A weekend at Berlin

Time swept past fast and in 2 days I would be 4 months old in Swiss land. The experience here so far had been crazy and I am still trying to delve into the foreign culture and the lifestyle.

All this time I tried my hands at new cuisines and desserts. To name the successful ones were "Chocolate chips butter cookies" and "pista kulfi". My culinary experiments late in the night, when my dear roomie craved for a spongy rasgulla, resulted in a tiny white balls, which hardly justified the name "Spongy".

 The retreating summers were a treat and to make the most of Europe summers, we made sure that every weekend was planned and came by "The tennis evening",  Barbeque , Accenture party and the trip to Rhine falls.

Then came a weekend of the Philip military operation- "The Berlin Trip". Yes, Germany was the destination.
The journey started with the easy jet (the cheapest we could afford) flight and meeting a supercute and a notorious steward Mike. It was supposedy his second day as part of the crew.

Would you like to have something ma'am. While me and Jyoti tried to go through the menu and decide, "you are ignoring me" he said. After we decided to order a brownie and a coffee, came another question, Which sugar do you want. "Any", said Jyoti. He gave sachets of almost all kinds of sugar packets he had on the shelf.

We reached Philip's place in no time. That was the most beautiful house i had seen in my lifetime. No less than a palace. the doors opened to high stairs with a red carpet and paintings engraved on either sides. the house had high ceilings and was beautifully decorated with all antiques and cool stuff.

We had special welcome drinks from Peter, Philip's replica and his younger brother, and then we headed to the theme pub and later to the techno festival.

We were all hungry and pounced on the lip smacking "Doner Kebab" at the best Kebab place of Berlin. We relished it so much that for the next 10 days Jyoti was looking for a Doner kebab in Zurich.

Then came the most interesting part for the girls, the shopping spree. Spent hours to grabbed some Berlin souveniers. We then crossed the street with the famous "Buddy bears" and spent some time to spot one from India and Switzerland( associated with two countries now :) ).


Later in the evening, we were supposed to go on a pub crawl but could not join one because we were not on the German time and had missed it. So Philip decided to meet his best friend in one of the pubs of east berlin which took ages to reach and miles of walk. We enjoyed our time there as we found a good indian restaurant right opposite to the pub and had watered-mouth when we saw bhatura being served. At midnight we did some favour to our belly and had paneer pakoras and bhatura chola. Yuuummmm...

Following day was the day to add to my knowledge about Hitler and the Berlin wall explained by a gung-ho guide of New Europe tour. Each and every event and place was miticulously explained by him and the crowd hooked on to him from soup to nuts of the 3 hour tour albeit it rained hard. So it goes without mentioning that he was too good.

"Calcutta" was the venue for dinner where we satiated ourselves with the Indian delectables alongside throwing some light on the Indian mythology and Lord Krishna, later addressed as cool dude by one of my friends after having heard all his stories.

We had a wonderful weekend, evident from the sleepy faces in the office on the following day. Unpacking for me and Jyoti was not necessary as in three days we had to again leave for the financial capital of Germany, Munich.

July fiesta!! Philip's contribution continues...

The July was a month for great parties. It started with a great after work party organized by this

handsome guest contributor himself. Trying various cocktails (non-alcoholic of course) made our taste
buds develop to the next level. A good drink is like a good meal. A combination of the right components

to create flavor that could otherwise not be achieved. Synergy.

The following night our great employer hosted a whole day of “fun” presentations and hired a club for the later part of the day that finished by going to a great techno club. The Hive Club, full of ecstatic followers of electronic music was a great opportunity to dance (no, not naughty dancing) with our new colleagues who joined the project just a few days before.

The next day, Saturday, was the Caliente Fest. A annual, very vibrant festival of Latin

American culture with lots of dancing. Unfortunately, some of us did not attend because they could not

get their lazy bums up or use arguments with this handsome guest contributor as an excuse for being

lazy bums. At least at night they were able to come, albeit slowly due to Namitas ankle injury. Since we

arrived late as usual we all went straight to another amazing techno club, Alte Börse to see the German

DJ Duo Tiefschwarz.

