vlieland

Vlieland
Vlieland is one of the West Frisian Islands, lying in the Wadden Sea. Its sand stretches are worth a few days under the sun (if any...). Its flag is white (of the sand) and the green (of the grass)... sign of vlieland's varied landscape!!!!

seagull

now i know what jonathan livingston seagull meant by hovering around a ship for ship...

marseille a la realviz

the view from the balcony ....

marseille panorama

the next post better be about repeated stress syndrome -- thats what i suffer from right now and cant post further ....

callonque de marseille

Marseille - one of the most fascinating places i've been to in a while --- a trail through the haughty calanques, some climbing and scambering and you have your own rocky beach in the mediterranean!! Ofcourse to pamper the lazy gene, dont forget to take along some pastis, Pissaladière and 'swimming slippers'...

weinheim

At the Weinheim Castle - its a nice walk up and theres always a nice beer at the end of it!!! The town itself is pretty and the rathaus a nice place to sign the vows .... if you are stuck somewhere close to mannheim and dont know what to do - definately take a day trip to weinheim. Its worth it even for a lazy desi!

This picture was clicked at a Orchid exhibition, Gangtok, Sikkim, India. But this isnt an orchid --- any idea what plant/flower this is? My new camera is really making me learn some more about the flora around me ...

Daffodils

The Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

---------William Wordsworth

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
lass: Liliopsida
Order: Liliales
Family: Liliaceae
Genus: Lilium

The Star and the Wheel...

Two sides of a barbed wire......................

DIY Chinese

Some quick chinese tips on the way to nathu-la. In case you want to hop over the border or in case they decide to do so ... I wonder if any one ever used the tips on the board. And, is there a corresponding board across the border? What do they teach ? Hindi? Nepali? Tibetan? Bhutia? Lepcha? If you know, do let me know...

wheat fields forever

Ready for harvest ... pic from the fields near Ramnagar, Uttranchal, India.

Datura

In most parts of India, Datura grows as a wasteland weed though it is also cultivated in some parts. This picture was taken in the buffer zone of the Jim Cobett National Park. The word Datura probably comes from Hindi dhatūrā (thorn apple). The highest species diversity of the plant occurs in Mexico. Datura contains the alkaloids scopolamine and atropine and has long been used as a poison and hallucinogen. The seed is also considered to have a strong aphrodisiac effects.

A really lazy desi is back ...

One year and one new camera later ...

I dont believe it!!!! It has been one year since my last post --- am getting even lazier than i thought i was!!!! Achievement indeed!!! The past year hasnt been particularly taxing, tiring or stressing. Its included an average number of holidays, a unusually low number of photos, and extremely long hours spent in trains!!! I guess not much incentive for taking snaps ... The last month in contrast was spent fully holidaying in the incredible land ... here are some of my latest pictures on a FX07....
In between Changu lake and Nathu-la ... It was a misty and cold day with showers later in the day. But the view was breathtaking and breathing not so easy... The picture is of the Twin lakes - one is completely frozen and the other completely melted! Since the two lakes dont appear to be connected, the systems are independent and therefore the existance of the two phases fully possible, but still a wonder by itself!

A lazy desi's guide to huenebedden

It was a semi-sunny, semi-rainy day in the province of drenthe - one of the least known in netherlands. We packed a lunch of meat cooked in wine and garlic and headed down on the country roads from Groningen towards Harem and continued towards Zuidlarden with the final destination Annen. 53 of the 54 known hunebedden in the netherlands are in the province of Drenthe. In Annen we saw three ourselves and the site of yet another one which has now been dismantled. These rock structures were built as burial sites along with the ones which are now below the ground and appear just as mounds. Today they are just popular day trips for all the bored dutch in and around Drenthe.

For all lazy desi's stuck in groningen here is a list of can do options:

1. Take a trip down to these hunebedden. You could either take a bus down, or drive down or even bike down. The flat dutch bike tracks will not tax even the laziest of people!!! Some of these stone structures are in some forest-like area. Take the chance to have a nice picnic lunch. some others are in present day towns. Take the opportunity and visit a local cafe and sit down with some nice coffee.


2. Paterswoldemeer trip. Take a bike and just head towards the south of the city. Instead of doing the official paterwoldemeer weg which covers not just the lake but also nearby towns like harem, just head down towards the lake. You could either take a swim in the sandy (man made) beach or a coffee in the cool blue(!) cafe, sit near the old windmill or even go rowing.

3. Zuidlardenmeer. Further south of Groningen is the Zuidlardenmeer. One could go surfiing, or rowing, or take a cruise in a boat, or simply just sit around there and ejoy everyone else doing things...


4. Drink Genever
5. Many many more ideas to follow as and when I try them out and like them :)

A lazy desi's guide to leaving home...

