Where do i begin

Buggie Dreams Come True

Did you watch The Love Bug as a child? Remember Herbie? Well, there i was , amongst the millions of VW Beetle fans the world over. And though i did love Herbie a lot, the new Volkswagen Beetle was the stuff my dreams were made of! There was a tweety bird (vw calls it sunflower) yellow beetle parked below my window that substituted the sun on bleak Boston mornings. Then there was the cyber green one that reminded me of a cool mint drink on a hot day. A friend owned a red one that we threatened to paint black dots over.

I dreamt. I sniffed. I sighed. How wonderful would it be to own one. Santa must have heard me.
Or perhaps he didn't.

One sunny and freezing morning , just short of christmas i woke up early and tried charading the husband into a bunch of chores. To be put off by a "i need to go to work". Who goes to work the weekend before christmas? We had friends coming to stay for the weekend. Some more coming to dinner.Why was he going to work again?

He reappeared an hour later, looking sort of disheveled and excited at the same time. A stocking with a key appeared out of nowhere. And the tweety bird yellow bug below my window had been replaced by a bright, shiny, happy- faced blue bug wearing a bright red bow!

Buggie (not a very imaginative name) was loved. adored. worshipped. and driven of course.
Once he lost his vision in his right eye. I was sad. Santa. Sorry , the husband gave it some buggie lovin' and he was right as rain again! My favourite memory of buggie is probably of him bounding into my office lot , with U. at the wheel, both his eyes restored!

There's that memory and several others. Of blue buggie against the blue atlantic. Of a snowy buggie on cold winter mornings. of a summer buggie in Harvard square. Of a shopping buggie not complaining about the large bags piled into it. Of a primping buggie showing off the fresh new sunflowers in the bud vase. Of a cringing buggie when "its raining men" blasted out of it. And of course, of a weeping buggie when i kissed him goodbye.

It's been almost 3 years. 13 days short of 3 years since the goodbye. I know one must move on. I celebrated his birthday for a while and then gave up when people were wondering why i was rabbiting on about an insect, a pet, an ex boyfriend or some alien called buggie.

On a road trip to Germany recently, i met many of buggie's cousins. A sissy white cabriolet. A pretentious black one too. U says the time has come to get over my buggie angst.

Oh well, perhaps now i will! The new Cayman S anyone?

nee, niet, neen, geen,

Or Ja, Jawel.
Does it matter? Not really.

Woensdag 1 juni.
I woke up this morning very excited. This was going to a historic day. Ok, so am exaggerating. But the Dutch were going to have their 1st national referendum in 200 years! (Or so I read somewhere). Besides - it was an awesome sunny day, just right for getting out of the house, and exercising your right to, ok an opinion.

I nearly tripped over myself in the newfound rush to get to the city hall to check the proceedings - only to bump into my cleaning lady on the way out. I stared at her, and asked her in my unique blend of a hint of Dutch, a few rolled R s (remnant from the Boston days), and sign language - "have you voted?"

She nodded, responded with a broad smile & led me to the bathroom instead, and as if to explain how she voted, she picked up a bottle of lily- of- the- valley body splash and asked, "Van de winkel in de marktplaats? Read as: did you buy this in a shop in the market place??

I responded with a niet and stepped out in anticipation of meeting a few civic-minded souls at least. The Den Bosch marketplace was crowded - it was a Wednesday, which is market day for fresh produce, flowers etc. I looked around expecting to see long lines winding around the City Hall. No signs of any lines there! I did spot a line outside Hunkemoller though (the lingerie store in a corner of the marketplace). When I investigated - I discovered some Dutch folks in line to buy bathrobes being sold for 10e a piece!

Then made my way over to the Bossche Broeke - pretty certain that it would be deserted. Shouldn't people be at work or voting? The answer looked like it was neither - they had decided to take the day off to sun bathe instead!

I came back exhausted, and a little disappointed. Just as i was getting into the elevator I met one of our geriatric neighbours who greets me every morning with a "hood morning, I am so sorry, ghoood morning! " I was pleased - was pretty certain he must have voted. He responded to my query "of course, I voted. The song you see. The song."

