Eurotrip 2.0: Day 8,9 - Krakow

After the incredible high of the football game, a 3-train journey to Krakow beckoned. From Prague to Bohumin, then Bohumin to Katowice and finally from Katowice to Krakow. The train out of Prague was scheduled at ten past midnight, and I left the football game 5 minutes before the end to get a relatively empty bus to Prague station.

It was biting cold at night, any colder and I’d have had to buy some extra protection. But for the time being, my gloves, Barca monkey cap & 4-layer clothing were doing their job!

At the station, I hoped to take a leak and grab something nice to eat before I got into the train. To my utter shock, all the toilets were locked and I was left wondering where I’d get to relieve myself. I was beginning to see a whole new reason why there were so many trees around the station. I quietly let fly on one and suddenly the world was a warmer place!! I can’t remember the last time I did that in India, but I certainly was going to remember this for a long long time to come!

A burger and fries later (yes that counted as 'nice to eat' at that time of night), I picked up my luggage, just as I had left it and headed to catch my train. It was going to be a 4 hour or so journey to Bohumin, then about half an hour’s stop-over, a train to Katowice, and almost an immediate train out to Krakow. I had picked up alternate schedules in case any of the trains were late, so that I didn’t have to go around asking when I can get the next train.

The train arrived at the platform a good 10 minutes before the scheduled departure and I found myself a nice little compartment. A tall geeky looking chap joined me and I asked him whereabouts he was headed. It turned out he was Czech and was a scientist with the European space agency, based out of the Netherlands. This was his regular route home and when I told him I was just coming from the football game, he told me to expect the train to be full of Czech football supporters. True to his word, within no time, a swarm of football fans flooded the relatively tiny train (must have had about 6-7 carriages at max). There wasn’t going to be any lying and sleeping that night; that was for sure! I was quite exhausted with walking all day and there wasn’t really any scenery to catch so I had a good sitting-sleep session! A large part of the crowd, including the scientist, cleared out at Ostrava and Bohumin was the next station.

I got off to be welcomed by the usual deserted platform. It was dark and I needed to figure out which platform my next train would be from. After a walk on the subway connecting the platforms and a close-look at the displayed time-tables, I figured which platform to wait at for the train, and got there. Again, nobody in sight. It can get quite unsettling, especially when it’s cold. I was just hoping my mind was not going into hypothermia when it was reading the time-tables and platform numbers. The train arrived a good 10 minutes after scheduled departure time, and I had a feeling I was going to be late for the next one.

The journey from Bohumin to Katowice was quite uneventful. I was expecting Polish officers to come checking for passport, visa etc., but nobody turned up. The train reached Katowice station a good forty minutes behind schedule, and I was going to have to wait for about an hour for the next train. I got out of the platform onto the train entrance where there were about eight chairs, all full of people sleeping. I was reminded of some of the scenes from a game I used play, Max Payne, and also from the Matrix where Neo has his whole fight scene at a train station with Smith. I wandered around for a little, hoping that one of those sleeping would get up and I’d get some place to sit. Luckily enough, someone got up within a few minutes and I could get place to sit and begin my thumb-twiddling. It didn’t look like a particularly safe place, the station, with some rather sorry looking people occupying the chairs. All I was thinking about was when I was going to get on that train.

It was scheduled to depart from a side-platform which was made EXACTLY like the platforms 6 & 7 at Andheri station, just that there was only one instead of two. On it stood a joke of a train, 3 bogies long, a tin-box that seemed to be made out of scrap metal at best. AND, the doors wouldn’t open! I wondered if it was the right train. I paced back to the train schedule display board and it said that that was going to be the platform where the train would be. I walked back to the train. 5 minutes to departure. As if on cue, it breathed into life, lights in the compartments, and the doors slid open automatically. Phew! I stepped in, and was one of only three in the train as it chugged off the station.

I finally caught some much needed sleep but it wasn’t quite enough as it was quite a short journey. As the train pulled into the station at Krakow, I distinctly remember hoping that the weather was going to be kind to me, despite the forecast saying that it was going to be 0° C, and raining. The sun was shining at that point, and I needed a map, as usual. There was a big sign saying INFO where I was hoping I would get some directions to my hostel. Instead, the lady at the counter just shouted “NO” when I showed her the name and address of the hostel. Not quite what I was expecting for a city that’s famous for tourism in Europe. I asked a few people on the street, and surprisingly nobody seemed to know. AND, I couldn’t find a map! So, the last resort of a tired tourist, I went up to a cabbie and asked him to take me there. After a lot of bargaining, he agreed to take me to my hostel, for the equivalent of 200 Indian rupees, a grand distance of 1km from the station.

Hostel Mundo was suspiciously tucked at the back of a derelict building. As I approached the entrance, I wondered if this was indeed a hostel or some kind of shady, druggy, place. Luckily, on entering, the reception and interiors were posh and there certainly weren’t any shady people lurking. It was a neat hostel with Country themed rooms and I got to stay in the USA room (Duh!). There was an India room too, and that made me momentarily cheesily proud!

When I looked at the map that they handed out to me at the reception, (the journey from the station to the hostel was my judge of distance), it became quite clear that Krakow was a VERY small city. Another walking tour beckoned. I had a quick shower, and headed off for my first Polish lunch. At the foot of the Wawel Castle was a restaurant by that name (in Polish of course – Pod Wawelem), and I had THE MOST AWESOME 7 course lunch meal for just 600 rupees. Poland was clearly not nearly as expensive as Western Europe! And it helped that the meals were served by some of the most stunningly beautiful looking set of waitresses that you’ll ever see. I didn’t feel like sleeping anymore!

As I was gorging through my meal, it started raining outside and I could see people scurrying for cover. Then the colorful umbrellas came out as the rain continued. I slowed my eating pace further, and sipped on my glass of dark Polish beer. Bliss! My finishing the lunch perfectly timed with the sun coming out and the rain stopping. I was clearly having ALL the luck going my way through the entire trip!

I walked up Wawel Castle and was treated to a most magnificent view which the kings of past would surely have enjoyed.

After the castle, I was eager to get to ‘the largest square in Europe’, which was just a 10 minute walk away. On the way was a beautiful looking church which was typically peaceful inside with good stained-glass work and not to mention, the usual tourist sales counters selling coins and such.

Getting to the square, around 5 in the evening, with the sun just setting, I started my experiments with my camera, trying to capture just the right amount of light. It was a big square, but it didn’t quite feel like 'the biggest’ in Europe'.

Surely there were bigger ones. Probably why it didn’t look so big was there was a big market right in the middle selling all sorts of stuff from magnets to monkey caps, mostly with Krakow written on them. I bought some souvenirs and by the time I headed back to the hostel it was around 7.

