Travel philisoply

Well i am no big globetrotter but i have done a fair share of travelling i can say .Most of it solo,well i would join a group whom i met along extending my travel mates list . It was and still is very good fun.

Advantages

U don't have to wait around and wait for ur partner/girl or boyfriend to turn up at a place

U do what U want

When i visited a few places i taught silence was my best companion,Me and my travels where at peace with each other.

Well i also met some of the most wonderful friends many of them have offered me a free place to stay if i ever come to their city.

U cannot be shy .Because if u are u have to keep talking to urself so u speak to a lot of girls !!!!! All in all a good option u might be thinking NO there are flip side to this story as any one.

Disadv

Well the biggest i have found is to click pics .I often carry my tripod with me for this purpose and nag some travellers to click some photos

Some place or should i say some romantic places u need someone to rub shoulders with which is wen u miss them .Seeing a Beautiful sun set by the beach and not having anyone to share it with is sometimes a nagging tough

I as of now have chosen to travel solo ,But some times i do get my friends to tag along . Constantly these are the questions asked by most of my friends mind and family .

Isn't it frightening to travel alone??

Y should it be ,will ur travel partner make u a super man

What happens if u lose everything and if u are left lost in an unknown city in a desolate XXXXX?

In this situation ur mate can may be help or make u more crazy depending on the situation and the person of course .He/she can do absolutely nothing if lose everything u have to go to the police.

There is this other lot who try to figure out y i travel so much or spend so much money on it so for all the sorry souls here is ur retribution

If the Great explorer Marco Polo had listen to u tossers . He would be stuck in a gutter in Venice rotten and the west wouldn't be the place it was supposed to be Who do u think told all the mortals there is great clay in China or riches of the Far east or still the black gold ( pepper) etc etc. I am sure all these would be discovered eventually but he only took the risk which payed off.
Or
Lets look at a more recent example who would have imagined a 23 yr old Ernesto guevara de la serna( Che Guevara ) and Alberto Granodo single trip on the La paderosa would change them so much atleast one of them becomes an icon of revolution for years to come.

In Che's own words "We set out to change the world but in the end we realised that the World around had changed us" What a wonderful sentence.

Yes i travel to see new things and experience new stuff.But i do realise I am changing , challenging conventional way of thinking and may be becoming broadminded as intellectuals would call it.

Well i will leave u with a good pic clicked from my mobile with i was touring western europe

CIAO

Boy to a MAN in a Minute

Well this would be an interesting culturally
Drinking is not a taboo in India but its general form of respect not to drink in front of ur parents.So me being a good boy had never told my parents that i was drinking when i was India .So that kind of drinking meant that drinking half a bottle of beer getting back home after having an nice meal.
This generally worked fine for me until i left my motherland .My parents obviously suspected that i would drink but they never asked and i never answered

Igonrance is blisss!!!! .It certainly is

But in my adopted country it was a completely different story. Frequent night out with my mates i found out it was easier t socialise if u at least go to the pub,Better if u drink
Well when i met my dad in Paris .I was glad to see him of course and himself and his mates we went to a local cafe
Since i knew some french i was to order whiskeys for them me being Indian inspite of being in europe for so long
The English translation of the order goes like:
Can i have 3 whiskey's and 1 cappuccinos please.These people who have a generation gap bear in mind they have just heard of cappuccino They usually drink coffee or tea.
One of my fathers friend tried to understand wht i was saying and caught the fact that i had ordered something different .He assumed that it was a drink as well and asked me what have u ordered and he knew that cappuccino is a caffeine based drink.

So he told my father who tried to be friendly and said, Hey its ok u are a man now u can have a drink.Me being conservative had a beer and nothing else.

TATS IT FOR NOW

Adios

CHANGE the only constant

Hola Todos

This seems to be my fav word now .Don't know y but i like it

May be it just brings back my memories of the Latino girl who was my fancy:) anyway .

There were and still are i believe a lot of change .A person should change good change is always healthy for mankind .Well in my house the Internet is up and running with out any problem and after repeated request the land lord finally relented and installed a new system and new locks !!!!!! .That's a nice change .

Back to my story which takes u all back to 2007 .

