24th Feb 2009, Krakow,Poland

23 feb 2009 , lodz , poland

I am thoroughly enjoying my stay in The Grand Hotel in Lodz.
My meeting was at 10 am and I was back in the hotel by 12 Noon.
But looking at the snow outside and the drizzle i decided that staying Indoors was indeed
the best option.
Let me tell you some thing more about this hotel.
The Grand Hotel is about 120 Years old .Built in 1888 its interiors and architecture
is very old.Most of the hotel is quite desolate and its actually quite creepy if you are alone.
The passegways to the rooms are very long and with very dull light chandeliers.
You would acrually think twice about staying hear alone .
But alas I had no options .Even my room had a 3 bulb chandelier.
Now two bulbs were ok but the third one wac constanty flickering.
I noticed it quite late.Initially I saw some thing moving on the wall.
First it were some shadows as the light changed and would incite some images.
Soon I was flooded with all the previous experiences and very soon
I was convinced there was something in the room .
Who knows if this place was a prison during the world war , or maybe a place for execution , or a large cemetery .Poland as it is has a lot of history of bloodshed during the second world war.Since I have been travelling alone since a while now staying
All by my self is ok with me.I thought it would be a good time to see a horror movie.
So I saw “1920 “ and by the time it was over .I was chanting hanuman chalisa.
By the end of it!
In the evening I decided to go and grab some dinner and beer for myself.
So I packed up from head to toe . boy it took me atleast 10 minutes.
I had a set of thermals then my sweaters, mufflers,gloves,cap and umbrella for the
Snow.It took me a while to find a takeaway but I did stumble across a Turkish sandwich shop .Its sandwich turned out to be surprisingly delicious.
I also located a beer shop finally.But the lady at the counter couldn’t understand
A world of English.Fortunately another shopper standing next to me knew English
And translated for me and recommended a strong polish beer.
So I was off with all the stuff ready to party in the room all alone in grand hotel !!
I had to leave for Krakow the next morning by train.

30th Jan 2009,London

My second day in London and I am loving it to the core.
Today I had to go to Eastleigh,SouthAmpton.
It was about and Hours Journey from Gloucter Road Station near my hotel.
I am very lucky as my hotel was very near to the Station and also it was a very alive place.
Today I dressed to the core and I must say I looked great in my blue suit and red tie!
It is an amazing experience to dressup in the morning and go for work , take the subway,
have cofee on the way, truly spectacular.
My journey to eastleigh was quite pleasant .
The meeting was great as well and I was free by 3PM.
I was at the station and had to take the train at 3.11 for London.
Suddenly I realized that I had to call Mom.
Whilst I was on the call a train rolled in , but i mixed up and thought my train will be the
next one.But when there wasnt another train for a while I realized I had missed my train
right in front of my eyes!
So i had to go to the other platform and got on the next one.
The stations here have some great cofee and sandwich shops and cofee is great on a cold and
windy day especially!!
By now i am very familiar with travelling in trains in London , and feel no problems.
MY evening had to be celebrated after all my meetings were over.
So i decided to party.
After hanging in the net cafe for a while i decided i first needed the booze.
So i collected a few beers and then got some stuff packed from BK.
The place in the evening comes to life.
There were several bars,Restaurnts,stores.But going to these places alone is something
i was not too sure.
My hotel room was quite dull , so i decided to watch the old X files on my computer
Finally my party was on , good beer,fries,chicken sandwiches and my hotel room with X files!
Since tomorrow i had to go to Rams place i could get up whenever i wanted.
All in all it was a great day

29th Jan 2009 , London

My first visit to the UK has been quite fascinating.
It is the first time that I am travelling all alone.
The first thing that greets you in London is the laid back buildings and houses
straight out of a fairytale and reminds you of stories like hansel and gretl.
England has an amzing railway infrastructure.
Commuting from one place is failry simple.
I took a train from Heathrow to Earls Court which was an exciting experience.
The subway is jam packed in the morning and you find yourself surrounded by people
in suits , running for work , Brits,Indians , Africans orientals , there are all kinds of faces .
I travelled the first day to swindon which is an hours train journey from Paddington station.
Reminds of the book by agatha christie .
The overland journey to swindon was very pleasant.
I got to see the beautiful english country side.
Most of the construction is of red bricks and all the houses look similar.
The most striking thing about some of the smaller stations is their construction.
It reminds you of any other indian railway station!
My hotel room turned out to be quite small , the way i had expected.
It has a bunk bed , the one in which you have to climb up!
London is a very alive place , you can be alone , but still not feel bored.
In many ways it reminds me of NY also.
i am here for a few more days lets see what else is in store

christmas

My earliest memories of Christmas comes from when I was in school and one of our teacher would dress up as santa and distribute toffees to the students.

This had become a ritual and also it would be the last working day before the school would close for the winter break.I still remember my dad would get a chocolate cake for us on Christmas.

