I love India!!!

That was sarcasm, just in case. In all honesty though, I do love my country. But at the same time, when one sees the rampant corruption, red-tapism, and complete mockery of national/international rules and regulations, it's hard not to be embarrassed and irked by the quality/attitude of people running the country. A simple example of that is just getting one's officially acceptable birth certificate, just try it, you'll know what I am talking about. 
Sometimes, I like to ponder over as to why people in government offices in India refuse to follow procedures honestly and properly that they have been appointed to implement. My understanding is that it's the pre-independence attitude that is still in place... when civil disobedience and mockery of government was a cool and accepted resort, when you were a patriot if you didn't follow rules and regulations set by the foriegn government. But, times have changed now. We are not being ruled by some outsiders who oppress us, we are being ruled by people who are one of our own.. though admittedly, they still oppress us. Yet, some/most of those rules have been set up for our own good, the system has been put in place for the good of the country, if followed properly. But one can't fault a lowly babu (clerk) or a peon for the corruption either. The poor soul is expecting only a few bucks in return of services that are, though, his duties and responsibilities and that he should ideally provide without a bribe. This corruption starts at the top with the "leaders"of the country who amass and multiply their wealth exponentially every year, while 1/3rd population can't afford 2 meals for their family. Now, that's where the change is required. I believe that the leaders who got us our freedom, fought for it and sacrificed for it, have earned their dues, and it's time they move on to work for the public again. And, the new ones - well, I wonder what dues they are trying to get before they start thinking about the interests of the country. The problems in India can't be solved with a bottom-up approach, but top-down! Call me pessimistic but I am sorry, that doesn't seem likely to be happening in my lifetime or at least not in my "youth".

This post is going to be super long.. mainly because it's been quite long since my last posting.. primarily because I was busy finishing up my Master's thesis (giving it final touches before official submission), dealing with the bureaucracy of Netherlands to officially and legally reside in Amsterdam in comfort (Dutch people love their bureaucracy) - e.g. waiting in the bank for 1 hr to get my Debit card activated, and what not. And add to that the woes of not having a proper birth certificate, because schools in India like to do something that might just blow your mind; I hope you are ready for this - they keep your original birth certificate and give you a photocopy, and then never return your original birth certificate. So, basically what you are left with to prove your birth (except your own existence) is a photocopy of the certificate. And as you go along, you keep putting some makeshift certificates in your little "I-am-alive-and-kicking" kitty - documents that have no validity outside India. Anyway, my parents have finally been able to get another copy of birth certificate for me, but now will have to deal with the U.P. government for its legalization (for apostil), which will take another 3-4 months; now lemme say it again - I love India.

Well at least for now, I am an official/legal resident of Amsterdam, have a bank account and a cell phone. Very soon, I'll get a legal internet connection at home and will, thus, be able to serve humanity better (I have always wanted to say this). I also finally bought a bike today - a swift- & smooth-riding golden sports bike, sort of a hybrid between racing bike and mountain bike - for just 60 Euros, a very good deal indeed. It's got gears, hand brakes, bell, lightswith a dynamo; it's a light ride, and has a nice sleek look. However, I have already been successful in breaking its rear brakes - they were not in the best state, so I applied all the mechanical engineering I ever learnt to fix them, and ended up making sure the brakes were completely done for and needed replacement- I suppose I don't have to explain my bad undergraduate grades anymore, just come see the work I did on my bike. Now, with a new brake cable, a new tool set and what not, I am again going to attempt an exhibition of my engineering (mechanic) skills!! Let's see what this ends up in.. :D.. One things is for sure though, having a bike is definitely gonna be one good work out, coz I have to lug this bike for 2 floors (0th --> 2nd) and carry it back down every time I take it out for a ride.. Boy, are my legs gonna be stronger in a month!! 

