27.07.2011
The beauty from Pakistan arrived. She intends to talk. This time talks are over CBMs. While India dub it as Confidence Building Measures, Pakistan think of Continental Ballistic Missile. Both the ways make no much difference. We can talk without any limits
There are different types of talks. Foreign secretary level talks, Talks at Ministry level, composite dialogues, talks to discuss about confidence building, one to one talks...the list is truly long.
The babus on both the sides select one of these modes of talks. The Sounth Indian English daily always covers all these events in the front page with great importance. It will be naive to believe that all the parties involved believe that some positive results would evolve from all these periodical exercises.
Once upon a time, the then Prime Minister of India went to Pakistan on a bus. It was an iternational event. I followed every moment of this 'historic' bus journey on the television. Warm handshakes, hugs, broad smiles and what not received our PM there? Media pundits and political analysers declared that a new dawn has just occured in the horizon. In fact what followed this bus journey is more remembered in history
Our foreign minister and the foreign secretary have no other significant work to do. So, engaging in different kinds of talks is the favourite time pass for them ever since the birth of Pakistan.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Appooppanthaadi -15
How about sipping a pint of Remy Martin along with bites of Chicken tikka in a restaurant named after Mahatma Gandhi? After this, just take a short stroll to enjoy a few puffs of Marijuana (Ganja) while watching a live love making show enacted right in front of our eyes? Sounds too bizarre. I thought not twice but thrice before typing this much. I am sure, as the citizens of Aarsha Bharatham ( the Bharat of Saints), even thinking of such dirty things is taboo.
"Rémy Martin is a brand selling cognac (a brandy from the Cognac region of France) , specialist of the Cognac Fine Champagne originally produced by Rémy Martin, a French winemaker, who founded the company in 1724. It is now owned by Rémy Cointreau, a company founded in 1991."
If you are in Holland, especially in the capital city of Amsterdam, you will be tempted to do exactly this. Holland is the only country in the world where a ban on drugs is not existing. Anyone is free to use drugs but possession of drugs is an offense. Flesh Trading and live sex shows are just as a tea shop business here. Let me confess, I did none of the above highly ‘outrageous’ acts. I claim I desisted from such un-Indian acts because I am a proud son of Aarshabharatham. My distractors may allege I did not have the guts to indulge in such activities. However, I did have a dinner at the Gandhi Restaurant - only had a vegetarian mealaccompanied by a coca cola. As said earlier, here too they did not serve water to drink
Gandhi restaurant is an Indian restaurant near the Amsterdam Centraal railway station. There is another restaurant in Mahatma’s name in Paris. Though named after the Mahatma, these restaurant, run by Indians, find no qualms in serving liquor and meat. This was the first shocker I came across in Amsterdam, only to be followed by a few more.
Holland is a country that is always close to my heart. This is the country where the football legends like Johan Cryf, Ruud Gullit and Marco Van Bastian live. When I set foot in Amsterdam, my first wish was to spot that long haired tall guy called Gullit right outside the Ajax Arena and shake hands with him. I must have considered myself the luckiest man in the universe to have lived that wish, but that wish remained unfulfilled. I am a big fan of his. During the 1990 World Cup, I sincerely wished my Soccer Hero to lift the Trophy.
It is just three hours journey from Frankfurt by train to Amsterdam.There are so many High Speed Trains operated by Germany's Bahn Rail . In Amsterdam, if we have to reserve a ticket on these trains, they charge 10 Euro extra. Look, Holland is not operating any trains to Frankfurt. Still they charge excess money on somebody's property!
On the first day of my arrival, I straight away went to the tourist information counter at the outside of the Centraal Station to find out if a hotel room is available nearby the railway station itself. Unfortunately no rooms were available in any of the listed hotels. Whatever available had a hefty price tag too.