Jyoti and Namita managed to book themselves a train journey through northern Italy –no accommodation booked yet To our all great joy they, after reminder, also managed to accept an invitation to a pre-booked trip to Berlin (readers, I hope you know where that is).

Now, to reach an end with this contribution, I also mention the great Indian night hosted by the two

characters we are reading about here. Maybe because of feeling so guilty of not managing anything by

themselves, or because of pure friendliness, they overloaded the organizers of those various events, trips

and cooking sessions by cookies and Indian snacks that smell a lot like egg. They invited us over, cooked

great, did the dish washing and even thought of some games to entertain us. What did we do on our,

non-Indian guests, part? We fulfilled the wishes of our hosts to dress as Indian as we could. So our Swiss and German guests did, finished by a turban, that made some of them look so cute that they would from now on be the most liked people in the office, but, speaking from experience, that can quickly change from not being the most liked one anymore.

PS: I remember speaking to Jyoti on the telephone when she was back in India and I am sure she said she would cook for me every night. Could that be possible?
Last but not least, lessons learned regarding emoticons used in Europe:
x = chumma

:x = chumma

:-x = chumma
:-* = choti chumma
:* = choti chumma

Charity !! Thank you philip for the blog contribution

June: Contributions by a handsome stranger (not Namitas writing):
This exciting month started by noticing that my colleague (Choti) Jyoti made some great friends in the
office. Those friends appreciate the Indian Dosa and, some really appreciate, even more than the Dosa,
Jyotis attention. Unfortunately, those mainly male, people don’t fit in the wedding profile parameters

(age wise).

The fun, this case for all of us, continued by being invited to a great cake making lessen by the very

handsome guest contributor of this blog. The lesson was to learn how to make a traditional English Lemon Meringue Pie. This session came with all kinds of interesting lesson, among them the learning the difference between lemons and limes and how to crack an egg. Some of us prefer to peel of the top and

pour it into the bowl while other crack it at the bowls rim and separate the egg yolk from the egg white by shifting the egg mass from one shelf half into the other until the egg yolk is separated. At the end the cake turned to be out very good and everyone was happy. This success means, that it is likely that Jyoti

and Namita are the first Indian girls in the Zurich district of Schwamendingen having baked a Lemon Meringue Pie http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_Meringue_Pie). What an achievement, truly ahead of the game we are.

One of the other highlights later that months was the Greek night. It involved delicious Greek non-veg.

and non-non veg. food, only. Followed by Greek dancing that was choreographed by the two Indian guest themselves. To recover from so much activity we decided to watch The Hangover 2 at the cinema.

A lot of nudity and strong language was quite a shock for our international friends. Somebody realized

that high heels are worn by man (transvestites) and woman to just look sexy rather than super smart

(what a anthropological revelation). Escaping this shock during the lunch break by using the emergency

exit did not help to disguise Jyoti & Namita’s confusion to everyone in the movie theatre.

The weekend came and after spending an exciting day in Berne the two (Choti Choti & Nakalachi Namita)

decided to visit the person who has written this brilliant blog contribution in the diplomatic capital of the

world, Geneva (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva).

Geneva, is in the French speaking part of Switzerland and hosts the United Nations

(http://www.unog.ch/), ISO, World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, International Red

Cross, International Telecommunications Union, the World Economic Forum and among others the

International Aviation Transportation Association. We settled for an early Saturday evening after being
picked up from the airport and getting a personal tour of the city, seeing the Red Cross (and Geneva
Convention (signed in 1949, after the 2nd World War), Geneva’s old town, Lake Geneva (largest
freshwater lake in Europe, anyone knows which is the largest (without looking it up)?). Sunday, a big
adventure day, finally Namita could become one with her true, wild, animalistic self. She turned into a
fine monkey. The rope/tree adventure (www.parc-aventure.ch) was a challenge for some who never

made it into the great forest height (having to be rescued while attempting it). Others tried their best

being monkeys with the occasional whimpering noise. A bit like “I can’t do this”, or “Stop it”, when

fellow monkeys were shaking the few ropes Namita held on to. At the end, Namita was feed some good

Moroccan food, self made pizza and fine French pastries to calm done and turn into a human again (not

to different a state as when in the forest).

