An Unexpected Journey!

Jungfraujoch

From the very first day of my professional life in Zurich, on the way to work I frequently used to see the ad ”Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe”. Since then it has been on my bucket list. Last Saturday when I was invited to my aunt‘s place for dinner, I never thought, 12hrs later I will end up on Top of Europe. She had visitors from UK and Germany and they were discussing about the possible day trip options for Sunday. Me being a chatty person, I was fully engrossed in the discussion. I had no plans to join them however the discussion was so persuasive, I ended up committing to the spontaneous excursion.

We started our journey around 8:30 in the morning and after a couple of hick ups, train changes and lunch we finally reached Kleine Scheidegg.

From there we take the final train, Jungfraubahn to reach the top. In other words the real journey starts at Kleine Scheidegg station (2061m above sea level). The cogwheel train takes almost an hour to cover 9km because the ascent grade is that steep (has to overcome an altitude difference of 1400m). The train goes through a tunnel crossing the mountains Eiger and Mönch. The construction of the Jungfrau Railway began over a hundred years ago with 300 men and lasted for 16 years. It is incredible how they cut these tunnels out of sheer rock by hand.

During these 50 minutes the Jungfraubahn makes two stops at Eigerwand (2,320m) and Eismeer (3160m) for 5 min. The Eismeer glacier sits snugly between these beautiful peaks. On each stops there are viewpoints,  allowing us to admire the breath taking view of alpine wonderland of glaciers, ice, snow and rocks. The thought of being inside a huge, gigantic mountain, gave me goosebumps and a slight adrenaline kick.

Eismeer

Cogwheel train is the only way to reach the highest rail station in Europe, Junfraujoch, which is 3454 m high. A bronze statue of Mr. A. Guyer Zeller, the initiator of the Jungfrau Railway, welcomes you to this stunning, overwhelming, heart-stopping wonderland.

It may sound silly but my top priority was to Go Live from top of Europe. Having that in mind, I headed to the Sphinx observatory, the highest point of the route, where you will get the best panoramic views of the mountains. While glancing through the direction board, I saw Bollywood on the sign post.

Oh boy…I felt like winning the biggest lottery – Can you imagine, how awesome it would be to meet Shahrukh Khan, Amir, Ranbir, Hrithik, Shahid & co on top of the Europe? For a moment I forgot about everything else and without hesitating I followed the direction to Bollywood! Guys, guess what? You won’t believe it; It was just a restaurant. To be honest I was a bit disappointed, but on the positive side the only restaurant (according to what I saw) on top of Europe is an Indian restaurant, how cool is that?

Finally my mind was back on track and without wasting any second, I headed to top eagerly to Go Live – I couldn’t go live because of poor reception☺. The view from there is worth a billion dollars. I have never ever seen something as magnificent as this. Lunacy took over me as I ran around the Sphinx to capture as many pictures as possible, before my mobile battery ran out for good. I felt like diving into the sugar coated mountains to take a big bite of it. The clean and crisp air was so addictive that I just kept inhaling more and more. I wanted to keep this freshness in me and so didn’t feel like exhaling. To be honest I don’t know the right words to describe what I felt there.

The Jungfraujoch complex

After spending nearly 1hour on the terrace of the observatory, I decided to go to the Snow Fun area. You can walk through the “Ice Palace” where a tunnel has been dug out of solid ice with beautiful ice sculptures lining the halls. Since I wasn’t carrying proper footwear, I couldn’t go there. As I mentioned before, it was a spontaneous trip so naturally we were running against time.

For more pics click here

It is undoubtedly an expensive excursion; the normal tariff is around 200 CHF per person. The Price of the train ticket includes access to the entire Jungfrau area.  I will definitely go there again and who knows may be I will be able to Go Live ☺ If you are planning to go there, these are my suggestions:

• Start early and plan properly
• Bring some snacks and water for the trip.
• Pack your lunch, as you wouldn’t want to pay for an expensive  mediocre meal.
• Check the weather report before booking! 
• Have your cameras & mobile Phones always ready for action.
• Don’t forget your selfie stick
• Don’t forget your power bank
• Dress in multiple layers as the temperature will fluctuate throughout the travel day.
• Wear good tracking/ hiking shoes.
• It is possible to get altitude sickness. Make sure to take things slow and drink plenty of water.

#PrayForFrance

Woke up this morning to horrific news from France.  My deepest condolences and prayers to the victims and their loved ones.

The most precious, valuable thing apart from the 4 elements on this blue planet are humans. The world we know wouldn’t exist if there were no humans.  No matter which religion or cult we are following,  they all teach us the value of a human life. None of them support killing people.

