Exploring Europe: Part 1: Roma

Europe is for a reason a travellers paradise..A little bit of history on why we chose this continent and a small preface to Exploring Europe series..

When I was 8, I saw a movie where the heroine begs her father to allow her to see Europe before her marriage..that scene somehow dint get erased from my cerebrum even when I turned 24..Next reason being, Europe is full of history..something we studied from Class 1 to 10..Renaissance, French revolution, World war, paintings, sculptures, great structures etcetra etcetra..Next reason, we are single and earning and we will never ever have a chance like this to roam the world on our own again and we had to do it..A childhood dream successfully fulfilled..

My co-traveller: My friend from past 15 years..yet another techie in town..the same friend with whom I went to Big bazar, TV9 and Kannada movie director asking for job..those were our 3 most embarassing days i guess..The two of us have been planning this trip for more than 6 months..This trip was all we had in our life since then..

Destination 1: Roma

Eat:
Sadly both of us are vegetarians..Pizza, Pasta, Salad, Gelato, Pastry was all we could find..Trust me Pizza here tastes way better than its land of origin..Enter into any Departmental store and buy food to suffice your breakfast and snacks atleast..you can catch up on local speciality for lunch/dinner..A few packs of MTR bisibelebath, kharabath, pongal will come handy when you miss Indian food..

Sleep:
Book hostels online through hostelbookers.com. Go through the reviews and trust those reviews..Hostels usually provide you with free wifi, common computer, microwave, refridgerator..Trust me they are way better than any hotels which can only rip you off and charge extra for every little facility they provide..Another advantage of hostel is that you can meet people from different countries and share travelling stories as most of them will be holiday to explore..

See:
Rome was not built in a day and hence it can definitely not be seen in a day..Keep atleast 2 days to see Rome alone..Almost all tourist places charge entry fee..Colloseum, Palentine hill, Roman forum are all some tourist places which you have to visit for unknown reasons.., you must walk the city center from Fountain de Trevi to Piazza Navona..so Italian..Remember the true beauty of any place lies with..Markets in every city is not to be missed at all..Vatican should be another attraction in your list..

Travelling Around:
Most of them know English well and are helpful to guide tourist..Metro charges 1E for 1 way travel or you can take a day pass..Volvo buses/trams are better off it goes inside the city giving you a good view..

Buy:
Remember we are budget traveller and cannot afford any labels..Things that we could buy were soveniers, roadside dress, some woodden artifacts, chappals...There are some Italian artists sitting roadside who can make excellent paintings for 10E...If you are getting any portrait done, be sure about your artist..I got one of mine done and the portrait dint look anything like me..There are fake LV, Prada on roads..They are all made up of only 1 type of cloth and easily identifiable as fake..There is nothing expensive and worthy to buy especially if you convert..You can find the same here for much lesser price..

Safety:
Pickpocket capital of the world is an overrated title to this plain city..Its very much like India..you just have to be careful with your belongings..The two of us were so scared that we had stiched velcro pockets inside our pants which could hold passport and cash..It was useful but you need not take such extreme steps to stay safe..Lot of Bangladeshis with whom you can converse in Hindi..they are usually small store keepers..Dont give a damn to any teasers..

Some pictures from my travel..

Fountain de Trevi



Vatican





Colloseo






PS: Travelling on your own gives you an amazing feeling of independence, confidence and pride..I strongly recomment it for anybody who can afford..For any queries regarding Roma travel, drop me a mail @ sheelajv@gmail.com. I wish I had someone to tell me before we embarked..

Watch out for our next destination Amsterdam,Germany,Paris,Brussels

The decade that was: 2000-2010

Seems like yesterday when it was Y2K and I had just entered teenage world..Life is still the same in many ways but at times, it feels like a different world altogether..

Teenage to Adult journey: Things that changed our lives..

1. Malls :


Those were the days when Alankar Plaza used to be a Mall..If you are wondering what it is..It used to be a happening place for shopping in Majestic..Yes Majestic..You can imagine how happening it could have been..And food world was 'the destination' for grocessary where one could find brush to beans under same roof..Its been quite sometime since I used these words like Departmental store..

2. IT


2000
Girl: Hi, I work in x IT company.
Aunty in wedding: My son 'Brahmananda' also works in x. Do you know him?
Girl: There are 2 Brahmananda's I know

2010
Girl: Hi, I work in x IT company.
Aunty in wedding: My son 'Brahmananda Joshi' also works in x. Do you know him? (smart aunty adds surname too)
Girl: I know 10 Brahmananda Joshi's..

IT industry growing and still growing..

