Swindia???

One aspect of Switzerland that most amused me was, not the mountains or the lakes, but the Indianness. What do I mean? Well as more and more Indians are getting globe trotters, and thanks to DDLJ and many such bolywood flicks shot here, this place is just full of Indian tourists. And as a result, there are many Indian restaurants around. And restaurants that dont serve the European Indian food but the real Indian Indian food. Its a total delight.

In Geneva, we bumped into this restaurant near the Bel-Air area called Nirvana. With the interiors modelled on Devdas theme, beautiful paintings of Aishwarya and Madhuri hanging on the walls, it set an exquisite mood. Most importantly, the food that came was delicious, nothing like what we have got used to in Brussels and Antwerp. A very satisfying dinner.

At Jungfraujoch, the highest point in Europe, there is an Indian restaurant too. Its called Bollywood. Quite unbelievable. It served a buffet, with a couple of vegetables and rice and dal. The food was very tasty and quite homely.

At Interlaken, we actually avoided the Indian Spice restaurant to try out something Swiss. But in Zurich, we found a restaurant on our way which served food from Kerala (http://www.keralarestaurant.ch). And believe me, the food was best I have eaten so far in Europe. And it would easily beat a lot of restaurants back in India. Cochin Chemmin (Fried Prawns with coconut slices and chilli) was a delicious starter, the Kerala Chicken Curry was awesome and the Kerala Fish Curry was simply superb. We ate until we couldnt eat anymore.

However, the best surprise of all came while we were at the base of Mount Titlis. An Indian "tapri" (well a mobile van really) that served wada pav and tea. It also had pav bhaji. Couple of wada pav and tea while going up, pav bhaji and tea after coming down is what we had. It was fairly tasty too.

Titlis seemed especially popular with Indian tourists. There were instructions at the cable car stops written in Hindi :)

Overall, this Indian touch was a pleasant surprise and a nice feeling (leave apart the over crowding of the rhine waterfall boats).

Swiss fondue

During our Swiss trip, we had been tasting Indian food allover. And though it came as a pleasant surprise to us, we were still dying to try out some exquisite Swiss cuisine. And the stay at Interlaken provided easy access to numerous Swiss restaurants. And within no time, Swiss fondue clearly came out as the dish to try as it was on menus allover. It came in two flavors, cheese and chocolate, and the cheese one seemed really popular. For some reason, I always imagined a fondue as some kind of dessert. So we ended up having a quick dinner at some McD (ignoring the "Indian Spice" restaurant for a change), and later looking up for a restaurant that served great Swiss Cheese Fondue.
We found one real nice restaurant, it was very big. Lots of tables outside, lots of ppl around. Some live music as well. We settled down at a table near the center. It was a very pleasant atmosphere. Though there was something strange. It soon became apparent that the strange part was some (unpleasant!) smell coming from an adjacent table. We wondered if it was some alcohol or some real bad sea food or something.
The place also had a separate 'tea' menu. They had all kinds of flavors of tea. Never seen so many teas before. The first two of course were Indian Darjeeling tea and Assam tea. Just to honor the fact that the tea menu was really special, i ordered Earl Gray (an English tea). And of course.. the Swiss fondue. We ordered two cheese and one chocolate. And for some strange reason, the waiter said you cant order one chocolate. You have to order atleast two (no stretch of our imagination could comprehend why). So we decided to go for three cheese fondues instead.
First came the tea. Early Gray! And not to my surprise really, there was no milk to be added. It was dark tea. And for me, who for all my life drank tea with 50-100% milk and 2-3 teaspoon sugar, this dark tea was hard to take. My only comfort was Mridu had ordered Chineese Green Tea :D. Sadly, Rajat had the normal coffee with milk and did not make me feel better about the tea.
After a while, the waiter brought a stand with a burner. We watched anxiously. Then he brought a big bowl full of pieces of bread, and very interesting style of fork (close to a fruit fork). Now bread was first unexpected part. And the quantity was the second. What came next was the third unexpected part, also the feared part. The waiter got a bowl with molten cheese and put it on the burner. Immediately we knew what the awful smell came from. It came from the cheese. We just looked at each other. Wondering who would dare to take the first bite. Each of us eventually did. And it smelled better than it tasted. I thought i would get used to the taste and could eat more. But none of us could manage more than 3 bites.
The Earl Gray tea tasted heaven...

Tendulkar

Well

I have always felt of writing something about Tendulkar, but always stopped at the thought that what more can I write? But then, let me start with whatever comes to my mind. Something is better than nothing.

