Homecoming

A weird feeling I must say. Yes, I have this mixed feeling about homecoming. I have stayed out of my home many times before for different lengths of time. This has been the longest. Each time I was excited about coming back. But this time it’s different. I dont know why. Maybe because I know how the previous homecomings gradually turned out into, this time around I am not that excited. It is always a bit different coming back to India after being abroad. The state of things in India always comes by as a shock when we return after a while. And to add on, the state of things in India seem to be deteriorating rapidly. I was quite happy till I reached the airport. First Delhi and then Bangalore. I was very impressed and proud that the airports were maintained at international standards. The facilities and cleanliness were in par with the other international airports that I had visited. Infact, I felt they were few steps ahead in terms of providing assistance and service to travellers. In Delhi, we had airport personnel guiding us and assisting us at every stage. In Bangalore, a spacious and well equipped baby room was in place and restrooms were spic and span with janitors present round the clock. I had flown solo with my 1.9 year old son to Paris from India a couple of years back and was in tears by the time I reached Paris. I found no proper help or guidance in either Doha or Paris airports.

I stepped out of Bangalore airport still with a good feeling. We reached the parking lot where our pre-booked taxi was parked and we were in for a horrible urine stench coming from all around us. It was so bad that my son now 3 years old exclaimed ‘Mom, its smelly. ‘I didnt understand why this parking lot was being used for public urination while I was pretty sure I saw ‘Toilet’ signs even outside the airport exit. Just when we were trying to get into our cab, our driver went behind few parked cars on the opposite side and did the very same act that was the sole reason for that horrible stench – public urination!!

I told myself not to lose heart, Bangalore is still a beautiful place and is livable. We used the toll road for few kilometres and the roads weren’t that bad, not much traffic and even the driver was driving decently. I was relieved. We crossed the toll booth and after a few mins all hell broke loose. All I saw till I reached home was vehicles and more vehicles of all sorts, all squeezing into roads that even after being widened have no capacity to accommodate any more of them. Traffic police everywhere but unable to manage any of the chaos happening around them, all the while inhaling those poisonous fumes just as much or more than the hoardes of daily commuters. The way people were driving was also no less than car racing, each trying to get ahead of the other, coming so close to each other that a touch and a collision was waiting to happen. Lane driving in India means everyone makes their own lane and drives. The lane markings are not even noticed.

We leave the peripheral roads and enter the inner city roads, which are as narrow as ever but more crowded. No proper functional footpaths nor dedicated pedestrian crossings. In every country we visited so far, pedestrians are considered to be priority and their convenience is given importance. But in India, with every step towards modernisation, we consider pedestrians to be superhumans, who can do just about anything from flying over holes and ditches in the invisible footpaths to crossing a busy road like no vehicles exist. Seeing this I was getting to worry as I had lost touch of my superhuman side living abroad. But this is a basic survival skill here.

Finally, we reach home and I must say whatever the outside world is like, however intimidating it is, a home is a home and seeing your family and friends just masks the scare. The things that really make a difference on homecoming are first, your family, though they might not bring in the band baaja or light the 1000 walas on your arrival, their silence and their subdued enthusiasm and acts of love are enough to flood you with a satisfaction of coming home. On homecoming, friends, more and more of them who drop by, give you the feeling of being wanted. And after years when you get to be with old friends and relive the old days with them, that is such a good feeling! Neighbours, doodhwala, vegetable vendor, corner of the road grocerer, barber, temple priest everyone comes up to you and speaks to you and makes you realize you aren’t forgotten.

And things that keep you busy in the coming days are the endless list of functions and gatherings—functions for birth and birthdays, functions for mundans and upanayanas, ceremonies for naming and house warmings, coming together for engagement and marriages and gatherings even for the dead—name it and we have it.

Customs, rituals, traditions and more. Greeting, meeting, eating and more.

Then you cannot forget the countless festivals and festivities—Sankranti, Ugadi, Dussera, Diwali, Shivratri, Krishna Janmashtami, Lakshmi and Tulsi poojas and Christmas and New year’s eve!! More reasons to meet, eat and merry.