But hey, that's not all - the university is closed since Thursday (30/04) till Tuesday (05/05), but I was smart enough not to do anything about it, since I assumed that the graduate students would be showing up for work anyway - as a result I didn't make any plans whatsoever to go anywhere in this 6-day break. But as I found it out on this Wednesday, 1 day before the break started, that not one single soul would set foot in the compounds of the building, I frantically tried to arrange a trip to Finland -  unsuccessful, then to Budapest - didn't work out either, and finally to Frankfurt (also, turned out it wasn't worth spending 180 euros for a 2 day trip) before finally giving up and deciding to stay put and enjoy the sunny weather of Amsterdam - oh you better believe it, it is sunny here, kinda rare in Amsterdam - but won't last long, I have been told.

But I have to admit, I love this place, this neighborhood.. I can step down from my apartment and get most varieties of foods - Middle-Eastern, Chinese, Indonesian, Moroccan - within 50 m of my apartment, come back and eat it in my fortress of solitude, and then again go back down to get grocery from the biggest supermarket chain of NL, again within 50 m walking distance.. if only my apartment were cleaner :(

I also learnt today, after having been searching for a hair conditioner for 2 weeks, that it is called "cremespoeling" in Dutch... yeah yeah, I know... I am quite vain.. I always had an inkling that I was fairly vain, but it was confirmed this week when I bought a shower gel with milk cream, another herbal gel, a lather maker and a hair conditioner (it took me 15 min to decide on that - 5 minutes to just figure out that cremespoeling means conditioner, and another 5 mintues to figure out what kind of hair I had in Dutch, and another 5 min to decide the economically optimal and compatible cremespoeling).. in fact, now I have become quite a lean mean shopping machine.. if not by my work, i am in some way contributing to the Dutch and, hence, international economy.. :D

Besides, my Dutch has improved quite a bit now.. I can write a few sentences in Dutch, and also read and understand some of it.. although the word order still messes me up.. hopefully, I'll get a grip on that too some time soon.. Ik doe mijn best (= I am doing my best).. :D

Getting back to the very very long weekend, lemme explain what these holidays, or "Free days" as they are known to us poor researchers, are for.. 30th April Thursday = Queen's day = "Koninginnedag" (to celebrate the birthday of the current queen's late mother); 1st May Friday  = Labor day; 4th may, Monday = Jewish memorial day (in memory of Jews who died in the Nazi concentration camps), and 5th May, Tuesday = Liberation day (liberation from Germans in world war 2).. So, as Vibhor pointed out, we are talking about celebration of monarchy and liberation within the space of 1 week.. some irony, eh? 

Anyway, one has got to be in Amsterdam to see the craze on Queen's day and Queen's night (29th April night).. it's mindblowing.. everyone is drunk and dancing.. having fun.. but unlike in India, where such an occassion could very well spell diaster for women - having out of control drunk men on streets is not a pleasant experience for anyone in India - I didn't see/hear of any incident of that sort here.. except for that the roads get dirty as hell in the night, but the efficient city administration cleans it before next day's celebrations start, and then again on Queen's day - same story.. it's quite a party out there though, and major fun for a new guy like me to just witness an event like this.. however, one incident did mar the celebrations towards the end.. One drunk idiot guy drove his car through the crowd, killing 5 people, including himself.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK7vsSrm3Cs.... People think this was an attack on the queen, but I don't get it, because the queen's bus wasn't even in the same frame as the car, let alone being on a collision course.. Anyway, my guess is it was some disgruntled city cleaner/sweeper, pissed about the huge amount of trash he has to collect after this "birthday party".. I had warned my research colleagues about it.. 

