Oh it feels so damn good. Sitting here on my brand new computer blogging the Blues. The old one decided to kick it just a day after I got back. But it had served me well ... 9 years without crashing once. Except that time I had to reformat the HD when NBZ downloaded some porn that came loaded with a hundred different viruses.

Today is my first day off since I took up the new job in July. Working my ass off I've been. In an hour or so I have to hop a bus to the big bad city for the aunts silver wedding celebrations at the Willingdon this evening. Hope they don't ask me to sing. But y'know I wouldn't mind grabbing a mic and doing a number with the band. How many months has it been since I played my guitar ... gosh I don't even remember.

Got 3.2 GB of fotos from Schweiz on my memory stick that I need to copy over. Later.

Saturday Q and I head to sunny Goa. Where my 82 year old grandmother just came out of a life threatening operation. One tough cookie she is.

And when it comes to Goa Q is the man. Having spent time on the local DJ circuit does have its benefits ... backdoor entry into some of the most rocking nightspots.

O.K. What do I play for all my lovely blogger friends? Lemme see ... ah someone wanted Scorpions. Here we go - Send me an angel. Anita was it ... Anita Rodricks? :)



Speaking of angels - Sandhya Mridul ... mwahh mwahh! She should have won that Dikhlaja shit. The girl was awesome. Someone should challenge that nonsense in the Bombay High C.

Mary, the girl who took me skiing, is gonna be here in Feb. Hope she won't want to see the bludy Taj.

BFN.

There was something about her I liked the first time she came over to our table to take our order. She had a face that could brighten up a room full of tired souls. When you're in another country on work, you try not to be too generous with the tips because the company won't reimburse that. But with Anita I didn't care. She was special. And there was something about the Pizza Blitz in Oerlikon that I really liked ... besides the pizza, that is. It was a place where you could unwind after a hard day. And when Anita was around it was that much more welcoming. So that is where I spent my last evening in Switzerland ... with a glass of Calanda and some real good pizza . When she saw me at my usual corner she waved from behind the counter saying she'd just be a minute. I remember the first time I went there. When she saw I couldn't understand a word on the menu card she came and sat down beside me, took out a pen and proceeded to translate the entire thing from German to English. That in spite of other customers waiting for her attention. Keep that with you she told me. She knew I'd be coming back.

I told her I was leaving the next morning. She asked me where I was going and then started to talk about how she'd like to visit India someday. Said she'd been to Thailand last year and loved the place. And that was why she worked the pizza joint - to save up so she could travel. I reckon that evening I gave her the biggest tip I've ever given anybody ... 10 Francs, which is what - around 350 desi bucks! But she deserved it.

And so it's back to the grind here. Sometimes I ask myself what the hell I'm working for.

***

The thought of spending Christmas in Dubai with Nine Below Zero did cross my mind, but Goa seems more likely. Q went to find out about the bus tickets this morning. I guess he's managed something.

Natalie and the Dixie Chicks. This one for Anita.

Skiing. It's a lot harder than it bludy looks, I can tell you that much. First surprise of the day and something that evoked loud laughter from everybody present in the ski rental shop was when I asked Mary - where are the brakes?

Turns out the damn things got no brakes! You have to stop them yourself, using your knees, or legs or whatever the hell you want to. I knew there and then that I was in trouble. Soon I was fitted into boots that left my feet feeling like they'd been placed in concrete blocks. This was definitely not going to be the fun I imagined. Next we were expected to get into a moving cable-car gondola with those damn boots and skis and everything without falling. That done, the most important task was upon me -- getting into the skis, and hopefully skiing. Mary gave me a crash course that would put every other crash course to shame. Sounded easy enough. My plan was to move slowly and then pick up speed once I was more confident. But unfortunately it doesn't quite work like that. When you're a rookie, the slope decides how fast you go, not you. I started moving and before I knew it I was going too fast for comfort (I reckon 25-30 kmph). Suddenly the slope in front looked mighty dangerous. I had to slow down or I'd hurt myself if not anybody else. I tried to get the skis closer together like Mary had told me but nothing doing, I just couldnt slow down; I was a dead man. Then I remembered another thing she had told me - if you can't stop, fall, but don't fall forwards or on your back, you will hurt yourself. Fall sideways. So that is what I did, and goddamn did it hurt. The snow may look all nice and pretty and all, but I tell you it can be quite a bitch when you go down. And then I couldn't get up again. So I had to call for help. And it's not a nice feeling when you're lying there in the snow like a paralysed puppy and a bunch of eight-year-olds go zipping past you in glee. Anyway, Mary helped me up and suggested we try something else - parallel skiing, where we hold hands and ski together like they do in figure skating. Gotta admit that didn't go down very well with my male ego, but what the hell, it was better that getting grievously injured. And it was fun. It kinda felt like those scooters they had in the old days, the ones with the sidecars. She was the scooter, I was the sidecar.



