no soup for you

The final post

2007-07-17T03:40:00.000-07:00

I was in Pamplona for the San Fermin festival last weekend, after being hounded by D to show up. Considering my jobless and broke situation, he offered to pay for everything and made it an easy decision. Took the overnight train to Irun, and then switched trains to reach Pamplona around noon. The San Fermin festival is a big affair, with the running of the bulls as the main event, followed by bull fighting and all night partying on the streets.

I carried my tent and sleeping bag with me, and though I was there for barely a day and a half, it was an intense experience. We started drinking immediately after I reached, passed out in a park to take a siesta, headed out to watch a bullfight with a raucous crowd, and then partied on the streets till late. D had spent the previous night on the grass, so in a drunk state he guided me to a place where we camped, and woke up next to homeless people, who didn't seem like they were there for the fiesta. The music continued all night, but I slept soundly.

It was weird to wake up in a tent in a public park, pack up and then head through the city centre to find a good spot to go running with the bulls. The streets were full of people wearing the same outfit (white clothes and a red scarf), and most of them had been partying all night and looked ready to pass out. The ones who retained some sobriety got ready to go running at 8am. I chickened out but D had been waiting for this moment for years, so he went for a warmup run, scoped out the best spot and then finally lived out his childhood fantasy of running with the bulls.

The festival is surprisingly not very touristy. We heard Spanish almost everywhere, and it was more common to see families celebrating, rather than just backpackers. Most of the locals were very warm and friendly, and even though we could barely communicate, they shared their food and drink with us very easily. The most touching moment was when two old women on a balcony, thrilled that D took their pictures with his fancy camera, lowered us two bottles of beer from their balcony with a piece of rope and a plastic bag.

Somewhere in the middle of all this madness, I went off to check my email, and saw an offer from here. Suddenly, a lot of my problems were solved, and partying on the streets of Pamplona knowing that I won't have to live like a bum much longer made it an amazing trip.

Another month from now, I was supposed to leave Paris, and after getting turned down by every academic job I'd applied for, I'd started to prepare for non-academic jobs. The plan was to head to London around mid-August, sleep on a friend's couch and look for work. But after living out of a backpack for so long, I'd begun to feel very tired and disoriented, and sleeping in a friend's living room with no money and no work permit, looking for a job didn't sound too enticing, especially with an ultra long distance relationship. I was also tired of travelling, and was hoping something would materialise out of nowhere. It did.

So now I'm going to leave Paris a bit earlier, sometime in early August, fly back to Delhi for 2 weeks, apply for a new visa, celebrate my twin's birthday, and then fly out to New York and start my position in Ithaca almost immediately afterwards. A few months later, The Girl from Lapa will visit, and I'll go back to Rio for the winter break.

In about 6-7 weeks, I'll reach the end of a journey which will have spanned 16 months, 4 continents and about 120,000 km. It started sometime in May last year, when I submitted my thesis from a hotel in Las Vegas on the last possible day after a nerve-racking end to my Phd, and then bought a oneway ticket to India with no concrete plans. The rough idea was to spend 2 months in India, find a short term visiting position in Europe and save some money, and then spend 4-6 months watching the world cup in the Caribbean and travelling in South America, and hopefully find a long term job by August 2007. Somehow, it all worked out though almost each time things worked out at the last minute when there didn't seem to be too many options.

The backpack will be retired along with some of the things which have sustained me for all this time. I'll keep uploading pictures and videos (for Pamplona click here.), but I'm done with blogging now. I'll revert to less public ways of keeping in touch now that I'm going to lead a more settled life. Hopefully, I'll see a lot of you soon.

A break from blogging

2007-06-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

It's been more than a year of blogging, which also means more than a year of living out of my backpack, travelling and moving around. Blogging was easy as a result and the idea was to maintain some kind of a travel diary, and keep some friends updated about which part of the world I'm in and what I'm up to.

I'm back in Paris for 2 months, and don't have any major travel plans for the future (except a short trip to Spain in 2 weeks, and possibly a few days in London next month). I'm not sure what's next after Paris, but hopefully something will work out before I have to leave.

So, I'm taking a break from this blog for a while. I'll update it once I figure out some slightly more long term plans. I'm in Paris till the middle of August, so if anyone's interested in visiting let me know.

Summer in Paris

2007-06-22T03:24:00.000-07:00

So I finally moved into my new studio, and after more than a year, I have a bank account (this time with money in it), address and office in the same city. I also have internet at home, a landline, a cellphone and clothes in a closet and not a backpack, so I feel like I've returned to civilisation. It's only for 2 months though, and sometime in mid-August I'll be back on the road again.

It's officially summer now, and on June 21st each year there's a huge celebration all over Paris. Musicians and bands are allowed to perform on the streets and in parks. I went out yesterday with some friends, and I've never seen Paris so crowded. Getting around on the subway was impossible and more than half the time, we had to keep tabs on who to meet, where to go and what to listen to. After a few hours of all this, we'd probably listened to about 5 minutes of a performance. The solution was easy - head to a bar and drink a beer.

It was funny to observe Paris yesterday. When I was here last time, it was winter, so there wasn't too much happening on the streets. Yesterday, the streets were packed and a lot of food and alcohol was being sold outdoors. Seeing people lose their inhibitions and celebrate all over the city was nice. The streets and sidewalks were filthy as a result, and there was a big police presence everywhere. It almost felt like Lapa.

Back in Paris

2007-06-17T04:29:00.001-07:00

Got back after a long flight and had to change 3 trains from the airport to get to B&M's flat. They're away for the weekend, so I have their flat to myself and after a long time being able to watch TV, surf, eat and drink at the same time felt like heaven.

Was very knocked out after the journey and crashed out on their couch around 5 in the evening and woke up expecting it to be pitch dark. Didn't realise that at this time of the year it's daylight till well past 10pm. Felt like an insomniac for the first 24 hours of getting back. It is nice to be in Paris for the summer though. Everything looks nice and cheerful.

Went househunting this weekend, and will move into my place in the 19th arrondissment on Monday, and hopefully get into some kind of routine. Have to start looking seriously for a real job now, so blogging will be a bit slow.

Leaving Buenos Aires

2007-06-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

Every traveller I´d met in South America has always raved about Buenos Aires. I´d decided to keep it for the end of my South America trip, and I wasn´t disappointed. The bus journey was pretty short (14 hrs) compared to some of the others I´ve done over the last few months, so I reached BA quite refreshed. I´d found the flyer of a hostel in Mendoza and showed up at the place. Since it´s low season, the hostel was almost empty and I had a whole dorm room to myself for the 5 days I was there. It was basically an old mansion converted into a hostel, and since it was located in San Telmo (the historic part) it had a nice homely feel to it, unlike most hostels.

As cities go, Buenos Aires was the other extreme of Rio. My first impression of BA was that I was back in Paris. The centre of the city feels just like a big European city, and it´s littered with cafes and bookshops. It was a bit gloomy and cold for the last few days out here, so browsing bookshops and sitting in cafes was a nice way to spend time. Outside the centre of the city, BA felt like Paris littered with graffitti. It was quite a shock initially, but after a few days the grunginess of the other neighbourhoods, the graffitti and the gloomy weather seemed to fit quite well.

Culturally, Brazil and Argentina seem to be so far apart. Argentinians are quite notorious in South America for being snooty, and while I didn´t find them snooty, it did feel much closer to Europe than South America. Buenos Aires is full of all kinds of bookshops (unlike most places I´ve been to in this continent), cafes which could have been taken out of Europe, and people who seem very conscious about dressing reasonably formally.

After a couple of days of walking around aimlessly, and just sightseeing, I ran out of steam. It helped that in the hostel I came across an interesting bunch of people. They weren´t the typical backpackers I´ve been meeting regularly. There were 4 of us, and all of us had some non-travelling reason to be in South America and it was interesting hanging out with them. A Turkish psychology professor in Sao Paolo, a Canadian musician who´d spent 2 months in Olinda learning percussion and an Australian film-maker looking for work in Buenos Aires. None of us was interested in any more sightseeing. The Aussie film-maker had spent a year in BA, so he knew a lot about things going on. According to him, Buenos Aires is one of the most avant garde places for film and theatre these days. Ended up going to some very interesting places - a small art gallery opening, a latin jazz concert and an alternative tango club set up in an abandoned garage. There was no real agenda and we were all keen on exploring the cultural side of Buenos Aires. 5 days felt like we´d just scratched the surface.

So finally, after more than 3 months I'm leaving South America. I'm flying straight to Paris, and should be there for 2-3 months. Am at the airport right now, waiting to catch the flight.

Some pictures from Buenos Aires

2007-06-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

More can be found here.

Mendoza

2007-06-10T17:17:00.000-07:00

Mendoza's known as the land of sun and wine. It's also at the base of the Andes, which makes it a great place for a tourist who wants to go hiking, do adventure sports and drink wine. It's low season, so all the hostels are almost empty, and all the trekking agencies littered around the centre of the town have a few bored people sitting around.

I spent about 5 days and it was quite blissful. Spend one day driving up to the Andes, come back, drink wine and sleep. Spend the next day lazing around in the cafes and parks, and plan another trip. Wake up the next day and go rappeling, trekking and find a small village with cheap wine. Spend the next day reading and catching up on email and news. Wake up the next day, rent bikes and join 45- other people biking through the wineries and getting drunk slowly. Come back, get on the night bus to Buenos Aires and sleep easily thanks to all the wine.

Mendoza's a great place to visit. It's beautiful, cheap and has lots of stuff to do. The net connection here is too slow to upload pictures onto blogger. Click here for all of them. And click here for some videos (more to be uploaded once I've got a faster web connection).

A minor crisis

2007-06-06T18:06:00.000-07:00

The bus journey wasn't too bad even though it was 36 hours. I'd charged my ipod with some new music, found a nice book and watching movies on board with the Argentinian countryside unfold with nice music was quite blissful. I found a nice hostel very easily, and they organised all kinds of outdoor activities as well. Decided to share a small van with some other people, and we spent the day driving past wineries, up the Andes, past Aconcagua (the highest peak in South America) and up to the Chilean border. It was quite cold, so when we got back it seemed a perfect time to open a bottle of local wine, and chat with the other people next to a fireplace in the wine room of the hostel.

Checked my email and noticed an email from my bank account in Boston. Turned out that someone in Rio had stolen my debit card information, and withdrawn some money. I didn't have much money left in that account, and in spite of travelling for so many months had stayed within my budget. I have money in my Paris account, but can't use it till I'm there physically, but I'd calculated that I had enough to last me till I catch my flight from Buenos Aires to Paris next week. Whoever stole money from account, left me with 25$ - which is not enough for a week even though Argentina is quite cheap.

I realised the only option was to call the bank, but that meant heading out in the cold, buying a phone card and then using the phone in the main reception area. It wasn't the ideal place to call from, as it was quite noisy. I had to talk very loudly, and my voice carried through the wineroom where everyone was sitting. I was put on hold a couple of times, but finally shouted that this is an emergency - being stuck in a small town in Argentina with 25$ in my account - and got some attention.

They decided the best thing to do was to cancel the card and mail me a new card to where I was. That wasn't the best thing as I'm travelling and don't have an address, and somehow don't trust them to send me a card within a few days all the way to this part of Argentina. They asked about a mailing address in the US, and when I would be back, and I paused. I don't have an address anywhere right now, and have no plans of returning to the US. My brother's address was the obvious choice, but he moved recently and I couldn't find his address, so I decided the best thing was to call them tomorrow with all the details. They went ahead and cancelled the card anyway to make sure whoever stole the information can't use it again.

So, I'm stuck in Argentina, with almost no money, and no debit card. In situations like this, there are solutions - Western Union. Since London is 5 hours ahead, I emailed a friend in London and realised he'd get my email first thing in the morning. I realised that he'd be the first to read my email (people from India can't send money via Western Union outside India). Sure enough, I woke up this morning and he'd sent the money instantly. Picked it up from the Western Union outlet and suddenly felt rich.

Shit happens to me all the time, and somehow this one didn't leave me too worried. I know the money will get credited (it's not a huge amount anyway). Anyway, after all my shouting on the phone last night, I realised there wasn't much else I could do except wait so I just returned to the group, picked up my glass of wine and started chatting with them. They looked more stressed than me, and this morning kept asking me if things had worked out.

Iguazu

2007-06-03T13:20:00.000-07:00

I ended up missing the bus from Rio to Foz Iguazu, and spent an extra day in Rio. There´s a long story behind it, but I spent some time the next day in a mental health institute in Rio. It was a bizarre experience (I didn´t go for treatment), but the last week had been quite crazy, so being surrounded by lunatics was quite fitting.

The bus to Iguazu took about 24 hours, and after 3 months of travelling in South America, it felt normal. The roads are well paved, the buses have a lot of leg room, and I enjoyed the scenery. Met a couple of other backpackers on the bus and shared a taxi with them to a hostel. The hostel was cheap, but resembled a resort and was almost completely empty. It´s low season right now in this part of Brazil (and Argentina), so I spent the rest of the day lazing around in the hostel. The hostel had a mini-van which took people to the waterfalls, and I signed up for it. The better of the falls are on the Argentinian side, and I realised that I was on a single entry visa. My Brazil visa was going to expire in another 2 days, so I decided to enter Argentina through the national park.

It turned out be very painless. The van driver took care of all the passport stamps for the group, so I entered Argentina without encountering a single immigration official. Spent the rest of the day at the national park around the waterfalls. The falls separate Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay and are very, very impressive. There are quite a few trails (completely paved), and since it´s low season, things were very quiet. Took a lot of pictures, but they didn´t do justice to the falls due to the scale. It was quite mesmerising to watch the volume of water falling, and the vapours rising.

Will upload pictures once I reach Mendoza. Am near the bus terminal right now, waiting for the bus. It´s going to the longest bus ride I´ve done - 36 hours. But from what I´ve heard, buses in Argentina are very comfortable and almost luxurious. More once I reach Mendoza.

Last week in Rio

2007-05-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

After giving my final lecture last week, and working out my visas I'd planned to do a few things in Rio since it was going to be my last week. Climb up a small peak with a professor, go for a football match in Maracana and check out a couple of small islands near Rio. Basically, some things which I felt I should do before leaving Rio.

I ended up doing none of those but instead had some great moments. I found a great club close to my apartment, where there're no chairs or space to sit in, no cover charge, no clapping and no food. People sit or stand on the sidewalk and you basically open a fridge with some beer and show it to the owner who keeps count. The club is called Bipbip, and the owner and his wife became very fond of me over the last week. Being Indian makes me very exotic out here, and I've enjoyed the attention and hospitality.

Also got in touch with some friends of friends, who took me out almost every night over the last week with their friends. Discovered some spots in Rio with small beaches, great views and cheap beer. I ended up making some close friends over the last seven days, with people who wouldn't ever want to leave Rio. All this happened the day I bought a ticket back to Paris, and if I hadn't finalised plans for the next few months, I would have been tempted to stay on here for longer. I'll be back soon.

I've uploaded some more pictures of Rio here. One last picture of Rio before I leave.

Visa power

2007-05-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

The last 2-3 days were a bit hectic due to the visas I needed - for Argentina and France.

My Brazillian visa expires in about 2 weeks, and my plan had been to leave Rio on May 31st, travel in Argentina for 2 weeks, and then fly out to Paris on June 15th. Last week, the Argentinian consulate said that it takes a week for the visa to be processed, which meant I would get it today (May 24th), and I guessed that the French visa would take a week at least. Things were touch and go, and over the weekend I was a bit nervous because I hadn't received the documents from Paris with which I could apply for a French visa. If it didn't arrive by this week, I would have had to make alternate plans - stay on in Argentina or fly to London instead of Paris, and work out things from London. Finally got the letter from Paris 2 days ago and breathed a sigh of relief. I called the Argentinian consulate on Tuesday, and the officer said everything was fine and I could pick it up on Thursday (today).

Yesterday afternoon, just before I was heading for lunch, I got a phone call from the admin office in the institute to come by to the office. I thought it must be some paperwork, but it turned out the Argentinian consulate had called. Thankfully, for this month I have a home and an office (very useful while applying for visas), and I'd given the instt phone no as my contact number. Called the Arg consulate back, and there was a problem. Since I was planning to cross into Argentina by land, the Rio office couldn't issue me a visa. I would have to apply for a visa at the border (the Iguazu waterfalls), which would presumably take another week. I didn't have time for that, especially as I had to apply for a French visa immediately. The officer remembered me, and said that the only way they could give me a visa was if I was flying from Brazil to Argentina, and said that a faxed copy of a ticket would work. He said he would need it in a few hours, if I wanted the visa by Thursday.

When it comes to buying airline tickets, I've worked out a couple of ways to *buy* tickets (I'll refrain from being too public about it), so I went down to the computer lab and printed out a ticket from Rio to Buenos Aires. It was lunch time, and the admin office was closed, so I pottered around, and prepared for a lecture I had to give in a few hours. Went back up to the admin office around 1 and faxed it, but the visa officer was away for lunch till 2. Headed back to my office and hoped that the fax I'd sent would suffice, as I had to give a lecture in about an hour, and it would get over around 5 pm - when everything would be shut. Called up around 2, and he said everything was fine, and I should come by tomorrow. I don't know if he knew that I still planned to go across by land and not take a flight, but it's not really his problem.

After my lecture, I printed out and completed the French visa form, made photocopies of all my documents (some of which a friend had faxed from London), and realised the French visa application was going to span 4 continents. A passport issued in Delhi, a bank statement from Boston, a letter of invitation from Paris and a current address in Rio. I was braced for a tough interview and spent the rest of the evening brushing up on my French.

Headed out this morning and went straight to the Argentinian consulate at 930. It opened at 10 and got my passport by 1020. The French consulate was a bit further away in the downtown area, but I'm familiar with Rio so I took a bus and got there by 11. Walked up to the visa section and saw that it was quite empty. Brazillians don't need visas to travel in Europe, so there were just 2 other people. Waited patiently and went through all my documents and realised I'd goofed up. I'd forgotten to bring 2 photographs. The visa section closed at 12 or 1230 so I had less than an hour to get a photo taken. Since it was the main commercial area of Rio, I figured there had to be a photo studio close by.

Went down and asked the security guy and he said there was one next door. Walked across and they said their computer system wasn't working, but there were a couple along a street further down. I had to do it quickly because tomorrow is some kind of a holiday for some of the consulates. It had started raining by now, and I didn't want my papers to get wet so I ran. Running in downtown Rio in the middle of the day, clutching my bag tightly and desperately looking for a studio must have made me look suspicious, but I didn't care. Asked around and was told there was one next to the post office a few blocks away, so I sprinted. Got there short of breath, had my picture taken quickly and ran back to the consulate. Still had about 30 mins before they went for lunch and hadn't even had a chance to talk to the visa officer.

On the way up on the elevator, I practiced my lines expecting her to kick up a fuss. Reached the visa section and waited for a bit for some other people to get their paperwork done. Obviously, the officer didn't speak any English. I gave her all my papers and waited for some problem to arise. She went through them slowly, and after every page she turned I realised my chances were higher. This was my 10th visa application in the last 12 months, and in almost every one of them, there's been a problem regarding my non-residency. An Indian applying for a French visa in Brazil was going to be a problem for sure.

After 5 minutes of looking through the papers, she turned away and filled out some stuff on her computer. Still no questions, and I was quite puzzled. She printed out something, tore off a portion and gave it to me without saying anything. It was the receipt and said 60 Euros. I'd expected the visa fee to be about 30 Euros and wasn't carrying enough cash, so I asked her about how to pay. She smiled and pointed at the slip, which said "GRATIS" and said the pickup date was May 31st. For a few seconds I was a bit shocked, and then asked her if that was all. She still didn't say a single word, smiled and waved and called the next person in line.

So that was it. No questions, no fee, no problems. It worked out and I'll get it in time to spend 2 weeks in Argentina. I got 2 visas approved in one day, without paying a penny.

PS Did you know that one can go to more than 50 countries with an Indian passport and get a visa on arrival? Check out this link.

The music scene

2007-05-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

For the last 4 nights, I've been heading out to a few music clubs each night. It's a bit addictive, and I've ended up making a few friends as well.

The first night I went to a place which was around the corner from where I live. The problem with Copacabana is that it's a fairly upscale neighbuorhood, with either retired people or rich tourists staying in the hotels or apartment buildings. And the club was full of those people. The music was mostly light jazz, and after an hour of sitting around, I went back home.

The next day, I asked around about some cheaper but more authentic places. Lapa and Santa Teresa were the obvious places to explore, and one of the students at the institute used to go a lot to some of the clubs till a year ago (These days he's desperately trying to finish his thesis). He told me about a couple of his favourite places and I went. I wasn't disappointed at all. The previous weekend I'd ended up hanging out only on the streets in Lapa, taken aback by how much was going on.

This time I was indoors mainly but it was as much fun. The 2-3 places I was recommended have live music every night. On the weekends there's a cover charge, but it's not too expensive. The music is mainly Samba or some variation, and the atmosphere is really relaxed. The audience is generally quite mixed in terms of age. It's not uncommon to see an old couple dancing in the middle surrounded by middle-aged and young people. There's no real dress code and some people came in shorts, and didn't look out of place. Typically, the first set is played with people sitting or standing around, but by the time the second set starts (around midnight) nobody's sitting. Even the waiters jig a bit while serving drinks, and the owner (I've gone to the same club 3 times now) joins in later on. I'm too tone deaf to understand the variations, but the owner's tried to explain some of the basic stuff a few times. If anyone's curious this is the place.

At one of the clubs, I ended up making friends with the people sitting next to me, and hung out with them the next day as well. Unfortunately, language is a big barrier, and we never get past basic conversations. I hooked up with some of the students one day as well and after barely 3 weeks in Rio, I feel like I have a social life. I'm sharing my office with another postdoc from Portugal who's on her 5th visit to Rio, and she smiled. She said she has a more active life here than in Porto.

It's sad that Rio's reputation is tarnished by the crime reports. 3 weeks here and I've found it to be quite safe, clean, friendly and a lot of fun.

Visa update

2007-05-17T07:36:00.000-07:00

Looks like my Argentinian visa has worked out. I went today with the letter from the Indian consulate, and the visa official had no problems. Due to an agreement between Argentina and India, I didn't even have to pay a visa fee. The only question he asked me was "What does Shanti mean?". He's heard the term "Om Shanti" a lot, so he was curious about Shanti. He spoke English so for a while we were just chatting about Brazil and India - football vs cricket, Amazonas vs Himalayas. It'll take a week for it to get processed, but hopefully there won't be any problems - they'll call if they want something else.

After this, I have to deal with the French consulate. I've decided to head back to Paris after Argentina. I'm running out of money, and also feel that Buenos Aires will be a nice place to finish my South America trip. Chile and Patagonia are places I would love to explore, but it's the wrong time of the year and I don't think have the money or the energy to travel more. I still have 2 months left on the grant/contract I had in Paris, so I've decided to use it for the rest of the summer. I should be back in Paris, hopefully, by mid-June.

Still haven't received my documents from Paris to apply for a new French visa. It's going to be touch and go again.

Lapa

2007-05-14T05:21:00.000-07:00

Ipanema and Copacabana are great places for beach activities, and both neighbourhoods are quite safe and clean. But after 2 weeks of being in Rio, I found them a bit sterile and late at night they seemed a bit dead - except the Mayday concert that I saw. I asked around in the institute about neighbourhoods which have good music and nightlife, and was pointed towards Lapa.

It's not too far from Copacabana, about 30 minutes by public transport, so I headed out there on Friday night. I went after 10, aware that the nightlife in Rio doesn't start till around midnight, but wanted to get there a bit early to explore the area. I took the metro, and got off at the right stop but ended up taking the wrong exit. I walked around for about 20 minutes, and couldn't see any signs of activity. A few homeless people, some people hissing at me (drug dealers maybe?) and very rundown and shady bars. I have a horrible sense of direction (I often get lost in new places), so I knew I must have walked in the wrong direction. Decided to retrace my steps and after getting back to the metro station, walked in the other direction.

Within 10 minutes, I knew this was the right area. I could see a lot of small groups of friends walking, and some music throbbing from not too far away. Following the crowd in such situations is generally a good idea, and 10 minutes later I was next to the Arcos de Lapa. It was still early by Rio standards (almost 11 pm), and I got the feeling that the party was just starting.

What surprised me was the amount of stuff happening on the streets. The bars and clubs were getting full, but the streets had even more people, and a lot of stuff going on. Food stalls, alcohol vendors and small bands filled the streets, as did a large police presence. There were queues outside some of the clubs, but a lot of people were happy standing out on the streets and the sidewalks. And it wasn't just one or two streets, but pretty much the whole neighbourhood.

The alcohol and food were cheap, and one could even buy some cocktails from enterprising vendors who walked around carrying trays with a few bottles and created their concoctions quickly. After a couple of hours, the streets were as full as a crowded nighclub with different bands playing in different corners. It didn't feel too safe, and unlike Ipanema and Copacabana, the whole area was quite dirty and rundown but it was great fun. I stayed there till late, and getting back was easy because of the frequent nightbuses.

I went back to the same area the next afternoon to explore Santa Teresa. The favelas in Rio are spread out among the hills, but Santa Teresa is one of the few hilltop neighbourhoods which isn't a favela. It's a short walk up from the Lapa arches, and during the day Lapa has a completely different feel. Santa Teresa is known as the more bohemian part of Rio, with a few small art galleries, cafes and small music clubs. I spent most of the afternoon exploring Santa Teresa, and though it wasn't as funky as Olinda, it gave off the impression of being quite laidback. There weren't too many people, and along 2 or 3 streets there were a bunch of cafes with some musicians. It didn't have the intensity of Lapa the previous night, but I came across a few art galleries, a group of actors rehearsing a play, a couple practising some dance moves and some nice street art.

Lapa and Santa Teresa are definitely worth exploring more on the weekends. Here're a few pictures. I've uploaded more pictures here.

The outdoors city

2007-05-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've ever seen a city which has been built around so much natural beauty. If one was to take away all the manmade structures from Rio, it would have been a beautiful spot to come for a hike. It could so easily have been designated a national park. Somehow, the urban planners have crammed in a huge city of 6 million (about 12 including the suburbs), and it's got a very unique character.

The city's very naturally divided along 2 zones - north and south - by the mountains. The 2 major zones have 2-3 neighbourhoods each, which are again naturally divided by the beaches, the forest and a huge lake. It's very green and surprisingly fairly clean for a city of its size and density. The weather's mild throughout, so if you enjoy the outdoors it's possibly the most amazing big city to live in.

The instt has arranged a nice flat for me in Copacabana, which is 2 minutes from the beach. The 2 major beaches - Copacabana and Ipanema - are next to each other and are always busy. They're public beaches, but I've found them to be pretty clean and safe. Copacabana beach is full of small football and volleyball courts, so there are dozens of games going on all day. Some of the games are played pretty seriously with teams wearing uniforms, a referee and the evening games are played with lights on. Both beaches are connected with a wide running/biking trail, streetside cafes and streetvendors. I'd expected the night time to be a bit shady, but in the evening there are a lot of people running, walking and biking, so I've had a nice time heading to the beach after *work*.

In the morning, while a lot of people in my neighbourhood head for work, a large number of people head to the beach dressed in their swimming costumes, carrying a surfboard. The beaches are reasonably busy early in the morning, and since the cafes and vendors seem to be pretty busy, it's probably a big part of the economy. Since I never lived in a city with beaches, I was never a beach person. But over the last 2-3 months, it's become such a big part of my day, that if I end up not going for a run or a walk or a beer along the beach, I feel as if my day was a bit empty. A few professors in IMPA actually spend their morning on the beach, before heading to the instt.

