Re-inspired!

Looks like another bout of inspiration just hit me yet again! Once inspired, Placecomm took away all the time I had to spend on myself, and I had almost giving up writing a blog, but today yet another friend who urged me to read his blog and my own (old) blog surfacing out of nowhere, have made me write...So for those who will be tortured by this, u know who to blame!

To begin with, life’s taken quite a turn from my previous blog. Well, it’s only obvious- 9 months later, one obviously wishes not to be stuck at the same desk, does one? Right now, am amongst the alps, and having spent the weekend exploring the country, am possibly one of the happiest souls around.. phew..being a back-packer has its own pros I guess.. the immense happiness on having explored a place on ur feet is a feeling one understands only if s/he goes through it and enjoys it more than anything!

Am not a great writer and stuff, but let me nevetheless, tell u a thing or two about this trip of mine..

In the last 3 days, I walked through the streets of Geneva, Montreux, Lausanne & Bern.. Oh my poor feet.. yup I couldn’t land them on the ground until I got some 12 hours of sleep on length last night, and of course not to mention my shoulders that still hurt.. thanks to my inane ability of packing in excess and who wouldn’t know about it..esp raj, my cuz sid and my dad! (They hate me when they travel abroad with me or even locally cos I ensure their bags are much lighter than normal or else one of us shells out 1000s to the airliner..hehe.. but I guess I learnt a lesson the hard way, or may be not! Yet again when I travel, the inexplicable urge to pack heavy might still not have subsided.. after all good habits die hard they say!

Ah so coming back to this trip of mine.. it taught me soo many things..

1^st of all it broke the biggest conspiracy alive.. that women cannot travel by themselves! Well I know it’s a little unsafe, but I think with a country as safe as Switzerland, one doesn’t have to be worried.. now I hear many of u saying, oh it was u who thought that way.. yes sir n madams, I was scared myself, but that was more out of many of ur exclamations like, “Oh u going all by urself? U sure u want to?” Yes I was sure I wanted to, but am rethinking.. But thank god I was sure I wanted to.. And it was quite an experience to come out of this loop..

I did take the step and get into the train to geneva.. had planned really well where to go, how to, when to.. Booked into those youth hostels and it seemed to work pretty well.. During the day I used to be perfectly fine..But with the sunset came this tinkering thought of being followed.. oh may be he knows am all by myself in this unknown place.. Should I just catch the train and go back to my apartment and may be start all over again tomorrow morning? LOL..Almost freaked out when a slightly druken man was going out of his way to help me out my 1st day out at Montreux.. Poor soul also thought I was being extremely rude and with the broken English he could manage in that inebriated state, assured me that he would pose no harm to me.. but still, a part of me wanted him to just leave me alone, which he finally did after helping me with the right bus route and the exact bus number!

That gets me to think, is this cos of the things we go through in our own country? May be, being swindled by the known and unknown all the time makes us too cautious and we doubt everything.. well there’s nothing wrong with it, but we really are a little less trusting than most other people.. well I speak for myself and a few others I know..

So once this challenge was conquered, another awaited.. how would the people at the youth hostel be? Being an inexpensive mode to rest your tired joints and having heard that thefts were pretty common, another yet obvious conclusion was drawn that I might wake up to find that there was no clothes to change into! But luckily that died too when I found that the other people who I stayed with were as decent as me, if not more adventurous, and the last thing they cared about was me or my belongings- frankly they cared about it no more than I cared about their’s. Having conquered my 2^nd fear, I felt so light.. I really did sleep better the 2^nd night at the youth hostel at Bern, though it was a little more unfriendly than the 1^st one! Ah the luxuries of a tired traveler!

Hmm so taking u along, exploring Europe on feet as they call it is indeed a beautiful experience in itself.. I really hope our country with the beautiful places it has to offer becomes as tourist-friendly. Every stn (big or small) u get off at, has a tourist information center where people speak all the possible widely spoken languages- well English, German, French n Spanish.. (now please don’t expect these poor souls to speak in Hindi and Mandarin please!) Further you are introduced to and acquainted with a tool called the "map", which u must hold dearly to ur heart as if it’s ur purse cos without it, you are indeed a warrior without ur weapon! And not to mention that this map is not a part of their archives, but is as updated and tells u which road is being dug and hence which alternate route should u take..or at least these ladies told me why there was a “x” mark on the printed map!

Of course not to mention the public transportation system which gets you where u wish to go at the time you planned to reach there, not where it wishes to take u when it so desires! Uff if there was one thing I could import back from here, it would be this luxurious system! You barely feel it’s not privately owned! But then we are talking about one of the richest nations in the world (in terms of per capita income, etc), but still having to pay 30-35% of your income to a guzzler called “government” the least I’d expect is something in return rather than it shining on some politician’s wife’s ears or necks (Duhh I mean the diamond jewellery these crooks buy their better-halves with your and my hard-earned money)..