I was joined in my room by two hopelessly drunk, and overflowing with shopping bags, Australian girls who couldn’t stop smiling coz they thought they could never get to shop so cheap anywhere in the world. They’d obviously not been to India or Malaysia! I went over to the reception and asked for a good place to close out my trip with a drink and some nice dinner. They generally pointed towards the Jewish Quarter, and I left, on foot as usual, to go there. Half way through my walk I realized I had left my monkey cap in the toilet and I ran back to ensure I had not lost it! Luckily it was still there, and I could resume my walk, under the protection of my cap then!

The Jewish Quarter looked like a typical drinking place lined with bars and restaurants, with cigarette smoke billowing out of most of them. I walked over to one of the more open places, and ordered my beer and pasta. Through my dinner, some guy on the next table dropped an entire jug of beer on himself eliciting smiles from tables all around. The general happy atmosphere and the beer made me go back with a smile to the hostel. The morning was going to be an early one for my flight to my final stop on the tour - Paris, where I was to meet my cousin sister, friends and finally fly out back to India!

Eurotrip 2.0 : Day 6,7 - Prague, and the beautiful game!

Berlin to Prague is one of the most scenic train rides you’ll ever do. The train rolled off at 5 am from Berlin (4.59 actually!). With less than 20 minutes, cumulative, of sleep all night, I was looking forward to a nice nap on the train. Before I could get settled in, show the TC my tickets et al, the sun was beginning to break through and the stunning countryside was in full view. Clearly, there was going to be no sleeping on this one! Soon bathed in sunshine, the rivers and hills soaked with greenery were rolling by.

The 4½ hour train ride went by in what seemed like 20 minutes! And then I remembered that I hadn’t slept. But then as I stepped out of Prague station, this captivating city woke me up again. There’s a beautiful garden right outside the train station and loads of trees around. You would never think you’re outside a busy train junction! The weather was just about perfect with a light breeze and warm sunshine, around 18° C, I later gathered. I had booked myself into Hostel Elf, which was supposedly a 15 minute walk from the station. I thought I had gotten my directions right (from the hostel’s website) but I wasn’t carrying a map and ended up taking a wrong turn and walking right into the old town. I then walked back to the station, bought a map for some 60 crowns (1 crown ~= 3 rupees) (which served me excellently till the end of the trip). On my way, at one of the crossroads where I was trying to figure out where to go, I remember being helped by a most stunningly beautiful woman who appeared out of nowhere, gave me directions, and then promptly disappeared. It felt like almost divine intervention at that point coz there was nobody around and I had inexplicably forgotten the name of the road where I was to find my hostel!

The receptionist at Hostel Elf was typically helpful with the room setup, etc. and it was quite a breeze checking in. It was 12ish, I was hungry and I was also very determined to get tickets to the Czech Republic vs Spain match the next day. As I was about to leave the room, an old white gentleman walked in and asked me in perfect Hindi “Namaste..! Aap kahan se hain?” (Where are you from!?). For the longest time I didn’t have a reply. I was shocked to meet this white guy speaking perfect Hindi in Eastern Europe! Turned out the cheerful old man was extremely well-traveled, had been in India several times over a period of 25 years, had acted in Tollywood & Bollywood movies, done social service during floods in Orissa, and pretty much fallen so much in love with India that he kept going there every year. But he had not gone for the last 15-20 years, because he thought "the country had changed, for the worse, the innocence was lost and the big corporates were running things…"

After a quick chat with Dennis, I set out on my quest to get a ticket for the game. That was quite clearly my objective of coming to Prague - not the bridges, not the castles, not the hills and not the valleys! The walk to the stadium was a long one. Up and over a hill, for about 1 hour. I reached by around 2pm. Luckily for me, the ticket counters were ready to open only by 3. And there was, shockingly, not a soul in sight! I dinked into the McDonald’s by the Letna stadium to catch a filet-o-fish and some fries. Exactly the same as you’d get in India, heavy junk food which makes you feel queasy in 30 seconds. Yuck! But I didn’t really have much of a choice, there was nothing else around!

Then I strolled across to the ticket counter and one elderly Czech man had made his way there. We figured the common language that we could both speak and understand was French! So he was talking his fluent, but slowed-down-for-me French, whereas I was struggling with my pronunciation, but we managed to get a conversation going! Turned out he was a huge fan of Sparta Prague and was looking forward to an International game for a change. We talked for over an hour about football - the world cups, great games that he had watched live and how much we both enjoyed specific moments in some matches. It was the kind of joy only a true football fan will know. As the 3pm deadline for the ticket counter to open approached, a few people, around 25 had queued up behind us. It included a young Spanish guy from Granada, Javi, who was studying to be a doctor in Prague. He too joined in the conversation (thankfully he spoke English) and we really hit it off well talking about our favorite team, Spain.

The ticket counters opened and we got our tickets within minutes. I was shocked that I got the tickets for Rs.1,500! When I had checked online, the least that was available was 200 pounds (16,000 rupees!). Teary eyed, I smelled the ticket, ran my fingers over it, read and re-read it – yes it was real! YES, I was going to watch Spain LIVE! And a humongous bonus was a free pass to a training session later that evening. I was in seventh heaven.

I took an extended route back to the hostel to see some of Prague’s sights, but I don’t quite remember going wow with anything, I was too pre-occupied in my head with what was going to transpire in the evening at the training session. I reached the hostel, took a shower, and was ready to go back to the stadium. I met Anna on the way for a drink – we’d connected on Couchsurfing and she gave me some tips on what to check out the next day, and helped me on my way into a bus which would take me directly to the stadium.

Then came the big moment. I walked into the stadium, 7pm, the smallish crowd cheering the Spanish team coming on to the field for a 1 hour training session. I was there. I walked down almost to the touchline and grabbed a seat. Xavi, Silva, Villa and Mata started whipping crosses for the likes of Torres & Puyol to head into goal where the giant figure of St.Iker was diving around. All this, just 20 feet away. I had tears in my eyes. No jokes. This was really a dream come true. It had been a great trip so far, but I could easily give up anything that I did, or anything that I was going to do, whatever screw-up could happen on the remainder of the trip – NOTHING was going to take away this moment. I had missed going to the World Cup in South Africa after having everything booked, and I had come to Prague with a singular goal, of watching Spain play.