What makes Rio so unique to me, is how it seems like a huge number of people enjoy the outdoors. Last weekend, I went on a hike with a professor from the instt up to Corcovado (which has the huge statue of Christ) and even though it's a steep climb, there were quite a few people hiking up. The professor I went with studied in IMPA as well, and said a major chunk of his student life was spent hiking and climbing the various peaks and cliffs in Rio. Apparently there are a few books about the hiking and climbing spots in Rio. The instt is next to a rainforest, where no construction is allowed. That means it's a lovely spot to go for a walk. After lunch, or late in the afternoon if I'm a bit sluggish it's a nice way to get some fresh air. Then, of course, there's the beach in the evening.

Here are a couple of pictures I took from Corcovado. I'll try taking more while I'm here, but it's nice to explore the city without carrying anything valuable on me.

Copacaba beach is the one on the right in the first picture, and in the second picture, the instt is on the hill overlooking the huge lake in the centre. A few more can be found here.

Argentinian bureaucracy

2007-05-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

After my stint in Rio, I want to head down to Argentina. Since I need a visa I looked up the Argentinian embasys and, thankfully, they have a consulate in Rio. Went across to the consulate armed with various documents (some legal and original, some not).

It's an imposing building and part of the Argentinian cultural centre as well. It's got a nice view of the bay and is in a busy commercial area. Got a bit lost walking around the building and finally found the visa section after about 20 minutes. It was empty and there were 4 visa officers just chatting with each other. When they saw me, they pointed me over to the youngest one.

Showed him my passport and when I asked for a visa form, he gave me a list of required documents. Most of them were standard requirements - valid Brazillian visa, bank statement, flight ticket, hotel reservation, valid visa for the next country (Still not too sure where I'm headed after Argentina). Surprisingly, he didn't have a problem with my residency and showed me a line which said this:

For Non-Brazillian residents, an application for a visa must be accompanied by a letter from your embassy or consulate, stating your name and passport number.

I asked him if that letter needed anything else, but he said no. Just a letter with your name and passport number. I showed him my passport and said both were on the front page. He just shook his head, and refused to give me the application form till I get that letter.

It's so stupid. A letter from your consulate stating your name and passport number. The Indian consulate is in Sao Paolo, so the visa officer agreed that a fax will suffice. Let's see what problems the Indian consulate will have with sending a fax like that.

Some videos

2007-05-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

A few videos that I made over the last 2 months.

1) Hitching a ride with 2 friends on the back of a truck to get to a trailhead, from where we hiked to some hot springs. This was in Merida, in the Venezuelan Andes.

2) On a canoe along the Rio Solimoes in the Amazon rainforests. The guy at the back of the canoe was my guide for the 5 day trip.

3) Ever wondered why Brazillians are so good at football? This was at Copacabana beach. I caught them halfway, and will try shooting a few videos of them playing volleyball without using their hands.

Mayday in Rio

2007-05-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday was my first day at IMPA, and after 2 months of bumming around, I was keen to get to the instt and sit in an office and pretend to work. 2 mins away from my flat, there was a direct bus and I got here in less than 30 minutes. I thought all the stories about buses being very slow in Rio were exaggerated. Showed up here before 9, and then hung around the campus for about 30 mins. Soon, I realised there was nobody around except a few security guards. Since it's a research institute, with no undergrads, I figured people showed up late or whenever it suited them.

The campus is beautiful, and though it doesn't overlook the beach, it's surrounded by a forest. It's green, quiet and the main building is bright and airy. Had a nice time walking around and finally bumped into a professor. He told me it was Mayday, and everything in Rio was closed. This was the third time in succession in the last 8 months that I'd showed up in my new department on the wrong day. In R'burg, it was Unification day weekend, in Paris it was the Christmas/New Year break, and here it was May day.

Anyway, I managed to plug in my laptop and surf for a few hours and then decided to head back as it was so quiet. On the map, Ipanema beach looked very close, but it turned out to be much further. Took me almost an hour to walk there, and lugging a laptop and not wearing anything remotely resembling beachwear, I looked like a real misfit on the beach. Since it's a big holiday, it looked like half of Rio was hanging out on the beach.

Thankfully, my flat wasn't too far so I headed back, changed and went back to the beach. Walked all the way up from Copacabana back to Ipanema, and realised there was a big concert going on. As it was a holiday, it was packed and there were lots of vendors selling alcohol and food. It was loud, crowded, colourful and very lively. It went on forever I think, but I headed back to my flat around midnight and could hear the music even as I went to sleep. As a first day in Rio, it was a nice introduction.

Reached Rio

2007-05-01T06:31:00.000-07:00

Finally, I made it! After almost 10,000 km of travelling by bus, boat, car and foot (at the Brazillian border) from Caracas, I'm in Rio. The Instt has booked me into a great flat which is 5 minutes from Copacabana, and the instt itself isn't far from Ipanema. After 2 months of staying in cheap hostels and posadas, long bus rides and searching for cyber cafes, it felt great to wake up in a flat, get to an office and use the internet without looking at the time elapsed.

Anyway, I've finally managed to upload all my pictures (and a few videos), so here are some of the nicer ones. Click here for all the pictures.

Salvador

2007-04-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

Salvador´s turned out to be a bit disappointing. It´s the 3rd largest city in Brazil, and is known for its strong African roots. I´d heard a lot about the music scene, Capoeria (a Brazillian martial art) and the beaches.

The historic centre was nice, but after Sao Luis and Olinda, it didn´t seem like much. It was also very touristy, and by the evening it seemed a bit unsafe. I´m staying in a nice hostel next to the beach, but even the beach is a bit small and overcrowded. I guess I could have tried to go out a bit at night, but after a series of long bus rides to get here, I just didn´t have the energy. Somehow, I haven´t taken to the city at all, and I spent most of the 3 days here lying on a hammock on the hostel porch and reading.

Leaving for Rio tomorrow and I´ll have a flat and an office for a month. My flat´s 2 minutes from Copacabana beach, and my office is on a hill overlooking Ipanema beach.

That´s it. Nothing too exciting or interesting happened over the last 3-4 days. Next post should be from Rio.

Olinda

2007-04-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

I´d heard about Olinda from another traveller I met on the way to Sao Luis. She´s from Berlin and we´d spent quite a bit of time talking about Berlin. It was a city which really stunned me, and I was telling her that I want to go back to explore the cultural side of Berlin. Since it´s cheap a lot of young, creative people have moved there making it very hip in Europe. She told me that I should definitely go to Olinda because it´s got a great history of being an artist city.

Olinda´s on the northeast coast of Brazil and it was about 24 hrs on a direct bus. It´s essentially a suburb of the big city of Recife, so it took a while to get here. At the tourist office in Recife, I asked about a cheap hostel to stay in Olinda and was told to go to a place called Casa du Hilton. It´s my first time in staying at a place called the Hilton! It´s an interesting place though. It´s run by 2 young Brazillians, and is very basic but clean. Most of the other people staying here are Brazillian, except for 2 Germans (they´re everywhere) so it´s a nice change from some of the other hostels/posadas I´ve been staying in.

After the long bus ride, I was quite tired so I took a short nap. Spent the next half of the day, walking around aimlessly and was surprised by Olinda. I was a bit wary of coming here and expected to see a few art galleries geared for tourists and tonnes of foreigners. It´s quite unlike what I expected. There aren´t too many tourists (local or foreign) and the town is teeming with small art galleries. Most of the galleries are old houses where the artists are either working inside or sitting on porch staring at the passersby. It was easy to walk into any one and just try chatting with the owners, who don´t seem too desperate for you to buy their stuff. They seemed happy just living here.

The whole town is built around a small hill and feels like a big art exhibition. A lot of art on the walls, brightly coloured houses next to each other, a spectacular view from the top of the hill and quite a few old, rundown but comfortable cafes. It´s not too expensive either, and it´s very common to see a lot of old and young people just hanging around. Late in the evening, one of the cafes had a small band playing and it looked like it was a regular feature. The food and beer were cheap, and most of the people seemed to know each other. The whole place has a very authentic feel of being an artist colony. I spent 3 days here, doing nothing apart from wandering aimlessly through the streets, stumbling into small ateleries and enjoying the views. Since it´s the low season, there aren´t many tourists around, so I´ve been lucky to enjoy Olinda without any crowds. Even the hostel I´m staying in is full of Brazilians, and going out with them at night has been fun.

I´d spent 3 months living in Montmartre just before heading out to South America, and Montmartre has a history of being an artist enclave. Unfortunately, it´s become very gentrified and expensive and it´s driven away a lot of creative people. In cities like New York, London and Paris it seems almost impossible for someone to survive now as an artist, unless you move off to a cheaper suburb. How much longer, I wonder, before Olinda gets taken over by developers and yuppies?

Beach Bum in Brazil

2007-04-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

After getting off at Sao Luis, I realised my Japanese friend wanted to go to a place called Barreirinhas. I´ve been travelling without a travel book, and have been relying only on recommendations from fellow travellers and locals, so I decided to follow him. He told me that a friend of his had told him to definitely go there because of the sand dunes and lakes.

Got there around noon, and after 5 days on a boat, a 12 hr overnight bus ride and a 4 hr ride, I was exhausted. I also had a slight cold and fever, probably due to all the travelling for the last 3 weeks, so I took it easy for the next 3 days. The only thing I did, apart from lying on a hammock and reading, was go with some other people on a trip to the sand dunes and swim in the lakes.

Barreirinhas is a bit of a resort town, but it´s low season right now, and it was quite deserted. There were a bunch of cheap posadas waiting to let out rooms at low rates, and we picked a nice one on the waterfront. It had hammocks dangling along the river, and only 3 other occupants in the entire hotel. All of us were solo travellers, who´d been travelling for at least 6 months each.

The Japanese guy opened up a bit finally and told us how he started in Mexico city, went all the way down to Argentina, took a cruise to Antarctica, came back up to Venezuela and is now heading down to Chile. In the next week, he plans to do 2 long bus rides of 48 hrs each. He barely speaks Spanish and Portugese and is probably the quietest, loneliest traveller I´ve come across. It´s his 4th trip of about a year in a different continent so he seems pretty comfortable travelling his own way. I asked him considering the Japanese work so hard and travel very little, why he travelled so much. He said - I don´t like working.

One of the other travellers is an American, who´s on a 5-6 year trip around the world on his motorcycle. He started 2 years ago from Colorado, went up to Alaska, then all the way down to Argentina and is now back up north. He´s had more problems with visas and permits because of his motorcycle, and was telling me about how he´d sneaked across various borders to avoid getting his motorbike impounded for lack of registration or insurance. Unfortunately, he´s heading further north and not south, otherwise I could have dumped some of my luggage and gotten a ride with him down to Rio. Another time. This is the link to his website.

The other two travellers are more normal...just backpacking around Brazil for about 6 months. There were headed to Sao Luis, so I shared a car ride with them. Sao Luis is a beautiful city. It´s a world heritage site with lovely colonial architecture, friendly people, great nightlife, nice beaches and .... not much else.

Will head out of here tomorrow to Olinda, spend a few days there, go down to Salvador, spend a few days there, then reach Rio by May 1st. If you look at a map, you´ll understand the title.

The boat ride

2007-04-17T07:58:00.000-07:00

Just reached Belem after a 5 day boat ride. Yes, 5 days. Till now, I´d never been on a boat for than a few hours. Exactly a year ago, I ran the Boston marathon. After this boat ride, I feel like I just finished another marathon.

The 2 Australians I´d met last month had told me that they really enjoyed the boat ride. Since there were 2 of them, they shared a cabin, which wasn´t too much more than going hammock class. When I reached Manaus, I expected to bump into some other backpackers, who´d be willing to share a cabin. It´s the low season right now in the rainforests, so I couldn´t see any other tourists. After the jungle trip, I went straight with E to the docks, bought a hammock, a ticket for hammock class and some water.

The first day was the hardest. It was hot and humid, and the boat was packed. The big boat (which I was taking) goes from Manaus to Belem only twice a week, so it´s both a cargo and passenger boat. I managed to push my way through the crowds, picked out a nice spot for my hammock and tied it up. There was a deck upstairs with a small bar and music played non-stop, so I decided to head up there. Took out the most essential items into the top of my big packpack (which doubles up as a big pouch) and headed upstairs. If someone wanted to steal something from my bags, then they would have to wade through some smelly clothes.

The Manaus port is a big hub of activity. The crowds, noise and chaos resembled a major train station in India and till the last minute, there were a lot of people jumping onto the boat to sell stuff. The boat left about 2 hours late, so I just sat upstairs, bought a bottle of beer and listened to some Samba. Went down later at night, and had a very uncomfortable first night. An elderly lady´s hammock had torn its rope, so she´d tied it to mine and was directly underneath me as a result. I couldn´t understand what she was saying so I didn´t object. I could make out she was grateful for me not complaining. It was weird sleeping on a hammock on a boat as it kept swaying gently. While it helped to put everyone to sleep, there were times when the boat got unsteady and everyone´s hammocks swung like pendulums and bumped into each other. Somehow pulled through the first night.

The next 4 days went by slowly, but I got used to the pace. Wake up at 6 for a basic breakfast of bread and coffee. Read a book till 11 and then have lunch. Take a short nap, walk up to the deck, have a coke, listen to music, watch the rainforests and wait till dinner. Dinner would be at 5 and after 530, it got a bit hard to kill time, especially if it rained. Nobody on board spoke any English, and after 2 days I noticed a Japanese backpacker who spoke some. It was hard to communicate, so the 5 days went by in a state of silence.

I guess the main benefits of taking such a long boat ride are the small things one notices. The thick jungle, the rundown huts and villages, the kids riding out on their canoes to catch a glimpse of the big boat and the small docks which were waiting eagerly for the cargo in the boat. Rivers are like highways in the rainforests as there are no roads. So the arrival of the boat is a big event in the small towns.

The most endearing moment was seeing a few kids paddle up very close to the boat, throw a hook onto the side and then climb on to the boat to sell some fruits. Thankfully, the crew helped them latch onto the boat and everyone the boat bought the fruits, bringing a big smile to the kids´ faces.

Anyway, I reached Belem this morning and from what I can make out it´s not a very pleasant place to stay in. The Japanese traveller is heading to Sao Luis, a small town on the coast and I´m heading there with him. Will probably spend a few days there before making my way down to Rio. It´ll take a while to get there. I didn´t realise how big Brazil is.

PS comments are open again, but please, don´t get too serious or personal :-)

The jungle

2007-04-13T09:28:00.000-07:00

This was my first experience of a real jungle trip, though for an experienced jungle person it was probably scratching the surface. It lasted for 5 days, and though I´d like to do a longer one sometime, I´m happy I chose to go for just 5 days.

The beginning was a bit ominous. I woke up early and it was raining heavily. Left my backpack with the hotel and went to meet the trip organizer. The guide, E, showed up late. I asked about the other 3 Canadians who were supposed to come with me, but apparently one of them was sick and they´d backed out. So it was going to be just me and the guide for the next 5 days. Considering it was my first trip to a jungle, and I didn´t speak a word of Portugese (E was fluent in 5 languages though) I considered backing out. But decided to go ahead anyway.

We took a taxi down to the port, bought some food and then hopped on to a speed boat. Halfway across the river, we stopped, and E told me this was the meeting point of two rivers (Negro and Solimoes). It´s unlike the meeting point of two rivers. Rio Negro is black and fast, and Solimoes is brown and slow. So the two meet, but don´t merge and travel side by side for about 7km. It´s quite amazing to see and the boat switched between both rivers to show the difference in speeds. Got off at another point and then E took his own canoe with an engine and we headed off to the jungle lodge. It took about 2 hours to get there, and it rained off and on. It´s the winter here and so it rains a lot. It´s also the low season for tourists, so by the time I reached the lodge I was the only occupant. It was pretty basic, with a few rooms and one bathroom. Had lunch and since it was raining decided to take a nap on the hammock stretched out on the porch.

The rest of day followed a clear plan. Canoeing for a few hours through some creek, Piranha fishing, dolphin watching and alligator catching. Piranha fishing turned out to be deceptively easy, and I managed to catch about 7 of them. The first time I caught one, I got so excited and scared seeing it dangling in front of my eyes that the canoe almost capsized. E decided to refer to me as jungle boy after that, clearly laughing at my ineptness. Went alligator catching at night, and E is quite a daredevil. He´s lived in the jungle all his life and spent a couple of years in the army engaged in jungle warfares. He´s got a reputation of being the toughest and craziest guide around, and loves to show off. Watching him catch an alligator with his bare hands, play with it like a puppy an disdainfully throw it back was entertaining.

The first day had been a bit hectic so I told him at the end of the day that since I was the only one on the trip, I did´t mind skipping out on a few touristy things, but preferred to spend more time just doing a couple of things. They could be touristy or not, but I told him to pick out things he enjoyed. His eyes lit up at the prospect and his attitude towards me changed. We spent the next day canoeing down the river to a small village. He pointed a small piece of land which he´d bought a year ago and plans to build a small lodge of his own. It´s pretty far from Manaus and is a great point for catching both sunrise and sunset. In the distance is a small island which is a meeting point for two species of birds, and his neighbour is a herbal doctor. Also, with a glint in his eyes, not too far away was the house of the woman of his dreams. He showed me the plan, and we spent a while walking around the area where he plans to build it.

Spent the rest of day with his friends, and though I couldn´t understand a word of what was being spoken, had a nice time playing soccer with a few kids. E went out soon, caught a small pig with his barehands, and in front of me, cleaned it and then barbecued it. It was grotesque to watch but great to taste. While it was cooking, we headed out on the canoe in the dark to a few friends of his and drank caipirinhas till late. Thankfully, one of his cousins decided to ride the canoe with us, as he knew E was known to be quite reckless. It was quite eery though, canoeing back in the dark with E pointing out things in his semi-drunken state. Feasted on the pig and then passed out on a hammock in the porch with a mosquito net over me.

Woke up the next day with a bad case of diahorrea. It was bound to happen at some point and I felt foolish not carrying any antibiotics. E´s neighbour went out to some tree, tore off the bark, scraped it on something (the dried tongue of a fish), mixed it with water and gave it to me. It tasted horrible, but in an hour I was fine. I was given a bottle full of it, and am carrying it with me in case of an emergency.

Spent the next 2 days on a trek through the jungle. Since it was just the two of us, E took us to a fairly remote part along the river, through some crazy creeks and we got off. It was part of some forest reserve, and it was thick, dense forest. Just like I´d imagined it to be. The trek was completely different from anything I´d ever done. Instead of a tent and sleeping bag, we each carried a hammock and mosquito net, bugspray, a machete and some food. It was broad daylight, but deep inside the jungle it could have been evening. The light filters through, but to take any pictures I had to use a flash. Even when it rained heavily, I could hear it but not feel too much of it. Felt more like a drizzle. Walking through the jungle wasn´t easy and we had to use the machetes a lot to clear the way. Throughout, E told me about all kinds of plants and trees that we spotted, animal sounds in the distance and about his experiences fighting the Colombian guerrillas. It was a bit like being inside a National Geographic documentary.

Camped at a clearing somewhere, and had to chop some wood to set up the hammocks and plastic sheet for cover. It took a while for the food to cook, and E decided to teach me some Portugese. He dropped out of school at a young age, but has worked as a guide for almost 10 years and has picked up a lot of languages because of all the tourists he deals with. He did a great imitation of some Japanese tourists, who always said - Interesting, very nice. That became our motto for the rest of the trip, and each time he pointed out something, I would bow and say - Interesting, very nice.

The night of the trek was a bit scary though. After being harassed by bugs, I´d decided to sleep early and E also crashed out early. I was sleeping with my bug spray but somehow the jungle sounds kept me awake. After about an hour, I could hear E snoring quietly, and heard something which scared me a bit.

I could hear footsteps in the distance. First, I thought it was some other sound. After 2 minutes, it was clearly some animal as I could hear its breathing as well. There were obviously no humans around for miles, so I called across to E. He woke up, heard the same sound and hissed - stay quiet and don´t make any noise. The next 10 minutes passed very, very slowly. What added to the uneasiness was the fact that I was suspended in mid-air armed with nothing but bug spray. After 10 minutes, E said - Relax, it´s an amadillo. I relaxed, and then asked a minute later - What´s an amadillo? He laughed, and then told me it comes out a night to go hunting for bugs and insects along the river. I guess the amadillo was cruising the jungle.

Woke up next day, and got badly bitten by ants while eating breakfast. Went on the canoe up to another point and for a longer hike. By the later afternoon I was a bit tired with the bugs. Asked E about the boat from Manaus to Belem, and he said there was one on Friday and the next one left on Wednesday. I had no intention of staying in Manaus for 5 days, and the boat takes 4 days, so I decided to take it on Friday. That meant we didn´t camp in the jungle that night, but headed back to the lodge. It took a while, but after being attacked by bugs for 2 days, I was happy to be back in a clean bed.

Woke up on Friday, and headed back to Manaus. Bought a hammock for the ride (the private cabins were too expensive) and am heading off now in a couple of hours to Belem. Should get there sometime on Tuesday.

Reaching Manaus

2007-04-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

Finally managed to get to Manaus, but it turned out to be trickier than I expected.

After writing my last post, I bumped into two Australian girls at the internet cafe. They´d both just come up from Rio to Venezuela, so I started asking them about the trip since my plan is to get to Rio at the end of this month. They told me there were two problems I was going to face - a return ticket and yellow fever vaccination.
The return ticket was something I knew I could manage. But the yellow fever vaccine was going to be a big pain.

The main problem was that I needed a certificate of the vaccine. If I didn´t have one, then apparently the immigration officials were very strict about it. Two British guys overheard us talking about it and said one of them had a hard time. He was refused entry till he got the proper vaccine. I asked if it was possible to get a vaccine at the border, and they said yes, but that´s not enough. The vaccine takes 10 days to set in, so one has to wait for 10 days after that. I asked the hotel manager about it, and he suggested that I go to the local hospital, get a vaccine and bribe them a bit to get it predated. There was no way I´d be let in without the certificate, he said.

I went off to the hospital, and they said they didn´t give the injection at the hospital. They did it at the border only. It was also Easter weekend, so my chances of finding anything open weren´t too good. I decided the only thing to do was to just head to the border and see what happens. Packed my bags, told the hotel guy that I might be back and took a shared taxi.

I went in to the immigration office, and saw two offices - one for passport control and the other for the yellow fever vaccination. Venezuelans and Brazillians don´t need visas to travel between the border, and a national ID card is enough. I managed to get my passport stamped and then walked to the vaccination office. There was a problem though.

The vaccination office refused to predate the certificate, and I realised that trying to bribe them in front of about 50 other people waiting in line would probably land me in jail. So I decided to not get the injection which led to a problem. Since my passport had the exit stamp, I had to leave, but with no vaccination certificate, the Brazillian immigration guys wouldnt let me in. I was sort of in no man´s land. I decided to just walk across the border and see if I could somehow work my way around it.

Walked for about 5 minutes along the highway connecting the two border points with my backpack, and get kept trying to come up with some excuse. Thought about lying and saying that I got it in Paris for the visa interview but lost my certificate while travelling. But I didn´t think it would work. Anyway, I walked slowly and tried to see if I could just keep walking without getting stopped. Realised that nobody really cared, but I also knew that without an entry stamp, I was going to risk deportation if I was asked for my passport sometime later.

Went to the immigration office, filled out the form, and after a couple of questions, they stamped my passport. Somehow they didn´t ask for the certificate. But I´d been told that the certificate is normally asked for by the customs people. The customs office was a bit further down the road, and I knew I had to somehow bypass that place.

In the road between the immigration and customs offices, there were a bunch of shops and a few taxis. Saw a family of three talking to a taxi driver, and went closer. Realised they weren´t speaking Spanish, so they had to be Brazillians. I knew that for a shared taxi, the driver always looks for 4 people to fill up the car and so the family was probably looking for a 4th person. I noticed that taxis weren´t stopped by the customs officials as they were carrying people with minimal luggage. It was the buses and private cars which were getting stopped. I also realised that Brazillian citizens shouldn´t need a certificate, so my best bet was to get in with them, and hope that the customs guys would think I was Brazillian.

There is only one road from the border all the way to Manaus, so I told the taxi driver to take me to Boa Vista, which is the first major town along the way. I hopped into the taxi, and kept both backpacks in the trunk so that I didn´t look like a tourist. The taxi went past the customs guy, slowed down for a few seconds and then got waved on.

I was still a bit paranoid that there would be another stop, but there were none. The taxi went straight through and 3 hours later I reached Boa Vista, bought a ticket for the overnight bus to Manaus and reached here in the morning. The two Australians had given me a lot of tips for Manaus, so I managed to find a nice, cheap hotel and will head off on a trip to the rainforests soon.

One more victory for me against immigration officials. Am heading out tomorrow for a 5 day jungle trip.

Chirikayen

2007-04-06T08:34:00.000-07:00

Just got back after a 3 day trek to Chirikayen. Chirikayen is one of the many tepuis (flat top mountains) in this region. I didn't know much about this part of Venezuela and only read about it 2 days before coming. Venezuela's amazingly blessed with natural beauty, but the Gran Sabana region with its tepuis is its most unique feature.

Roraima is the mountain which everyone normally tries to hike to, but when I got to Santa Elena, I realised it was completely booked. I've never been a big fan of going on a trek which is so popular, so I wasn't too unhappy about it. But one of the trekking agencies told us about an alternative, Chirikayen. The 2 Germans I met on the bus were keen on going, and we ended up meeting another British couple who joined us. Permits are required and the trek is through parts of the rainforests, so we decided to go with an agency, which provided us with a guide and a porter.

The trek wasn't too strenuous and it was only 3 days. The weather was awful and I was relieved that I didn't go on the 6 day Roraima trek. It rained a lot, but thankfully on the day that we reached the top, it was clear and gave some spectacular views of the Sabana and the rainforests. Having a guide was useful, as he told us a lot about the uniqueness of the region and the species which are found only on the top of the Tepuis. Having done most of my hiking in moutains, it was a new experience - camping on a flat top mountain, hiking through the jungle and seeing plants which are only found here.

Anyway, I'm back in Santa Elena now. It's a sleepy small town, but has a certain charm to it. I'm a bit tired after all the travelling and hiking, so I'm going to chill out here for a couple of days before making my way down to Brazil. Next post should hopefully be from Manaus.

Been trying to upload pictures to this blog, but it's taking too long. Soon, hopefully.

A day on the road

2007-04-02T13:05:00.000-07:00

Wake up at 7am. Where am I? The sound of the surf. OK, I´m still at the beach. The World Cup was just a dream, or was it? Got a long journey ahead. Kiwis wake up, and in 10 minutes everyone´s ready. On the road again, Kiwi 1 mumbles. We´re all half asleep.

Walk 10 minutes through dirty streets to the Terminal. Buses don´t run for another 2 hours. Haggle with a taxi driver to take us three to Puerto La Cruz. Drive through winding roads, crowded beaches and islands on the horizon. Touts accost us at La Cruz. Ciudad Bolivar for me, and Caracas for the Kiwis. Quick handshakes, email addresses exchanged and we all head off. Me towards Brazil, them towards Columbia. Probably never see each other again.

The bus isn´t crowded. It´s Easter week and everyone´s headed to the beach. I´m going the other way, so it´s quiet for a while. Then, the music is turned on and Salsa blares loudly, drowning out my Ipod. I doze on and off. The countryside is pretty barren. Feels dry and arid. I know it´s blazing hot outside, but the aircon inside makes it freezing. I´m prepared with my sweater and jacket though after many overnight bus journies in this country.

Stop after a few hours at a dusty roadside stop. Greasy Arepas and fresh juice is my first meal of the day. Not entirely healthy but there´s no choice. A potbellied guy with gelled hair starts talking to me. Speak slowly, I say. He realises I´m an outsider and starts talking about his life. Hates America, lived there illegally for 7 years. Paid to get married to a Gringo to get a Green Card, but got deported. Works as a tourist guide now. Venezuela is 85% national parks and 70% of the population is women, he says. I nod and see him eyeing every girl who walks by. Girls half my age have makeup and flimsy clothes and clearly enjoy the attention from him. One girl walks up and sits next to him. His daughter, I think. No, his woman. Go hiking in the Roraim area he says. It´ll be like nothing you´ve seen. I make a note of what he suggests. Get back on the bus and a bunch of people get on trying to sell drinks and food. No Gracias.

