Netherlands - Part 4

Hello hello lovely readers! How are you? Como estas? Hoe gaat het met jou? :P

I am back again with stories from my last few months :) A lot has happened recently .... I made a trip to India to attend Ranjeets wedding, I went to Hanover to visit Iris and I went to Spain for the christmas new years holidays! On top of that, Arvind Kejriwal became the chief minister of Delhi!! So I thought its a good time to share some pictures and experiences from past few months. So, I was in India for the last 2 weeks of November. During this time, I attended Ranjeet's wedding in Patna. I am super happy that I was there, with him, on Ranjeet's special day. 

Meeting him after 2 years on his wedding :)

It was a great experience for me in some ways. During the wedding, I realised that I have never really attended a real bihari wedding before. This realisation shook me a little as I realised that all my life, I have mostly attended marwari weddings! The amount of influence your caste and community can have on your life as an Indian is quite remarkable. Throughout Ranjeet's wedding, I could not help but compare bihari marriage ritual with marwari rituals. I was quite shocked to see that in the baraat, no girls were allowed. It was a kind of culture shock for me to see an all male baraat! But after enquiring a bit, I realised that this is quite common in most bihari weddings (and also in many weddings in UP area). Regardless, I enjoyed Ranjeets hospitality for 2 days with non stop food, chai and whisky :) And, I also got to meet couple of his cool friends (Sumit and Shashwat) and his loving family.

Ranjeet with this weird hat during one of the ceremonies :P

With the newly wed couple :)

After his wedding, I went home to Sitamarhi. This time, I celebrated my birthday at home after many many years. My parents organised a small party with some family and close friends. 

With my grand parents :) :)

Cutting the Cake for my 28th!

Mom organised Satyanarayan Pooja on my birthday 

Then it was time to come back to Holland. In December, I had few exceptionally busy days at work. But then it was time for Christmas-New Year holidays again :) Working at MARIN has an advantage here.It closes from 24th December to 2nd January for holidays! This is quite rare even for dutch companies. For this holiday, I went to Spain with few friends ... first to Barcelona from 24th Dec to 29th Dec and then to Madrid from 29th Dec to 2nd Jan. Spain is an amazing country and we had a blast during our trip :)

Smile please :)

We reached Barcelona on 24th late night and checked in our hostel HelloBCN (highly recommended for its location, friendliness and cleanliness, it's also quite cheap). As 25th and 26th December is a national holiday, the whole city was closed. Hence we decided to see nearby smaller cities for first couple of days. 

We went to Sitges (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitges), Girona (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girona) and Figueres (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figueres). I would recommend all 3 of them for anyone who is in Barcelona.

@Sitges

LOL :P

We had an amazing time in Barcelona! I met Jaume, my spanish colleague from MARIN, had some amazing spanish food (although its hard to be a vegetarian in Spain!), did a lot of Dali and Gaudi stuff (sagrada familia church in Barcelona is awe inspiring... a must visit monument if you are in the city ... buy your tickets online tough, we had to stand in line for 2 hours) and took a free guided tour organised by Sandeman (look below for details).  

eating tapas and drinking sangria :D

with Jaume, eating paella in Barcelona :P

@ Girona's old town

Oh yeah! :P

Main ramta jogiiiiii, Main ramta jogi :P

Priyanka eating Dali's egg at Figueres ;)

The Royal Heart by Salvador Dalí!

Me @ Dali museum in Figueres

Roof top of Sagrada Familia church .... a mesmerizing structure

Priyanka and Jasper @ Park Güell

Mesmerising view of Barcelona from Park Güell

In spain, they sell meat (ham) as we sell peanuts in India! Quite amazing ...

Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with Sandemans, look at this: http://www.neweuropetours.eu/. They have free guided tours in 18 cities. I took 2 of them (one in barcelona and one in madrid) and it was an amazing experience! I highly recommend you to try it. Both times, we had a big group (around 45 and 75 people) and very energetic and interesting tour guide. This tour is a nice way to get the feel of the city and learn about its interesting history (and quite a lot of random trivia) while walking around it for 3 hours. Sandemans organises these tours for free as a publicity for its other paid tours. Dont forget to pay a tip to your free tour guide! 

After the Barcelona trip, we went to Madrid. For those who don't know, Madrid is the party city in Spain! Specially during new years, hoards to international and local tourists visit Madrid to eat 12 grapes at puerta del sol (one of the squares in Madrid). So when we reached the city on 29th, everything was already looking crazy ... jam-packed streets, people everywhere and everytime of the day! Here we boarded in Hostal Sotileza (recommended for location and cleanliness ... was located 2 minutes from puerta del sol, but the staff speaks no english at all ... also super cheap). On 30th, we went to Toledo, the old capital of Spain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo,_Spain). Its a extremely touristy town filled with souvenier shops, but it is very pretty ... and hence a nice option for a day trip from Madrid.  