It’s just 14th of July and according to  Wikipedia there were already  more than 80 terror attacks reported (list of Terror attacks).  I am asking myself why this cruelty? What are those organizations/ individuals trying to achieve?  Definitely not peace and freedom. With this horrific, terrifying inhuman approach they just put their fellow human beings of same religious conviction, nationality, race, profession in jeopardy.

After listening to the news and reading few articles I felt, totally disturbed and my eyes were filled with tears. There was a certain anger building up inside me because I felt so powerless and helpless . The entire day I was thinking about how can I / we prevent terror attacks?  Oh well , I know  you are rolling your eyes now and thinking, how can she stop something  which the greatest minds of our time couldn’t do.  I am not an economist nor a politician or a religious leader and most probably my IQ is below average. But I think, if we could wipe out revenge,  jealousy and greed from us there won’t be any terror attacks like this.  Furthermore I strongly believe it has to start within each and every one of  us. Find happiness in what you have and don’t be jealous about things which you don’t have. Be fare in everything you do!  Then apply the same logic in your family – between parents and kids;  then on your extended family members, friends etc.  If everyone is satisfied then there is no need for fight.

So don’t hesitate and let’s try to make the world a better place; You and I, we are the ones who can make this change!

Like I mentioned before, it’s just a humble thought which came up in my mind.

Transgender – Painful Prejudices

Yesterday I watched one of my favourite dance reality shows on YouTube. I was shocked and surprised at the same time when I got to know that it was the first time ever a transgender was allowed to participate on a reality show, which is telecasted on a national television. Considering the given history, I thought India would be one of the transgender friendly countries in the world. Listening to Jazz’s story made me really sad.

The fact is:   On 15 April 2014, in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India, the Supreme Court of India ruled that transgender people should be treated as a third category of gender and as a socially and economically “backward” class entitled to proportional access and representation in education and jobs.

I think it is difficult to imagine what it must feel like to be transgender if you are not. Imagine what it must feel like to debate every day to use the men’s restroom or the women’s.

We all are born with sexual characteristic of either a male or a female. The term transgender focuses on individuals whose gender identity conflicts with biological sex assignment. Most who are transgender know they are different from others from an early age. There are different studies explaining the cause of being transgender. The fact is we will need a much larger body of research to reach conclusions about where gender identity lives in human.

I think at this point, it is very important to mention that gender and sexual preference are entirely two separate things. Sexual identification is who we to be intimate with while gender identification is who we see ourselves.

I am not intending to write a scientific blog about transgender with my limited knowledge. On the contrary I want to encourage you to wipe out your prejudices. Keep in mind that this condition might be caused by hormonal imbalance. It is definitely not their fault! Support them on their journey! Be nice and human next time when you meet a transgender.

Hats off to Mazhavil Manorama for taking the first step towards breaking the taboo and hopefully many will follow you.

Jazz, never give up! No matter if you are going to win 1^st prize or not. Consider yourself as a winner because through Mazhavil Manoramas D4Dance Season 3 the world is listening to you. Don’t pay attention to the Naysayers and ignore the negativity. Don’t be shy and don’t hide! Go Girl, Go Girl! Rock the floor, don’t forget Feet Must be pointed 🙂 .

I am fully aware of the fact that I don’t have neither a huge follower base nor a celebrity status. But If at least one among the few readers would change his/her mind and treat a transgender as a “normal” human being, then I would consider my blog, a worthy effort. Like Pearle, the anchor of the show said, we may be born with different skin colour, on different places as men or women. But we all are one and all of us are God’s creation.

There is no one “right” way to live a life. And no one should have to spend a life hiding who they are!!

XoXo

Darling, you make my day!

Oh my love!
You make me happy and alive.
You are always there for me, in good times and in bad.
You have got me addicted.
Your fragrance brings out the energy in me.

On a cold rainy afternoon, I wrap my arms around you,
your warmth soak into me.
Snow brings you even closer
I cant survive a day without you
Coffee Coffee!

I Love You Forever!

Doorway to your heart

When was the last time you looked into someone’s eyes? Or let someone gaze into yours? Since few days this question is haunting me. I don’t remember when it happened to me the last time! What about you my dear reader? When was the last time you experienced the emotional cocktail made of excitement, butterflies in stomach, nervousness and the spark you will feel when you look into your loved ones eyes or the person you would love to love look into your eyes?