After a couple of rounds of that I'd had enough. There's only so much skiing you can do holding a girls hand. So we decided to try the sledge (exact same kind you see here) ... closer to the ground, and definitely a lot safer. Bullshit! Dangerous as bludy hell. Even more dangerous than skiing at times. So there I was on the sledge hurtling down the slope at God knows how many miles an hour, which was fun ... till you came to a bend. The instructions were simple enough -- to turn right put your right foot down, to go left, the left foot. If only it were that simple. Coz you gotta know just how much and how long to put your bludy foot down. A slight miscalculation and you've swayed too much to the side and before you know it you're lying face down in two feet of snow with your sledge over you or under you or half a mile away from you. Another huge problem was that the slope was not a perfect slope in many places - there were huge ups and downs; which if you're a girl is ok, but if you're a guy could cause some serious damage to your - you know what! So can you imagine me holding the rein with one hand, one hand on my nuts, trying to steer with my feet and having no control over how fast the damn thing was going ... I guess you can.

But Mary said I was very brave ... for someone who'd never been on the snow before. I was actually. Because now when I think about it I could have broken my neck at least a dozen times. I didn't count the number of times I fell, but I know for a fact I was in the snow a lot longer than I was on the skis/sledge.

***

The festive season is really starting to kick in here. At the main station the 50 foot high Swarovski Crystal Christmas tree is a sight to behold.



And that pretty much brings to an end my time here in this beautiful land of mountains, lakes and very stylish women. I wish I had myself a handycam to capture the sights and sounds of Switzerland. No substitute for the real thing of course, but it would have been nice to show the folks back home. This Sunday I return to the sights, the sounds - and the smells - of my beloved homeland.

Van Morrison ... Brown eyed girl. For michelle, who if I remember correctly celebrates her birthday today.

I said to the girl, you gotta be bludy kidding me ... the Blues Brothers at the Rabechilbi in Richterswil! No way!! I mean, are they that popular?

Chilly chilly night it was. But I loved all the lights ... and the music. Called it Diwali - Swiss style. We had a stiff shot of some rum based concoction afterwards. How I love a girl who can stand her poison.

***



More music at the Hauptbahnhof. Never before have I seen so many rocking brass bands ... with so many women playing all kinds of big massive instruments. Forget about foot tapping, these guys actually made you wanna shake your ass ... right there in the middle of the station. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dylan, Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, Queen, they played it all. I was thrilled I tell you. And here's to the chap who played the lead to Knockin' on Heavens Door (what Slash plays on the GNR version) on his trumpet. You rock dude!





***

It's been snowing cats 'n dogs. Three below zero outside and I'm lovin it. This weekend Mary is taking me skiing. Quite frankly she is more excited than I am. Fotos on Monday. Hope I don't break a leg.

Cheers!

It is snowing outside. And cold as bludy hell. It's about 2 degrees C now and they tell me tomorrows gonna be worse. I can hardly wait.

But I'm holding up better that I imagined. The cold hasn't got to me like it has most of the others. Even the locals seem to be freezing their balls off. The other evening I took a walk down the street in my shorts and T shirt (...and rubber chappals!) and people were looking at me like I was an an alien or something. So the colds not such a problem for me ... it's the icy winds like the kind we're having today that can be a bummer.

Two weeks from today I'll be getting ready to leave for home. Mixed feelings really. On the one hand I am happy to have seen some of the most breathtakingly beautiful sights in the world and on the other I want to go back to those faces I miss so much. But I know that in a little while I'd want to go away again. Somewhere else. I guess that's how it'll always be with me.