Anyway, I had nothing to worry about. I did have a booking in a hotel through internet that was just three kilometers away from the railway station. The taxi took 15 Euros to reach the hotel. There are a number of Trams running in the city that is very convenient to reach any part of this small city
Immediately after checking in, I set out for the places to see in Amsterdam. Obviously my first choice was the Van Gogh museum. It was just walking distance from the hotel. A number of masterpieces of Van Gough in oil paint are displayed in the museum. Van Gogh lived in Holland for a long time and most of the original paintings are in the possession of the gallery in Amsterdam. Photography was strictly prohibited inside the museum. However, in the attached shop, replicas of the original paintings are sold. I took a few of them from this shop. While coming out of the museum, thoughts of a great painter and his tragic end remained like a pain in the mind.
“Vincent Willem van Gogh); 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20th century art for its vivid colors and emotional impact. He suffered from anxiety and increasingly frequent bouts of mental illness throughout his life and died, largely unknown, at the age of 37 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Little appreciated during his lifetime, his fame grew in the years after his death. Today, he is widely regarded as one of history's greatest painters and an important contributor to the foundations of modern art. Van Gogh did not begin painting until his late twenties, and most of his best-known works were produced during his final two years. He produced more than 2,000 artworks, consisting of around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches. Today many of his pieces—including his numerous self portraits, landscapes, portraits and sunflowers—are among the world's most recognizable and expensive works of art.”
"Rémy Martin is a brand selling cognac (a brandy from the Cognac region of France) , specialist of the Cognac Fine Champagne originally produced by Rémy Martin, a French winemaker, who founded the company in 1724. It is now owned by Rémy Cointreau, a company founded in 1991."
If you are in Holland, especially in the capital city of Amsterdam, you will be tempted to do exactly this. Holland is the only country in the world where a ban on drugs is not existing. Anyone is free to use drugs but possession of drugs is an offense. Flesh Trading and live sex shows are just as a tea shop business here. Let me confess, I did none of the above highly ‘outrageous’ acts. I claim I desisted from such un-Indian acts because I am a proud son of Aarshabharatham. My distractors may allege I did not have the guts to indulge in such activities. However, I did have a dinner at the Gandhi Restaurant - only had a vegetarian mealaccompanied by a coca cola. As said earlier, here too they did not serve water to drink
Gandhi restaurant is an Indian restaurant near the Amsterdam Centraal railway station. There is another restaurant in Mahatma’s name in Paris. Though named after the Mahatma, these restaurant, run by Indians, find no qualms in serving liquor and meat. This was the first shocker I came across in Amsterdam, only to be followed by a few more.
Holland is a country that is always close to my heart. This is the country where the football legends like Johan Cryf, Ruud Gullit and Marco Van Bastian live. When I set foot in Amsterdam, my first wish was to spot that long haired tall guy called Gullit right outside the Ajax Arena and shake hands with him. I must have considered myself the luckiest man in the universe to have lived that wish, but that wish remained unfulfilled. I am a big fan of his. During the 1990 World Cup, I sincerely wished my Soccer Hero to lift the Trophy.
It is just three hours journey from Frankfurt by train to Amsterdam.There are so many High Speed Trains operated by Germany's Bahn Rail . In Amsterdam, if we have to reserve a ticket on these trains, they charge 10 Euro extra. Look, Holland is not operating any trains to Frankfurt. Still they charge excess money on somebody's property!
On the first day of my arrival, I straight away went to the tourist information counter at the outside of the Centraal Station to find out if a hotel room is available nearby the railway station itself. Unfortunately no rooms were available in any of the listed hotels. Whatever available had a hefty price tag too.