Frankly speaking, I can either write about how good he is. Or I can defend against some of the criticism he faces. But I would do neither. Simply because there is loads of literature on both topics. (Though I would love to add to that later, if not now). So let me just write how did Sachin Tendulkar manage to capture all my imagination, and do so for so long.

It was a summer night in 1998, everyone but me fast asleep. I was glued to the TV set, watching India chase an (then) improbable total of 273, with us having lost a few wickets and match coming to a partial halt due to a storm of sand. The only reason though for me to stay tuned that late, as was the case with millions of viewers accross India, was this one man Sachin Tendulkar. As had been a norm with our team then, Tendulkar was our only hope to make any progress in tournament. And progress we did. What happened after that desert storm still gives me goosebumps. Tendulkar literally toyed with the Aussie attack, brought us home. Did a repeat show in the finals, won India the tournament and made a permanent impression in hearts of millions.

It was not just that one match, but many many of them. Each time he batted, there was very little else I could think of. The thrill, joy, pride he provided with his batting is unsurmountable. He totally dominated the opponents. Amazed all with his overall cricketing acumen (his ability to bowl every type of ball, just like his batting). Most amazing of all, always stayed grounded even when he was on top of the world. One of the humblest persons, always friends even with the fiercest rival off the field.

An Indian on top of the world. Could there be anything more to be proud of being an Indian?

Who else could a teenager want for an idol?

In good times and in bad, its always going to be only Sachin Tendulkar... for me.

The Royal Fork

the knight too went down. the situation became grim. i was under attack and desparately looking for some pattern to strike back. some skewers, overloaded pieces, some forks.. and there i saw one. a fork. and the royal one too. but it was not a straight one. i needed a decoy to achieve a fork. and there is no better decoy then a rook. the opposition fell for it. and immidiately my knight moved into position and the opposition queen had to go down. the rest was a phenomenal unturn of events. and a victory that smelt good at the end.

a month ago i would have had no clue wot was going on above. i would, given the references to the knight and queen, possibly make out that its not a battle from the history books but a game of chess. but heck.. wots this skewer? little did i know that the last month would teach me so much of chess already. thanks to the little
chess tournament going on in our office, which i am glad to be part of.

well i may already sound like a pro (for the non-players that is), but the fact is given the vastness of tactics and strategies and methods in the chess arena, i find myself an amateur-novice-beginner. chess can offer u an unlimited challenge. and thats exactly what makes it that much more exciting for me.
imagine that ppl actually know all the permutation combinations of openings in chess. for each move you begin your game with, a pro would know what are the possible counter moves and what are repercussions of each of it. what more, there are names for each of those openings, names for your counter moves and for many of the variations that you would probably take. openings are cruise control for the pros. God! imagine you start with the pawn in front of your king and the opponent does the same... hello.. u just started your game with Ray Lopez opening.
boy.. and when u know all those openings.. and suppose you are a great tactician and make deadly moves and all... and defeat ppl.. one at a time that is. how about playing 20 players at a time. alrite.. u are the champ and beat 15 out of 20... how about playing blindfold where u dont see the chessboard at all.. u just announce your moves and so does your opponent. :)
and u knew this was coming... how about blindfold chess with 15-20 players... i believe thats stretching the limits of human brain. drop dead stuff!!

well... i dont intend to do any of the above (in near future that is). but the most fascinating thing about chess, for me, is to see the patterns. we have patterns everywhere... be it the code we write or the design we do or, nowadays, the chess we play. and i love to find those patterns. plus slowly and steadily, i would love to know all this literature on chess. i mean, its about time to know what the hell is this sicilian defence that we all heard anand starting his game with.

So, wont you want to know why passed pawns can cause havoc and how a fianchettoed bishop can protect ur castled king... Welcome to the battlefield!!!

The last pin standing

well.. i happened to go for bowling a few times recently... and its been a lot of fun. well, being very frank. inspite of being the very 'seedha' saadha person, the bowl fails to take a 'seedha' path and quite often, deviates when its about to strike.
alrite, i am not so bad with it as well. when i am in groove, tha ball does roll where i want it to. but just one problem. and its the last pin standing.
somehow, when u feel that its gonna be a perfect strike... when the ball hits the front pin at the killer angle... and when they start tumbling allover.. one pin out of nowhere withholds its place. and its invariably 9 - as the next roll invariably takes the gutter route. 9- after 9- after 9-... it does get a little frustrating

so then i think that power is the key. take the heaviest of the balls and give it a mighty roll... result - a wide ball!!! and u dont get to bowl it again as in cricket.

but its fun nevertheless. and tho there is a lot of scope for improvement (spin department is empty rite now), it will surely be a nice skill to possess.