My most memorable Christmas was perhaps in pune in the final year.

It was also a break time for us as the college had closed and we were all lazing around at our homes.

Our great house “ avdhut” was blessed by the benign presence of his lordship Mr. Amritesh Singh.

Amritesh had become an icon for us mortals!

His routine was something we all wished to ape.

It went like this :

Get up at 2 PM in the day.

2 Pm !! except for my sisters wedding when I was up all night I don’t ever , ever remember sleeping till 2 PM!!

So after 2 PM the first thing that waas done was to light up a light….

And then followed by a grand Breakfast cum lunch at Happy Guys café in the campus

Or at home, courtesy Ramesh our cook.

Once all this was done it was Barista time.

Every single day no matter what we would sit at barista….and have café mocha

My god….the amount of business we must have given to barista during those days.

So 25^th dec 2004 was no different either….

After gazing around at the hot crowd in barista for a few hours we decided it was time to go.

We headed for Café Down Under….our favourite hangout place in MG road.

What I really liked about that place was that not only it was reasonably priced , the atmosphere was just like I were at some local country bar in far away America .

After a couple of beers suddenly there was a loud noise.

To everyones wonder and amazement our Mr Goel was lying on the floor, as he had slipped from his chair !

Seeing this , much to the fun of every one around us , I realized it was about time we headed back home.

But now the situation was really out of hand.

Mr. Goel wouldn’t give me the keys of the bike.

Any attempts to get the keys were futile as he would just keep on running away.

So Mr. Goel started to run and I was after him.

First he went around Barista towards east street and then opposite georges restaurant.

All the while he was shouting , pointing towards me “ He is Gay , He is Gay and he is trying to catch me”

Finally I put in all my running efforts to grab him and loaded him on the bike and we were back home.Finally dinner was followed at our favourite terrace.With the view of the city lights and our favourite butter chicken from Saurabh .

My last memorable Christmas was in US when we went for Priyanka’s department party in Buffalo.

I still remember shopping in boulevard mall during Christmas time and how much fun it used to be!

I still have pictures of all of us shopping.It was my first and  last Christmas in the US !

 

My Bike

My earliest memories of riding a motor cycle in pune was when udit,my room mate, bought his passion when we were in the second year. I still remember that night, it was pretty cold at night.

So we went on a long drive to a lot of places.I as usual went in my shorts, a decision I later regreeted, as not only it was quite cold, I also burnt my leg on the silencer!

At that point of time I didn’t really know how to ride a bike, which I learnt very soon, courtesy all the new bikes my friends had bought.

I still remember how I borrowed Himanshu’s bike to go and meet Hamu, my israeli friend .

Boy wasn’t that one adventurous night!!

But my wait was finally over in the summer of 2004 when I finally bought my CBZ!!

It was my good companion for all my remaining days in Pune.

I still remember the first female who adorned the bike!!

It was a foggy , rainy night…..quite romantic!

Soon to add to our collection was aditya’s bike , another CBZ , same colour.

The last time I rode a bike in pune was last year  , and the best part was that it was raining

All the time.Riding at night all friends together was something I remember a lot.

Don’t see that happening again offcourse.

So with pretty much everyone you know in college you have some great memory

To share and cherish , of where you went and what you did on your bike!!

 

 I finally sold off my bike before leaving for the US.

Alka picture hall

Watching movies at alka would soon become my favourite past time !

So I , aditya and udit , my two dear room mates went for a movie for the first time , in Sep 2001.

I clearly remember  the evening as it was ganpati visarjan.

So we 3 boarded an auto and headed for Alka.

Alka, is a unique movie hall, old style, 25-35 Rs ticket and the latest English flicks.

The movie we saw was “ Hannibal”, which still is one of my fav movies!

Another memorable trip to Alka was on Aditya’s birthday in March 02.

We first went for a burger at our favourite at that point of time “ Burger King”

Burger King was also one of our Favorite places to hangout , esp I must have eaten

So many Jumbo Chicken Burgers of Rs 40!!

The movie that we saw was A Jean Claude Van Damme starrer : “Inferno”.

But the interesting thing before that was that we first went to Sarangi a restaurant on East Street, found it too expensive and had to escape!

Next big movie that I can Remember at Alka was “ Lost in Translation”

The amazing thing about this movie was I and udit saw it..and for the first five mts there were just two people in the entire theatre…me and him!!!..later on there were some 4-5 more people….

But it still was an amazing experience…..and on top of that the movie was such a strange one..

It left me quite depressed actually.

Another landmark movie that I saw in alka was “ scooby doo”

So nothing spectacular about the movie offcourse…..

But I saw it after shaving my head , perhaps this was in the month of April 2004.

I don’t remember which was my last movie at Alka, but all in all……it holds some of the sweetest memories for me of college time.