Anyway, I had nothing to worry about. I did have a booking in a hotel through internet that was just three kilometers away from the railway station. The taxi took 15 Euros to reach the hotel. There are a number of Trams running in the city that is very convenient to reach any part of this small city
Immediately after checking in, I set out for the places to see in Amsterdam. Obviously my first choice was the Van Gogh museum. It was just walking distance from the hotel. A number of masterpieces of Van Gough in oil paint are displayed in the museum. Van Gogh lived in Holland for a long time and most of the original paintings are in the possession of the gallery in Amsterdam. Photography was strictly prohibited inside the museum. However, in the attached shop, replicas of the original paintings are sold. I took a few of them from this shop. While coming out of the museum, thoughts of a great painter and his tragic end remained like a pain in the mind.
“Vincent Willem van Gogh); 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20th century art for its vivid colors and emotional impact. He suffered from anxiety and increasingly frequent bouts of mental illness throughout his life and died, largely unknown, at the age of 37 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Little appreciated during his lifetime, his fame grew in the years after his death. Today, he is widely regarded as one of history's greatest painters and an important contributor to the foundations of modern art. Van Gogh did not begin painting until his late twenties, and most of his best-known works were produced during his final two years. He produced more than 2,000 artworks, consisting of around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches. Today many of his pieces—including his numerous self portraits, landscapes, portraits and sunflowers—are among the world's most recognizable and expensive works of art.”
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
SMSJHS - my dear High School!!
Everything was mechanical. Like a clockwork, teachers came and went at forty five minutes intervals. We called each slot a period. We children were the happiest lot when a teacher did not turn up for a period.
The rendering of science, Mathematics, English, Hindi…all was like rituals. Only one thing was always missing- the Chemistry. Teachers were simply doing their job. They spent a few lacs to earn this job. In an aided private management school, the management appoints teachers as they wish after taking hefty amounts from the aspirants.
Ironically all these aided schools in the God’s Own Country are owned by religious institutions. They say all religions teach to help others. Religion is a mean for achieving moksha by practicing renunciation and living in nothingness. Then why our religions want to do business in education and amass wealth like this? Better we do not try to seek answers to such questions. There are henchmen appointed by various forms of Gods in our country to silence criticism against them!
Presently, to get a job in a high school, the amount one has to cough up is to the tune of 12Lacs. Bidding takes place and the highest bidder gets the job. Government pays the salary for the teachers for the rest of his/her existance. The tax payers’ money is used even to pay lifelong pension to the teachers. No wonder, if Chemistry is merely a text book subject in schools…
Those days, almost every teacher carried a cane in their hand. It was not just to scare the kids but they did use them to brutally subjugate the the children. Many teachers were terror to children. Thinking of "mookkan thoma saar" used to send shivers down the spine often. He was the English Teacher in our school
The minimum punishment the teachers resorted to in those days was spanking. They never desisted from using the dreaded stick whenever error occured on the student's side. Many times on the palms and many more tomes over to the thighs. There were several incidents, where the teacher beated every student of the class without sparing anyone. The saga of brutality with the cane continued for a long time. Fortunately the legacy of an object of oppression like cane somehow lost its charm with the teachers down the line.
Every year on the first day, children gather in the class rooms that we left last year. Teacher comes with a register. By that time the heart beats of the kids reach the cresendo. The teacher is about to read out the students who are going to different divisions. Students who were sitting together in a class previous year will not be sitting together this year. But that hardly made us sad. We were concerned most about who will be our class teacher. Who will be the teacher for English, Maths or Malayalam in the new division? Everybody sincerely prayed to avoid going to Mookkan thoma saar.
We all wanted to go to Mani saar's or Alice Teacher's class. There were a few teachers who were liked by all. They rarely beat the kids. They talk to kids once in a while. This gave everyone a comforting feeling. So, those who got Mani saar's class went with a smiling face to the new class but the ones who were 'sentenced' to Mookkan Thoma saar's calss went like a deer going to the lion's den. No one had any other option.
In the process of distributing agony and ecstacy to the children in unequal proportions, a few boys and girls were invariably left out in the old class itslef. They were detained for their poor performance! Jokes were played with the innocent minds like this once upon a time....Those days' kids are playing another kind of jokes on their kids in the modern days.