Reach Cuidad Bolivar at 3pm. It´s hot and dry. Get a ticket for Santa Elena for 8pm. 5 hours to kill. Leave my backpack with the bus agency. Walk out to a cyber cafe and it´s closed. Where else? Guy shrugs. It´s a Sunday. Everything´s closed. Anywhere in the main city? He motions towards a general direction. Very far, he says. No option but to go. 5 hours in the bus terminal will be boring as hell. Keep walking in the heat. A starbucks cafe, with comfy chairs, a cool latte and wifi would be perfect. Not in this bustling, dirty city though. The heat is getting to me now. Wait, is that an oasis? A 24 hour cybercafe. It´s open. It´s airconditioned. It´s got some drinks as well, and the connections are fast. Perfect place to kill 3 hours and catch up on what´s happening in the world cup.

Head back to the terminal and pick up my backpack and board the bus. Take out my sleeping bag as it´s a long overnight ride. 12 hours to Santa Elena, the border town. Doze off and wake up to see a Hugh Grant movie in Spanish. He sounds as stupid.

Reach Santa Elena at 8 in the morning. See 2 other backpackers in the distance and walk up. German, British or Australian? German. Thankfully, not from where I was a few months ago. Know a cheap place to stay? Ja, Ja. The bible is opened and it points us to a place. Want to share to make things cheaper? Ja, Ja. Heading to Brazil? Ja, Ja. Reach the hotel and look at the rooms. Another dingy room. A table fan, pink walls, 3 separate beds, and a private bathroom. The shower is a tap about 6 feet high. Good enough for a night? Ja, Ja. Should we get something to eat? Ja, Ja. How many months of travelling now? 3 months, they say. 11 months, I say. Want to go on a trek through the Gran Sabana tomorrow? Yes, I say. Got my own tent and sleeping bag so all I need is a stove and food. We get a guide, rent a stove, share a jeep and head off to the Gran Sabana for 3 days.

Santa Fe

2007-04-01T03:52:00.000-07:00

Reaching Venezuela wasn´t too hard. Took a ferry from Tobago to Trinidad, stayed overnight at Port of Spain, and then headed to the docks in the morning to catch the ferry back to Venezuela. It left a bit late, so had to hang around the docks for a long time.

It was far more crowded this time and I met 2 backpackers from New Zealand who were in the Caribbean for the World Cup. They also found it a bit too expensive to stay for the whole thing, so were heading off to Colombia via Venezuela. One of them was on his first overseas trip, while the other had travelled all over the place, so it was funny to see the two of them. The novice studied his Lonely Planet like his bible, while the other guy just asked a few other people about how to get to Columbia, and what was interesting along the way. Since it´s cheaper to travel in a group, the three of us decided to head out from Guiria together, after a long customs check. Hopped on a bus to Cumana and stayed there for the night.

Cumana is the oldest existing town in South America, and also the hometown of a close friend. But it´s hot, and had nothing too interesting. Most of it was destroyed in a couple of earthquakes, so it seemed quite drab architecturally. I emailed my friend, and he couldn´t think of too many things to do, apart from heading to the beaches. So that´s what we did.

Ended up in Santa Fe, which is a sleepy fishing village about an hour outside Cumana. Unlike Tobago, the beaches weren´t as pristine and the accomodation wasn´t as luxurious, but it was cheap and right on the beach. There were also hardly any tourists around, so it was a nice place to spend 3 days doing pretty much nothing. Have been carrying only one book with me (apart from the Spanish phrasebook), so I managed to finally get around to reading it in peace. The only internet cafe in the village was very, very slow - a lot like the pace of life here - so all I did was sit in a cheap cafe, drinking some lovely fruit juices, eat fresh fish, and read.

Anyway, after almost 3 weeks of beaches (and some cricket), I´m a bit beached out, so will head off towards the south in the direction of Brazil. The two Kiwis are off towards Columbia, so we´ll split ways tomorrow.

Tobago

2007-03-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

After spending 10 days watching the Indian team get thrashed, I desperately needed some cheering up. I had no intention of staying on in Trinidad, hoping against hope that Bermuda would pull of a miracle, so I headed off to Tobago.

Getting there was easy. There are 2-3 ferries each day, and take just over 2 hours. The docks were a short walk from my room, so I just walked. The only problem was that I missed the morning ferry, which meant that I would get there only by the evening. The wedding was in the evening, so I had no chance of making it. It was at the other end of the island, and for a while I thought about showing up in their hotel (I just knew the name), but decided I didn't want to show up and find out they'd all gone partying somewhere else.

Reached Tobago around 7pm with no hotel bookings. The previous day I'd met some other travellers who'd just returned from Tobago. They gave me the number of a cheap hotel, so I called it up. Turned out they were full, but they give me 2-3 other numbers to call. Finally got through to the 4th one, and they had a room available. Shared a taxi with some other rich tourists who were heading to the hotel (they let me tag along for free and seemed more concerned than me about not having a hotel booking).

The guest house I showed up at was amazing. It was about a 5 min walk from the beach, and my room was a self contained apartment, with a full kitchen, living room, etc. I checked again about the price, and the owner was sweet enough to lower it as she realised that it would be easier to convince me to stay on.

Woke up the next morning and headed straight to the beach. It was a Sunday, so quite busy and I noticed a bunch of kids playing cricket. This was something I had to join in, so I just ran up and joined them. I was suprised at how badly they all played though. None of them could bowl. They threw more like a pitcher, and their batting was just a baseball style swing. The wicket was an old tyre, so it resembled a strike zone in baseball. Anyway, I adapted and had a great time. There were no rules, no match going on and no competition. Anyone could bat, anyone could bowl and it was amazing to see a lot of women join in as well. People fielded in the water and each time someone hit a big one, they'd swim out to get it. I got a lot of sympathy after India's early exit, and at the risk of sounding immodest, was technically the best bowler and batsmen there. One guy shouted "Next world cup, he gonna be da captain!"

The last 2 days, I indulged in something I'd never done before - snorkelling. I'd been told about how snorkelling was easy, cheap and great fun. Even for a weak swimmer like me, it was supposed to be not too hard. And it wasn't. The first day, I joined a boat tour, where a guy gave me the mask and told me a few basic things. I swam close to the boat but it was quite mindblowing. Seeing those coral reefs, underwater plants and schools of fish, was beyond what I'd imagined it to be. Since it was a semi-guided tour, I couldn't do it for too long, so the next day, I rented a snorkel and ventured out on my own. It was great and had I decided to stay on in Tobago for longer, I would have done it each day. It started to get a bit expensive for me though.

I made a snap decision to come back to Trinidad today, and will head back to Venezuela tomorrow (hopefully I'll wake up in time for the ferry tomorrow). Living out of a backpack makes it easy to do something like this. I first went to the airport (I actually walked from the beach to the airport) to see if there were any direct flights to the eastern part of Venezuela. Realised the only way was to fly through Trinidad and then Caracas, which was too expensive. Went back to the docks to take the evening ferry back here and will hopefully be in Cumana by tomorrow evening.

Anyway, here are the links to my

Tobago pictures

Cricket articles

Update

2007-03-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

India's out of the World Cup, and so am I. Looks like my career as a cricket writer has come to a quick end. All I can say is that I'm happy that I didn't buy any flight tickets, make hotel bookings or buy too many tickets for the matches. All I'm going to lose is 50$ for the Bangladesh-Ireland match.

Will head to the docks tomorrow to catch the ferry to Tobago, and lime out there for about a week or so. After that, I'll have to figure out what to do. I'd planned to stay in the Caribbean for the next month, but there's no point hanging out here for too long. It's a bit too expensive for a cheap backpacker like me.

In about 10 days, I might head back to Venezuela for a bit and then spend some more time in the Amazon rainforests, before heading for Rio. Suggestions?

Anyone interested in buying the Bangladesh-Ireland ticket?

Liming

2007-03-22T12:55:00.000-07:00

There's a word in Trinidad which means just hanging out, chilling and doing nothing in particular - Liming. That's exactly what I've been up to. The beaches in the north coast are perfect for that, and I've spent a large amount of time out there.

The other thing I've been up to is living out my childhood fantasy as a cricket writer. I've attended nets practice a couple of times, and by now most of the reporters know me. It's suprising how tired and cynical most of them are during the press conferences. I stand right in front, listening to every word, (I even asked a question once) and taking pictures. What is interesting though, is listening to the gossip when they head out for lunch, their relationship with different players, their impressions of the coach, etc. I'm going to write a piece on that for the website I'm writing for and post a link soon.

A funny thing happened the other day, on the way to the beach. There are shared vans which go from the downtown area so I hopped onto one. I was sitting next to an American couple who were headed there and we were generally chatting. They asked me if I was here for the World Cup. I was surprised they even knew about it, and said yes. They replied, so were they. For a while I thought they might be part of some TV company, doing some backup work. Turned out they were actually in Trinidad as fans watching cricket, and were headed to Guyana for some more matches.

I was very curious at this point, so they told me they'd travelled in India for about 6-7 months about 7 years ago, and being sports fans, started to watch cricket. They realised watching the cricket world cup as neutral fans, was a nice way to travel and have something to do, so they went all the way to South Africa 4 years ago for about a month, and are now in the Caribbean for 2-3 weeks. They plan to go Australia for the Ashes in about 4 years as well as India again for the next world cup.

We've become good friends over the last 4 days, and today I took them to nets practice and they were overawed at the chance to see both the Sri Lankan and Indian teams so close. 3 other friends of theirs are flying in from California for tomorrow's match (they're trying to convert them into cricket fans), and 2 of them are getting married in Tobago on Saturday. I'm headed to Tobago as well on Saturday, so I might show up for it if it's closeby.

From Sabina Park to the Queen's Park Oval

2007-03-18T15:49:00.000-07:00

5 years ago we met had and a nice chat and it brought a smile to both our faces.

Today, I met him again, and even though he was in a rush we both smiled again.

I also met these guys today. They didn't remember me, but were happy to oblige with pics. Somehow, coming here was worth it, in spite of the horrible performance by India yesterday.

More can be found here.

Cricket update

2007-03-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

India's campaign starts tomorrow, and I've managed to get tickets for the India-Bangladesh match in the Trini-Posse party stand. That's the fun stand with a live band, drinks and crazy people. Also managed to get tickets for India-Bermuda and

INDIA-PAKISTAN on Apr 15th at Barbados.

Yes!!!!!!

Turns out that barring major upsets the schedule for the next round (super 8s) is predetermined based on the seedings a year ago. So India-Pakistan is conveniently scheduled for a Sunday, and I will definitely be there. Have to see if there are any boats from here or Tobago till Barbados, otherwise will have to take a flight.

I'm also going to keep a World Cup diary for this website. Anyone can log in and write articles on sports, and they get edited by a team. I'd started a cricket blog for a few months, and the people on this site noticed it and told me to start writing for them. I've written a few already. 5 years ago, I went to Jamaica to watch India-West Indies and wrote an article here, and decided that since I'm here for the whole world cup, I'll see what it's like to be a cricket writer.

Still have to get tickets for India-Sri Lanka as it was sold out, but there were lots of people selling tickets outside the stadium illegally. They weren't too expensive, so hopefully I should be able to watch all of India's matches in the first round.

If you're watching the cricket match tomorrow, I'll be in the party stand, wearing an official Indian team shirt with a blue floppy hat.

Finally, I've also uploaded my pictures of the Venezuela trip. Click here for the pictures of Merida, Caracas and Venezuela-Trinidad.

Getting to Trinidad

2007-03-15T13:39:00.000-07:00

Getting here wasn't easy. In fact, there was a lot of uncertainty about the whole trip from Caracas to Port of Spain, so when I finally woke up this morning it felt like a bit of an accomplishment.

There were two main problems with coming here from Caracas. One, I had no bookings for any hotels or guest houses. Whatever I found on the internet was too expensive or too vague. Two, the ferry from Venezuela had no internet presence, and nobody in Venezuela that I talked to knew about it. In a Lonely Planet guide I'd read last month, it said the ferry runs once a week on Wednesdays. I wasn't too sure about the price, and I didn't have too much Venezuelan currency left either.

I spent the last day in Caracas (Monday) looking for some travel guides. Since all my travelling for the last 10 months has been a bit unpredictable, I've resisted from buying any travel guides which I'd have to lug around. Caracas isn't a very tourist friendly place so in spite of going to all the main bookstores I couldn't any information or book about Guiria (where the ferry runs from) or Trinidad. Finally decided that the best thing to do was to leave for Guiria that night so that I could hope to get to Guiria by Tuesday afternoon, find out about the ferry and in case it didn't run, head back to Caracas and take a flight.

There was no direct bus to Guiria, so I took an overnight bus to Cumana and reached at about 6 in the morning. The bus terminal was pretty small and decrepit, and at that time in the morning the main ticket office was shut. Went into a grotty waiting room and hung around for an hour. Finally went in to the ticket office after it opened, and realised that the first bus to Guiria was at 2 in the afternoon. That meant reaching Guiria at 6 in the evening, which was too late. Found out after a lot of gesturing and consulting my bible (the Spanish for travellers book) that one could share taxis till Curapao and then another shared taxi to Guiria.

Ended up in a very old run down Ford, which was probably from the 70s considering the design. Dozed through most of the ride and reached Curapao at around 9 and then found another shared taxi for Guiria. These taxis don't leave till they're full, so had to wait till we could find 4 more people heading there. The drive was beautiful though. All along the coast, with the brilliant blue waters sparking and thick jungle on the the other side of the road. Reached Guiria around noon.

As small towns go, Guiria is possibly the most decrepit, rundown, dirty and shady place I've ever encountered. It's the last town one can drive to on the Northeast coast of Venezuela, and exists only because of the docks and the Coast Guard presence. I'd heard about the beaches in the area and had pictured a pretty, small town close to nice beaches where I'd spend the day loitering around. The beach was pathetic and the whole town looked like it was in serious decay. There were two posadas (motels) in town. I took the one where the room had airconditioning as it was blisteringly hot, esp after a week in the Andes.

Asked around about the ferry and found the office after a bit of walking around. The ferry was running as scheduled on each Wednesday, but I had to pay about 70$ in cash. Since I didn't have much currency left, I went to the only ATM in town, but realised that international cards don't work. 3 days earlier I'd overheard a conversation about this, and 2 Germans had mentioned the way to withdraw cash was to go to a big bank in the morning before noon, with your passport and other details. Since it was 3 the bank was shut, so I had to wait till the next morning. I had barely enough money to eat one meal, and the few euros and pounds that I was carrying had no value. Only US dollars I was told. Found a dirty, roadside Arepa place and munched on a couple of Arepas before heading back to my room and sleeping early as there was nothing else to do.

Woke up early, and went straight to the bank and managed to withdraw some cash with the help of a teller. Then went to the Ferry agency, but they refused to let me buy a one-way ticket. Since I wasn't sure of when I plan to leave the Caribbean, they wanted proof of return. It was time to head to the only internet cafe in town and make another booking on AA.

The internet cafe had really old computers, but like idiots they'd installed an illegal copy of Windows Vista. That meant the computer hung about 3 times, before I managed to make a booking. Turned out the printer was connected to the main computer and they weren't networked. The only way to print it out would be to save it as a text file and then transfer it. Thankfully, I had my ipod with me and managed to transfer it onto that, plug it into the main computer and print out a very shady looking ticket itinerary. It was almost 11, so headed straight to the Ferry agency and then managed to get the ticket. Was told to report to the docks at 2, and the ferry would leave at around 4. Bumped into a French couple and we agreed to share a taxi as the docks area looked really shady.

Reached the docks, and after a long and thorough check of everyone's bags and a long wait, managed to leave the docks around 430. I was really tired by now and wondered if I would have been better of taking a flight from Caracas (it would have cost about the same). But within 20 minutes of leaving, it was worth it. The water was incredibly clear, with great views of the Venezuelan peninsula and loud calypso music on the deck. Suddenly, the world cup looked much closer.

While sitting on the deck, I ended up talking to a Venezuelan who now lives in Trinidad. I asked him about Port of Spain, and he was shocked that I had no bookings at all. Since we were going to reach around 8pm, with a long customs check, he said I had no chance of reaching Port of Spain before 930pm, and doubted if there would be any buses to take from the docks. The French couple decided to help me out and gave me their Lonely Planet guide and helped me write down the names and addresses of some cheap hotels. Then Mr Venezuela, gave me some Trinidadian cash (there was no money changer at the docks), his phone number and as soon was we were within range of his cellphone coverage, let me make phone calls to the hotels on the Lonely Planet guide.

After calling 3 places, I managed to find a very affordable place close to the stadium which had one single room left. Mr Venezuela was even nicer, and gave me a ride all the way to the Guest house, waited till I'd found the room and headed off. He told me to call him sometime, and explain cricke to him. Considering all that he did for a stranger, I'd be happy to oblige him for more.

Did I ever mention, I love all Venezuelan people?

Reached Trinidad

2007-03-15T06:19:00.000-07:00

I've made it here finally! It was an eventful trip and things worked out well in the end. Have found a nice and reasonable Bed and Breakfast, within walking distance to the cricket stadium. Am heading out now to see if I can buy some tickets for the matches and organise a few other things - cash, cellphone card, internet connection.

More updates later tonight.

Merida

2007-03-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

I spent the last week in Merida, staying with Dr B´s brother, A. I´d heard a lot about him from 2-3 Venezuelan friends of mine and was keen to see him and his lifestyle. It was quite an amazing experience.

A is about 36, lives alone in a small house in a remote village outside the city of Merida. His house has spectacular views of the Andes, a small stream running through his front yard, no hot water, no heating and no form of transport. The only way to get to his village is to take a bus or hitch-hike and then a short uphill walk. He´s recently started a master´s degree in mathematics at the University of the Andes, and lives on very little money as I found out. He also doesn´t speak any English either (barely a few words).

I reached Merida early in the morning and called him from the bus terminal. Realised immediately that it was impossible to communicate with him. Thankfully, I´ve been carrying a Spanish for travellers book, and have been reading through it for about a week. Took a bus to the centre of the town, memorised some lines and called him again. Somehow we managed to agree on Plaza Bolivar at 11.

He showed up on time and immediately took me on a walk through the city pointing out all kinds of places. At each point I had to ask him to speak slowly, consult my book, and then talk back. He´s lived around Merida most of his life and knows the city inside out, and also about half the town. Every 5 minutes, someone would stop to talk, wave or shout at him. I was still a bit groggy after a long bus ride, so we stopped at a great fish restaurant for lunch. Merida was even cheaper than Caracas and it´s nice to be able to order food without asking about the price. After lunch, we hitched a ride in a jeep, and went through a long walk through a few villages, stopping at a couple of houses along the way. Being introduced as a friend from India in such a remote place, made me feel like a celebrity. Reached his house in the evening, and I immediately collapsed on a hammock on his porch and dozed off, listening to the sound of the stream and staring in between at the amazing mountain views.

The next 3-4 days were spent hiking. A had spent a lot of time in his 20s as a trekking guide, and knows every trail and mountain. The first day, a friend of his joined us, and the 3 of us hitched rides on various trucks and jeeps to end up at some hot springs. It took a while to get there and apart from a few locals, it was just us. Spent at least 4-5 hours soaking in the hot springs, sipping some fresh juice we´d carried, with a great view of the Andes. The sun was very harsh and strong, so I got pretty badly sunburnt, as I´d laughed at the sunblock they were using. Left the springs around 4 in the evening and explored some of the small villages in the area. Again, A knew a lot of people and we just simply walked into different houses without knocking on doors. At each place the 3 of us went, we were offered food and tea and it was quite astonishing to see how backward the living conditions were in these places.

Spent the next 2 days on a camping trip and I realised how 3 months in Paris had made me very unfit. It was even worse to be accompanied by a former trekking guide who knows everything so well. Somehow managed to chug up to the base of Pico Sucre, and camped there for the night. It got cold at night, and I was quite stiff after all the walking and it wasn´t the most comfortable night. But seeing the night sky and the sunrise in the morning made the whole trek worth it.

Decided against climbing the peak as it was too windy and I didn´t want to push myself too much. Took a different route on the way back and stopped at another hot spring along the way to ease the stiffness. Got back to his place around 5 and then headed straight for a farewell party for a friend of his who was leaving for Caracas. It was supposed to be just a few drinks and a quicky goodbye, but there was no way anybody was going to let A leave early. He´s remarkably popular and though he´s about 10 years older than most of his student friends, he behaves as if he´s younger than them. Even though nobody could speak English clearly, it was fun to communicate through my Spanish book. I think I learned more Spanish in the last 6 days than I ever tried in the last few years.

The last day was reserved for the most spectacular ride that I´ve ever been on. The Teleferica, which is the longest and highest cable car in the world. It was breathtaking and it starts from about 3000m in Merida and goes up to about 4500m in about an hour, with a couple of stops. It was the closest I´ve felt to flying, especially as I sat like a kid in the front row with my nose pressed against the windows. It´s a remarkable feat of engineering and the views one gets of the Andes and the neighbouring valleys and towns are incredible. (I think I used too many superlatives in the last paragraph)

I took the night bus back to Caracas, and had a slightly awkward experience. Was woken up in the middle of the night and asked for my ID. Showed my passport and was then told to come out of the bus. Even though I told them in broken Spanish that I was just a tourist, they insisted on searching me and my backpack thoroughly and asking about where I was going and what I did. The whole bus was held up for about 30 minutes, and it was a bit embarrassing to be interrogated in front of the entire bus. I don´t know why they were doing it to me, but I acted as if I didn´t care. They let me off soon, but the bus driver winked at me and said ¨"Sorry, that´s what Chavez is doing these days."

I took loads of pictures and a short video at the back of a truck. Will try uploading them soon once I can figure out how to connect my laptop. Am off to Guiria tonight, and then to Trinidad by a ferry on Wednesday, so hopefully my next post will be from Trinidad.

Caracas Diary

2007-03-06T05:16:00.000-08:00

The flight to Caracas was long and I almost missed the connecting flight at Frankfurt. I´d left for Heathrow at around 4am, so I slept comfortably almost all the way to Caracas. The airport is right on the coast, so as one lands, one can see the mountains in the background and the city is in a valley behind the mountains. It looks quite dramatic.

The moment I cleared immigration and customs, a bunch of fake officials came up to me offering to change money. I´d been warned about this so decided to change only enough to make a couple of phone calls and for emergency. The difference in the official and unofficial rate is almost double due to inflation and strict currency controls. Managed to get through to W, who I was going to stay with, who gave the taxi driver instructions and negotiated a fare.

The bridge connecting the airport to the city broke a year ago so the driver took a really long round-about way to get to Caracas. It meant driving through a lot of the favelas (slums) and as the first introduction to Venezuela, it was quite harsh, even for someone from Delhi. The ride was beautiful though, on a long winding road up to the top of the mountains and then down. The taxi driver kept talking non-stop about a lot of things, with loud music blaring and stopping to whistle and pass comments at all the women along the way.

Reached W´s house around 6pm, and walked straight into a family get-together. Since it was a weekend, his whole clan tends to meet on both days. It was cramped and noisy, but I enjoyed it a lot. Dinner dragged on for a long time and the next day, there was another gathering at someone´s house in the countryside. That´s the weekend retreat for the whole clan and even more people showed up. The weather was hot and to combat the heat, everyone kept sipping beer. Was happily drunk and just enjoyed being treated like a celebrity guest by the whole clan.

Got back around 7pm, and then Dr B showed up. He´d visited India about 6 years ago and stayed with some friends of mine and loved it, so he´s determined to make my visit similar. Took me out to a place which is known for its Arepas and then drove me around Caracas in his car. Gas is cheap in Venezuela (about 10cents a litre) so nobody cares about driving long distances. He jumped 3 red lights and after the second asked "Aren´t you feeling at home?".

Spent the last 2 days exploring Caracas by metro and by foot. It´s a weird city. The location is spectacular, as it´s in a valley with high mountains all around and the weather is great all year. The women are either amazingly hot or very overweight (I was told it´s because of the beer), and the traffic is as bad as Delhi. Architecturally, it´s very ugly. Since it´s the capital and the commercial centre, there are lots of highrise buildings, but most of them look quite run down. There are shops all over and even the old Spanish quarter has lost the charm it must have had as it´s surrounded by shops. The food is great, especially the fresh fruit juices and after walking a lot, it´s nice to chill out on the Grande Sabana, sip a cool drink and watch people play chess.

I haven´t been able to upload pictures yet, but hopefully in a week or so. I´m off to Merida today for 5-6 days. It´s a small town in the Andes, and will be staying in a village just outside Merida, with Dr B´s brother, who is a trekking guide and lives in a small hut. He´s starting a master´s degree in maths at the University of the Andes and also runs marathons. Apparently he doesn´t speak any English, so let´s see how we communicate about maths, mountains and marathons.

Heading to the University right now, to meet with a couple of other people I know through two of my old housemates, and then in the evening will take a cable car to the highest point in Caracas, which I´m told has a spectacular view of the city, the mountains and coast.

Reached Caracas

2007-03-05T04:14:00.000-08:00

Should have posted a bit earlier, but my life´s been hijacked by a few friends here. Since I reached this is the first time I´ve had time to post, but it´s not a long one. Reached Caracas safely after an interesting drive from the airport to the city. The weather´s great as are the beer and people. Will post a longer one later tonight.

Getting ready to leave

2007-03-02T07:40:00.000-08:00

London's passed by in a bit of a daze. In between meeting the maths crowd, some corporate sharks and some friends, it became quite hectic. It helps that I know the city very well after so many trips so I've felt comfortable getting around. I managed to get my CARICOM visa stamped, get vague ideas of possible employment opportunities after Rio, mail off tax forms and catch up with some friends.

I'm leaving in a few hours for Heathrow and have a one-way ticket to Caracas. My worldly possessions are now even less than they were a few months ago. I can survive for about a week with my clothes, have two books to sustain me and a few gadgets. 2 years ago, I'd gone to Peru for 2 weeks and was carrying exactly the right amount of stuff after many years of always carrying some extra and useless items while travelling. I went hiking for 4 days, and managed to get by easily with what I was carrying. Right now, I've got the same amount of stuff with me.

In the last 10 months, this is the 4th time, I've bought a one-way ticket to head off to a different continent. I don't know if I'm doing something incredibly stupid with no clear idea of what to do in terms of employment, just about enough money to last me till July (assuming there're no screw-ups) but hopefully in about 24 hours or so, I'll be in Caracas.

More once I reach Venezuela.

Leaving Paris

2007-02-27T05:31:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, it's time to leave. For the 3rd time in less than 12 months I'm leaving a place which has felt like home. I was so comfortable here and it's hard to believe that it was only 3 months. The only reassuring part is that due to a bureaucratic screwup, I have the option of coming back for another 2-3 month stint later this year.

Am taking the Eurostar to London and will be there for 4 days and in spite of being unemployed and no job in hand, have quite a few things to do while I'm there - attend a seminar, meet my former advisor, figure out possible job options after Rio, get the final visa stamped and, of course, hang out with friends - a lot of whom have moved to London in the last 2-3 years.

For the next 2 months, I'll be back on the road travelling a lot till I reach Rio sometime in early May. I have enough clothes to last me for a week and only 2-3 books. As a result, my backpack is now considerably lighter than it was when I left Regensburg so travelling will be easier.

The adda mentality

2007-02-22T01:03:00.000-08:00

A year ago, I happened to be at the right place at the right time. I was a student in Boston, finishing up my Phd, and lived close to Harvard Square. Though I wasn't a student at Harvard, I'd gone regularly to their seminars for almost 5 years. Last year, I was lucky enough to attend a once-in-a-lifetime semester EV organized by BM, who in my opinion is one of the most influential mathematicians of the last 50 years.

