Eid Mubarak

Eid-ul-Fitr used to be the day I used to look forward to the most when I was a kid. Because on that day, I would get my pocket money for the rest of the year, and wear my new Eid clothes. Time has passed, and now it isn't payday nor do I have to wait for Eid to shop for new clothes. And I have gone from celebrating with family to spending Eid in an office far away from home. But one thing that has remained constant is the tradition of having biryani on Eid. My mom makes the world's best biryani so mine isn't half as good. But I am sure my biryani would make her proud.

Somewhere I belong

My Masters is drawing to a close and I have been breaking my head over the decision to stay in Germany or go back home. This is not a recent thing, as the question has been bugging me for a long time now. I am sure where I want to be, and a call home just about clears all confusion. But I also think about the occasional extraordinary things I get to do here. Somehow I get into (futile) conversation with people over the matter. I am not someone who takes advice seriously, but I guess it is about listening to others' point of view, which are mostly along these lines:

'Work a few years and then go back'
'Follow your heart'
'Don't follow your heart'
'You are an idiot'
'Life is comfortable here. No late trains. No traffic. You don't need a car.'
'You are abroad with better standard of living. What is not to like?'
'Better work culture here, no working weekends'

I have also been reading about NRI experiences in an effort to find like-minded people. It was heartening to know that it is common to feel the lack of 'sense of belonging' and to miss things back home. The best piece I found on the subject is here, and I don't think I can sum it up better than what she has written.

It is funny how you arrive with stars in your eyes, you are blown away by the beauty of the new place and the well mannered disciplined life, only to then feel that something is missing. Call it culture shock, call it nostalgia, but it is something that has to be fixed. You have to let go of all that is familiar, to adapt to a way of life that is a world of a difference from what you are comfortable with. I have failed at that, blame it on being alone, or on a perfect life before I came here. But I do not understand how Indians here are happy living this dichotomous life, where you spend your life in a foreign country, cooking Indian food everyday (but longing for all the food that you don't get/can't cook), constantly following everything happening in India (from the internet of course), missing family and friends - only to visit them once a year in a hurried affair, and resorting to low quality web streaming in the name of TV and cinema. Basically, living a desi life in phoren.

Why all this sacrifice - for 'higher standard of living' and some extra money, which does not increase your purchasing power a great deal anyway. For me, having clean roads and good public transportation does not mean a higher standard of living. I should be able to visit people I love when I wish, eat anything I want, feel like I belong to a place, where I can make a difference to at least my loved ones if not others, where I feel the warmth. Small things matter, like being able to afford eating out and not missing special occasions and festivals. And I beg to differ, but I so need a car. And anybody complaining of work culture and hectic schedules has obviously not worked in a semiconductor company.

I could stay back a few years, as per my original plan, but I have pushed myself so deep into negativity that staying here longer would be a real grind. I would wake up every morning thinking 'What if..' and 'I wish…'. There is also a fear that things might change and like most people, that plan to return will never materialize. And surely, I cannot and probably, should not catch a flight everytime a close friend is getting married or something. Over the past two years I have done and seen a lot of things I have always dreamt of. Having done that, I want to regain my sense of wonder, my ambition and realize another set of dreams. I know where I will be happy and the pursuit of happiness is most important. Everything else can take a back seat.

My new Galaxy

My Sony Ericsson k750i has been with me for almost 5 years. But even for that age, it was still in pretty solid shape. Ok, the speakers were low on volume, and it had lost its looks. But the music player was outstanding as always and so I would turn a deaf ear to anyone who would ask me to get a new phone. But lately, the earphone socket also got loose which meant it was a pain to even listen to music. So I advanced my smartphone purchase and now I am a proud owner of a very beautiful Samsung Galaxy S. It is so much sexier than I thought. I even fell in love with the box it came in. 

I decided not to go for the Iphone 4 with it's closed ecosystem, and double price for only slightly better looks. I have already installed some cool apps, like synthesizers, puzzles and a few games. The file transfer system is a breeze, just like a USB drive, and video any format no problem. And the blog looks fantastic too, with the compressed pixels.

 

Since I get attached to anything under the sky, I had a hard time letting my ex-phone go. In fact, I removed the sim card a day after I got the galaxy. After all, your phone is the only thing that is around you all the time. And in spite of lots of (unintentional) abuse, it never complained, never got stuck, never disintegrated. Anyone looking for a non-smartphone should pick the k750i, for its sturdiness in build and outstanding audio quality and battery life. No, I wont give you mine.

Moving on, I am hooked to my new baby. Nothing like a new gadget to pump excitement levels up.

And then I headed north

Benelux without the 'lux' was the final part of my planned summer travel series. We were to spend a day in Brussels, then Bruges overnight and then off to Netherlands.

I didnt expect much from Brussels, but what we saw was pretty nice - a centre resembling Munich's Marienplatz, the Atomium and some nice palace buildings.

Bruges was a quiet little town with the canals, and old houses. We were dead tired thanks to Eurolines dumping us in Brussels at 6am. The first thing we did in Bruges was take a good afternoon nap after checking in. For the comfortable beds, perfect pillows - which make a lot of difference - and full course breakfast in the bar all for 13€, St Christopher's Inn is the best hostel I have stayed in. One incident that marred proceedings was when we were (or rather, I was) refused to be served in a Bruges restaurant. I wanted to try out the mussels and fries dish - which was suposed to be a Belgian speciality - but my friends had to be taught that you do not sit at a table for four and order nothing. Anyway I went to the next place, but obviously the Belgians dont know what we mallus do with 'kallumakaya'.