***

Last Sunday was spent in Fribourg and Gruyere. Fribourg -- the city was a treat for the senses. I've been to every major Swiss city over the past month but none had as captivated as this medieval town. So much history, so well preserved.



The city is predominantly Catholic, and it shows. Don't get me wrong but there's something about us Catholics that the Prodys just don't have. You go to a Prody Church and you wanna get out in 5 minutes. But go to the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas and you can sit there for hours and hours just staring in amazement at everything around you. Lucky for me the choir was in practice and the sounds of a 300 year old pipe organ descended on us like a soothing balm.



Looking back, it was a perhaps a good thing we went on a Sunday when the tourist office was closed. Which will tell you - this is not a place you'll get to see with SOTC or Cox & Kings. Not a single - not even one Asian tourist. And I gotta tell you those Chinks with their SLR cameras are a lot worse than all the others. I experienced that first hand in the revolving cable car going up to Titlus. The minute the damn thing started to revolve, the morons started jumping up and down in excitement like children and babbling away in that goddamned language ... so much so you'd think they'd just been offered free sex for life.





And since the tourist office was closed, we were on our own. No maps, no list of places to see, nothing. Yup, I went totally unprepared. But for a guy like me it doesn't really matter. So far whenever I've gone to a place unprepared, I've ended up being pleasantly surprised by what I discovered. And in Fribourg I decided to take a little trail through the woods not knowing where it would lead, and voila, I ended up seeing parts of the city most people would miss, not to mention saving at least an hour had I taken the main road. Which goes to show you it pays to be adventurous.

***



After Fribourg it was Gruyere - the famous cheese village. Damn, I should have taken her photo ... she was the sweetest looking thing having her coffee when I went up to her in the restaurant near Fribourg station and asked if she'd help me get to Gruyere. And looking at the way she struggled with her English interspersed with French, I know it must have been quite an effort. But if it wasn't for her I'd have missed the 4 pm last entry into the Chateau ... made it with 5 minutes to spare. Going all that way and not getting to see it would have a tragedy. And that's another thing. I've been very lucky here in Switzerland - with the weather, which was just right whenever we went somewhere, and with many other things I won't go into now.

***

People are already starting to get into the festive mood here. And back in India I know the festvities - and the noise - are on in full blast.

Bob Dylan ... Like a rolling stone.

O.K. In the office here we have three different toilets - gents, ladies and common. Problem is they're all very small ... one wash basin, two piss pots (in the gents), two shit pots. So there are times when a lady or a gent is forced to use the common toilet. Like I was just now after lunch. So there I am washing my hands when this Japanese chick goes into the cubicle and in less time than it takes to say 'konnichiwa' pulls down her trousers and starts dropping the bombs. Christ Almighty! you're a woman for godssake ... and there's a man washing his hands just outside. But hell, she went on like a Kamikaze over Pearl Harbour.

... Maybe she ate some Indian food last night, poor thing.

Toilet tissue is another pain in the ass. We Indians just cant imagine a toilet without water. So some feel the need to innovate. What do they do? They take a bottle of Evian with them when they go. Yup, the bums here get washed with mineral water.

Overall I like the offices here. No cubicles or partitions like we have in India. The vending machines are super-cool and the lighting at your desk gets adjusted automatically depending on the light in the room and that coming in from outside. And there is so much stationery at my disposal I could start a bludy shop. Everyone says 'en Guete' when someone goes to lunch, meaning 'Enjoy your meal'. And they really make sure they enjoy their food ... no hurrying through whatever be the urgency.

This weekend promises to be a bummer. Minimum temperature of -5 C. And snow. Damn, I'm cursing myself or not bringing that bottle of Royal Challenge.

Anthony Kiedis and the Red Hot Chilies. Let it snow baby!

Back to work now.

It's starting to get pretty cold here. I won't say freezing yet, but we're getting there. Though I'm not feeling it as much as some of my colleagues. I keep telling them to eat lots of pork and potatoes like I'm doing, but they seem to have some kind of aversion towards pork. Which is stupid because it is only the tastiest bludy meat you can eat.