well, anyway I hung out with Rosanne and her friends on Queen's night, and was immediately nicknamed "Prem".. some Indian guy named Prem hosts a show in NL called "Prem times"..I was required to sing some song/tune as soon as the group yelled "Preeeeeeeeem Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimes".. and  chose the theme song of "Melvin, the superhero" from Jeff Dunham's act.. (for those who don't know, Jeff Dunham is one of the best ventriloquist comic ever - you must check his act out on Google Videos).. the city (especially the city center) was so crowded that walking through it was a different experience altogether.. you had to walk through a sea of people, without spilling your beer.. it requires some sort of skill, I suppose.. I wasn't very good at it though, I believe a lot of people around me got their clothes drenched in my beer.. especially since everyone was so much taller than me.. i mean, i felt like a dwarf in that crowd.. i m more used to being the tallest among my friends.. but here, even the girls are taller than me.. it's very emasucalting..:(.. anyway, later that night at around 3 am, while walking back alone from the city center to my home, I got lost and found myself at a bus stop with a Dutch guy named "Jagran" (a Hindu name meaning "staying up").. He was also waiting for an hourly night bus, which was already 15 min late.. we got to talking and decided to share a cab instead... the cab dropped me home at 4 in the night for a mere 10 euros..  

I spent the ueen's day in Vondel Park (biggest park in Amsterdam) with guys from my research group - Andreas (Austrian) and his girlfriend Alice (Austrian), Kornel (Polish), Andrew (English), and Yusuke (Japanese).. drinking beer, cracking jokes that noone laughed at.. thereafter, as the sun went down we started a quest of finiding a nice bar, but half of the city was now closed because of that attack.. eventually, we lost Yusuke to the crowd, Andrew to fatigue.. leaving the 4 of us plus some friends of Andreas from Germany.. as we were walking through a little "lake" of people (sea is bigger, so I suppose lake is a good analogy here, or if you like, you may go with "bay" of people), some drunk guy tried to get physical with me (not sexually, rather in a belligerent manner, but I suppose he was too high to be able to a good job at that either :D).. he tried to press his finger on my chest and push me around.. but I just parried off his hand and moved away while giving him a stink eye.. for a little over 2 seconds, it was scary since it was 3 tall guys against me, and I had fallen behind the rest of the guys of my group.. but ever since then, I have been telling this story as some sort of an act of courage.. :D.. Watch out guys, there's a new William Wallace in town.. :D

Anyway, we ate some Indonesian food on our way - "mein" with "kip sate" - and then waited for Yusuke for more than 30 min (he had gone back to the office to call us in an attempt to join the group).. but even our common love for alcohol couldn't bring us together, as he again got lost in the crowds at Rembrandtplein.. anyway, the night grew better as we danced at an Irish pub.. there were a lot of interesting things going on there, but I would leave that to another day..

Now, I am getting quite hungry and sleepy.. another 3 days of break left.. hopefully, I can fix my bike and bring it to a good shape by the end of it.. and hopefully not make it worse.. :D

 

P.S. Pictures are posted on picasaweb.. on my kushagra.singhal account..

Nerd's night out.. :D

Before I start on this, lemme clarify a point from my last post. My ranting against self-accliamed socialist/communist countries might have raised some eyebrows - some might even fear a possible KGB covert operation against me. But calm down, I don't mean ill against socialism, in fact I am a socialist myself. Lemme clarify my take on this - I think socialism is about social welfare, while communism is about a guy or group of guys taking the control of the country and its people in their hands and trying to decide what they should do and how much riches they should have - much like a dictatorship. In a way, I think most developed countries of the world are socialist, because they take care of their less fortunate masses - that's what leads to overall development (called Human Development Index or HDI, the actual measure of development).

Just having the 4th highest GDP in the world, while 27% of your huge population (>1.1 billion) lives below poverty line and >35% population is illiterate, doesn't make you a developed country - and most definitely not a superpower as some part of Indian media likes to project India as. You can blame it on colonialism, which to a very very large extent is true as it brought the richest and most liberal country of the world to what India was in 1947, but there comes a time in a country's history (just like in a person's life), when it has to start accepting the responsibility of its actions/policies and taking the control in its own hands. I think India has started doing that, and hopefully we'll see some imporvement in the near future. However, the 60 years of communist experiments (in the name of socialism) in India have only benefitted one society - that of ruling politicians, as evidenced by the $1.4 Trillion of corrupt Indian money in Swiss bank accounts.