BM felt there was a connection between 2 seemingly different areas of mathematics and called every expert in the two areas. They flew in from Europe, Asia and North America and it was quite mindblowing to see them all for a whole semester, giving lectures and working intensely in follow-up seminars. Some gave courses, some gave a lecture series and some just a short talk. It was like a 4 month conference and the intensity didn't slip throughout.

There was a small group in that very distinguished gathering which had a very significant presence. The whole semester had been split up into two to explore the connections. One of the two areas, (p-adic Langlands if you're curious) has been influenced heavily by a bunch of number theorists from Paris. They all came in April (apart from a few who came earlier) and there was intense curiousity about what they did.

What I found very amusing about them was how they all stuck together. In every lecture, they sat together at the back, talking and whispering in spite of other eminent mathematicians giving lectures. A few times I ended up sitting close to them, and couldn't understand their behaviour. It had nothing to do with lack of respect for the speaker, insecurity about their English (they're all fluent) or arrogance.

I've now spent almost 3 months in one of the many maths departments in Paris and observed them pretty closely. I've attended a few seminars outside the campus I'm in and in almost everyone I've gone to I've found the behaviour similar. I gave a talk in one of the seminars 2 weeks ago and didn't find the constant whispers annoying. It's something I've gotten used to now. There's a word for it in India (or at least in the north).

Adda.

Adda (to me) means a bunch of friends who've known each other for a long time and feel comfortable only in each other's presence. They could be anywhere but the moment they see each other, they congregate together and tend to ignore the whole world. They tend to have a common meeting place (which is generally called the Adda or hangout) which is the centre of the world for them.

In my time in the US, I rarely came across such a place or group of friends. It was common for grad students to hang out in someone's office or meet at a particular cafe or bar, but it was fairly temporary. A few years at most, and then everyone moved on and once in a while one sees a few of them. But it's never the same as the original hangout which for an outsider can be a very boring place.

I guess I had an adda when I was an undergraduate in Delhi, but that was in a different decade and everyone's moved on to different places. My office in Brandeis had the feel of an adda, especially as I had a small fridge, a couch and a coffee-machine. But again, that was for a few years and when I went back for a few days in September, the whole character of that small office had changed.

My twin, on the other hand, has the quintessential adda. His entire clique moved from their undergrad institute in Ahmedabad to Delhi, and they all congregate in his studio almost everyday. I've known them for almost as long as he has, and each I'm back in Delhi I feel more comfortable with them than the few remaining friends I have from high school or college in Delhi. I know their background, the kind of work they do and also all the gossip. It's a comfortable place and group of people and though I'm the only non-designer in the group I don't feel like an outsider.

Paris is a place where an adda mentality seems quite common. I'd remarked to my host JT in the University about this, and he agreed. He has his own clique in the maths dept, though they're much younger and it's more work related. He said it's a common Parisian thing especially as almost all of them studied in Paris and have spent most of their academic life based in Paris.

I realised yesterday how the maths dept I'm in has its own adda. Almost all the young CNRS number theorists in the recent past have chosen this particular dept to be attached to (that's why I wrongly thought getting CNRS wasn't hard). JT teaches a course every Wednesday for 4 hours with a break in between for lunch. It's meant for his Phd students but I go for it along with a couple of other younger postdocs. It's an intense day as the class continues informally through lunch and the coffee/tea we get right after the marathon 4 hr class is over. But strangely, I don't feel too exhausted at the end of it as I feel familiar with most of the people in that group. The number theory seminar is on Fridays and each week a few of JT's former students show up from the other campuses for the talk, stay on for lunch and then continue talking well after lunch in the corridor or common room. Since they all have permanent positions in Paris and feel no need to move, it's unlikely to change. I can picture these guys in about 10-15 years time, still meeting every week and talking.

Addas exist everywhere I'm sure but in India and the US, most people I knew hardly ever stayed on in the same city throughout. Work, education and other factors contribute to people moving a lot. Since Paris is pretty much the centre of everything in France, there's no real need to move out as is the insecurity of the French of not speaking French. And with the amazing public transport and reasonable cost of living, people don't commute or drive too far everyday. Sitting in a cafe and hanging out with friends, taking the same train to work or the University or living fairly close to each makes it easier.

A month before I came to Paris, I didn't know a single person I could hope to stay with while looking for a flat. I thought of staying in a hostel while looking for a place and thought that since I was going to be here for just 3 months, I'd probably only hang out with people from the maths dept. It turned out to be completely different.

I'd met B in Toronto 3 years ago at a summer school and he was a student in Strasbourg at that point. I sent him a random email in September thinking I'd go there at some point for a few days to meet him. Turned out he's now a school-teacher in Paris and offered to let me stay with him and his girlfriend while I looked for a place. Since they moved from Strasbourg less than a year ago some of their friends have come as well and live not too far away. For the ones in Strasbourg, B&M's flat is the adda for all of them when they're in Paris. The first few days that I was staying with them there were about 6 of us sleeping at their flat one weekend but it felt fine. Very quickly, I became part of that clique and I've felt incredibly comfortable with all of them. Language is a bit of a barrier but when both sides are willing to make an effort, it's not too bad. Every time we all got out for dinner or someone cooks at their flat, it stretches on for at least 2-3 hours and nobody seems to be in a rush to leave.

I guess I've been lucky to become an outside member of a couple of small cliques so soon, but that's probably the biggest reason I've felt so comfortable here.

Public transport

2007-02-18T09:51:00.000-08:00

Had a few friends visiting me this weekend, from Munich and Vienna. I'd visited them 5-6 months ago and stayed with them and explored their cities. Like most European cities, they both have good public transport but somehow the system in Paris feels like it's on a different scale. Since all 3 of them were interested in exploring Paris, we spent a lot of time on the metro getting around the different neighbourhoods. There were a few things I'd noticed earlier but since these friends were around, I realised what makes the Paris metro system so good.

There are about 14 different metro lines which run through Paris, but there's no real centre for the metro lines to intersect in. Almost all 14 lines meet all the other lines at some point. There's no system of east-west or north-south. It's a crazy mesh of lines and it's incredibly dense. I don't think I've ever had to walk for more than 5 minutes to find a metro stop within the city. For almost 3 months now, I've crisscrossed different parts of the city for various reasons, and I don't think I've ever had to change more than once. That means it's pretty easy to guess how long it's going to take from place to another and also makes it less tiring. I don't know who the main planner of the metro was and if they employed some kind of algorithm to see how many lines are needed to make sure you only change once, but they did an excellent job. Each time I sit on a different line, I can count up to at least 10 different lines that it connects with, sometimes more than once.

The city of Paris is enclosed by a ring road and has an oval shape. That means the metro map actually resembles the city map. So, even if you're in Paris for the first time, you can figure out which part of the city you're in. This is in stark contrast to every other metro I've used, where figuring out how to get around by the metro is easy, but leaves you completely lost about the scale and orientation of the city. In other cities, there are times I've completely misjudged how far metro stations are, or on different occasions changed trains when I could have just walked. All metro stations are equipped with the main metro and suburban rail map, a bigger map of the city with the major landmarks and more detailed ones of the immediate neighbourhood. I have a map of Paris, but it's something I hardly carry with me while getting around.

Getting around Paris is fast and easy. I haven't gotten around to using buses, which are generally a better way of seeing a city, but the metro doesn't leave me feeling disoriented. And, unlike the price hikes in New York, London and Boston, the metro prices have remained unchanged since I last visited 5 years ago.

Moving to Rio

2007-02-12T11:49:00.000-08:00

Well, not immediately but in a few months. I heard back from IMPA in Rio and they've offered me a visiting position for a few months in the summer (or winter depending on the hemisphere). I plan to be there for about 2 months from early May to early July. It's an unpaid position but they've offered to give me an office, with access to everything in the institute and a flat (maybe not free, but it should be cheaper than Paris). In return, I'll give a series of lectures while I'm there.

IMPA has a spectacular location. It's on top of a hill, on the edge of a forest and very close to one of the world's most famous beaches, Ipanema. Here are some pics of the institute. Of course, the fact that it's in Rio makes it even more exciting. The Rio marathon is in the end of June and it's been almost a year since my last one, so I'm itching to get back to running. One of the problems of living in Paris is the lack of open spaces to go running, but once I get out of here, I'll try getting back into shape. 4 months is enough time to train for it.

After I leave Paris at the end of February, I'll spend 2 weeks in Venezuela, about 5-6 weeks watching the cricket world cup in the Caribbean till the end of April, and then head down towards Rio after spending some time in the Amazon rainforest.

I had a visitor from Delhi last week and this week 3 friends from Munich and Vienna are showing up. It's fun to be the host for a change. If anyone wants to visit Rio while I'm there, you're welcome. I should have a nice place to stay in.

Some thoughts from Paris

2007-02-09T04:48:00.000-08:00

There are two things which I noticed in my time in Paris, which never struck me the first time I came here. That time I came for 6 days, like a wide-eyed tourist awestruck by the grandeur and beauty of Paris. It's been more than 2 months here, and since I've been "living" here, it's been a different experience - especially regarding food and race.

- Race

There's a huge African population in Paris, and like one encounters South Asians in London, Hispanics in California, it's Africans here. The area I live in is largely African, though a short walk away from the more gentrified Montmartre area. What amazes me is how comfortable they feel. A large number of them continue wearing clothes which I presume they wear back in Africa, but nobody seems to care. It's pretty common to see a big group walk into the metro, talking loudly, wearing clothes completely different from everyone else, and nobody seems to find it weird. Somehow GAP and Benetton haven't affected their sense of fashion, and it's nice to see them walking around wearing whatever they feel like.

The other thing I noticed, which I hardly saw in the US, is the large number of inter-racial couples and groups of friends. Seeing a Black person cuddling up with a white partner in a cafe seems pretty normal, as is seeing a bunch of mixed students in the university hanging out together joking around. It helps that universities are free. Somehow, I never saw such free and open mixing of races anywhere in the US. It wasn't too segregated there and Asian students and professionals mixed fairly well but blacks and hispanics weren't that visible in most places.

Maybe it's because Africans are the largest minority and there aren't as many Hispanics and Asians, and also the fact that I haven't seen anything outside Paris and its suburbs. It's far more relaxed here and I don't get the impression that an African feels out of place anywhere. Their football team is actually quite a just reflection of how comfortable the French (or at least Parisians) are with Africans in their midst. I noticed the diversity the first time I came but never noticed how comfortable everyone feels.

- Food

I found the story a bit dismaying. Banning street food in Delhi is one of the most unjust and stupid acts I've read about. Food is something Parisians are religious about, and although the restaurants aren't as diverse as in a big US city, the quality is simply amazing.

There are quite a few McDonald's and Starbucks outlets in Paris, and they seem to be reasonably busy. I remember reading about how Parisians were stoning the first McDonalds but somehow they've accepted its presence. What's interesting is the one near Notre Dame has a small creperie next to it. And next to the Starbucks are about 2-3 other cafes. All of them are busy, and I guess it's a good example of how free markets should work. Banning a particular kind of food, because it doesn't taste good or is unhygienic is stupid. The same judges should be sent to Paris and shown how food is made.

What makes the food so great is the rawness. The average Crepe maker never wears gloves and has no problems wiping his brow and then rolling the crepe. It's the same in all the food markets, and there are tonnes of them everywhere. Fresh fruits and vegetables can be found everywhere, within walking distance of every neighbourhood, as well as small boulangeries, patisseries, fromageries and boutcheries. If you buy anything from there, there's no obsession with hygiene nor are things packaged excessively. Some of the markets seem as dirty as chaotic as one would encounter in India. There are big supermarkets, but like the McDonalds and small creperie, they seem to being doing alright inspite of each other's presence next to each other.

My corner boulangerie worker knows I live 2 mins from there and gives me my bread with a small piece of paper wrapped around it. Since I live on my own, my intake of fruits, vegetables and meat is small, and I prefer to pick up small amounts every other day than head to a huge supermarket and stock up for 2 weeks. It's possible to pick up 2 or 3 types of fruits, some vegetables and pay the guy who's standing outside talking to his friend, in cash, without getting a receipt or a bag. If my French was better, I could try haggling, but I find things so cheap after the US, that I don't care. Inspite of the lack of attention paid to hygiene, I haven't had any health problems.

Another week, another visa, another story

2007-02-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

Went to the Brazillian consulate last week to apply for a visa. After getting a CARICOM and Venezuelan visa, I was pretty sure it would work out. I did go with a plan in case things went wrong. Thankfully, they spoke English so it was easy to communicate.

I decided to make another booking without buying a ticket. This time it was a multicity ticket, Paris to Caracas to Rio to London. After looking through the documents, the guy was nodding away till he noticed my French visa expires around the time I leave Paris. Since I don't have a residency permit, he seemed confused. I told him I was planning to move to London for a job, which confused him even more. Showed him the Venezuelan visa and said they didn't have a problem, so he looked clueless about what to do. He called up his superior, who came down, looked at my papers and asked why I was going to Brazil. It was time for plan B.

I said I was going to work with a professor at IMPA in Rio, but out of my own pocket. Since I'm here as a researcher I said the same project I'm working on, has a group in Rio (not true as there is no real project or group in my case), and wanted to spend a month or two in Rio. I mentioned IMPA is a world class institute (true) and it would help a lot to get a Brazillian collaborator. That made her happy, and she looked through everything and told me to come back today with some other papers from the University.

Went again today, and things went smoothly. They remembered me, and after 5 mins of looking through all the papers, said "Excellent, very good." Never heard that from a visa officer. Have to go back next week to pick it up.

That finishes off the visa hassles I had. The final step is to go to London at the end of the month and get the CARICOM visa stamped, and then in less than a month I'll be off. Haven't bought any tickets yet, but have decided I'll buy a one-way ticket to Caracas and keep it open ended. Might end up going all the way down to Buenos Aires and fly back from there, or might just rent a flat in Rio for a couple of months and see if I can get an office at IMPA and do some work while I'm there.

Smoking ban

2007-02-01T10:41:00.000-08:00

I didn't realise till I read about it here on BBC that a smoking ban is being enforced in Paris. For the last two months, I've spent a huge amount of time in different cafes out here. Can't say that I've explored a lot of the arts, the nightlife or the sights, but the one thing I've done a lot of in Paris, is sit in cafes.

When I was in Boston, a significant chunk of my thesis was done sitting in various cafes (or coffeeshops). I work better with noise in the background, so cafes suit me fine if I want to sit for a few hours and do something specific. They're also a nice break from working from either home or an office. There were quite a few people like me (mainly students) who did the same thing, so it was pretty common to see people sitting in a coffeeshop, reading or working on their computers.

What those cafes lacked were people sitting around, doing nothing or people meeting for a coffee, a drink or a smoke. Cafes are such an inherent part of Paris, that they're everywhere one goes. I normally leave the University around 5, and depending on how I feel, I pick some neighbourhood and head out to a cafe with some stuff to read. It's interesting to notice the different characters in the cafes and the customers who frequent these places, especially as most of them are there straight after work. I found out recently that there's a law in Paris which says that if you order anything, then they can't force you to order anything else or leave for the next 2 hours. That kind of law is perfect for me and a huge number of Parisians, for whom a cafe is place where they feel free to do whatever they feel like.

I grew up in a family of smokers and through college and grad school, had a bunch of friends who smoked. Though I don't smoke, hanging around smokers is completely normal for me. In the US, smokers are complete outcasts, and I didn't mind accompanying smoker friends or housemates to their smoking spots to continue a conversation or just give them company and waste some time.

In Paris, I love the fact that people smoke inside cafes. Since cafes sell alcohol and tobacco, it's normal to see people show up after work (if they work!) and buy some wine/beer and cigarettes and just talk to the bartender. I guess most people have their neighbourhood cafes to hang out in and feel comfortable walking in and just talking to the bartender. There's no loud music or big screen TVs, just a lot of chatter which makes these cafes so homey.

The ban is initially for workplaces, and apparently will hit a lot of other places soon, except places which sell tobacco. I guess I'm in a minority among non-smokers, but as long as they keep a reasonable number of cafes as places for smokers, I'll keep going there. That's where one is more likely to see people sitting around nothing, which makes me very comfortable.

I should add that I leave at the end of the month, so I don't think I'll notice the effects of the ban in cafes.

Notes from a Paris maths department

2007-01-28T04:40:00.001-08:00

Before I came to Paris, I was very, very excited. It wasn't just the thought of living in a great city like Paris, it was also the chance to talk to and work with some of the best mathematicians in the world. Paris is one of the great centres of the mathematics world - along with Boston and Cambridge/London and Tokyo/Kyoto. Historically, Germany was the place but post WWII, their influence in the maths world has declined.

The average American university is always very busy. The professors and postdocs have heavy teaching loads, grading and administrative tasks along with the research they do. While most professors are very informal and receptive to talking, you can see the stress on their faces and somehow that attitude trickles down to the postdocs and phd students. Professors in the US also move constantly till they get tenure and it's normal for a tenured professor to have been in 3-4 different universities till they settle down in one place. Even after that it's pretty common for them to move around. In between juggling teaching, grading, administration, travelling for conferences and research it's nowhere close to the cushy, comfortable life non-academics consider it to be - even though mathematicians don't need anything more than a pen and paper to do their work. My experience in Germany wasn't too different, though considering how obsessed Germans are with rules, even a beach bum would look busy.

When I came here I wasn't too sure of what I was supposed to do. My host had said I should come in 2-3 times a week, try talking to some other people and give a talk while I'm here. I thought he was trying to understate things and make things sound laidback. My office window faces the physics department and I can look into a lab and it's a bit scary how hard they work. They're all in before I come in and there till I leave. Apart from a brief lunch break they all seem to sit there plugging away with their machines and computers.

The maths dept is on a different wavelength though.

It's now the end of January, and I still hear people saying "Bonne Annee (Happy new year)" in the corridors. That says a lot about how often they see each other. Lunch is an incredibly relaxed affair. There's no regular time or group that goes for lunch. There are people who arrive daily around lunch time and then proceed for a relaxed, leisurely lunch which takes at least an hour. There's very little stress I see, and after 5 there aren't too many people around in the dept. It's very common to see a bunch of professors, sitting in the common room sipping coffee and talking to each other - not just about maths. There was a postdoc I was trying to meet but was told that he hasn't been spotted for the last 2-3 months, and nobody seemed to think it unusual. One postdoc comes in each day only around lunchtime and pushes off around 5 to play with his string quartet.

Seminar talks are interesting. In the US, there's room for spillover time, but talks generally tend to have a fixed length, and every talk I gave over the last year tended to be of the same duration. In Germany, the faculty looked suprised if I didn't send an email on time about the exact time (5:00 or 5:10), location and length of the lecture. Out here, there's a regular time but no time limit. Talks range from 30 mins to almost 3 hours and when I asked about how long I should speak for next month, they all looked surprised.

The department in terms of people is huge for a maths department - about 40-50 fulltime tenured faculty members. Most of have done outstanding research and when I came here, I expected to see an incredibly busy and tense place. I couldn't figure out how these guys could do research of the highest quality, have all the time in the world to do whatever they feel like and also keep travelling for all kinds of conferences. The answer is simple.

CNRS.

CNRS is a national organisation which funds research in the basic sciences. At a young age (you have to be under 30 I think), you can apply to CNRS for a position. If you get it, for the rest of your life you're a salaried government employee with all possible benefits and have no obligations to teach. Assuming you do good research you keep getting promoted, but it's a permanent position. It doesn't pay well, but after 2 months here I've realised you don't need too much to have a comfortable life here. It's quite amazing, how happy and relaxed the whole CNRS lot is. It's obviously not easy to get but an equivalent position in the US would involve competition of a different magnitude. The salaries in a comparable position in the US are also of a different magnitude though.

The French though have a nice system. Rather than funding only superstars, they fund a much larger bunch of potential superstars. For the rest of their life, these people are free to do whatever they want. They can work from home, cafes or not work at all. But the quality of research they churn out is exceptional. Mathematics is one area where capitalism and free markets don't have the edge.

Last week I went to the Institut Henri Poincare to attend some lectures given by people who'd been awarded the National Medal of Science. The speaker I was interested in listening was sitting in the audience with 4-5 of his friends. I recognized all of them as they'd come to Boston last year for a special program, and they're all bigshots. While in Boston, they all sat in a group and behaved like kids, talking and giggling, irrespective of who was lecturing. Their behaviour wasn't too different in Paris, except one of them got up, accepted a prestigious award and went on to give a great lecture. That was followed by some of the best food and wine that I've ever had, and they all sat around again just chatting away and sipping their wine and nibbling on their food.

The next time I see someone sitting in a cafe staring into blank space, I'd be tempted to ask him if he's a CNRS person. It's possible he could be a bum, but it's also possible he could be the next Sartre or Serre.

Visa update

2007-01-23T02:27:00.000-08:00

Went to the Venezuelan consulate today. Their website didn't have much information and didn't even have a form. Since French and EU nationals don't need a visa, it's obviously not a big issue with them. Unfortunately, India's not in the list of countries which don't require visas.

Since I wasn't too sure if I would get a visa or not, I didn't want to buy a ticket and then realise I couldn't go. Also, wasn't sure about where to fly out from and where and when to fly to back. I want to keep the South America trip open ended, so I used the AA website to book a ticket and keep it on hold for 24 hours. The nice thing about that is that the printout looks exactly like the receipt of a confirmed ticket, with a confirmation code, seat numbers, etc. It requires some careful reading to notice that it says HOLD and not PURCHASED.

The consulate is in the 16th district, where most of the other consulates and embassies are located. Headed there armed with all my documents and walked in. The 2 officers there didn't speak English, and when I asked about applying for a visa they asked for my residency permit. Obviously, I didn't have it so they said I couldn't apply for it from Paris and I should go back to India.

I'd anticipated such a situation and went ready with an excuse. I lied to them and said that I had a job in London and that I was moving there in June. I showed her my UK visa and somehow she didn't notice that it was a tourist visa. Showed her other documents of my positions in Germany and France, so somehow she believed that I was actually employed and had been travelling in Germany and France on important research related work.

She couldn't understand why I was going to Venezuela in the middle of all this. I told her about some close friends who'd moved back there and wanted me to be there for their wedding (not true at all). Then I smiled and said I've always dreamed of travelling in Venezuela (not entirely true). Since they didn't look like they were going to deny it outright, I tried to be friendly and innocent. I was told to wait and she called up her supervisor and there was a very animated conversation, between the two officers and the supervisor which I couldn't follow at all.

Finally, they gave me a form to fill out and asked for all my documents. Thankfully, they didn't ask for a bank statement. My Boston account is now dangerously close to zero and I still haven't been paid in Paris (and probably won't be paid till I leave). Had she seen my current financial status, she would have probably denied it as I doubt if I can afford to pay for even my ticket.

Anyway, it worked out and I have to go back next week to pick it up. I don't think anyone's ever walked out of that consulate so happy. I'm thinking of pushing my luck and applying for a Brazillian visa from here as well. Still have to buy tickets as I'm planning to leave in a little over a month, but that's something which I'll put off till I see what the Brazillian consulate says.

Bank account

2007-01-18T12:42:00.000-08:00

The last week was full of running around in circles trying to do one simple thing - open a bank account. In order to get paid, I have to have a French bank account. But there were a few problems - I don't have residency, an EU passport and am here for just 3 months. There is a way around it but it involved a lot of things - getting a birth certificate, photocopies and attestations of some documents, proof of rent, etc. After that, the professor who's my host had to call a special number and they sent him the link to a website where I had to fill out an online form (in French, so I made a lot of mistakes).

After submitting it, I got an email with some membership no. With that number and all my documents, I had to head out to the southern edge of Paris to meet with someone who's in charge of foreign researchers. She checked my documents, called up someone else and set up an appointment with a bank official in the centre of Paris. Headed there later in the day, and she politely told me that their computers weren't working, so I had to come the next day.

Went the next day, and after making copies of all my documents, asking a few questions, I was given a couple of papers. One of them had a long number which was my account number and another one had a set of coupons. Apparently, each time I make a deposit or withdraw cash I need to use those coupons. I asked about a debit card and checkbook, but was told since I was here for just 3 months I wasn't entitled to one. To withdraw or deposit any money, I have to go all the way to the main branch, between 9 and 12, 4 days a week, and do any transaction. I can't check my balance online, or do anything electronically.

I was glad to at least have an account, but when I went back to the University (which is the northern suburbs), I was told to get an advance on my salary I have to write a check to the University, and then they give me a check which I'll deposit. Unfortunately, I don't have a check book. So, I have to go to the main branch, give them 2 days notice and get a banker's check.

One would think I was back in the 1950s living under a communist regime.

I'm sharing an office with JR, a prof from Michigan, who's been visiting Paris for the last 30 years and has spent about a quarter of his life in various mathematics departments of Paris. He laughed when I told him all this, and said things haven't changed since he first came. Since he's been coming regularly, he's kept his French account open so things appear in his account a month or two after he's left. He uses that surplus for his next trip, so he's worked out the system. He also has electronic copies of every document (and its translation) in his computer, so he's avoided any hassles that way - which are worse if you visit for more than 3 months.

In fact, since he's been paying taxes, etc he's now eligible for social security benefits and free health care. Considering the dire situation of health care in the US, he's gotten some medical checkups in France (which are almost free) and gotten cheaper drugs from the US. The first time that he came, he didn't get paid for well over a month. After realising he couldn't solve the bureaucracy, he walked into the chairman's office and said "If I don't get paid, I don't have money for food". He got paid within a week. Food is one thing the French respect.

He winked, and said if I plan to come back to Paris regularly he can teach me more such tricks. Paris is almost a second home for him, and even though it's been less than two months here and in spite of all the hurdles one faces, I can see why he keeps coming back.

Back from Londres

2007-01-15T04:21:00.000-08:00

Got back a few hours ago from London and it went by in a whirl. This was my third trip to London in the last 8 months so I didn't feel any particular excitement while going. The only thing I was looking forward to was the Eurostar train. Each time I've visited London, it's been on my way to or from Boston or Delhi. That basically means a tiring flight, a long wait at customs and immigration and then a long tube ride all the way to wherever I was staying. The last few times I've been staying with G, a friend from undergrad, and he lived on the other end of the tube line from Heathrow airport. Getting to his house was a huge task after such a long flight.

He recently moved to Canary Wharf, which is 10 mins from the London Eurostar station and I live about 10 mins from the Paris end. Door to door, it took me about 4 hours - including picking up my ticket and clearing customs and immigration. The train is incredibly fast, very comfortable, cheap (50 quid for a roundtrip) and going from the heart of London to Paris in less than 3 hours makes it fast and easier than a flight. I'll probably be back a couple of times next month and with the Eurostar it's a breeze.

My advisor moved to London last year and by some coincidence all three of my academic referees are based in London (interestingly enough one Jew, one Christian and one Muslim wrote letters for a Hindu). As a result a couple of students who were across the hall from my office in Brandeis are now in London, as are some other friends from undergrad days. Coming to London this time basically meant catching up with most of them (not the referees, this wasn't a math trip). 3 days in London became quite busy as a result. But sitting in a pub and being able to order beer and talk without any language problems was refreshing.

Getting a CARICOM visa turned out to be very easy. Since British nationals don't need a visa, the consulate was empty. There's one simple form, along with a fee and one photo required. That's it. No return ticket, hotel bookings, bank statements, etc. The consular officer was a bit confused with my application seeing the multiple addresses - a Boston address for my credit card, G's London address as my mailing address and the Paris address for employer's address. The passport was issued in Delhi, so he just stared at it, asked me "Where do you live, maan?". I just smiled and said "Wherever I can find a bed or an office". He didn't care and was nice enough to return my passport, so that I could head back to Paris.

Will have to go back in about 2 weeks to get it stamped on my passport, but in the meantime I have to get an additional booklet and hopefully finally open a bank account in Paris. After that, a Venezuelan visa and then I should be all set to move off to South America for 3-4 months.

Birth Certificate

2007-01-12T03:26:00.000-08:00

Went to the Indian consulate 3 days ago to get a birth certificate. In order to open a bank account and get paid while here, it's necessary to have birth certificate in French. There's also a weird cycle where you can't get a work permit till you have a bank account and vice versa but there's a way around it. It's something the Dept here has dealt with for years.

