Carnival in Maastricht, 2010

I decided last minute despite the heavy-ish snow to head to the carnival in Maastricht a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty much a last minute decision to step out of home and make the two and a half hour train journey to Maastricht. I had heard that this was one of the biggest carnivals in Holland, and of course while it would have been easier to head to Eindhoven for the carnival, I was adamant, and we decided to make the longer journey. It was worth the while however. Here are some pics!

Carnival in Maastricht, 2010

Carnival crowd, Maastricht 2010

I’m not really a big fan of huge crowds, because crowds in India means being caught among sweaty people in under the extremely intolerabe heat (at least in Madras). Of course the buttermilk that people living in the area distribute during religious parades under the sweltering sun, come as a huge relief

Being stuck in a crowd here in Maastricht was a litte more tolerable when we found ourselves being pushed along by the people through a narrow street filled with bars and had all kinds of weirdly dressed folk spilling out from the bars and on to the street. It was tolerable mainly because it kept me warm in the snowy cold, helped in part also by the bottle of grappa that we had carried with us.

Paraders, Maastricht 2010

We had landed up at the carnival normally clothed and felt extremely out of place among the jesters, kings, queens, the entire animal kingdom and a weird assortment of other things/ species/ characters in costume. We quickly made our way to a costume shop and in student style acquired cheap hats and masks to transformed ourselves into a witch, a butterfly & a masked spy and were ready to roll!

living with school time woes

Back when I was in class four, I became friends with a girl in my class, who incidentally also used to ride on my school bus, since we lived in the same locality. Eventually we became good friends, through conversations on the journey back home from school, similar interests and all that.

It was nice because she made those horrendous bus rides more tolerable. For one, I had someone to talk to, and not feel like a complete stranger on the bus like I had the previous year when I was new to the school. Then, besides getting bullied by the seniors I also had the constant urge to throw up since I had motion sickness and the bus was way too crowded. So the claustrophobia did not make things easier. Having someone fun to talk to kept my mind of these things. And of course, if we were getting bullied on the bus, it was better when you werent the only target.

As it turned out a few months later, her family was moving and she showed up in class one day to tell us that she was leaving. I wanted to do something nice, and thought that with a few friends of ours in class, we would write a short letter/ card and give it to her before she left. Since I was one of the closest to her, I decided to write the short letter and I did.

This was class four however, and despite being good at english (for that age, or so I thought), I made a really stupid mistake that I still feel bad about sometimes. I was having trouble with the concept of ‘missing someone’ as it is said in English (this happens with other stange english words as well – described in my previous post) and was confused about how to say it right.

I figured out however as to how things could go totally wrong. We gave her the letter and I was expecting her to feel really nice, that a group of her friends from class did something really sweet for her farewell. What I did not expect of course was her to start bawling her eyes out (trust me, these weren’t tears of joy), and she was really hurt/ angry and said “but I thought we were friends and if you must know, I will definitely miss you a lot”.

I was thoroughly flummoxed and then realised that what I had actually written on the card was “we will not miss you” .. because back then I thought that ‘miss’ could be used to replace ‘forget’. That day was her last day at school and on the bus journey home, she was hurt enough to not sit beside me, or even hear me out (unfortunately, kids have bad tempers).

Suffice to say, that was the end of that friendship. I only saw her once, randomly, many years later, and I’m not sure if she even remembered me (it more likely that she chose to selectively forget the traumatic instances of her childood ). I, however, never made that mistake again.

A way with words

Online chat reveals many interesting things, especially about your spelling abilities, Freudian slips and so on. I was chatting with a friend the other day about something random. I realized that there was something weird happening when every time I tried to type out ‘certain’ words I would get confused about the spelling. This was mainly because the way I had spelt it didn’t ‘look’ right – aesthetically that is, although it did make me wonder sometimes if I was dyslexic.

I told my friend about this and the concept of words with ‘Look Issues’ was invented. Here are some:

Liaison – (the extra ‘i’ after ‘a’ looks totally wrong, but its right)

Entrepreneur – (EnTREpreneur looks as good as EnTERpreneur)

Skeptical – (just plain weird)

Weird – (always the ‘ei’ or ‘ie’ issue, although I’m sure there’s a rule to this, which I never seem to recall and hence get caught up in ‘Look Issues’)

Tea –totaler – (the concept itself is weird, never mind the word’s aesthetic contours)

Revoke - (I spelt it rewoke and it looked right but there was a nagging feeling at the back of my mind)

Of course, everyone has their own issues with certain words and not all words with look issues are an issue to everyone.

