Desi 'light'-packers - Episode 2!

... And Windmills....The journey through the country of Holland is a delight. Rotterdam and its picture-perfect settings, as a small town, with sourrounding villages, smaller houses, greens as far and wide one's eyes can stretch, long winding lanes, people with cheerful smiles and windmills wafting their monstrous arms to the brisk and gentle breeze.... A walk along the winding lanes ....


" I think we are seeing an example of how a man can preserve what God has given!", she said standing beneath a windmill staring at it!


"Yeah we are indeed.. he has done it by not overproducing himself, firstly", he said.


She laughed at his light-hearted humour, "Oh..its a serious fact, I've always admired how thinly populated these places are! And that is the reason , they have sooo much more of beautiful landscapes left, with no occupation, adding to the beauty , thus very less polluted" and started walking towards the winding lanes.


"People here give so much importance to nature and have declared vast amount of area as green-zones!". she continued.


"Yes thats a wonderful plan by the government to stop people spoiling the place by construction and has strictly allocated for sight-seeing purposes only!"


She spots a canal from no-where, with water as clear as a crystal and a small un-occupied boat. "Oh! I just want to build a small hut here to live my retirement life!", totally lost at the beauty of the picture spread ahead.




"It may not be possible! This might still be a green zone then!", he said laughing at his own joke.

Then came a rude jolt " The bus will stop here for half-hour. This is a legal stop required before getting into the border of Holland! People can have refreshments here, if need be", announced the driver through his mike.


They both turned their heads around to see the board of Mc Donalds smiling back at them with an inscription "Welcome to the border of Holland!"


"Oh! I almost forgot this! We are still not in Holland!", she said and looked back at him, to find him give a startled look and realised he too was lost in memories. They both smiled and climbed out of the bus.

" I want to have the biscuit, the Mc D guy gave us last time", she said. "It was delicious".


He shook his head disbelievingly, his hair fell on his forehead, he combed again with his fingers "I am not able to believe, you are this childish when you come out!".


"Yeah! Only then you can enjoy without a worry!" she replied with infectious enthusiasm, hopping for every step she took.


They both entered Mc D he asked, "What are you going to have?"


She said, "We haven't packed anything! So a full Mc D veggie meal"



So let them have their meal and we will resume later! :)

Desi 'light'-packers - Episode 1!

Friday 04:15AM
Apr 6, 2007
Paris, France


The two walked out of Hotel Elysees Mermoz, Off Champs Elysees, hand-in-hand with not a worry in the world, feeling as independent as a bird on its flight, with a very exciting plan on their heads, as light as their bags. They boarded a metro train to Haussmann Saint-Lazare from St. Philippe Du Roule, from where they took another train to reach Gallieni. The two reached the ticket counter and bought tickets to board a 07:30 AM Eurolines Coach Service to Amsterdam, Holland.

"I am still not able to believe we are doing this" said one to another

" Yes, we are!" he said.

"Why did I ever buy myself into this plan? " she asked.

He laughed at her admiringly, combing his hair, ruffled by the brisk early morning breeze, with his fingers, which has become habitual.

"If we are going to pull this off, it is going to be a memorable one!", he said.

"Yes ", she replied excitedly and both exchanged excited looks.

"Tickets please", shouted the coach driver. He verified the tickets, helped passengers one by one, to board the coach.

"Here we go! I think we are crazy!", she said.

"I think so too!", he said and took her hand to sit beside her.

And the coach took off sharp at 07:30 towards the early morning sunrise, which showed, what a fine typical spring day it is bound to be! Spring in Europe is nothing but pure bliss! The sprintness in the breeze, brings a fresh inner feeling for walkers, striding by the innocent looking flowers exhibiting their bewitching smile as a bloom! She was looking outside the window watching all these sights trying to take-in and register every pixel of beauty spread in-front of her eye.

"Our eyes are a thousand Digital SLR's put together! I always wonder God's creations... our eyes, the beauty that lies in front of us! ", she said, eyes still outside the window busy capturing whatever it can.

"Why do you say that?", he asked, puzzled.

"When you hold a camera to take a picture of the frame which lies ahead, you will notice how panoramic our eye-view is and how little can these digital state-of-the-art man made machines , pack to a single shot!", she answered.

"Phew! I've realised this many times... but Kudos! beautifully worded!", he said appreciatively.

She turned away from the window still wide-eyed to smile at him. "Thank you!"

Brussels city center

The 10 hour journey continued through the picturesque town of Lille in France , then through Brussels and the industrial town Antwerpen in Belgium with light conversations between the two and a lot of sight-seeing. When the coach wsa nearing the border of Holland, excitement had started mounting again already! The two had travelled to Amsterdam before, the previous year and were so fond of this country for the spellbinding scenic beauty, the helpful people and the careless lifestyle.... And oh! Who can forget the windmills? ......

Ho! Ho!..... Holland!

To be continued...

Paatum naane Bha(Paa)vamum naane...

"Akhila nanna paadaraye! Paatu class la serthu vidaren". And there began the countless days of paatu class with the least amount of interest that could be spared for it, eventhough I was reasonably good in singing. "Nanna sruthi nikkaradhe, innikke serthudungo" were the words, I think, I would have never meant to forget, when my Paatu master Mr. K told on the day of Vijayadasami, to my mom and thatha ( my maternal grand-father). My thatha, happy and full of pride did as much publicity to this matter, as possible, adding to my misery.