Anyway, Friday was a good day for me. It started normally, I reached office around 8.30, started with quick email check and then some readings. We tried to arrange a short training session on the Flow Cytometry, but the poor old machine couldn't find its rhytm and eventually gave out. The training has been indefinitely postponed. Then, I had lunch with the group (http://staff.science.uva.nl/~arents/mmp/) and had an interesting conversation with one of my office mates - Roasanne - a quite cool Dutch girl. She has also started only this week as a PhD student and apparently writes columns (in Dutch ofcourse) in a journal (Megahertz in http://www.mareonline.nl ) in her hometown. She has promised to help me learn Dutch, and wants me to very soon start speaking in Dutch with her - I guess she is not aware of my laziness. :D Another of my group-mates, Nakul, had a rather lazy day in the office and he was visibly excited about finally having a fellow Hindi-speaker in the group, as he would every now and then strike a conversation with me in Hindi while others looked on in confusion. :D

Our discussion on all sorts of controversial issues continued after reaching office, and work took a back-seat. However, around 3.00 I decided to get back to work and started writing the summary that my boss had asked me to.. and as luck would have it, he ventured into my office around 3.45 pm while going back from the coffee break, and saw me working hard.. saved by a whisker there.. :D... around 4.30, we had a birthday party on the floor.. which meant some food and beer (or "bier" in Dutch).. I had a choice between Dutch and Belgian beer, and I unwittingly chose Dutch beer... I was told it's good, but Belgian is better.. well, next time maybe.. One of the most fun and social guys - Martijn - then led the group to a bar ("Kriterion") across the street from our building.. this is where things started going crazy. This was around 5.30 and I kept drinking for the next 5 hours continuously - had 8-9 beers... got fairly drunk.. had a rather passionate discussion with Mark about tennis - especially about which Aus open 2009 match was better Fed Vs Nadal or Nadal Vs Verdasco.. I argued in favor of the latter while Mark was adamant about the former. Bless his soul for the poor guy didn't know that you don't argue with Kushagra Singhal, and definitely not when he is drunk.. :D... However, I tried to stay out as late as I could to meet the maximum number of people, even as other people kept leaving, and new ones kept coming. And I did meet a lot of people in the group, most of who might, by this time, be disappointed by my drunken antics. :D

Finally, a PhD student started looking out for me (I guess my condition demanded that) that even before I could say no to more beer, she stepped-in to make sure I didn't have one.. I guess I am the kid of the group - I must be one of its youngest members anyway, besides the undergraduates ofcourse. But I am also talking about being a kid in terms of my maturity level, which everyone knows is fairly low.. :D.. So, I took the last tram home, but Marcela (the PhD student) was fairly (and justifiably) conerned about me being able to traverse the distance on my own.. I did get back home ok though, without any problems - which is a surprise considering the amount of alcohol, instead of blood, I had being pumped to my brain every minute.

Today, for the first time since my arrival, I opened the door to the balcony outside my room, and found 2 pigeon nests there.. with eggs! And I saw the pigeons "incubating" them. I had a slight temptation of picking one egg and cooking it.. I didn't do it alright, stop grimacing! But I did break the smoke alarm when I tried to switch it off after setting it off with my cooking. The weather is nice today, I am planning to go for a little walk later.. but am too lazy to get off the bed right now.. especially with cricket on :D

In conclusion, this week was awesome, but next week is going to be even more fun, I hope.. :)

Hobbies: Wasting time

My boss has asked me to write short summaries of the papers that I read based on my understanding of them. But what do you do when you don't understand them? 

Ans: You press Alt+Tab and switch to Google Chrome and update your blog instead. So, here I am.. 