‘Issue’ by itself has strong look issues. Yes, English is a strange language (sigh).

P.S: After said friend with whom I discussed ‘Look Issues’ read this post, there arose an argument on who actually coined the term. So the current copyright status on ‘Look Issues’ is yet to be resolved. But here’s what the same supposed literary genius friend has to say about it:

“I mean when im delivering my nobel winning speech, I should be able to quote it without infringement lawsuits coming my way “

Yeah.. lets see about that! (Although I’m sure explaining ‘look issues’ to the folks in Sweden would be quite a hoot!)

The elusive Pinguim

After much deliberation over taking a trip to a different city over the weekend to escape the monotony of mid-quarter student life, we settled on visiting Porto. The promise of relatively higher temperatures and sunshine compared to the bleak Dutch weather worked wonders for our optimism. Of course on reaching a rain soaked Porto, and losing a perfectly nice umbrella, it is safe to say that our attire wasn’t the only thing dampened.

We decided to explore the city nevertheless, armed with two important things – the city map and a print out of an email which would become the bible of our journey. The email was a quick scribble-down of all the places to visit in Porto including their locations, which a Portuguese friend had sent us the previous night, topping the list with all the pubs and night clubs and culminating with the museums and castles.

Nuno’s email was where we first found a mention of the Pinguim, a pub somewhere on Rua da Mauzinho da Silviera, along with a little café close by where the food was ‘traditional, good and cheap’. Mauzinho da Silviera is a wide cobblestoned sloping street that gently drops you off at the ribiera – along the Douro river filled with cosy little cafes where you can enjoy porto in a glass (port wine of course) while gazing at the little boats and the wine cellars on the opposite bank.

Walking around the city was an amazing experience, and checking off the places on Nuno’s list of ‘things to do’ proved fun! The longest distances we covered by bus or the metro and that too only if we were too tired to walk at the end of the day. Of course it was interesting to see how bus drivers make their job more interesting. We were waiting outside casa de musica (an auditorium probably more famous for its building than the performances it hosts) for a bus that would take us to the parque de cidade. We missed the first bus, only to find out that the next bus that came along wasn’t going where we wanted to. The driver told us that we should have taken the previous bus and decided to move along. Almost as an afterthought, the bus stopped and a lady beckoned to us, asking us to get in. We got in and were about to check our tickets when the driver stopped us and said “wait! Don’t check your tickets..” And then we realized that he was driving in all haste, almost beating red signals and chasing down the previous bus me missed! He finally got to the bus two stops later and we bade him mucho obrigado! When we jumped into the next bus through the back door however, we sidestepped the rules of getting in at the front only and were almost yelled at by the driver. Suffice to say that our excitement was short lived.

Of course there was one place that we still couldn’t go to and dint bother looking up on the internet since we were determined to find it the old fashioned way. We would have walked at least eight times up and down Mauzinho da Siviera through the entire course of our trip in broad daylight, pouring rain, and under cover of darkness. Nevertheless, the Pinguim just seemed to hide herself, eluding our searching eyes, our unsatiated appetite for food traditional, good and cheap and last, our need to tell Nuno that we visited at least one of his favourite haunts.

O’ trains and the dating game

A few weeks back I was on the train back from Amsterdam, quite late in the night with a few close friends after a night spent just walking around that heck of a city. The train was completely packed and we stood for awhile, and then sat where we found a little space – scattered: she on a recently empty seat, me on the stairs, he near the door.

As the weariness of the night slowly crept threw us all, I realized that there has always been something strangely nostalgic and romantic about trains. It’s weird how I can go back to the ghosts of relationships past just through railway rendezvous. Lover’s spats, first dates, stale-mates (am borrowing this term from a friend – read: mates you’re with but can’t rid), of course now it just looks like I’m borrowing experiences from bollywood movies (DDLJ, Jab we met etc.). Well, maybe a bit, or maybe just little episodes from railway vestibules half-ways across the world.

Somehow the train from Amsterdam transported me back to the suburban locals in Madras, the most fun way (in retrospect of course) to get back to the city after ditching college. Of course, having travelled on many occasions with different bunches of people, I have concluded now of the many interesting things you can do on the local trains in Madras, especially if you’re on a first date. For instance:

Hot first date: Wanna do something fun?

Me: Always!

HFD: Do you trust me?

Me: hmmm <feigning skepticism>

HFD proceeds to hold me, as I flip my hair out the door, the train going fast enough, the wind flirting with the strands, totally exhilarating!

