Encounter of a close friend :)

Finally one week break from work. Many memorable things happened. Booked my train ticket online. When reached the mentioned station, locals told me that the train i am talking about comes at a different station which is 15km away from here there is no road and no conveyance in between. WTF ... i will definately write an email to indian railways soon ... thank god that i had one hour in hand, somehow convinced a chagda to drop me there by paying extra bucks ... what an amazing ride ... cruzing through villages in this colorful machine :)

esp. gujarati road transport :)

Finally got the train ... reached ahmedabad at 3 in the morning ... took a hotel ... slept ... elections in gujarat today ... very caotic and roads filled with police and army ... reached VFS office at 10 in the morning ... closed because of election!!! how clever i was to keep an extra day in hand .... my train ticket from ahmedabad to delhi was next day evening ...

Met a couchsurfer, a textile businessman from ahmedabad and went for dinner with him. He told me how textile industry in india works and effects of recession etc. etc. ... very interesting!

Applied for visa next day and after watching a 3rd class movie, left for delhi (my ticketsgot confirmed minutes before the train departure time). Travelled in first class for first time in life... ahhh royal it is! ... on one side of my coach, there was general unreserved class coach ... atleast 200 people in there ... all in sweat and uncomfertable ... in my coach, which is of the same size, there were 30 people, in there own personal cubicles, air conditioned and with plenty of servents to serve. I didnt liked this difference very much ... but satisfied myself by varifying that i bought this so expensive ticket (only slightly les then flight) because of unavailability of the same in other cheaper classes. Is this a general capitalist mindset?

Anyways, reached New Delhi. My very good friend Aakash is giving a party to celebrate his marraige. He is the first of my friends to get married ... it was strange at first to digest everything ... too much for me ... cant think of getting married now ... to much turbulance in life ... anyways gifted the couple Kamasutra for a happy sex life :) ...

With the couple ... hehe ... lovely people!

Left for gurgaon the same evening. Met few old friends like Hansu, Gangwal, Yogi etc. Had a drink with them in a trendy bar specially for cricket fans over some silly IPL match. Gurgaon is the ugliest area i have ever seen ... a concrete jungle with no flavour .....

Friends

Left back to ahmedabad. Again spent a day in the city. This time met a photographer couchsurfer. Amazingly he had met jorunn in delhi almost 3 years ago (the one who took you from delhi to gurgaon in bus and helped you in buying spices!) ... now how to discribe this??? Nice guy, showed me around the old city ... 3 darwaza ... juma masjid ... lasssi and shopping ...
ended the day with a hollywood action flick fast and furious 4. Left for work next morning.

Couple with family

So, as of now back to work ... but hopefully not for long ...lets see ... keeping fingures crossed!

A heartfilled hug to all the readers :)
Karan

A tryst with China - Part 4

This will be my last post from china most probably. I am leaving back to India on 31st of March. For initial 2 months here I was so bored that I was ready to leave any day and the irony is when the time has come, I am not 100% confident if I want to leave. This is partly because finally I have made some real good Chinese friends in Nantong and partly because I am afraid of what’s ahead for me in India. But anyways I know I have to return so I am not thinking about this anymore. In my 11 weeks (read 11 weekends!) of stay in china till now I have been to yangzhou once, to wuxi once, to suzhou twice and to shanghai thrice. During left 4 weekends, I hosted couchsurfers on 2 and had fun with Chinese friends on other 2.

The English names of my Chinese friends in nantong are as follows:
1. Polo
2. Bill Gates Senior
3. Bill Gates Junior
4. Ice Girl
5. Cherry
6. Orange
:) Amazing isn’t it? :)

Polo my darling :)

Chinese friends, Indian dance :)

As a foreigner in China, the question which I was asked maximum times is “You are living in china from 2 months. Why don’t you have a chinese girl friend?” … hehe … every time I am asked this question … I am left speechless … because I know the person who is asking this has a different definition of girlfriend then me … so I don’t try to explain … and let them understand that there is some problem with me! Actually I met a beautiful girl few days ago who fell for me slightly but I refrained from taking it any further as I knew I am leaving soon. Pufffff … “the thing” between opposite sex and me is like that only! :)

The Chef :)

The ultimate chinese self-cooked dinner!

Anyone?