The session was reminding me of my endless days of playing Football Manager. I could allocate time to different kinds of training sessions, crossing, 5 x 5, heading, etc etc., all of it was happening in front of my eyes. They switched to a half-pitch game with about 8 vs 8. David Villa was on fire, scoring goals from impossible angles. They were having an absolute ball. Torres was chugging along rather lifelessly and it was really sad to see a striker whom I’d admired so much in his Athletico days to be reduced to this. Xavi was clinical as usual, passing through an impossible maze of players and making goals out of thin air. The game went on for about 25 minutes. Intense running, close passing and breathtaking finishing! And after this tiring game, they all came to the centre of the pitch and started doing push-ups, 50 of them at a stretch. It was super-human. I can barely manage 10, and although I know I’m not exactly the benchmark on fitness, to do what these guys were doing and that too after THAT kind of a game, it was truly out of this world.

Xavi and Valdes concluded the session by doing some free kicks and brilliant diving saves, respectively. I could scarcely believe what I had witnessed, that too at such close quarters.

As the training session closed out, I decided to walk all the way back to the hostel. Must have been a 5km walk, at least! But the weather was perfect (around 14-15 °C), and the excitement of watching the training session was pumping energy to the last little toe in my body. I stopped for dinner at a cool looking restaurant close to the business area, and reached the hostel for my warm bed and a long-overdue sleep!

Day 2 in Prague was going to be a typical walk through the city, over the famous Charle’s bridge and up the hill to Prague Castle. I was a bit apprehensive about the weather as the forecast said 8°C and rain! I picked up all my warm clothes, as usual and left by walk first for the station. The walk from Hostel Elf to the station via on old, now-unused tramway was particularly memorable. There was absolutely nobody around and I wondered to myself as most Indian tourists in Europe would (where are all the people!?). It’s ironic that most foreign tourists in India find peace when they come to ‘crowded’ India, and Indian tourists abroad find it peaceful, coz there’s no noise & crowds!

I dropped my luggage off at the station, stored safely in a locker for the equivalent of Rs. 600/- for 24 hours. Quite expensive!

The walk through the city, Charles’ bridge, Old town & up to the castle was thoroughly enjoyable, and I recommend it highly for anybody wanting to truly see Prague. It’s a small city and it wouldn’t take more than a day to cover all the main sights on foot.

The weather was surprisingly holding up, no rain and no chilly breeze! In fact the sun was out, and I was even able to spend an hour in a random garden soaking in the heat and clicking photographs of an equally random statue in that garden.

I reached the castle right on time for the customary changing of guards and somehow found myself on the other side of all the action. There was a crowd waiting at the gate, and I was actually inside the castle walking along with these guards who were marching out to be replace the ones waiting at the gate. Good fun! The castle itself was beautiful and imposing, but I left it to another day to go exploring inside it. I had a game to catch! :)

I trotted along to the stadium a good hour and a half before kick-off, and as I had become habituated to, there wasn’t a damn soul in sight… Just a few policemen with sniffer dogs walking around in the distance! As I waited, a bunch of loud fans in Czech overalls came in, shouting, singing and generally having a good time of it. The crowd was slowly starting to build. Lots of dads with their sons, lots of young college groups and not to mention a ton of good-looking women, unquestionably there to Czech out their footballers!

As they opened the gates, my eyes went over to the back side of my ticket, which I had thus far guarded like Frodo guarding The One Ring. And what I saw sent shivers down my spine. In a big, bold sign, there was a camera with a cross on it. And I was carrying my HUGE DSLR Canon 500D with me. A deluge of thoughts flooded my mind:

“How the HELL did you miss seeing that on the ticket!? You should have seen it before! You could have easily left the camera in the locker at the station. You came here to watch a game, not to click photographs, what were you thinking!??”

My heart sank. I couldn’t believe I was soon going to be asked to step aside, leave the camera someplace, or worse still, go and keep the camera back at the station, and then come and watch the game. I moved up towards the gate, and moved my ticket over the scanner so that it screeched open.

Heart pounding.

I managed a smile at the security guard who took a long, hard look at the camera. All my prayers of all my mornings to that date would have to help conjure some spell on that guy to make him not notice the obvious camera in my hand.

He looked at me from head to toe, and then, without a moment’s notice, waved me IN, with a smile, and, what’s more, an “Enjoy the game!”

Relief... Ecstasy.

I was in! I went down to the seat, right behind the goal. The players were coming out for their warm-up sessions.

For the next 2 hours, I was under their spell. As Xavi & co ran circles around the Czech defense, I watched smitten, by the symphony of the beautiful game.

I left at the 80^th minute, to avoid the crowd and to get to the station on time. On time for my 3-train journey to Krakow, Poland.

Eurotrip 2.0: Day 3,4,5 - Berlin!

The train from Munich to Berlin was a fairly comfortable one. About 60 euros for a sleeper ride that was about 10 hours. We deliberately took a train that takes longer so we could sleep more. As the train started to approach Berlin, I remember some rather foggy bogs and horror-movie-set like dark, empty fields. Fingers crossed, hoping for bright & sunny weather in Berlin!

Berlin Hauptbahnhof (the main train station) though was anything but dark - a 5-floor mega structure with trains coming in and leaving at different levels, bustling eating places with people stuffing themselves with breakfast, and best of all, a glass front façade that helped the sunlight spectacularly illuminate the entire building!

We had booked ourselves into Wombats Hostel, which one of Berlin’s best rated ones. It was indeed impressive with a classy yet cool reception area, 6 floors worth of clean rooms and a nice bar on the 7^th. The folks at the reception were quite resourceful and had answers to pretty much all our queries.

The plan for the day was to do a ‘Free’ Walking tour of the city. We took a day pass for 2-5 people for ~15 euros so we could use any train or bus for the entire day upto 3am the next day. Only later did we realize that we could have taken a 3-day pass for much less and saved some moolah.

The ‘Free’ tour is actually free, but the guide calls out quite clearly that they ‘work on a tips-only’ basis and you’re pretty much ‘supposed to’ give a tip at the end of the tour. The group size is about 25 people, and a 5 euro per head tip means that’s a cool 100-150 euros for our ‘free-tour guide’ for 4 hours of walking and talking stories about each monument! Of course you could just give him 2 euros at the end of it, but wanting to demolish images of ‘chindi’ Indian tourists, the three of us paid a massive grand total of 15 euros. The trip also serves as segue for several ‘paid’ trips that our guide never failed to mention once every 20 minutes.

How was the tour? Well, it was alrightish, led by a humorous guy named Sebastian, who spoke QUITE a bit! We started with the BrandenburgerTor at Paris Platz - A nice ‘little’ gate on a nice little square with the Goddess of Victory (formerly Goddess of Peace) on top of it. It was the anniversary of the re-unification of East & West Germany and there were bands playing behind the gate which was not open to the public on that morning. Right next to the Paris Platz is the hotel where Micheal Jackson famously held out his son from the balcony. Room rents can go up to 15,000 euros a night. I mean, really? It doesn’t even have like a stunning view, duh!

