Saturday 5 April 2008

ISKCON@Helsinki; Dinner@Prashanth's

An evening at ISCKON

We also found ourselves one evening at the local ISCKON temple. It is really interesting to meet Finns who have dedicated their life to this. In fact, there were people who could recount stories of the Good Lord Krishna, which am sure most of us wouldn’t know!

They served some really yummm vegetarian food – which was a star attraction!

Dinner at my place

So an interesting experience for me is – to host dinners, get togethers at my place. Done that twice this month already!

First time was Pizza

We had close to 10 people…with Inder’s little one – Agasthya as well.

The Second Time :

We headed out to the local Indian store to buy some stuff – and after ages, I found myself buying Indian snacks - bhujia and stuff…

We also went out and hired a DVD – 300..and came back to watch it on my oh-so-nice Flat Screen.

When Sapna and Aditya came by and joined as well – we couldn’t find any good movies online to watch – so that unfortunately was a dampner. But Sidharth as usual rustled up a most nice dinner…hot dal, aloo and pickle to go with it.

The house was full – 6 people…and we even had to find places to sit down – but it was fun!

Here’s to more of them this year!

Easter Weekend!

Easter weekend!

It was the long Easter Weekend and Chaitnya - Young Lad 2 was over from Turkuu in Helsinki.

While Young Lad 1 Deepak was away in Italy (ahem!) and the women ( Mitali and Bincy) were in Switzerland and Sapna and Aditya were in Lapland, a few of us chose to stay back and explore Helsinki.

:)

Day one: Sea Life –A Natural Park for Marine Life

Originally, the 3 of us had decided to step out (Sid, Chaitanya and I), but on a whim, called a few people – in 30 min had a group of 8 all gathered at the Lahsipalatsi tram stop!

Rakesh’s wife – remember the Paani Puri – was at it again – and this time packed chips, a few drinks and such. We stopped at a store– (and after some mild flirting with the girl at the counter), picked up some chocolates and drinks as well.

It was a very nice time – both at the Aquarium – where we got to see Jelly Fishes, Sharks and not to forget the Corals; and after – when we stopped by at a small hill next door to have our picnic goodies!

The Next Day, the three of us headed out to the Zoo.

This trip gave me an opportunity to see the quieter side of Helsinki.

The zoo is a short 15 min trip from the Metro. And almost quietly in a most unobsruse manner we are taken to the quieter side of Helsinki. Serene, wide open spaces, idyllic. Being by the sea side gave it a very cold nip and through our entire two hours there, we had to hug our jackets, keep our hands in the pockets …and shiver a lot.

More than the animals, the idea was to venture out and see what the city had to offer and I often found myself being curious about the people watching the animals rather than watching the animals- It takes all kinds to make humanity – I saw families with the children in tow, young couples, old couples, mothers and fathers are pretty much the same all around the world – chasing after their kids, and how happy they are to see their kids excitement!

I was reminded a lot of my nephew and niece that day.

After a good two hours, we walked our way back to the exit – and there is this one stretch connecting the island to the mainland – across a bridge – which we literally had to race across because of the nipping wind!

After some good coffee to warm up and the customary purchase of refridge mangnets, and Chaitnaya went fida on the girl at the counter…we headed back home.

Day Three: The Design Museum.

We decided to do some ‘Cultural activity’ i.e see some Musuems of art and culture today.

Most museums were closed this day – but we found one that was open…the Design Musuem.

We landed up at the doors and spent about a couple of hours here – on show was some Design work by a famous Finnish Designer who’s work is to be found in the City’s metros, bus stations etc. Mostly furniture. There was also on exhibition, some Indian Jewelry.

It was nice to hear the voice of Bismillah khan on the telly, with Silver Jewelry from over India – Orissa, Rajasthan, South India.

Cruissseee time!

Cruise time....

Within a few days of me coming to Finland, the IBM team decided on a two day cruise to Stockholm. Given my old self, I was tempted to say – hmm – I need some time to settle down, you guys carry on. But armed with my new context, I chose to head out.

We left on a Friday evening and spent two nights on the Cruise, with a day at Stockholm.

That Friday was a full day. Thursday: Buy Gifts for Young Tamanna who was celebarating her birthday on Friday, book cake. A fair amount of work – calls, writing RFI responses…

Friday:6 AM – 8:00 AM– Wake up, tea, pack bags 8:00 – Check out of Hotel – take taxi to my new apartment 8:00 – 8:30 Dump luggage, set down things 8:30 - 4:00 Looonngg day at work – conference calls, meetings, India, Finland…sighhh <12:00 – pick up Tamanna’s birthday cake> 4:30 – rush back – still taking calls on the phone 5:00 – race to the Harbour to catch the Ferry

Whew – long day, finally settle down in my cabin – met Laxman and Chaitanya(Young Lad2)– natives of Turku – poor folks – in a team of about 10, they are the only ones living in a different city!