Well becs of this job i had to move back to the central England which is not too far from London or the coast to be honest.I don't get there classification or division of counties on a small mass of land as this .In comparison my state back in my motherland is more bigger than UK.

Different places diff people different cultures and opinions i suppose.That's what made me a better individual remember so i should not be cribbing about this.

Well i had butterflies in my stomach the first few days since especially the first day i went in there was nobody in the office .Apparently they were in another city attending some important conference.Imagine walking into the office the first day and being in a deserted department working alone ,Well if checking hotmail is called work .

Work colleagues were good but not great .Wont go into to much details but yeh could have been worse.

Home search time, well that was and still is the most interesting story to tell .Registered in some Internet site and got a lot of calls .But some of the houses that i visited on the Internet it looked great,but wen i got there it was a completely different story.

Saw this house which i liked .But i missed the vital point i was living as a lodger and then i realise wht a living hell it can be especially if the lodger is a nagging and from south of Europe .Not that i have anything against them but oo boy couldn't use the microwave , the kitchen had to be super clean.

Any way after a while it became a bit too much for a random block accustomed to chaos like me to take.So i move but paying some deposit money becs apparently i had caused some damage .

Directions can be misleading

Have a look at this Photo (Copied from the times of India )

Now if u are wondering y I posted this foto , just take a closer look .Apart from the fact that the road are heavily flooded, these poor people are looking at where their stuff is and their loved ones. Just cast ur eyes on the direction of the parking lot exit the first sign board says where the Parking lot exit is.If u follow the same instructions within a couple of feet u will be confused or perhaps heading towards the entrance !!!!!!!!!!.

OR

May be its just me having perspective vision problem not able to look how far these two signs are either way i think this was odd :)

Ariverderche

The magic of 13

Is the combination of Friday and 13 aka 13th of friday really a dreadful day.
For me it was a bliss, but some of colleagues didn't think so and i think they are rite .

Let's look at the logic behind their reasoning .

• A colleague who was suppose to pick me up never turned up and when i called him up he was already at the site !!!!!!!!!! he taught someone else was picking me up.
• Came to my company where strangely all majority of the phone lines where down and i missed my meeting the so called non important mgmt meeting.
• Emails where bouncing couldn't call some of my clients.

All these made my day but for some sorry old sods it was not interesting.But hey its a friday ,u don't need to work and u get paid for it what more can u ask for

Go on get a life

A new city a new life

All rite let me continue my story . Started working at this point of time i didnt have a place to stay,(some of the joys of moving and being single) so my kind friend let me stay in his which was nice because now i had time to do some house hunting.

Finding a house is not so easy as it seems actually .I posted that i needed a house in XXXXXXXXXXXXX in several sites.The replies that i got where amazing but in most houses that i visited.I noticed how different it looked from the original pics posted in the internet, Infact some where not even the same place.

Well finally after 10days i looked at this house with a nice but a talktive land lady which was really pretty and affordable.Yeh took it but i should have know,This lady was fussy clean to the core but stingy .Ok now lets not go into details but just to give u an idea these were the rules

I cant switch on the heating even when its cold at night becs she cant sleep with the heating on(yeh u get it its to reduce the bills).I was paying an all inclusive bill so all this was done to maxmise profits

Next i cant use the microwave for cooking !!!!!!!! yeh thats , but its supposed to be used to only to reheat stuff

She used to always inspect the kitchen after i cook so that it stay clean
Needless to say i left this place after a couple of months
So next blog about my new house

A Strange incident

This weekend i went down south . Down South here in Europe generally means just about a 2 hour train ride:).Strange ehh but what to do the whole of western Europe is not even the size of US

Well i had to scan my ticket in the barrier and I got to the platform just in time .Yes, i follow JIT(just in time production policy).When i was in the train it said this is the direct service to XXXXXXXX so some rail cards may not be valid blah blah ...... So i got out of the train to confirm if my card was valid and got back in .This time just as i was boarding my carriage my ticket dropped and fell down the track ,I realised the ticket had slipped out and turned back just then the doors slammed shut.I desperately try to open the door but no vain the door was shut and the train started to move .TO the people looking at me at the platform i must have looked like me guy struggling and dying in a Gas chamber unable to open the glass doors hehehehehe.



Came back to my seat dejected and depressed thinking about the cost of an open ticket it is damn expensive and my discounted railway card had dropped off tooo !!!