You also start visiting temples more often as this was one thing that was difficult to do when abroad. And this also helps you to somehow find a sense of calmness and peace, which is very much required when surrounded by chaos.

Then last but the best homecoming payoff is the mouth watering and mind blowing array of food choices you get here. This will just make you wonder why you were away from home in the first place. No other place in the world can serve you food to satisfy your Indian taste buds than our very own India. The bhel puris or the biryanis, the indo-Chinese fried rices or the indo-Italian pizzas, the road side eateries or the fine dinning restaurants, the weight watchers or the weight loaders, the swiggys or the zomatos, the list and choices are endless. And if you are a food lover like me, you will very well understand why this one reason is enough to come back home.

Now after few months of homecoming, the excitement is dying down slowly but so is the anxiety. But I am also feeling very much at home. The traffic, the garbage, the dirt, the people annoy me less and I walk through the crowd and the smoke on the pothole and poop sprinkled roads with confidence. I gather up the superhuman spirit in me to cross busy roads without pedestrian crossing facilities, travel by public transport from one end of the city to the other and also manage to drive on the traffic ridden roads along with ruthless fellow drivers who could risk my life and their own any minute with just a second of haste or with an action of carelessness.

But I am doing all this with a feeling that this is my home and I do have to bear with these side effects or try to bring a change in whichever way possible and not just complain. My son too had missed up on the cultural and traditional aspects and also his family and friends all this while, so this is a small price to pay to see him happy coming Home!

A Minute to Remember

Prelude

There always has to be some adventure in our trips, maybe because straightforward touristy place hopping is not our type. My Bigger Half (BH) is a very outdoorsy person, very much interested in outdoor adventurous activities. But I am not an adrenaline junkie nor a thrill seeker and surely do not consider myself to be in good shape for many physically challenging activities. Yet I follow suit my BH in many of the activities he pursues. And this time my BH got his hearts hooked on DIVING, not just from anywhere but from a plane thousands of feet up in the air. Now I had seen and heard of it before, and as usual viewing it on TV always makes it look easy breezy. But did I have it in me to jump from that heights was my initial thoughts. Next came the concern of the paralyzing, stomach-falling feeling that I always get on roller coasters or any speed rides. I hate this queasy feeling which has made me stay away from theme parks all my life. So the days before the jump were filled with anxious queries. My BH kept his eyes on the skies (literally!) whenever we would step out. He would suddenly spot an aircraft and tell me “Look at that plane, we might be jumping off from that height”. I couldn’t bear seeing planes thereafter.

TAKE 1

We had chosen Prague as our sky diving destination, as the sky diving company, Sky Centrum Prague, was providing very economic rates for budget conscious travelers with a good safety rate. We booked our slots for October 2016, though the autumn chill had already set in. My BH kept chanting “skydiving” all day and I was just trying to keep my nerves cool. In an unfortunate turn of events, on the day of our travel to Prague, our wallet and permits got stolen in the Parisian metro and we were unable to board our flights. We were forced to cancel all our bookings for the trip along with the skydiving slot reservation.

TAKE 2

My BH did not give up, he again booked us for a tandem jump for November. But we were out of luck again and the company cancelled our dives owing to bad weather just 2 days before our journey. I finally removed the expectation of (and the fear of) diving from my mind. BH was quite disappointed and kept sketching the next attempt stealthily.

FINAL TAKE

Our final attempt was scheduled for June 8, 2017, a day before our darling son’s 3rd birthday. Nothing went wrong and we reached Pargue. The company hadn’t cancelled the dives either. On 8th, we were supposed to be meeting a person from the company at a meeting point at 1 pm and then follow his instructions to the drop zone. We spent that morning roaming Pargue old town, the famous Charles Bridge, and even tasting the famous Prague street food trdelník (though we had decided to keep our stomachs empty before the sky dive).

And then it started, a series of dive cancelling incidents.