This weekend I learned to cook “malata” from polo. It’s a chinese dish in which you have a choice to choose any vegetable or meat or noodle etc. You give the things you have chosen to the cook which puts all of them in a soup and cooks it for few minutes. And here we go … instant delicious Chinese malata is ready. The secret of this dish is the soup and no shopkeeper wants to tell the integrants. My friend polo once had a malata shop and hence he knows how to cook it :) Also I did a lot of shopping … Chinese traditional knife for a colleague, TT bat for my brother, leather hand bag for my mother, Chinese green tea for my father, grandfather and many others, Great Wall red wine for friends back home etc. etc.

Eating something very hot and sweet ... hehe :)

Posing on the stage of chinese classical opera :)

Last weekend I invited polo and other friends to my apartment. We watched hindi video songs together and even danced! They couldn’t stop wondering on the songs (esp. songs from Lakshya like “agar mai kahun” with Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta). And then there was a declaration from one of them “Indians must be happiest people on earth” :)

Eating spicy food in Wuxi!

Hiking in an orange farm with Chris from Canada :)

All in all I had good time in China. I made friends for life, understood the most populous country in the world, enjoyed cooing and eating chinese food, hated the work, learned few Chinese words, watched a lot of DVDs and wondered where our human civilization is leading … I am returning home better informed and satisfied but my journey towards “wisdom unlimited” continues …

Few things I like about china:
1. The respect and proud they have for their culture (except morals and values. These dimensions keep on changing depending upon whether it bring prosperity or not!)
2. Amazing food (yes you can enjoy Chinese food even if you are vegetarian!)
3. Slim, beautiful, amazingly charming, sexy and mysterious chinese fairer sex
4. Chinese government knows what they want. They want to be rich and powerful, and they are going for it … everything else is secondary!
5. Beautiful Gardens

Few things I hate about China:
1. They can’t mix with other civilizations, I don’t really know why! A simple proof is the existence of china town in every other big city in the word. So it’s difficult to feel at home in china.
2. They really don’t care about the environment. They use infinite amount of plastic and are polluting atmosphere with every harmful gas discovered by humans till date. To justify themselves they give example of the industrial revolution period of the western world. And I am sure they will not change their mind.
3. A new soulless younger generation is emerging. I have never encountered youths who are so empty in any other place. China’s one child policy and ban on practicing any religion are major culprits I think. Religious places are nothing more then tourist attractions today.
4. Their obsession with America. I wonder at the speed china is Americanizing and the cultural confusion/shock this phenomenon has created here! Every developing country in the world has westernized to an extent, thanks to open market policies, but China has crossed the limits. Somehow, I think moral policing in India has saved us from this blunder, and I am glad.

I will remember the time i spent in china ...

There are many things to say but as every proud traveler does, I remember more then I write and I write more then I remember. The excitement of future, tensions of present and memories of past are taking over me.

Peace Out!

A tryst with China - Part 3

Love is my freedom,

Work is my play,

Art is my expression,

Creativity is my passion,

Joy is my emotion,

Sole is my boundary,

Relax is my style …

I saw these lines written on the glass door of a stylish shanghai leather goods shop. I couldn't stop myself from noting it down. It expresses so much of me that is hidden inside me …

.

I have been to shanghai 3 times now. It’s great to feel the world’s largest city. People from all corners of world reside here. Most of them are here for business, some for teaching languages. There are around 3 million foreigners in this city, 1 million out of which are Indians. The night life of the city is one of the most vibrant in the world because of these foreigners. They earn according to there living standards back home, in $, while residing in china. That makes almost everyone of them capable of going out and partying.

.

I lived with an American couchsurfer Matthew, exactly my age, a computer science graduate from Berkley, working for a computer games company in shanghai. Earlier, I had couchsurfed with Aaron, a Chinese guy, exactly my age, a finance graduate from shanghai who would be working for Deloit. I couldn’t stop myself from comparing the life style of two of them and then relating it to mine. I must say, it was a great learning experience.

.

I went to a Chinese university to meet Jo, a Norwegian couchsurfer, where she is doing her internship. The vibe of the place reminded me of my days at iit kharagpur. The excitement, the buzz, the die hard wish to live … not to make a living, gives the university environment a special charm that no other community has. And I realized that I would love to go back to a university as a student … not because I have any interest in studying or academic research, but because I want to live this life again. And I am glad that I am going there very soon!

.