The Indian consulate was very, very crowded. This was the first time I'd ever been to an Indian consulate for some work and it was interesting to note that 90% of the crowd consisted of French citizens applying for visas to India. There was a long queue and I made the mistake of standing in it initially. Then, an official came by and said "All Indian nationals proceed directly to window 1". I just smiled at all those standing and walked in.

It was a bit chaotic inside but I realised that a similar scene in a Govt Office in India would have been normal, and the officials seemed unperturbed. The main problem seemed to be that the space inside wasn't big enough to allow so many visa applicants. Most of the French visa seekers didn't know that they were supposed to carry proper documentation. One of them showed up with just her passport, and had no idea that a return ticket, a bank statement, proof of employment and a current address were necessary. Seeing a few of them get turned away for lack of proper documentation gave me a perverse pleasure.

Went back later in the evening to pick it up and there was an even longer queue of people waiting to collect their visas. Again, I went directly to the other counter and noticed a few glares for making my way through the crowded waiting room. One poor Indian guy was having problems as his passport hadn't been renewed and he had a flight to catch in 2 days. He made the mistake one should never make in a consulate - he lost his cool and started shouting. That pissed off the consular officer and he was told to come back later even though he had a flight to catch. I almost felt like giving him some advice but decided to stay out of it.

Leaving for London today and will apply for a CARICOM visa at the Barbados High Commission on Monday. Let's see how that goes. But after 4 months of being in non-English speaking countries, I can't wait to be back in a place where I can understand and read things without having to make an effort.

Tintin

2007-01-08T09:36:00.000-08:00

The adventures of Tintin were an indelible part of my childhood (and my brothers'). Apart from having read all of them thousands of times, a common pastime (and we still do it) was for my brothers and me to quiz each other on the books. Every character, every adventure, every location had to be committed to memory and minute details were asked at random between us - at breakfast, during school or in the middle of the night. I still like to read them whenever I find them to discover something new, and even in Paris I borrowed a bunch of them from B and reading them in French is a nice way to improve my vocabulary - esp as I know the context and rough English version of every blurb.

While in Boston, the Harvard coop was one of my favourite places. The amazing collection of books and the location always made it a convenient place to spend time between various things. The kids section in the basement had all the Tintin series (and others). Not too many people ventured into the kids' section so it was always possible to find a chair. Sitting in a quiet corner, reading them was a great way to relax.

5 years ago, I was in Brussels for a couple of days and I'd read about the Belgian comics museum in a travel guide. It had a big section on Herge - he lived in Brussels - and I spent a nice afternoon going through all the panels. The exhibition (I think it's permanent) was nicely documented - different panels displaying the different characters, disguises, animals, etc - and even had some original models. It was fairly quiet and apart from a group tour of 9-10 yr old kids, I was the only one around. I enjoyed it a lot but didn't come away too overwhelmed.

The Pompidou Centre in Paris is currently hosting a huge exhibition on Herge. Tintin was wildly popular in this part of the world, since it was initially in French, and the French love their graphic novels and comic books. It's the 100th anniversary of Herge's birth, and the Pompidou centre went all out for this exhibition. It opened 2 weeks ago and I'd avoided going because of all the long queues due to the school/university holidays.

Finally got around to going on Sunday night even though it was still crowded. This was the first time I'd been to an exhibition, where after spending 2-3 hours I decided I have to go back again - not just once, at least another 2-3 times. I don't think I've ever been to an exhibition or gallery where I've spent almost an hour just going through one panel. Each time I saw people at an art gallery, I always wondered how anyone could spend so much time looking at just one painting or panel. Sunday was the first I did something like that - looking at all those original sketches, with the scribbles on the side, the final published version next to it, and a small explanation.

The nicest thing about the exhibition is how it hasn't tried to show every possible document or model affiliated to Herge. The centrepiece of the exhibition is a small enclosure, where the panels consist of the original Blue Lotus pages. The Blue Lotus is considered to be his masterpiece and that was the first time Herge broke free of his alleged colonial views and worked really hard with Chang, a sculpture student in Brussels, to depict life in China. It's given a lot of emphasis as it was the most important project and period of his life.

I don't think anybody ever needs a reason to visit a city like Paris, especially for the first time, but if you're a Tintin fan this is your excuse.

Visa time

2007-01-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

It turns out that the University was closed this week. Went on Tuesday, eager to get back to the math world after a month of lazing around in Paris, but realised this week is still part of the winter break. Walked up to the math office, saw it locked and couldn't see a soul in sight except for one security guard, who looked at me suspiciously. He told me to come back next week.

For the last month, I'd blissfully switched off from thinking about visa and passport formalities. My position (which somehow doesn't seem like it'll ever start) gets over on March 1st and my French visa expires a few days after that. After March 1st, my plan is to head off to South America for 3-4 months. The cricket world cup is in the Caribbean from the middle of March to April, and I want to go watch it till India gets knocked out - I'm not too optimistic about our chances.

I want to fly to Venezuela around March 1st, stay with some friends and travel around for 2 weeks and then take a boat to Trinidad. That's where the Indian team is based for the first round and it's less than an hour by boat from Venezuela. Once I'm there , I'll have to figure out a way to travel between different Caribbean islands following the Indian team till sometime in April. After that I want to head down to the Venezueal rainforests and into the Brazillian jungle and somehow reach Rio by sometime in the second half of May. From there, my plans depend on a lot of things - money, job situation and visas. I'm toying with the idea of applying for a short term position at IMPA in Rio or I might go all the way down to Argentina, travel around for a month and then head back to Europe. With an Indian passport, there are lots of visas which need to be worked out. To make things harder, my passport only has one page left. So I also need to renew my passport.

Since I was sitting at home for the last few days, I started calling up various consulates to figure out what to do. There's a single Caricom visa for all the Caribbean countries for the world cup, but is issued only in London (or a few other places outside Europe). I have to head to London next week to meet some friends and explore possibilities of defecting to the dark side. So, I've got an appointment scheduled for that time. They said it'll take about 2 weeks to issue the visa but agreed to return my passport after the appointment and I'll have to head back there to get it stamped on my passport. The Venezuelan consulate didn't answer the phone, so I'll have to go there in person sometime next week to see what obstacles they'll put up.

Called the Indian consulate and they want some kind of residency permit to renew my passport or get a new booklet. Didn't realise my own consulate would make things harder for me. Till I get a new booklet or a new passport, I can't apply for any new visas. Have to figure out a way to get either a residency permit here (which doesn't seem too likely) or sweet talk them into renewing my passport - or lie.

Sigh....the problems of trying to travel around the world with an Indian passport.

Bonne Annee!

2006-12-31T01:56:00.001-08:00

After all the crazy travelling for the last 8 months, the last 2 weeks have been fairly peaceful and quiet. Waking up under the same roof everyday and having a semblance of a routine feels a bit weird, but not too unwelcome. It's taken a while but I've gotten used to now going to the same grocery stores, laundromat and checking email from home and not a cybercafe. Not using a French keyboard makes life much easier.

From next week, I'll start going to the university and start showing my face. I'm not required to do much while I'm there for 2 months - no teaching, no administrative duties, no seminars. Just one lecture sometime in February so I should be able to get back to doing research which I haven't gotten around to for a long time. Working from home and cafes is ok, but doesn't have any of the intensity which one has when sitting in an office.

Hmmmm, that's about it. Nothing too interesting has been happening for the last 2 weeks. The weather's been fairly gloomy for the last 2 weeks. But it does make taking pictures at night fun.

Happy new year to anyone who's reading this blog.

A quiet week

2006-12-25T02:16:00.000-08:00

It's been a fairly quiet week since coming back from Barcelona. Since it's Xmas, it feels as if all of Paris has left town or is indoors and the only people one sees are tourists or homeless people. Most of the cafes and bars are closed or empty and it feels like a ghost town right now, especially as the area I live in isn't a very touristy area. Being the only one in a cafe which is normally quite busy, feels eery. I stocked up on food, drinks and movies almost like one did just before a big snowstorm was supposed to hit Boston.

Finally got an internet connection a few days ago and for a while it didn't work. I had to spend a day trying to call but got no response. Was dreading the prospect of spending this whole Xmas week with no internet access at home. Spent an hour the next day trying out various combinations of the login and password and had given up hope. Turned out that the cable guy scribbled the password in a hurry so a "v" looked like a "u". It took me a while to figure it out and when it worked it was quite a eureka moment. Almost felt like I'd cracked the password for a high security website and hacked through all their layers of security. Being able to surf under the same roof that I sleep in feels like the ultimate luxury.

I'm putting up some pictures from Barcelona. Have uploaded all the pictures to the pictures link on the right, plus a few pics of my studio. Here's the link if you're too lazy.

Pictures

And, here are some pictures.

Barcelona Diary

2006-12-20T00:58:00.000-08:00

After the eventful train ride, I decided the next day I´d just walk around and explore it without a map or a guidebook. Unlike most of my other trips, I hadn´t read up much on Barcelona and I wasn´t carrying a guidebook. After the first day I realised the city was too spread out and too big to explore on foot. There are parts of the city which are like a traditional European city - compact and easy to explore on foot. That´s the Gothic Quarter and it´s a bit gentrified and touristy now. It´s not far from the beach so I can imagine it must be one of the most sought after neighbourhoods to live in. But after more than half a day of walking around I felt I´d had enough of walking.

The next day I decided to get a metro pass. Turns out that one can buy a city pass which includes unlimited rides on the metro as well as discounts at most of the major museums. That turned out to be a great way to explore the city. There are too many neighbourhoods spread out over the city to miss out on. The hostel I was staying in was right in the centre and next to a major intersection on the metro so getting around was very easy. A lot of the main attractions I was interested in are spread out over the city so walking and exploring would have been too tiring.

In terms of museums, there were a lot of fairly unique but touristy museums that I went to. The contemporary art museum was in a great location with a nice spacious building and a very minimal collection. Located in the cultural and University district it really stands out with its big white facade. That´s the kind of museum I enjoy. Also went to the Picasso and Gaudi museums which were a bit too crowded with tourists - like me. They weren´t too exciting but I liked the buildings.

Architecturally, I think Barcelona is one of the most beautiful cities I´ve ever seen. The old city with its traditional buildings, Gaudi´s modernist works spread out over the city and some crazy contemporary architecture have been meshed together in a very visually appealing way. Nothing seems to be out of place. The urban planners and architects spent about 20 years replanning the city and they´ve done a masterful job. The location is nice as well with the Mediterranean coast on one side and the mountains on the other side.

After a day of getting used to the scale and the sights of the city, I kept discovering small buildings, sculptures and installations all over the city. It was a bit like staring at a 3D hologram and being able to see through the facade after staring for a long time. Once you get the hang of the city almost any neighbourhood seems interesting.

There are a few walking tours of different parts of the city but I picked one neigbourhood at a time and decided to explore it at a leisurely pace. Sometimes I would be the only one walking down a wide boulevard, staring open-mouthed at an apartment building, which in any other city would be a work of art. I must have looked quite weird crossing streets and standing on top of benches to get a good angle for a library, a housing project or just a park. I took tonnes of pictures and will upload them soon.

Apart from the architecture, exploring Barcelona at night was fun. Though I went alone and didn´t know anyone there it was easy to hook up with people from the hostel and go out at night. In terms of food, Barcelona is a great bargain for cheap tourists like me. There are lots of places with a set menu for lunch and dinner which includes 2-3 courses plus wine for a reasonable price. Went out once to the University area to eat Tapas at a student cafe, a sports bar to watch a football game and to a raucous club on a Saturday night which stretched well into Sunday morning.

On the last night, I joined 5 people from my dorm room - 3 Irish nurses and 2 Aussie bartenders - to go to a Flamenco performance. Oz1 was pretty drunk before we got there and just before the performance started asked loudly "Is audience participation allowed?". It looked unlikely and we managed to restrain him. I could see Oz1 and Oz2 waiting for an amazingly hot woman in a short skirt to walk in. Oddly enough, a guy in a red shirt stepped in and kept dancing and touching himself all over. Shoulders drooped all over and Oz1 went for a leak and Oz2 decided to buy everyone a round of beers. By the time they both came back, there was a hot woman in a sexy skirt dancing. They missed out on a great performance and watching the singers and dancer was quite mesmirising. Ended up going out to a boring Irish bar later followed by a Jazz club. Got back to the hostel sometime at sunrise. It´s really easy to be out late at night in this city.

Woke up late the next day, headed to the beach and just sat in an empty beachfront cafe and read a book and enjoyed the sunny weather. Took a flight back to Paris which was uneventful except for the beginning where I forgot to take some toilet stuff out of my bag and got redflagged while checking in. Anyway, I'm back in Paris now.....back home.

Update from Barcelona

2006-12-16T06:10:00.000-08:00

Reaching Barcelona didn't turn out to be as easy as I'd expected. I'd booked myself on the superfast TGV from Paris to Montpellier and then on another fast train from Montpellier to Barcelona. I was supposed to reach Barcelona around 9pm and had booked myself into a hostel in the centre of the city.

The train left Paris right on time and travelling first class, sipping a nice glass of wine, listening to my ipod and watching the French countryside unfold was fun. The train reached the Alps area within 2 hours and I was thinking of what to eat on the train from Montpellier to Barcelona and which book to read. Unfortunately, the train reached Montpellier 10 minutes late and the connecting train was leaving at any minute. There was also no other direct train to Barcelona for the rest of the day. That meant I had to do something again which I'd done twice over the last 3 weeks - sprint across the platforms and hope to make the connection. At least this time I was just carrying my small backpack and I wouldn't knock people over like last time.

I asked the conductor just before the train reached which platform to look for. He didn't know so I jumped off as soon as I could and looked for the first panel I could find. It said platform E and I ran down the steps and made a blind left turn hoping that would be the correct side. It was, but unfortunately by the time I reached the platform I could see the train pulling away. I guess making it 3 in a row was pushing my luck.

Went back to the information counter and tried to protest and ask for some compensation. One of them said go to Port Beau and change from there to Barcelona on the local train. Port Beau sounded a lot like Bordeaux, which was in the other direction. It didn't make sense to me and I kept saying - No, I want to go to Barcelona. Finally he printed out the ticket and I understood what he meant. The train to Port Beau was leaving in 3 minutes, so again I had to sprint. 2 in a day was enough, I thought, and I managed to get onto the train in time. It left within a couple of minutes of me boarding but stopped after 10 minutes. There was an announcement that there was work on the tracks and there would be an indefinite delay. I had a 20 minute wait in Port Beau to catch the Barcelona train, and the wait was about 40 minutes. That meant I would reach Port Beau around 9 at night and I wasn't sure if there was another train to Barcelona at that time of the night.

I asked the person in the next cubicle and she didn't sound too optimistic. She also said that Port Beau was a very remote small town on the border and it might not be too easy to find a cheap place to sleep. Anyway, the train started and I decided there was no point thinking too much about it till I reached. Since it was a local train, a lot of people got off within the next hour and after a while I was the only one in my coach. It felt a bit spooky as it was pitch dark outside and I had to strain my eyes to make sure I hadn't missed my stop. Walked across two empty coaches to find some other people.

Reached Port Beau around 9 at night and as I got off there was a train attendant shouting - Espania, Espania - and making a running gesture. I started running and assumed there was still one more train for Barcelona. I couldn't understand what she was saying but I noticed one other guy running with me. I just asked him Barcelona and he nodded and we sprinted across the bridge and I just followed him. Managed to get onto the train in the nick of time. I wasn't even sure where it was headed till they made an announcement that it was an overnight train headed to the northern coast of Spain via Barcelona. Anyway, I breathed a sigh of relief and closed my eyes and dozed off.

Reached Barcelona around midnight and realised that I'd left the printout with the address, directions and confirmation code of the hostel on one of the trains. I remembered the metro station so I got off at Passaeig de Gracia and wandered around hoping to find it. Since it was Friday night the place was alive with people going in and out of bars and clubs. After almost 20 minutes of aimless wandering I walked into a hotel and asked for directions to the hostel. I was looking for Hostel Centric Point and he told me the directions for Hostel Centric which seemed much further away.

Since I didn't have a map with me I just followed his directions and reached Hostel Centric which looked very shady compared to the description and pictures. The attendant didn't speak a word of English and was asleep. So much for the great location and 24 hour reception I thought. He checked a piece of paper with names handwritten and said I didn't have a reservation. I felt there was something wrong so I managed to convince him to let me use the internet and check my email. Realised I was in the wrong hostel but managed to the find the address of the correct hostel. Reached there around 1 at night, instead of 9pm.

Spent most of today walking around central Barcelona. Walked a lot and my feet are aching so I decided to head back to the hostel, take a nap and then head out later tonight to explore some of the nightlife with some of the people in my dorm.

A holiday within a holiday

2006-12-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

I'm off to Barcelona tomorrow for 4 days. Can't really say it's a holiday as Paris has been mainly a holiday so far. I have one last trip left on my railpass which expires next week so I've decided to go down to Barcelona. The weather in Paris is a bit cold and wet so the sun and beach in Barcelona will be a nice change. Initially I'd toyed with the idea of heading all the way down to Morocco by ferry but the Moroccan Consulate was being very tough about giving me a visa. Somehow, after dealing with the US, UK and Schengen visa people I thought the Moroccan visa would be a breeze. I ran out of steam to deal with one more visa and after seeing my studio decided to chill out in Paris instead.

It's been 2 weeks in Paris now and after a long time I've started to feel like I live somewhere rather than feeling like a visitor. I spend most of the morning and afternoon at home trying to reawaken brain cells which haven't been used in a long time - after Amsterdam, a lot of them were killed. Working with no pressure to graduate or apply for jobs (sent off a huge bunch 2 weeks ago), no studio to hunt for and no more visas to worry about is fun. Post lunch I head off for a long, aimless walk to explore the city and then settle down at a cafe and try to waste more time.

Rather than join a language course, I realised it's faster and cheaper to get a tutor so in the evening I meet my tutor at some cafe. We've been picking out different neighbourhoods every 3-4 days so I've been seeing Paris in a very relaxed way. It amazes me how many people actually sit in these cafes just reading, smoking or talking. Some just sit and stare at the people walking by. What do they do for a living, I keep thinking?

Anyway, will be back in 4-5 days so will post after getting back.

Notes from Paris

2006-12-11T09:21:00.001-08:00

1) The area I live in has a large number of cybercafes. Since I don't have a net connection at home yet I've been going to the one opposite my building. Interestingly enough, it's always busy and full of people of African origin. Each cyber cafe also has phone booths. Yes, the kind one had in India till recently. There are lots of posters advertising cheap calls to Africa but none for the US. I had to call my brother recently and ended up using one of the phone booths. Felt odd speaking from inside a wooden enclosure and a guy sitting outside with a meter saying how much the call was going to cost.

2) Maybe after so many years of living in the US I got used to American style kitchens and grocery stores - basically big shops and kitchens. The kitchen in my studio is tiny and can barely fit one person. But after a week of living here it seems the right size. There are no huge supermarkets in the neighbourhood. Only small shops individually selling cheese, vegetables and bread. But the quality and choice is quite amazing. One of the cliched images of Parisians I've always had is of them walking back home with a piece of bread in their hands. I do that everyday now and it seems almost natural.

3) The shop I got my cellphone from is run by 2 Pakistanis. They were both speaking in Punjabi to each other while I was browsing. Their assistant (looked like he was fresh off the boat) messed up something and the owner let forth a torrent of abuses in crude Punjabi. To his next customer he switched to fluent French impressing on him the virtues of the latest Nokia model. As languages go, Punjabi and French are as far apart as I can imagine. Listening to the shop owner switch from abusive and colloquial Punjabi to smooth talking French was quite amusing.

4) When I was staying at B and M's place, they asked me what I wanted for breakfast. They described something to which I said "Oh, French toast". They looked puzzled but it turns out there is no specific name for it. Nor is a French press called a French press. It's just a coffee machine.

Montmartre Diary

2006-12-07T10:22:00.000-08:00

It's now been more than 7 months of constantly moving around and living out of a backpack. Last night I counted about 35 different places that I'd slept in over the 7 months. After staying in other people's houses and hostels, having a place of my own feels great. I plan to stay here for 3 months but after travelling constantly it's a welcome break.

The owner of my studio is an architect who's spending a year travelling in Chile. As a result the place is completely furnished with everything that I could need. It's in great condition and the space is perfect for one person. My backpacks occupy a small corner in the closet and I feel like I just returned to civilisation. The neighbourhood is great and I love wandering around aimlessly. Montmartre was famous for it's history as an artists' enclave and also for the movie Amelie. I live in the less chic part of Montmartre and though it's less than 10 minutes to Sacre Couer there's a big difference in the areas. There are tonnes of African and Asian restaurants and grocery stores and after the whiteness of Bavaria it's nice to not get stared at and fit in with the very diverse group of people here.

Started taking French lessons from yesterday and I'm determined to not feel out of place here. I visited Paris 5 years ago for about a week and stayed with a friend of my parents in a very upscale area. After being overwhelmed by the beauty and grandeur of Paris for the first few days, I have to admit I got a bit bored. I didn't speak French, didn't have any friends or friends of friends to call or meet, very little money and not much of an idea of Paris beyond the main tourist attractions. It's been barely a week here but completely different from the previous trip.

And if anyone of you is interested in visiting Paris between now and March 1st, just let me know and show up. It's my turn to be the host.

Update from Paris

2006-12-03T03:44:00.000-08:00

I literally ran away from Germany. At Cologne, I had to change trains and in 2 minutes I had to sprint across the platforms to get on to the Paris train. With one backpack in front and another one in the back, I pushed a lot of people on the way but managed to hop on the train just in time. The French travel in style - at least in first class. Great food was served throughout along with some nice wine and nibbling on some cheese and sipping wine, watching the countryside and dreaming about Paris was a nice feeling.

B was at the station to meet me and it felt funny to meet after more than 3 years. His girlfriend, M, had cooked a great meal and we were up for a while chatting and catching up. My backpacks occupied a prominent part of their living room but they have guests all the time and they didn't care much. I've been here for 4 days now and in that period they've had 4 other guests stay over. It's been fun, sitting up till late eating, drinking and talking. Their house is in a chaotic state because of all the guests and we've all gone out a lot but nothing seems to faze them.

Woke up early on Friday and had lined up 5 appointments to see studios in different parts of the city. I'd visited Paris about 5 years ago but saw it like a tourist. This time, I explored a lot of neighbourhoods I hadn't seen earlier and it was fun to walk around and see how close the grocery store, the subway station, etc were from the flat. A couple of them were too far, one a bit shady (the girl who was subletting it was doing it because she couldn't pay the rent) and another one was too smelly.

The maths dept had put me in touch with an agent who was German. Went to his office and he looked like a hippy with long hair, an unkempt beard and colourful clothes. It was a remarkably old fashioned office, with paper cards, a typewriter, post-its and old maps lying around. He told me he didn't like Germany because it was too white and he loved Paris for its diversity. Almost wondered if he'd read my blog. When I said I'm from India, he smiled and said he visited it in the 60s as a flower-power teenager and spent a year living with other hippies. Said he can't imagine how much it must have changed since then. He took me to the studio and along the way pointed out things about the city and the neighbourhood. It was in the Montmartre area and it was easily the nicest, cheapest and cleanest place I'd seen. Decided to take it the next day and will be moving in on Monday.

Leaving Regensburg

2006-11-30T02:32:00.000-08:00

I'm leaving Regensburg in a few hours and cannot to wait to get out of here. Never in my life have I been exposed to a culture and a group of people who were so inhospitable and unfriendly.

I came here under an exchange program between Brandeis and Regensburg. Earlier this year, 2 other people from Brandeis came here - an Australian and an American, both white. One of them was a student and put up in a great dorm in the heart of the old town, and the other one was a visiting lecturer (like me) and put up in a very nice flat. They were invited to people's homes in the countryside, taken out by the math dept and generally treated in a warm and friendly manner. They didn't speak German before they came here and language wasn't a barrier.

Before I came, I knew at least 10 people in the University because of the exchange program. They all visited Brandeis for a year each (spread out over the 5 years I was there) and I regularly went out with them, invited them to my house and told them about things to do in Boston. I kept in touch with some of them and generally considered them to be friends.

It's been 2 months since I came here and not once was I invited to somebody's house for a drink, a meal or even a get-together. There were a couple of drinking binges with M and a couple of raucous football matches with D. I was put up in an awful dorm, far from the university and the old town, with no phone and no internet access. There were occasions when I asked some of the people I knew from earlier, about plans for the weekend but got no response. They all go home for the weekend and a couple of times I asked (or hinted) about coming along. Some vague excuses were given - a fragile aunt, a paranoid mother, my parents don't speak English or maybe next week. I thought I knew them well enough to say I had nothing to do, was feeling lonely and bored, but it didn't help.

I tried to fit in out here. I spent a couple of months learning German, got a bike to be able to get around and didn't complain about the food - bread and sausages. I tried to make my lectures accessible to students and faculty and put in a lot of work into each lecture by trying to keep them at the same standard or style as the average lecture in the math dept. Heck, I even attended math seminars in German. I explored the countryside on my bike, went to soccer matches and travelled to places in and around Bavaria. Somehow, it didn't make any difference to how I was treated. The cops assumed I was an illegal alien on a stolen bike, bouncers didn't want to let me in to clubs, the faculty couldn't be bothered to treat me like they treated other visitors and most of the students I knew from earlier acted as if they hardly knew me. Had it not been for M (who's half American) and D (who's East German), my time here would have been even worse.

This wasn't my first time in Europe nor was it the first time I'd spent more than a few days in one place. Vienna was one of the best times I've had (and Germans claim Austria is racist) and in 2 weeks there, I was welcomed by people I had never met earlier. I didn't expect the kind of hospitality I'd get in India or other places in the third world but the unfriendliness was something I wasn't prepared for.

Germans take strong exception to being called racist. It's associated with mass murders and riots. Treating people of different races in an unequal manner probably has some German equivalent. I don't care to know what it is.

Anyway, Paris beckons and I hope never to come back to this part of the world. And this time, I'm disabling comments.

Frankfurt-Amsterdam

2006-11-26T11:04:00.000-08:00

Woke up at 5 on Thursday to get ready and head out to the train station. The French consulate was open only from 9 to 12, so I had to get there as early as possible. By train, Frankfurt is about 3 hours from R'burg and the earliest I could get there was 930 or so, which included a very tight 5 minute window to change trains at Nuremberg. I took a train at 620 and narrowly missed a connecting train at Nuremberg. Had to sprint across the station and followed a co-passenger who was also heading to Frankfurt. Managed to get on the 735 departure to Frankfurt literally 30 seconds before it was leaving. Since I'm not under 26 the only railpass I could buy (bought it last month at Munich) was a first class train pass. Compared to my current living conditions travelling first class seemed like a huge extravagance. In hindsight, it was a great thing to buy as it gave me the flexibility to stop at Frankfurt on my way to Amsterdam, and avoiding the hassle of booking tickets 2-3 weeks in advance.

Reached Frankfurt around 930 and the French consulate didn't look too far on the map I'd printed out. Frankfurt's a weird city. It's the financial capital of Europe and it feels a lot like the downtown area of an American city. It took me a while to get to the consulate and had to walk along roads which were almost like a freeway. Anyway, walked into the visa section around 10 and was soon joined by a Romanian couple. I'd decided to stay quiet about my residency status and had a plan B in case she kicked up a fuss. I also realised that my health insurance is only valid till January (it was a 6 month travel insurance) but decided to write on the form that it was valid till July, hoping she wouldn't ask for the papers. That was the first lie.

When my turn came, the visa officer looked at all my papers and then pointed out that my German visa was expiring in a few weeks. She spoke only French or German so it was again hard to communicate. Earlier in the week I'd talked to her colleage (in English) about an appointment and she'd mentioned she wouldn't be around as she was going on holiday, so I'd better be prepared for her colleage who didn't speak English. She got a bit agitated about the residency factor, so I decided to pull out plan B.