Then there was the Jewish memorial, a photo of a soldier jumping over the Berlin ‘wall’, a car park which was formerly where Hitler’s quarters were, a memorial to the dead ‘sons’ in the war (both the Jews who were massacred as well as the soldiers of Hitler’s army – lives lost, are lives lost, I really liked the concept), Charlie checkpoint, a gay king’s palace, and that of his brother’s, a couple of museums and a restaurant where we had a snack break. Sebastian told us some interesting stories behind every monument/landmark/non-landmark and since I wasn’t exactly taking notes, I hardly remember any of it. But it was fun while it lasted.

The sun was really beginning to belt down and Sebastian’s humor was starting to turn into a bit of a rant. We wished it was over sooner rather than later and finally we got done by around 3. I was quite famished, and once done, we rushed to the nearest restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet and helped ourselves to a sumptuous meal.

We headed back to the hostel, got some rest, took a shower and headed back out for dinner. Berlin has innumerable good restaurants and bars to choose from and we didn’t go too far from our hostel, which itself is in quite a good area, and had a good meal. With me trying to keep off meat, it was usually a pasta or, at most, a fish dish that would be on the menu, with always a new beer to try. I found a particular liking to the taste of the dark beers and quite enjoyed sampling them at every meal (Yes, quite the ‘drunkard’ I was).

Berlin’s pubs are deserted till about 11, or so said many sources, so we drifted into one just after 12. It was called White Trash and was just a 2 minute walk from our hostel. Some really random music was on, and they for some reason I will never understand, had a screen showing some soft porn. We had a beer each and moved on to another place. Turned out later it was actually a café… The next place, was actually a pub with college-goers dancing away to glory completely out of sync with the music. I looked at them and went “Hahhaha! Idiots!”, at the same time realizing that I was laughing at myself 3-4 years ago doing the exact same thing J. The beer continued to flow, and after I was sufficiently sleepy, I made a beeline for the hostel and fell into a deep slumber almost just before my head hit the pillow.

The next morning started with the project of finding an awesome breakfast place. Out came the Lonely Planet Guide 2008 and we were off on this walk. And we walked, and walked, and walked. We must have gone up and down the same street some 7 times I think. Finally we figured the place had closed down. After all, it was the 2008 edition of the book, and the recession had since come and not quite gone! So we ended up having breakfast at around 12, and it was a cheese and salmon overload as our hungry stomachs gorged on anything in sight!

Then, while the ladies took a tour of this place, I took a 2 hour nap on the grass under the sun, contemplating the meaning of life & such. It was also the moment when I realized I should be writing my blog entries lest I forget what all has happened. So I headed back to Wombats to write this blog and the ladies went off to see a Nazi concentration camp! I had no intentions of doing that; it was way too creepy for me!

Dinner & drinks was further away from the hostel this time, in a place called Kurfurstenstrasse (I hope I got that spelling somewhat close to what it is)! We walked out of the station and felt quite out of place, as the place was teeming with ‘escorts’ just standing pretty much in the middle of the road. We walked for about 10 minutes to get to our destination – Einstein Café. The desserts were outta the world and we filled our tummies with unlimited quantities of raisins, ice-creams, and such. Not very friendly on the pocket, but I guess it was worth the walk.

We then headed up to catch a glimpse of the Reichstag by night. It is a truly imposing structure and has a huge open garden right in front of it. This is what I loved about almost all the buildings in Berlin – they were huge, magnificent, built by probably fairly megalomaniacal rulers, and they completely and utterly dominated the surroundings they were in. And they stood in complete contrast to the drab, aesthetically not-so-pleasing buildings of Capitalist backgrounds in the Western half of the city.

That was end of day 2 and day 3 was going to be a trip up to Potsdam, about 1 hour from Berlin to see a pretty little castle. I wasn’t too impressed with the place, but it was a bright, sunny day and good time to just soak in the atmosphere. We came back the hostel sometime in the evening and our stay in Berlin was about to come to an end. But not before we had made the long walk along the East End Gallery which has some really cool paintings on the last remaining piece of the famed Berlin Wall. It was an absolute delight to walk this stretch at night (it was about 9 pm), with absolutely no one around and a cool breeze floating around. I also saw my first spots of rain on this walk and I guess it was a sign that winter was just round the corner. My gloves, monkey cap and jacket were about to come in really handy in Prague & Krakow!

The train to Prague was at 5 in the morning and despite my relative lack of sleep in the days before, I was up, excited and wide awake in wonder as the train rolled by mountains and rivers and forests and about the most awesome train ride one could ever have!!

Eurotrip 2.0: Day 1,2 - Munich Oktoberfest!

My train to Munich from Darmstadt was slated to leave at 8.37am and reach in 3 hours and 37 minutes. Talk about being sticklers for time!! It’s a wonder the Germans don’t add seconds as well to their timings! I didn’t have a reservation (as is the case usually for anyone traveling by the Deutsche Bahn as its not really ever ‘full’), so 1 hour into the journey a whole bunch of people were standing as they had quite clearly overbooked the train. I went past the Hockenheim station which reminded me of the Hockenheim race track that I so used to love (driving on my F1 2000 PC Game) for the endless straights!

As the train climbed towards Munich, the beautiful German countryside was on full display! Bathed in sunshine (probably for the last time in quite a few months), the pine forests and agricultural fields rolled by…

The entry into Munich station was fairly undramatic, and it looked like a cleaner version of CST station (!!) at around 5 in the evening on a weekday. The rush was of course for the last summer weekend and the last 2 days of the OktoberFest!!

By the time I stopped at the tourist info shop, bought my train tickets and made it to the hotel, it was nearly 3pm! Its best to take a day ride ticket in Munich, and if traveling in a group a group day ticket for 2-5 persons (9.80 euros). But after 2 days of roaming around I didn’t remember anybody asking for the ticket. I’d imagine the adventurous ones would opt not to buy one or buy a cheaper one and pass it off as another.

Once Richa & Tanvi were also in and ready, Munich awaited!

Saturday 4.30pm, and the agenda was quite clear. Get into the Oktoberfest and get out on Sunday morning. The crowd, as we reached the ‘English Gardens’ was maddening! The Oktoberfest has several ‘tents’ and each tent can house more than 2-3000 people I’m sure…! There’s the usual fare of giant ferris wheels and rides which will make your stomach really woosie, but ALL of that was to be for *after* of course!