First, after we reached the meeting point we couldn’t find anybody there. After calling up the office, we were told we should be all boarding their vehicle and that would take us to the skydiving spot. And they wouldn’t transport nondivers. We were a group of 7 adults and a toddler, out of this only 5 had decided to dive. So we insisted that we follow them with our own vehicle. But they were not completely satisfied with this and started telling us that they will give us directions to the place and we have to be at the place by 2 pm or else we wouldn’t be able to dive. The place was 50 mins away from the city and it was already 1.15 pm. So we were all in a fix. I was weirdly happy that it looked like I wouldn’t after all be jumping out of a plane. My BH was totally disappointed and furious as he had conveyed our situation correctly to the company and was totally expecting to dive that day.

But my BH did not give up. He told the company that we would drive up to the place and then discuss. So we started to drive by 1.45 pm in that direction. I had already started nagging my BH telling him that God is repeatedly hampering our attempts at skydiving, which means he is indicating that it is not a good idea to dive. When God is giving us hints, we are not supposed to go against it and then regret. This made my BH more furious. He did drive like he was in a mad race. But to his bad luck, we got struck in an underground maze of Prague tunnels, lost the GPS signal and lost the right exit, costing us some more precious time. But my BH still didn’t call it quits. He came out of the maze and got back into the race!

Our skydiving destination was Pribram Airport, an old airport now used by flying and paragliding clubs near the outskirts of Prague. With no proper road signs or people who spoke English, even after reaching close to the airport area, we got lost (with GPS navigation!). After going round in circles, we got back on track and finally found our drop zone.

Minutes Before the Dive

When we reached there it was nearing 3 pm. I thought “now for sure we can’t t dive”. I wanted to dive and yet I didn’t want to dive. This was my weird predicament and so I was happy if the dive was called off without me having to quit. My husband went in to speak with the staff. This was the nail-biting, suspense-filled wait of my life! Will I or wont I die.. Ooops dive!! My BH came back with a grin: he had managed to get us all into two slots. He was diving in a slot before ours at 4 pm and I and our friends were in the same batch at 4.30. My joy turned into nervousness.

We had to sign all the disclaimer forms and were shown a short video as a flash training (or crash training, so I thought) on the do’s and dont’s of skydiving, the exit and landing positions and the hand signals used by the instructors. They promised that the free fall would last a minute. To add on to my superstition, when our turn came and we were supposed to get ready for the dive, I didn’t get the suit of my size, I didn’t get the harness, nor was I shown the diving position. I was not happy with all these negative indicators. But I got suited up in an over-sized suit and waited for my turn. In my mind and openly I accepted that I was afraid of diving. But what scared me more was the fear of the unknown. I didn’t know what would happen after I leap out of the plane at those heights, how I would feel physically and mentally and how I would react to it. What if I go berserk in midair, all panicky and shocked! What if I don’t jump after reaching the doors! Too many what ifs running in my mind. I just kept that nervous expression going. I must have been the only one like that. My husband was excited and so were our friends and their parents aged 52 and 60 who had both signed up for the dive. I thought now I can’t back out. I will regret it for sure!

My husband went in first and came back enthralled. He came up to me and told me there was nothing to worry and everything would happen smoothly and quickly….

Then it Started

I think we might have ascended for 10 mins or so in our tiny little plane carrying an instructor/jumpmaster for every participant diver, so a total of 14 ppl + 1 camera man+ of course the pilot. The jumpmasters seemed so relaxed and were chit chatting with each other animatedly. And we, on the other hand, were looking at each other and smiling nervously. Each having racing thoughts of the jump. The plane ascends rather rapidly to the needed heights, and the view from the window keeps zooming out with passing seconds. As usual it was my internal fight of trying to overcome my stupid fear of the unknown. I prayed to all Gods to keep the entire thing safe and to help me overcome my fears or at least keep it in control and not jeopardize myself and others or give the guy responsible for me a tough time!!

Though the jumpmasters looked like they are not going to be diving any time soon, they were promptly putting on their gears and getting their respective first time divers ready on their laps by strapping them to themselves as tightly as possible. But for some reason, my guy was not getting ready when his colleagues had started their routine. I thought maybe we were the last ones to dive so he is waiting for the last few mins. Just when we all reached 4000 meters, one guy shouted out the altitude and everyone was nearly ready by then. Finally, my instructor asked me to sit on his lap and strapped me tightly. The other jumpmasters started to make their special hand shakes and hi-fi’s (a small routine of theirs, I guess to cheer us up). I too shook hands and did hi-fi’s but not with the same spirit as theirs.