It was not looking good, a girl seeing me struggling suggested that i go speak to the train manager which i did.Voila, she said that she did hear about it over the wireless but was unable to open the door as it was already time .But said that if my tickets were to be found in the platform i wouldn't be charged and Bonus my tickets would arrive to my station in the next train,Within an hour they confirmed that my tickets were found can be collected if i wait at my destination station for 45 Min's ahhhhhhh
What a relief .

Strange what a simple piece of news can make a big difference to ur mood . Until they found my tickets i was sad and cursing myself as to how foolish i was but after that i was happy to spend my money on drinks , food what ever and had a rocking weekend!!

Random toughts

Just saw this as an advert in the notice circulated


NEW***Tomato Plants
Large number of Sun Gold plants, lovely golden tomatoes, somewhere between a cherry and a normal sized fruit
Small number of Banana Cream, presumably yellow haven not grown them before
said it was a heritage variety on the packet
Small number of Vintage Wine, presumably red - have not grown them before said it was a heritage variety on the packet
Small number of Beef Tomatoes

50p per plant (planting pot not included) For further details contact xxxxxxxxxxon xxxx
I am selling my surplus plants because there are so many of them this year
The money raised will go to a World Vision project in Uganda


NEW***Jalapeno Pepper plants
All should be OK for the end of May, if this weather keeps up then earlier
All have been grown in an unheated greenhouse, but can be grown outdoors if hardened off


50p per plant (planting pot not included) For further details contact xxxxxxxxx on xxxx
I am selling my surplus plants because there are so many of them this year
The money raised will go to a World Vision project in Uganda



Nice to know that people concerned about Uganda .But i look at it as a way of marketing , People in devloped countries are too gulity concious these days . They would buy these just to make themselves happy and tell the world they did their bit.when only about 10% of this money would actually go in devlopment.

But i tend to think that not purchasing Blood Diamond for example ,Thus stopping the child labour is more important or starting a School , Education is more of a direct line of action

The sweet goodbyesss and back to work

Ok now a lot of things happened between now and the time I left my home country.It been more than a year I have just realised.

Time flies!!!!!!!!!


During this time I did a lot of exciting things and yes that included going to far off places.

First trip was in dec 2006 to Egypt with a friend of mine .We spent about a fortnight in this wonderful country seeing and the magnificent things from the pyramids to Luxor temple.We went from north of Egypt right down to the south.

All this time I was just taking in the rich cultural experience of this country and its wonderful people but my friend was a guide book kinda guy where as I preferred to go with the flow .This sure did cause some problem (I should have known) but any way I did get to see some sides of him which even his close friends didn’t know about

For example he would just stop talking or being funny once he is hungry J.I don’t know if this was taught to him as a law of conversation of energy or may be it just had to do with him being a geek.

Some things that I was proud of doing in this trip was to successfully haggle for a taxi right in the middle of a busy street when everybody was honking at us,This was an experience as there were vehicles zooming past us and I didn’t care about it.My friend was virtually pissing in his pants watching me from the sidewalk !!!!!!! and no he would not haggle and was more than happy to pay the price the driver would specify .But me never If there are a few good things that I have learned from my middle class upbringing is spend your money where its worth .

A good trip overall and but I think it was just the beginning.

May 2007

A Start of my new job and what a day I chose to start, Half of the office floor was empty so not such a good start .But on the second day I did meet one of my collegues. Finally after about 3 days of being the only ghost seeing just checking hotmail and the latest news on bbc(my PC was not sorted out yet so 2 days of bliss)
I met most of my collegues who where and still are good people to work with.Apparently they were all out to attend some important fair far away for 2

The life as a student

Before i knew i was taking tons of assignments and spending some sleepless nights in the library this was when i got to know this Latino girl chubby buy a interesting and intelligent girl .She sure knew how to have a good laugh and how to enjoy life.

As we got to know each other we where becoming comfortable with each other,I was invited to some party in her house and stuff and met some more crazy and beautiful Latino lasse's ,who all welcomed me with open arms and a peek (which was again new to me ) took some time getting used to but started realising what cultural experience .