As we excitedly got into the line of one of the tents, after about 1 hour of waiting, we realized something was amiss. The line wasn’t moving, and the 2-3 people that were getting in in about every 10 minutes were all holding some tickets!! This was NOT good news. Mustering courage to go and talk to a massive guard, we asked him what the scene was? And when were we going to get in? He replied, in typically curt, to the point, economical thickly German-accented English “NEXT YEAR.”… I was shocked! Surely there’s not SO much of a crowd that they can’t let people in!?! Tent after tent it was the same story. Hordes of people queuing up only to realize that they weren’t going to get in! I sensed the making of a disaster, that I went allll the way to Munich and did not get into the Oktoberfest!!

Someone suggested that our best bet was to come and queue up early next morning. Disheartened, but with the determination to not go back ‘empty handed’, we swore to try our luck again the next day. But before that we still had the entire evening to walk around the main Marineplatz area of Munich. Its absolutely littered with cafes and bars and people are out having a fantastic time. We had a relaxed sit-down drink followed by dinner. By the time we headed back to the hotel, it was nearly 2am and the early morning next morning looked ominously impossible!

My jetlag was luckily still not completely gone, and I woke up sprightly as a prairie dog on a savannah morning, at 6 a.m! After several minutes of pestering so that everyone was up, we finally got ready and were out by 7.30! It was 8.15 by the time we reached, and the crowd in the train just made my heart beat that bit quicker. It was going to be touch & go…! As we entered the festival grounds, the difference versus last evening was quite clear. The crowd was much lesser, but there were huuuuuge lines in front of EACH tent. We picked the first one and just joined it. Fingers crossed. We waited for about 15 minutes, and then there was a huge collective roar. The gates were open… What was going to happen? Were they going to ask for tickets? Were we going to go back ‘dry’ from the OktoberFest???

Within 2 minutes, literally, the entire line had emptied out into one of the biggest tents you will ever see. With rows upon rows of tables & chairs, much like a school mess!

And we were IN!

No questions asked.

We just went and grabbed the seat closest to the entrance and swore never to let go! After about a 10 minute wait, the band started, to a thunderous roar from the crowd!

The waitresses in their Bavarian dresses swarmed in with the first round of stuff to eat before the beer. White sausages are supposed to be the specialty but I didn’t quite feel up to trying one. I got more of the salty vegetarian stuff and a fish sandwich.

And then, came the beer. In tall glasses of 1 litre each, with a waitress carrying upto 6-7 at a time! ‘Prost!!’ we shouted, and off the mark we went! Within a few minutes, we witnessed our first ‘entertainer’.

So basically, anyone can just stand up on his table and announce to the rest of the crowd that he’s going to go ahead and down his, or her, beer in a single go! Luckily the first one to do it was sitting right next table to us, and as he started, the roar from the crowd was unbelievable! As he swiftly gurgled down his 1 litre (mega-) glass, the crowd went ballistic! THIS is what I had come for. NOT for the 400 different kinds of beer. NOT to see the Bavarian women (well ok, a bit, yes :P ).

And then another went up and downed one. The cheers kept getting bigger. The loudest ones were, of course, reserved for the women. There were a couple of guys who also lost their way mid way and they were greeted with laughs and boos. I’d imagine these people would be pretty scarred like for life! J Surely, their friends would continue to take their case for some time to come!

Now the beer was flowing and this is where my memory starts to fail me. The period from the end of the 2^nd litre of beer to lunch at 4pm is QUITE hazy. I remember, hmm, lets see, the pavement…, the metro ride…, and an inordinately long time in some toilet.

Then there was the BMW Museum and the hugely impressive OlympikStadion! On a clearer head day, I’d probably have been able to appreciate these EVEN more than I ended up doing. That said, Munich left me with some fond, fond memories.

Next stop, Berlin!

Eurotrip 2.0 : Day -3,-2,-1 - Frankfurt & Darmstadt

As my flight touched down at Frankfurt airport, there was almost a sense of déjà vu. Bright sunshine reflected off the humongous metallic building. It seemed for a moment that I was at the Hyderabad airport. (Bummer! :D) But that sense quickly disappeared as the size of the airport dawned upon me. The flight bays were there far & wide into the distance. As I marveled at the sheer scale of things, the lack of creativity, colour and focus on function over form was also immediately apparent. A 7-foot-tall police officer then stopped me (being one of the very few non-German/non-EU looking people coming out) and checked my visa and waved me on. Traveling without check-in baggage was a huge bonus as I was out of the airport in less than 15 minutes.

My pickup was waiting for me and it was a nice and BIG Audi with a pleasant driver. We were on the Autobahn towards Basel in no time, and the car zipped along at 150+ km/hr without the slightest complaint from the engine or the suspension. A right turn to Darmstadt off of the Autobahn and the ride was over in less than 20 minutes.

There was time to kill till the evening and I had a drink and went for a walk. The city was quite minimalistic with hardly any people around, and some rather boring looking buildings. I walked up to the central ‘platz’, as squares, I took it, are called in Germany. When you look at some of these squares in Germany you feel as though they really didn’t have any space constraints when they built them. Very unlike Bombay, and quite similar in fact to New Delhi.

Dinner & jet-lag induced sleep and early wake-up later, the next two days of meeting went by in no time.

On an evening walk on the 2^nd day, I stumbled upon the railway station and promptly booked my ticket to Munich! Oktoberfest awaited! :-)

Varkala, and the 'follow the monsoon' holiday

Kerala undoubtedly has some of the best places to visit in the country. But you go at the wrong time, and you could be in for a bit of a shock. Its quite clear that the best time to visit Kerala is from October to February. The weather's fantastic, the seas are calm, there's a festive atmosphere all round and the tourism industry's in top gear. But all this also means that the rush is near maddening, the hotel rates are pretty expensive and its quite challenging to find that quiet corner.

The next best time to go to Kerala is during the monsoons. I'd guess this is a great time for non-touristy couples to go there. The rain is obviously incessant and traveling a big problem. The only thing you do is sit in the room, sip hot chai, and watch the weather fog the windows. There'd be plenty of places offering rooms with a view, and, at throwaway prices. I'd bet there are quite a few people who'd want exactly that.

The summer's a real no-no, hot, humid & sticky. But then there's this period, between summer & the rains when things can get quite interesting.

I went to Varkala in the last week of May. We were to have a meeting there starting on a Monday. It was that time of the year... enduv summer and beginning of the monsoon. And I didn't want to catch either of them in full flow. Neither a hot Kerala summer day, nor a typical monsoon 'downpour', that could last the weekend.

I checked up the weather report and it said 'Chance of showers'! That pretty much meant that Kerala was going to receive its first rains that weekend!

There's something about that first shower after a long, hot summer.

The smell of fresh soil, the breeze caressing your face, the wind buzzing in your ears and of course, the water cooling the surface of your skin, as if from within.