(This unfortunately cannot be tried on trains in the Netherlands)

However, trains in Europe can be ideal for other situations.

Stale mate: Let’s talk about where this relationship is going

Me: Uh sure..I’m a bit thirsty. Can you get me some vodka?

SM: Ok..

(Some vodka shots later, hoping the crisis has been averted)

SM: So, this is a good time to discuss..

Me: <pointing out the window excited> Ooh! Check out that cow!

Just goes to show, it doesn’t matter where you are- a crowded local in India, a stiff – upper- lip pantry car in England or the double-decker Dutch screech-er, it’s just who you’re with, that makes for great stories!

Philosophy 101: Determining the sex of a chick

Imagine a room full of engineers being asked the question, how do you identify the sex of a bunch of chicks? The whole transition that I have made from engineering to studying business and management currently seems more like a process of learning patience. Seeing the patience oozing out of people when we have to sit through a philosophy lecture is sort of like seeing a whole classroom in withdrawal, although for me, it makes it extremely amusing (the philosophy lectures I mean). Especially when today’s class went something like this:

Philosophy prof: (showing us a picture with a bunch of chicks) how do you identify/ determine the sex of each chick?

Guy behind me: Um.. obviously female ??

Prof: Well there’s one major differentiating factor – you look at their genitals

Yeah..what a surprise!

Prof: Based on differences, you decide randomly that one is male and the other is female. Aha but which is which?..flummoxed!

Of course, he was trying to make a philosophical point about measurements, which was obviously lost on the audience despite his phenomenal oratorical skills. Can’t blame the guy for trying though, but of course there are lessons he could learn too. For instance, if you try to teach a room filled with engineers, complex (or simple) philosophical concepts, it will end in disaster. Yes you will be viewed as that crazy eccentric man and not in the sexy way like Greg House. But I digress.

Public Education

There are many things that I have learned through the course of relationships with people, but some incidents have left a lasting impact! I have a friend, who for the sake of convenience we can call Ms. L and who in the course of her routine manages to do her bit in educating the common man, however questionable her methods.

Lets wind back a few years..

Ms. L, in her twenties and extremely scared of dogs is just getting set to ride her scooter to work, when she sees an injured dog outside her house. She immediately orders a random jobless guy (there are many of them in India) to pick up the dog and get on the bike with her, who for some strange reason does it. Now, while I know that L can be persuasive, I still wonder if the random guy was just intimidated/ really bored/ excited about the prospect of hot girl inviting him to jump on her bike (albeit with injured dog) or well, concerned about the well-being of said dog.

L, dog and strange man (in that order) on the bike are now speeding towards the blue cross, about 5 kilometers away from L’s home.

The dog was handed over to the blue cross and then given the required treatment, and was taken care of. L finally went home content about the good deed she had done for the day, only to realize that she had absent-mindedly abandoned the poor guy she had bossed over into carrying an injured dog.

Cut to another situation where I happened to be riding on the bike with Ms. L around my neighborhood. She suddenly came to a halt on a pretty deserted street but for one guy who happened to have the idea that the world was his urinal (well this happens a lot in India too), stopping right next to the guy relieving himself. She then proceed to yell at him about how he was crazy to be urinating in public and just because he lacked sense, did not mean he was privileged to leave his mark on the surroundings. I was as usual speechless by the proceedings and while I do appreciate her need to improve society in general, I did feel sorry for the guy who in all probability walked back with wet trousers that day.

On another bright sunny day, Ms. L was driving around with a male friend and had stopped at a traffic light, which was pretty long. Now a transgender person arrives and begins to ask L’s friend for money (this is also quite common, since Indian society tends to outcast such people, who need to resort to hittin- on or weird-ing out men into giving them money. They also tend to clap a lot for reasons that I still don’t know). L jumps in and gives this person a discourse on how he/she must behave like a self respecting person and how it makes no sense to keep clapping and draw attention and actually got a positive response.

Most of us are socially conscientious to an extent (or at least like to think so) albeit some more than others. Anything related to improving society is usually relegated to the back of our heads and usually only discussed when we’re at the receiving end of some social injustice. While these incidents have made me laugh on several occasions owing to

1. L’s relocating a random guy from one place to another and abandoning him there
2. L making a guy pee in his pants literally
3. L discomforting her friend by randomly lecturing a sexually confused person who was about to feel him up

I do think it’s totally cool when looking at the bigger picture, despite some follies in her means.