The June finished with the attendance to the Albani Fest in Winterthur. Winterthur, being a
Canton/State itself required the purchased of an extra train ticket – easy to cover with our fantastic new
half price passes. Being naughty girls, both of them used every chance to tease our friends, resulting in a

damaged ankle for Namita, who, so far, has resistant to see an educated medical professional, believing,

based on Namita’s own extensive medical knowledge or superstitions rituals, that those cannot help her.

City of lights

My 3rd weekend in Swiss and its we did'nt play by ear. I was all bright eyed and bushy tailed for the trip. Booked tickets a week before and read every bit about the must visit places in the heart of Switzerland, "Lucerne: the city of lights".

We started at 8 in the morning and this time we packed up paranthas with us. Unexpectedly we were before time and popped into the train the moment it came. The train was no less than a cruise, a double decker one and we climbed up to the 1st floor and grabbed seats. Could'nt wait to have paranthas. Having paranthas in train is nostalgia. It was fun always to travel with family and packup a bag full of eatables, in no way can it ever replace even the "Rajdhani Express" food for which people are always crazy. I never liked it!!

It was a 40 min travel and there we land at the heart of Swiss, Lucerne. It was cold and as usual me and Jo were without jackets. Just next to the "Bahnof"  meaning station in german was the beautiful lake. Jyoti was hell bent on going for the boat ride and quickly we tried to enquire the cruise prices. And we could'nt afford it!! 94 Francs per person. That was too much. And then the ever exciting cruise ride seemed to be not so fun on the grounds that 3 hours would be boring. Mere consolation!!

We started for the Chapel bride. A beautiful wooden platform, the oldest in Europe well decorated with lovely flowers and mounted with the painting in the triangular frame in the ceiling. It was hardly a 10 min walk over the bridge and there we decide to ask people about other places to visit.

"Excuse me, what all places do u suggest us to see here in Lucerne", I asked a young couple. "Me for example" the gentlemen replied with his witty expressions. Well, go around the old town , go for cruise ride, don't miss that.... Cruise ride...ehhh he reminded us of the could be exciting ride. :(

We move further to explore the Lion's monument. It was incredible. Really beautiful indeed. We entered the natural monument museum which had some preserves of the rocks from the glaciers, various shell stones, deepest pothole from glaciers and the like. Had a short clipping on the Gothart rail tunnel, the wars in Zurich, panorama of various mountain ranges and glaciers. It took us a while to cover the museum. It was interesting!!

Then we hiked up to the tower to get a view of the city which was solala read ok ok in German, though the way onto our hike was amazing.

It was 2 and we were out of the museum. All the signals from the retina were converted into just 1 thing FOOD... Indian food. And my 6/6 vision proved helpful. "Kanchi- the taste of India" I could see from a distance and we were exhilarated.

Dal makhani and chapati, seems it was our staple diet. But nevertheless it was a good lunch followed by Swiss choco ice cream from our favourite MOVE n PICK.

We were already excited about our next stop. Mt Pilatus. Had been hearing about it from many people in office. We were just in time to get the tickets. It was the last train to Pilatus and the lady emphasized "Guys I guess its too late..you would get just half an hour at Pilatus as the last cable car is at 6." But we were firm. We'll go for it. Quickly moved towards the Glies meaning platform and there we took the  4 seater on first floor again. We needed to change at Alpanchstad for the cogwheel. Woaaaaaaa...cogwheel was thrilling. Everyone had chips, cookies and snacks. "Aunty abhi dedo wapisi mein apko dukaan se dila denge woh bhi do." my khurafaati mind thought of asking the lady sitting just in front of me with bag full of snacks. The cogwheel started and I could no more think of food as the view was bizarre. I was in the steepest cogwheel train of the world. And wondered how this train could even move. The view was ineffable!! Far stretched prodigious mountains with snow filled peaks, the rivers, the green carpet was all I could see.