These people especially were quiet keen on knowing my side of culture as much as teaching me their side of it as well.I was taught a lot of swear words and began to understand a bit of Spanish but started forgetting my french.


Well any way 1st semester went with out many hitches still without a part time job which was a bit of concern,but hey that's life.Finally found a part time job and started spending time and money on a bit of socializing and some barley water :) .But all good times no dodgy story of trying to pull girls and getting trashed out of the club.This was partly not done because of 2 reasons i had only seen it on tele and i was still too shy for these things.

Well when I look back at it now I always think about things i didn't do that i could have done.But hey i at least did this much is what i tell myself.But i certainly missed on some easy hits as i would like to say.

Well there where some trips crammed in toward the end i travelled with some people from my country .I did see a lot but was convinced this was not my idea of seeing a place .I was more into getting to do something and understanding the locals but their idea was mearly visiting and taking loads of pics ,But hey everyone is different i respect them for that but a few crucial issues which cropped up from here did put me off.


The 2nd semester started and ended, Before i knew i was writing the exams .What i enjoyed during this period was that almost every day there used to be a conference in the kitchen where everybody was allowed their fair share of bullshit lecture .But all in good spirit which i really enjoyed .The topics ranged from politics to sex from Americanisation to spiritualisation Everyone had a opinion i was beginning to think how a room full of people with such varying mindsets and views carry such a discussion without a fight.Politicians and people from the UN u need to consult us on this issue.I got to know that there some bollywood songs extremely popular in China and my Chinese mates were dying to know the meaning because it sounded so good !!!!.I was forcibly given the job to translate one of these songs .

These evening talks as i would like to call it opened up my mind made me a broad minded thinker (i think i am broad minded)Time just flew .Exams came and went on well and then came time to choose our projects .To this day i don't know what made me choose the stream of fluid mechanics to do my dissertation .The subject i hated and dreaded failing in my undergraduate days .

"Y do u want to worry about the viscosity of water and specific gravity .Just drop it from a height and it generates power" :)


These projects brought me a close to the real life problems faced by engineers on a day to day basis.I Had to come up with some solution on my own and be innovative ;) , But anyway my supervisor was quiet impressed so that's all i really cared about at this time .There was one last surprise in store for everybody so shocking that even i never knew it would hit me like this .I was very stressed with my project work and my part time job and juggling between the two it was driving me crazy so i decided to take a break .I went mountain biking out skirts of the city with a friend .Little did i know after completing that gruesome course i will fall off that mountain breaking my wrists and a few injuries on my face, ribs and head.The impact was so hard that the helmet was cracked and i couldn't remember anything about these incidents until 3 days after.Now i had to hand my dessertation in 4 weeks and with a cracked wrist , well life has to go on.In spite of getting an extension i submitted just one day after the dead line .



Completed the job everybody happy stood the second best in the project in my class not bad ehhh.....After all this i was left with a temp job as a lab assistant to teach design to student (My supervisor was impressed).Attended various interviews i was particularly sad of loosing one of them where i went until the last round in the end to be turned down.

Never mind i got another offer to work in the same city that i was studying in so took it.Only trouble was it was a 6 month contract i said wht the hell i will take this risk.Started working in that company where i had to learn the ropes from the person leaving that job in 15 days .Well i think i did well

The most important things that i learnt in this job is to be persistent and not to let other people take advantage of u .During work i got close to the Latino lasses that i told u earlier frequent night outs and dinner parties(hmm i had some more money at my disposal now).

Well moving onn i was almost finishing i had applied for a few jobs and attended a few interviews.My sister came down to visit me i took her around Scotland and back she enjoyed it especially since it was her first trip abroad.I had almost decided to go back to my home country when i got an offer to work for another company.The job seemed exciting and the salary lets say OK.So i decided to take a 3 week break visit home and return.

Going home was a journey in itself, I had just heard about reverse culture shock but never taught it would hit me so hard.The vehicles i taught had quadrupled in 18 months .Yes the cars had increased the traffic was more worse but to see this all at once after more than a year ,IT hit me IT HIT ME HARD !!!!!!.I never will forget my journey back to my place from the airport it took about 1 hr but all this time I looked at things and realised i was a tourist in my own country worse still my own city.