There is this huge hype in the media from past 2 days about slumdog millionaire wining 8 Oscars. Some are wondering on why it won, and some are wondering on why India is celebrating this victory so much! CCTV 9, a Chinese international English channel made fun of this by quoting that even Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh congratulated the team … despite of the fact that producer, director, backing studios etc. are all from US and UK. They showed movie clipping of Indians celebrating on streets and laughed over it asking why? … I thought I will tell them why … this movie won Oscars because it’s a movie from the land where heart is the king … this movie won Oscars because it gives a message to the world about mad love and mad faith, two feeling which are so imbibed in every Indian soul … imagine jamal sitting on the hot seat on his last question and imagine lathika picking up the phone … and then imagine the few moments that followed … you feels like a human being don’t you? … madly in love … and this movie is all about these moments … and these moments are so much a part of everyday Indian life. That is why we were celebrating on streets. We were celebrating because the world celebrated this feeling for the first time, we were celebrating because world realized how much love and faith and belief India is filled with. Off course, the direction and the technique and the publicity are also a big reason of the victory and without international collaborations, this may not have happened … but we are celebrating because the mad Indian love won hearts all over the world … To understand more the reason of our celebration, I would recommend readers to read “Shantaram”. It’s a novel about a life of an Australian in Mumbai slums. He wrote it, and he did a magnificent job, it gave me goose bumps … and it did the same to readers all across the globe … but I celebrated it … because it was the victory of Indian mad love and faith … I hope this satisfies the CCTV 9 correspondents!

.

As far as my life in china goes, I am not working at all, I don’t give a damn about shipbuilding, I surf on internet all the day, I spend all the weekdays planning my weekend … and I have been having really nice time till now :) … and I have realized that I am not a self driven person … it would have been the same if I would have been in any other field and someone would have left me completely free for 3 months expecting me to learn something!!! … if you want some work from me … you will have to stand on my ass … leave me free and I will fly … to see the world from my own angles!

Here are some pictures:

Just listen to the music! :)

chinese kiss!

Look who is hiding? :)

I have my piss in the waters of Canada, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Malaysia, Germany, UAE, Nepal and India ... what an amazign feeling it is :)

:)

Pagoda jump!

Chinese english! :)

Jo, lost among thousands of wishes...

First chinese friends :)

Can there be a kid more cute then him/her :)

With love, as always ...
Karan

A tryst with China - Part 2

Well, I was getting a spiritual thought, so I thought I should write it down before it disappears. During my travels:

1. I saw 2 young Chinese kids fighting like sumo fighter, imitating as much as they can remember from tv, just as I used to do with my brother when I was a kid.
2. I couchsurfed in shanghai with a Chinese guy of my age, his parents took care of me as if I was their son. They cooked for both of us with equal love, his mother put quilt on my feet when it got displaced at night, just as my mother would have done.
3. I saw a young Chinese couple seeing into each others eyes conveying everything they want to say as if their souls were talking with each other through the medium of their vision. It’s a language which only lovers know and speak all over the world.
4. I saw a serious street fight emerging from simple ego of 2 Chinese car drivers.
5. I saw a father helping his son in burning fire crackers during Chinese New Year Festival.

All this makes me feel like I am a part of one big human race, one fraternity, with one common reason of creation and one common god. Generally we see or hear people from a distance and make a general notion about them, like for example: Muslims are orthodox, Chinese are dumb headed, Japanese follow the rules, all Indians can dance, all white westerners are sex starving etc. etc. … these all are just the projections of their material self which is highly governed by events which happen in their life and how that relate from ours. You live with them and you realize, we are all the same, one big race … humans! This is definitely a much stronger feeling then for example being an Indian or for that matter, Hindu.

This is one of the important reasons why I like the couchsurfing concept.

Regarding my recent adventures, experiences and travels, I will just paste a photo gallery here and will leave the rest for you to wonder!

Shanghai CS meeting-28th Jan'09, representatives from China, India, US, France, Norway, Australia, Canada, Germany, Latvia :)

With Shanghai CS Ambassador - Philip

One fine morning in china :)

After solving a puzzle in a beautiful shanghai cafe!

Shanghai KTV :)

Clubbing @ Shelter in Shanghai! :)

Result of playing truth or dare after a Chinese hot-pot meal: Sing "My heart will go on" with a Chinese girl holding her hand :)

Zo!

After eating duck, frog, chicken, pork, shrimps, mule, jelly fish ... its time for an octopus meal! :P

Lots of love and keep rocking!

