Saturday

Woke up at 9:00 am , wanted to sleep a little longer than normal, a typical in Trupti (my place in Bangalore) , or wanted to enjoy the weekend my way. Had to wash the clothes, so that was one task planned for morning as soon as I woke up. I had a hard time figuring out how to operate the washing machine, as everything was written in German, maybe here your common sense works, which button should do what, while I was trying to figure these things out I thought about the importance of English in our daily lives, maybe the people in Germany and Austria are realizing these facts now pretty late though, that is why they have made English Compulsory in their schools, anyways better Late than never. Finally I was able to wash the clothes, and it wont be this tough now at least for the two weeks to come.

Took a bath hastily as I had planned to go to the Danube Island festival , this is a festival being organized by the Austrian Tourism Deptt to promote Tourism every summer in the end of June, I was lucky to be here at around that time! I took a U-6 to Neou Donnou from Alser Srtasse , and then walked for about a KM to finally come to the place where this festival was. Now this festival was organized on an Island, on both the sides of this island is river Danube, pretty clean!

The festival was more sort of an advanced "mela" with people singing and dancing and there were lot of stalls of eatables, drinks etc. Roamed the whole of this "mela" it had different sections for "Jhoolas" "Khana Peena" and singing and Dancing, pretty nice place and unlike des it was clean also. At this point I thought that its not the infrastructure that makes a Nation an advanced nation , its actually the citizens who develop a civic sense in the due course of time that do! When the people stop screwing the infrastructure developed by the Government, or in other words by their own money (tax payers). back in Des a lot of money goes in to maintain the infrastructure screwed by the crowd. Anyways it was a nice place, I didn't have breakfast in the morning so had chicken sandwich and a Diet Coke, while buying the diet coke I again had a tough time trying to explain to the lady what I want, maybe here in Austria Coke markets Diet coke as Coca Cola "Light"! anyways I again thought its not the fault of Coke, maybe its English!! Everything was very expensive there so I settled for a sandwich and a Coke.

I roamed there for about 2.5 Hrs and then got bored, and moreover I was tired, thought that I would getr back to my Flat, watch some BBC and then go off to sleep, and then maybe in the evening I can again venture out somewhere on my own. I reached the Apartment at 3:30 pm and was very tired, didn't have the energy to make anything to eat... and I went to sleep.

I woke up at around 5:15 pm, felt fresh, turned on the television only to find out again that there is nothing which comes in English, so I again went back to the only English channel BBC WORLD, I am convinced that after watching BBC for 21 days here I can become an adviser to the Indian Govt on European Affairs, the Global Warming issue, European Union, Poland's threat of a Veto in the European Union........and the list goes on.

Just wanted to chill today at home and hence didn't go out anywhere, tomorrow is Sunday so I will again go to the Danube Island Festival and then to Stephanzplatz !

Song Today: Pyar ke Mod pe
Film: Parinda

Friday....

A not so busy day at office, had lots of chat with my colleagues here during Lunch, everybody was so eager to know more about India, and the ways of life there, that after sometime I felt as if some Martian has visited their company and they all are eager to know how we live on Mars. Everybody was so surprised about the high temperatures during summer in India as if they have never been taught that in Geography, atleast we were....one more reason to be proud of our educational system....maybe "Dil ko khus Rakhne ko Ghalib ye khayal achha hai" types! Found out from the chat that global warming is not at all any issue here for the common man in the developed nations, the ones which are contributing the most to the global warming, all they are doing is accusing the other nations of contributing to the Global Warming, maybe "Charity begins at home" funda should work here and people should become more and more aware of what to do and what not to do, for example I have observed here in Vienna that nobody switches off their car's engine when they are waiting for anything, I have seen people doing that for as long as 15-20 minutes!! maybe they are not affected by these temperature changes initially but ultimately we all have to realize that we are residing on earth and I am actually not a Martian.

After office I went to stephanzplatz to roam around, I somehow liked this place a lot, its so full of life, you get to see so many people from different countries there, and then finally I don't know why I met a lot of desi's there, there was this Desi Punjabi family who were frantically searching for some Indian restaurant, I had a lonely planet with me so I helped them out, but the price in the book was on the higher side, I told them, but it seems that they were se frustrated with the food here that they were willing to pay anything for the Indian food!!!! Came back home......watched some TV and then slept.

Song Today: Yaar bina chain kahan re..
Film: Saheb
Music: Bappi Lahiri

Vienna Day -III and IV

Day 3:

In the morning as usual I went for a run in my area, and then went to office, was a little late so the trains were pretty crowded and then I missed the S-Bahn to Strebersdorf I had to wait for around 20 minutes. Had some installation work in office and then had some spinach soup and bread in office for Lunch, the Spinach soup was bad , bread was......bread! left office at around 6:00 pm went to the apartment, sat there for some time and then started for Stephanzplatz, that is the same place I went to yesterday, liked it though as it had a lot of people and some people also performing some sort of short skits (more of a nukkad natak kind of thing in India). I passed time till 9:45 pm and then decided I would head back to the flat as I had office the next day.