Next stop was Kinderdjik near Rotterdam, to see the windmills Netherlands is known for. We had to change trains at Antwerp Centraal station, which was an architectural beauty. Never seen a station so pretty.

Only one of the 15 or so windmills at Kinderdjik was functional. Anyway, the windmills along the stream complemented by the brilliant sky that afternoon, meant both camera and cameraman were happy.

Amsterdam - wild, crazy party place - lived up to its name, with the crowded streets where people-cycle-tram move together, the party centres, the 'coffeeshops' and the redlight district. Mischief was in the air, and we joined in some of the fun too (wink wink). But since 'What happens in Amsterdam stays in Amsterdam', no details will appear here. And of course, the city was unlike any other in terms of all the beautiful canals running through it.

It was a fun trip with plenty of diversity in sights and craziness in activity. Amsterdam should definitely be 'high' on the list of destinations for any party-lover.

Landscape Suisse

I guess Switzerland caught everyone's fancy, including mine, after DDLJ and other Yash Chopra flicks. ( Of course, if one is into Hindi movies ). This was quite apparent with the sight of Indian families all over the place.

We had the Swiss pass, so we covered quite a lot during the 4-day trip. Two nights in Interlaken, one in Zermatt, and we touched Zurich and Bern on the way.

With Interlaken as base, we visited Grindlewald, Lauterbrunnen and Murren. We skipped the trip to the top of Jungfrau and Schilthorn because of the overcast conditions shown on the live cams.

The Swiss landscape was quite similar to the landscape of the German Alps, the latter being unspoilt and can be enjoyed for a fraction of the cost. Nonetheless, the mountains and nearby villages were very pretty and the snow-capped peaks were a sight whenever the clouds cleared. What is interesting is that the scenery looks so much better in the photographs I clicked. Must be the absence of crowds in the pics that adds to the surreal effect.

We loved Zermatt, for being a quiet town with the majestic Matterhorn overlooking it.

We spent a lot of time in trains. This included six hours on the Glacier express, which was a tourist trap I fell into. Switzerland is the place to hike, but I was with people who did not want to walk a mile, forget hiking. I feel a view is best when it has been earned. Would have definitely been an adventure. But anyway we didn't have too much time, and the only adventure I got was with white-water rafting. It was my first time, but the river was too calm and the thrills were hard to come by. Class III-IV rapids it seems, we were never remotely close to falling over. The guide said water levels were low, and it gets much better when the levels are good. At least, he allowed me to take a dip in the cold water for some time, and fake a fall-rescue sequence. Also, the photographs tell a different story.


Lovely place, but Switzerland does not fit the bill for 'Heaven on earth' yet. I guess it needs to be explored the the right way with a more relaxed time frame, maybe then it will get my vote.

Can I try?

Tennis has always been an exclusive sport, without easy access to equipment and courts. For me, in many ways, it still is because I dont find people to play with, even though I have rackets and access to a court.

While I was playing on the half court today, a few kids gathered just outside watching me play. Reminded me of the time when I was small and used to be fascinated by people playing tennis, wondering when will I ever get the chance. Once, my brother and I bought a pair of wooden rackets for 5 Dirhams and played on the road, but the rackets lasted only that one day. I could sense the fascination in those kids, and so I handed my extra racket to a kid. And there he was, all excited to try out his hand at tennis, and they took turns to play. Who knows, if one of them make it big, they might remember the start I gave them.

In our selfish world, nobody pays any attention to people on the sidelines. Those dreamy eyes, longing for a chance, go unnoticed. I am happy about my good deed and I will continue drooling over those Porsches, hoping for some karma.

Food for thought

Spending hours at work doing nothing ( because there is actually nothing to do ) invariably leads to philosophical questions like 'How can I find work that is truly satisfying?', 'How will I do this for the rest of my life?'. Reading articles and blogs leads to a desire to do something meaningful to serve people who could use some help. Listening to music gets me dreaming about leaving everything and just playing music. But then what follows is a realization that these wont pay my bills, and I will have to suck it up for much longer. When some good work comes along, these thoughts get thrown out the window, and I am more or less satisfied.

On yet another boring workday, I stumbled upon a brilliant article called 'Solitude and Leadership'. It pointed out how the leadership of most organisations just keeps the routine going. People at the top are there not because they are particularly competent, innovative, but just made it there to the top by means of a process. I am not trying to throw light at incompetent management ( I have worked with some useless ones, but also some brilliant people). The point is that most of us end up doing tasks that have very little significance on the overall scheme of the organisation, but just keeps the routine going. Every stage of the organisational hierarchy sucks up to the stage above. But companies make profit, so some people must be doing stuff that count or maybe the sum of our singular contributions works in favour of the company.

The article points out how distractions like Facebook, TV, Youtube, even newspapers prevent us from really concentrating and bombards us with a stream of other peoples thoughts, therefore not allowing your own thoughts to flourish. Solitude is needed to find yourself, for introspection to answer difficult questions about your life. Solitude is needed for concentration of focussed work. Your first thought is always someone else's and sticking to the question, letting all parts of your mind come into play breeds an original idea, and for a leader, a much-needed change in policy or strategy.

What I love about the article, is that it includes deep friendship as a part of solitude. Intimate conversation with people you trust, opening up to them and asking questions or expressing feelings, becomes a part of introspection, and enhances your solitude.

The article provides ample food for thought, which I may not have justified here. This rather preachy and philosophical post is to remind me to make better use of the abundance of solitude I seem to find and enjoy, to work on concentration and to celebrate the amazing friends I have.