As you would understand, I am trying to make some efforts to learn/understand Dutch, but haven't been very successful.. I have reached a point where I can read it and get the gist of it, but spoken Dutch sounds, well, Dutch to me.. Though I have found some similarities between Hindi and Dutch.. like "name" is "naam" both in Dutch as well as in Hindi.. "room" is "kamer" in Dutch and "kamraa" in Hindi.. ok, maybe this one wasn't that close, but wasn't that far either.. this maybe a mere coincidence but I think it has its roots in the fact that Latin and Samskrit seem to share some history.. for example, "maatar" and "pitar" are the roots of the words "maata" (mother) and "pita" (father) in samskrit, while "madre" and "padre" mean the same in spanish... and while, most people would think that Dutch is a mix of German and English (which to a huge extent is true, even as Dutch ppl have tried to curb their desire to form very very long words unlike Germans), it does have a strong influence of French as well, for they along with English helped "design" the language.

Quickly, some new Dutch words that I learnt: "dicht" which means close.. "weg" means way.. "straat" means street.. "laan" means lane.. i'll keep updating the list, in case you ever plan to visit Holland. Btw, even as I learn these words, I have no illusions whatsoever of my knowledge in Dutch; it's scarce to say the least.. and I realized that today when a Dutch friend of mine who I had lunch with in "campus restaurant" simply smiled in "derision" when I tried to say "Spuistraat" and completely made a mess of it. ("ui" is a diphthong and is not pronounced the way you would think it should be, it has no equivalent sounds in Hindi or English).. 

As she suggested to me, that maybe I can teach someone Hindi in exchange of learning Dutch, I realized that I am rather ill-equipped to teach anyone Hindi.. I can probably teach you English, maybe even a litte bit Samskrit, but Hindi? I wonder if even I speak Hindi correctly ever! But I think that I speak Hindi better than most Indians do (not all ofcourse), yet I know it's not proper Hindi. So, does it mean we are the "rednecks" of India? Indians (and maybe almost everyone) in USA always try to make fun of people from "South" (American South) having rather bad English.. that they speak some rural trash American, and not English.. but do we ever try to find out as to what percentage of Indians ever speak proper Hindi? 

Anyway, that was a fairly long discussion on languages, maybe next time I'll discuss accents.. but for now, let me talk about my days in Amsterdam.. After the last entry on Monday, this is my 1st write-up.. So, maybe I should talk about how I have started on my formal proceedings at the university and city, having applied for residence permit and undergone Tuberculosis checkup (Yes, barring some nationalities, every immigrant has to undergo TBC checkup). It didn't take too long nor was it painful, but I was definitely disappointed when I found out that India has some of the highest occurence rates of TB.. followed by China and Russia.. including Venezuela and a few more (besides ofcourse a lot of countries in Africa).. If you notice a pattern, you can probably see that the self-acclaimed socialist/communist economies (formerly, India as well) happen to have the worst cases of TB.. does it mean that socialism means that nobody is taken care of, let alone everybody? or in the communist form of socialism, governments try to bite more than they can chew and end up failing at all fronts?

Maybe, I can also let you in on how I ran around for 2 days to get a bank account before being finally told that I can't have it before I get a Social Security number, which would take another 2 weeks.. which means, I can't get a health insurance or phone or internet connection until then.. well, it's fine as far as I am concerned now, but it did make me go as long as 6-8 hrs without food.. and I DON'T like that.. however, this follows my pattern of not eating properly for the 1st few months whenever I go to a new country/place.. I remember how I had lost 9 kgs in 3 months in Edinburgh, and had told Piyush Ranjan that I have a female supermodel figure now, all I need is a pair of boobs.. :D (I don't care if it's not funny, I am not feeling very funny right now).. Anyway, I think I will soon pick up some sports activity (I am thinking about wall/rock climbing) and, hopefully, will start eating properly.. 

