The guide to navigate snow

I love it when it snows... Indeed I think my affinity for snow has carried it across the Atlantic into normally less-snowy Paris. The whole place looks like a black and white postcard where the only color that matters is white. Here are a couple of shots outside my window..


At the same time, I hate it when the snow melts... that's when it starts getting dangerous, slippery, dirty, cold and ugly, in no particular order. You don't survive 3 winters in Cincinnati and not know a thing or two about snow.. So, if it's your first snow or if you simply want tips on how to have a fall-free winter, read on..

1. Fancy shoes just don't work. Stick to good old sneakers with solid soles. Don't make the mistake of wearing sole pattern-free footwear.. they almost guarantee a slip.
2. Walk on fresh patches of snow. The lesser walked upon the path, the less likely one is to slip. the places where people have walked, the snow is often eroded to a murky slush which can be rather slippery if one is not careful.
3. Walk with chomp-chomp steps and not gliding ones. You needn't walk like a soldier on march-past drill.. but there is no need for large foot falls either. Closely spaced walking is safer.
4. Navigating slopes can be tricky if you are new to it... being a veteran resident of the Riddle Road Lookout Apartment (people in UC will be familiar with it's up-slope into the driveway and down-slope to the steps of the building). Keep firm steps and make sure that you are steady before you take the next step.

The rest is just practice. It does make perfect! Have a wonderful winter (or season), everyone!

Instant Cheers

You know how when you want to feel suddenly good, you need to do something silly? Utterly childish and something completely face-value. I did too. I was pretty bored this afternoon, not to mention fretting over the fact that I had 20 long days to face alone before my own India trip. Guess what I did? I made a countdown calendar which I hung very prominently on the wall in the front room. Now I'll scratch off each day as I pass it. And already I feel tonnes better. :)

Nothing like home

I love travelling, seeing new places and everything and I would do it many many times... but the feeling of coming home is unique. It's peaceful, its welcoming, it's warm and comfortable and mainly, it's yours. No place can feel better. But like many things, the distance makes the heart fonder and you truly appreciate home only when you have been away from it and then of course, no sleep is as good as it is on your own bed. Besides, the feeling is multiplied if you've had a tiring weekend albeit fun-filled, with over 1000km of travel in 2 days, add to that being the only driver. I've had the joyous homecoming twice since last night - once when we actually got home after the trip last night and once today when I went to return the car. You might wonder why the second time. The rental place is just behind my house and naturally to return the car there, I opted out of taking the GPS. As luck would have it, the roads were closed at certain points for maintenance and an innocent hunt for a U-turn turned into a massive diversion from my ville (city) to another. Throw in a couple of highways and it's chaos. After accurately memorizing the path I was taking and needing all of 1 U-turn to just turn back, I found myself on the highway. A couple of exits later, I landed at a familiar sounding locality and in there after a few circles around the town center, finally I caught sight of signs pointing to my city. The gush of relief was unmistakeable. In a few short minutes, I had the car returned to it's owners while I got back to the sanctity of my sweet home.

Parking in Paris

Pure nightmare. And I don't live in hardcore Paris. I live in Ile de France. I just spent the last 60 minutes (it felt like eternity) driving all sorts of circles around my house through the one-ways and what not. To top it, the spot I found finally is about 15 minutes from home and I spent another 10 minutes parallel parking in the space that was exact for the mammoth that I had gotten for rent. The only good thing was that it was not a busy street... or I'd have had cars queing up behind me giving me sour looks. Now I know why many people don't have cars around here. There is no space to park!! Yes, our building has underground parking. But we are not allotted the space unless we actually have a car. So that means we are left to find spaces in the streets. Hmph.

The best vs the rest

Once you get used to the best, it's very hard to go back to the rest. I've learned this the practical way. As a student, I experienced the 'rest' firsthand. And after marriage now I get to experience the best. (Actually that started sometime after I started working having graduated from school, but this claim makes it sound even better, what say?) Before my family starts wondering if they haven't succeeded in offering me the 'best' in every way back when I was home in India, let me put those thoughts to rest. I am exclusively talking about the time that I have lived away from home.