The rendering of science, Mathematics, English, Hindi…all was like rituals. Only one thing was always missing- the Chemistry. Teachers were simply doing their job. They spent a few lacs to earn this job. In an aided private management school, the management appoints teachers as they wish after taking hefty amounts from the aspirants.
Ironically all these aided schools in the God’s Own Country are owned by religious institutions. They say all religions teach to help others. Religion is a mean for achieving moksha by practicing renunciation and living in nothingness. Then why our religions want to do business in education and amass wealth like this? Better we do not try to seek answers to such questions. There are henchmen appointed by various forms of Gods in our country to silence criticism against them!
Presently, to get a job in a high school, the amount one has to cough up is to the tune of 12Lacs. Bidding takes place and the highest bidder gets the job. Government pays the salary for the teachers for the rest of his/her existance. The tax payers’ money is used even to pay lifelong pension to the teachers. No wonder, if Chemistry is merely a text book subject in schools…
Those days, almost every teacher carried a cane in their hand. It was not just to scare the kids but they did use them to brutally subjugate the the children. Many teachers were terror to children. Thinking of "mookkan thoma saar" used to send shivers down the spine often. He was the English Teacher in our school
The minimum punishment the teachers resorted to in those days was spanking. They never desisted from using the dreaded stick whenever error occured on the student's side. Many times on the palms and many more tomes over to the thighs. There were several incidents, where the teacher beated every student of the class without sparing anyone. The saga of brutality with the cane continued for a long time. Fortunately the legacy of an object of oppression like cane somehow lost its charm with the teachers down the line.
Every year on the first day, children gather in the class rooms that we left last year. Teacher comes with a register. By that time the heart beats of the kids reach the cresendo. The teacher is about to read out the students who are going to different divisions. Students who were sitting together in a class previous year will not be sitting together this year. But that hardly made us sad. We were concerned most about who will be our class teacher. Who will be the teacher for English, Maths or Malayalam in the new division? Everybody sincerely prayed to avoid going to Mookkan thoma saar.
We all wanted to go to Mani saar's or Alice Teacher's class. There were a few teachers who were liked by all. They rarely beat the kids. They talk to kids once in a while. This gave everyone a comforting feeling. So, those who got Mani saar's class went with a smiling face to the new class but the ones who were 'sentenced' to Mookkan Thoma saar's calss went like a deer going to the lion's den. No one had any other option.
In the process of distributing agony and ecstacy to the children in unequal proportions, a few boys and girls were invariably left out in the old class itslef. They were detained for their poor performance! Jokes were played with the innocent minds like this once upon a time....Those days' kids are playing another kind of jokes on their kids in the modern days.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Appooppanthaadi -14
There are people in Europe, especially in Germany, who search the trash cans in the public places for empty bottles and other items. An empty beer bottle of 500ml fetches 25 cents and an empty water bottle at least 10 cents. In Germany even one cent is valued much. On Saturday mornings, likelihood of spotting more number of beer bottles in the trash cans is high. So, on Saturdays, people visiting these cans are more. Also we can see people standing outside the railway stations and other public places ask for a cigarette from the passers bye.
As I mentioned in my earlier posts, Friday is the weekend for Europeans. Celebrations start even before the end of the day. If we call anyone at his office by noon, most probably we get an answer that we were too late in calling. He/she would have left the office by that time to join the weekend revelries. The effective working days for them is just four days from Monday to Thursday.
In many of the shops, especially malls, goods are priced at 9.99 euros, 19.99 euros, 24.99 euros and so on. At the cash counter, they sincerely give back the balance one cent. There is a big multi-storied electrical and Electronic shop in the city of Mannheim - Saturn. Almost all items sold there are imported from China. It is difficult to get a Made Germany item from that shop. From iron box to cameras, from ipad to hard discs, things are piled up in the shop. All of them have one thing in common- they are all coming from China.