Toledo during sunset ... a mesmerizing old town

Me and Jasper on our way to Toledo

On 31st, we took the Sandemans free walking tour during the day time. It was another amazing experience. I now know a lot of weird things about Madrid :P ... On 31st evening, we decided to join Sandeman's new years eve pub crawl - http://www.newmadrid-tours.com/daily-tours/new-years-eve-pub-crawl-madrid-2013-2014.html. It worked out great for us as we didn't had any pre arranged plans and everything (from restaurants to pubs to clubs) was either completely full or was charging insane amounts of money (i saw a club with door charge of 250 euros :O)! It was a fun night for all of us. Tough I wouldn't recommend anyone to go to puerta del sol on that night. In Spain, people welcome new year by eating 12 grapes. Thousands of people gather at puerta del sol to eat grapes and it is telecasted all over the Spain so that the rest of people can eat grapes by watching this live telecast on their television (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Grapes). It was so crowded that I was fearing a stampede any moment. It was not comfortable at all and we had no idea when to eat our grapes (it was so noisy that we didn't even hear the bell ringing). I got so frustrated that i didn't even ate my grapes :P  and on top of that, priyanka's new and expensive phone was stolen right around midnight! Next day when we went to police station to report this, there were many other people who had their documents and phones stolen at puerta del sol on 31st night. So take my word of advice and avoid this square on 31st night. Go to any other place in Madrid ... the whole city is buzzing with parties this night!

@ Puerta del Sol in Madrid

Another recommendation in Madrid ... go to Teatro Muñoz Seca to watch Ballet Flamenco De Madrid (http://www.balletflamencodemadrid.com). Just amazing one and a half hour flamenco performance with live orchestra .... definately a lifetime experience for us.

Teatro Muñoz Seca

Overall, it was a great trip. We came back with smiles and souveniers for our loved ones ;) :P

Wishing you a happy and prosperous 2014! :)

Bye bye for now and see you again soon!

Karan

Arvind Kejriwal's India vs. Narendra Modi's India

Hello everyone,

In India, there is too much buzz lately about politics. Almost everyone is talking about it and I think there are 2 big events that are responsible for this excitement. First is the appointment of Mr. Narendra Modi as BJP's PM candidate and second one is creation of Aam Aadmi Party (and its fight for the upcoming Delhi Elections). In between all this excitement, i think that we are missing an important point. Thats why i decided to write on this topic this time. I realise that the internet savvy population in India is so small (% of total population wise) that any argument made online is politically insignificant. But sitting here in Holland, that's practically  the only thing i can do (except from donating money to the candidate of my choice, which i am already doing). I just hope that this article simulates some discussions and maybe, change some votes.  

First let us talk about Mr. Narendra Modi's India. And let us make an assumption here. Let's assume that Modi had nothing to do with hindu muslim riots in Gujarat. Nobody knows the truth, so lets give him the benefit of doubt. When you make this assumption, Modi gives an image of a clean and dynamic political leader of the country without any communal inclinations. He seem like somebody who can get things done. After all he convinced BJP and RSS to support him. I think if entire BJP is supporting one person as its PM candidate, it's a feat in itself and it shows diplomatic skills of Modi. With the assumption we made above, he looks to me like a credible PM candidate. I believe that if he becomes PM, the stock markets will rise, the business in India will boom and we will be back on the path of 8 to 10% GDP growth rate. And maybe, someday, India will even become a Ram Rajya (which is what so many of BJP supporters are so obsessed with!!). My problem with Modi's India starts after all this. The inherent nature of democracy will make sure that sooner or later, Modi will be out of power and someone else will take charge. Then what? Back to the slow and sluggish politics of today? My point is that this desire that a leader (Modi in present case) will come and make everything perfect in our country is no different than the desire of Ram Rajya. Its a desire to be ruled by a great king who will bring back india to its past glories. I think we must introspect a bit on this issue. We cry out our love for democracy and at the same time dream of becoming a Ram Rajya. This is my fundamental problem with Modi's India. Instead of participatory democracy, it relies too much on its king to solve all the problems. And may be Modi will be able to solve some of India's problems, but one day he will be out of power. And then and there, we will be back in the same shit as we are in today.