GK & I arrived to a perfect Saturday afternoon, with a slight nip in the air and the warm sun beating down. A 1-hour or so cab ride from Trivandrum airport brought me to Varkala. GK was already there, after taking a rather fortuitous train journey from Coimbatore to Quilon (Kollam) where he missed his original train and somehow found a special train where he was the only person in the whole compartment!

The cab had been running along the coast for a while, and before I knew it, I was in Varkala. Going past the entrance of the city, I headed for the cliff & helipad, which is where all the action was! As the cab came out of the city and to the helipad, I had my first of several 'wohhhhhhhhhooo' moments in Varkala. On top of a hill top with a sheer steep cliff-face overlooking the mighty Arabian Sea with sunlight shimmering off the glistening water! I couldn't wait to drop off my bags in a room and head straight for a swim!

Hotels are a-plenty on both the North & South cliffs. I found the North cliff to be better off, in terms of view, price, general eating places etc.

Swimming just before the monsoons is quite risky and the coastguard (who're usually around) never let anybody venture too far deep. The water was quite choppy and I was circumspect throughout. Its a very different feeling, swimming in the sea when rain's just round the corner; you can almost tell that the sea knows there's a storm brewing somewhere far out and she keeps dropping these hints. There'd be this big wave from time to time, and it'll pull back just as quickly. Its exciting and scary at the same time!

After an evening swim, we headed back to our hotel which was bang in the centre of the North cliff. As dusk approached, so did the first signs of dark clouds and loud claps of thunder. The breeze picked up considerably, and before we knew it, the first monsoon downpour was absolutely drenching the landscape.

I think it must have rained all night. We awoke to a brilliant sunny morning with few clouds in sight. While having breakfast, our waiter excitedly pointed out a group of dolphins swimming in the ocean. It was my first sighting of dolphins free in the wild, and it was an exhilarating experience, despite the fact that they were a good 200-300 meters from shore.

The rest of the gang joined in during the day (Sunday), and brought with them the full wrath of the monsoon, as the rains plundered the coast. We didn't have much to do until Monday morning, when we made our way to Kovalam, for the national meeting.

--

This trip had me thinking about a 'Follow the monsoon' trip, from the South to the North, as the monsoon broke across the country. Starting end of May in Kerala, right up to the first weeks of July up say, in Jammu. It'd be a nice trip to make. Getting to places just before the rains lash, joining people in becoming kids as they celebrate the end of summer...

(Completing this post exactly a year after I started it... Procrastination. Says the critical half. Combined with loads of work, says the other, lazy half, of my little head).

Books, short ones

A much needed break, time with family, time to ponder & time to write (a little; for this one, type on the cell-phone actually)...! Its about time I caught up on my average # posts/year.

Having my first go on the Shortest Books series... can't remember where I read them first (RD perhaps?). They always cracked me up good.

So here's a list of some of the Shortest Books you'll ever read...

• Quick Speeches - Atal Bihari Vajpayee

• Public Image Management - Suresh Kalmadi

• Burnout Explained - Sachin Tendulkar

• All Men Are Born Equal - Jose Mourinho

• Complete Guide To Short Haircuts - Abdul Kalam

• Staying Out Of Controversies That Make Headlines Only In India - Salman Rushdie

• Behaving Responsibly - Lindsay Lohan

• All Things Natural - Pamela Anderson

• Indian Accent Made Easy - Katrina Kaif

• Impossible - Rajnikanth

• Conservatism - Hugh Hefner

• Avoiding Wedgies While Playing Tennis - Rafael Nadal

• How To Quit Smoking - Shah Rukh Khan

• Choosing Your Brands - Amitabh Bachchan

• Life Outside Father's Shadow - Abhishek Bachchan

• Clean Tackling - Nigel De Jong
  

• Sportsmanship - Didier Drogba

• Managing World Cup Campaigns - Raymond Domenech

• Writing Short-Stories - JK Rowling, Co-Authored By JRR Tolkien

• Winning Tosses: Flip By Flip Guide - MS Dhoni

• Early to bed & early to rise (Anonymous Spaniard)

• Culinary delights without wine or cheese (Anonymous Frenchie)

• A warm, bright, sunny, happy day (Anonymous Englishman)

• Bland foods: The complete guide (Anonymous Indian)

• How To Get Rid Of VVS - Ricky Ponting

Feel free to add...!

Facebook People

There comes a time in peoples lives when they ask themselves the question; "WHO AM I?!".

They're thinking and thinking... agonizing... and the answer just starts taking shape... They're close...

But then laziness takes over, and they end up wanting other people to tell them who they are. OR, they want others to start thinking about them as what they want themselves to be.

And, given that pretty much everyone is on facebook these days, it all begins with 'What do others (read 'friends on facebook') think of me?' OR 'Hmmm... Cunning plan... so if I do this, people will start thinking that I am like this... Cunning plan indeed.'

--


The Addict

• Obsessive, compulsive facebooker. Feels the urge to update anything and everything.
• Could be an absolute newbie who’s just wowed by facebook, or an old-timer with no social life, or too much of a social life and wanting to advertise it; or, someone who has an opinion on everything related or unrelated to all under the sun, and even over it (usually a bong :P )
• Typical status update: “Saw a plane in the sky… awesome!!!”

The Reformist

• Believes in facebook as the medium to air his/her voices on subjects of critical importance to humanity.
• Actually covertly using facebooking as a medium to show the world what a super brain s/he is.
• Typical status update: “The recent tree-felling in Costa Rica has serious implications on atmospheric temperature half-way round the world. With global warming now becoming a burning issue, I feel it is time to………” Aaaaaahhhhhh zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…….

The Gamer

• The sole reason for the Gamer’s existence is to devour all facebook games.
• They have separate game facebook id’s which become their regular id’s coz they never use their regular ‘regular’ id’s!
• They have 1000+ friends, NONE of whom they’ve ever met for real
• Typical status update: “Just bought a Bazooka and walloped Skeleton-Man’s a** … on Mafia Wars”

The Video Dude(tte)

• Spends half the day on Youtube, and the other half in sharing those videos on facebook! From bloopers, to old songs, to ‘OMG!!’ & ‘LOL!!’ videos, they’re all there in procession
• They have a strong inclination to ‘like’ and comment on their own video posts
• Typical status update: “Tooooooooooooo funny… Hahahaha!”

The Quote-er

• Perpetually buried in reams of quotes, or so it seems!
• Every other status message is a quote, from JFK, to Sallu in the latest flick. They could probably write a book of quotes, stolen of course!
• Typical status update: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country …!”