Chinese invasion in Europe is complete. Every electronic item is made in China. Clothes, Electrical items, stationeries…the list is long. The Frankfurt airport and the Frankfurt Main Railway station are swarmed with Chinese. People of any age group from China can be spotted in these places every time.
Indians are also seen there. I met a few Indians. All of them came from India to sell clothes. They bring samples of clothes from our country and promote their business. Indians can be spotted with big suitcases with them in Airports and Railway stations. They travel to different destinations with cloth samples and fix their business deals. Most of the clothes from India are exported from Tirupur in TN and Ludhiana in Punjab. It looks India has a stake in Europe only in cloth business, besides software of course
There sits an old bearded man in front of Saturn. He braves snowfalls and even rains while sitting there in a stool and beg for alms. He wears a long coat. During snowfall, this coat turns white as he sits at the same place even in the adverse climatic conditions. Most of the one cent coins collected from the Saturn shop go to his bowl. This man sits there for long time almost everyday
Mannheim is a nicely built city. On the banks of river Rhein, this beauty lies with an enchanting look. Trams, buses and trains make transportation very easy. There are cinema complexes, Big shoping malls, a big park called Louisen park, Indian restaurants, Casionos and of course a few sex shops
A photo tour of the city of Mannheim is possible if the link is clicked :
https://picasaweb.google.com/ppnatesan/MannheimGermany?authkey=Gv1sRgCPC-k_f9xduAlAE&feat=email
Gunzburg is another city I visited in Germany-a very beautiful village( I prefer to call it a village) that lies close to river Danube. I could not visit the river Danube due to lack of time. There are so many beautiful buildings in this village. Another village near Guzburg has only 100 houses. In this village they have a restaurant and a dance bar to enjoy.
“The Danube (English pronunciation: /ˈdænjuːb/ DAN-ewb) is Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway.
The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the German town of Donaueschingen. After that it is known as the Danube and flows southeastward for a distance of some 2850 km (1771 miles), passing through four Central and Eastern European capitals, before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine.
Known to history as one of the long-standing frontiers of the Roman Empire, the river flows through or acts as part of the borders of ten countries: Germany (7.5%), Austria (10.3%), Slovakia (5.8%), Hungary (11.7%), Croatia (4.5%), Serbia (10.3%), Bulgaria (5.2%), Moldova (1.6%), Ukraine (3.8%) and Romania (28.9%). (The percentages reflect the proportion of the total Danube drainage basin area.)”
A few photographs of Guzberg can be seen if the link is clicked:
https://picasaweb.google.com/ppnatesan/GunzburgGermany?authkey=Gv1sRgCNDO7KGU-L7e-wE&feat=email
In Chemnitz, Germany, by the time I reached the hotel it was almost midnight. I had to ring the bell to get the gate opened for me. I was feeling so hungry. Sadly, there was no restaurant in the hotel. I was told by the receptionist that there was a restaurant a few meters away.
The waiter in the restaurant could not speak even a bit of English. My repeated attempts to make him understand that I need to eat something vegetarian were all ended up in vain. At last, as an escape route for both of us, he directed me to a Thai restaurant nearby. The English speaking girl there served me some Thai style food made from vegetables- I can’t figure out as to what I ate however. As I was walking back to my room, I had been wondering how precisely he guessed my nationality…!!
A visual ode to the city of Frankfurt...
https://picasaweb.google.com/ppnatesan/Frankfurt?authkey=Gv1sRgCP7msajmiZSZIA&feat=email
As I mentioned in my earlier posts, Friday is the weekend for Europeans. Celebrations start even before the end of the day. If we call anyone at his office by noon, most probably we get an answer that we were too late in calling. He/she would have left the office by that time to join the weekend revelries. The effective working days for them is just four days from Monday to Thursday.