I lied (for the second time).

I told her I'd spoken to her colleage (remembered her name) on Monday, and talked to her about the situation. She'd said it was fine and should be able to apply for it from Frankfurt. The visa officer looked a bit confused, then remembered I'd called earlier and tried speaking to her in broken German, and then went out. She came back with a document and started to highlight it. Uh-Oh, I thought. She's going to show me the rule book in English and say, I'm not eligible to apply. Couldn't think of a plan C. Suddenly, she turned and went out again.

The Romanian couple was getting curious and asked me what was up. When I told them the situation, they shook their heads and said this was their third visit to the French consulate over a trivial issue. They didn't seem too optimistic about my chances and I was trying to figure out what to do.

The door opened and she came back with all my papers, smiled and said "It's OK". I was a bit shocked and very relieved she didn't call my bluff. Managed to get my visa in another 10 minutes, gave the Romanian couple a wink, and walked out to catch the train to Amsterdam. Had a couple of hours to kill so walked around downtown Frankfurt taking pictures.

Caught the Amsterdam bound train around 1 and turned out M was on the same train (obviously in second class). Met him for a beer but stayed in first class and just felt happy at getting a big headache out of the way. Reached Amsterdam around 5 pm and headed straight to the hostel to meet D, who was severely jetlagged after his flight from New York. His childhood friend from Istanbul, S, showed up soon and we all headed out straight to a coffeeshop.

Amsterdam passed by in a (purple) haze. The four of us had no agenda, no plans and no major sights to see. We walked from a coffee shop to a bar to a cafe to a coffeeshop to another bar. Walked around a lot in Amsterdam and since we were staying in the heart of the city it was easy to get around. I'd visted Amsterdam 4 years ago, and felt comfortable walking around. It's an easy to city to get oriented with because it's small and has canals running all over the city. It's particularly pretty at night.

Went to the Rijks museum once to catch an exhibition. Since it was under renovation, it was a small exhibition. They had a very simple but powerful memorial for Theo van gogh, called Scream. Apparently, as his killers were attacking him, he screamed loudly.

Got back today around 6 after a long journey. The train got delayed and this time I travelled in second class as M insisted on it. I kept bugging him about how this was a big sacrifice, thought second class wasn't too different. For someone my size, legroom doesn't make any difference. Feels weird to be back, especially as I know I'm moving to Paris in 4 days. Now that the visa's been sorted out I'm heading directly from here on Thursday.

Some more notes from Regensburg

2006-11-22T10:14:00.000-08:00

1) A couple of weeks when I'd gone to Munich to watch a football game, one of the subway lines got delayed. I couldn't understand the message being flashed. My friend told me it was because they'd found an unexploded bomb along one of the tracks. This was a bomb from WW-II. Apparently, it's not uncommon for them to be found and last year a couple of people died on the Autobahn because their car drove over a bomb. Scary, isn't it?

2) On a bike ride through the countryside last month, I was passing through a small village and noticed something weird. There were two kids playing basketball in their backyard. It wasn't just basketball. They were dressed like American teenagers and had some loud hip-hop in the background. Somehow, I'd expected to see soccer playing kids in the heartland. I wonder if they talk like them as well, ending every sentence like a question.

3) For my morning shot of espresso, there's a nice coffeeshop between the maths and physics dept. It's fairly common to see people from either dept sitting around and talking. Because it occupies an important point in the space between math and physics, it's called ...... Einstein.

4) Leaving for Frankfurt at 6 in the morning tomorrow to apply for my French visa. Hopefully, it'll work out. Heading off to Amsterdam from there for 4 days to meet up with D who's flying in from New York and will be joined by his childhood friend from Istanbul. I know it's Thanksgiving, so instead of eating a Turkey, I'll hang out with a couple of Turks (and M from R'burg who's also coming).

The power of Youtube

2006-11-21T00:59:00.000-08:00

George Allen finished his career and lost the Senate for the Republicans.

John Kerry finished his chances as a Presidential candidate.

Now, Kramer (Michael Richards) of Seinfeld finished his standing as the most lovable, eccentric TV character I'd ever seen. To all Seinfeld fans - remember the episode where Seinfeld gets heckled at a comedy club, and then he returns to heckle her back?

Nuremberg

2006-11-19T01:44:00.000-08:00

Went to Nuremberg yesterday to watch another Bundesliga soccer game. The Bayern match was a bit disappointing, especially the intensity of the game and the passion of the fans. Apparently, Bayern wins almost every year and it's expensive to watch games in Munich so the fans aren't the loudest ones around. Nuremberg was going to be different according to D, the postdoc who went with me yesterday.

D's from East Germany and on the train to Nuremberg, it was quite fascinating listening to his stories about what it was like to grow up in East Germany at the height of the cold war. Apparently, before the wall came down, food was so heavily rationed that he'd never eaten an orange in his life, bananas once in two weeks. Travelling was forbidden and the eastern part of Berlin was dominated by the wall. After the wall came down, some of his school teachers vanished, some were apparently spies on the run and some just ran to West Germany as soon as they could. Nobody knew what was happening. Two days after the historic day, he and his friends (who were about 80 km from the border) decided to drive across to the western side and apparently there was a traffic jam which started right outside their house.

Anyway, we reached Nuremberg around 1030, and the game was at 330, so we had time to walk around and explore the old town. Unlike Regensburg, Nuremberg was heavily bombed and then rebuilt, so it's an interesting place to explore. Most of the architecture is similar to the old buildings, but it has some houses which resemble gingerbread houses - because Nuremberg is famous for its gingerbread.

The stadium isn't too far from the main town centre, and the fans had already congregated near the station. 3 hours before the match it was packed with loud groups with beer (I still find it hard to get over how it's legal to walk around with an open bottle of beer) and rival fan groups chanting at each other. Reached the stadium an hour or so before the match and it filled up quickly.

Nuremberg is in the middle of the table, and so was the opposing team. Neither of them had a hope of winning the title, but the fans were amazingly passionate. The game was intense and it went back and forth. For the entire second half everyone was on their feet, chanting away and singing loudly. The game was tied at 2-2 and when Nuremberg scored the winner with 5 mins to go, the place went wild.

The partying continued after the match got over, in the train, all the way to the old town where every bar and pub got filled up with hysterical fans. It amazed me how much a simple win meant to the fans.

French Bureaucracy

2006-11-16T10:02:00.000-08:00

I haven't yet reached Paris but somehow the French bureaucracy has pissed me off a lot already. I wasted a whole day yesterday because of their ineptness.

I have a bit of a problem regarding my residency status - basically, I'm not a resident anywhere (homeless). Being a student in the US meant visas were easy to get. Having an Indian passport, no money, no real job and no base makes getting visas very hard. But I've learnt to deal with lots of different types of visa officers over the last year by being, let's say, creative.

In May, I applied for a UK visa, 2 days after my graduation. I was flying back to Delhi on a oneway ticket (at that time I didn't know about the Germany position I'm on) but had decided to stop in London on the way back. Since my advisor had moved to London and I didn't have much of an idea about where I was moving to after Boston, I thought it would be good to get at least a tourist visa to the UK and hang out there and stay with some friends. This was my third UK visa, so I was hoping the visa officer wouldn't notice anything wrong. I went to the New York consulate (a day after a harrowing experience where I got a parking ticket, had to go to a towing garage and then banged into a car while driving a rented car) for my appointment. Being a bit bold I'd decided to apply for a 5 year multiple entry visa, even though my flight back to Delhi was in about 10 days. My I-20 (the most important document for every foreign student) said clearly I was supposed to graduate by May 31, 2006 (that I did was a minor miracle). Somehow, he didn't notice that. Roughly a year ago, I'd travelled outside the country and had a signature valid till July, 2006. That's what he saw. Then, he asked if I was just going to India for the summer holidays and then coming back, just stopping in London for a few days. I just nodded, and decided not to be too honest. Since it was my third visa, he just stamped it and gave a me 5 year multiple entry visa. I let out a deep sigh of relief. Had he noticed I had graduated, he could have denied me a visa on the grounds that I don't live in the US anymore. Anyway, it worked out.

Once I was back in Delhi, I went and applied for a German visa. After a 5 hour wait in horrible July heat (inspite of an online appointment), I went in with all my documents. Since I hadn't closed my bank account in Boston, the visa officer assumed I still lived in the US and said I couldn't apply for it from Delhi. I had to show her what I didn't show the UK visa officer - my degree and a letter of graduation. Finally, after a bit of a debate she let me apply for it from Delhi though I had to spend a week or two getting some other documents to get the visa.

A few days after that, I applied for a US visa, since I was going back to the US for a workshop and some talks. For occupation, I wrote visiting lecturer at Regensburg. The visa officer first said I should apply for it from Germany but I told him I was moving there after the US trip. He didn't notice that it was just a month long position which I was stretching out for 2 months (and had no clear plans after that). He was more curious about why I left Boston for a place like Regensburg. The next day I had a 10 yr multiple entry visa.

For the French visa, I've been thinking about how to overcome the residency factor. They have a consulate in Munich and on their website it said Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 to 12 were the times to apply. I first called up the consulate but the guy spoke only French or German. Our conversation went like this,

(Me in bad German) "I am from India. I want visa. I go to France for mathematics research. I come next week to Munich."

(Him) "Yes, Yes. Good."

I decided it was best to just show up and see if I could somehow get another visa, without being too honest. Munich is a little less than 2 hours by train from Regensburg. So I woke up early and just managed to jump onto the 7 am train. Reached the consulate around 9 am armed with all kinds of documents and possible scenarios to deal with. The first thing I noticed was that public hours on Wednesday were from 1:30 to 3:30. That's not what the website said (which again was in either French or German). I rang a bell, but the guy said (I think it was the same guy) "No public now. Come 1:30".

I had about 4 hours to kill so I decided to head over to J's flat, which wasn't too far away. He knew I was coming at some point so I had breakfast at his place, pottered around in his neighbourhood, had lunch and then headed back to the consulate. Walked in at 1:35 and said "Visa" to the guy behind the window. He said "No visa". I asked why and he said, recent policy change meant, I have to go all the way to Frankfurt. I felt like punching him.

I said "Internet says yes visa in Munich".

He shouted back "Only in Frankfurt. Go to Frankfurt."

I just turned and left. Missed the 1:44 train back R'burg by 1 minute. I could see the train leaving just as I reached the platform. Not my day.

Got back and checked out the website for the Frankfurt consulate. It said appointments are compulsory so I sent an email. No reply for a whole day. So I asked the guy next to my office to call up the consulate to make sure there's no communication break this time. The phone number from their website didn't work. Did a google search and found a different website with numbers of all kinds of consulates. Called up one of those numbers and the guy said their visa office is closed for the next two days (I couldn't figure out why) and I should call back on Monday.

French bureaucracy will require more creativity and effort than I imagined.

videos

2006-11-13T03:06:00.001-08:00

Some videos from the match last week.

Opening.

Just missed.

Hannover fans.

FC Bayern

2006-11-09T02:39:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a postdoc about German football and he turned out to be a huge football fan. A considerable part of his student days were spent following a couple of football teams all over Germany and he still goes to watch football games. I told him I'd love to watch a Bundesliga match sometime and he said getting tickets for a Bayern Munich match were impossible. Every game of theirs is sold out and they have a huge fan following out here in Bavaria. Anyway, after lunch he suddenly popped into my office and said he checked on the web and they were a few tickets available for a match in November. Obviously, I jumped at the chance and they weren't too expensive considering it's Bayern Munich.

We went yesterday to watch it and the stadium itself is stunning. From the outside, it looks like a spaceship. The outer skeleton is made of some weird material which can be lit up in different colours depending on the colour of the team playing on the day. Because of the world cup all the stadia were modernised but I wasn't prepared to see something like this.

Since it's a very modern stadium, the walk from the subway to the entrance to the seat were all very well planned. It was sold out (about 65 thousand people) but there was no rush, no pushing and it didn't feel like one was going to watch a soccer game. The seats weren't too bad and one feels incredibly close to the field as there's no running track in between. I walked all around the stadium and from every angle one felt close to the action.

The atmosphere somehow wasn't as crazy as I'd expected though. It's mainly because the Bayern supporters are very used to winning. Bayern's won the league almost every year for the last 10 years. It was the Hannover fans sitting in the section above us who were very loud and added to the noise. Hannover's last in the league and everyone expected a rout by Bayern, but surprisingly Hannover held on to a slim lead and won.

What surprised me was how fast the game went. Watching a football game on TV can be a bit tedious at times but this was great to watch. It wasn't the most exciting game and I got the impression Bayern took it too lightly, but watching the players pass, run and head with such ease was interesting. The only time I watched a football match in India was around 1988, when PSV Eindhoven came to play the Indian XI. We lost 8-0 in that match even though PSV was playing their second eleven. This one was reasonably evenly matched and after Bayern conceded a goal, it picked up in intensity.

Hanover had never won in Munich and after they won the fans behind me went crazy and I managed to make a few videos while I was there. Have to figure out a way to upload videos onto blogger. Any suggestions anyone?

Math in German

2006-11-05T01:24:00.000-08:00

For the last week, I've tried going to a few seminars in the math dept. The first one that I showed up for was in German. I didn't realise that it was not in English and after it started it was too rude to get up and leave. What struck me though was how well organized the lecture was. Not just the first one, almost all of them. Even if they're in German, they were fairly comprehensible especially as all the formulae were written very clearly. What helps a lot is the pauses in the middle of the lecture. Too often, math lectures go at a pace which is too fast for almost everyone. Since the lecturer has to take a wet mop kind of thing, then dry it with a windscreen wiper thingie, it takes up a fair amount of time. But that's the ideal point to ask questions, rather than interrupt the speaker. It's been interesting observing how clear and precise most of the lectures have been. I still have a hard time understanding them, but I seem to be getting the hang of it. Anyway, since a lot of the math terms one uses originated in German, there's quite a bit of overlap in the terminology.

And I've also learnt the German equivalent for "I don't know", "Good question" and "Let me think about it". Incredibly useful terms for any lecturer.

No outsiders, please

2006-11-01T04:51:00.000-08:00

I was refused entry at a club last night. It wasn't the first time it's happened out here but it's soured the whole Regensburg experience for me.

I've been partying a lot for the last week with M and his Bavarian friends. Last week, his dorm had a huge party. There were at least 1000 people there and it was a mad, mad party. Even though I felt horribly old compared to all the students there, I had a great time. I was also the only non-white person out there and I got stared at a lot, though considering how provincial and small minded this place is, it didn't affect me. I was told on many occasions by many students that I was the first Indian they'd met or seen. Considering how many places Indians have settled in, it shows how remote this place is.

On Saturday, I met up with M and some of his other friends and after a lot of bar hopping, I was very drunk by midnight. We headed out to a club and I was in a good mood, speaking bad German in a deliberate Indian accent to make everyone laugh. Maybe I was a bit too loud, but we weren't allowed in. I don't remember much of what happened that night, but I remember after being refused at a second club, I snapped, cursed the bouncer and just left. M and his friends couldn't see where I went and after walking very aimlessly through the streets of R'burg trying to not get too angry, I reached home at 5 in the morning. Woke up in the afternoon, hungover and called up M. He said we weren't allowed in because I was too drunk - something I half believed.

Last night, J from Munich showed up and 6 of us went to some other dorm party and then headed out to the old town. It's especially lively and all of them kept talking about how lively and fun Regensburg is with its high density of bars and cafes. With its very well preserved old town, cobbled streets and cosy cafes it is a fun place to walk around at night with lots of people flitting in and out of all the bars and clubs. They're very proud of Bavaria and Regensburg and I kept nodding along. Then, we went to another club and this time I was completely sober, stood quietly behind them in a big crowd. As we were getting in, the bouncer looked at me, stopped us and said something I couldn't understand. I could see everyone's face drop and they didn't even bother arguing. Apparently, he said no foreigners. It felt weird, and this time I didn't snap, curse or do anything. Just shrugged my shoulders and said let's get something to eat at the closest Lebanese Doner Kebap joint.

I've decided not to remind M and his friends, or the faculty about this. When I told the faculty about the ticket I got for riding my bike without a light, I could see them squirm, as it only happens to foreigners. It hasn't affected me much and since I know I'm here for just another month, I don't want to put a label on everyone from Bavaria because of a couple of jerks. Discrimination on the basis of race, caste, religion, etc happens everywhere I guess but somehow I'd never encountered something so blatant.

Moving to Paris

2006-10-26T00:54:00.000-07:00

I'm moving to the University of Paris next month as a postdoc to work with JT. It came out of the blue but for me it's almost the chance of a lifetime. My Regensburg stint is till November 30th and after that my plans were very vague. The German/Schengen visa that I came on expires on Dec 16th and I didn't have money to last me beyond December. I'd been thinking of moving to London, staying with a friend and looking for a job outside academia. My position in Paris is initially from Jan 1st to March 1st but it can be extended. After I leave Regensburg, I'll travel a bit and then move to Paris by mid-December. The way this position came about was quite interesting.

In February this year, BM organized a very special semester at Harvard called eigenvarieties. BM is among the most influential and famous mathematicians in the world and in the opening lecture, he gave a very inspirational talk, about how this was almost a once in a lifetime moment and how he wished he could be a student all over again. The two other occasions he felt the same way were among the most radical and pathbreaking in the history of math (Grothendieck's theory of schemes and Langland's conjectures). BM decided to invite every expert in 2 seemingly different areas of math to explore the connections which he felt existed. I was in my last semester of my PhD and sitting at home and typing up my thesis. I lived close to Harvard so I decided to go there everyday for this semester. It was easily the most mindblowing semester I've ever been part of. Every big name I'd heard of (or not heard of till then) came and gave a series of lectures, a course or a seminar. There would be 2-4 lectures, follow up seminars and lots of informal discussions everyday. The lectures would be packed with mathematicans from the Boston area and outside, as everyone wanted to know what was happening. It was also obvious that as far as number theory goes BM was the godfather of the whole area.

JT was the first speaker of the semester and talked about developing a general theory. He'd proved a major result in this direction, and somehow I felt my thesis fit into the picture. I hadn't finished writing it and was too scared of approaching him about it till I had defended it and written it up (that was another dramatic story). My thesis involved extending the results of KB, who was visiting from London. JT led a big contingent of mathematicians based in Paris, who had all proved major theorems and it was obvious that the Paris group had a number of results which were going to change this whole area. The fact that they still do their math in French (and we all have to suffer by translating their results) shows how good and arrogant they are - unlike unfortunately the Germans, who seem to now suffer from an inferiority complex compared to their heydays a century ago. KB found my result reasonably interesting (he was on my committee and almost flunked me) and a day before my thesis defense, decided to talk about it in his lecture. I wasn't there as I was busy preparing for my defense but a friend of mine was in the audience. KB turned to BM in the audience and started talking about my work, how it verified something that BM had talked about. Then he asked him point blank "Do you think it agrees with your worldview? If not, I'll just flunk him tomorrow". BM thought for a while, and then said yes. My friend B, in the audience was ready to call me in case BM said no, and say run away, it's all over. Somehow, after a very intense and gruelling period, I survived and passed.

In August, I went to California for a workshop and then gave a couple of lectures. After one of my lectures, I met a postdoc and was asking him about postdoc positions in Europe. He told me about the European Number Theory network and how they have money for short term visitors. My advisor FD had moved to London by then, so I decided to stop in London in September and talk to him. He told me to write to JT and ask about a position. I needed to start on a new research topic, so after I reached Germany I emailed KB in London and asked him about extending my thesis to what JT had talked about. KB sent me some suggestions, which I thought about, and then emailed JT about the kind of problem I wanted to work on. After a bit of emailing back and forth, he wrote back and invited me to visit Paris and join the Paris node of the European number theory group.

I feel scared and excited about the move. Obviously, I jumped at the chance and though I have to now apply for my 4th visa in 5 months, look for a studio and move again, I can't wait to get there.

more notes from regensburg

2006-10-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

1) I noticed a weird tendency among a lot of Germans. They like to walk with hiking poles. Hiking poles are definitely useful while walking up steep hills for the extra support but it's funny seeing people walk in a flat town like Regensburg with hiking poles. Apparently, a hiking company once had too many extra skiing/hiking poles and started a campaign to promote healthy and safe walking (isn't walking safe anyway?) with poles. Somehow, the fad caught on and now it's very common to see people walking fast with these poles in each hand. It's called Nordic walking.

2) While taking a leak at a bar a few weeks ago, I noticed a funny thing in the urinal. There was a small plastic goal in the urinal. Not just mine, but in everyone of them. The idea is to get drunk football fans to aim and pee. I actually started laughing when I saw it and had to control myself surrounded by big Germans all around. Some of the other bars even have a goalkeeper whose body bobs back and forth if you aim at him. Definitely makes it fun to pee.

3) Beer is a big part of the life out here. The dorms have vending machines and it's very cheap. You can actually go to a supermarket and buy individual bottles of beer, though you have to put down a deposit. For some of the cheap ones, if you return three bottles you can get a free bottle of beer back. So it's pretty common to see a few bums walking around collecting beer. It's also legal to walk and drink with a bottle in your hand. A couple of days ago, I was eating pizza with a friend and we each bought a beer. We were running a bit late to meet some other people, so we just decided to walk out and drink beer along the way. I felt like a deranged alcoholic. Walking and drinking a beer is fine. Riding a bike without a light is not.

4) Regensburg is a very provincial university. In the US it was very common to meet someone who always remarked (upon hearing that one was from India), "Oh yeah, I know some Indians." Good for you! There's a billion of us, chances of you knowing a few aren't that low. But I heard a new one 2 days ago. When I told someone I'm from India, she thought for a bit, then said "Last year I went to France, and I saw a lot of Indians."

5) I started lecturing yesterday and found that the sliding blackboards are German sized. Pushing and pulling the boards was a task in itself, but Germans like to erase the boards, not with a duster, but as they would clean the windshield of a car. A wet mop kind of thing followed by the rubber dryer. Since I write a lot while lecturing I had to do this over and over again. It keeps the boards very clean, but it gave me a bit of a workout.

6) Since the semester started it's become pretty lively. The fall colours are in full bloom these days and my office has a nice view.

Berlin

2006-10-22T04:22:00.000-07:00

Berlin stunned me. I was there for barely 4 days but I don't think I've ever been to a city which had me completely mesmerised. The architecture in Berlin was something I'd heard about but wasn't prepared for the craziness and the scale of things. It's a city which is reinventing itself and the urban planners of that city must be among the most daring in the world.

It's unlike most European cities. There is no real centre to it, nor does it have the old world charm one associates with other European cities. Walking around Berlin felt like walking through a huge exhibition of contemporary and modern architecture. Every 10 minutes one could see a very modern building, a sculpture or a crazy addition to an old structure. It sounds chaotic but somehow it seems to make sense. Then at night, it feels like a different city with a lot of the buildings lit up with a combination of lights. Some of them look like products designed for a high-end catalog of modern architecture.

Berlin's a weird city considering it's the biggest German city. It's the centre for politics and culture. The engineering, automobile, insurance, finance, TV and other industries are all based in different German cities. Somehow Berlin became a hotspot for a lot of new art and music and most of it has happened in the last 10 years. Post unification, the authorities are trying to make a big statement and even though I was there for a short time, it made a huge impression on me. I didn't explore much of the nightlife as it seems to be a city where you need to know about all the bars and clubs. Maybe next time, I'll go slightly better prepared.

I went crazy taking pictures and can't figure out which ones to upload to the blog. So, I'd much rather put a link to the whole album.

Berlin

Kelheilm

2006-10-16T06:32:00.000-07:00

I went on a long bike ride yesterday. Actually, it was my first really long bike trip but I hadn't planned it like that. I had a bike in Boston but used it only for getting around in the city and never for a long ride. Boston had some decent bike trails but somehow I never got around to it.

After my Walhalla trip, someone told me about Beifriengshalle - the counterpart to Walhalla. It's another place with a nice view of the valley and nearby there's supposed to be a monastery where monks have been brewing beer for almost 1000 years. It was in the other direction along the Danube and supposed to be worth a visit. He mumbled something about it being 20-25 km away from Regensburg and as it was a nice day I decided to head out there.

The bike ride started off well and within 15 minutes I was biking through rural Bavaria. The bike trails are well maintained with good signage and since it was a Sunday there were a lot of bikers and walkers along the trail. Every 20 mins or so, there's a small village with a beer garden, cafe or even a town with a market. I left around noon, so there a lot of people were enjoying their lunch and beer after church. Biking through the villages and along the Danube, seeing small towns is a lot of fun.

The ride turned out to be much, much longer than I thought. I realised later that it was 20km or so along the highway, not along the river. This was something which didn't occur to me and I thought that Kelheilm, the village at the base of Beifreingshalle, was just a bit further away. At some point, I'd been biking for almost 2 hours, stopped at a village and asked for Kelheilm. One of them shook his head, and said at least another 10-15 km. I went on and on, and realised soon that a mountain bike isn't ideal for such a long ride. After almost two and a half hours, I could finally see Befreiungshalle, and with the fall colours in the backgroun (not in full bloom yet), it was a nice sight.

The last stretch, from the village to the top, was a killer. It was only 2-3 km but a steep incline and I had to get off my bike and start walking. It took me a long time to get up there and I was huffing and puffing by the time I reached the top. The building wasn't that impressive but the view was nice (sounds familiar, doesn't it?).

I pottered around for an hour, taking pictures and got a bit stiff, after such a long ride. Asked about the boat back to Regensburg, and one of the information guys replied that I'd missed the last boat back. He said there was a train station about 10 km away but wasn't too sure when the last train to R'burg was. It was almost 4 pm, so I had to decide where I should go the other way to catch the train or bike all the way back. Decided to bike back and calculated I would be back home just before sundown. Had to forego a trip to the monastery and the brewery. Next time.

Biking down the steep hill was a great thrill though. I don't think I've ever been on a bike so fast and since there was no traffic, and there were sharp bends, I had a nice time whizzing down and making sharp turns. It was invigorating and the first hour of biking went by in a rush. The next 2 hours were quite a drag especially as it became colder and I started to get stiff. Made a brief pit stop to get some water. Somehow, Europeans always give aerated water when you ask for water. It's nowhere as refreshing and actually made me a bit queasy on the way back. Whatever happened to normal water? Anyway, the nice thing about biking back in the evening was to see a nice sunset over the valley.

I made it back to R'burg at close to 7pm. I got very stiff during the last hour and biked very slowly. Had a nice beer and doner kebap in the old town, and it felt so good. Went back to my office and using googlemaps pedometer measured the distance from home to university to kelheilm and back. Realised I'd biked about 90 km! That's easily the longest bike ride I've ever done and I woke up this morning fairly stiff.

Anyway, I'm off to Berlin on Wednesday for 4-5 days. Will update the blog once I'm back.

Notes from Regensburg

2006-10-13T01:28:00.000-07:00

1) Germans tend to be fairly formal. Compared to the average American university, it feels a bit weird. Professors are very, very senior and regarded with great respect. Getting to be a professor means going through a lengthy and trying period called habilitacion. Postdocs are basically assistants to a senior professor. A bit like being their RA and TA together. A professor has assistants, students and visitors and it's entirely up to his/her discretion who he/she wants. Their titles are Herr Professor Doctor XYZ. Can't call them just XYZ especially if you're a student. Herr is the basic requirement while addressing them. My official title is Herr Doctor Pande. Feels nice compared to Hey Dude, though I miss that informal and friendly atmosphere.

2) Regensburg is a fairly provincial university. Almost all the German students I've come across are from Bavaria and from within an hour or two at most. When asked about where they're from they give very precise directions - 45 km from the north, 70 km to the southeast, 80 km to the west. Since their families live so close they all tend to go home for the weekend. That means the bars/cafes are busy mostly during the week and on the weekends things are fairly quiet. All of them love to quote their favourite statistic - Regensburg has the highest density of bar/cafes in all of Germany. Knowing their precision for everything I don't think it's an exaggeration. The old town is especially lively.