Deepak, Young Lad1 – my comrade in arms to have fun on your stay – resolve to make the most of our time on the Cruise. A young lad of 27, with a hearty laughter and a carefree attitude.

We began the cruise by taking a walk around the decks, doing the typical Titanic poses. :)

Jokes, casual banter…great leg pulling filled the evening.

Finally, we pulled out the cake and the gifts we had purchased for Tamanna. We managed to get to a place where we could light birthday candles; To celeberate your 6th birthday on a cruise to Stockholm – with not one, but two surprise birthday cakes! Rakesh’s wife, being her usual hospitable self had managed to pack some snacks. So imagine this – we are a few kilometers out into the sea – between Helsinki and Stockholm, eating Paani Puri, cake and pulling each other’s legs – 11 people in a small 5 feet by 5 feet cabin!!

It was a blast!!

The Little Imp who Made the Cruise Special !

We finally set out for dinner – a most sumptuous bouffet dinner.

The Bombay Dancers.

The cruise had decided to promote India as a theme as they were launching a new cruise that would go all the way to India. So the India them was sprinkled through out the ship – Incredible India posters as we entered on the jetty to large 30 feet Ganesha posters hanging from the ceiling! The highlight was of course the Bombay Dancers – a troupe that was especially flown in from India. They performed Bollywood dances on both nights – which the crowd absolutely lapped up!!

Casino time! After dinner and a show at the Bombay Dancers, a few of us got to the Casino – where they also had live music playing on one side.

Of course, innocent bystanders we were (!) and just sat by and watched. After a while, we resolved that we would need to play our hand at the casino. In the meanwhile, the live band was playing live music and some of us went dancing on the floor – mostly 90’s music.

It was close to 12:00 and Deepak and I kept wondering if this was the only place we could dance that evening…and upon making enquiries with the bartender, discovered that the ‘Club’ was on the 13th floor right on top.

We made our way to the top – and suddenly the whole atmosphere changed. There was loud House Music playing, psychedelic lights and a young hip crowd dancing away on the 13th Floor! The right time as the night was just beginning here.

We ran into a couple of Patrick’s local friends here. Patrick is big young Finn who likes to live the life…and so were his friends. So we chatted about Clubs, Dancing, Women (!), what works, what doesn’t.

We had our fair chance at the floor as well – at both the Club and the first Dance floor – alternating between the two – I also had the experience of asking a woman to dance with me - one of those pretty young things. I discovered how easy all of this is, compared to India.

We finished up by about 2:30 – and spent another 45 min talking to friends in one of the cabins. Finally we headed to our bed…looking forward to our visit to Stockholm…that would begin in just a few hours time.

Our Saturday begin with a bouffet breakfast – sumptuous yet again. Mostly comprising a lot of bread, various kinds of cheese, eggs…well – you get the idea.

We got out to the city of Stockholm – taking the bus to the City Center. The bus dropped us off at the City Center – and we just missed the City Tour Bus. However, we bought tickets to the next one – which was about two hours away.

So we took that time to walk around the city.

The City of Stockholm

The city of Stockholm, I must admit – had a little more colour and life than Helsinki. The streets that we visited – so reminiscent of old Europe- Cobble stones, small streets, old buildings…

One interesting place was the Old Royal Palace – and we managed to catch the change of Guard as well…

The Viking Kutumbh Mitali began the buying of the famed Viking helmets. Following her was Young Deepak and myself. We decided to adopt Bincy on a lot of pleading from her side…:)

The Viking Family had to follow a Code of Conduct – wear the Helmet at all times; speak in

a most chaste language and stand by the Family! Ha ha ha – so this was our team – two 30 + year olds behaving like 20 somethings and the 20 somethings behaving like teenagers! We roamed the city with our helmets, with passers by asking if we were returning from a party, making touristy purchases.

The Prime Minister of Helsinki.

ON our way back, we had to ask a few people how we could order a taxi. A couple of girls (well – they seemed to be prettier in Stockholm rather than Helsinki – but I cant quite make up my mind), managed to help us. As we were standing by the square, they squealed in excitement – pointing to this innocuous couple walking with shoppiig bags – not more than 30 meters away from us. Turned out it was the Prime Minister of Sweden…out for shopping with his wife – accompanied by just two gaurds. Compare this with India – with about 20 cars in two…roads jammed..you get the idea…:)

Anyway, the Viking Family returned to the ship to yet another long night of Wine, Dancing, Juwa and….

After a repeat of yesterday’s menu for dinner (!), and seeing part II of the Bollywood Movie (the Dancers), we walked over to the Gambling tables.

I spent the better part of an hour, just standing and seeing how people were playing – and finally decided to try my hand at the roulette table.