We reached 2132m above the sea level, the top of Mt pilatus in 30 mins. Above the clouds, in the clouds, on top of the world were we. :) Clouds made funny unusual designs. Felt there was a volcano in the sky ;) it was the best view i had ever seen. I remember me writing this for Uetliberg too. But this was even more beautiful. Heavenly!! I felt so close to nature.

We had freezed almost without jackets. But it was time for us to be in the cable car. Ye-ye. I sat in cable car for the first time and  it was breathtaking, all the more because of the top view of the beautiful city. :)

Experience of lifetime it was!!

Glimpse into the land of beauty

Swiss land - the land with largest finance centers, the land where every single person carries the latest iphone 4, the land of beauty, the land I knew before just for the swiss bank, swiss watches and our favourite shahrukh and kajol, became a reality for me.

16^th May ,2011 1:45p.m. I landed at the paradise, the place overshowered with beauty, welcomed by two handsome gentlemen Philip and Alex (did’nt know they would turn to be clowns for my journey ahead) and headed towards the hotel.

I was all excited about my first onsite, my first day at the client location and of course my new attires, business suits, skirts and the formal dresses. I am just in love with them now. :P :P

Ghshdfs, gitse, g…. whats that that every person greets me with when they cross by? Well it was tough to make out. Replied back with a “hi” assuming it definitely must be their way of greeting. Finally Alex and Philip helped us understand what it was: Grüße. So here started my learning of German. And it was real fun. All the more because I decided to teach the firangs hindi and I taught them all stupid words, which which sounded funny. So everytime some1 sneezed Alex and Philip had to say “bhagwan bhala kare” which sounded like "bagaaawaaan bala kari". :) 

It’s a different culture all together. Office is quiet (though me n Jo changed the environment of our room altogether :P),  there is nothing like a cafeteria and recreation room, people don’t take coffee breaks, tea breaks, snack break, break for nsp, breaks for a stroll and … In short people actually WORK here… J

It was also time for me to come out of my parantha zone and try different cuisines. Well I had no option but try because very few options  for Indian food were available. I started off with a Spanish restaurant. Took the menu and tried to read !@##$#%FRGE%$%#$%#T#%$$#^T%$.... Phew it was all in German. Finally I ordered a “Tortila” which was supposed to be a omelet with potatoes. So this was essentially the first time I had omelet. But almost 3\4^th of the dish was wasted. Not bad nammo!!! I ordered something other than “Vegetarian “ food for the first time in life. J

Gates and Us

The gates at office are some strange monkey cages and had been a real source of entertainment for me and Jo all the time. For the first three days I did not have a permanent id while Jo had for heself. I used to get a temporary pass everyday which did not work after 6. So if you need to exit, you need to be thin enough to adjust with the other person in the monkey cage.

Thurday, I got my permanant card and we both left at 6:45p.m. from office. But we were still of the notion that we have 1 card and we need to be smart and quick enough to exit together. But how could we play that safe. Shit!!! Jyoti screamed. Her shoes got stuck in the gate. Good lord and we could hear a beautiful song from the door. Gawdd We went crazy and couldn’t control laughing at the situation and the consequences…Would there be a police?? Or a emergency troop to rescue us or we would stand all night dancing at the lovely tunes of the door. And there the door hit us hard and snapped us out .Luckily there were not many people outside to make fun of us.

Scared to be in India!!!

It was Saturday and our first weekend in Switzerland. We planned to go to Uetliberg: the top of Zurich. We had already bought the train upgrade tickets. And there we headed to our first outing. J

We took the tram 6 to Freisenberg and then took S10, the local train of Zurich and in not more than 20 mins we were 869.2m above the sea level. The view on our way was way more than what we expected. The Swiss land is seriously blessed. It was a green velvet, lush green to the farthest point our eyes could see.

We hiked up for some 10 mins, and we reached “uetliberg” where all what I could see was peaks full of snow, lush greens mountains, and the beauty of Zurich: Zurich Lake. Couldn’t have been more beautiful.

As usual, we were clicking loads of pictures, pictures of everything on the way. “Hey can I take a picture for u?” We could hear from the back…We turned to see a gentleman with a huge smile. He must be in his 60’s. “Yeah, sure that would be great”, I replied.