Figuring the old man had finally gone barmy; I pushed the elevator button till my thumb was blue. Once upstairs, I retired to my laptop, a little sad. A one time ardent follower of Pericles, Rousseau and their ilk, I was depressed by this apparent apathy to the referendum.

I needn't have been though. As I discovered a day or two later. A whopping 63% of the Dutch came out to vote. And 62% of them voted "nee".

So what if the if the vote hinged on an Eurovision Song contest? The Dutch message to those watching was size, or in this case, a song does matter!

Happy Shiny Face 

Jeoli Good Times

Have you ever set out on a holiday with complete misgivings? Wondering if the men will disagree, worse still - agree to speed, will the sisters kill each other, the mother fret, the father fume, the roads turn into serpents, the destination into a bhoot bangla?

Did that sound neurotic? Well the mother fret may have something to do with it.

It was October 2004; the boys were dressed as though they were going camping in the Berkshires! We set out for a 6-hour journey, replete with several layers of food and the misgivings mentioned above. But we had to stop for aloo paranthas right? Which the only Punjabi refused to eat - the expression on his face – “who eats this kind of hick food huh!”

We arrived in Jeolikote - actually Jeolikote popped right out, close to sundown. The Berkshire campers unloaded their oh so urban bags at the Cottage ! We were greeted by a tall gentleman who gave us the ‘look over”. Which was explained later.

Many bundts & several cups of tea later, the six degrees of separation theory was proven yet again , and we settled in, further charmed by the gracious hostess . In the ensuing conversations she did mention that she has "Bauju" (the tall gent who greeted us initially) give her guests the look over. If you were from Karol Bagh, or from the "Gurgaon", and wore a handlebar moustache, or blared music, or Anokhi is an alien and rare word in your world - the gent would probably turn you away with a genteel yet steely "niet". Turns out the gent is also responsible for the awesome kebabs served at dinner - attributed to an old rajput recipe, where the meat is ground by hand and reduced to pulp. Now you see why the adjective "steely ".

Needless to say, some of us were extremely gratified that we had passed the test and the bond had been established - since there really are no suitable places to spend the night unless you count the tea stalls. Or the liquor store.

The weekend passed by - not without its hiccups. There was the loony father looking for his "joba" flowers everywhere. Some of us were put on the job to search. Others had enough of the wives & outlaws & escaped to the river down below. They returned several hours later, with A. looking very flushed. His wife jumped on him - "you were drinking without me”! He responded with a bunch of flowers that closely resembles large ocean lilies. We hastily put them away in our rooms, rather pleased with the men.

Till the gracious hostess emerged and exclaimed "Dhatura, the nightshade, its poison!" At which point A paled, the flush gone forever, and said, "I sucked the nectar, it tastes pretty good". Not a surprise - given that it is a hallucinogen!

The neurotic mother fretted further, the hostess gave her enough competition! Fortunately it had a sobering effect on A - which is not a bad thing if you know him!

The rest of the weekend passed by without any further disasters. Unless you count the father asking a gentleman from Ghaziabad , "so tell me , why do you live there? " Who lives in Ghaziabad! The visit to Sat tal & the neighbouring lakes was really quite awe spiring. The evenings were spent by a fire on the terrace of the cottage with D consuming most of the old monk. She does her teetotaler father proud! My guess is she wants to be Irish!

On our way home we figured we had chastised A enough for the Dhatura drinking incident. So we turned our attention to U & barraged him with questions - what were you doing? Why didn't you stop him? what were you thinking?

He stared at us for a bit, rather nonplussed, let the volley of questions go by and responded with " There was a passing stream. A man's gotta do what he's gotta do!

Sat Tal & Jeolikote, India, 2004

Munich & Salzburg

Munich & Salzburg
Originally uploaded by pumpkinfrodo.

Shetland Ponies: What are they feeding you? 