I played very cautiously for about an hour – making a marginal win…with low stakes…and then of course, was willing to raise my stakes. In less than 15 minutes, Deepak and I managed to win about 70 + Euros, and lose it all :)

Bincy took more than an hour and half to do the same :)

However, the rush of seeing the dice turn on the wheel, waiting with bated breath to see where it would land, planning how we would place our bets – odds, evens, rows, colors was quite the experience!

Deepak and I went back to the Club, danced a bit more…had a couple of close shaves in terms of dancing with the women – learnt a bit more about being open, adventeruous, and then headed back to our cabins; but one thing was sure – we were going to try out more of the Clubs back in Helsinki!

But all good things come to an end... the ship returned back to Helsinki by the morning. Back to work, and regular life...but with a little more appetite to enjoy Life ;) See pictures here

A whole new resolve to have fun! Suomenlinna - the Fortress Island

Isnt it wonderful if we as human beings learnt to be happy with what we have?

A truism that has perhaps been in existence since 10,000 BC :)

But not just happy with what we have, but also go beyond what we may consider as things that limit our ability to be happy, to live life fully…and that takes something…not always easy.

With this context, let me go onto what else has been happening in Finland.

Suomenlinna

The first weekend, Sapna, Aditya and I went on a short trip to a nearby island – called Suomenlinna.

Suomenlinna is just a 20 min boat ride away from the main city of Helsinki.

After a brief coffee stop to beat the cold air, we set out to explore the island on foot.

Perhaps a not entirely appropriate time to be at the island – cold winds, etc. at least it kept the tourist hordes away.

Photo Courtesy - Sapna My camera gave way in terms of battery so am attaching here the photographs which Sapna took on her camera – thanks Sapna!

Some other nice snaps that she took at her stay at Helsinki – very beautiful! These give you the flavour of the city, the streets, churches and the local harbour.

Suomenlinna - a visit to the Fortress Island of Finland

Back in Finland - finally! 2008

Back in Finland- finally!

:)

For those of you who know – this has been a much delayed return.

Finally, I landed here, through all the trials and tribulations of IBM’s Short Term Foreign Policy.

After a relatively shorter flight direct from India to Finland – compared to the longer one via Germany, I got out of the airport at Vaanta.

Snowing.

Since my hotel apartment would let me check in only later, I decided to hole up at a friends apartment.

…I landed with bag and baggage at Kaalevankatu – a small street downtown in Helsinki.

While I was waiting for Sidharth to land back from his visit to Turku – a historical town near Helsinki, I looked at the apartment I was waiting in – and wondered – where did all the nice apartments I looked at go – this was not what I saw the last time I was here. The apartment was small, strangely built – a huge hall with a bed at one side, a telly at the other and the kitchen and loo to one side (!)

However, I let that be and shortly that evening landed up at the familiar Accome Senate – the Apartment Hotel I stayed at last time.

I ran into this Indian gentleman at the door – who was for the first time in his life, had come to foreign land …a recent fracture had left him a little cumbered in his moments, so I helped him get into his room, settle in and guided him around. You can imagine how it felt – just like I did the last time round – and I was full of empathy for his situation.

I also met up with Sapna, a colleague from India who was staying at that Hotel for a week then.

She had already made some friends and so we stepped out for dinner that evening with her, Aditya (yes – we are quite a few Indians in Helsinki), a Chinese lady who worked for TCS and a German gentleman who worked for IBM.

We ate at a Fish – Market, down by the harbour.

While the rest of my company ate a most sumpuous sea-food meal, I spent the better hald of 15 min explaining to the lady taking our order, that I wanted something purely vegetarian - and that Fish was not vegetarian fare.

Welcome to Finland!

:)

Friday 4 April 2008

Notes from 2007 contd...my first few experiences...

The First few Days in Finland!

How often have you felt so completely in a strange new place, with every thing you do is a new experience…

The whole experience of living on your own – in an apartment hotel (unlike in India, where I most often than not had Paati, the Apartment Watchman or chatty neighbors!)

There was also my first moment with Snow!

That most wondrous element of nature which to the ones who have never ventured out of tropical India, have only seen on the telly or the net.

So enamored was I, that I kept taking photos over and over again – till I saw them on the comp…and realized that most of them were beginning to look alike (Prashanth in snow; kids in the snow; building in the snow, bicycle in the snow :) )

Not to forget the Cooking – cutting onions, cooking the rice, making the Tadka!

We also visited IKEA – which was a fair distance from the main city of Helsinki. Trudging through a km of snow, through the dark afternoon did not quite prepare me for the experience that awaited me – IKEA has set up huuuggeee demo model houses – filled with things you can buy. And we had gone a week before Christmas – so the whole place was filled with Christmassy things – decorations etc. The place was all red, white, silvery and golden!