You will find a lot of scientific studies online, where they explain the importance the eyes in combination with physical attraction, seduction and romantic love… And yes as usual within seconds my browser history was filled with articles about this particular theme. So if we are sitting on the same boat, then I think I know the cause of the problem. After spending days thinking about it, I came up with 3 possible reasons.

1. You are living with your life partner and you take everything for granted. You might say there are other important things to do than looking into eyes. Beside it’s something for silly people. So you are purposely avoiding it.

2. You are “too busy” and blabber A LOT. What I mean by this is, you will always engage yourself in some personal projects like weight loss, redo your garden, refurnish your place or you are a workaholic. So basically you don’t have time to go out and meet people and when you are with your friends you simply keep blabbering so that there is no silent moment. Practically everyone around you is in the FRIEND zone. In other words unconsciously you have a defensive shield around you, stopping yourself exploring new possibilities

3. You are scared. Letting someone that close to you means apart from the facial hair, impure greasy skin, thin lines/wrinkles, and that his person can see behind your retina. You are literally letting a person into your life, in other words you are not used to being vulnerable, comfortable and used to being alone.

I myself belong to the category 2 and 3. I hardly go out and meet new people. And when I meet people I talk a lot and most of the time I never notice any signs of interest. I am also very scared and I don’t want to put myself in a position where someone could hurt me.

Audrey Hepburn, a famous actress once said: “The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the door way to her heart, the place where love resides.” If that is true and eyes are indeed the doorway to the place where love resides, don’t be shy. Go ahead. Stare deeply into those eyes belonging to the other person and relight the flame of love.

It’s all about YOU!

It’s been a really long time since my last blog. A lot happened in the meantime which I might mention here on the blog one day. Hope all of you had a wonderful start. Jan is almost gone and how are you guys keeping up with your New year’s resolutions?

I have started this  year full of energy and excitement, determined to enjoy each and every day. Do things which would make me happy, experiment a bit and basically not worry about what others think about me.

So ….

• If you think you are fat and unfit then lose weight, change ur diet and exercise more.
• If you are unsatisfied with your job, then go and find another job
• If you are bad in managing ur money then learn how to control ur expense
• If you want to be a model/ singer/actor then go and explore ur options
• If you love to travel then DO it.

Keep in mind that you are doing something which YOU want to do, NOT because you want to please someone else (parents, friends, children, coworkers, society …).

In my entire life I never felt this much of positive energy. I got inspired by the first movie I watched this year. Like most of us, I was also very tired on the 1st of Jan, so decided to stay home and chill.

After little bit browsing  and checking FB,  I ended up on an online movie portal and  chose  the latest Malayalam movie they uploaded. Malayalam is a language spoken in India to be precise in Kerala.  Watching  movies online gives me a guilty conscience, but sometimes you don’t have any other choice if you are abroad.

Yes, yes and yes … I know you are waiting to hear the name of the movie. The movie is called Rockstar.  If you understand Malayalam then you have  to watch it. I have  never ever seen a Malayalam movie like this. The movie is about a young independent woman and a young musician.  Oh well.. I know what you are thinking now and can imagine how you are rolling your eyes… A man sees a woman, they fall in love, jumping around trees in the alps, singing and dancing Benny Lava style and live happily ever after.  Sorry guys, I have to disappoint you. It is a romantic story which portrays very deep and intense emotional drama. The real star of this movie is the Story itself.  I loved each and every dialogue in this movie. My favorite dialogue is when Eva responds in a conversation to her mum and maid: You don’t have to get married to have children. It reminded me a conversation between my mum and me.

The script writer Rajashree Balaram beautifully captured the independent thoughts of today’s spinster professionals. The continuous fight with themselves to be independent,  to be different than the older generation, the confidence to express to the world what they think and confronting the conflict between fact-based  judgments and moral values.

Such a brilliant story in the hands of, one of the most renowned directors in the industry, VKP sir, it  certainly  created magic on the screen.

After watching this movie, I was so excited and decided to pm (private message) VKP sir, Siddarth Menon and Rajashree Balaram. The experience I made there,  will  be summarized  in a separate blog because a lot happened there.  Got catfishes,  had a real small chat …

End of the day watching this movie inspired me to set goals for this year. My New Year’s resolution is very simple: enjoy the life to the fullest and not to be worried about others.

I even came up with a nice romantic story. A good friend of mine and me even thought about filming it, me in the lead role. HAHAHA…. all my friends who are reading this, is most probably ROLFing. Yeah me in a Movie ***@@@@???!!!!

On this note I wish you all a very Happy New Year.