Well, coming back to the story, I heaved a sigh of exasperation and carried on traveling telling myself I was lucky to see a part of the world and probably share the good things out here.. but then the minute u start talking about it, people think u are a show-off! Hey wait a minute! I am as desi as u are, in fact more than many pseuds out there.. and there’s really nothing wrong in appreciating what these people are good at! What’s wrong in being professional and calling things the way they are.. But of course u often get called a professional b****, but hey who cares! At least I don’t..and I know people who know me, know why I am the way I am.. Really, am better off keeping some people at bay and for those people who do think I have an attitude, I want to tell them, yes, and thankfully, I have a good one at it!

Mmm coming back to the trip..by now u must have figured, I had a great time and there was almost nothing to complain about..but of course except for the food.. Now for all this talk about take the best from these people, I agree am a hippocrate (is that the right spelling?) when it comes to matters of food! Well, no one’s perfect u see, nor am I! Hehe.. Seriously, if there is one thing I am very very xenophobic about, it’s matters of the stomach! (and heart too- My mom could bet that I would never adjust with a firang all my life, and luckily for her it was an Indian, hindu, tam brahm that stole my heart- we’ll talk about in another blog though)..

Food- the one thing we apparently work so hard for (kill for, etc) is sooo difficult to get in this foreign land.. especially being a hard core vegetarian (by choice of course!) and that too a super-fussy one at that, you can imagine how many times I go hungry.. if not for my mom insisting I learn to cook and clean, would’ve vanished into thin air by the time I was 18-19, thanks to my expedition to the US of A as a student.. But unluckily, none of these experiences have taught me to be open to the idea of developing a taste for the local food when am abroad.. Forget abroad, adjusting to college mess seemed like a distant probability and if not for Pratika's threat that she would complain to my family, would've missed millions of lunches and dinners..Friends n family almost bet that America would turn me into a meat-eater! But nahh, neither the paucity of time nor the luxury of ready-made food being served made me give in.. I would survive of flakes and salads (am sorry but back home we don’t call raw spinach and cabbage with some vinegar sauce on it salads! Or probably it’s my mom’s fault- who told her to be such an awesome cook and wield out yummy dishes at least twice a day if not thrice! Truly we Indian/ Asian kids are sooo spoilt! Again, I speak for myself and quite a few others.. If you weren't as lucky, am not to blame!), get back in the evening (after college and a part time job) to cook even something as simple as khichdi (some edible food to get me going the following day)..

Same's the case here during weekdays.. Yes I admit, am uncool and actually carry lunch to work, cos I am not willing to shell out CHF 7 (now that’s Rs. (35.8*7) for those who don’t wish to go to www.money.com to convert n stuff) for some inedible salad (rem I just defined it a couple of sentences above) and some slimy soup which you really wonder what went into, cos vegetables the way I remember them can never be soo slimy!

Argh, so the punishment was furthered by the immense walking, and soon the stomach went into a non-co operation mode until it was duly fed! Pizza was the only answer.. but of course these people don’t believe in smaller-sized pizza.. I was faced with a Pizza only my family could finish, but was left with no choice but to hog it all up cos the conscience wouldn’t let me waste food! Are u sure u want to throw food into the dustbin when so many kids go hungry to bed? (Thanks mom, but I wish I had learnt to leave things to the dustbin than my poor tummy!) so puffing and panting and slightly (well that’s an under statement) overfed, I walked through the streets of Geneva with a bigger quest to explore places, I had to digest the entire pizza after all! And of course the next day, even that one option was out of reach! (Pizza again? You must be kidding! But then I replaced dinner with a banana and water!? Yes, but still, think about it! No way! U don’t wanna go home looking like a horse!Well horses aren't that fat.. okay fine whatever, but not a pizza again.. No way).. so Mc Donald’s milkshake came to the rescue and that was lunch (of course had some decent breakfast..)

May be I really need to learn what to eat.. but am not able to trust too many even back home with my food, forget these people who don’t understand the concept of vegetarianism.. they often ask, “Dich vegetarisch?” or something similar (are you vegetarian?) and then ask me if I eat chicken (no), may be fish (NO), not even eggs (no sweetheart.. back home you still call people like me vegetarian)..ohh okie.. then here u go.. and yet again am faced with spinach and tomatoes and of course the inevitable vinegar!! Arrghhh! So lessons fm the trip..need not say more, do I?

If you find this blog interesting, leave me a message or two so I will be encouraged or discouraged from writing more in the future.. ciao for now…

-Yours truly