These thoughts all occured to me when I was sitting at the coin laundry mindlessly watching my clothes toss and turn in the tumble dryer. As the clothes merrily danced into dryness, I caught sight of a white sock, now sooo pearly white that it was virtually unrecognisable from it's earlier self that can only be described as blackened at best. The difference was unbelievable. Who thought a machine could wash every garment soo well? I then realized that more than the machine itself, it was the detergent that made the difference. The clothes never felt this clean when we were previously using even the powder Ariel. But enter the liquid Ariel I am never going back to any other detergent. Makes me think back to the days at grad school when we used to buy something, the brand name which I can't remember because it wasn't economical to buy 'Tide', the best-selling counterpart out there for 3 people with laundry weekly.

The laundry is just an example and a very feeble one at that, on the topic that I am harping on. Here in Paris, alongwith my brand-conscious husband, I have had the fortune of experiencing really what the brands are about. We shop at Sephora, a very popular perfumerie that stocks the most famous brands in the world. I've found my scent there - Pure Poison by Dior. Once you use something like that, it's impossible to relapse to the happy days of Bath and Body Works sprays (though I love their bath products still). And then when we bought the perfume there, we were given samplers. This is what kills you. They give you free samples of some of the great stuff that they stock. For me, it was a J'adore (by Dior) bodywash and body lotion. I was sold. After using that, who could go back to buying Nivea or Faa? Not me. Yesterday I bought the full-size version. As for my husband, he is a walking n talking 'Jean-Paul Gaultier' brand ambassador (except he doesn't get paid for his conquests). He not only takes his personal care products seriously, religiously refilling every time he is out, he has sold no less than 10 people on the same products, some as unlikely to pick it up as my brother (Now my bro is soo sold on it, that he has located Sephora near his home in California for refills). If JPG agents are looking for representatives, please contact me for the details of my husband :D. That's what I am talking about. There's certainly more than just the names to the brands, if not in something less important as accessories, but in something as important as personal care. Having used Dior makeup also, I find it hard to use much else. What's the end to the story? Empty pockets, in a manner of speaking. Is it worth it? Maybe... after all, life is about living.

Boot-ed

Ever since I've gotten to Paris, I've been taken by a shoe obsession. You'll know what I mean if you've read Happy Feet and it's sequel on this blog. And here I am... yet again with a new pair of boots. These are ankle-high and I had been on the lookout for them. And they're black... so no worries about matching with anything else. They are smart, chic and at the cost of sounding like Monica (in F-R-I-E-N-D-S), I must add that they go with almost every attire. Look for yourself...

(P.S: It's hard trying to get the SLR to focus on both your feet especially with no one to help AND when you are wearing the shoes and are bent at a very acute angle trying to reach the 'CLICK' button on the camera.)

Eiffel again

Some things, you just can't help taking pictures of.... This is one of those occasions. The day was brilliant and the angle of the light playing on the tower was perfect. The result - a postcard from Paris.

The 26 year old student

France is a country with many provisions for students/people of the lower income group, etc. But I was really sad to discover that most student benefits end the day you turn 26. It's almost as if they think you shouldn't study past the age of 25 or that if you wish to study past this hideous age, you are on your own and the government doesn't plan to help you. One of the main places this affects me is the railway/metro pass. It costs a steep 90€ a month with a huge variety of places you can go to. Even then! I discovered that students under 26 can get a 50% discount on that. And students above 26? A measly 2%. I wonder why that's even there! And then for most working people, 50% is compensated by their companies in their allowance. Not for us... because you are supposed to be able to get the transport system offered discount. I am a wee bit disgruntled ever since I found out. Hmph. Also in tourist spots... students under 26 can get tickets also for upto 50% off with their IDs. Not if you're over 26. I think it's a national rule that once you cross 25, you'd better be contributing to the household income... or go jump.

Sadly, this affects the highest educated bracket, like us doctorates, or the latecomers who decide to go back to school. Hell, at least the second category had their fair share of bucks before return to academia... I think this is just one of those days, when you can find fault with almost anything. But something tells me I am a wee bit reasonable here.

The comparison of the Eiffels...

