A ballet along the Baltic

A group of 8 of us decided to go on a cruise on a ferry from the capital of Sweden, Stockholm to Riga, Latvia. The day of the cruise was on 21^st December, 2010. Now we knew before hand that food was very costly in the ferry, so we got up early in the morning and prepared food for a day. “We were on a strict budget you see”. Guess we would have been one of a kind travelers on board with so much food packed with us for the trip. We then packed all the food and got ready with at most excitement to catch our ferry. We made sure we charged the digital cameras and packed them. I made sure that I did not miss my laptop for special reasons. The ferry had to be boarded by 4pm and just as ever that happens when 8 guys get along together, we were not on time. We leisurely were strolling towards the wrong direction which lead to an entire other ferry. The lady at the desk there said “guys you have to go down at least a kilometer or two to catch your ferry”. It was the moment were we started running and before we were half the way we were gasping for breath and just before they could close the check in, we rushed in with minutes to spare sweating even at -14 ◦C. Well then the first part of the whole trip was successfully filled with a hustle bustle which I would say actually pepped it up a little.

Now I should never forget to mention about the first sight of the ship, its sheer size was astounding, she was huge and majestic. The thoughts on my mind went straight back to 1912 to the Titanic. I started my own comparisons in my mind. A ship traveling in the sea which eventually is place where the temperature reaches sub zero and also the sea at times is seen with sheets of ice. Well I should admit that being inside a ship for the first time and the wide spread sea did really put a tint of fear in my head that “What if the ship sinks?” Also the very sight and sound of certain terms here and there like, fire door, sea level, life jackets, life boats etc. did not make the job easier. But then just as we stepped in the ship all the bright lights and glamor of the her makes you forget all those fear in a wink and puts you in a total mood to party and not to forget the effect of a couple of drinks. Now we threw our entire luggage in our cabin and started roaming out blinking where to start and end since the ship itself was 9 floors. We were like animals let loose inside the ship going from floor to floor and from place to place. I was really amazed at the ship as it seemed to me like a little city with almost anything available under the sun. There were pubs, discos, casinos, restaurants, spa, sauna, swimming, a market and what not.  If the inside of the ship is one side of the coin, when you flip it you get to see an entire new world outside in the deck. The cool breeze kisses you first as you put your first step outside. Now I immediately ran towards the fore of the ship to see her steer through the Baltic Sea, it was an amazing sight. The gentle yaw and sway felt in the ship felt lounging. After all the loitering I took my laptop went to the wifi room in the ship, yet another facility given to you even when in the middle of the sea.

The ship was filled with parties and events for the passengers. There was lottery, lite music; live bands, games for kids and a wide spread shopping range. The shopping market had an exclusive liquor section where I could constantly hear a clinking sound of bottles clashing with each other due to the vibration in the ship. I bet you would have never ever got a feel from a liquor store like that as got from the one in the ship. We clicked a few shots in and around the ship. As the clock ticked its way into the night life of the ship parties started to unveil just before which we had our own private party in our cabin and then marched towards the dance floors. We had a nice dance amongst us and with strangers who had come from many parts of Europe and other countries. Tired from the dancing we head back to our cabins to hit the bed so as to rise early to catch a glimpse of the sea in daylight from the ship and also click to some pictures. The ship reached the destination and the interesting part was to see how she was steered to her port and anchored with so much precision. I really envied a mariner at that moment. We picked up our back packs and head with a map to the capital city of Riga and we were told the old town of Riga was the most attracted tourist spot in the city.

 Stepping out of the ship into the icy roads of Riga we head to the old town, strolling through the streets with a map and clicking snaps all the way. We walked about a kilometer and we nearly reached the old town and the first thought that engulfed the mind is the city’s medieval architecture. The architecture was so beautiful we felt as we walked the Stone Age roads of Riga. Christmas mood was all over the place and its first encounter was a beautiful Christmas market. There were small shops where little gift articles, eatables, wine and beverages, and many more being sold. “Prices are low in Riga, so shopping is a given”, said a friend of mine, I certainly do not agree with her but still just to prove the point I got a little gift. The people in Riga were unusually very friendly to us, really felt well treated in this place. A warm welcome everywhere with a constant smile on their lips made the walk through the streets more melody.

