I am not sure what is the connection between elephants and Onam, but this should remind that I should advertise Thrissur pooram sometime - btw, its an event you have to experience at least once in your lifetime.

Wish everyone a very happy Onam, and next year, we should invite Mahabali to Europe - I hear he is not so welcome in some other places these days.

PS: If you don’t know what Onam is, check it out here

I find myself in London today! For the very first time!! Considering my sight seeing is limited to cab rides from airport to office to hotel to office and back to airport, I am in no position to write a lot about it. But it being my first trip and all, some random thoughts are warranted.

1. I can understand everything everywhere! People speak English! I just realised that I haven’t been to a country where English is widely spoken for a very very long time. People don’t hate me here, just because they have to speak a different language for me! I could whoop for joy!

2. They drive on the right, right as in correct, side of the road! I mean, whoever thought up driving on the right hand side of the road!

3. Its past midnight,I am eating a lovely meal of chicken tikka, mini papads and mango chutney, which is one of the few foods available 24 hours. And the TV is playing something bollywood-ish! How much more closer to home can I get?

4. Every other person I asked for directions on the road ( I went to get coffee mid day and promptly got lost) today spoke in a different accent. Cosmopolitanism, do you have a better spokesperson?

5. I love the cabs! And the cabbies! I got a 30 minute crash course on London’s history and the development to Eastend from docklands to a residential place. And the best part is, he didn’t drop me off at the wrong place and give the excuse that he didn’t understand me. You see, he speaks English! Oh, have I said that before?

Enough of delirious posting! People who live in lands where they know what is going on, don’t judge me till you have had to bribe your neighbours to read letters from your insurer! Now, let me try and figure out what the Sardar on my TV is ranting about!

I was trying to book tickets to India, and guess what! on top of the taxes, they charge you September 11 security charges! Really, why does Heathrow charge Sep 11 charges - what happened in UK on any Sep 11?

As an aside, if anyone knows any cheap ways to get home from any European city, please let me know.

48 hours - that’s all that it takes to drive me nuts. I am torn between the umpteen things that I have to do (like bringing my clothes to the dry cleaners), the umpteen things that I want to do (like curl up on my sofa and read all day long) and the umpteen things that I shouldn’t do because this is my darned vacation (like check my work email every two hours just because it blinks with new mail). Now I remember why I never take leave and sit at home for no reason - this post is to remind me the next time I am overworked and dream about hartals.

I think I will make a to-do list tomorrow - is it just me or can’t “normal” people get on with life without a predefined set of things to do?

Did everyone really like Brick Lane? I just don’t get why there were so many rave reviews.

Once upon a time, I used to love blogging. When I would have a thousand ideas brimming in my head waiting to find a life on paper - when I wrote because I couldn’t not. When I checked my blog everyday without fail, often along with my morning coffee. When everyday I found something new to write about.

And then work got to me - in between 18 hour working days, writing seemed such a luxury. Thoughts that were not strictly useful for getting things done were pushed away from my mind, to make way for the practical and tangible. I almost abandoned my blog, averaging about one post a month. Which, I know, is very pathetic.

Now I want it back. I want to have a few thousand ideas in my head. I want to feel the urge to write. The impatience when you are in a traffic jam on your way home, because it is keeping you away from your keyboard. The excitement when a piece you just finished writing turned out to be much better than what you had imagined about it in your head. The total and complete, and almost therapeutic, sense of freedom when a nagging thought has been broken down and analysed and penned down, and finally laid to rest.

But somehow I seem to have lost it. For the last few months, I didn’t write because of lack of time. But now its summer (or used to be, if you live in Amsterdam), people are on holiday, life is more happy, I do have time and guess what! I just cant seem to write. When you don’t do something for sometime, you just sort of lose it. So, if you are a regular blogger out there, don’t stop - even if you feel like your world is collapsing around you and you barely have time to breathe, let alone the grocery shopping and the laundry and the umpteen boring things that makes life go on in a socially acceptable fashion - even then you should continue. Or you will be a victim of inertia, just like me. When you write, you cant stop and when you stop, you can’t start - who else can you blame but good old Newton, with the apple on his head.

I dont want to lose my love of blogging. I will write, even when I have nothing to write. And soon I will have something to write. And then I will be back to a thousand ideas in my head again! If you have any brilliant or not-so-brilliant ideas to get out this rut, I am all ears..! For now, I keep my fingers crossed!

Whatever else you do, do not watch the break-up! I had to get out my blog rut, to spread the word, if only to save some innocents from throwing two precious hours away.

Nope, I didn’t make that up - thats what the Social Security people (I don’t remember the exact French name) say! Just saw an ad on Belgian TV which says that if you want to break a leg, you should go to Belgium where you have excellent social security, you can consult a doctor without even providing your credit card number (they didn’t say anything about insurance though), and it only costs 20 EUR.

Really, what is that ad supposed to mean? If I were a resident paying a large part of my pay towards social security, the last thing I want to know is that the government is inviting foreigners to use that up. If I am not a resident, the last thing I would think of when I am falling down from a tree is to take a flight to Brussels?

What am I missing here?