Dont be setimental!
definately no tears!
'cos whats beyond is better...
whats left behind is over
even if it is adorned ...
sometimes by a rainbow :)

the view from my window in bergstrasse .....
home in the fields (or should i say forest),
here i come ...

A lazy desi's guide to shifting...

How many lazy desi's does it take to shift ? None ... 'cos even a billion of them couldnt manage.

There is just way too much to do - cancel bills, change addresses, call up all the relevant people - telekom, GEZ, credit card, bank ... Add three rounds of cleaning to it - enough to satisfy german land ladies and real estate agents . I remember my mother's cleaning routines - she was armed with a whole entourage of people to help her and I am armed by a whole retinue of cleaning agents - no, not robots or sci-fi humanoids but not so plain and not so simple, not just cleaning fluids ... the queen of the lot if the "Scheuermilch" ... just a dab and it cleans! Then ofcourse there are the glassreinigers, sink-openers anti-kalks and carpet shampoos. But honestly, what is this is with germans (mainly middle aged and elderly) and their cleanliness fetish ...

Round three of cleaning starts on Wednesday .... Feel free to join in for a beginers course! Free admission to the course!

All this reminds me of house elves - do you think use magic or is scheuermilch powerful enough magic?


This is how heidelberg looks right now !!! Just enough snow and greyness to make shifting even more difficult. The static friction to get things done is way too high and the doing friction is pretty high too.

a lazy desi's guide to party cooking

Quiche---how much more french can it get!
made by an indian cook in a german kithen and add some greek feta - and its as international as it can get.
here is how i made it - the dough was kneaded (250g flour) with 1 spook oil, 1 spoon water, 1 spoon milk and 70 g butter. Ofcourse , the measures are just approximate. Fried the lardon(bauernsckinken) and added it to the creme fraiche, 2 eggs, 1 cup milk and onion rings and backe at level 5 (240 celcus) for 30 mins. The herb de provence sprinkled on top was the proverbial icing on the cake.
übrigens - the creme fraiche was substituted by quark and milk - and it works!
the spinach one was made by heating the spinach (gehackt) and added to 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, feta cubes and creme fraiche.
Apfelkuchen---i wonder why i can never cook from a reiepe.
the dough was made from a second hand very authentic A-Zreciepe book. Only haf the mixture was baked though(15 mins level 4/5). The apples were sliced and spread on the dough and the quark mixture poured on top to fill the spaces inbetween. Again only half the quark suggested by the reciepe was used. Baked at level 4 for 10 mins and poure the rest of the batter on top and continued baking at level 4 for 40 mins. Came out like a very nice layered cake.
Samosas---keema ones first.
Ground the cardamon, cinamon and cloves and fried them. Added the ground ginger,onins and garlic. Added the keema and peas. Stuffed in to blätterteig and baked. Were quite yummy!!!

More to follow ... when its less cold!

A lazy desi's attempt at europe travelling

Finally i had some real life experience at being a mother ... Serena, have you done your home work, Serena, have some salad, Serena dont say that, its impolite....More than all that, three hours of ice skating, baking and making chocoloate cakes, looking up the Kino schedule for Wallace and Gromit ... not to mention giving hugs .... its exhausting, challenging, fulfilling and definately out of the itinary for now!
Anyway ... what i decided to do (instead of eating keema and rice) is to post some pics on ....
so happy viewing ... while i do some "pet puja" .....


Starting from marseille, a drive along the coast got us to the city limits. From there
a walk along the calonques - follwing the black line .... and after just one wrong turn and a couple of slippery rocks, we reached this habour. It can be reached either by boat or by walking. A nice rocky beach where the sea gulls attached our slippers... and where i snorkelled for the first time in my life! After a few hours of swimming, some lazing in the sun rounded off by a drink of moresque, we started back for the city ... The day's delights were improved(?) increased(?) by the paanch mishali in the evening....


The same cove from another side...

Change of scene. change of city, change of country ....
Rowing along the canals in leiden ... actually the second time i have ever rowed in my life! the first ofcourse being in nanital - like all good delhites!!! We kidnapped some people from the banks, a fishing rod (returned it ofcourse) and landed on uncharted (?) territories (backyard of a friends house), and got chased (by the owner of the boat on a bike) and ...

A lazy desi's guide to Moresque

4 parts pastis
1 part sirop d'orgeat (almond syrup)
5 parts eau (ice cold water)




A perfect refreshing drink for a hot summer day!
The drink which brings back many memories - walks down the calonques, chatting, giggling, lots of swimming, some snorkelling and wonderful cold pastis ...

A lazy desi's first attempt at blogging!

Finally some tech-savy blogging!
I had been using my friends as blogs till recently - henceforth you will be the blog-victim ...

So a big thanks to every one reading this!

Some words of wisdom for my very first post - Sleep deep!