We then visited a couple of places like the occupation museum, the city hall, and the dome cathedral. We clicked few snaps at all these places and we started back to the ferry and walked back the same way to return to it. On our way back we stopped at the Christmas market took a snap with Santa and pit stopped for tea to get some warmth in ourselves. There we bumped into a traveler from Belgium who has been in tour for almost ten months and heard him explain his journey through several parts of the world and apparently he had visited to India also. He started about the cuisine in India and how he loved the spicy food that he ate there. The talk extended about people, costs, trains and more just while we were sipping our chai (tea). He finally added “I love masala dosai” (an authentic south Indian dish) and put us all also in a drooling hunger for our home food. We with the delight of a pleasant conversation about our home country with a foreigner in a foreign land started back to catch our ferry.

Finally reaching the ferry and we were just having a thought in mind so as to snuggle in the bed and catch a good sleep, but just as we stepped in a crew member welcomes us with a big smile and hands us over a flier with an entire new agenda of parties and events for the second day of the journey. Now without a second thought we again pumped up our adrenaline for more fun and party. The best part of the second day was the group of six singers who really rocked the evening. They were really lively and interactive and just made us standing there without a movement wherein we just came randomly checking into the hall. The second day was also no less fun compared to the first day though we rather winded up the fun a little earlier comparatively and hit the sack for a calm sleep as the giant rocked us gently to a ballet along the Baltic. 

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

I should accept first off all that, I could not have come with a better title for my blog!!  “Something like that would make people guess what this title could possibly mean or could be about or blah blah blah ............. . “F.R.I.E.N.D.S is F.R.I.E.N.D.S”

F.R.I.E.N.D.S a sitcom which was originally created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman lasted about 10 years in the television history, not being less fun or enjoyable than the preceding year. The same had around 20 million viewers each year from1994-2004. Well this is what Wikipedia or any such Googled version says about F.R.I.E.N.D.S. I would really like to brag on my own about this TV serial which I would quote “very important” (not meaning “so called” version here people) instead in my life.

 

F.R.I.E.N.D.S first got into my system from STARWORLD - The TV channel which eventually happened as an account of switching channels and nothing more. I felt yes this is funny but I did not resolve in watching all the seasons or follow up the series. All this happened long back during the school days in early 2000 and also a little before I guess. Then came my college where I got to know more about all this F.R.I.E.N.D.S stuff, while we played poker ( Ross’s Pile ) and even at a lot of incidents here and there especially with a couple of my closest friends. Yet F.R.I.E.N.D.S did not bother me much, as time went by my college got over, later I get to work and gradually I moved to Kerala for another job (yet another blog awaits just on this topic), just when it’s not too late comes this very special F.R.I.E.N.D of mine who gave me all 10 seasons of F.R.I.E.N.D.S and asked me to watch them all in a rather deniable way I would say. Now that is when I really got into F.R.I.E.N.D.S and watched then in a rather ordered way than ever before. 

To start with there are 6 crucial characters in this TV series that can nevertheless be called less important or unique in contributing to the success of the series and hence deserve a mention:

Jennifer Aniston

...

Rachel Green

Courteney Cox

...

Monica Geller

Lisa Kudrow

...

Phoebe Buffay

Matt LeBlanc

...

Joey Tribbiani

Matthew Perry

...

Chandler Bing

David Schwimmer

...