France is the head of the EU council for the ongoing 6 months. To commemorate the occasion, the Eiffel Tower glows blue instead of it's usual gold. That apart, there's a circular arrangement of stars around the centre. Here's what they look like -


I was blown away when I saw the blue one recently. Its soo pleasant on the eye and stands totally apart from the other lights of the street, the other buildings etc., almost all of which are yellow/gold. And the stars on the centre that look drab by day look spectacular at night. Even better is the show of blinking lights every hour at the hour. It goes great with the blue. More of a contrast, than with the gold. Maybe its just that it's different and I am sure other people have other opinions. But personally, I hope they vouch for keeping the blue throughout. After all, it doesn't hurt to add one more reason to the Le Bleu tag on France's collar.

French Food - The Gaulion way

So my bro was visiting us this past weekend and we wanted to make the trip as special and wholesome as possible. And so to the normal sightseeing that one does, we added an authentic expensive French dinner on the list. A French friend of ours who'd been there recommended the place and so the reservations were made and after a long exhausting day of sight-seeing we landed at the place. The first look was a cozy barn-type place. And a closer look revealed that the short tight spaces was intentional for the restaurant was very large in itself, being multistoreyed and furnished entirely in carved wood, from the walls to the furniture. And it wasn't very brightly lit, giving it a cavern-like atmosphere... So we settled in to our reserved table downstairs amidst loud crowds who were celebrating a Friday, perhaps. And first things first we're told all the food is unlimited as is the wine. The latter lights up the guys' faces... And the next thing we know, a very large basket of fresh raw vegetables was placed in front of us with a bowl of mayonnaise. This was the starters with large loaves of freshly baked bread...

And no, I wasn't kidding. See? And so we crunched like cows on the raw vegetables which went interestingly well with the red wine. We were given huge knives too, to cut through the larger vegetables and from what I saw, the collection included carrots, radishes, turnips, spring onions, onions, cabbages, capsicum, cauliflower, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and lemon. ALong with this, one had the option of going to the upstairs buffet and loading up on unlimited meat chunks and some veggie salad combos as well.

While we were crunching away, the waiter dude informed us that we could choose main course between duck, lamb and steak. While my eyebrows vanished into my hair, he quickly mentioned that they also served ratatouille for their vegetarian patrons. Relieved as I was, I could also finally try that authentic French dish. And that's what sold me on the place finally. The ratatouille was phenomenal. Essentially just a stew of vegetables made in a tomato sauce, it was very nice indeed. And for dessert, we could choose between chocolate chip and a lemon sorbée. No prizes for guessing which one I chose, the chocoholic that I was. Tipsy as everyone else was, some chose the sorbée to clear their heads but the chocochip was a no-brainer.

A loud, long and interesting meal later, we all owed 41€ each, the menu price, more than a tad expensive but surely worthwhile for a once-a-time Gaulion experience. Oh and I didn't mention which restaurant, did I? Here it is...

The Avalanche Effect

For 6 weeks, I sat as jobless as the yawning bench-hopper you saw in a park. And last week college reopened and all of a sudden there are a million things to be done... deadlines, presentations, papers, submissions, fabrication, cranking up the idea machine, planning conferences and trips and what not. The thing I am looking forward to the most is unsurprisingly my upcoming trip to Tokyo for a conference-workshop. It promises to be exciting and a fabulous opportunity to establish international contacts and importantly learn the MEMS game from the pioneers themselves.

Even as I fade away into the la-di-da world that is not yet to be, my huge checklist of things to do knocks me back into reality. High time I address those issues, most of which need closure before I board the plane. Wish me luck!

Holy Cramp!

The thing about gymming is that you need to be in touch.... or you need to ease yourself into it. The best part is that I knew all the gyaan. In spite of that, I think the sheer excitement (:S) or the enthusiasm of joining a gym with world-class facility overcame my senses. And so on my second day overall... and first day at the centre close to home, in the process of 'discovering' all the equipment, I ended up working out close to 2 hours. And I ended in exhilaration (because of the high heart rate), took a quick shower and then came home in sweltering heat (where I thought I was going to die of a sun stroke) and while everything seemed on a high, I cramped!! Muscles which I didn't know existed announced their existence in the form of pain... :( And so, today was a rest day. Going by the pain I am (did I tear a ligament or something?), I think I am going to skip it tomorrow as well! Here's to working out and the mini-breaks it provides us in not-so-happening ways.

Thepla Central..

