Appooppanthaadi -17

The guide of the Bicycle tour after the lecture took us first to the bridge across the Amstel River. He showed us the houses on the banks and the style of construction of houses there. From there a long ride took us to a wind mill. By this time we have reached the country side.

Windmills were widely used in Holland once upon a time. These windmills were manly meant for irrigation purposes. Amsterdam is a place that lies below sea level. So, pumping water from one place to another was a necessity. This was the major reason for the large presence of windmills there.

Now in Holland there are a little above thousand windmills surviving and they are now functioning more like show pieces. These vintage mills are show cased at different parts of the country and are good tourist locations. Our guide explained us how these windmills were used during the world war as a means of communication. They used different colours of flags fluttering from the top of one of the fins of the mills to give different signals to neighbouring villages about the presence of enemy force. Enemies could never decode these signals.

From the windmill we went to a cheese manufacturing firm. There they milk the cattle and make cheese from the milk. The production manager there showed us how they make cheese. A young cheese is the one that is used just a few days after it has been manufactured. As they are ripened, the taste changes and we get different hardness too. This process many months to many years. Cheese is generally preserved with a cover of wax on it. They add different flavours and ingredients like pepper or cardamom during the manufacturing stage to get different types of cheese.

In the same premises, they make wooden shoes too. Shoes made of wood are traditional footwear in Holland. We were told that in villages, people still use wooden shoes , especially the farmers. We could see how a shoe is made from raw wood using special machines. These shoes are also made by hand. I tried on a pair of shoes. Felt good and comfortable. We have to use the size that is one numeral above our normal shoe size.

In every shop in Amsterdam, these shoes are predominantly displayed. I could not see anyone walking on the street wearing these wooden shoes. A Memento from Amsterdam is expected to be a pair of shoes or a model of windmill. I bought a pair of a small sized shoes from the manufacturing unit to keep in the. They wrote my date of visit on the shoes using a special type tool. This tool lightly burns and makes indelible mark on the shoes.

All through the ride, I could see a number of KLM airplanes making landings at the Amsterdam airport. As it was a windy day, these planes were making unusual noise that was disturbing the tranquility of the city as a whole.

By the time I was back to the hotel room, I could hardly walk. Mike's bike tour was an interesting experience though exhausting. Thanks to mike's enthusiasm, bicycle stole my heart yet again. Sooner or later, I shall buy a cycle, on which I would love to go to office every day no matter people say here goes a stingy eccentric idiot who does not want to spend on buying a car.

In the night, I had a vegetarian dinner at Shiva Restaurant. Then romanced with my friend Laptop for a long time in the night. My hotel was near the Dam Square. Amsterdam derived its name from the River Amstel and the dam across it. Dam Square is arguably the heart of the city. It is just ten minutes walking distance from the Centraal Railway Station.

All commercial establishments, many Hotels – cheap as well as costly ones , Madame Tussad, sex museum, Beer Museum and the famous red streets are all situated around Dam Square. It was mid night. I was just looking from the balcony of the room. Girls and boys, men and women on bicycles and on foot are still walking around. There is a potato fry shop down the roadside. The shop keeper who is of African origin prepares the finger chips there. So many people are still thronging in front of this shop. I too went down and took one packet. Tasty ones but the price was 2 euros. It seemed to be expensive.

natesan

I Think So...

The Bharatidasan Colony at KK Nagar, Chennai houses 640 happy and unhappy homes. One among them is mine. This is a housing board colony that was meant for providing houses to the people in the lower strata of economic class. These apartments were technically called LIG (low income group) flats. People started a humble beginning here 30 years back.

As the life progressed and due to changes in the economic policies, many of them found themselves rich enough to be no longer termed as low income group. Though their houses were constructed with single phase power supply and mosaic floorings, down the line, many of them converted the power supply to three phase and mosaic floors gave way to tiles. Many houses have air-conditioners too. Of course, meticulous planning and hard work went into this

prosperity.