Dr. Ross Geller

To have to start talking about F.R.I.E.N.D.S, I’d start with what I would call as the real lifeline of this show, the title song... ‘I WILL BE THERE FOR YOU’ so apt a title song for this show, you would really feel the words I will be there for you when u hear it each time in all the 238 episodes. The music and the BGM throughout the series made me enjoy certain English classics in their own best way. For example when Rachel sings ‘her name was Lola, she was a show girl’ then when Marcel (Ross’s pet monkey) plays ‘the lion sleep tonight’ and when chandler sings the theme of ‘Sanford and sons’. Also there was this song ‘England Swings’ which gets played when all these people go to London for one of Ross’s “marriage” ;-) and to add the whole London extravaganza on F.R.I.E.N.D.S was a very memorable one.

I have seen open dialogues only in this sitcom the dialogues are scripted in such a way that the whole viewers in this world would have the same thought and feel which I would say is something very tough to bring upon. The mending of the dialogues and the gestures made, stand out for theses 6 people’s character’s, they don’t even need to finish a dialogue, and their expression is sky high. Just script and dialogue alone will not make any show a massive hit and this show is a proof for how important gestures and dialogues in tandem.

The most memorable and rather close to the heart scenes for me would be the mention about my home country and the one which I live in now. First to go with my home country India, there are scenes in the show where Ross mentions about an 18^th century Indian artefact and shows a Pullayar (Lord Ganesh) idol and then I came across the mention of Indian names ‘Vikram’ and ‘Mukherjee’, I really cherish those scenes. There was even a mention about Indian food once in a funny way. Secondly there is this one scene which had a mention about the place where I live now, Sweden. Phoebe lies about herself being a Swede giving a Swedish message. The funniest part was when she says her name to be IKEA and sings in a funny way what she mentions to be “The Swedish national anthem” ;-). When talking about countries I would like to mention the use of different languages of different countries in this show like Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, and Dutch Etc.

I would say that I have not seen any series complied enough to portray as much versatility in emotions as F.R.I.E.N.D.S did. The TV series would nearly include almost all faces of life like guilt, depression, self-pity, anxiety, resentment, envy, frustration, shame, denial, sarcasm, offended, negative, regret, resentful, sad, worried, grief, love, pain, appreciation, happiness, sacrifice, hope, enthusiasm, vitality, confidence, gratitude, patient, trust, ego, vulnerable, optimistic, appreciative, ashamed, astonished and what not. Although the honourable mention has to be given to the portrayal of the tasteful Love and Friendship which already engulf in mind and heart enough to be not able to recover from the sweet scenes crafted by the F.R.I.E.N.D.S team. Above all I strongly believe that the humour which was a huge part of the TV series which I feel is more prominent than any reason to have kept the show living up to almost 10 years.

The show has made me laugh, cry and feel a lot of special things which life has to offer as a part of itself mostly the beautiful things I would say. Although the culture among friends or people in love is nothing close to what my culture is, it still feels so special to look at the way in which F.R.I.E.N.D.S has been created to make the viewer feel lots special. The show can be said to have won most hearts than to have won tonnes of awards and rewards. I feel the show has influenced me within; I watch some random episode or a scene from it daily and at least discuss one character of it.

Some of the greatest scenes in F.R.I.E.N.D.S have to be Ross and Rachel’s love and kisses, Phoebe’s strange yet hilarious behaviour, Chandler’s timely sarcasm,  Chandler and Monica’s relationship from being best friends to a couple, oh Joey J the best ! The most hilarious amongst the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The series has scenes when all six of them would be together either on a special day, party or occasion proving that at the end of the day being F.R.I.E.N.D.S is what matters. I really love the small one or two minute teaser like scenes in the end and the beginning of the show. Not to forget the coffee house “CENTRAL PERK” in which these people spend most of the time hanging out sipping coffee. “Why does one have to gift coffee mugs to F.R.I.E.N.D.S? “ Stands clear now to me. At times I even feel that I had something similar in my life to what the F.R.I.E.N.D.S had in their series, oh no I would actually have to say that what I would love to live at least few parts of what they had lived in front of the cameras for 10 years in the 238 episodes. They really grew into a F.A.M.I.L.Y into F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Credit to my F.R.I.E.N.D who made an offer that I could not resist or refuse ;-) and made me watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Thank you for being that F.R.I.E.N.D and this blog also goes out to all my close and best F.R.I.E.N.D.S

1 SEK = 6.50396578 INR

Jai Ho !! 