Did I or Didn’t I

The cameraman sprinted to the door and threw it open. And I knew this was it. To top it, the first girl about to dive started screaming her lungs out in the aircraft even before the walk up to the door. It made my resolution to stay composed shakey. Though it looked like there was a gap of few minutes between each jump, in reality we all exited the flight very quickly one after the other. In no time, I was near the door and the instructor was asking me to get into the exit position. For known reasons, my legs were not lifting up and the instructor had to repeat himself thrice before I managed to get into my position. The sense of giving up came to me in seconds. But as it was not in my control to quit, my instructor had made the dive. I looked up and rested on his shoulders, and the next second of exiting the aircraft we had tilted face down beginning our free fall.

The jumpmaster kept showing hand signals and asking me to leave my hands free and asking me to do thumbs up (as if posing for a snap, though no cameras were around!). The wind kept blowing on my face but I reminded myself to breathe from my nose. I tried to keep looking down and not close my eyes or open my mouth (to shout) all this with my hands still up in the thumbs up position (I had forgotten about them). We kept falling with good speed but at those heights the distance covered is unnoticeable. I just hung on to my nerves and stayed calm. I then realized that I did not get the stomach-falling sensation. Aaha! What a relief! The temperature was not too low as to freeze us and the wind speed was not too high as to make breathing difficult. The visibility was very clear. All in all, a perfect day to skydive.

The jumpmaster was still making signs in the air one after the other and I was not understanding the hand signals at all as I already had too much on my mind and he was too quick (he just wanted to get done with his protocol). So I wasn’t prepared when the instructor deployed the parachute during our free fall, what could have been way less than a minute. I jerked up and down like a toy thrown in the air before reaching a vertical position and took a few more seconds to register that we were gliding in the air with the parachute and the dreaded free fall was done and dusted. I thanked all the Gods of the world and started to enjoy my view. I could see clusters of tiny houses, green meadows, lakes that looked like potholes and even highways with actively moving vehicles. I didn’t know why but the view didn’t feel unique as it looked very similar to what we would usually see from an aircraft window. I had expected the feel of getting a bird’s eye view while actually flying like a bird to be something different. Maybe the fall and the nervousness prior to it had numbed my senses to an extent or the pair of glasses that I was given to wear was with smudges hence giving the effect of an aircraft’s window. But all this came to an abrupt stop as my parachute started to swirl and jerk and twist and turn. And that disliked stomach-falling, stomach-lurching feeling that I oh so hate started. I couldn’t tolerate it. To top it, I heard my copilot say ” oh ohh! ” and he kept steering the parachute in a jerky, swirly way. I thought I had thanked the Gods a bit too early. I had got excited about having gone through the free fall without a scratch or a shout a bit too hastily. And here I was clinging on to dear life by few threads, literally! After a couple of minutes, the frequency of the twists and turns reduced slightly and when I could catch my breath, I slowly asked my executor “Is everything alright?” and he answered with an unflustered rather relaxed tone ” yes, everything is fine.” Was this how they were trained, not to show fear in their voices in the face of emergencies so that we don’t start panicking and shout our lungs out or was this entire maneuver a part of their flying routine, I knew not. Now I again started to pray, “God don’t kill me for thanking you a bit too early, please God please!” I also started praying that he quit all this acrobatics and got me back to land as soon as he could. He also seemed to be in a hurry as we were the last batch and he might have dived and glided 15 times before this all day and wanted to go home, so the land was getting closer quickly. But that feeling in my stomach with every jerk and turn was not letting me enjoy the gliding completely. I had feared I would face this during the free fall but free fall seemed like a piece of cake compared to this gliding. But in between the turns and twists I did try to take my mind off my stomach and enjoy.

