the south of France, close to the Italian border. The population of this place is 5,00,000. I often wonder what it will feel like, considering i live in a place where the count is now touching 70,00,000 (is that the correct no. of zeroes... yes!)

It's the first time i'll be living out of my hometown, Bangalore, and outside India. I know its going to be one hell of an experience, with the good bad and ugly rolled into one.
Good : new friends, new place, cleaner air and great work profile!!
Bad : live alone, foreign land, new language, miss home!!
Ugly : wash clothes and utensils!!

The idea of this blog is to jot down everything (exciting or otherwise) that I will do, allow people to read it and laugh, mock, reflect, pity and maybe even criticise.

Ok, thats out of the way. I need to apply for my VISA soon. Thats quite a nightmarish experience. Especially when the immigration guys send the file to the wrong place (&!@~#%&!) Yes, thats exactly what happened, and i'm trying to figure out where it is, and act accordingly.

So until later...