3) I went to Munich yesterday to buy myself a eurail pass. I'm off to Berlin next week, Amsterdam at the end of november and then probably Spain in December so I figured a railpass makes more sense. I hate flying especially because of all the security and waiting and the closest airport from Regensburg is in Munich, almost 2 hours away. There's something called a Bavarian pass. 5 people can travel for 25 euros in all of Bavaria for a whole day - much cheaper than buying a single ticket. So going to Munich (it's in Bavaria) is cheap and easy. Just buy a Bayern ticket and wait near the ticket machine. Though I felt a bit shady hanging around the platform and ticket machine muttering the code word "Bayern ticket". Getting to Munich was easy but coming back to Regensburg required more standing and looking around. I felt like I was peddling drugs. The cops didn't care though.

4) I've been pleasantly surprised by the attention paid to recycling and saving power out here. Computers are switched off (not left on standby) and all the lights in the halls automatically switch off if there's no activity for too long.
Every campus cafe/canteen insists on serving food or coffee in reusable dishes. In fact, everyone has to put down a bit of a deposit in case there's some damage. There are lots of recycling bins everywhere and it feels reassuring not to throw away perfectly reusable items in the trash. Even a simple cup of coffee on campus is served in a normal coffee mug, not a paper cup. In the US, after a quick meal on campus or a coffee I used to feel like I was personally responsible for half an acre of the rainforest vanishing.

5) The department assembles for lunch at 12:30 everyday and then heads off to the Mensa (canteen). If you're even a minute or two late you know you missed the group. There's an Italian postdoc visiting the department and the poor guy has a hard time keeping to the schedule. Everyday after everyone's left the dept you can see the poor guy running from his office to catch up with us. He hates to eat alone and loves to talk. Problem is that when he talks he uses his hands, which means he stops eating. Everybody else finishes their meals at roughly the same time (feels like being in an army mess) and it's funny watching him gobble down his food as he can sense everyone else waiting for him to finish. He came 3 days after me and talks to me as if I've been in Regensburg for years - How do I get an internet connection, where can I get a light for my bike, Where can I buy an adaptor plug? He's shorter than me and his German is worse than mine, so he makes me feel almost...Bavarian.

Walhalla

2006-10-10T01:16:00.000-07:00

Doesn't sound too German, does it? That's where I went on Sunday for a nice bike ride. It's called the Walhalla temple and is the German hall of fame and was modelled on the Parthenon in Athens. Regensburg is along the Danube and there's a nice bike trail and Walhalla is about 10-15 km east of town along the bike path.

The bike trail actually stretches all the way to Budapest and goes past Vienna as well. Sometime in the future, I'd love to go all the way but it's a bit too cold right now to go biking for too long. Also, an old mountain bike wouldn't be the best thing to take all the way. Saw a lot of other serious bikers along the way. Getting out of town was a bit of a hassle as following the various bike lanes was almost like driving on a highway and taking diferent exits. Thankfully, I didn't get a ticket for biking in the wrong lane!

Got a bit lost initially before asking for directions a couple of times. The nice thing about living in a small town (by Bavarian standards Regensburg is not small though) is that within 10 minutes one is out of the city and out biking in fairly rural areas. The weather was nice in the afternoon and biking along the Danube past picturesque German villages was fun. It was a Sunday so a lot of people were out on the bike trail and the parallel walking path.

The walk up to the temple wasn't too long and once you're on top of the hill, there are some great views of the Danube valley. It's a nice place to spend half the day soaking in the sun, reading a book and chatting with other visitors. Though on a sunday, it was a bit too crowded at times with some tour groups. The inside wasn't as impressive as it looks from far away. It's full of busts and statues of famous Germans. The view was nice though.

Maybe it's a Bavarian thing but even the maths department here is full of portraits of famous German mathematicians all along the corridors. It's slightly intimidating walking out of a room and seeing Gauss staring at you.

PS - I've updated my blog with a link to the site where I've managed to upload most of my photos. The link is on the right hand side of the page under the blog archive section.

Trouble with the cops - again

2006-10-06T02:19:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year in May, my twin brother and I went on a roadtrip in the US. We rented a car and drove from Boston to New York to Chicago and back to Boston. Along the way we had a few adventures. In New York, I'd parked the car in a diplomat's spot (it looked ok at that time) and the car got towed. It had my laptop and passport in it and for a while I thought the car had been stolen because the cops couldn't locate it in their system. This was a day before my visa interview with the UK consulate and about 2 weeks before I was leaving the US for good. Leaving my laptop and passport (and my degree which I'd gotten 2 days earlier) in the car was probably the most stupid thing I've ever done. This was my twin's first visit to the US and he was thoroughly enjoying the experience of going to a police precinct, towing garage and all the cops. We managed to find the car and on the way back, I banged into a van while trying to park. Thankfully there was no damage and the van driver was very cool and said "Better my van than a BMW".

After that, I drove (didn't take the risk of letting my twin drive without a license) for about 15 hours with a 5 hour sleepover in a motel and just as we were entering Chicago, I got pulled over for speeding. It wasn't really speeding as I was driving at 70 mph. But this was near a toll booth and I was supposed to slow down to 55 mph and I guess the cop was just having a bad day. The car was also outside its supposed rental zone and for a while I thought he might notice that but he didn't.

Then, in August while driving around in Berkeley in my older brother's car, I got a parking ticket for having parked 5 minutes over the 2 hr limit. On the way back to LA the tire burst and I had to drive at 40 mph all the way. I wrote about it here.

I thought my days of cops and trouble were over now that I'm in Europe and am getting by with public transport and a bike. Germans are sticklers for rules and riding a bike involves more traffic sense than driving in most places in the world. There are strict lanes, signs and signals only for bikers. Walking on a bike lane is an offense as is biking in the wrong lane or street. Regensburg is a town best explored by bike and from my dorm room the University and the old town are about 10-15 mins by bike and it's along the Danube, so one can actually bike all the way to Budapest along the bike trail.

Last night, I was on my way to meet some friends in another dorm. It was dark and suddenly near a busy intersection a huge guy stood in my way and shouted "Halt". He turned out to be a cop and pointed at my light (which wasn't working) and said something in German. I played the innocent foreigner card but he wasn't amused and switched to English. Asked for my passport but I didn't have it on me (I think that's also a minor offense). Then he said biking without a light is an offense and growled at me "10 euros". He was at least a foot taller and wider than me and I quietly opened my wallet and gave it to him. He gave me a ticket, a warning and said till I got my light fixed I couldn't bike in the dark. Had to walk all the way to my friends' place which took much longer and felt very stupid walking on the pedestrian path with a bike. Met my friends and they all had a good laugh about it and kept showing the ticket to each other. Apparently, biking when drunk is an offense as well and your driving license can get revoked.

We polished off a bottle of vodka and hung around till late. Decided to head home and took the risk of biking home thinking they wouldn't catch me twice especially if I went slowly and kept a lookout for the cops. I was wrong. Halfway through, a car pulled up alongside and one of them held a flashing red sign to stop me. Two of them came out and made me prove it was my bike (by locking and unlocking it), looked at my driver's license and asked me some questions. I played the innocent foreigner better this time and one of them asked me how much I'd had to drink. Decided to say 3 beers (for a German that's not much) and one of them smelled my breath, shrugged his shoulders and said you shouldn't drink more than this. They were much nicer, told me to get it fixed (cheaper than a ticket apparently), asked for my address, occupation, etc and let me off with a warning.

I guess I should head out today and get the light fixed but considering I've had the bike for just 2 days, getting into trouble with the police so soon was a bit much.

The party's over

2006-10-03T03:26:00.000-07:00

That's what it feels like right now after almost 5 months of travelling and visiting friends and family. It's been that long since I sat at a desk and had an office and a room to myself. Though the location and condition of the dorm was a big letdown. After staying in comfort in so many big cities, living in a dorm in a small town in Germany came as a bit of a shock.

I'd expected something similar but after the nonstop partying for the last 3 weeks sitting in the dorm room by myself felt eery. I had no internet connection, my laptop battery was almost dead, no adaptor for the German plugs, only 2 books (one in German and one in Hindi) which made reading a bit of a grind. The term at Regensburg starts in about 2 weeks and I'm staying in the international student/guest housing which is dead right now. Went out for a walk towards the old city but it was a Sunday and everthing was shut. To make matters worse I left my towel behind in Munich in a hungover state so I had to dry myself with a T-shirt after a shower. Today is German unification day so it's a national holiday and again, everything's shut.

Yesterday, I managed to get a few things done - buying an adaptor, a towel, getting a bicylcle for free (don't ask me how I got it), keys to the math dept and getting my computer registered. Getting my computer registered involved filling out a form online, printing it out, signing it and then delivering it to the computer dept. Then they'll take another 2 days to process it and approve it!

Reached Regensburg

2006-10-01T03:33:00.000-07:00

I've finally reached Regensburg and will be based out of here for the next 2 months. Haven't yet managed to check into my room yet as a friend of mine is going to show up with the keys in a few hours at the train station so I'm at the train station just killing time. Today is the last day I'll lug around my heavy backpack, some books and papers and my laptop as I'll either junk the laptop and papers once I'm done with my lectures or mail it to London.

The last 4 days went by in a bit of a blur. I spent 2 days in Salzburg, which is a beautiful small town in a very pretty location but also very touristy and boring. It's the home of Mozart and Red Bull and since it's Mozart's 250th anniversary the town is full of Mozart memorabillia, posters, etc. I spent a day walking all over the town and exploring the beautiful castle which overlooks the city. Apart from sightseeing there isn't too much else to do and by the evening it's a ghost town. The liveliest and cheapest place in town was actually the hostel I was staying in. Took lots of pictures and soon I'll update my blog with links to the pictures I've taken for the last few months.

Also went hiking in Unterzberg, about an hour outside Salzburg. It was a nice break from the crowds in Salzburg and the views were amazing. Had to change a couple of buses to get there but spent most of the day hiking without seeing a soul. Till I got to the top where a bunch of people had taken a cable car. The top of the mountain is a great place. On one side one see into the Austrian Alps (though it was covered by clouds mostly) and on the other side, one can look over the whole Salzburg valley.

On Friday, I reached Munich and crashed at J's place. His brother had just flown in from Melbourne and M showed up on his way to Spain. It was the last weekend of Oktoberfest and the 4 of us went in with slightly low expectations. But we were pleasantly surprised and it was a great time. The place is huge and it resembles a huge carnival with a very festive atmosphere. A lot of people dress up in traditional Bavarian costumes and it's a mad, crazy place with at least half a million people walking around and sitting inside the beer tents. The funniest part is how everyone is there to get drunk and the minimum one can order is a litre of beer. There are live bands, ferris wheels and all kinds of crazy people walking around. To get inside a beer tent one has to get there at 9 in the morning! We managed to sneak in much later and the atmosphere inside is of a huge, huge party with people dancing on tables, walking around drunk and singing loud Bavarian songs and clinking their mugs every few minutes. We stayed till 11, when it closed and headed out to a few more bars afterwards. Got home around 2 and woke up the next morning very hungover. J's flat didn't have hot water that weekend so 4 of us went to someone else's flat across town to shower. Felt weird walking around Munich with a towel and a hangover. Spent most of Saturday exploring Munich with the two brothers.

Leaving Vienna

2006-09-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

It's been about 10 days in Vienna and sadly time to move on to the next place. Am getting a ride to Salzburg tomorrow so will spend 2 days there doing some hiking in the Alps, then take a train to Munich and spend the weekend there. Oktoberfest is on so it should be quite crazy. Finally, on Sunday I'm getting another ride to Regensburg where I'll be based for the next 2 months.

The last 2 days were fairly quiet. Now that I'm very familiar with the city I spent most of my time walking around without a map, browsing a couple of bookstores and sitting and reading at a few cafes. The weather is perfect and nobody minds it if one spends 2-3 hours at a cafe just reading. It's also reassuring to see a lot of other young and middle-aged people spending a long time at a cafe, talking and reading. Having spent a lot of time in the city exploring and feeling comfortable here I felt very happy doing what I would have done in a place like Boston.

On Monday night, H took me to his favourite club, the Flex. That place lived up to all the hype I'd heard from him and somehow partying late on a Monday night felt great. The 2 unemployed doctors had no work or studying to get back to so we were there till 4 in the morning. Felt very hungover this morning and didn't wake up till it was time to get lunch.

I had a great time in Vienna and apart from the sightseeing, concerts and partying I really enjoyed meeting H's friends and family. It felt comfortable hanging out with all of them and I can see myself coming back here regularly and spending time with them again.

Burgenland

2006-09-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

The last three day have been slightly overwhelming with a heady mix of traditional Austrian music, wine and food. A couple of concerts, some vineyards and some great homecooked food.

On Friday, H's parents had given us 2 tickets to go to the Musikverein for a concert. The whole family is involved with music and they have season tickets and a great pair of seats. It's also a very formal place and I had to out and buy a decent jacket and a pair of shoes. My hiking boots and T-shirts didn't quite fit in. It's one of the most famous concert halls in the world and the moment I walked in I was a bit open-mouthed. I managed to sneak in a picture before the concert started.

The concert was great though the elaborate chandeliers gave off a lot of heat and the last 20 minutes were a bit uncomfortable as slight movements and noises are frowned upon. Went out to a slightly upscale bar for a drink since we were both fairly well dressed. After the grungy underground bars and clubs this was a bit different.

Woke up a bit late on Saturday and we missed the train to Burgenland. Hung around in the train station and had a coffee and then caught the next one. Burgenland is the wine country of Austria and that's where his girlfriend and his parents live. Reached H's parents lovely house around noon and had a fabulous meal. I'd asked for traditional Austrian food and I couldn't stop eating. Relaxed in the house for a while and enjoyed the view.

Headed out to meet H's girlfriend C, who lives about an hour away and it's a nice drive through vineyards. It's the harvest season and there were a lot of grape-pickers all over. Picked her up and drove to a vineyard run by a family they've known for most of their life. Their son D now runs it and he studied with C in school so he gave me an extended tour of his winery. Explained all kinds of things in detail and then brought out about 10 different bottles. His family joined us soon and we spent about 2-3 hours just sipping wine and getting more and more drunk.

Drove back to C's house and had dinner and more wine. Hung around for a while and then drove to a weird event. It was the annual festival for the local arts. The art was pretty bad and the music even worse, so after an hour of sitting around we drove back and opened a couple more bottles. D and his sister came by around midnight and we were up till 3 drinking, smoking and fooling around on the piano. C is a professional pianist and after much coaxing sat down and played for everyone.

Woke up today around noon, hungover and hungry. Drove back to H's parents' house for the sunday lunch. Lazed around most of the afternoon and then headed out to another winery run by another childhood friend of theirs. Had a special drink called stürm, which one gets only for a few weeks in a year because of the harvest. It's the wine before the first fermentation and it tastes a lot like grape juice with some soda. Drove back to Vienna around 11 and since we were close to the border with Slovakia and Hungary saw signs for towns in those places. A big part of the vineyard is in Hungary but I couldn't go in. Unfortunately, an Indian passport doesn't allow such easy travel.

Vienna diary

2006-09-21T02:04:00.000-07:00

It's been about 4 days in Vienna but I just love the place. My friend, H, stays in a great flat in the heart of the city. Everything is easy to explore on foot and the weather's been perfect.

My typical day starts off by waking up late around 10 and getting ready. Head out to the first district and then explore some of the museums. The whole museum quarter is a bit overwhelming and it took me a day to get over the grandeur of the place. In between , there are a few crazy looking modern buildings but somehow they don't spoil the ambience of the place.

After a lot of aimless walking, I usually end up finding some coffeehouse and sipping some strong coffee to wake myself up, read a book and munch on some great snacks. Street food is cheap in Vienna and I've taken a strong liking to schnitzel. It's a compact city and within a couple of days it was easy to figure out how to get around on foot. Since the weather's been perfect, the whole city is littered with open air cafes where one can sit for a long time without being disturbed. Also took the metro out to Schonbrun, a huge castle, which has a great view of the city if you walk up to the top of the hill.

During the day, I guess I've been doing the normal touristy things one does in a city like Vienna. At night, H has taken me to places I doubt I would have found on my own. A student lounge cum bar where I met a bunch of his friends who have all lived in and around Vienna all their lives. A small hole-in-the-wall eating place to meet his ex-girlfriend K, where we ate some great fladen. A quiet evening at home where 2 other people I knew from the math dept in Vienna showed up. A small shop cum gallery which sells stuff made by 2 designers from a century ago (wiener werkstatt). They were strongly influnced by Klimt and the exhibition was small but quite mindblowing. Another crazy bar with H's brother who stayed on till late even though he had to wake up 4 in the morning for a concert. The cliches about Vienna being a laidback city have been pretty true. Each night, all it's taken is another round of beer, or another bottle of wine for everyone to stay on till late even though it's the middle of the week and everyone, (except H and me) has a job.

Reached Vienna

2006-09-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

It was a fairly long day (and typing on a German keyboard isn't easy) but I finally reached Vienna and Schengen land today. Got up around 7 in the morning and had to repack a lot of stuff as European airlines only allow one carry-on and one check-in bag. This meant my main backpack was stretched to the limit and and I was scared it might be overweight as I'd stuffed everything inside it. Left G's flat around 8 and after changing 2 trains reached Tottenham Hale for the Stansted express. My flight was around 11:15 and I reached the airport at 9:30 and felt I had enough time to get breakfast and buy a book. The check-in took ages though. My backpack weighed in at 19.7 kgs (My entire life's belongings plus a laptop) and though it was just under the 20 kg limit I had to go to the oversized baggage counter. Took a while to clear that and finally had to sprint through security to board my flight. I was flying Ryanair so there's no assigned seating so I got one of the worst seats on the plane. Slept througth the entire flight.

I flew into Graz (about 150 km outside Vienna) and C was supposed to pick me up but turned out that she couldn't as she had a recital so I had to take a train to the main Graz station and then another train to Vienna. This was my 5th train for the day but worth all the effort. It was one of the prettiest train rides I've ever taken and sipping a nice chilled beer, listening to my ipod and watching the Austrian countryside unfold in front was a great experience.

H was at the Hauptbanhopf to receive me and asked me immediately if I wanted to do something illegal. Couldn't figure out what he meant since the last time he and I had met we'd had a few crazy experiences in Toronto. Turned out the Vienna subway has no security and he doesn't pay for tickets - he gets caught twice a year which is still cheaper than buying passes. Reminded me of DTC buses in Delhi. Decided to stay legal (not for long though) and reached his flat around 7. It's right in the heart of Vienna and I can't wait to head out tomorrow and explore the city.

His brother M came by soon and we polished off quite a bit of wine and then headed out to one of their favourite bars - a cross between a lounge, bar and a cafe with a DJ. But a very comfortable place and they seemed to know a lot of people there. Hung out there till well past midnight and followed H in not paying for tickets on the Vienna metro. Let's see how long this will last.

London

2006-09-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

I reached London 2 days ago and thankfully the heat wave is over. Reached Heathrow in the morning and took the tube straight to Covent Garden. My advisor's moved to London and we'd scheduled a meeting for the afternoon as that was the only day he was on campus. Since I had 4-5 hours to kill before that I decided to drop off my backpack at M's office, one of his students who just moved from Boston to London with him. The campus has a great location and it's right in the heart of the city. A huge change from B which was 15 miles outside Boston. Took me a while to find M's office and the security wasn't too keen to let me walk through with my 2 backpacks. Went out and had coffee and lunch near Covent Garden.

Toyed with the idea of getting a beer closeby but decided to stay sober before my meeting. It was fun walking around with M in London. We used to get lunch/coffee frequently in B and always complained about the lack of a decent place on campus. This was bang in the centre of everything and walking between the different depts involves walking through central London. Felt a bit envious of him as I'd considered delaying graduating in May and moving to London as a visiting student. I doubt if I would have been motivated to finish though. Picked up the keys from G in his plush corporate office a few minutes away from the maths dept. Different world compared to the cramped offices and shabby students hanging around. Getting back home wasn't easy as I ended up taking the tube during peak rush hour and my 2 backpacks made things even harder. What made it worse was no air-conditioning and I sweated as much as I would have on a hot day in Delhi in a crowded DTC bus.

The last 2 days I've just walked around aimlessly during the way in London, browsed a couple of bookstores and met some other friends in the evening for a drink. The pubs and streets are so packed in the evening (especially on the weekends) and I love how one can take a drink and stand on the streets or sit on the sidewalk. Unfortunately, in the US, that's something one can't do and I wish some places would allow it. A nice place to drink is on one of the cruise boats on the river and watch the sunset and the riverbank light up.

The travelling math show

2006-09-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

For the last 6 weeks, I've been travelling a lot in the US. I am now basically a travelling mathematician and almost all my stops were related to *work*. There was a workshop in California and after that I went to various places giving talks on my thesis. I managed to get paid for most of these things and so financially I've been able to survive. Since I don't pay any rent or bills now, it's not too hard as I've stayed with friends or in some accomodation arranged by a math dept (or a tent). Food and bus/airline tickets are the only thing I've had to spend on.

Yesterday was my last stop in the US in Philadelphia. On sunday, I took a bus from New York to Boston, then on Monday morning another bus to Philly and back the same day. I gave my last talk yesterday and for the first time realised what it might be like to be a performer on tour. Till a few minutes before the talk I felt a bit fatigued and disoriented with all the travelling. I was wearing my *talk shirt* to appear respectable (I have a spare one in case it's dirty or smelly) and trying hard to talk to the other profs and seem alert. The moment my talk started I felt comfortable and by now I can give the talk half-asleep. The audiences have ranged from being hostile, friendly to ignorant and it's been a great learning experience being on the other side of the fence.

It's Tuesday today and I'm about to leave for JFK to catch a flight to London where I'll meet with my (former) advisor. I'll hang around there for 5 days and then go off to Vienna and stay with another friend who has a spare room. I won't give a talk there but from October 1st I'll be in Germany giving a different lecture series for about 6 weeks. After Dec 1st it's a bit vague about where I'll be based but if someone offers me money and/or a room I'll show up with my backpack.

Boston

2006-09-10T13:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a week in Boston now and almost everyday has been a bit disorienting and weird. Boston was home for 5 years and to come back to a place after leaving just 3 months ago meant things hadn't changed at all. Almost all my friends are still around and almost all of them are doing the same things. The main problem was that since most of them are in grad school or postdocs, they were all busy with the beginning of the semester. Before reaching Boston I'd emailed most of them and gotten myself invited for dinner to a different home each night. Met some other people for lunch and drinks later at night and felt like my social live was on steroids.

Being a bum, I hung around Cambridge a lot and went to my some of favourite haunts and spent a lot of time just reading, writing and surfing. My favourite spot is the 3rd floor of the Harvard Coop and sitting on the chairs which overlook the square with a few books is a great way to spend 4-5 hours. Other than that, I spent most of the day in some of the cafes in davis square. Never went there in the middle of the week in the mornings so it was pretty quiet and not busy unlike the weekends.

Leaving for New York on Sunday, Philly on Monday and then flying out to London on Tuesday. Greyhound has kept me going up and down the east coast.

Bumming around in New York

2006-09-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

One of the problems about being broke is spending time in an expensive city like New York. Sightseeing and exploring the city on foot are fun things to do the first 2-3 times one visits. I've had enough of both over the last few years and haven't budged too far from where I've been staying. Since I've been a student for so many years finding ways to keep busy without spending much isn't that hard. Midtown Manhattan is a very convenient place to live in but there are no cafes or coffeeshops to spend most of the day reading/surfing/working. Starbucks is an option but the ones in New York are very cramped and don't have free wireless internet.

I discovered the New York public libraries for the last 4-5 days. There are 2-3 of them very close to D's apt and they have nice tables, free internet and an atmosphere where one can spend 4-5 hours at a stretch without realising it. I managed to finish writing and reading up on a few things quite comfortably in the libraries and it's safe enough to leave one's laptop and browse their collection of books and music. The one thing it lacks is coffee/tea but 4-5 hours is enough to survive without either. The weather was nice for the last 4 days and in the late afternoon, walking down to central park and hanging around sitting in a nice spot, reading a book, listening to music and watching other bums hanging around was a great way to spend some time doing nothing. Felt tempted to join the frisbee and soccer games going on but didn't feel safe leaving my laptop in the park. Just sat and watched people enjoying the weather.

There are a couple of Barnes and Noble bookstores closeby and I've had a habit of reading books in instalments for many years across various big bookstores. For the last 2-3 years I felt too guilty reading a book at home (thesis stress!) and found reading a book in instalments far more enjoyable and productive. I've spent a considerable amount of time reading all kinds of books I didn't have time for the last few years and I wouldn't be surprised if they banned me from the corner bookshop for not buying anything at all.

I started this blog to stay in touch with friends scattered all over and meet up in case I happened to be in the same city as them. Dr M saw my blog and he's visiting New York and we hung out at night a few times. Went up to a nice bar in harlem playing great calypso music and then the village for a few drinks. Also met another former roomate D and met his friends and brother on the west side.

Leaving for Boston tomorrow for a week. Feels strange going back as a visitor to a place which was home for 5 years.

New York

2006-08-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

I've been visiting two former housemates in New York for the last week and the experiences couldn't have been more different. I'm staying with D in Manhattan and he now works as a banker and has the stereotypical young New York banker life. A great apartment in the heart of Manhattan, a few blocks from Central Park and tons of things to do within minutes of his house. Goes to work at 630 in the morning and stays there till 8 or 9 pm. His apartment is pretty bare with an empty fridge but a great TV and stereo system. In his absence, I've made good use of living close to Central Park by going running there and also watching TV in surround sound. The weekend was quite crazy as I ended up going out with his banker friends to a bunch of bars and clubs in the village. All of them have a work hard, party harder lifestyle and I was completely groggy the next day. They were all back at work the same day though. D has dragged me to a lot of places so far - a baseball game, a golf driving range, a comedy club and lots of bars. It's been a lot of fun but a bit draining.

For the last 3 days, I've been in Ithaca in upstate New York staying with another former housemate, C. She's now married to E and they're both postdocs in Cornell and have a life on the other end of the spectrum. A huge apartment (where I had my own room and bathroom) within 10 minutes of the University, relaxed "work" hours and a kitchen better stocked than almost any kitchen I've seen. Cornell has possibly the prettiest campus of any school I've ever been to, with gorges and waterfalls in the middle of the university. Walking around Cornell was nice with all the hills, streams and trails. Ithaca is a really small town though and in 3 days I think I saw all of Ithaca and met half the people. The cliches of small-town laidback lifestyle are so true out here and for people from a quiet/smalltown background and an affinity for the outdoors it's an ideal place. The walk back from the campus to their apt is along a gorge and past a waterfall. Can't imagine a nicer walk back home everyday.

Perelman

2006-08-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a lot about Perelman recently and felt prompted to write something about him. In case you're not aware, he was recently awarded the Fields medal which he declined. The Fields medal is the equivalent of the Nobel prize for mathematics and is awarded once in 4 years and to mathematicians under the age of 40. It is the most prestigious award in all of mathematics and because of the strict guidelines an incredibly hard award to win. He's also likely to win the Clay millenium award of a million dollars for solving one of the millenium problems - which he'll probably decline as well.

He proved the Poincare conjecture about 3 years ago and posted his papers on the internet. After people became aware of his results he was invited to lecture at various universitites in the US. I was a student in Boston at the time and went to MIT to listen to his lectures. Having studied in Boston for 5 years encountering math geniuses, freaks and prodigies was not out of the ordinary but this man was something else.

I reached MIT a bit late and sneaked in through the back door with a couple of friends. Very rarely are mathematics lectures packed to the point where people fight for standing room - this was one of those occasions. Perelman was standing in front of 5 blackboards, with every leading geometry/topology expert in the audience waiting to find a mistake in his lecture/proof and expose him. For any normal person presenting such a high profile proof in front of an audience like this would have been daunting. Not for him though.