***

Decided to put Appenzell on hold till the weather gets better. So last weekend we walked around the old town of Zurich which was so like being on one of them medieval movie sets. I have always been fascinated by history and everything historical. The modern to me lacks character.

This below is the Fraumunster taken from up in the tower of the Grossmunster across the river ... by me of course. I love heights.



***

And there's nothing like a call from a friend to lift your spirits when the cold's got you down. And when it's our man Ally from hot and humid Mumbai city, it comes with a good laugh too.

Dude mein suna tu udhar ladki pataya!

No-no man, she's just a friend who volunteered to take me around.

Yes, yes, and I'm sure you've been happily going around!

LOL. No it's nothing like that.

Dude you're only going to get one innings so you better take a wicket!

That's not the intention at all. I'd prefer a nice Indian girl anyday.

What!! Abe tu paagal ho gaya hai kya?? ... you want to come back to these bleddy nakhrebaaz dames ... kaisa aadmi hai! I'm telling you, do what you have to but don't come back here. Seek asylum if need be.

Asylum?? ... What asylum? Nobody grants political asylum to Indians, man.

Who's talking about political asylum dude ... ask for environmental asylum. Say that the bleddy air in your country is killing you!!

***

This next one I call 'The Crossroads'. Which in many ways is where I am at the moment.



New one from James Blunt been playing a lot on the music channels here ... called 1973.



Peace, love, and all the right directions.

Too busy to blog. Seen a lot of the country these past two weekends ... Lausanne, Geneve, Bern, Mt. Titlis, and the one I liked best - Rigi, Queen of the mountains, where I ate deer for the very first time.

Oktoberfest is on in full swing. Guys from the office took me along Monday evening for a beer drinking orgy at the Bauschanzli where I drank nearly three litres of some strange dark brew from the biggest damn beer mugs I have ever seen. Those 1 litre mugs must have weighed at least 4-5 kilos when filled to the brim. Unknown to us it was gay night that evening so the place was full of fags kissing each other on the lips and so on. And we got a condom free with every beer. But it was fun. I couldn't help thinking though: in place of those beefy Gerrys playing crappy folk music, if they'd had a bunch of Goans instead, they'd have bludy rocked the place.

***

But now I'm done with all the touristy spots. Titlis had so many Indians (honeymooners mostly - irritating Delhi-Chandigarh types) that I felt I was back home. They even had signs up in Hindi. Apparently lots of Hindi movies get filmed there .... some Bollywood clown must have injured himself getting off the cable-car or something, who knows.

So that's why I'm thinking of heading off to St. Gallen and Appenzeller country this weekend. Wonderful wonderful beer, Appenzeller Quöllfrisch. I've had so many different beers here - Hurlimann, Eichhof, Feldschlosschen, Appenzeller ... the list keep getting longer.

***

A funny thing in Switzerland though -- the prices of stuff varies dramatically from shop to shop. There is just no way to tell the price of something till you've seen the price tag, because the concept of an MRP simply does not exist. Which can make shopping something of a nightmare. For instance I paid 99 Francs for a Mammut trek bag at Mt. Titlis and when I checked back in Zurich the price of the the very same bag varied between 150 and 199! Bludy crazy. It's great that I paid less, but if I'd paid more, gosh! .... and you know how disturbed we Indians get when we pay more for something.

Those of you emailing on my Gmail account, sorry I haven't replied. I do not have access to Gmail (or any other mail for that matter) or to Facebook and Orkut.

Here are some more - fotos aus der Schweiz. (click to enlargen)



Jelmoli. The most exclusive (and freakin bludy expensive!) department store in Zurich. The lingerie section was - WOW!



Sprungli. Apparently they make the best chocolates in Switzerland ... and I'm talking real Swiss chocolate here - not Toblerone!



The little park off Bahnhofstrasse. I love just sitting on the grass and looking at the chicks.



The Hauptbahnhof or Main Train Station, Zurich. The sheer size (26 platforms) and architecture leaves me spellbound.

Till next time, Cheers!

I think the most annoying English proverb is the one that goes: You can't have your cake and eat it too. What good is the bludy cake if I can't frikkin' eat it. Bullshit!

