Bhavana penned

16-mar-2012 I reached the Schiphol airport rather early after finishing formalities of handling over the keys of the home I had rented in Holland. The lady from the housing consultancy had arrived 10 minutes earlier than I had expected (for which she apologized) . We finished the formalities within 10 minutes and the Taxi had arrived at the door at 10:35 am. I said “good bye” to the lady housing consultant and got into the taxi to reach the train station in Dordrecht city of Holland. I had planned to board 11-54 am train (the direct train from Dordrecht to Schiphol runs once in an hour) but since the formalities of handing over keys had finished rather early, I took 10:54 am train and within one hour, I was in Schiphol airport (yes, just 1 hour, trains here in Holland are rather fast and even the local trains travel at a speed of 126 kilometers per hour) . So I finished all the formalities of “checking in” and “security checks” rather fast. "Security check" is...

I am not generalizing here, but I personally feel and have experienced that >most< European men are gentlemen than Indian men. They make way for me, they open the door for me. On streets, men in cars stop when I am crossing the road for me to pass.  These are very small things but still make such huge impact on human relations and our perception on other species . In India, most men in higher posi tions treat women like >things to be discarded< kind. (I wonder how these men behave in their personal lives) These kind of men have no respect for an individual. Even now Indian men treat women as an "item".  I feel very bad to be pointing out this that I have met a very few Indian men who are decent and gentlemanly!  Most Indian men I have met are Chauvinistic in their ways!   This  unfortunately  or fortunately do not get along with my nature since I am highly individualistic person. I do not know whether it is my bad luck that I have met more...

Kiran had visited me in Holland on 26 th of January and had stayed till 29 th of January and we had planned to visit Rotterdam during his visit and a stroll and walk through Dordrecht bridge and streets. 27 th of January: On this day I had to go to work since it was a working day and I did not want to apply leave since I had transition work to be completed and it was the start of “month end closure”. So I left the day at around 15.00 pm and had planned it out with Kiran to meet near to the place where we stay and had ordered taxi to take us to the Dordrecht Bridge. I was excited since the day unlike previous days was very sunny and I thought it was a good day for a stroll and photography and I was not disappointed. We walked for around 2 hours. Here are some pictures from this walk The walk was magnificent. Holland people are crazy about bikes (bicycles) and why not the country is flat and it is easy to ride them, even to work during any weat...

Dordrecht, Holland Near the home I accommodate in Dordrecht Holland, there is a small pond which is full of birds, including swans.. Some of the pictures....

02-Jan-2012 Dordrecht, I got mobile broadband connection, jupii and its working nicely at the moment :-) I chose a 1934 home which was nicely reconstructed from the 3 options I was given by the client (I am becoming very adventurous).  Its quite nice house- 2 bed room (I dont know why I need 2 bedroom). Good re-construction. I feel like living in a old village home though. Wood floor and wood stairs and so on :-) Tried the washing machine for the first time and washed couple of old towels I found in this house as a trial.. 03-Jan-2012 Today morning was a stormy one, both weather-wise and otherwise :-( I had to catch a bus, so I took the directions (paper print out from internet). It was raining heavily and  I was carrying an umbrella, and my purse and my laptop. It was bloody windy, raining and I soaked properly and was trying to forget my disappointment of my neatly ironed hair (without which it looks as if it is unkempt) getting drenched ...

Find Part 1 here Find Part 2 here Part 3: 23-Dec-2011          Finally, the day to fly to Czech Republic for Christmas holidays and New Year celebrations had arrived. It was an evening flight I had to board and fortunately Holland and Czech Republic are in the same time zone (I am writing about time zone here just to “educate” my readers :-p) . I wished all my new Dutch colleagues “Merry Christmases’ and Happy New years” and left office at 13.00 pm and took a taxi to Zwijndrecht train station. I had written down my train timings from stations Zwijndrecht-Rotterdam-Schiphol and I boarded the train from Zwijndrecht as per the time schedule which was 13.41 pm . I reached Rotterdam train station without any issues. In this station, I saw a train ticket conductor and asked him when I could expect the next train to Schiphol and which platform I should be waiting for the train (I had a feeling that he might have an idea!) . He did not seem...

Find Part 1 here Part 2: …. So I reached my "four star hotel" at last and I was starving. I had a “clever” guess that the costs of the food in four star's in-house restaurant are maddeningly high. I had previously stayed in two “four star hotels” before, one in Bratislava and one in Prague . In both places, I used to either visit inexpensive restaurants for dinner or I used to buy bread and fruits in a nearby super market. So, I browsed through the net in a hope to find a restaurant which might serve decent meal with inexpensive price. But I was disappointed!   This "four star hotel" is cleverly situated next to the River Maas, I say >cleverly< because there is nothing you can find next to this hotel apart from river Maas and ferries on them and loads of bicycles next to this hotel. It looks like this  "four star hotel" wants to make sure that they get their guests to eat in their in-house expensive restaurant. There seems to be ...

Part 1: I am assigned to work in Holland for next three months for a transition project. The place I will be working in Holland is called Zwijndrecht which is located in the province of South Holland , Netherlands . Zwijndrecht is safe guarded from getting itself submerged into the sea (since most of the parts of Holland are below sea level) by series of construction projects in the southwest of the Netherlands called Delta Works. (Phew, I am saved for next three  months) Air travel... I wonder whose "brilliant" idea it is to restrain the amount of liquid to be taken in our cabin luggage on airplanes. I somehow have a feeling that this is an US security officials “invention” just after the 9/11. To me this looks like a “security Theater act” to give an impression to the US citizens that US securities “ARE” doing something about their security. I mean what the heck will I do with my eye lotion while flying?? I do not like this  “security Theater act”...