He was dressed awkwardly. I can imagine a professor telling him to dress slightly decently as it was such a big occasion. He wore a jacket and pair of pants but underneath was a dirty zip-up jersey and a pair of old, beatup sneakers. The look on his face was one of a crazy man - eyes staring out into infinity, long fingernails and unkempt hair. If he'd stood in Harvard Square with a paper cup asking for change he would have looked like any other homeless guy hanging around. He kept staring away from the audience almost as if he was in a trance even while lecturing.

His lecture started with him writing a simple equation of about 6-7 symbols (The Ricci flow equation). That was it for the next 45 minutes. He held a wireless mike close to his lips and started talking math. Not a single slide was used, no notes and no more equations on the board. I understood almost nothing of what was going on but I could see the bigshot mathematicians leaning forward and their phd students scribbling away. Since the mike was close to his lips, one could hear him breathing heavily and he kept making a weird noise from his throat. I managed to imitate it at the back and forced a lot of other clueless people at the back into fits of laughter.

After 45 minutes of talking he proceeded to write a long equation with at least 20 different indices (I tried counting them as that was the only thing I could do to keep busy) which stretched across 3 blackboards. He paused, looked at it again and then changed a couple of symbols and then looked back and said something to the effect - I think that's it. The whole audience burst out into spontaneous applause but he seemed unruffled. He went on to give 3 lectures almost flawlessly and everyone believed he'd proved what he claimed.

He has a reputation of being a bit crazy. He loves to walk and once on his way to a conference met another participant at the airport. The other guy asked him how he was going and Grisha replied he was going to walk. The other guy walked along with him and 8 hours later, they reached the conference venue! He's retired from mathematics now and lives with his mother off the money he saved from his visiting positions in the US about ten years ago.

It's a bit sad to see how a lot of other mathematicians have tried to plagiarise and build on his work for the sake of tenure, prestige or money. But it's reassuring to know that among the math community it's accepted that he's the one who proved it and it's understandable why he's refused to accept an award in such circumstances. The Chinese mathematicians who claim to have proved it (using his ideas) should take a cue from him. He cared only about proving it to his own satisfaction and that was it. The rest can fight for all they want but he's going to sit happily in St Petersburg knowing he proved one of the hardest problems in all of mathematics - even Terrance Tao (one of the other Fields medalists) claims Perelman's work was easily the most important mathematical breakthrough in the last 10 years.

Breakdown

2006-08-24T09:19:00.000-07:00

I had a fairly eventful drive down from Berkeley to LA. On the way up from LA, the car had been wobbling a little bit and I knew it was because of the alignment and old tires. Both my brother and I had been lazy about getting it fixed and kept telling the other one to do it and then finally didn't get around to it. I had just finished some stuff in Berkeley I was a bit tense about and also avoided a parking ticket by a few minutes. Hit a lot of traffic on the way out and so when I finally hit the highway to LA I turned up the radio, the AC was humming away and I felt relaxed. LA was about 4 hours away if I drove fast enough and there wasn't much traffic on the road. Suddenly, the car started wobbling even more and I heard a loud bang and the car almost veered out of control. Thankfully, there was nothing behind me and I managed to pull the car over onto the shoulder. It looked pretty bad. One of the front tires was completely gone and had almost come off.

I had no cellphone and was trying to figure out what to do. Looked around and in the distance saw this. Thankfully, till a few years ago there weren't too many cellphones around and in case of emergencies, things like this existed.

Picked up the phone and got through to an operator who first put me through to my brother in LA. His AAA insurance wouldn't work so he suggested I should get it towed to the closest mechanic and get the tires changed. After more than an hour of waiting a tow truck finally showed up. I didn't want to wait inside the car as it was pretty close to the cars and trucks driving by and each time a truck drove by the whole car would shake. Ended up sitting on the side on the grass in the harsh sunlight staring out across Fresno County. The tow truck guy came and said all the mechanics were closed (it was past 7pm) and I would have to wait till the morning to get it fixed. I had a flight to New York the next day and driving the same day would have made it very tight. Also, the idea of spending the night in a cheap motel in the area wasn't too exciting. He put on the spare tire and since it was a replacement I wasn't sure if it would last all the way to LA. Asked him and he said if I drove around 50 throughout it would probably last. Decided it was worth going ahead than sit around and do nothing till the morning.

Left around 730pm and drove at 50-55 throughout. The car was going fine so I relaxed and put on the AC and turned up the radio. The next 5 hours were excrutiatingly boring and driving so slowly meant I didn't overtake a single car on the way. Trucks, buses and even motorcycles zipped past me and I plodded along. The last 2 hours were a bit tense as it started to wobble again and with trucks all around me (I had to drive in the slow lane) I had to drive on red alert. Since I was driving uphill it seemed to be under quite a bit of strain. Turned off the AC and radio and every sound, bump and wobble made me more tense. If the car went out of control in this situtation it wouldn't be good with those gigantic trucks all around me. Finally managed to reach home at 2 am. It took me almost 10 hours from the time I left Berkeley.

Anyway, I'm in New York right now, sitting comfortably in Deniz's apartment enjoying his fancy home theatre system. Felt completely disoriented this morning so will just spend the day lying around here.

Point Reyes

2006-08-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

Just spent the last two days at Point Reyes park. It's about an hour north of San Francisco and since I had a car and a couple of days to kill (I'm back in the bay area) I decided to head out there. I was carrying my tent and sleeping bag so that I could camp out there for one night. Since it was a sunday afternoon, it wasn't too busy and the ranger at the visitor centre told me I could camp almost anywhere. Parked my car, packed my stuff into my smaller backpack and headed out with a map following a trail and encountered this pretty soon.

Walked on and found the first campsite (the one I had a permit for) after a decent 2-3 hour walk. Decided it was a bit boring and hiked up another trail towards the beach. It was a pleasant walk and since it was overcast I didn't sweat much either. After another hour or so of walking came up to the edge of some cliffs over the water and found another campsite and decided this was it - even though I didn't have a permit for that site. It was right next to the ocean and apart from one other tent it seemed very quiet and not busy at all. Pitched my tent with a great view of the ocean and walked down to the beach.

Crashed around 9 as it was pretty dark and went off to sleep with the sound of the ocean waves crashing furiously against the rocky cliffs. Woke up early to catch the sunrise. It was too overcast to see anything so I went back to sleep and then woke up hearing noises next to my tent. Poked my head out and saw my old friend.

He didn't seem to bothered by my presence but after I came back from my morning routine he was gone. Walked up along the coastal route and since it was a monday morning it was absolutely empty. Found a huge rock in the middle and had lunch consisting of two energy bars and a bottle of water. After another 2-3 hours of walking I reached my car and then drove out towards the lighthouse on the southern side of the park. It's not in service anymore but is very pretty especially as it juts out into the ocean.

It was almost 4 so I decided to head back to Berkeley. On the way back I missed the Bay bridge towards Berkeley and ended up on the highway towards the Golden Gate bridge. Driving over the Golden Gate bridge was a nice experience with the huge red columns and the SF skyline on the left. At the toll booth, I asked the attendant about getting towards Berkeley and she gave me some directions. Since I'd spent 3 days in San Francisco and walked all over I was familiar with the city so I had no problem following her directions though I hit some really bad traffic and was also running out of gas as I didn't think I'd need to refuel before reaching Berkeley. The freeway was bumper to bumper traffic and I also didn't have a cellphone so I had to make some very bold moves across three lanes to take the right exit for Berkeley. Am back in A & L's apt and ready to pass out. Heading back to LA tomorrow and then flying out to New York the next day.

LALA land

2006-08-18T00:12:00.000-07:00

This is my umpteenth trip to LA and the first time I've felt independent enough to drive around and do stuff on my own. The last time I was here I drove quite a bit but I wasn't too familiar with the streets or comfortable enough to drive around. To take a break from sitting at home most of the day struggling to get some work done I managed to go down to Venice beach a few times to go for a run. Around 630 in the evening, the sun isn't too strong and the breeze is invigorating. Running along the beach front, watching the sun set, seeing beach volleyball games and listening to the drummers in the distance is great fun. What makes it even more worthwhile is all the amazingly beautiful people with their perfectly tanned and athletic figures. Sadly, with my receding hairline and beer belly I don't quite fit in with the super athletic bikers and runners. It's even worse if one goes to the some of the cafes or bars in the area but a great place to people watch.

Also went for a free jazz concert at the Hammer art museum. The atmosphere and ambience was great but the music was a bit too much for an untrained or tone deaf person like me. Sounded more like the soundtrack of a bad horror film with all the screechy sounds.

LA

2006-08-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

Reached LA yesterday after a very boring drive. There are 2 ways to drive from San Francisco to LA - either the Pacific coast highway which is a beautiful, scenic drive along the Pacific but about 12 hrs long or the Interstate 5 which is a flat, boring highway like any other interstate in the country but takes about 6 hours. I've been up and down from LA to SF 2-3 times and each time it's been the flat, fast route. Unfortunately, even this time it was the flat boring route and we covered it in less than 6 hours. The car didn't have any airconditioning and within 20 minutes of heading out of Berkeley, it was quite an energy sapping drive because of the heat. I got a ride from one of the conference participants who was driving down to Caltech and it was hard to talk about anything except number theory and math rumours and gossip.

Since Pasadena and LA (where my brother lives) aren't too close it seemed like a nice idea to get dropped off at the Pasadena metro station and ask my brother to pick me up from the station closest to his house. In hindsight, it was a stupid idea. I've taken the LA-Pasadena metro once and had forgotten how long it can take. The LA metro is possibly the most underused, slow and forgotten subway system in the world. In a city where distances are huge (a 20 min drive = close by) the metro is quite useless. At the Pasadena station there were 4 other people waiting with me - a slightly scared looking elderly couple and 2 black kids talking loudly. With my huge backpack it was hard to fit on the only remaining space on the bench so I just kept standing. It took almost 20 mins for the next train to arrive and I couldn't see a single white person on the train. The crowd seemed like a mix of fairly down-and-out tired looking people and a few young kids talking loudly. Halfway through, a completely drunk, white guy walked in with an 80s style mullet and a bottle of vodka in one hand. He sat right opposite me and kept dozing off and waking up, shouting "nigger" and "bitch" to himself. The stench of cheap vodka almost filled the whole coach. Finally reached Union station after about 30 mins and then had to wait another 20 mins for the next line which I had to take.

Not having a cellphone meant I couldn't call up my brother and tell him to not be at the station for another 20 mins. By the time I reached the station, he'd been waiting for almost an hour and finding parking on a Saturday night near Koreatown wasn't easy. Keeping busy for an hour after parking couldn't have been too much fun with no cafes or bookshops closeby. Reached home around 1030 at night and realised it would have been easier and faster for him to drive to Pasadena and pick me up. Anyway, after more than 2 weeks of shared accomodation and dorm-type food, having homecooked food and my own room and bathroom feels great.

Compute, compute, compute

2006-08-09T13:49:00.000-07:00

The workshop gets over tomorrow and then a day later I'm going down to LA to spend about a week with my brother and his wife. It's been an interesting workshop. Of all the conference/workshops that I've gone for this was easily the most useful and productive one. What was different was the style and pace of the workshop. Most math conferences consist of a bunch of lectures, a few question-answer sessions and informal discussions with other mathematicians. Some of the discussions can lead to future work but it's mostly about networking and letting other people know about your work or existence.

This one was a very intense workshop with lectures in the morning on the computational aspects of number theory followed by coding sessions through the day. Different problems had been posed before the workshop and people worked in groups on the problem they were interested in. It was my first experience (since a couple of farcical undergraduate projects) of working in a group and trying to make presentations of everything that had been done in a short period of time. Over the last 10 years, as computers have become faster, a number of programs have been written which make computations of fairly sophisticated and abstract concepts much easier. The main purpose of this workshop is to integrate a lot of the existing programs into a free, open source language called SAGE. This will hopefully become the main resource for programming and building databases of examples and computations. As it's free and open source, changes and developments can be made by anyone using it. It's an ambitious project and it looks like it's gathering a lot of momentum.

For the past few years, I've worked in a very abstract and theoretical aspect of math (number theory - though it has nothing to do with numbers) and become used to working alone using simply pen and paper or a blackboard. Occasionally, about once a week or two, I used to meet my advisor for less than an hour to ask questions or show him what I'd done but that was about it. It takes months or close to a year to work out a reasonably advanced problem so one gets used to plodding away for weeks with nothing to show. There are no experiments to run, events to understand, societies or people to study or laws of nature to follow. Then, there's suddenly a flash of insight and a few lines of abstract nonsense can explain something very clearly. Sometimes subtle mistakes can be passed over since only a few people actually cared about the problem. What is daunting is coming across other mathematicians who are far more comfortable with the concepts one struggles with, and who seem to say things which can seem incredibly vague. When things make sense, it's a very enlightening moment.

Working on a computer with a group was completely different. There are instant results popping out all the time. This leads to a lot of quick thrills, high fiving and instant elation. Also, a lot of frustration, when there are errors or bugs in a program. Four of us sat around a computer and kept bouncing ideas off each other and writing down code. Since it was my first experience at programming there were more bugs and errors throughout but getting a program to work is pretty satisfying. A lot of the programming skills and structures that I saw and learnt are definitely useful. Writing a code to compute a series of examples of various cases actually helped to understand a lot of things compared to reading a paper or a book on the same topic. Especially as a slight error or bug is evident immediately. It also involves a completely different way of thinking compared to what I've done in the last few years and it's been an enjoyable experience.

Though the larger question did loom - was it really so useful and important? The main idea of the problem was to compute some very specific examples, so specific that it's hard to come up with a conjecture or construct a general theory around them. What surprised me was the large number of people who seem to do just this - compute, compute and compute. Words like interesting, cool and exciting were used a lot. A few conjectures kept floating around and since it's a high-speed game people tend to claim things too soon. I've always had a fairly low opinion of my own mathematical and research skills and in an objective discipline like mathematics it's easy to see how good/useful someone's paper is. My thesis was pretty average and at most reasonable. Seeing the way people were getting excited over small computations was puzzling. The prospect of publishing a paper out of all this is what seems to excite everyone, not the prospect of coming up with a useful idea. I'm pretty sure it's the same in other disciplines as well.

I have a long rant on how 80-90% of academic/research papers are complete nonsense (including my own thesis). Forget about them being useful to our daily life, they're not even useful in the narrow academic discipline they fall under. But that's something I'll touch on later when I have a lot more time to waste.

math and baseball

2006-08-06T11:34:00.000-07:00

Went out with the geeks for a group outing yesterday. After a week of hanging out in the same institute and dorm, 4 of us discovered we were all big baseball fans and decided to go and watch a game in San Francisco on Saturday. Asked around if others were interested and about 10 other people came along. They weren't interested in the baseball but more keen on sightseeing in San Francisco.

Organizing a trip with almost 15 people wasn't fun especially as a lot of them had no clue of how to go into San Francisco and what to do. One of the baseball fans decided to be the tour guide and he took everyone on a walking tour of San Francisco's touristy sights. Cameras were whipped out all the time and it was a bit awkward travelling in a big group, doing headcounts, asking what to do next, etc. Since a bunch of us were going to the baseball game later in the evening and I don't have a cellphone anymore I had to stick with them. Managed to sneak away for a while to City Lights and bumped into Darius and David, 2 physicists from MIT who I knew while in Boston. It was quite bizarre running into them in San Francisco, having not met in Boston for almost a year.

Ended up walking all the way up to the Ghirardelli chocolate factory where I had a sinful sundae. One of the baseball fans, Nathan, told me how he had finished 2 vermonsters. At Ben and Jerry's icecream a vermonster consists of all 42 scoops of icecream and all possible toppings in one huge bucket. It costs 42$ and if any one person can finish it, he doesn't have to pay for it. Nathan used to play semi-professional rugby for a few years and after a 6 hour session, went with his entire team to the store and finished off a vermonster. Apparently, he didn't struggle while finishing it.

The game was pretty ordinary but the baseball park is beautiful. It's on the south side of the city and overlooks the Berkeley and Oakland hills over the bay. Watching the sunset and the hills light up with a game in front was pretty enchanting. Spent most of the time yakking about math gossip and cheering the occasional hit and trying to boo Barry Bonds. The baseball world might boo him for his steroids but San Francisco still loves him. He didn't hit a home run over into the bay but pulled a foul ball over. The lone kayaker in the waters promptly jumped in to fetch it.

Geek world

2006-07-31T19:05:00.000-07:00

I've been surrounded by supergeeks for the past 5-6 days. One of them is carrying his own wireless router so that he could get wireless access in his room. A bunch of them have been wearing T-shirts with math jokes on them and some with formulas in the front and references on the back. The chief geek is the main organiser of the workshop, WS and has an interesting autobiography on his webpage. He's assembled a computer with 64GB of ram and once took apart a wristwatch and converted it to calculate some sophisticated math formulas.

This workshop is about using computer programs to have a more hands-on approach to number theory rather than use just abstract reasoning. So, half the participants (like me) are here with zero knowledge of programming while the other half is full of geeks (like WS) who're obsessed with telling each other about the latest tricks or codes they've cracked. Lecture notes, slides, etc are updated realtime on the conference website rather than the standard math conference which has only blackboard presentations with no slides.

I've been sitting in a corner with my laptop at an angle so that nobody can make out I'm actually reading cricket and baseball scores. Over the last few years, I've perfected the art of looking busy and involved in a math lecture. A little bit of fidgeting, some scribbling on a piece of paper, a deep frown and then a quick nod of the head to make people think I follow what's happening. Very reluctantly, I've let people know that I'm not a student anymore so I can't keep hiding behind the magic words "I don't know". In this workshop though everyone else around me is writing code at the same time as listening to the presentations. I feel like a con artist sitting out here surrounded by nerds.

The location of MSRI, a math research institute, is spectacular and is the first math building I've seen which is not the ugliest and most boring place imaginable. The Berkeley math dept is ugly, but MSRI has a breathtaking view of the university, the SF skyline and the Golden Gate. I have a great view from my office and watching the sun set is quite magical.

San Francisco diary

2006-07-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

Shaking off the jetlag wasn't too hard. Since I reached in the middle of the day all I had to do was stay up till around 8 or 9 pm. Went out for a walk and saw a grungy side of San Francisco which I hadn't seen on my previous two trips. The last time I came here was with my older brother and we stayed in a hostel on the north side. The hostel I'm in on this trip is on the south side (SOMA - south of market) and it's not as gentrified as the other side. Went out for a walk as staying in the hostel would have resulted in crashing out and waking up at an awkward hour. Saw more weirdos and homeless people in 30 minutes than I could recall from the last two trips. Walked around aimlessly and then headed back to the hostel. Am sharing a room with a guy called Ben who's been living in the same hostel room for more than a year. He's about 50 and makes Tamales for a living. Told me he came up from LA to San Francisco for a weekend 2 years back, loved it completely and then never went back. Decided he'd had enough of working for other people and decided to live here. The hostel owners treat him like one of them and he's converted the 4 person dorm into a small home with his bike, CD player, TV, clothes neatly organised. He goes to bars which don't have food where he makes and sells Tamales. He was on his way out to *work*, tied a bandana, put on a bowler hat, shrugged his shoulders and said "I guess I'm just an old hippy".

The other guy (he moved in tonight) is even weirder. A 48 year old Hungarian immigrant, Gabor's here to run the San Francisco marathon tomorrow. It's his 45th marathon. Yes, 45 marathons. He ran 12 marathons last year all over the world including one in Sydney where it was 104 degrees. 12 marathons in one year! What's even funnier is how stingy he is. He's a self employed tax lawyer but is staying in a cheap rundown hostel after taking the greyhound to come up here from LA. He has two daughters who are now in college and was talking to me about expensive it is to pay for college tuitions. The marathon starts at 530 tomorrow so he was grumbling about missing the free breakfast. I told him *breakfast* consisted of a loaf of bread and some peanut butter and starts at 9 am. He thought it about and realised that he wouldn't be able to make it back from the marathon in time so he asked me to make a sandwich for him and keep it on his bed. Since there's no free pre-marathon pasta dinner he's just drinking some water and maybe a couple of energy bars. His rationale for running marathons is to avoid illnesses and diseases when he gets older which would mean saving money on doctor's fees. Wow!

The last time I came I loved the Italian district especially Cafe Trieste and City Lights bookstore - both within a minute's walk of each other. It's a 30 minute walk from the hostel through the grungy south side, chaotic chinatown to the hip Italian district. Since I need to get back to math mode, I've been camping out in Cafe Trieste with my laptop and papers trying to shake of the rust of not having done any math for more than 2 months. Much harder than shaking off the jetlag. Cafe Trieste is an interesting place. It has a large number of regular customers who the staff knows well and who sit around and just chat, tourists who come with cameras and keep staring at the pictures on the wall and students or independent professionals plugging away on their laptops. But, it's not overly crowded or loud. Almost the perfect atmosphere and decor with a staff happy to let people sit in a corner all day. After pottering around with math and surfing in between (free wifi) I've rewarded myself by going up to the reading room loft in city lights bookstore with a bunch of graphic novels.

The bookstore has a great section on graphic novels and till 2 days ago I'd only ever read one or two of them. I read R Crumb's Kafka and Spiegelman's Maus I and Maus II. I found all of them riveting especially the Kafka one. I never quite understood or appreciated Kafka's books nor a few films based on his books. This one captured and explained a lot of things about his life and work in a medium I've just started to explore. Maus I and II are about how a Polish Jew survived the holocaust and I finished both of them in one go.

san francisco

2006-07-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

I just reached San Francisco after a long and uneventful flight. Checked into a slightly run down hostel in the centre of the city. I'm here to attend a workshop at MSRI, Berkeley and will move into the campus housing on sunday. Since I need to prepare a bit for it and didn't want to be jetlagged and sleepy at the beginning I decided to get here a bit early. Getting to the hostel from the airport wasn't hard except lugging my gigantic backpack through the subway. It's lighter than it was when I left Boston 2 months ago but still not easy to fit into the subway coaches. It took me roughly 24 hours from the time I left for the airport to checking in to the hostel. Everytime I've flown from the US to India it always takes the same amount of time. It doesn't matter which direction you fly in or how connections you have to make. Almost like taking buses from Delhi University. No matter where you lived it always took (at least) one hour. Till the metro came about.

Speaking of the metro, I managed to finally go on the Delhi Metro two days before I left. Going from Connaught Place to Delhi University used to be a major hike (at least one hour!) but now on the metro it takes ten minutes! I was stunned by the metro and never thought something so modern, clean and efficient could be built right in the centre of Delhi.

I ended up going on the metro with two old friends from college, Karan and Latika, who I met after more than 7 years. The three of us lived reasonably close to each other when we joined college and used to take the same bus initially till Karan and I moved into the college residence halls and shared a room in our first year. The three of us also went on some hiking trips together and somehow lost touch after college. Going with the two of them on the metro to the university felt a bit surreal since commuting on the buses wasn't easy and we used to try hitching rides often. Feel envious of students now who can use the metro to get around.

Around the same time that I left Boston with nothing but a backpack, Karan was doing the same thing in Bangalore. He packed up everything in a backpack and gave away the rest of his stuff and set off. He ended up somewhere near the northeast and ran out of money. Sold his cellphone to get some money to go hiking. After that he showed up at his parents house in Delhi. When he saw my blog - homeless, jobless, broke and single - he knew exactly what I meant. Quite a coincidence that my roomate from 11 years ago was going through exactly the same stage. Between college and now, he's had an interesting life. He graduated from a prestigious business school and started working with Citibank. Got bored and tired and chucked it to go off to Switzerland to do some farming and worked with people with special needs. Then an NGO in rural south india which dealt with water conservation. After that he learnt reiki and tried teaching that but it didn't work out. Latika studied art history and criss-crossed the globe working on a massive project to document Indian art and sculpture. She's been to almost every major art gallery/museum over a lengthy period researching art. Both of them are living with their parents in Delhi, not much money in hand, no idea of what job to do and no signs of getting married. But no airs about saving the world, no disdain for people who aren't in the same boat, no standing up for pseudo principles or angst against the rest of the world. Meeting them both was reassuring.

Kumaon

2006-07-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

I spent the last 5 days in Kumaon with my parents. For the uninformed, Kumaon is the region in the Himalayas where my parents, grandparents and every other ancestor was born and brought up. I wasn't born there nor did I ever live there but have always considered Kumaon as the region to which I belong. Ever since I can remember my whole family (and other friends who my parents would take along) would drive up to the hills in the summer and spend most of our time driving around in a convoy, staying with relatives and in old tourist resthouses. For my parents it was always a sort of homecoming as they spent a significant part of their childhood in the hills. For my brothers and me, it was a respite from the heat in the plains and a time to go for long, leisurely walks, enjoy some spectacular mountain views, play games in the old houses we stayed in and meet aunts, uncles, cousins and lunatics (some of whom were aunts or uncles).

Nainital and Almora are the two big urban centres of Kumaon. My mother studied in Nainital till 16 and my father spent most of his summers in Almora and though both towns have now become dirty, ugly and congested for my parents they still retain the charm they had in the 50s and 60s. In the 60s Almora became popular with hippies including the Beatles, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan and Timothy Leary. Somewhere around that time my father, who was in his teens, befriended a lot of the lesser known hippies. My father's parents were fairly strict and conservative but he managed to convince them that he was going to the temples as part of a religious awakening and not because of the crazy hippies hanging around. Every year, my brothers and I would be regaled with crazy stories of those years and somewhere that part of him hasn't gone away. On the other side, my mother went to a strict christian missionary school in Nainital and part of the training she received in those years hasn't gone away either. A trip to the mountains is a bit like a geography, history, sociology and family history lesson. As a result, even though my brothers and I didn't spend much time there we developed a strong attachment to the hills.

Since this was just a 5 day trip without my brothers or other friends or relatives, it was very different. There were no long walks, no chilling beer in a stream, no 2-3 day drives to reach what seemed like the end of the earth to us at that time, or late nights of board games and cards huddled underneath blankets. We spent 2 nights in Bhimtal at a cousin's house which resembles a resort. It was easily the most opulent place I've stayed in and there were more bedrooms than guests. One night in Almora at our ancestral home and one night in Jageshwar. The most we walked was about 30 mins and we stopped for tea almost every 15 minutes. This was also the first trip where we all put on weight after coming back.

The drive up consisted of stretches where the highway resembled world class roads which was a welcome relief after so many years but in between there were stretches through villages, dusty towns and potholes which reminded me of how tiring roadtrips in India can be. Throughout the drive my parents insisted on stopping every hour because a particlar town was known for mangoes, another for potatoes and a small 20 minute stretch for corn. My grandparents used to be like that years ago and seeing my parents behave like that was amusing. I went back to Kumaon after 7 years and the weird and unnerving part was meeting relatives who had aged rapidly, a favourite uncle who wasn't around anymore and cousins who were no longer kids but getting ready to join college.

Almora seems to have aged but going to Jageshwar was a refreshing change. Jageshwar is a town which seems to have been bypassed by inflation, development and globalisation. For a tourist it's reassuring though I'm not sure how the locals view the lack of progress. The claim to fame of Jageshwar is a stunningly beautiful stone temple built somewhere between the 8th and 10th century in the middle of a thick deodhar forest. It's quite mindboggling to think of how they managed to build a temple like that more than a thousand years ago. I went for a short walk one afternoon and since it was raining off and on, I followed the main road and resisted jumping into the forest and following some trail. Spent most of the afternoon sitting opposite the Dandeshwar temple and reading a book in a small tea shop. There were about 10 other people sitting around doing nothing except talking about the activities of the three monkies jumping around the temple. Sat and talked to the tea shop owner in halting Pahadi and he cursed the local politicians. After almost 3 hours of sitting there and endless cups of tea the bill came to about 10 Rs. It was about 2 Rs for a cup of tea - things haven't changed in a long time.

I didn't take a camera with me and really regretted it. Since it's the rainy season, the mountains are beautiful and almost every turn we took resembled a picture postcard like shot with low lying clouds over lush green moutains and red tin-roofs standing out prominently. Maybe next time.