The heat suddenly seemed unbearable i was sweating sitting under the fan walking around home with just my vests and shorts and still sweating unbearably.My mom particularly was concerned as to y i was sweating so much when everybody else was comfortably walking out in their jeans at 40 C .Well i taught that a heat wave had just blasted on my face after over a yr of being accustomed to cooler climate of Europe but she wouldn't take it .Well her argument was 23 YEARS of being here u should be at ease as soon as u step off the plane but i was not

18 Months of being out of home with absolute freedom it felt a bit strange to tell my parents every time i was going out and to answer their questions of when are u coming bak ?, where are u going ? what are u doing there?.I was answering them for the first few days but was not bothered after tht .

The standard answers to question where like this

MOM : Where are u going ?? when are u ..... blah blah

ME: Visit some friend and i don't know,don't know,don't know

I knew i was answering all their questions before but now something had happened to me i didn't feel the need to i felt i didn't have to answer anybody...

Change !!!!!!!!!!.It was gradual for me.But for them just to come bak home and act like this , It was sudden.Finally one day my parents came and spoke to me about it , i am glad they did. It was sort of sorted but they were not exactly happy with my answers.

Following are their observation of me after my international experience

• I argue a lot with my parents over things.
• I don't ask them any longer I make decisions on my own:)
• I take off to unknown destinations travel alone (which i was afraid of doing previously) with out even asking them .I always tell them after everything is booked hehehe(thts my secret weapon)
• I no longer spend enough quality time at home (i agree with this)

Well 3 weeks in my country was not enough to.Especially since i was forcibly made to visit all my relatives some of them that i even didn't care visiting before.So a lot of forcible feeding had taken its toll .I was beginning to get a bid fat tummy a gift of my countries hospitality.

To be honest i enjoyed my time with my cousins with whom i was really close and some of my close friends who think all i do in Europe is go around girlsss :) .Apart from this i visited my village which i used to visit every year now strangely it all looked more colourful.

It was time to get back i had a minor accident the day before i was departing but it was ok .But the bloody 8 hr wait in airport was bad but anyway i was offf.

An independent life

voila then it struck on the 19th of sept that i was in a different country all by own .Freedom at last but also sad that i didnt have any help .

Oh k its been a long time since I updated my blog, after building up ur curiosity about my Spanish apartment I didn’t write for a week , Yeh my far east friends who helped me with my luggage .I was not carrying a lot to be honest it was just 30 kgs. But nevertheless introduced myself to them they seem to be nice and friendly,I had no idea at this point of time that I will be sharing virtually every things with these living beings and what a wonderful experience it would all turn out to be over the next 12 months.

But upon crashing in my room with the door shut and briefly unpacking the stuff and eating and ready to cook meal. I just realised how quiet my room and neighbourhood was. I was alien to this, believe me I was brought in a environment surrounded by 13 people (joint family) never had a room until one year before I came here and sleeping with four other siblings in fairly big room, sleeping in dorm style bunk beds Where everybody was fighting for one desk on that we had to study .Life was strangely different it was better but It would certainly take some transition time to switch modes.

I was addicted to Chaos I felt comfortable sleeping a huge pile and people screaming, in fact I could sleep peacefully if I wanted to, may be this has to do with the fact that I was brought up in a house next to 2 big factories on either sides with heavy noise which only when silent on a Sunday. When I used to go to my dads machine shop for some more noise . So random noise, lots of people and chaos was a essential part of my life which was now all but gone!!!!!!

Looked out of the window for a living soul not a man in sight on this long winding road .Then it hit me I was in an alien atmosphere with no bedding!!!! and it was cold and getting colder …….. oh not looking good .So came down asking for the nearest supermarket .Went out where I met another guy from my country sooo happy to see him so we went along to buy some food came back .

Finally after 2 days of constantly being home sick and meeting some friends outside who where feeling the same as me some more home sick than me which made me feel better J.So the 3rd day of my stay in this house I pretty much met all my housemates in one sitting until then I think no body had arrived so it was like I was will living in a ghost house.

Well it was a truly international house one person from each country
Brazil
South Korea
China,
Uk,
Belgium,
India

7 people 6 countries not bad eh it was like we could have a UN conference right here. All of them were very friendly and helpful and above no chavs everyone really matured and jovial.
Some of them really nice characters like very animated English, and much organised Brazilian and highly intelligent Chinese and disciplined and very clean Korean. Here I was dirty, well not dirty but not very clean certainly unorganised fellow thrown into this flat.
Slowly found out where the temple was to get free food once a week and Started talking to my flatmates who I seem to be getting to know quiet well.