First of all, I have to stop drinking too much tea/coffee with the group though.. that always screws up my appetite.. people in my group (especially an Indian guy named Nakul) are nice and quite helpful, even as most people try to keep themselves concerned with their own work and business.. I like the environment, but I don't understand the general/accepted protocol in timings of work.. For example, on Tuesday, I left my office at 6.30 pm and almost everyone in the group including boss was still working, and I felt like an asshole leaving that early.. so next day, I left at 6.45 pm and saw that I was the only one left on the floor (besides my boss).. I had seen everyone arrive before 8.45 am (I had arrived at 8.10 am).. so I figured maybe people come in early and leave early.. so today, I reached office at 8 in the morning and for 1 hr, noone showed up!! I guess, I'll have to form my own schedule.. which means, almost never showing up for work - that's my favorite schedule! :D

Well, I walk everyday to the office and back.. I plan to buy a bike soon, but they are too damn expensive and I have almost run out of the cash in Euros.. all I have left is in Dollars.. I did try to buy a bike though, from a very very white American guy from Tulsa (major coincidence).. he seemed like an honest guy and I may be wrog, but I had a suspicion that the bikes were stolen and risky.. besides they were all ladies bikes, and even though people in Amsterdam ride ladies bikes all the time, I am not too big on doing that..

The good thing is that the work/training in lab has started.. and even though my first attempt at growing E. Coli with AppA protein stain failed (the PhD student gave me the culture/plasmid with the wrong stain), I am enjoying it.. it's new, it's exciting, and for a mechanical emgineer with not much background in Microbiology lab, it's definitely challenging.. I think I have adapted very quickly to the lab and am learning pretty fast, and made my 1st batch of medium (for growing E. Coli) today, all by myself.. and it looks good, i.e. it looks like urine but it's supposed to look like that - looks are subjective ofcourse.. :).. tomorrow, I'll prepare more solutions, and try innoculation of E. Coli again starting Monday - it's a 3-4 day experiment.. basically, a big week ahead as I try not to break/spill anything or let loose some dangerous species of bacteria in the lab.. :D     

Life begins to settle down..

Alright, I wasn't very happy in the 1st 2 days of my stay in Amsterdam.. disappointed with the apartment, roommate (I hadn't even met him yet, but just the dirty apartment with his betrayal on the 1st day leaving me at the behest of a taxi driver had left a bitter taste in my mouth), expensive though well-laid out public transportation system.. yet in the true Indian spirit of adjustment and jugaad, I bought some stuff - sheets, pillow, blanket, food stuff, toilet papers and hand wash, etc. to start settling in the apartment and try not to hate it anymore.. Then, I slept for almost 16 hrs at a stretch to, hopefully, feel fresh and relaxed (successful!! yay!!).. and finally, met my new room mate - turns out he isn't a bad guy.. in fact he is a very nice guy, helped me out and suggested to me what to do and what not in the city, etc.. hence, my anger just melted away.. as it always does - I am a nice guy, I don't hate people, I just hate circumstaances.. and I am not a complainer either - I just express my displeasure!! :D

Anyway, on the 3rd day, I began to feel good about my existence in the city, saw the light (literally - finally figured out how to switch on my table-lamp!!) and went out for a stroll around the city - especially the marketplace.. bought more stuff, new shoes (it was long time coming) for 30 euros.. but most importantly, bought an adapter US-to-Dutch converter and several attempts, finally got my computer to turn on and started using some randomly available wireless connection - good for me!! 

I also visited the Dappermarkt (not a spelling error) - the 2nd biggest farmer's market in Amsterdam, and had a hamburger there (partly because everything else on the menu was written in Dutch and I couldn't understand a word of it).. apparently brudjes means sandwich, and kaas means cheese.. patat means french fries.. the problem with this language Dutch is that there is so much phlegm involved that one doesn't know whether they are talking or just clearing their throat.. especially if you get a word like "Achtergracht" (which means something like canal or bank of a river).. both 'g' and "ch" are pronounced with a lot of phlegm and vibration in the throat.. Arabic sounds smooth in front of Dutch! Imagine that!!