3. Television


Television was all about educating GenX on Indian mythology, Indian values, Indian family though in the form of Ekta's serials..Now teenage GenX watches shows on MTV,V and Bindass..And some mature GenX (mainly those working) will not have one..Who wants a TV when even cricket matches are live online and soaps are available online even before its telecast?

4. Orkut/Facebook


It was a platform where everyone could befriend
a. girl whom they just shared a smile
b. friend's friend
c. friend's friend's friend
and sometimes if luck permits, even chat with them..It was Orkut initially..It was like an oracle clarifying everything about the person with whom you had no scope to chat with even if the world paused..

5. Size 0


Bollywood divas, our so called fashion goddess were voluptous, out of shape,
Come Firangs and Miss Indias..All in super fit or should I call skinny anorexic bimbos..Bolly stars felt the pinch...Everyone started rigourous fitness regime to save their careers..and Size 0 was IN..

6. Phones


2000: Girl says "My dad has a mobile phone". Other girl in her mind "OMG! Mobile phone"
2010: Milkman,paperman,conductor,driver,housemaid everyone has one..
India's greatest invention in this decade is "missed call". Nowhere in this planet is there a concept called missed call. Its free for everyone-caller, receiver, network provider..no ones at loss..everyones happy

7. Bollywood


Kapoors, Khans, Chopras are still integral in B-town..Its still ruled by Superstars betas,betis,bhanjas,bhanjis..What can be done when there are Uday Chopras and Tusshar Kapoors? Uday Chopra to me epitomises Optimism..Everytime his movie bombs in Box Office, he resurfaces reminding us he still has his bank balance intact..Tusshar Kapoor is atleast bearable when he is dumb..

8. Kids


While walking on streets, kids played games like Lagori, ice-pice, kallu mannu, jootata (sorry i have no translation in other langueses)...These games seem lost in front of XBox, PS3, Laptops..There is sports ofcourse like Tennis, Basketball, Swimming but most of the times it to make the next Federer,Jordan and Phelps..

9. English


From words like 's**t' to 'f**k'..
From Erich Seghal,Paulo Coelho to Chetan Bhagat,Arvind Adiga, Arundathi Roy
From magazines, newspapers to e-news,blogs, twitter, facebook
From just elite angrez people to rickshawala,doodhwala
Its everywhere..

10. This is just for completion..Top 10 sounds way better than Top 9..

At the end of it, things have changed..for better, for worse is a mystery which time will tell..A clear conscience houses a happy soul..Looking forward to changes a decade later when I come back in 2021 i.e if we survive 2012..Have a great year ahead :)
And do drop in your views on what changed your lives in the past 10years..

Hard Rock!!

To celebrate long weekend, we girls thought we should go for live music somewhere..After much discussion, we zeroed in a place and reached there at 9 only to find out Luke Kenny was playing there..But soon excitement wore off when he quoted the cover charge..We are now earning and it was no big deal was my initial thought..But some habits die hard..And whats that? Bargaining ofcourse..specially when I know that the same place minus Luke Kenny is unrestricted entry.."Please Uncle" is a mantra that always works..with traffic police, with roadside chappal vendor and anyone..We got 50% and half the cover price for food/drinks..

When 4 music illiterates saw a crowd cheering when Luke started off a new number, we shared expressions saying it might be popular one..Yes telepatic conversations is the only thing you can do there...because conversing is a highly herculean task..Almost all the chartbuster sounded the same to us and we tried headbanging too and it went well with our get up..that is to act like we enjoy HardRock..The only song I could have expected was something from 'Rock on' which was ofcourse not listed..Because its Hindi which is definitely not cool!

The numbers seemed repetitive and we thought we should spend our complimentary coupons before restaurant closes..After our last disastrous night out, where we starved and came home and ate Maggie midnight; this time we were well prepared and did not forget to go tummy full which we thought our parents will be proud off..We ordered nachos and an ice cream, both my diet spoiler..If you are wondering when did I go on diet, I go on diet between meals :) That was my original PJ..Phew..going ahead..To our surprise, we got a really huge ice cream, much larger than the size I have ever seen..While we were all set to leave, a bunch of guys came to me and tried to start a talk with us..By Bunch of guys, I dont mean these local gunda types, they were all descent and cute..Guys hitting on me!! I dont remember when it happened last..Whenever it happened, all I can say that it was ages ago..I dont even remember when a guy gave a second "phalat" to me..Anyways, I have grown above all that...Anyone who knows me can say what I would have done next..Yes I pulled my friends and ran away from there at the speed of an Intel quad core processor :)

Cardmaking-1

Happiest am I when I make something creative!!
Like when I m really bored on a Saturday afternoon, I open my scrap bag which is a city of coloured papers, designer scissors, glitters, flowers, cards and stuff which I have been collecting from time immemorial..Rarely had the time to do something out of it..A novice at Scrapbooking and Cardmaking..I m trying to learn through blogs..Here are my first 3 seeable cards..