It was alien for me to cook alone and eat alone as well so I decided to invite 3 of my Indian friends to come along since all these years of eating with at least 6 members of the family it felt a bit weird. Cooking started with had some minor issues with the cleaning and stuff but I made sure we started cooking when everyone else had finished.


Living in UK was an eye and bottle opener J by itself I learnt to be self reliant surving on my own money .When all my friends where running out of money due to their spendaholic altitude I was quiet content that I had survived until now without any major hitches.

I gradually started to appreciate all the small things in life like the walk up to the library passing through a lot of parks and beautiful Victorian style buildings were some of our classes were held like everywhere here too the Mechanical department is as old as the university.

Or things like spending time with mates and drinking games which again I was not used to. Classes went smooth and fine some hitches with submitting assignments but as always some sleepless nights were spent and some more early mornings in fellow classmates place. We all supported and worked on various project .Here too the multiple culture experience we where a class of 10 which was a mixture of Greek, Indian ,Chinese ,Italian ,Mexican ,Turkish and surprisingly just One from UK.

Quest for independence

Y I wanted to write this blog .Rather than shutting my mouth not telling my anyone about my boring life great start ehhh..

For a start my life too a giant leap in sept 15 2005 after I left the country which was a cultural pot where I was born and breed without realising what adventure was . I did go for an odd adventure holiday in yanna India etc but largely in the 600 km radius I live .Some time early in 2005 came a break for me to break free an Indian army Interview call which I had dreamt of since I was 15 yrs old.

Didn’t ask anyone booked a 2000kms journey alone on a train 2nd class my parents where concerned but secretly happy that I was travelling alone .I didn’t make it trough mom was happy but I was dejected I returned home as if there was nothing better to do for a mech engineer who didn’t want to enter the software pool when half of his classmates where because the the pay was better.But felt he was born to be among machines.

There where a lot of positive things I could take out of this trip my first long voyage plus sleeping next to the bathroom on a train becs I didn’t have a proper reservation which all I think makes a man stronger.

Well the job hunting continued for a couple of months then decided I had to go to another country to break free of all my karma .I was already learning French by this time so taught about 3 countries Sweden ,France and England , Sweden becs of free education and of course the hot blondes but living there would drain me out money wise .So in the end settled out for a university in the north west of England.


Set out to do all the paper work on my own but in the end my father had to sign for my education loan anyway all the prep done I decided to the plane tickets which I got it cheap .. D Day 15 SEPT 2005 was sitting in the airport lounge thinking what turn would my life take during this one year there was tremendous pressure on me so decided to write a dairy which I updated on a monthly basis the entries on the dairies is what u guys will find here of course a summarised version and a censored one ;).So this is my Spanish apartment.

The flight was exciting becs my connection was delayed had to run to catch the next flight (remember this was my first air journey) so didn’t know that the flight would wait for its connection .I was merely thinking about trains which don’t care but just come and leave on time silly mee…..

During all this running and hassle I saw a confident and a couple of anxious faces confident becs tht bloke had already travelled to Russian and stuff so I could single out the students .Who were travelling like me met a girl well a interesting intelligent girl who was I think the first girl in my life to break my gender barrier . I was never comfortable with the opposite sex with school anyway so u know there it goes .at least I had a girl to chat to .

Reached my destination no one to pick me (too early for uni welcome free pick up service) so decided to stay at my friends place for about 3 days becs . My friend taught some basic survival tricks to be in UK like cornflakes and stuff small things like this make a huge difference for a person like me come who had never had Cornflakes or Pizzas before in his life I am not joking believe me I had just had a bit of a pizza from my friend once and that’s was it.

Came to the University accommodation were I was supposedly had a room booked for myself didn’t have a clue how it looked and stuff but it was not too bad was good but I had assumed that we would all get computers becs it said free internet connection to every room (eh stupid of me to think of that) we have all been there I am sure and done that.

Came to my room where I was helped by a Chinese and south Korean ahh now it gets interesting