2 fantastic weeks....and now im back =(

sighzzzzz.....i am SAD to be back......i have had two fabulous, no fantabulous weeks in Switzerland and am soo sad to be back....
Well week one was crazy with the mad rush of the conference and week two with the mad rush of trying to see as much of suisseland as possible - till two days before my departure i realized i needed to cool my heels or would need a vacation to recover from this vacation!!!...anyhoo, i will space out my updates on my time there, so i have something to write about over the next week or so.....

Well first of all i can say without a doubt that the symposium was one of the most memorable experiences of my life!!....it was just wonderful meeting people from over 50 countries interacting, learning, discussing....
sure there were 600 business people and world leaders, people like Martin Wolf (he is as articulate in person as in his book and his columns), Christine Lagaard (the extremely impressive and elegant French foreign trade minister), Daniel Borel, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and not to mention President and Vice Presidents of institutes like the IMF, ADB and Kiel Institute for World Economy.....
yet, the best part of the symposium and what made it so very special were the 200 students there.....as i reminisce on those three days in May i remember what my friend told me before we left.....that the conference is in Switzerland is immaterial, what makes it so special are the students there, it could be held ANYWHERE in the world but if you had the same set of people it would be just as fantastic.....how very true.......
it was amazing to meet such a varied group of people who had in common that they were smart, intelligent, warm, well traveled, well read, concerned about so much, not indifferent and who had an opinion on almost everything!!....conversation flowed so easily on everything from unemployment in Europe, what's wrong with the US, gay marriages to traveling by train in India, Tom Cruise, Sex and the City and Schengen visas....as Grace and I discussed on the flight back more than anything its the intellectual stimulation that we missed.....its been only 2 weeks yet is feels like a month.....

Paris - Summer 2005

PARIS!!!!!......the City of Light, it has been the one place that has perpetually remained on top of my must visit destinations. Ever since i can remember, if i could have chosen to visit any city in the world it would have been Paris. So my trip to France (i was in around Paris, also Giverny and Versailles) last year was one of my best EVER! i LOVED paris...for my first two days in Paris my reaction every morning was this - Was it a dream?No!OMG...im in Paris!!!!!!!!.....i wish i could pack my bags and go back there.....right now.......


I dont like the Eiffel Tower - i think its ugly, yet i loved picinicing at the Champ de Mars till almost 3 in the morning and cheering every time the twinkling lights on the tower went on. I loved the Musée d'Orsay and spent hours enjoying the amazing impressionist collection. I loved the cour Puget at the Louvre...i took a nice nap here and it seemed very far away from the general chaos and overpowering feeling off the Danon wing.....i loved walking aimlessly because you never knew what you would see....a lone saxophonist by the Seine, a choir singing at the Place des Vosges, old houses with wonderful courtyards and secluded parks...most of all i loved getting up every morning to the scent of freshly baked bread from the bakery right below....i even channeled my inner Amélie Poulain and skipped stones at the Canal St. Martin...and even though it was very touristy i loved Montmartre and its painters....

There are so many stereotypes that define Paris and Parisians and both the city and the people and the city lived up to some and didn't to others....i had the most wonderful time there....i cant wait to go back....

Thailand - Dec 2004

Am losing track of time....Thailand seems so long back, i had to think really hard as to whether it was 2003 or 2004....sigh!
Anyway, i didnt like it much. You know amazing Thailand, the great exotic tourist destination?? ya only cos of the great massage places, prostitutes and ladyboys....Thighland, with its capital Bangcock and great beaches of Phuckit.....ive heard that more times than id care but its gets a point across. Not to crib but i did feel like it was over rated as a destination, Malaysia has prettier landscapes and beaches and Bangkok is like the worst of Delhi....still it was a special trip since it was my first trip abroad without family and well white water rafting on the mekong river was really nice....

Mainstream Media Bias!

Aha....so the *mainstream* (and liberal) media finally decided to cover Stephen Colberts address at the White House Correpondents' dinner, never mind it was four days after the event! And they probably wouldn't have done even this much if it wasn't for the unending chatter about it on blogosphere. I am disappointed, even the Washington Post and the New York Times let me down.

So he made a lot of fun of the press corps (and Dubya dear, but will get to that in a minute), isn't that to be expected??Was there a mutual agreement of sorts to completely ignore his gig so that it might be forgotten as a bad dream?? And now that they have HAD to report it, the general argument for having ignored it previously? -It just wasn't funny....
Are you kidding me???Shouldn't that judgment be left to op-ed contributors and t.v critics??Shouldn't a newspaper report the event as it happened??Im sorry but not one paper even mentioned Colbert while reporting on the event.....WTF???!!!!!

And having seen his entire 20(+some) minute address, all i can say is - it WAS funny. Sure it sagged at places and that skit just didn't affect me, but there were some lines that had me in splits (esp his references to Fox News - muahahaha). And made Dubya look like he was going to get up right there and punch Colbert in the face (apparently someone said he looked bored.......umm i don't think so....he looked like he was going to blow his fuse). Sure, there are the normal questions raised about the line between making fun of a President and making fun of a Presidency and Colbert clearly did the former. Yeah, so he says similar stuff on the 'Colbert Report', but to say it to the face of George W. - it was stinging!

Some of the highlights (i know they are probably allover the net but i cant resist):

I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least. And by these standards, we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.

Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in "reality." And reality has a well-known liberal bias.
So, Mr. President, please, pay no attention to the people that say the glass is half full. 32% means the glass -- it's important to set up your jokes properly, sir. Sir, pay no attention to the people who say the glass is half empty, because 32% means it's 2/3 empty. There's still some liquid in that glass is my point, but I wouldn't drink it. The last third is usually backwash.

I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message: that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound -- with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.

Everybody asks for personnel changes. So the White House has personnel changes. Then you write, "Oh, they're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg!

As excited as I am to be here with the president, I am appalled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying America, with the exception of Fox News. Fox News gives you both sides of every story: the president's side, and the vice president's side.

OK....so i went overboard....my point is ....it WAS funny and it was said to W's face....you go Colbert!

Tickling, itchy feet*

Yes, they really are....itching to go somewhere, anywhere, away from this silly little place where the weather report perpetually reads humid with rain, rain and more rain.
I was thinking about this today and i came to the realization that the reason i am so fidgety is simply because i haven't ever spent longer than five months at a stretch here before heading of for my vacations....so thanks to my internship this record has now been broken.

And of course now that the wonderful people at work have extended my internship further, well, no nice long summer break for me. Of course the very fact that i am extending my stay with the evil oil company has made sure that I will spend my miserable remaning time at work being the butt of all of Bens jokes , since he never misses an opportunity to tell me how i am helping suppress human rights in Nigeria.....anyway i digress.

Coming back to my travel itch, well i am heading to Switzerland for two weeks and that just sunk in today and i am FINALLY feeling excited about my trip there.....(so i do get to scratch my itch after all =P)....got me wondering if perhaps i didn't hit me before cos all my travel arrangements have been made for me already...no need to pay for my tickets , accommodation, transport, nothing to figure out....i think working out the nitty gritties of any trip is half the rush, but i digress again. What really got my goat was that the schedule of speakers and different workshops and sessions at the symposium is now out and i am now happily deciding which ones are most interesting and a must attend....aah this is bliss.....i think my itch will return in june once more, till then heres to Switzerland....

*That i owe to lonelyplanet.com ......i shall not plagiarise.....

Ladakh - Summer 2004

Its strange in so many ways that Ladakh borders the Kashmir valley....they seem like two different world, yet its probably a tribute to Indias geographical and ethnic diversity that they are part of the same state. The barren mountains and green valleys, the Indus and the Zanskar rivers, the beautiful Pangog Tso lake and above all the peaceful spiritual monasteries and adorable llama boys all made Ladakh one of my best trips ever....
From the not so wonderful stories i have heard about Llhasa and how development and crass construction has ruined the majestic and beautiful the Potala Palace, perhaps Ladakh should be considered the new Tibet....

On a different note, i feel that i have taken some of my best photos in Ladakh. I compiled a mosaic of some of them below and while it doesn't do the pics justice its an efficient way to put up pics....=)

Completely Desensitized - that's me!

Since i started interning this past Jan, my daily routine has become even more drab (if that is indeed possible). My regular dinner routine over the last 4 months has been to sit infront of my trusted laptop watching episodes of Law and Order and Sex and the City and eat whatever i can scrounge up with least time and effort required. As my weekends are now totally free, i guiltlessly turn into a total slob and couch potato eating all kind of junk while glued to the images playing on the tiny screen of my laptop.

However its confession time and i need to say that after months and seasons (not episodes, seasons, indeed i think i remember all the dialogues of Sex by now) of L&O and SATC, no crime is grotesque enough and no sexual situation perverse enough to even make me wince. The saying 'I just ate' when someone says something remotely off putting doesn't apply to me anymore....infact i can eat through anything. The latest scenario played out thus:

Me: Eating from a tub of chocolate ice cream and watching SATC episode 609, A woman's right to shoes.....(dialogue as follows)....
Charlotte: We have a teabag situation... (what she means is her fiance drinking tea and leaving the teabags all around the house)
Samantha: I understand...just breathe through your nose(what she means becomes clear in a second...)
Charlotte: ??...huh...??
Samantha: You know, teabagging?? when you put a mans balls in your mouth??
Me: Eww....thats kinda gross....but this ice cream is not.....*take another huge spoon and stuff myself*......

I do not think this is good sight of me.....

My Mi:III dilemma

Am currently oscillating between paying $8 to go watch Mi:III in theatres or grabbing hold of a pirated copy of the movie as soon as it available and doing my bit to make sure the movie earns, well, eight dollars less. Interestingly about the same time last year this question was a no brainer....i actually liked tom cruise and both the previous MI movies.

Of course then the media monster that is TomKat happened and TC turned psycho midget..... and it wasn't even the molestation of Oprah's couch that did it. Note - i like Mat Lauer, i do not like people calling him "glib" or people who have never had babies saying postpartum depression can be cured by vitamins and exercise and that psychology is mumbo jumbo. In anycase i think Mat Lauer didn't like being called glib either cos after that episode of the today show no one has called TC anything but psycho, including (as a final nail in the coffin) the NYT. (HA!)
Sad thing too.....i always related Cruise to Jerry Maguire, one of my fave movies ..... Unfortunately now i relate him to the following headline -

Tom Cruise: I'll eat placenta!

*Grotesque*.....i think i'll pay $8 to watch X-Men 3 instead....Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen...thats entertainment....plus Tomthumbs offscreen antics are more entertaining than Mi:III could possibly be - and free!