पेन्टबॉल

गेल्या रविवारी आम्ही पेन्ट बॉल खेळायला गेलो. खरं तर जेव्हा ऑफ़िस मधल्या काही अति उत्साही लोकांनी पेन्ट बॉल चा बेत बनवला, इंडियन टिमचा (म्हणजे आमचा) फ़ारच उदासिन रिस्पॉन्स होता. पण शेवटी फ़क्त ३ जण फ़ायनल झाले (१ लास्ट मिनीट गळाला).
तेव्हा रविवारी सगळे ७ वाजता उठले (हो, सकाळचे). अणि अगदि वेळेत ठरलेल्या ठिकाणी पोहोचलो. आता तुम्हाला जो प्रश्न पडलाय, तोच आम्हालाही तिकडे पोहोचल्या नंतरहि तासभर पडला होता. हे पेन्ट बॉल म्हणजे नक्की काय?
पेन्टबॉल: पेन्टबॉल म्हणजे मिलीटरी पोषाखात, युद्धसदृश परीस्थितीत एकमेकांबरोबर हाणामारी करावयाचा खेळ होय. फ़क्त बंदुकीतुन खरोखरीच्या गोळ्यां ऐवजी पेन्टबॉल्स.
जवळ जवळ १.५ से.मी. डायामीटर (भुमिती इंग्रजीत शिकलोय :( ) असलेले छोटे छोटे बॉल्स, ज्या मध्ये रंग भरलेला असतो.
अता ही सगळी उठाठेव इतकी रियल कि काय संगु. एक २ चौ.कि.मी. क्षेत्रफ़ळ असलेला मस्तसा टापू (चहुबाजुंनी पाणी). त्यावर अगदि बोर्डर वर असतो असा टेरेन. म्हणजे बंकर्स वगैरे. झाडी पण खुप. थोडक्यात वेगवेगळ्या प्रकारे लपण्याची छान व्यवस्था होती. बंदुक तर अगदि खरीखुरी रायफ़ल वाटते. लांब लचक रेन्ज होती. लांबुन मारलेले पेन्ट्बॉल्स कहि लागत बिगत नाहित. पण जवळुन जर का चुकूनहि बसला ना शॉट, सणसणीत बसतो. अणि म्हणुनच तोंडवर मास्क लावावा लागतो.
गेम अशी होती कि हिरवा मास्क आणि काळा मास्क अशा दोन टिम्स केल्या होत्या (प्रत्येक टिम मध्ये २५ जण). अणि २० २० मिनीटांच्या मिशन्स ठेवल्या होत्या. मिशन मध्ये गोळी लागली कि तुम्हि बाहेर (त्या मिशन पुरते). प्रत्येक मिशन ला काहितरी ऑब्जेक्टिव्ह होतं. जसं कि शत्रुपक्षा कडचा झेंडा उडवायचा. वगैरे वगैरे...
थोडं फ़ार पळुन एका जगेवर थांबलं तर मास्क वर वाफ़ जमा होऊन दिसायचं बंद व्हायचं :)... मग काय, समोर हिरवा असो का काळा... दिसतय कुणाला. मार गोळी. या प्रकारात स्वत:च्या पक्षातलेच दोन जणांना ठार केलं. (तरी मला डाउट आला होता कि ते बॅक फ़ायर का करत नव्हते). पण आपला टिम मेट मेला याचं दुख: व्हायच्यापेक्षा आपला नेम बसला याचाच आनंद जास्तं.
खरं पहायला गेलं तर तसा हा खेळ अगदि स्ट्राटेगी बनवुन खेळायचा खेळ. पण कुणाकडे आहे इतका वेळ? त्यामुळे मिशन समजुन घ्या, अणि सुटा. प्रत्येकाकडे आपली स्वतःची वेगळी स्ट्राटेगी. अणि हीच खरी मजा. एकदा आम्ही (दोघे जण) ठरवलं कि शत्रु पक्षाच्या मागे जाऊन हल्ला बोलायचा. इतके मागे गेलो कि एकही शत्रु दिसेना. अणि जेव्हा कसाबसा एक काळा मास्क वाला दिसला, तर मिशन समाप्त. पण एकदा ही आइडिया मस्तं चालली. बरेच जण पुढे बघत असताना आम्हाल इझी टार्गेट्स मिलाले.
एकदा, एके ठिकाणि दुश्मन लपुन बसला होता. अणि आम्ही तिघे जण त्याच्या मागावर होतो. आमच्यातल्या एकाने कमांडो स्टाईल सिग्नल केला. जरी कुठले ही पुर्वनियोजीत इशारे ठरले नव्हते, तरी याचा अर्थ सरळ होता. मी वेगळ्या रस्त्याने मागुन हल्ला केला... अणि दुश्मन ठार... लई मजा आली :)
एक दोन मिशन मध्ये मला एकही गोळी नाही लागली. पण फ़ार वेळ हा आनंद टिकुन नाही रहिला. समोर बघत असताना बाजुने गोळ्या लागल्या अणि बाजुला बघताना समोरुन गोळ्या लागल्या.
शेवटची मिशन होती गोळ्या संपेपर्यंत मारामारी. अणि याच मिशन मध्ये एका मुर्खाने अगदि जवळुन फ़ायर केले. माझ्या हातवर जोरात गोळी लागली. मी नालायका सारखा खेळत राहिलो (नियमानुसार मला बेस कॅम्पवर जायला पाहिजे होतं). अणि मग एक शोर्ट रेन्ज सरळ तोंडावर (म्हणजे मास्क वर). पण फ़ोर्स इतका होता कि मास्क मधुनही ते लिक्विड सनसनीत गालावर लागलं.
शेवटी संपला एकदाचा हा खेळ.
नंतरचे दोन दिवस हात पाय दुखत होते... पण खरं तर, द एक्स्पेरियन्स वॉज वर्थ इट.