In the recent times, I could observe a sudden spurt in cars parked in the colony. Our colony has no covered car parking but there is ample open area available for keeping the vehicles safely. No pot in the open ground is allocated to any individual. But,slowly the car owners started occupying space in the open area exclusively for their own car. They prevented others from parking their vehicles in their territory. Of late, in the past few months, car owners started installing metal poles and detachable chains in their territory to establish the ownership of the piece of land they occuppied. First it was a quest for a shelter above their heads. Then slowly the needs increased. They needed not only a car but an exclusive space for parking them that could never be owned by them.

In the history books, it is said that the primary aim of human beings building houses was to protect themselves from the attacks by animals. They feared animals. Animals were given heavenly honour and worshipped. Time has changed. Human beings no longer needed to fear animals. In fact, animals had to run away from human beings to protect themselves. Perhaps the only thing the animals pray to their creator is to give a less painful death at the hands of the most cultered species on the earth.We started deciding their fate.

Dwelling places were no longer shelters that were used to get protection from animals. They were turned into proclamation of wealth and a symbol of social status. Humans, instead of fearing animals, started fearing other human beings. They started doubting the fellow human beings. They needed fences to protect what they conquered. They not only needed fences, but also security guards, safe lockers, CCTVs and mighty walls around their bungalows to protect the material wealth they earned or to be precise what they conquered.

Animals, in the mean time, started feeling the heat. They were driven out of their natural habitats. Every inch of the earth became the property of one species- that is human beings. Dogs became street dogs. Government appointed dog catchers brutally murdered these ‘street dogs’ ocassionally.Cattle were made to roam around on the roads and eat even plastic bags. Elephants and leopards were displaced in their habitats in thick forests. Human beings started encroaching even forest lands and building houses there.

When the restless elephants responded against this, it made news headlines. People dubbed it as elephant menace. Leopards were forced to venture out of forests in search of food. They were chased and attacked when sighted in the villages or towns. Hapless animals died without knowing how to escape from the attacks by the civilized creatures.

Anyone who happened to look at the Discovery Channel, National Geographic or Animal Planet could realize that how disciplined these animals are. ( we invaded their privacy with cameras. We shot how they have sex, how they give birth, giving sant respect to their rights. We are living in a world were even mass killers are pampered in the name of Human Rights)

Animals live in perfect harmony with the nature. Nature provides everything that is needed to sustain life. While herbivorous animals feed upon leaves and fruits, carnivorous ones hunt other animals to have their food. They kill only to fill their stomach. They never save anything for the future. Mother Nature gives them everything every day.

They never attack other animals to settle scores. They never kill other animals to steal their property or because their Gods were insulted by the other animals. Animals involve in sex activities only when they need to reproduce. Sex activities in animals are seasonal and confined to aim at reproduction. Unlike we , the civilized animals, other animals do not have sex 24 x 7. Everything in the animal kingdom happens as mandated by the nature.

Look at the following examples...

A few months back, two young children were kidnapped in Coimbatore. Their businessman father informed the police of this. When the kidnappers sensed danger, they brutally killed the children. The two children were forced to climb a hill. The girl child was sexually abused. They were force fed dry cow dung. After this they were pushed from the hill to a water body in which they drowned.

Govindachami is a one handed beggar. He entered a ladies compartment of a train one day. Attacked a young girl on board. Pushed her out of the train, sexually assaulted and then hit her with a rock. She later died in a hospital. After a few months, when the case was taken up for trial in the court, people were shocked to see big lawyers lining up to defend a beggar called Govindachami who changed his name to Charlie long time back.