Day 4:

Today I left office rather early, no didn't have any work, everybody was leaving early , so I thought I would do the same. I had a lot of time so I thought that I would visit Millennium City, this is a big shopping mall here. Went there, wasn't impressive if I compare it with the shopping malls in India, but the sight outside the mall was pretty scenic. Now this mall is just opposite to the Danube River and that is what makes it scenic, spent some time sitting by the river, and then I got bored so thought that I would head back to the mall. Went to Saturn (this is an Electronics Goods Store) checked out some digital cameras (Nikon L11 is what I chose finally). Also checked out the software and Computer Games section in the store only to find out that Nehru Place is the best place for these things. Came back to the flat was dead tired, but the time was still 7:30 pm, I went off to sleep, when I woke up it was 6:00 am in the morning!!!

Song Today: Karoge Yaad to...
Film: Bazar

Vienna DAY- II

I went to office today, the Siemens office I was supposed to go to was at the end of the city, so I didn't knew how much time it would actually take, got up at 5:30 in the morning, and then went for a run (as usual!!) and left the apartment at around 7:00 am. Then I went to the nearby U-Bahn station Alser strasse and trook the train to Floridstorf, now this is the station where was supposed to change the train to Strebersdorf, I took an S-Bahn to the required station and reached the office, only to find out that this time again I was over cautious and reached there at 7:35 am and nobody from my team had come, at 8:00 am one of the persons came and I was allowed to go inside. Was a nice day at work, some installation ToT and installation of C-NTDB and some chat with friends in India.

Left the office at 4:00 pm as I had to go to the American Express Bank to get the travelers cheques I was carrying encashed. Now this place (Stephanzplatz) is the heart of Vienna City, it was more sort of Brigade Road in Bangalore there was a big church, and a lot of Tourists, was more sort of fashionable place than anything interesting, had a lot of Beer cafes and branded stores (mostly fashion brands).

I reached the Apartment at around 9:15 pm and it was still day outside, after a busy day I am tired and planning to go to sleep, looking forward for Tomorrow's run in the morning and then office!!

Song today: Jalta hai Badan
Film: Razia Sultan

First Day in Vienna

Well I took the 2:00 am flight to Paris, it was an Air France flight to Paris. I must say that except the in flight entertainment the Kingfisher flights are much better, got Hindu food on board (that is what they call food which doesn't have beef, but this doesn't make sure that it doesn't have non veg) since I am not that rigid about veg or non veg I ate it...didnt like it much though. The flight was long around 9 hrs and 45 minutes and then the flight took off late from Bangalore and hence I was worried to catch the connecting flight to Vienna, I landed at the Paris airport (Charles De Gaul) and then rushed to the terminal 2D this was where I was supposed to get my flight, but I just managed to get on time there and boarded the flight

I reached Vienna airport collected my Luggage, I was sort of worried for the Luggage as for some of my colleagues who traveled to Vienna earlier the Luggage didnt come on time, but thankfully for me I got my Luggage!!! Took a taxi to the apartment where I wa supposed to stay! The apartment is huge a 3 BHK and I am the only person in it...." bhoot ki tarah Gjoomta rehta hoon!!" But no doubt the apartment is very good

Went for a run too in the evening or rather in the night, the sun sets here at around 9:00 pm . So I have a lot of time to roam around!

Will keep updating this blog!! So keep checking!

Song Today: Huzoor is kadar bhi na itra ke chaliye
Film : Masoom

Rajnikant the Superstar!

I got this forwarded mail from one of my friends. Rajnikant is definitely a super duper start of Tamil Cinema, just see the crowd that came yesterday (Bangalore, Forum Mall) to get the tickets for his new movie Sivaji!!!! God man I practically jumped on my chair after seeing this snap (taken by one of my friend) . Well some facts the total cost for the movie is around Rs 95 Crores, with Rajnikant charging around 35 crores for this one. After this release he has left all the great stars behind!!!

He is definitely a god here in the south! Earlier this year some scenes of his recent flick were leaked and came on you tube. The producers decided to remove those scenes from the movie and re shoot those parts, at that time only the cost crept up to 65 crores, and now the final figure is 95 crores!!!!! no wonder that the producers got such a huge opening to Sivaji. It is already a hit in the south, and Rediff says that the movie is good too!!!!

Some More Snaps:
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Phase I: Preparing for Vienna

Leaving for Vienna this weekend for some project work, this was pending since a long time, I guess earlier the travel was scheduled in the first week of May and then it got postponed to the last week of may, and now finally the tickets have arrived, leaving on 16th night, well technically speaking in the wee hours of 17th (2:00 am). Heard that it would be too hot in Vienna, well considering the heat wave in North India I was sort of confused, "Hot in Vienna ???" but then I did some survey on google and found out that the temperature would be in the range of 15-17 degrees celcius. And by the way I that is pleasant in India, or rather I should say that is the type of temperature we experience in North India in the months of November and early December, aur usmain hum log "Half sweater" pehen kar school jaaya karte the!!!

Anyways so the schedule is I will be flying to Paris, there would be a three hour wait at the Paris Airport, and then I will take a flight to Vienna. Ab baaki samachaar Vienna se...........

Song Today: Ye Mera Dil to Pagal hai...
Film: Gardish
Singer: SP Balasubramanayam

Running an absurd pastime

"They say running is an absurd pastime, a means of exhausting yourselves. But if you can find meaning in the kind of running that you do, then chances are you will also find meaning in that other absurd pastime – life" – Bill Bowerman. track coach for University of Eugene, Oregon, who also trained America's distance prodigy Steve Prefontaine and co-founder of Nike.

By the way I am running 8 KMs daily......heard that a Marathon is scheduled on 15th July in Mysore, so planning to be there!!