When the little airstrip was getting more and more closer, I was already celebrating the success of having achieved another challenging adventure. I was soon asked to take the landing position. I quickly pulled up my legs and kept it perpendicular to my body. And by completing the last circle around the airport, we finally came close to the ground with good speed. I thought I would feel a bad thump on my landing spot. But surprisingly we landed pretty smoothly for the speed, mostly because he took all the impact on himself and I landed on his lap. I got up feeling completely dizzy. I somehow managed to shake my saviour’s hand and thank him for the ride and to my surprise he took it with a gentle smile, the first ever since our meeting. Maybe he is so used to seeing the first timers go through a full cycle of feelings from beginning till the landing and so he doesn’t get over friendly at first and lets us be in our space and finally ends it with a humble smile when we are finally exhilarated.

My BH was near the landing patch ready with the camera to capture my first reactions. I walked up to him or swaggered up to him shouting and hugged him to thank him for again making me do something that I secretly wanted to but would not have done without his persuasion!

I am not the bravest nor am I fearless but I am happy I fight myself to do such adventures and make memories for a lifetime!

-Missadventure

A Drive along the French Countryside

Though being in France for quite sometime, its countryside was left unexplored by us till now. Our first time in France was filled with travels to all the European nations around France and to the main sites in France from Paris, Normandy, Marseille to Lourdes. We were busy picking up all the touristy must see places for our itineraries. This time around, things took a surprisingly new turn. We did start of our tripping this time around by visiting places outside of France to countries we had left out the last time and would have continued doing so if it was not for a friend of my BH who asked him to join him on a small roadtrip outside of Paris by car. My BH had a long cherished dream of driving in Europe but had never got to do it. But when opportunity came calling,  he just grabbed it by its tail to never let it go.

First Drive

Our first drive was through the Loire valley region stopping along first at the Beaumarchis park and then at a wine cellar and factory.

Loire valley is famous for its vineyards and wines, historic towns and cities with beautiful chateaux or castles, and its natural beauty. This region in central France is a short drive from Paris.

Our ride on this trip was a comfortable white hatchback. All baggage dumped,  all seats filled,  and all seat belts in check,  we started our drive. My BH and DS were both excited for their own reasons. One eager to set new speeding records on European soil and the other wanting to try a different  means of transport as he was bored of other vehicles like bus, train and flight. 

After leaving behind the hustle bustle of Paris, you are treated in for a relaxed drive with the loire river besides you and beautiful towns and villages dotting the route with the sightings of a chateau here and there.

Our first site of visit on that day was the wildlife park at Autréche, Reserve Beaumarchais. This place is an hour’s journey from paris and closer to the Loire valley town of Amboise. This park has a collection of homebred game animals like the wild boar, stag, spotted deer, redbuck, sheep,  nando, emu, ostrich and the bison. These are all placed in open fenced enclosures spread across 60 acres of land. The vegetation and terrain for each species has been created according to their natural habitats like the wild boars are placed in a woody region with many trees and clay like soil while the ungulates are placed in a grassland like area. A petit train takes you into the park and the driver cum guide stops at every enclosure and explains about the animals, their characteristics, their diet, their mating habits and also feeds them and gets them closer to the train. I also found out later that these very animals also become laid on a platter at the restaurant in the park. Which doesn’t seem fair on the animals but game meat is considered a delicacy here. But for those who dont want to taste these delicacies, there are picnic benches in the kids play area adjacent to the resident wallabies. So we had our packed lunches here. 

The entire experience was enjoyable for our DS. He got upclose with some of the animals like the wallabies hopping  around freely in the kids play area and a female stag that he got to pet. He was amazed to see the ostrich and bison as they looked exactly as in his book. Ever since the trip to the park, he makes me tell him about his trip to the deer park (as he calls it) as a story every night before sleep. 

This park surely makes its way into my list of places to take a toddler and also to enjoy yourself. 

Wine Making Tour

After a lovely time at the park we headed further into the Loire valley to Montlouis-sur-Loire. Here we visited the Montlouis cave des producteurs. An old quarry that was turned into a wine cellar and factory. A cave dug out at the bottom of this hill acts as the cellar for the wines of this region. Inside you get a self-guided tour of the cellar and factory with an audio-video tape with a free wine tasting at the end. The grapes grown in the vineyards of the fertile Loire valley with a traditional vinification method used in the natural cellar gives a distinct taste to the still and sparkling wines that are sold here. After the tour and the wine tasting we headed home with our own bottles of Montlouis with us. 