Oranges and Lemon

Kuchesar. September 2004. I didn't think mud forts were my scene - wallowing in mud, self pity perhaps! But mud forts no. The neemrana tag may have helped. Or sheer ennui.

Looking back it is probably the beginning of the end. Sounds very tragic. But beginning of a new life perhaps. P leaves soon after, R goes the baby way & we go to the Neverla.. sorry ... Netherlands.

It rained, poured, thundered. The drive to Kuchesar was splendid. The Hapur toll road was spectacular, with mustard fields on either side! T made us believe it was his mystery woman - the Toyota Qualis Mystere that made it magical. Perhaps!

Once we got there - it felt like being back to one's grandmother's house. (If you had a grand mother who lived in bucolic surroundings, that is). Large haveli, plenty of mango orchards, a small mud tank, a few peacocks & a couple of resident ghosts. Did I forget the warmth & hospitality? As I am often wont to do - I insisted there was a railway connection to the food. Must have been the liveried old world charm of the bearers!

We played marco polo in the rain in the mud tank. R wore a polka dotted outfit that she refused to be photographed in! Which was funny - given that J spent the entire day getting candid shots & bits of salacious gossip into his new toy - a state of the art digital camera! He felt all-powerful and promise dire consequences with some of the footage - however that was not to be! Laziness prevailed & none of us have seen the footage -mercifully!

P was extremely concerned about the missing peacocks - i didn’t want to tell her that the fowl curry for lunch did smell of something foul....

The most fun part of the day was probably sitting outside; all of us huddled under a Jaipuri razai Indian (not our kind of Indian) style, drinking plenty of chai!

We were wistful when the day was over...perhaps a premonition that life was changing.

A spectacular sunset, stealing bits of sugar cane from passing bullock carts, and idle chatter did life our spirits somewhat. Not to forget my self-admission that the thought of stopping in a dhaba for masala chai was more fun than drinking it!

Also a 1st - the beer we carried with us came back intact - were the langots growing older?

PS I hear that J has misplaced his camera since. Whodunit?

Oranges and Lemon Kuchesar 2004

Trivial Pursuits

Hello

Am back blogging after quite a while! Just came back from my trip to Delhi - funnily enough, I don't miss it any more! Perhaps it could be attributed to a bad case of delly belly , or I finally have outgrown Delhi.

Well, can one outgrow home? Probably not. Definitely not in number terms. Compare the population of Delhi with that of Den Bosch ! Defence Colony to Den Bosch may be a more fair comparison!

I guess the realisation that I don't have a home in Delhi any longer may have helped overcome some of the blues I felt in March. Of course - I still have more friends, family and foes there than elsewhere.

I am now pursuing some utterly trivial pursuits. Like collating old pictures, writing blogs long overdue, connecting with friends I haven't heard from in a while.

A dear friend and an ex boss (yes, it is the same person) called the other day seriously concerned after an email is sent her. It read "sos...Is this mini uttapam recipe alright?"
Needless to say , she was extremely concerned about my well being. In the past she typically received email from me that read "sos ....The customer ppt for tomorrow doesn't look good, do you think the pitch needs to be altered?" . Hence some of her angst is understandable. She isn't the only one. Yet another ex- colleague was terrified when I threatened to send him some fresh home made bon bons ! Another wanted to check with my husband if all was well when I rabbited on at some length about a couple of orphaned elephants I saw on animal planet called jabu & tembu. What's scary is - I don't think even my husband believes they exist.

Yes ...This is my new found world. Of elephants , bon bons and mini uttapams! There are other joys too - that of not having to live by an alarm clock being amongst them!

This morning I was running along the Bossche Broek, I stopped like I do every morning. To smell the flowers. To watch the rabbits. To be chased by ducks. To fawn over the dogs.

Carpe Diem!

A burrito is born

A Burrito is Born
Till his mom invents a camera, this pic will have to do!

Keukenhof Kollage

S Hertogenbosch March 2005 

Rustle of Spring

Spring is here. Sitting indoors, with the bright and sparkly sunshine filtering in through the windows it definitely looks as though it has arrived.