The Emotion-er

• Always either majorly whining, or, completely over the moon happy, about something
• These extreme emotions find their way on to their facebook pages and end up being commented upon by
• Typical status update: “Feelin’ sad coz I’d asked my brother to get me a Snickers, but he got me Kit Kat instead :((( ”

The Birthday-Wisher

• At any given point in time, 7 out of their last 10 updates would be writing on walls of people wishing them a happy birthday
• For this, obviously you need to have at least a 1000 people on your friend list first. That makes it 3 birthdays a day on an average. Sometimes you’ll find them posting twice to the same person wishing them happy birthday!
• Typical status update: xx --> yy “Heyy! Happy birthday! Long time.. How are you? Where are you these days?!”

The Like-er

• Too lazy to comment; instead take the easy way out by ‘Like’-ing pretty much anything and everything that comes their way – photos, comments on photos, links, quotes, jokes, and random like pages like ‘I love my Mom’
• Could make thousands of dollars a month if they take up an ad-clicking job instead which pays on number of clicks per day!
• Typical status update: No status updates... but their profile will show that they have 746 likes

The PDA-er

• Love birds who can’t get enough of each other off facebook, so, on facebook they fill each-others walls with links to songs, photos, vacation ideas, lovey-dovey wall-posts and general PDAs
• May have entire conversations as comments within a span of 3 minutes
• Typical status update: “Thinkin’ about you… and smiling! : )))) ”

The Shape-shifter

• Characterized by a photo change every other day. From the corner of their left eye, to that cartoon pic they found so funny – anything could end up as the profile pic!
• It’s that itchy feeling they get that (facebook) things aren’t happening, not enough updates, everything looks the same, et cetera, et cetera.
• Typical status update: “xx changed their profile picture” … followed by a few comments on how great the new pic is.

The Tagger

• They have 960 photos of them on facebook. And they continue getting themselves clicked and tagged. Even on photos where they’re not there!
• They also go around tagging other people in photos that they may or may not be present
• Typical status update: “yy just tagged themselves in the album ‘Awesommmeee Friday nite partyy!’”

The “I’m too busy for facebook”-er

• Their reason for existence on facebook is rather questionable. They never have ANY activity on their accounts, no likes, no comments, they don’t even let other people write on their walls
• The only thing you see on their walls is that they’ve accepted 23 friend requests in a go, and 11 a few weeks before that, etc etc.!
• Typical status update: “xx is now friends with yy and 17 other people”

The Analyser

• They’re the ones who think they’re too cool / busy to be seen on facebook too regularly. In actuality, they spend hours and hours poring over what others are upto.
• Every once in a while they’ll have a comment here, and a like there, but the whole idea is to ‘look busy and yet somehow being able to find the time to make enough appearances on facebook’
• Typical status update: “xx added a new note: ‘Facebook people’”

(Disclaimer: Of course all of this was strictly for reading pleasure! Don’t automatically stereotype yourself; or worse, start wanting to kill me for telling you who you are or want to be. That's a question that only you can answer :))

PS - Thanks to Harshita, & Sharma for their valuable inputs on this post :-D

Hampi

There's enough and more good stuff that I had heard and read about Hampi. Several people, including my Dad (who had been there exactly 42 years ago!) had told me that it was without doubt, a MUST SEE. It had once been the capital of the great Vijaynagar Empire stretching across current day Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and even a part of Orissa!! Capital of a land mass and kingdom that big - now that really must have been grand.

On the flip-side, I wasn't too excited by the photographs I saw online. They didn't 'look' as grand as the description of the place. It was just brown all around and conveyed a middle of the desert feel to it!

So when I unexpectedly found myself in Hyderabad on a Thursday with a 3-day weekend approaching, Hampi suddenly was in contention! Being the first week of April, I was a little apprehensive that the heat will be too much. The summer had not yet reared its head in Hyderabad, but Hampi, being further south was bound to be warmer. Then, there was, the very attractive, option of going to Tadoba Tiger Reserve.

But in a fit of excitement after a call with my Dad (who reiterated that I go there), I booked myself on a very circuitous route to Hampi. Buses were full to every imaginable place from Hyderabad (being the long weekend).

I found a single ticket on a 10pm bus to Ananthapur. I had to get down at Gooty at 5am. Somehow, I woke up at the right time (just 3 mins before my alarm went off!) and got down from the bus on a rather stranded area about 100 meters from the APSRTC bus-stand. At the bus stand, there were signs of civilization though, and my next bus was to be to Guntakal. I waited for one of my DSEs (P&G salesman), to arrive and guide me, although it would have be quite alright even without him!

We took the short bus ride to Guntakal where there's a 7am or so train to Bellary. The train ride was a bittuva party with a bunch of college kids chattering away and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Oldies with short fuses were having their go at them, but to no avail of course!

A very dusty Bellary, and a short walk to the bus stand later, I found myself on a bus to Hospet. Hospet was to be my base for the visit, as I wasn't sure I could get a place to stay in Hampi. I later found out that there were decent places in Hampi as well, but staying in Hospet at Hotel Malligi was pretty comfy.
A bath and brunch, and I was off. The rick ride to Hampi was quite a surprise. The brown and dusty Hospet quickly gave way to an oasis full of green palm trees and thick folige! And before I knew it I was in Hampi!

As I entered the historic city, the rickshaw sped by gigantic ruins and led me right into the colourful market, which was not exactly bustling with activity. True enough, Friday was a local holiday, and hence most of the market was empty.

I looked up to see the imposing Main Tower of the Virupaksha temple standing before me. It was visible from a distance itself, and its something that can never come out true to its size and grandeur in a photograph!
I decided to take a walk round the temple. Like most temples in the South, it had some intricate art-work, with each slab telling a story of its own. One could spend months discovering Hampi, I was told, and this is why... each structure had a lot of thought behind it and the place was spread over some 30 sq. miles with tens of buildings!

The sun had started blazing down, and my plan was to get myself a motorbike to go around. For about 500 rupees for 2 days, I got myself a nice Honda CBZ (I think it was). After the longish walk round the temple, I made my way back to the market for the bike.

On my way into the city in the rick, I had picked a detailed map of the city and also spoken to a guide, who claimed to be a government appointed one, but his license had expired! I informed him that I was about to get a bike and then he could take me round the place. I was a bit skeptical if this guy knew anything, but in the end it turned out to be a great decision! This guy had been a guide for over 15 years and knew Russian, French, German, apart from English, Telugu, Hindi & Tamil! His fees, 400 rupees for the entire day was a steal!!! The idea for the day was to take the help of the guide and cover as much as possible, and then the next day, I'd come back and visit the ones that interested me the most.

