Girl In Germany

I happened to suddenly see a video today. Curious - I clicked it on it. It was a video of students opening their deeply-buried Orkut profile- one last time. It has been quite a while since this 'Orkut is shutting down' thing going around. However, it is now officially shutting down this September 30th ( handkerchief please - *sniff* ). To be frank, this news never really meant anything, just until I opened my profile ( after N number of attempts to recover username and then the password ).

You know the Fall begins when -  the blue skies, chirpy birds, buzzing insects, colorful flowers are all still just like how it was two months back - just that you need to wear your hoodie. Yes, the winds kill you as hell with the chills running own your spine.  Sometimes I feel: maybe it is more because I'm an Indian. No, seriously.

Cycle-warming : My Bicycle "You can have a look at the bicycle and take it if you like - My address is ..... " came an SMS to one of our E-bay short-listings. I was anxiously waiting for the  Termin. The destination was not far. It happened to be just a 4-min walk from our house. We went near the yellow car  as he had stated and waited. He came 5 mins late (Of course we were there - on the clock). He led us directly to the cellar and there it was!

There is always two sides of a coin. Just saying. Same way, I have found myself profoundly attracted to certain 'German' attributes. In the initial days of me coming here, I dint like any of what the Germans did. Be it their hostility, their only-German signboards, TV channels, No-I-don't speak-English attitude, extremely expensive food and clothes, etc etc., Oh I forgot - their timing! In India, its always around eleven, 'bus will come at six thirty', 'we'll meet around 4' and so on, but never ever- 'train is at 06:06'!! It was because of this, I had to have a digitized watch - I never needed one before.  And the clocks were in 24 hr system - we have similar ones in India too, but no one uses it. It is more of a am-pm system. I still subtract 12 in the afternoons just to make sure. Anyway, over time, I somehow have developed a liking towards 'German ways'.

3. Making friends right away: Back home, you have so many friends - I mean not just your colleagues, school and college friends: The flower girl who comes every evening to sell you flowers, the milkman, your apartment's watchman (who was a nuisance bringing you useless posts hurriedly just because it was delivered to him), your daily auto- wala , the beauticians and barbers you visit every month, the chai bhaiya who gives you an extra-strong ginger tea, the sales girls of boutiques who show you latest collections based on your likes and dislikes, your regular restaurant owner who serves you discounted food, the medical shop boys who home-deliver medicines right after a phone call, your acquainted tailor who sews perfect clothes for you, etc etc., The list is simply endless. I never realized they would even matter - when I was back in India  or so I thought  ...  making friends comes easily in India. Once you are outside, you understand that it is not so in other...

We all know Paris is obviously the most romantic destination; but there's another P city which gives a tight competition to France's capital: Prague. I haven't been to Paris yet, so this was supposedly my 'First romantic destination'. So, what does this 'romantic city' literally mean? There should be a justification. Wonder what.  We, along with our group of friends (9 of us) decided to go to Prague this April. Firstly, it is a must-go place and secondly it is just 450 km from my place.  It was the first trip for our friends by car - so they were hyper-excited.  Enjoying every minute of it.

People here, have a very interesting mode of travel experience. There is the normal car-rental service, where you can rent a car for a limited period of time, or distance and fill the tank (or not) while you return. There is also Mitfahrgelegenheit  (I simply call it Mitfahr ).  For those who of you who don't know what this long M word means: ( even I couldn't spell it out at first )

Ahh.. Finally am back - fresh as a leaf. The weekend started way before Saturday this week. No I was not partying.   This  can lead you to my plight.  It looks much easier than said, I should admit.  It really is tough, though.  I wanted this year to make it bigger, more because I think I grow every day - so its high time I start not-finding excuses.  I was totally drained making the filling, and the next day the outer part and the next day again - for friends. All these dint matter to me, when I saw the look in S's face, when he ate the first of it. He simply loved it!  Its been more than 5 years since he ate it, itseems. Oh yes, it should be hard for you to picturise or understand a word - unless you know what this kandhulo looks like. So, here are my pretty darlings. The white ones are kandulos.  They are meant to be Lord Ganesha's favorite, ours too.  It has an inner filling made of palm sugar, coconut and channa dal. Some like it...