Now lets talk about Arvind Kejriwal's India. The biggest emphasis of this man in on decentralisation of power, or as Gandhi said, on swaraj. He is hitting the present indian political system where it hurts. He and his aam aadmi party talks about systemic change in our political setup. They want to set up strong rules and regulations to check corruption and they want to give more power to the common man. In my opinion, his kind of democracy will set up india in the right path. This way, we will aim to become an ever lasting just and progressive society and not a temporary Ram Rajya. We must observe the more mature western democracies very carefully. As we started late on the path of democracy, we have an advantage here. We can learn from their mistakes, adopt their rights and avoid their wrongs. Political power must become more decentralised, there must be swift anti corruption laws and there should be complete transparency in funding of political parties. Political parties should avoid large funds from corporations so that they don't have to do any favours for them in the future. And Arvind's India very clearly strives to achieve all this. But this kind of India comes with certain responsibilities. If we walk on this path then we will not be able to blame government (or for that matter king) for all our problems. Arvind's India will demand active participation and decision making from every citizen. Hence, if we fuck up, it will be everyones fault. We will have to decide if we are ready to accept this challenge. I believe that i am ready to accept this challenge. Its 21st century India dammit. I, with other community members have the capabilities to decide what's best for our community. And if we go wrong, we have the guts to accept it. Arvind's India is a self confident India and I want to be a part of it.

I hope I have made my point clear. 

Good Luck Arvind, Good Luck AAP!

Regards,

Karan

PS: I have intentionally left 'pappu' out of this whole argument just to show him where he stands in my opinion.

Indiaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Hello dear readers,

I am just back from a wonderful one month holiday in India!! So it is obvious that i want to share my experience with you all. In short, my trip was mostly about meeting my family, attending a friends wedding and eating a lot and lot of delicious food ... and mangoes :) :) 

To say the least, my trip started with a lot of confusion. When i reached schipol airport to take my KLM flight on 9th of June, after checking in my luggage and going through the security, KLM informed me at the departure gate that my flight to New Delhi is overbooked and i cannot board the plane!! WTF! I didn't even clearly understood what that meant so i asked the airline what do they mean by overbooked. The lady in blue there told me that airlines are legally allowed to overbook the flight by 10%. This means that if there are 100 seats in a flight, airline will put on sale 110 seats. This is because according to stats, around 10% people cancel their tickets after booking. So if they put on sale only 100 tickets, the flight will on average have around 10 empty seats when they fly which means financial loss for airlines. So they sell 110 tickets hoping that after all the cancellations, the flight will still be full. Now sometimes they sell all 110 tickets and less then 10% people cancel their tickets. As the airline only has 100 seats, this results in an overbooked flight! And this was the case with my flight. In this case obviously all the passengers with tickets cannot fly. To deal with this and to decide who gets to fly and who is left behind, airline allots seats to passengers when they are checking-in (online or on airport). The first 100 people to check-in get to fly and the remaining are left behind. Because of this rule, recently there is so much emphasis given to early online check-in. I recommend everyone who has an important flight to take, please check-in as soon as possible to confirm your seat on the flight. Now, for the people who are left behind, the airline is supposed to arrange their tickets in the next available flight for free and reimburse them for the inconvenience caused. This reimbursement depends on the distance of your air travel going till a maximum of 600 euros cash. And guess what, KLM paid me 600 euros cash on the spot!! And they booked me on an evening flight (the same day) to New Delhi via Athens. I didn't want to take with me 600 euros to India so I decided to go to an ABN AMRO counter to deposit the cash. This counter was in the main hall of the airport. I had to go through the arrivals area and through the passport control to reach this counter. When the security guy at the passport control asked me where am i coming from, I replied 'Netherlands'!! haha imagine how funny it was, entering back in Netherlands without leaving Netherlands :P Anyways i explained my situation and he let me go. So i deposited the cash, went through the security check again to go inside the departure terminal and at the gate waited for my flight to Athens. Just before the boarding of this flight was scheduled, it was announced that an airplane is stuck on the airstrip in Athens and hence all the flights going to Athens have been delayed by 2 hours!! For me, this meant that i will certainly miss my connecting Athens - New Delhi flight. Seriously?? I was quite nervous at this point. Anyways, i went back to KLM helpdesk to discuss this. They told me that the best option i have now is to take the direct KLM flight to New Delhi the following day. If i want, i can decide to stay overnight near airport (in which case KLM will book a hotel for me) or just go back home and come back tomorrow. Fuck! Quite annoying eh? Well, i calmed myself down and stayed overnight at the hotel that KLM booked. And guess what? To do this, I again had to enter Netherlands without leaving Netherlands :P Anyways, the hotel stay was nice and next day every thing went smooth. So after some confusion and waiting, I was finally in India! The only things that made this whole ordeal bearable was the 600 euro compensation and a young Dutch couple who were supposed to travel to India in the same flight as me on the 9th but were overbooked as well. So they were with me the whole time and went through the exact same events as described above!