Then came navarathiri golus, marriages where-in I was made to sing asking"Nee paatu kathundrukkiye, krishnar mela oru paatu paadu" which I would try to escape saying that I dont have my book at present, or that I have a bad throat, I dont know any songs on Krishnar, would go in vain. The agony I went through during those times were un-wordable. The situation rose to a peak when my bro's mrudhangam master would ask me to sing for him and my bro, to practise jadhi for the songs and for 'karpanajadhi'. My bro was damn good at it, that I started getting an interest singing for him. But still, golus and family get-togethers were still a no-no, where i wud get the center of attraction to sing. My mom would also teach me small songs and 'thukdas' which were composed by my patti(my paternal grand mother).

My paatu master would arrange for a kacheri on the day of Vijayadhasami every year with great violinists and mrudhangists, to get the feel of how to sing in co-ordination with them.
Every student and student groups would have to perform a mini kacheri with a small 'thani aavarthanam' for mrudhangam, each a slot of 45 mins to an hour! I learnt the format of a kacheri only with this practise! Everyone hearing the kacheri would appreciate me but still, I was one very non-interested person.

But, ask me to sing any ARR's or Anu Malik or anyone, I was always ready! I went through the agony of paatu class for a little over 2 and a half years till one fine day I was told not to sing for 6 months following a surgery in my abdomen. That was the end of my paatu class and the beginning of cassette and CD class days which were predominantly ARR, Jatin Lalit, Ilayaraja, Nandeem Shravan. I would just memorise each and every song and sing along with the cassette/CD, much to the fury of my dad-mom!

This continued to my college days and everyone appreciated the fact that I had a good voice and I could give life to the song. Even here I didn't give much thought or interest to singing. I started working after my college and there came a full-stop to my paatu. I became so busy that I could barely spend some time with my parents Due to the lack of practise and listening, my singing became not-very good to worse and even bad. When I met my hubby and found out that he is interested in music and would love to hear me sing, that is where I really got stung! Yes, I used to sing during the initial days of my marriage. That stopped too, due to no-reason at all! Now that, when I listen to MSS, Maharajapurm Santhanam, Semmangudi, Ariyakkudi, Hyd. brothers, I wish, I could sing ! But alas, even I loathe my voice. Paavam naan! Paatu class continue pannindu irundhirukalaam!

Home searching, made easy!

You must be aware by now that I have moved quiet recently to the great big umrika and having a blast here... not just alive and kicking !But when we were about to move here, we started getting anxious about the daunting task of searching a nice, commutable, safe place to live. We had been going through various places in and around San Francisco via internet thanks to the citydata info and shortlisting places to live for months and finally settled on three. Then came the search for the apartments nearby the train stations as we will not have a car for sometime . We had shortlisted those too from the information given by our friends and all time best friend internet. We had called all the apartments to fix an appointment from the next day of our arrival . The day after we arrived, we caught a train to the place where I live now, Dublin to view the apartments. The first appointment for us was in the morning. As our journey to SFO was just the previous day, we had Jetlag which made us get up wide awake early (3:30AM). We had very well made it here for the first appointment and saw the apartments they had to offer. It was a brand new construction and I dunno why, but new constructions normally attract me. The house was very nice and we both particularly liked one of the floorplans they gave us.

After the viewing was complete, we were enquiring the apartment people about the nearest grocery store, shopping mall, Indian groceries if any, etc., We were informed that we have a shopping mall nearby, 2 Safeways which is a grocery supermarket in CA(only in CA, I think so!) , a Walmart, 3 Indian grocries within the radius of 2 miles. We were also informed that the shopping mall is just 0.5 miles away and that we cud walk! Overjoyed, we got the directions and started to walk, we wud have walked more than 0.5 miles, the shopping mall still insight, we found none of the roads leading to them. We asked another passerby, and he informed us that we are walking in the right direction and it is another about 0.5 miles away. We finally reached the mall, walking under the blazing hot sun for around 45 mins.

We just suthi paathufied all of the shops and my husband was making me familiar with the American store names like Bestbuy, OldNavy, JC Penney, Mervyns, Macys, BedBath and Beyond etc., etc., We would have walked for another 2 hours and finally tired of travel, jetlag, walking and everything, we just wanted to catch a taxi back to the train station to get us back to San Francisco! When we came out to the flood of cars, we couldn't find even one taxi! Arreee yaaar! in India if there is something like a big shop, then ppl wud have even constructed a taxi stand! But here, eventhough I was warned about the country of no-public-transport a hundred times by my hubby himself, his bro-sis, my cousins.... I think I was too pampered in London to have a-minute-a-train-to-the-place-you-want-to-go style of transportation. We finally decided to go and talk to an old couple by the coffee shop about our situation. We told them that we dont even have the number or a mobile fone to call for a taxi. They were very kind to offer us help and called for a taxi on behalf of us! It does not stop there! When they saw us waiting for the taxi for nearly 20 mins the old lady, offered us a drop to the train station which she did very happily.She said that she is living in this place for the past 40 years and she has found no other place this good! We were floored by her help. Can you guess what we did next? We signed the apartment the next day! This is the only apartment we viewed and we are very happy now that we made this decision! With the view of Mount Diablo from your balcony and very nice people around what more could one ask for?

These are some of the photos taken from my balcony for the views I have mentioned!

It is a west facing balcony... and the sunset is un-imaginable... will post some good fotos of 'em later.