1. Its a Best Wishes card..Tried to make a contast of Brown and yellow but dint find the perfect match..Have used a brown satin ribbon to give gift like feel..


2. Its a Party card..The base pink layer is the fancy cover of a perfume!! Loved the floral designs on it..Have used a 2 fold ribbon here..


3. Its for a friend's birthday..Have used 2 contrasting colours as base with black border..Then there are 2 types of flowers..One with paper and other with ribbon..


A picture would have helped a lot in minimising the effort to think..But I purposely dint want to use a picture because I somehow feel it attracts the onlooker more than required..It gave me immense pleasure to do these things on a weekend..Felt like a craft session in school..Go find your activity which gives you solace..Comments and suggestions most welcome :)

PS: 1. Please bear with my pics till I buy a new cam.
2. Investing more on scrap now onwards.

Aisha

Set in Delhi, Aisha is living in her fantasy land shopping for designer ware, maxing credit card bills, attending Polo matches, freaking out with her yet another brat friend and playing Cupid to her behenji friend..When there are these girls, there has to be that many guys and by default all of them love our Aisha (Its my home production)..Abhay Deol is New York return investment banker and also her sister's bro-in-law..Aisha suffers pangs of jealousy when he returns with a sexy lady..After a series of mix and match among the cast and fight with friends, Aisha realises her shallow nature and the fact that love cant be arranged. She confesses her love to Abhay..Watch out if its too late??

Yet the movie lacks something..There are some loose unconnected scenes on why one is hooking up with the other one? Finally only Aisha and Abhay are left and have to love each other..Dialogues could have been more witty..Theres nothing memorable to take home..

This film comes close to all women crew and its well shot..Everyone and everything looks gorgeous..Films like Aisha sometimes makes you wonder, is life all about finding the right guy??

MY RATING : ***

PS: Watching movie first day first show!! Ah..the good old college days!!

Ladies at 40..

The car stopped beside my 2 wheeler at the petrol bunk where I saw this lady in a green shiffon sari and dunked in sparkling jewellry..Sitting beside her was a french bearded, sombre looking middle aged man who looked more like her slave than husband..She was in her early forties and yet had an enigmatic aura..I m sure she had many men drooling over her in her younger days..The necklace she wore I assumed were diamonds considering they were riding a plush Merc..

She looked at a lean man ahead of them in a motorbike and said to her husband "Can you believe this guy asked me out in college? Look at him..He has still not overcome my rejection..".

Husband replies in a hush tone "I cant believe theres a man in this planet who wasted an entire life for you..".

She replied, "That would have been your fate had I rejected you 15 years ago..And he would have been driving the car for me now..Lucky you!!"

Women are women at twenty or forty!!

A week in office..

Though I ve been working from past 6months, I m still a fresher..After 2 days I got allocated and as I stepped into my new cubicle, I got introduced to my new collegues..I switched on my PC, rearranged the things, put a few hangings on the board, pinged friends on how my new workplace is, played a few games of word puzzle and minesweeper, stared at a few test cases as if they were extra-territorial (infact they were!)..The days passed, I worked more and the rest of the things lessened as days progressed to next week..

The next week, my PL and PM were staring at me..I thought may be I was too overdressed for office and decided to dress a little subtle from the next day..Then when I was about to leave office i.e 5:15 dot, I get a call from her..I go running not to miss my bus..She started off sweetly but me being an expert at appearing to listen intently when I m mentally not even present in the vicinity dint pay heed to her..I guess she noticed my disinterest and asked me how many 'test cases' I had executed..I happily said 4 (great according to me and previous day was 3)..She replied "You know how many cases Chirag finished when he had just joined?". I said "Do I care?" (Ofcourse in my mind. What would life be without self dialogues?). She continued "He could finish 25!!..I expect you to improve..You have now entered corporate sector and blah and blah and can I expect you not to play games on PC..(But what would office be without games!?!)..I nodded to let the enormity of my crime sink in..And if you want to perform better, you can put in extra effort after office hours (why should I when I dont get any perks?)

She looked okay the first week..Now everytime I see her, reminds me humans are afterall descendands of apes..I sense a great prospect of a potential conflict with her..I love it more when I m an active participant..