Xoxo

The Holy Cow – #BeefBan in India

Last Friday after work I went to an Indian family who lives across the road, joining other friends who were also invited. During the evening we covered a lot of topics. They started to talk about the Beef Ban in India. My contribution to this was: “I too saw the FB posts. It is really funny and I admire the creative mind behind it.”  All of sudden everyone stopped talking and there was a weird silence in the room, everyone was staring at me. I broke the silence by asking them: ”it’s just a joke, right? No one was really killed, right?” Apparently it was not a joke.

I don’t want to mention any names or take sides. This blog is  about the frustration and disappointment of a young Indian, of origin.

In the past few months, political parties are abusing each other and taking decisions on what one should eat. Everyone has given ridiculous  statements about consuming beef. The intolerant society even ended up murdering an innocent man who was blamed for eating BEEF, which by the way turned out to be false after the investigation. In other words the current Indian politics are killing its own people.  Keep in mind that we are not talking about a country/state governed by a dictatorship. On the contrary, we are talking about the biggest democratic country on the earth. 

Government of an Indian State banned beef citing, it is hurting the religious sentiments of the Hindu community. Seriously guys…are you kidding me???!!!  Does the Hindu community feel better after a man was killed?  How would the Hindu community feel, If they were forced to eat beef somewhere else in the world?  I don’t believe the community or a common man’s religious spirit is hurt when others consume beef.  Everyone is entitled to practice their own religion and has the rights to decide on what to eat or not. I think the politicians are using this to cover something else, much bigger. Who knows  what they really want.

Abandoned cattle is a common thing in India and people don’t think 2s before hitting a cow found in the middle of the road.  A lot of cows die because of eating  filthy waste (plastic bags, etc.). How about introducing a government policy to keep them safe?  How is this ban going to protect the Holy Cows?

You murdered  a man because you assumed  he consumed  “holy cow” (beef).  You go to temple and worship  Goddesses, but as soon as you see one in front  of you, you just rape her to death. A Nation which  worships Cow, is willing to go to any extend to protect the Holy Cow, what are you doing to protect the women, your goddesses? How many girls did you protect this year? How many  abuses were reported? Which actions did you take? Did you kill all the rapists?

While  browsing  I came across a very interesting blog.  Where the blogger’s friend,  a Secret Advisor(SA) to Prime Minister (PM) of India, explains  the real reason for banning beef was to protect India and the WORLD from the water stress. According to the logic mentioned in that blog, the government of India is also going to ban butter, cheese, milk etc. Basically anything which is very water intensive.

If you want to read that blog please click here, it’s incredibly amusing.

Jealous of trees, am I stupid?

My Birthday is in 22 days and it frightens me. As a child I was looking forward to this day but now I am looking for possible ways to postpone the day.

My parents never failed to organize the perfect Birthday party for me and my brother. We received a lot of presents, mom always prepared our favorite dish and obviously new clothes. As a student I wanted to have one of those surprise parties, where your friends plan everything and u go to a club and simply get wasted. That never happened but my parents were still organizing the big one for me. It was really sweet of them. In the next phase of my life I was fancying about wakening up next to a handsome boyfriend, having breakfast in bed, red roses and a small present ideally from Tiffany&Co. Guess what, this never happened either. This could still happen because you never know when the Mr. Perfect is gonna knock on your door. Instead of fancying about this or being excited about what is going to happen next year, I am scared about getting old.

When I look around and compare myself with other women in my family & friend circle of my age group, I feel like they are having a very boring life. In other words I think something is wrong with me because I stand out from the crowed. Sometimes I even think, I shouldn’t be this active on social media because this is what teenagers and students do. I tried to convince myself saying: “Age is just a number and I am as old as I feel.” Oh well this didn’t work out the way I wanted. The increasing number of grey hair (by the way I have 10 of those shiny bitches now) and hair thinning are clear signs of getting Old.

Today I was enjoying the view from my office window. All the trees crowned in leaves, different shades of yellow and orange. I love autumn, its simply alluring. Since it was a bit windy, a lot of leaves were falling. All of sudden I was JEALOUS of trees. Trees lose their leaves like us losing our hair. But leaves come back in Spring/Summer, but there is no come back for our hair. This is so unfair 😦

Seriously folks, I am jealous of a Tree! Can you believe that? I mean a tree???!!!!. OMG what is happening to me? Am I crazy?

Are you afraid of your birthday? Do you have similar crazy thoughts like me?

Till then Keep Calm and Stay Healthy!