Wondering how stupid title this could be ?? Well NO ITS NOT !! This is the currency conversion on this date between two country's currencies.One of which must be really familiar to you all, ya its Indian National Rupees. The other is the Swedish Krona, this is the currency i use everyday or let me say that i hesitate to use every day! 

Okay now lets get to the topic! Yes this is about the uptight financial life for Indians abroad! The most commonly used term when we come across this topic is "cost of living", well in my case and several others just rephrase it as "very high cost of living".

"Now to all those who are trying to comment : knowing all this you people still go there blah blah blah ..... now thats not the topic its just about the high cost of living ...i am not complaining about it" 

To start with this is really a very beautiful country ! They often say beautiful things do not come cheap, that clearly applies to the life here in Sweden! Now to give a yummy start lets talk about food ;-) Which we need daily what so ever but this happens to be the most costliest thing here! for example two slices of bread with little cheese squeezed in between costs 130 Rs. the cheapest edible thing i found here was a bubble gum strictly meant for kids "I had it a couple of time though ;-) " was around 6.5 Rs. Well not so yummy now  is it not ?  Sometimes you just cant eat what ever you wish for or whatever you are craving for. 

Few more examples can be fruits, beverages, alcohol especially [ but i tell you in a way its good ;-) ], sometimes green chillies cost around 1200 Rs./kg ( Ripley's believe or not ), oh i got to mention about coriander now ! Yes exactly those things which we get for free at vegetable shops in India costs around 100 Rs. a bunch here. Now i can keep telling about things on and on but hope this gives a preview of what i am trying to convey.

The fact is that just got to let go converting everything from SEK to INR every time before we could spend, whether you do or do not you would be pushed to spend at least for certain things very vital and things that you cannot sacrifice. That does not necessarily mean you got to be spending hell a lot to live everyday, there are ways to minimize expenses also but then it depends on how we choose to live, can be very stringent and take home all the valuable money you saved or can live a highly lavish life spend it all here and have a great time ( i add : this is a happening place for such a life, if and only if with money in loads ). How i  chose to live is some what in between these two categories but slightly leaned towards the stringent side. Anyways we live anywhere and everywhere and adapt accordingly that is why we are WE, INDIANS. Jai Ho ! 

Quick fact : Some public toilets here charge 5 SEK to be used once, convert for yourself and see how costly taking a leak could be ;-) 

first blog i guess !!

hmmmmm blogging !! what could this thing be about ?? i have wondered for a long time i actually wonder even right now !!! oh so u say that " thats what i am doing now " okay so this is it "blogging " . Well let me see how all of this started . The very word blog i just heard guess a few years back and let me tell you at this point i have not read more than 3 pages in a book or novel or whatever you may call it in all these 22 years. So as the habit of reading was so tough for me, i as well thought that it might be tough for me to write. Okay i see what u think .. " he is just another lazy fellow giving reasons " . Yeah that is true actually !!! Who would want to sit before the screen and go on and on typing stuff, max i have done is read a couple of short and great blogs but now what makes me still to even attempt this.

Okay it started as a challenge between me and my best friend.. i said that "if started blogging your blog would loose attention " sarcastically of course but i did not think that it would get me started, so i was challenged to write a blog and hence my first blog. My dear thank you for the "motivation" ;-). I do not know whether this is just a profile created to waste some more space in the Google server or  i would really coutinue to blog effectively. Depends !!!

So now you say that i should not be blogging just for the sake of some challenge or something?  Well than i will just consider this as my entry into this blogging stuff and let me see how i go on with it. Come on people i need to know what is what before i could become a " blogger " ;-). They say you could talk stuff in your mind to the world, let me learn and try my hand at this. One thing i would wish my blogs to be is "short and sweet ". See you all soon with my blogs HOPEFULLY.