Finally, I was in Sitamarhi, Bihar. Home sweet home! My 2 week stay there comprised of spending time with my extended family, eating delicious mangoes, cursing the heat, enjoying monsoon and picking fresh vegetables from my parent's new garden.     

With Mom

My favorite person, my grand mother ...

This is how you eat mangoes in my hometown :D

My mom said that after waking up, even before seeing God, she sees mangoes :P

Monsoon Bitches!!

A look at our garden from the roof

Fresh Okra (or lady's fingers) in the garden

One random evening in Sitamarhi, somehow this pic makes me homesick.

The following picture is a very special one. Once i was going with my cousin on a rickshaw and i saw this printed in front of a government office "To stop rapes, we must make toilets". This didn't made sense to us at all! We both thought this was so funny and disgusting. I remember that i was really angry thinking that how can someone write a crappy message like this? How is making toilets going to stop rapes?? I was so disgusted that i asked the rickshaw to stop so that i can take a picture. I went back home and showed it to my grand mother out of anger. What she explained me was so horrifying that i could have never imagined it even in my dreams. She told me that the printed statement makes complete sense. In rural areas, most households don't have toilets and people defecate in open. Women usually (and i guess obviously) go to a bit secluded areas to defecate. A lot of them go in farms with lot of plantation so that no one sees them defecating. This is when they are pulled by men in high bushes and raped. This phenomenon is rampant in rural areas of Bihar. After listening this, i was so shocked and not just because of how disgusting this whole thing was, but also because i realized that as a middle class Indian, I am so unaware and so cutoff from the problems poor people face in India. I am sure that almost all of my Indian friends will have never heard about this heinous act. There is a rape in Delhi and media goes crazy! There are so many protests! What about these voiceless poor women from rural India?        

"To stop rapes, we must make toilets"

After my stay in my hometown of Sitamarhi, it was time to head to Hyderabad to attend my friend's wedding. It was great to meet so many people i haven't met in ages!

@ chuha and sonam's wedding in Hyderabad

With Doga darling @ wedding! :)

Havas and Doga @ wedding!

Offcourse we had famous Hyderabadi Biryani! A nice article about this dish - http://in.rediff.com/money/2004/apr/09spec.htm

After the wedding, it was time to go to Bangalore to meet my remaining extended family. My parent also joined me there from Sitamarhi. It was so much fun!! I was meeting some of my cousins after 7-8 years. In my mind, they were still kids.  

With Mom, Dad and Bro @ some temple in Bangalore

Me and Bro sharing a coconut drink :)

With chinki after 8 years... she came all the way from Mumbai to meet me!

Chinu in my new suitcase, i guess she secretly wanted to sneak inside Holland with me :P 

Papa with ranjan and raju chacha in Bangalore

Pizza party with bacha party :P

It was time to dig in some delicious South Indian food!

It was first time after i don't remember how many years that 10 out of 12 'bhawsinka kids' were together, so we decided to go for a professional photo-shoot. The 2 kids missing are Chinki and Sonu. Sorry guys :( I hope all 12 of us will be together some day soon for an awesome holiday. We will have better pictures then!

The genX bhawsinkas ;)

I am blessed with kick-ass sisters :)

Say cheeseeeeeeeee :)

So after an awesome week-long stay in Bangalore, my India trip came to an end. On last couple of days i did most of my shopping, packed, bid and emotional farewell to my family and took my flight back to Amsterdam. 

Seriously, for a moment there, i didn't want to comeback to Holland. I didn't want to come back to the cold and lonely life. There are too many problems in India and its too easy to get frustrated. Comparatively, life in Holland is so easy. The light bulb is always glowing, the tap is always filled with water, the air is fresh, supermarkets are filled with food and I have a great job. But I have a big and close knit family and leaving them behind every time just breaks my heart. My family provides me an emotional security which is, i guess, far more important then social security of Holland. Anyways, i am here in Holland for the moment. Lets see for how long i stay.        

I will leave you, my dear readers, with a pic from one of the taxi's I took in India. This taxi had a freaking Van Persie jersey hanging in front. As if life was giving me signals that i am going to stay in Holland for the moment.

Van Persie in India!

Well, that's all for the moment. Life is back to its regular grind.

Cheers,

Karan