On Sunday, a friend of mine decided to visit from Utrecht (20 min train ride) and we decided to hang out in the Centrum (downtown of Amsterdam).. walking around, we got lost so many times in our quest for Leidseplein (Leids square) that we just gave up its search and started walking around randomly.. but by stroke of luck, we finally found Anne Frank Huis ("house") and thereafter, Damplein (Dam's square).. Dam (pronounced dom) means a big church.. beside it was Madame Tussauds and next to it was the red light district.. we decided to venture into it, went into a pub as well.. and she picked up a "gay map" from a bar.. which was a simple map with some gay images on it.. and I made it a point not to be seen with it.. the area was heavily gay-friendly.. I am not homophobic, nor am I anti-gay.. it's fine as far as I am concerned, just didn't want to be hit on by guys - however hot they are.. :D

It was quite early in th evening, so not much was really happening in the RLD, hence we decided to go to Anne Frank Huis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank), which was the last thing on my to-do-list.. but she wanted to go, so what the heck!! Well, it was as I had expected.. a highly depressing place.. filled with objects, videos and writings about death of Anne Frank and her family (except her father) at Nazi concetration camps and Jewish sufferings.. people who know me know that I try to laugh my way out of anything uncomfortable like this.. but this was too much to be able to laugh away.. it may be hard for most people, who know me, to believe that I ever get serious or despondent, but videos and pictures of mass graves loaded with dead naked bodies and those painful words that Anne had written in her diary did give me jitters.. it was an eye opener, and I needed to shut them again.. for which i decided to go back to the RLD.. and since I had accompanied my friend to a depressing museum, she agreed to go with me to those streets... I guess part of the reason why I wanted to go there with a girl and not alone or in a groupd of guys was because while the enthusiasm was there, I didn't want to be judged by those girls who were standing in the window waiting to be judged and rated, or those people who were the members of jury for those girls.. I guess, when you are there to judge others, you yourself get a feeling of being continuously judged.. but when you see a group of Indian guys sticking their face on a window and salivating over a girl, and then leaving as a guy says to the girl - "Berry Nice" with hand gesture suggesting appreciation - you begin to feel those guys deserve to be judged!! I don't know, I felt very weird in there and after going through just 1 street I couldn't keep my head up and decided to go away.. the enthusiasm had died, taken over by some sort of shame or embarrassment.. suddenly, Anne Frank Huis looked more fun - and intellectual fun at that!! A good day was slightly tarnished by that short visit to RLD, but it had to be done.. for the sake of Dutch tourism and all my friends who have been here or wish they were here.. :)

However, before I saw my friend off at the train station, she helped make my day by trying to offer the gay map to a poor timid French guy (guessed from his accent) when he dared to ask us for the directions to a pub called St. Christopher's Inn.. His embarrasssment was quite visible as she explained to him - "You see, we are not from Amsterdam, but we have a gay map, which you can use".. :D.. As I could not bear the funny look on that guy's face anymore (I have a short laughter-fuse), I decided to step in and give him the directions (I had seen the pub on my way) and leave him a happy man.. :D.. Well, that was some day!! :)

Today, nothing special happened, except my boss took me to a basketball game between the teams from Amsterdam and one from some nearby city.. Amsterdam won comfortably 97-67, but it was fun drinking beer with my boss who's nearing 60 and is still fitter than most people of my age!! 

Tomorrow, the work starts which means working  my arse off during the weekdays while enjoying the weekends to hilt!! Let's see what this new week brings, wish me luck!! :)           

My 1st 2 days in Amsterdam

So, as it happens, I have decided to finally start writing a blog. Part of the reason is that I don't wish to send out individual emails to my friends or anyone who might not have the slightest interest in my existence, while neglecting to email people who are very much interested in my well-being - for e.g. my parents, who have already assumed that within 4 business-less days of landing in a country, the 1st major thing I would do would be to buy a phone, let the hunger take care of itself. Anyhow, I can't blame them for they are, afterall, parents.. it is their job to ignore whatever the 500 grams of stuff on the top says, I guess that's how most parents are..