We did try to visit one of the numerous chateaux on our way back but the cold weather made DS a bit uncomfortable so we remained in the car while our friends got a look at the castle with its night lights.

Points to take home

Region: Loire river valley

Distance: 236km from Paris 

Time taken: Half a day to one day trip from Paris 

Highs: A nice park for families, especially for kids. A wine cellar cave tour with free wine tasting. 

A Sail on the Seegrotte-the underground lake

Visiting the largest underground lake in Europe was another highlight on our Austrian trip. This lake is situated just an hour or so outside of Vienna in a clam and picturesque village of Hinterbruhl. We took a train to the town of Modling, and from there a bus to Seegrotte runs every 1 hr and the ride to Seegrotte is just 10 mins and the ticket costs €2 per person. So missing a bus either to Seegrotte or return means a penalty of 1 hr if you are in a race.

Then

The history of Seegrotte goes like this. Way back in the 1840’s, 1848 to be exact, Austrian miners started digging a mountain made of limestone to extract gypsum as it was and is a good fertilizer. They kept digging through the rocks with their miner tools and made tunnels out of bricks and underground passages with their hands (i.e., did not use any machinery). They used horses to carry around the load and these horses were made to stay underground all throughout their lives. Staying in the darkness blinded these horses. The miners created an intricate system of underground passages and rooms. They also built a Chapelle for Saint Barbara to protect them through the dangerous underground mining. There was a recreational room built for hosting parties and festivities. In 1912, they had dug two levels below ground for about 60 meters that they reached a stone wall. When they blasted this to make way, gallons of water flooded from behind and filled the second level. There were no causalities, but the place was not fit for mining anymore. The miners had to abandon this place forever. Later in the 1930’s, cave explorers discovered this place and opened it for public viewing. However, during the Word War II, the Nazi army found out about this underground place and made it their secret underground factory to build fighter jets (Heinkel He 162) safe from the enemy bombing raids. They brought prisoners from concentration camps and made them build the fuselage of aircrafts. But fortunately, these aircrafts were never put to use as the war ended before that.

Now

This 100-year-old underground lake has become a tourist attraction now. We reached the place 15 mins before 9 am, which was the opening time, and were the first to be taken in along with an older Austrian couple. The entry fee is €9 per person, but it is really worth it. We had a very sweet guide, Mr. Stephan Wagner, who was fluent in English and German. He was all dressed up in a traditional black uniform and a cap to guide us through this walk. The inside temperature was 9 degree Celsius and remains the same all throughout the year. He very neatly explained to us the history of the place and showed us the different areas on level 1— the miner’s mining area, their actual tools, which are still preserved, the horses’ stables (the stables have now been recreated with models), and the collection of the Nazi army’s plane model, original aircraft parts, and old Siemens telephone. As we were the first to enter, we had the entire place to ourselves and took our time to take in the essence of this place. The guide also showed us a spot that was used for the filming of the movie “The Three Musketeers.” In the movie, this is shown as a dingy prison in London, but in reality it’s the underground lake in Austria.

The Underground Lake

The first level also has a small lake. A flight of stairs or the incline ramp initially used by miners leads you to the second level, where you get to see the hidden beauty of nature. It’s a large underground cave filled with clear water. The average depth of the lake is just 1.2 meters, but in places the reflections make the lake look very deep. The total surface area of the lake is 6200 square meters. The guide takes you on a boat trip around the lake. It is a wonderful experience of boating way beneath the surface of the Earth!! The water is clear and still, the caves are clam and eerie, and the air is stagnant. The guide also shows us the wall from where all the water had overflowed. The wall seems to have been rebuilt now. The water level keeps rising every day as the lake is fed by seven springs but has no drain outlet, so the water has to be pumped out every night to keep it at a safe level and to keep the waters from flooding the place all over again. It’s a small trip down to the lake and back, takes about 30-40 mins. But this ride down to the crust of the earth to see this jewel of a lake was an experience to remember as one of the unusual sites to see in Austria!