I heard birds this morning, saw a robin & think i saw rabbits moving the easter eggs. alright so am getting a little carried away.

Am quite obsessed with picasa. but am bored already. edited every single picture i could!

my friends have woken up. spring must be here. r called from ny.m is headed there. bdf is about to kill me because i sent her baboon avatar to everyone!

what's with all this baby making.that is all everyone is obsessed with. again think it has to do with spring being in the air.

have you tried watching cnn europe? all their stories are about america, america, america and once in a while a snippet of germany/ireland!

yesterday i learnt my 1st set of unpronounceable dutch words. forced to. couldn't read the instructions on the cereal cartons!

it is quite amazing how the definition of time changes. is it to do with cultures? or simply my current life?

hmmn.

A Brand New Day....Life

Starting of a brand new day….

And life! If there is life after 30 that is…alright alright all you octogenarians, stop scowling.

After spending a life stretched & gasping for time & breath, feels quite odd really. No appointments, the phone does ring a few times – only because it is my birthday.

Also the oft threatened promise of a dog biscuit, glass of water and tied to a pole is lived up to. Only substituted by a half eaten caramel waffle (stroopwaffel), a few nuts, and cup of foul fowl soup. Not to forget being locked in to the apartment!

Hennes and Mauritz here I come. Erase. Zara I am here. White linen I am here. Crochet slips I arrive!

Actually it was more like Albert Heijn and common sense I arrive. Sigh….

The hardest thing is to be practical. Which is odd given that I always get feed back at work – “you are so practical”. Which gets me back to the yin & the yang story! Call it congruity if you will. Everything I do at work, I don’t do at home. Which though F. doesn’t realize it yet- it great for him!
The day ends. Much brine (euphemism) and wine later. Asian fusion cuisine is nice. As is the service – rather charming. Back to the yin & yang – for all the sophistication of the cuisine F managed to chuck peanuts, and coffee beans across the table! Gave one the distinct feeling of eating at a fabulous banquet with a gibbon monkey! Of course if the gibbon is paying, one can’t really complain!

Good times....Jumbo

Quixotic Vacation

What vacation? Need another to recover from the last one!

The scary thing is - i could get used to this vacation thing. life isn't bad at all. try waking up at 12, coffee with Marina @ V&D , shoppping , start the evening at Haverkist and not sure if it ended.

Den Bosch is the place to be to de stress from from the wheels for feet phenomena! Unless you receive extra terrestrial communication about change!

Summer in the Netherlands is fun. Unless it turns into autumn overnite. A lot opf things turn topsy turvy overnite.Including your world view. Red as it may be!

Blogina returns

Am going nuts.almonds,walnuts,chilgoza,macademia nuts.Hoopla is the name of the game and hard work doesn't count as much as packaging.
can't beat 'em so join 'em seems to be the way to go.am attempting to recreate pirates of the cafe-rabba (punjabi for god) for the mafiosi.
just checked my feet to see if the wheels under were doing ok - so far so good.visited the pestlike puttars of punjab yesterday - was quite ok.
wombie is drinking beer in the beer garden - garten? what else would you do there other than drink beer? look for restrooms i guess.
friday was fun.the b2d was the nicest so far - i had lots of fun being dumbledore! and pretending the captain was the coffee guy! looks as though everyone had fun :)
it was clutterbug's b'day recently.had lots of fun.little goomba tried blowing the candles out instead of cb at which point the matriarch hastily intervened! cb did have a lot of candles to blow but not sure she needed l.g's help! the moonie sis sat and gobbled loads of goodies but whined about everything.the question is did moonie whine or wane or wax? dunno but moonie looks quite stricken these days.touch of the son(u)?

gotta run.work beckhams.sorry beckons.

american pie

Suddenly saw the date and figured i had forgotten a couple of birthdays.Rai on 2nd and Pratap on 3rd. And of course America on 4th!
Spoke to Rai after a while today - sounds v. happy. good for her :)
Should mail pratap - after all he remembers my birthday more often than his wife!
As for America - brings back a ton of crazy h.shell and saltnpepper bridge memories! wonder how the Sarcar and Popo gang is doing :o. think there was a baby somewhere there.