The theplas I made :D

Pappi Bhelwali

That's what my dad called me when he learned I'd made bhel puri for the husband... Here.. take a look.

The ingredients (including the teekha /meeta chutnies) -

The end product (phenomenally yummy - ask S if you want)

And... I made theplas for dinner today. Pictures later!

Gymmu-Gimmu

Its a Tamil habit, I think, to rhyme one word with another that makes no sense most of the time. The exceptions are aadu-maadu (goat-cow), veedu-kaadu (house-forest), etc. But usually its really senseless things like paalu-geelu (milk-senseless_word), kaapi-geepi (coffee-senseless_word), or dressu-gissu (Dress-senseless_word)... Ok you get my point. Actually I don't know why the senseless word usually is a rhyme of the original but with a 'g'.

Anyhoo, coming to the point of the post, I joined the gym finally today. And they have a lot of interesting things going on... There are dance aerobics, even salsa lessons and all over at the gym. This seems to be a great way to melt away time (and weight, I hope) over the vacations. And on other days. I've taken an annual membership. And my Patti asked me over the phone, "Gymmu-gimmu poitu vandhiya?" (Did you go the gym-gim?)

Hence the title of the post. :)

Soldes...

Oh yeah... I have been on a little break from blogging... Its not that I have been upto anything phenomenal... But with school closing in a week and with my India trip down the drain... and with my hot plate burning the dear old mini fridge which then wreaked vengeance by flooding the floors, I can safely say that I have had a busy 2 weeks. Hmph.

Well coming to the title of the post... 'Soldes' in French is 'Sale'. When I first saw the word, I was bewildered as to why huge posters splashed across the entire glass windows of the shops would advertise the stuff they had sold out. Of course my translator husband to the rescue... But this was a good 5 months ago. Right now its the summer sale. The summer is welcomed by selling out the old fashions for almost upto 70% off the original price. Indeed when I went to one of the other stores I frequent, I found some of the very stuff I had bought previously on sale for ridiculously lower than what I bought it for. So why am I sitting and writing about this? Truthfully I don't know. I guess I missed blogging too much. Besides I noticed a pattern with the sales. They went all out to get rid of their winter fashions... something like selling crackers the day after Diwali or selling the golu bommais after Navarathri. And just as untempting as that is, is to buy sweaters and sweatshirts for measly 2-3€ equipped with the knowledge that you don't get to wear them for the next 7 months. But the deals are steals and as is my affection for sweatshirts, I ended up buying one that was not on sale. And really sales are finally a game that huge stores play with people's minds. I am sure that I am not the only person who has ended up buying something knowing entirely that I probably will never wear it... or at most wear it once... but bought it because it was just 3.99€. Know what I mean? And the ideas of having all those teeny-weeny trinkets near the checkout lines is sheer genius. Out of boredom, one tends to browse the bin for some precious trinket and in the end, precious or not, you've picked it up because it was really low-priced. I thought I'd outgrown my childish trend when I went yesterday to make the most of the lasting sales. I had to an extent... yet I did pick something up because it was cheap... more than entirely because I liked it. And I had set myself a budget to shop from... And just before going into checkout, I emptied my shopping bag and did a quick mental total... Of course I'd exceeded... Woefully I pulled out a couple of pieces... no brainers really... And there.. I'd met my budget... had a bagful of clothes... some gifts for the husband as well.. Thats what I am talking about.. Once a month, you need one fulfilling day of shopping... just to keep the sanity, maybe.

The culinary weekend.......

And so it was... I made puri n chole and aloo parathas n chutney.. And we were out entire Saturday to enjoy the fête de la musique in Paris.. and so we dined at Sher-e-Punjab and the fête de la musique was more like the fête de la bar as we bar-hopped and caught snatches of some of the phenomenal quarter final lineups of the Euro Cup... The chole backed up as a spread for the baguette as well and all in all, I just spent a delightful weekend.. Back to the grind now.

The business trip

Laptop? -- Check
Notebook? -- Check
USB key, blah? -- Check

Having never been on a business trip before, I really had no idea what to expect from our meeting with the partners of the project. The train was at 7:24 am and that meant I had to get up atleast at 5:30 am if I had any chance of having my wake-up chai and make it in ample time to the station (I had better get there coz I had my professor's tickets as well). And after what seemed like eons (15 months since the defense), I stepped into formals and made my way to the station.