“So you two beautiful ladies where are you from? India?”

Yes we replied…And there Mr Gabriel was with his entire family story…I have been to Indiaà Goa, Trivandhjg, Phunjhab… I married a french girl… My son in law is a Pakistani…Meet my friend LK…and there he started introducing us to her in German…LK was nice and friendly.

“Make the most of your trip girls. We got one life, just enjoy as much as you can”  said the old uncle. I liked his philosophy.

We realized later that they were a group of 15 20 oldies enjoying their trip to the core.

Our stomachs had already started roaring and we tried to enquire the menu and the prices( of course it was necessary) of the food there in UTO Kumbh hotel there. Gosh!!!!!! It was pretty expensive.

500 Rs for a cup of tea!!!. And we stood there converting every menu price into Rupee. No menu item was less than 35 francs.  And we were no more hungry J.

Lets atleast explore howz the hotel inside: said Jo.

We entered and saw “Pizzate” written at the entrance and assuming that it was a Pizza counter there , we happily entered the room. Pizzate was just the name of the room we realized later though. :(

It was a beautiful hotel. There was a mini kitchen in the hall. We approached the kitchen and started enquiring if they had something in Vegetarian. “Hindi” replied the chef. “Arrey hindi ap kahan se ho bhaiya”. Punjab. And I smiled. Where in Punjab I asked. Lahore, I am a Pakistani. India ana chahta hai but darta hai. We were specchless. But why, I asked. India is not dangerous. You should not be scared. They wont do anything to you. “phle toh visa hi nai lagayenge….fir airport pe 100 tehkikat, Pakistani hia na hum, terrorist samajhte hai hume” said Mr Malik, the senior chef.

Ap batayein kya khayenge. Jo khayenge wohi banwa deta hun. He was so welcoming and hospitable. He made us bowl full of french fries, spring rolls and ravioli. And he came and said “sirf drinks ka pay karma…iska payment mat karma”. We were amazed. Tried a lot that he takes the money but he did not. We sat there for 2 3 hours and tried to empty those bowls …Our taste buds felt reincarnated.. J
Later he did not even take money for the drinks we had. It was almost 80 francs that we had to pay. But all of it came for free. We later got to know that it was the costliest restaurant of Zurich.

But at the back of my mind, I could still hear those words aloud…”India ane se dar lagta hai”.

Jali beans and mission Joanne

As usual me and Jo were  teasing Philip and for something and Jo said “Philip are u jalebi jaisa seedha”.

And when Philp tried to repeat, our very favourite jalebi turned into Jali Beans. J

He is one very notorious, but a very gentle guy. He makes us laugh everytime with his ever funny expressions and hilarious arguments.

We were after Philip’s and Alex’s life to show us their girl friends photo. And there in we enter into day long argument and deals. According to the deal, we were supposed to show them our wedding profiles( Subrat told them how weddings go about in India through wedding profiles). “Wedding profiles ?? we don’t have a wedding profile” both me Jo said.

U’ll have to make one!! That’s a deal that Philip wanted. But we were clever Girls. You show us half the picture of your Girl friend and we show you  the wedding profile tomorrow, Jyoti proposed.

The discussion went for the entire day and finally Philip showed us half his GF’s face. The same day he invited us for a dinner party with his friends. And according to him “It was my first weekend ever in Zurich and it was Jyoti’s first weekend ever outside India”. He said that always with a fishy smile and supercute expressions emphasizing each word. Funny he is!!!

“Mata Hari” was the venue. “Mata Hari” me and Jo burst into laughter again. And there came “funny bunch” from Philip for us :P

Philip was accompanied with two girls: Jo and Christine. Jo …hmmm Jyoti could recognize her, Joanne: she is Philip’s Gf. So that was a pleasant surprise for us planned by this shorty guy. And at the same time deal for us was over. J And Philip screamed in his tone…”a Deaaal is a Deaaaal”. But poor guy never got to see the wedding profile.

We had a nice time with the three, a really nice bun ch as Philip says J