In many of the shops, especially malls, goods are priced at 9.99 euros, 19.99 euros, 24.99 euros and so on. At the cash counter, they sincerely give back the balance one cent. There is a big multi-storied electrical and Electronic shop in the city of Mannheim - Saturn. Almost all items sold there are imported from China. It is difficult to get a Made Germany item from that shop. From iron box to cameras, from ipad to hard discs, things are piled up in the shop. All of them have one thing in common- they are all coming from China.
Chinese invasion in Europe is complete. Every electronic item is made in China. Clothes, Electrical items, stationeries…the list is long. The Frankfurt airport and the Frankfurt Main Railway station are swarmed with Chinese. People of any age group from China can be spotted in these places every time.
Indians are also seen there. I met a few Indians. All of them came from India to sell clothes. They bring samples of clothes from our country and promote their business. Indians can be spotted with big suitcases with them in Airports and Railway stations. They travel to different destinations with cloth samples and fix their business deals. Most of the clothes from India are exported from Tirupur in TN and Ludhiana in Punjab. It looks India has a stake in Europe only in cloth business, besides software of course
There sits an old bearded man in front of Saturn. He braves snowfalls and even rains while sitting there in a stool and beg for alms. He wears a long coat. During snowfall, this coat turns white as he sits at the same place even in the adverse climatic conditions. Most of the one cent coins collected from the Saturn shop go to his bowl. This man sits there for long time almost everyday
Mannheim is a nicely built city. On the banks of river Rhein, this beauty lies with an enchanting look. Trams, buses and trains make transportation very easy. There are cinema complexes, Big shoping malls, a big park called Louisen park, Indian restaurants, Casionos and of course a few sex shops
A photo tour of the city of Mannheim is possible if the link is clicked :
https://picasaweb.google.com/ppnatesan/MannheimGermany?authkey=Gv1sRgCPC-k_f9xduAlAE&feat=email
Gunzburg is another city I visited in Germany-a very beautiful village( I prefer to call it a village) that lies close to river Danube. I could not visit the river Danube due to lack of time. There are so many beautiful buildings in this village. Another village near Guzburg has only 100 houses. In this village they have a restaurant and a dance bar to enjoy.
“The Danube (English pronunciation: /ˈdænjuːb/ DAN-ewb) is Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway.
The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the German town of Donaueschingen. After that it is known as the Danube and flows southeastward for a distance of some 2850 km (1771 miles), passing through four Central and Eastern European capitals, before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine.
Known to history as one of the long-standing frontiers of the Roman Empire, the river flows through or acts as part of the borders of ten countries: Germany (7.5%), Austria (10.3%), Slovakia (5.8%), Hungary (11.7%), Croatia (4.5%), Serbia (10.3%), Bulgaria (5.2%), Moldova (1.6%), Ukraine (3.8%) and Romania (28.9%). (The percentages reflect the proportion of the total Danube drainage basin area.)”
A few photographs of Guzberg can be seen if the link is clicked:
https://picasaweb.google.com/ppnatesan/GunzburgGermany?authkey=Gv1sRgCNDO7KGU-L7e-wE&feat=email
In Chemnitz, Germany, by the time I reached the hotel it was almost midnight. I had to ring the bell to get the gate opened for me. I was feeling so hungry. Sadly, there was no restaurant in the hotel. I was told by the receptionist that there was a restaurant a few meters away.
The waiter in the restaurant could not speak even a bit of English. My repeated attempts to make him understand that I need to eat something vegetarian were all ended up in vain. At last, as an escape route for both of us, he directed me to a Thai restaurant nearby. The English speaking girl there served me some Thai style food made from vegetables- I can’t figure out as to what I ate however. As I was walking back to my room, I had been wondering how precisely he guessed my nationality…!!
A visual ode to the city of Frankfurt...
https://picasaweb.google.com/ppnatesan/Frankfurt?authkey=Gv1sRgCP7msajmiZSZIA&feat=email
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