it was a good life.people drinking high knees (!),boats, flags, hot dogs, crackers and diwali like atmosphere.all in all good if you like that kind of thing.or if you are born wasp,red neck or merely american.

me green apple

my mother thinks i look like a green round apple.what can i say!!

i arrived in Cal this morning after an interesting 3 days in mum.
didn't meet any leopards over the 3 days .sigh.however what was esp. interesting was a four foot nothing gent by the name of Mutthu who was everyone's man friday.It's rare to find people as industrious in such a boring job.i think we should employ him!

bonded with mojo and muddy yesterday - they are truly adorable till mojo started his Willie Parker act.i of course didn't realise it at all.went for dinner to a beautiful house on worli sea face - it must be nice to be rich:) all in all a fun evening with some funnier conversations about jumping in and out of clouds,feeding leopards with pigs that look like hogs (whatever that means),lots of sangria and great food (no animals in there though).
the craziest part was S. doing some crazy headstands and psyching me out totally.a bit like the japanese lunatic in kesroli with the pushy american wife.s and mouse are complete bobos. methinks mouse quite likes the title despite his protestations.

Landed here this morning to bond with tequila and mowgli.and eat plenty of.......fish of course.This evening promises to be fun with the grand sport trinity - Wimbledon,football and of course the French grand prix.

think maria S is quite incredible.if only i were half as determined.was v. angry yesterday about silly gb training.probably not worth my while.oh well tomorrow is another day.

thought of watching troy today but the timings didn't look too great.D. was in yet another party at K's last night.she didn't invite me! d says that was not the intention - she merely figured i wasn't around.supposed to do a girl lunch on saturday with k,l,nis and d.will not be around as usual :)

anyway.going back to watching schumi.someday am going to be as good as him.win every single time.

Boring Day in Leopard Land

funny .thought i was in hawaii this morning.think the mushroom soup last night was magical! well - if not the melon and ham was. didn't feel so lousy that wombie was in foo foo land eating parma-melon eats.
life in renaissance is nice.you can clearly distinguish janta - between the ex pats (not that hard!),rich gujju types and of course the company paid stay types!
am so tired listening to blah blah blah stuff with no conceptual clarity. wow.big word.sounds like i went to b school or married someone who did !
must buy a brealy and meyers.my fundas (hiwever fuzzy) is better than others here - which is scary huh!
v is sitting with me and making dideredee sounds with his nails. how annoying.
ha ha we are talking fundamental and technical analysis - sounds like w's woman classification.m totally confused and others are arguing with him :) that is funny!
think will stop now.am enjoying myself too much and others can see!

Matilda Mania Down Under

The Land of Oz

No I was not singing waltzing Matilda. Or "we-all-sing Matilda" as a friend of mine used to sing at age 5 in Sydney.

Matilda is a wombat! She was found along with her mother who was run over by a passing car about 3 years ago. Tiny M. who was only 4 months old at the time has been raised at the Koala Park Sanctuary since.

What can I say? It was love at first sight! Turns out this little wombie is gentler than her relatives that are normally found in the wild. However - it didn't help when one of the park rangers constantly reminded everyone in a nasal tone " Sheeeen willlln bnnniteee".
Some of us were braver and decided to brave a wombat bite by stroking her ! She was relatively well behaved other than the occasional grrrr - sort of like pet dachschunds!

The famed koalas were fun. ( Are they real? Am still not convinced though one peed on me!). A trifle sleepy perhaps (they are primarily nocturnal, hence the bond with me). There were the usual wolloomollos , joeys whatever you want to call them! And some strange men trying to carry them despite several warning to let the animals be! who were the animals again?

A sumptuous barbecue, some boomerang throwing, didgeridoo playing later we were ready to head back to Sydney. I wasn't completely done though. What kind of a life would it be without a pet wombie?

It turns out i had a touch of womba.Not wombat but womba. Aboriginal for mad!