You can buy things for a fairly inexpensive price here – and you can buy almost anything to get your house going. In fact, the apartment I am currently staying at is an ‘IKEA House’ with pretty much everything from there.

See all pictures here

New Years....Hampiiiii

New Years....Hampiiii

For someone who likes things a little planned, to be able to buy a ticket at 4, for a bus that was to leave at 10, without knowing where I would stay, was quite a breakthrough! And thats exactly what happened.

Hampi. The Vijaynagara city.

Historical capital meets Hippie Destination...the settings are indeed all that you hear...quite the experience. but let me begin at the beginning, a very good place to start. I spoke with Ravi who invited me to join him and a small group of friends to Hampi. He did warn me that it would be a very unplanned trip- so atypical of me to do one if those. But given my moods I said yes; and I joined him and three of his friends at the crowded Gandhinagar bus stand...

10 in the night. And as we stood there- - got a glimpse of the City at 10- standing amidst people shouting abuses in Kannada. The little darshinis cleaning out and shutting shop. The cops doing thier beat. ravi walked over and bought our 'supplies' for the night- cans of KF. We got onto the bus- my first Sleeper Bus. I had a berth all to myself and I was pretty happy about it. The bus took off and the gang congregated in one berth and the cans opened up. Wellll was this how college kids travelled :) smokes were lit, windows opened and light banter. Enroute we stopped as the bus had a breakdown. And our bus driver got into an argument with a lorry driver who knocked the rear lights! With this minor excitement done with, we all got back in and I crashed out.

Waking up as we reached Hospet.

Of course, we had rickshaw wallahs accost us as we got down...but we got into a restaurant to wake up to some milky tea and hot idlis. We hired two autos to take us to Hampi. Enroute, the auto drivers offered to help us with some local vegetation ...which after much deliberation, the gang declined.

Hampi! The main street near the Virupaksha temple. bustling with activity like any tourist town. Little shops selling colourful cheap t shirts, beads yellow, red greem and a multitude of other colours. hawkers. And of course, so reminscent of Goa - the little box reastaurants with Italian, Israeli, Mexican menus.

We took a boat across the Thunga river to what is popularly known as Hippie village.

Of course, dressed as we were, like tourists (glares, knap sacks, i pods) we were accosted by the Tout Brigade offering to take us to the Best Hotels with Best food. We finally settled upon one...which turned out to have the last rooms as guests coming after us were turned away. After a cold wash up, hot food, we headed out.

The plan was simple- hire the bikes which every tourist seemed to have and generally venture out.

We left our hotel and within about 100 paces, made our first pit stop. Of course, we had intended a quick stop, but an hour after we had left our hotel, and a few beers later, we were still a 100 paces from our hotel! However, armed with directions and smokes, the gang hired its first batallion of vehicles...mopeds, that we wouldn't be caught riding in Bangalore! Soon we were vying to ride the mopeds.

Our first stop were these magnificent stone pillars. So part of the landscape - almost like the townsfolk took it for granted - but we spent close to 30 minutes hanging around, admiring them.

The day saw us making way across several stops. In fact, it seemed more like we were enjoying the ride across the countryside as much as we were, looking forward to reaching some place.

One interesting experience was meeting with a priest from one of the smaller temples.

We stopped to ask for directions, and within 5 minutes, he had invited the gang to come into his home for a smoke (!)

So, there he sat, crosslegged, ash smeared all over his body, idols of various Gods sitting next to him, fingers cupped around his lips – smoking !!

Shiva’s Prasad indeed!

We did run into the inimitable IBMer along the way (cant just seem to avoid them, can we!). But some interesting photo ops with the temples, ruins did make up the rest of the two days.

It has been so long since I made that trip that I have pretty much forgotten a lot of what I intended to put down on paper - a pity…and I resolve to make notes as and when I see something interesting …for my blog.

For more pictures on my trip to Hampii...Click here

Notes from 2007 - The Official Christmas Dinner at Helsinki!

(ps. I finally decided to catch up on writing - so here you will find a little bit of me, from 2007 onwards :) )

The first Official Team Dinner. Something that we had …well let me see.. in November 07.

This was that legendary moment when I declared publicly – ‘I love Finland’ – now a much recognized by-line :)

The evening was hosted by a most interesting character who managed to keep all of us amused through the entire evening by singing songs in 8 different languages we could think of.

That evening we had people from India, Great Britain, Finland, Sweden, Greece, Lithuania…and he even sang a song from The Netherlands & Spain!We celebrated a birthday and heard 'Happy Birthday sung in greek; feasted on fish eggs (row...or was that roe??) The Wine Flowed, Puns passed and everyone had a wonderful time...
The Official Christmas Dinner
See pictures here...