Karan

A tryst with China - Part 1

Hello readers. Greetings for 2009! After being away for quite some time, I finally decided to write. A lot happened in between, many different things like many chapters of the book. I can just say that it was not the best time for me ... but ups and downs are part of life no? ... Presently i am in China and will stay here for 3 months. This is a change that I desperately needed from my monotonous life back in India, and i am really glad i am here.

The Great Indian Naval Architect! :)

I landed on shanghai pudong international airport on 1st January 2009. My Malaysia Airlines flight took off at 11:55 pm on 31st December from Mumbai. At midnight, I was right on top of Mumbai. Imagine what scene was in front of my eyes. Mumbai, a mega metropolis, was shining with red and yellow lights till the horizon. As the clock ticked 12, the pilot form the cockpit, in English spoken by only pilots, wished happy new year to all the passengers. But my attention was somewhere else. I was seeing the Mumbai midnight fireworks from the top. I leave the rest to be imagined by the reader (actually I don't want to underestimate the aura of that moment by describing it in my strangely broken English!)

Well, just to make a point, Malaysia Airlines is really very comfortable with good food and sexy air hostesses in very traditional Malaysian dresses. Point to note: They serve guava juice in flight which I liked a lot!. I had a break journey with flight change at Kuala Lumpur. I changed 10 USD into Malaysian currency, got 44 ringgits and ate a croissant with a regular coffee in a French café at the airport. I wanted to buy a souvenir but couldn't decide in the short time I had, so planed to take something when I return. I boarded the flight for Shanghai. To my surprise both the flights from Mumbai to Kuala Lumpur and from there to shanghai were almost empty. I felt glad that they weren't cancelled.

Pudong international airport of shanghai was also completely empty. This really surprised me because after all, it's china. How can any place be empty? Anyways, I changed my currency, collected my baggage, cleared the immigration and got out of the airport ….. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee what the f**k …. It's so coooooold. After wearing five layers of clothes, I was regretting that I didn't had sixth. I found a driver waiting with my sign board on the airport (lol, it was funny, it made me feel like a rich man!). As we drove towards nantong, a city 120 km from shanghai, were I am supposed to live for the coming months, I was confused. And it was because the roads were also empty. For a moment I thought that I landed in some other country. I couldn't discuss this with driver as he didn't spoke a work of English. We reached my hotel in nantong in 2.5 hours.

Chinese KTV (Karaoke TV)

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Hotel was amazing, probably the best and costliest I have ever lived in. I expected the hotel staff to speak English but they didn't, not even a word. I ate noodles my first night in china, which I later realized, had beef extracts. Though almost no one speaks English in china, I realized it very quickly that it will be easier to communicate here then in France. This is because as a foreigner you get a lot of attention and people look forward to talk to you. When people stare at me here, I realize the cause of ultimate frustration which some foreigners have in India … and I blame no one … because I understand why I myself stare at a foreigner so hard back in India. It's a strange feeling and you have to belong to India or for example China to feel that.

Next morning, after meeting my boss, I headed to meet a couchsurfing friend. Her name is Eveline, she is from Cameroon in Africa. Her family shifted to America few years ago and she then came to china to teach English. China hosts a huge number of foreigners, esp. from English speaking countries, who come here as English teachers. We met for lunch. I ordered something without giving much attention to the menu and later realized that whole lunch was priced 22 RMB and a regular black coffee was priced 33 RMB. WTF!!! A Chinese friend of Eveline, QiQi (pronounced chee chee) joined us during lunch. She is also an English teacher, and a GenX Chinese for sure. She told me that only foreigners drink coffee in china and so to make money, it is almost always over priced. Now after living 10 days in china, I realize how money minded these Chinese people are. The whole nation seems obsessed with earning money. People don't even know right, wrong, ethical, unethical, important, unimportant … nothing … they just want to make money. QiQi helped me to buy a local china mobile sim card (100 RMB including 100 RMB talk time). I spend the rest of the day reading a book which I bought at crossword in Mumbai “China Road” by Rob Gifford. Next day, with the help of my boss I rented an apartment for 3 months. It cost me 1400 RMB per month + Electricity + Water + 400 RMB broker charge. The apartment is really nice but is surely overpriced. My boss told that it's difficult to get an apartment for 3 months so quickly. I had to shift immediately as I was staying in a very expensive hotel (300 RMB a day), so I took it.

With a chinese couple during their wedding banquet!

I will summarize my china experience till date point wise:

1. Went to lot of nice bars in the city like Heavens bar, Angels bar, Tiger Tiger bar etc. The good point of going to a bar is everyone speaks English (made esp. for foreigners remember?) so you can have some nice chat with people there, most of which are foreign English teachers, travelers, business men with lot of great stories to tell.