I'm saying this because in spite of it being all nice and pretty, I don't think I'd be able to live here permanently. Life really would be quite mundane. Everything is so prim and proper that it can get to you after a while ... in fact the word I'd use is 'sanitized'. Now I understand why Indians living in the West save up all year to make that annual journey home. And it's got nothing to do with the country - it's the people.

Let me put it like this -- Life here is a constant. We Indians, we need the variables. Living in a place where everything was the same day in and day out would bludy kill us, even if it was all clean and beautiful. That's why when the train this morning was late by three minutes due to a heavy downpour, I suddenly felt at home. But you should have seen the worry on all the other faces. It was quite amusing.

***

Plan for this weekend not chalked out yet. I think I'd like to explore Zurich some more instead of heading out to Interlaken or Lausanne. But I'm not sure the others would like that too much. You know how it is with us Desis - we need to brag to everyone back home how many places we went to. Doesn't matter that we ended up seeing so little of those places.



It is a common sight here to see couples smooching in public (like these two I photographed at Mt. Pilatus). But when it's an Indian couple like the one I saw at Berne station last wekeend, it really is quite hilarious. More so when both boy and girl are nerdy looking techie types. And there's a big difference when the firangs do it and when we do it. They know how to kiss ... we do something funny with our lips and make idiots of ourselves. I tried to pretend I wasn't looking, or even bothered for that matter, but for some reason they decided to move away.

Food. Last night I ate Falafel at a Lebanese joint. Which was the worst damn Falafel I've ever eaten. Tasteless bludy shit. The previous night I had pizza at Dominoes. And what a treat that was. They have something called a Full House meaning it comes fully loaded. I tell you I'd kill to have pizza like that in India. And of course beer like Eichhof. Bludy good stuff.

Picture right on top is of the sun shining down on Lake Luzern. Taken by me last Saturday with my friends Sony Cybershot. (not a bad picture I think for such a lousy camera)

Ciao.

If you had to tell me six months ago that I’d be celebrating my birthday at a breathtakingly beautiful castle in Switzerland overlooking the Rhine Falls with a pretty Swiss girl I’d say you were bludy shitting me. But that’s exactly what happened. When she heard it was my birthday she made all the arrangements. First we went by boat to the falls and then at sundown a candlelit dinner where she surprised me with a cake and all.

***

This country is nothing short of amazing. They way they see to every little detail, the way everything works like it’s supposed to - the trains, the buses, the trams ... the way it’s all organised with the precision of those timepieces they’re so renowned for, and the whole way they have managed to integrate the old with the new so seamlessly, is something that has me totally captivated. To top it off everything is so damn clean and beautiful.

Saturday we went by train to Luzern and Berne. In Luzern we took the boat across the lake and then headed to Mount Pilatus where I got to go on my very first cable-car ride, and also saw snow for the first time. Berne in the evening was something of a ghost town ... which I am told is what you will find in most cities in Europe - everything (except for the restaurants) shuts by 7 and is closed on weekends. If something is open it is most likely run by an Indian.

The women ... What can I say - they’re gorgeous! And so, so stylish. Black seems to be the colour of choice … and leather a hot favourite. In the five days I’ve been here I have yet to see a shabbily dressed Swiss girl.

Quite surprising to see so many Indians here though. Plenty of Madrasis (or Tamilians as they prefer to be called). But you should see how well behaved they all are. Oh yeah, they will cross on the pedestrian crossing and throw their thrash in the bins, and most importantly - not talk too loud.

***

Here till the end of November so there’s a lot more still to come. Geneve, Lausanne, Basel, St. Moritz … all in the pipeline. Waiting for a buddy of mine to come over and then then the party starts. But things are pretty expensive here. Every time I see something nice in a shop window (like those soft toys) I think about how thrilled JC would be if I bought it for her. But all she’s getting are the Godiva chocolates.

There is one thing though that is damn cheap here - Beer! And boy have I been having lots of it.

Song that was playing a while back at the Burger King I had lunch at. Where the Pakistani girl at the counter spoke to me in German. For Ishani, whose birthday it was yesterday ... and for Bunny whose hippo birdie it is today.