Anyway, so after having wasted almost 24 years of my life living in the most obscure or isolated places on the world (Roorkee, Muzaffarnagar, IIT Kanpur campus - 9 kms away from city, and then Stillwater), I arrived in Amsterdam - the land of awesomeness - on April 9th, 2009. After 12 hrs of travel in not so cosy airplanes, I went through a quick custom check at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam (was it even a check, more like welcome - I love it already).. lugged 150 lbs of crap to the platform, and with great difficulty got on a train to Station Amsterdam Centraal - the gateway to heaven.. but hang on, this is where the fun starts... carrying 150 lbs of luggage on a bus going in the opposite direction to where I wanted to go (yes, I was too smart to ask the driver where the bus was going) and then back to an apartment reserved for me, I found that my room-mate who was supposed to let me in wasn't there!!! Which means, I have to carry this luggage to the apartment agency.. please note that I was extremely distressed by the amount of luggage I was carrying, and yet I found that I had left some stuff I should ahve brought!! But when you uproot yourself from a place where you have lived for more than 2.5 years, you have to carry this amount of stuff, even after throwing away 4 bags of clothing and several pairs of shoes!! 

Finally, I signed the contract - that squeezed me dry of almost all the cash I had in Euros at the time - and was hired a taxi for to drop me back at the apartment. And this is where euphoria sets in - for the apartment is a dingy little place with wall-paper coming off the walls, toilet-bowl is almost completely brown in color, and there is no wash-basin in the restroom!! Yes, we have to brush our teeth and more often than not, wash our hands in the kitchen sink!! Ewww? Gross? Well, I have to live with this for the next 4 months!!

However, the good part is that the neighborhood is nice, there are several eatcafes and restaurants, an internet cafe which was my lifeline in the 1st 3 days, a place for linens and pillows and 4 stores belonging to 4 of the biggest chains in Netherlands within 100-150 m of my place.. Several trams and buses stop almost in front of my apartment, and there is a huge market (Javaplein) just 500 m from my place.. although it runs for almost a km and half from thereon, and the 2nd biggest farmer's market with fresh vegetables and fruits is just 1 km away.. 

There are several Indian, Pakistani, Turkish, and Moroccan shops in these markets.. and Moroccans and Turkish along with people from Suriname make the highest population in the neighbourhood.. which means that while you do see a lot of hot girls around here, most of them have their head covered in a scarf and talking to them may have dangerous consequences - there are respective gangs, the existence of which has helped label the Oost (east) part of Amsterdam a high risk area.. which brings me to my 2nd day, where in after having met my boss and doing some literature survey at the office on a holiday, I decided to take the road through the aforementioned marketplace and was stopped by 2 cops who told me they wanted to check me for arms to make the area safer (yessir, I am dangerous!! :D).. While I decided to cooperate with a smile even as they probed and tapped me (not like american cops though, checking by who seems like molestation), the only thought through my mind was if they are really cops or just 2 gay guys from the red light district! or worse, 2 cons who might run away with my stuff!! After the city was secured because I was not carrying any arms, unless you count my fists as weapons of mass destruction, I left there almost laughing because I couldn't help thinking - my 2nd day in Amsterdam and I have already been frisked!! what was it about me that screamed criminal? Was it my smile, which I understand can be prety scary or mischiveous, or was it just the fact that if you are without any weapons on you in Amsterdam, you have no reason to smile? Heaven knows, but I can say I have been scarred for life and every time I see a cop I look for the sheet handed to me by those cops that might make those new sets of cops take pity on me and not violate me in the middle of a street.. unless it's red light street and it's a female cop - in that case, frisk away!!