2. Chinese food is not as hostile as people tell you back in India. Believe me, being a vegetarian (well … almost!), I have gained weight in 10 days. They have lot of great vegetarian verities too. It's just difficult to figure out if you don't speak Chinese. It's a different story that I have tried jelly fish, 54% alcoholic chinese wine which burns your throat more then chivas regal and few other things which are better left unmentioned.

3. Chinese people have 2 names, one Chinese and one English, they have 2 birthdays, and they host their marriage parties 2 times!

4. Went to a Chinese wedding. Obsession of Chinese people with karaoke is also eminent in marriage celebrations. Many sing and speak for the happy life of couple. During a meal, Chinese people can do cheers as many numbers of times they want. It's really funny.

5. The most important observation I had in china is that how obsessed they are with the western civilization. It seems that the sudden opening of china to the world and the ultra rapid development after that has taken Chinese people with the storm. There are ultra modern roads but they don't know how to drive, they were the costliest brand of western cloths (those brands which have not even entered India till now have showrooms even in second hand Chinese cities) but they don't know how to carry them, they live in ultra modern houses but have a very poor personal hygiene. The whole country, the young, the old, the rich, the poor … just everyone is swept away by something that is happening to china. They were never allowed to make decisions and suddenly they have so many choices in front of them. They are confused with this quick positive change with no one to guide them. And I think this is why the world is afraid of china, if you understand what I mean.

With QiQi :)

My wish to travel distant places has somehow worked during the past few years. I have gained and lost many things during these times. I made friends for life, fell in love, lost it (really? ... ehh ... not sure!), drank and ate some most auspicious dishes existing on planet earth, visited engineering and natural marvels, learned a lot professionally and did what not! On the other side, I learned the importance of keeping association with my motherland and my family where ever I am in the world. I learned to accept the differences that exist in this world as just another form of reality.

Overall I have realized one very important thing about my life. I am not born to be an engineer for sure. Somehow I am not able to convince myself that I am born to built ships!!! I love to live in my virtual world with my abstract ideas. Maybe I would become a teacher or a journalist one day … the holy search continues!

With Love,
Karan Bhawsinka

The French Experience!!! part - 3

Salut!
Few days ago I went to Rennes for a weekend with my German friends Carina and Alina. It's a beautiful city around 250 km from Brest and is the capital of Brittany region. We went there by carpooling and obviously couchsurfed.

Crazy people

It was fun!!! I will try to brief my experiences in points:

1. Every Saturday, Rennes is buzzing because of its beautiful street market. So we went there to know about local French customs. We bought some great Jam with caramel and apricot which I plan to take back home. We talked to a person who was selling meat. I enquired about a strange looking thing and he said that they are "balls" of duck ... and they are from India! :O :O :O ... he said that people in India eat a lot of these balls ... after this I didn't had the guts of telling him that I am from India! :)

Market sceen! :)

Can you dare to eat this?

2. We saw some really interesting things on the streets. Here, just a day before marriage, bride goes out with his friends in strange funky clothes (one I saw was wearing a condom over his head!) and is allowed to kiss any woman he likes on streets. And no girl refuses to offer him a kiss as this is his last chance to kiss different women then her would be wife :) ... funny ... isn't it? The same is also followed for bridegrooms ... no partiality :P

Got Kissed :)

3. This city has a street known as La rue de la soif ... or "The Street of Thirst". Its famous all over France. Its filled with pubs, curtsy the huge student population of the city :) Thursday night is the time to be here ... its crazy ... people rolling on streets ... girls howling on there boyfriends, puke everywhere and loud music ... yeah ... a true symbol of western student lifestyle :)

The king of good times! :D

4. If you ask for a café in France and don't mention anything else then you will be served with an espresso coffee. It's so strong that most of the time you will end up leaving it like that! So if you want a decent coffee which you can drink if you try hard ... ask for a 'café grand' ... which is served with a bit more sugar and a little milk :)

5. If you are in France and you have to attend a French Birthday and if you don't know what to buy as a gift ... don't worry ... just pick up any interesting road sign from the street and present it as a gift. Almost every French student have few of them in their rooms. When they are drunk and when they want to do something mischievous ... this is the best thing they can think of almost every time :P

?!?!?!?!

