Showing posts with label Holi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holi. Show all posts

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Netherlands - Part 5

Hey everyone! What up?

I know, I know ... its been a while since my last post. But that just means I have a lot of stories and pictures to share :) 

This year, I, sayantani and some friends from Wageningen went to Delft to celebrate Holi festival. Amarjeet invited us and we just couldn't say no. And i am glad we went there. Holi to a European is like a techno music festival with colours. But for an indian, its so much more. The colours, the bollywood beats, the bhang, the carefree vibe, the memories from so many previous holi festivals ... its an emotional and moving experience. And by far, its my favourite festival.

Me and Amarjeet in Delft @ Holi 2014
Shan in her Goddess Kali avatar :P
We painted Delft with colours :)
Kodak moment :D
It was a day to remember! I will be in Delft next year for the celebrations, and you should join me this time! 

In the beginning of May, Aakash and Amrita came to visit me for few days. I was meeting them after 5 years! I made a small plan to give them a real dutch experience! We went to Giethoorn and stayed there overnight in a farmhouse De Opkikker (www.deopkikker.com). Its a beautiful farm with chickens and goats and 6 km by bike to the touristic village of giethoorn. Amrita didn't knew how to bike so we rented one tandem and one normal bike. It was so much fun. I think they really enjoyed the biking experience with beautiful scenery and sheeps everywhere :)  

One of the canals in Giethoorn village
Aakash enjoying the view :)
Playing with the chickens ... the one on the left was a very aggressive rooster :P
Biking Selfie and Ye dosti hum nahi tode ge moment! :)
Aakash and amrita on tandem ... it was a very scenic biking route from the farm to giethoorn
Aakash and amrita in Wageningen on a rainy day :P
After coming back from Giethoorn, we went to Amsterdam for one day. Sayantani joined us there. We did the Sandman's free walking tour and walked around in the Red light district. 

The one at Amsterdam Centraal ;)
Shan feeding the pigeons at Dam Square ... sooo happy she is!
Next day after coming back from Amsterdam, they left for Germany to meet another friend. I had a great time with them!!

In between all this, i got chance to go sailing with the Rotterdam Pilots. They are the people responsible for guiding the ships in and out of the Port of Rotterdam. It was a fantastic opportunity and i was very impressed by their work. To have an overall idea of what i did, see this video.

Ahoy Captain! :D ... enroute North Sea
Onboard the fancy Pilot Station Vessel 'Polaris'

Well, now the most important thing that happened to me recently ... i met Sayantani's parents :P

With Sayantani and her family @ durga pooja celebrations in Voorschoten
One thing that i find really interesting is the history of Indian community in Holland. There is a large bengali population here for some reason. And offcourse there are large number of Surinamese people who have ancestral connections to India. Here is a nice report on this topic. And here is a nice website for all the indians living in The Netherlands.

So thats it for the moment. But i promise you, there are exciting times ahead :) I will be in touch shortly!

Love,
Karan

Monday, March 25, 2013

Netherlands - Part 3


Hello everyone,

As you can see, i am not quite keeping up with my new year resolution. I couldn't upload my blog in February L ... but well, i hope to be more frequent in future.  On the other hand, i completed one of my resolutions. I submitted a conference paper and it got accepted. So i am going to Marseille on 6th April to present it. The conference is called IWWWFB (International Workshop on Water Waves and Floating Bodies) and the website is - http://www.iwwwfb.org/. After the conference, i took couple of days off. So including the weekend, i will have a lot of time for sightseeing and for getting some sun in Marseille J. I cannot wait as i am getting pretty fed up of crappy Dutch weather. And off-course i will be couchsurfing on my free days!

Apart from that, i really need to put more effort in learning Dutch quickly. Other international colleagues who started with me are already on a more advanced level than me. I have to agree, i have been lazy on this front, almost never doing my homework L ... a couple of weeks ago, the director of my company suggested me that i should find a Dutch girlfriend. According to him it’s the best way to speedup Dutch learning. I have to agree, it seems to be working for other internationals who have Dutch partners haha but well, i told him it’s too late for that now ;)

For the moment, there are quite a lot of things to look forward in life. Coming weekend is a super-long weekend with Friday and Monday off and on Saturday I will go to Arnhem with my housemates and other friends from Wageningen to celebrate holi. And guess what, we have plans to make space cake and bhang before the holi party :D. Then the next weekend i fly to marseille for a week. After that, i want to finally go to keukenhof to see the iconic tulip fields. Than by the end of May, i am planing to take a month long holiday to go to India. Probably i am going to be deep fried with all the heat!! But well on the other side, i will eat so many mangoes J. We have mango trees just outside my dad’s clinic and my brother who is right now in sitamarhi for holidays told me that its already possible to pluck unripe mangoes from first floor windows haha. I also plan to do a lot of travelling in India this time. I will probably visit mumbai, bangalore and hyderabad.

Well that was a shot update of things that are happening in my life. For the moment, i am having a ball! Hope you are as well.

My second job ;)

Groetjes,
Karan

Monday, June 11, 2012

Netherlands - Part 2

Hello everyone,

So it has been more then 4 months since i came to Wageningen. Life has been very interesting since then. I have met some really cool people in town and my job at MARIN is very challenging. So life has been good! I dont have a lot of time to write at the moment, so this blog post will be with lots of pictures instead ;)

  • We celebrated Shankar Ji's birthday in style
Birthday celebration of Shankar ji :)
Us fulfilling the 'cake in your face' ritual :)
We had a picnic at the Rhine river before Birthday celebrations!
  • We went to Texel island for a weekend

Brunch with the twins before catching the ferry
We biked almost 30 km that day on texel
Enjoying at  the beach!
Break from biking :)
With Kuppu (R) and Shankar (L) near the harbour
The Texel Gang!
  • Me, John and Marta hosted a big Couchsurfing meeting @ my apartment
The CS crew
I love couchsurfing :)
Food @ Spicy potluck in wageningen!
Watching Holland-Denmark soccer game with the CS gang @ the doctor's pub
lol :)
The CS crew after the match @ Wageningen Center
  • My legs in Holland!
The most precious thing i own in wageningen!
  • Claire came to visit me in Wageningen from France and we went to see Perrine :)
Flowers and Claire :) 
  • So one of the best Holi celebration of my life was in Holland! 
Holi 2012 @ Arnhem
  • I traveled to Antwerp with Elske
Yes we are tourists :P
Belgian beers and me... mmmmm
Rock and Roll party at Antwerp
We time traveled to 50's that night :)
So that's all for the moment! I have few things lined up in coming weeks and i am very excited about them. I am going to Istanbul in July to meet Saima!!!! And then Ewa is coming to Wageningen for  2 weeks in the beginning of August :)

Good times!!! :)

Tot dan,
Karan