My First Flash Creation

Assume... i have a website called XploreLife... (which i dont have). This will be the intro to that site!

King 6600

Its name is 6600, Nokia 6600. It is undoubtedly the King of all phones. And its only gradually that I have come in terms with the amazing powers this wizard of phones possess.
When I bought it for quite a hefty price, I had to listen to a lot of comments on its cost-worthiness. But I did get to hear some ‘its-worth-it’ comments from some who found the features real interesting. Just a week later, Nokia cut down prices of most cells by quite some amount. Something they didn’t do for the previous 6 months I was keeping a price-watch for 6600. That felt bad!

Today it is available for an unbelievable price (some 12K officially and even lesser otherwise). If anyone is thinking of buying a new cell, then I will strongly recommend the one and the only – 6600… You can chose the newer Nokia cells (priced quite high currently) which have similar features, but 6600 is the best deal at this moment. And here are the reasons why

Apart from the trivial features that generally ppl look for like camera and screen resolution, I would try to put some that are the true 6600 pluses
>>Symbian OS: Having an OS is the best thing a mobile can have. It suddenly opens up plethora of options for your cell. The feature set of the cell can increase multi-fold. With an OS, you can install new applications and games. The best part is that great number of such applications and games are available on net (my fav – http://www.imserba.com/)
>>MMC Storage: 32 MB Multimedia Memory Card is provided MMCs of sizes greater than 1GB are available. A phone without memory is the mobile greatest handicap (Sony Ericsson T610). You have millions of things to try but you can have only five at a time – not fair!
>>The Nokia 6600 phone is the first device compliant with Series 60 Developer Platform 2.0. Develop using Symbian OS v7.0s C++ APIs, or in Java using MIDP 2.0 and related APIs for Mobile Media, Mobile Messaging, and Bluetooth. In short, there is the latest version of J2ME available but you need a phone that can support it, and 6600 does. Why should you bother? Well, it will make all the fascinating applications being developed run on your phone.
AND THEN THE BEST PART – YOU CAN DEVELOP YOUR OWN APPLICATIONSJ. I am still in the process of learning more about J2ME and Nokia 60 platform but I am quite sure it will be a great feeling to run your own application on your cell.

And just to give the idea of the kind of applications and games that are available
There are games with high quality graphics (no more just snakes) and sound. Some of them are so good that you do not realize that its on a phone - as good as a desktop game. Prince of Persia, FIFA 2005, MotoRacer have their mobile versions
And there are applications by which you can control your PC from your phone, your phone can turn into remote control of any device, you can have Office (doc, ppt and xls) on your phone. What more, I have also seen an application which repels mosquitoes. What more can u get…


So… what are u waiting for… get yourself a brand new 6600…