I think these were the funniest things that I experienced in Rennes but many other things happened. We bought some cedar, baguette and goat and sheep cheese for our lunch (wow ... completely French!) ... discussed about wine and Christianity where I foolishly declared wine as unpurified blood of Jesus :O, had some drinks and joints (French call it 'shit') with our great couchsurfing host Helen, met a guy at Street of Thrust who wanted to kiss me :P, met a gay couple (according to alina they were gay but I doubt it!) ... got kicked by a French drunkard because alina teased him and he didn't wanted to fight with a girl :P ... mmmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmmm :) this trip was fun! :D

The Kabab Times!! :)

Santé, (cheers in French!)
Karan

The French Experience!!! part - 2

Bonjour mes amis!

My life in France till now have been really eventful. Lots of friends, lots of parties and lots of crazy stuff :)

HeHe!!!

One thing that helped me the most here is the fact that during this time of the year, most of the local french students go back to there homes and lots of international students come here for there work placements. And they speak so better English then French do! ... I am glad :)

Since my last post, I have actually gathered a lots of things to write about. I was invited to a lot of dinners and parties by my colleagues here at IFREMER. So I know a lot about french eating habits and etiquettes now and I can understand why french are so proud of there gastronomy. Believe me, french food is the richest food you will get anywhere on earth ... and if eaten the french way, it even becomes more delicious :) They have a concept of long lunches and long dinners which can extend up to 6 to 7 hours. I am very glad that I was a part of one such dinner. It started at 8 in the evening and ended at 2:30 in the morning ... fuck! :)

Just before the great dinner!

Being a vegetarian, I was first served with salad and wine. I thought that this is my dinner and I am expected to fill up my self with this and hence I ate a lot of it with few glasses of red wine. I was almost full. I thought that we will talk a bit and then leave back to our homes. But surprisingly then came the second round of food. Rice, meat, potatoes and lots of vegetables with bread and more red wine. :O ... what I am supposed to do now!!! OK ... I ate a bit of it just to be courteous because my host made a vegetarian dish specially for me and sipped a bit more of wine. Till now I always used to think that the older the wine the better it is. My concept got cleared in this party. Actually the quality of wine depends upon a lot of things like the sun, the rain, the wind etc. etc. during the time when they are manufactured. That is why few years have become very famous for the quality of wine ... Like 1947, 2005 ... etc. etc. If you go to the market to buy wine, you can clearly see that the wine from these years are much more costly then others. I hope I cleared some of your funda :) Now coming back to the dinner thing ... after rice and vegetables, I was almost ready to leave.

They are doing 3 cheers for India :)

But wait ... there is something more in the kitchen for us :) This time its bread and lots of verity of cheese! Pffff ... This time I managed to ask the host if something more is in the store after this round :) And yes ... how can we leave without eating the apple pies!!! wow ... so we finished everything at 2:30 am ... I think we drank 4 LT of red wine and a bottle of rum by then .. hehe ... it was really funny ... :) ... My first 4 course French meal! All were drunk ... all were happy ... and all were talking dirty :P ... I cannot imagine my professors or even anybody of their age in India to talk with me on topics we discussed that night :)

Nicole's Farewell Party

I have tried many things here. I played volleyball with a local team here and believe me ... I was among the good players :) I also tried playing soccer ... hehe ... but very soon I realised that its france :) ... they really played much better then me ... but it was a good experience after all.

Few points to note about france:

1. There are very less coin phones here. If you want to call, you either use your credit card or an international/national calling card. So if you have to call immediately after you reach france, it can be complicated. Better arrange a calling card before!

2. French eat with a unique style. But its interesting to see the way they eat bread. You can compare that with chapaties in India :)

3. Beware if you are not used to a lot of sea food and if you plan to try something new! I ate a lot of mussels once because I found them delicious but only ended up vomiting 3 times in a row. I coudnt sleep that night and it was a bad experience. You need to train your stomach slowly for sea food :)

4. Drinking and smoking is strangly acceptable in their culture. All they do to have fun is drink! And its same for all age group. But the funny thing is everyone drinks together :) ... imagine doing that in india!!! :)

5. You can travel really cheap by carpooling and couchsurfing. I have traveled to a different city for a weekend in just 30 euros ... better then TGV and youth hostel no? :)

Sharing a light moment with friends :)

Travelling is definately bringing me closer to the ultimate reallity .... I have a lot more stories for you but at the same time I realise that I have just one month left here ...

Let the French Connection prevail ... :)

Au Revoire !

Karan