Which animal on the earth does such heinous crimes other than the human beings? In a television discussion, I heard one learned personality telling that an element of animal is sleeping in every human beings. I wish once in a while this ‘element ‘ woke up and acted. A society devoid of greed, cruelty, disharmony and dishonesty can only be achieved when this element of wildness acts in us. So till such time, never call me a dog when you get angry at me, a donkey when you want to tease me and a tiger when you want to praise me. Such affronts to animal self respect may not be taken kindly by them…

Appooppnathaadi -16

03.02.2011

Climate in Amsterdam at that time was very pleasant. Worst was over and the spring was round the corner. Unfortunately I missed the beauty of the city decorated with blooming flowers in the spring as I had to return to my motherland by that time. I am sure the entire Europe is now like a beautiful bride with flowers all over.


Beauty of Amsterdam lies in the umpteen numbers of canals that cris-cross the city. Banks of the canals give beautiful views. Lines of building that have uniform heights and remarkably good cover of greenery is nice to watch. No wonder if this city is called another Venice. We can come across a canal after every half a kilometer of walk to any direction. I narrowly missed a visit to Venice however. No worry anyway. My intention was to find out if Venice was as beautiful as Alappuzha. I heard that Venice was called in Europe as The Alappuzha of the West!


Due to the presence of large number of canals, houses in Amsterdam city are constructed with a difference. The staircases to the upper floors are narrow. It is difficult to take heavy and bulky things along these stair cases. So, every house on the banks of canals has a large metallic hook fixed at the top. Things are shifted from ground to top floors using these hooks. The tour guide explained to us how the houses on the banks of these canals that sank due to loose ground had been repaired using modern technology.

The best way to go around Amsterdam is on a bicycle. Cycles, cycles all around . W can see only cycles. There are a number of shops that offer guided cycle tours around the city as well as to the country sides. We can take bicycles on rent and go around independently also. Amsterdam does not look to be a big city. So, we can easily travel even unguided. People speak English well. Any queries are answered politely in English.

On the third day of my stay in Amsterdam, I decided to have an outing on a bicycle. I chose the country side tour as the guide also suggested me so. The bad luck for me on that day was the speed of the wind. The chilled wind has been blowing at a speed of around 50 km per hour and it was too difficult for me to ride the bicycle against the wind. I ventured out on a ride after a very long gap. By the end of the trip around the country-side, I was almost pissed off. The Europeans and Americans who were also in the group could easily ride their cycles even against heavy wind. Though my legs were almost immovable, to keep up the prestige of my country, I tried very hard to hide my discomfiture.

Before the start of the tour, the guide gave us an exhaustive description of the history and geography of Amsterdam that lasted for more than an hour. He spoke in British accented English that were relished by the Britons and the Americans in the team but I had to blink several times as I could hardly follow this accent. Still I got to know that cycles are an essential part of Dutch life and this city was built around the river Amstel

There are two rivers flowing in Amsterdam – Ij and Amstel. The two rivers and the umpteen numbers of canals, no doubt make the city breathtakingly beautiful. There are ferry services across river Ij. These ferries carry people to and from the other side to the main city. The ferry starts from near the Amsterdam Centraal Railway station. Centraal Railway station is a very crowded railway station here and the ferry service is also equally crowded.


There are so many houses floating on the river here. Boat houses with all facilities of a full -fledged house are a common site on the Amstel and Ij rivers. People are living in these houses for years, I was told by the guide of the cycle tour. These boats , once upon a time, were the dwelling places of Hippies. Of late Hippies vacated them and now the locals are using them as their houses. We can see many big buildings in the river. A large ship-shaped building that can be sighted while entering the city by train is a big attraction

Boat cruises are another attraction on the canals. We can go around the city on boats. There are hop on - hop off boat services that facilitate us to board and disembark the boat as we please. Going around these boats will definitely remind us of a journey through a canal in Alleppey district in Keralam. Only difference is that no other place in this world can match the beauty of our Alappuzha (Alleppey). So, next time if you feel like to have a cruise on a canal or a backwater body, never rush to Europe, right away come to the God’s Own Country and enjoy the nature’s wonder there.

For more photos of Amsterdam , please click the link : https://picasaweb.google.com/ppnatesan/Amsterdam?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ_SkeqhldH67gE&feat=email#