7:00am - Paris Gare du Nord. Yup, I was there. The train wasn't. They hadn't announced the platform yet. That meant I had enough time to grab a croissant at the Bonne Journee downstairs and yet, there was no sign of the professor. He and I had decided to meet there at 10 past 7. So he still had time to show up. Having munched my croissant and whiled away time just idling & looking around (I'd forgotten the Ipod - no 'check' for that one!), I glanced up at the DEPARTURES board again. And sure enough the 7:24 Lyon Parrache had Voie 3 (Platform 3)next to it... A quick glance later, I figured Voie 3 was right there and I wouldn't have to walk at all...

7:15am - No sign of the professor. I did have his phone number but I didn't want to bother him. Maybe he was waiting on the platform for me. I waded past the crowds upstairs and located our coach number. No. 5. Surely he had no idea it was no. 5 because I had the tickets. I flipped out my cell phone and called him.

7:18am - He's at the station somewhere at a coffee shop having coffee.
"There's time but I'll join you", he tells me...
Really? There's 6 minutes for the train to leave. There's time? I see him come by in about 3 minutes and I had just started to get really nervous and was contemplating a second phone call. We swiftly wave our tickets at the checking people. And no sooner had we located our seats, hung our coats and put away the luggage, the train glides off away from the station.

Now its my professor's turn to be shocked.
"It was this close?", he asks me in disbelief.
Hmm... I guess its the Indians that have the habit of making the train stations at least an hour before departure. Hmph

Foire du Trone

My earliest memory of going to a fun fair was when I was a kid when my dad took the family to the Ram Leela mela around Navrathri in some huge grounds in Bombay. I remember eating a lot of junk chaat, chewing on those ice candies and buying plastic bows n arrows with which my bro n I would play for days. And of course we went on the Giant Wheels (for everyone who calls it the Ferris Wheel... sorry, to us Indians its always the Giant Wheel). In fact I was a big fan of the giant wheels... maybe because I was sat on them from a very young age... On the miniature versions near Rajawadi Gardens or even the ones near Lions Park in Ghatkoper. I somehow attribute these childhood experiences as the reason for my love of rides.

This weekend, I had the chance to experience a fun fair all over again. Here its called the Foire du Trone (the Fair of Trone) and comes for a couple of months every Spring. It was a prime location quite in the center of Paris and indeed from atop the Giant Wheels, one could see the Eiffel Tower and other merry sights often associated with the Parisian skyline.


First things first, we got ourselves giant ice creams as we explored the length of the fair... There were quite a few rides, water and heights and all the works. There were also these fun stalls with the shooting games, the bow n arrow thingies, each with an enticing selection of prizes, mainly soft toys and sometimes electronic goods to be won. S being the boy, of course played out for the electronics and I as always for the cuddlies... There was also bungee jumping and some other utterly crazy rides for those who desired more than just a little thrill.. So, S, SK and I explored and played game after game, grabbed a bite of some yummy thing I can't pronounce and proceeded to win a whole bunch of toys... Here's my favorite one -


Recognize him? He's the dude from Ice Age scrambling behind the infinite acorns... It was total fun, I tell you... But at the end of the day, we were quite exhausted, having walked loops around the fair and quite broke (each of those games cost 4€ each types) and we'd ended up playing quite a lot. In fact we didn't realize just how much we'd played till we went to one stall and all of us emptied our pockets and still couldn't get enough change to pay for the game... and this given that we'd all made ATM withdrawals an hour ago. But you got to do what you got to do!!

Tasty Tidbits III

I did it again!! I made Pav Bhaji on the husband's request and here's how it looked...

It tasted fantastic... had the perfect color, the perfect flavour n what not... The difference is my recipe... Its Pav Bhaji with a twist, with a few more additional steps than what conventional recipes tell you. But the extra effort is totally worth it. Its mouthwatering and beats any hotel Pav Bhaji you've ever had... If you want the recipe, all you need to do is ask!

Ooh by the way, the recipe to the paruppu usili is posted as a comment on its post. Check it out.. try it out and lemme know how you churned it out.