I took the bike and headed to pick up my guide. On the way I could see quite a few totally exhausted, burnt red, foreign tourists - mostly Japanese, on foot or bicycles. It was only going to get hotter, I thought to myself... these folks were in for a tough day! I was quite comfortable of course on the bike with the breeze providing the cooling. There were quite a few rickshaws which were ferrying tourists around the city. This is probably the worst way to see the city as these guys are in a hurry, and also don't know anything about the history of the place. So you'd probably end up being shown fewer places and also not quite knowing what to see there.

The first stop was (not surprisingly), a Ganesh Temple. Standing on top of one of the many hills, it had a great view of the city and the Main Temple. Each pillar had different carvings, saying their own stories, about Rama, Krishna and n number of Gods! One could literally spend hours and even days here deciphering each story. The place gave me a strong positive vibe which I really liked, although the temple itself had stopped being a place of worship since the city was pillaged by invaders.

Then started a 3-hour flyby of almost all the monuments.. the Ugra Narasimha, the humongous sister stones, the Lotus mahal, Queen's bath, stunning Hazara-rama temple, the elephant stables, stone chariot, the ancient marketplace - it was almost dizzying!! At each monument, my guide would stop to give me a story and some weird, usually comical, fact! I would never know how much of it was 100% true, but I sure did love it!

The last stop for the day was Sunset Point. No prizes for guessing what one could see there. A bunch of tourists had gathered to watch the sunset and it was very very quiet and peaceful. The cool breeze flowing across the Tungabhadra with the cool heat of the brilliant setting sun helped form a surreal atmosphere. The golden monuments and hills simmering in the horizon will remain an unforgettable sight!

No trip to Hampi is complete without a visit to the Mango Tree... This restaurant, set on the banks of the Tungabhadra, has a nice relaxed feel to it, and serves some good food too..! I had a nice supper/dinner there, before a starry night drive back to Hospet. I actually turned off the headlight for a few seconds on that drive. A bit scary, but the night sky was just like a million diamonds sprinkled on a black velvet cloth!

Back at Hotel Malligi, I caught up on some football highlights from last weekend, and the preview show for the forthcoming weekend before absolutely crashing flat on the bed!

Next morning was going to be an early one. A short drive to the Tungabhadra Dam, breakfast and then back to Hampi, was the plan.
The dam is colossal. There's also a splendidly maintained deer park and garden right on the other side which reminded me of some gardens I'd seen in France & England. It was almost too perfect to be Indian!!

Then I went back to Hampi... Being a Saturday, the market was bustling with activity and tourists from all over. I had decided to go back to the Hazara Rama temple, Pushkarani & Mahanavami Dibba for a closer look. These places had really caught my eye the previous day and I just had to go back to get a better feel of them. It was easy for me to imagine how the expansive Hazara Rama temple would have been flooded with ornaments and jewels and thronged by devotees. The Mahanavami Dibba gave a super view of the city. Its difficult, standing atop this thing, not to feel like a king looking upon his kingdom. The Lotus Mahal was intriguing with its 'secular' architecture - the first that I have ever seen, with Islamic, Hindu & Jain influences in different parts of the building. That was the strength of the Vijayanagar kingdom... Everyone was equal, no caste, colour or creed. But sadly, even this Utopian society saw its downfall to the hands of plunderers... Hampi is a gentle reminder that even the best of things see their end, and the cycle of life continues...

A lazy 2-hour late-lunch (at Mango Tree) later I had had a stomach full, of Hampi. An evening bus from Bellary was to take me back directly to Hyderabad where I could relax and recount the last two days of time-traveling that I did...

What struck me in Hampi was the sheer scale of everything. And the whole place is stuck in a time-warp. It reminds me why I cant for the love of God feel anything in a museum.. They're just not there with all the jazzy lighting and elaborate write-ups. At Hampi, you're there, walking amongst the kings and queens, in a trance, surrounded by elephants and a thousand horses and bustling colourful markets. The magic of this place has to be seen, has to be felt, has to be lived.

The Matrix

Its something so many people, at least in my friend circle, seem to be obsessed with these days. Its also something that always brought a smile to my face because I knew, and I believed, it wouldn't ever bother me. I was WRONG!!

2006. Bangalore. My roomie & I used to go for dinner. There was this small place at BTM Layout 2nd phase, where we'd get nice steaming hot chappatis and curry. To watch that butter floating on the chappati and melt before my very eyes before I tore and gobbled it up with a generous helping of the curry... ahh absolute bliss.

My friend on the other hand, would have dry chappatis, exactly 2 of them, and wait for me to finish.

One day I had 12. The average was around 8.

"HOW!!!??" he would ask aloud. "How can you have 12 butter rotis and not put on even a gram of weight, while I, after having just 2 rotis and gymming for 1 hour still put on a kilo in no time!!!!??!"

I felt blessed. People around me had to make so much of an effort to even maintain their weight. And all the sacrifices! No butter in chappatis! No ice-cream with gulab jamun! And here I was, blissfully eating away to glory, with not a worry as to what I eat, how much I eat or when I eat!

Those, were the days.

All was well, until December '09. That was a month I put on (a staggering) 5kgs. For some relative measure, that was 9% of my body weight! (Boy I love using News Channely words like 'staggering' :-P)

I knew my lack of sport after I started work was making me unfit, but I was okay as long as I was thin. But the 'launch of the paunch', as I call it, got me a bit concerned. That's when, in a conversation with a colleague, I hit upon the Fit-Fat matrix...

One usually starts out at the centre, or even on the FIT side. (Remember babies doing backflips, putting their feet in their mouth etc etc?).

But pretty soon, you start moving towards the fat or the thin side - this is mostly in your genes... The amount of sport and exercise when young determines whether you're on the top half of the graph (FIT) or the bottom (UNFIT). For me, I was more towards the pink spot there, thin and fit with lotsa sport. There are a few people who're on the heavier side, but still quite fit (towards the purple spot). Their genes mean they will be heavy but they still get some good exercise, so they stay fit. I have a few friends who're in that zone. Not entirely bad.

I moved towards the blue spot quite quickly after I joined work. The lack of sport and exercise (entirely my fault), dragged me along into this zone. But I still wasn't all too worried. Some exercise here and there, and I'd be back into the green zone, I thought. What didn't ever occur to me was I could get into the deep red zone!

Sadly, that's exactly what started happening last month. I've been warned of this by my pot-bellied uncles. "This is the age when I started putting on weight, especially this is when the Paunch was launched.." And surely enough, its hit.

But I'm fighting back! Almost entirely stopping my rice intake was the first thing I did. For any self-respecting Tam Bram, this is a tough thing to do. Rice is like water for us, a necessity! The stomach feels incomplete without rice in a meal... But then I HAVE to start getting back towards the blue spot at least, if not in the green zone!

The fight on the Fat-Fit matrix continues........