Bengal grams, Oats, Quinoa & Co

M y last blog post was 25 days ago, where I shared my excitement about becoming an almost vegan. Now after 1 month of being sort of a vegan, I would love to share my experience  with you guys. First of all I never thought I will be able to follow it for such a long time. I never did any sort of fasting before and never avoided non veg. Chicken was an inevitable part of my meal, couldn’t even imagine life without chicken. It may sound a bit weird but I always had some sort of chicken almost every day.

I haven’t visited my aunt for months, so yesterday I paid her a visit. As soon I entered her house the appetizing smell of perfectly spiced, delicious, mouthwatering chicken curry welcomed me. Oh boy, what am I going to do? I couldn’t resist the smell. So I decided to have chicken curry and fried rice for lunch, after all it’s just this one time I thought. Trust me guys, I couldn’t wait to mix  fried rice with the thick gravy and enjoy the perfect symphony of spices in my mouth. You won’t believe what happened next . As soon as I saw the chicken piece on my plate my appetite was gone. I simply couldn’t bite into the piece of meat. I was shocked and surprised at the same time. End of the day I just had rice with some vegetables. I was so proud of myself and said myself:  “You passed the toughest test, very well done my dear“.

You might be wondering what a lazy person like me eats these days. Like I mentioned in my last blog (Almost a Vegan), started with quinoa… now pleased to add almond mil, oats and Bengal grams. I am getting good in preparing vegan food, still have to go long way. Once I master few recipes, I will definitely make a  vlog about it.

Transitioning to  a vegan is difficult. Each time if I mention I am a vegan, people raise their eye brows, or make jokes about. This weekend a friend of mine told me something like this. “Now it’s anyways too late. You are not going to look better”.  I know he meant it in a funny way and his intention was not to hurt me.  Most of the time you find less support from people around you and because of that your social life might suffer a little bit. But hey , all you need is a strong will power and then everything is possible. End of the day it’s your life, it’s your body and YOU decide what you want to do.

Becoming a vegan means to me  eat clean,  consuming minimally processed  food, increasing fiber consumption and final adding more fresh fruits and vegetables to my regular diet. By doing so my digestion is perfection which means no bloating and I feel more energized during the day. And I feel young, fresh and vibrant. Oh well I think that’s coupled with my fear of aging and my birthday is in 28 days.  Most probably I am trying to convince myself no matter what I am doing, it’s good for staying young.  Anyways I hope you guys  are not worried about grey hair and wrinkles.

Till then Keep Calm and Stay Healthy!

XoXo

Last wedding of the season

Couple of days ago, I went to Frankfurt to attend last wedding of this season. Since I didn’t know the couple for a long time, I wasn’t sure about attending the wedding. Now looking back, I have to admit that it was the best wedding I recently been to. We often say a simple wedding is all about the couple and family getting married. It was a unique wedding, because the bride and groom have the same first name. Few years back the bride saw his profile on a social media platform and decided to leave a message. She never thought her curiosity will end up in a marriage.

Bride chose to have simple makeup and hair. She looked absolutely ravishing in her gown. I never saw such a calm, absolutely happy, stress free bride in my life. She was very charismatic and charmed the guests with her mesmerizing smile. Her wedding gown was breath taking, innovating and unique; I loved that dress. The Groom looked handsome in his grey wedding suit. They both complimented each other very well.

It was a simple wedding, which was well organized and you could see the detail in planning everywhere. As with modern trends at wedding receptions, they had “seating chart” – a list informing guests where they are to be seated. Instead of having a generic list, this was printed on a world map, located at the entrance to the reception. They only chose map locations – where they visited together as a couple. Photos from these locations, for example Frankfurt where I was seated – were displayed on the tables. This gave us guests something to talk about the couple, very engaging idea!

Next eye catcher was the Menu card. It was printed on a writable candle wrapper. The food was delicious and mouthwatering. But hey, the highlight was the wedding cake which they cut together around midnight. Again it wasn’t some randomly manufactured cake. No it was baked by one of her dear friend and trust me guys it was beautylicious. The moist cake melted in my mouth, sticky with white chocolate and fudge frosting on my tongue. The bitter and simultaneously sweet smell of it puts me in a serene mind state. I smacked my full red lips together. With the rich deep shades of yellow on every delicious layer this cake acts as a slice of happiness on a white dessert plate. I almost had a food gasmen.

Another memorable part was the Bollywood dance presented by friends and family. The theme of this dance was the story of the wedded couple. They selected different hit songs from different movies and created their own mix. The dance was fantastic, they set the floor on fire. At the end everyone was dancing.

How could I end the this blog without mentioning the stunning guest favors. For each guest they prepared a small jar of homemade jam. To be honest it felt like a small jar of happiness and joy.

I had such an incredible time!