We planned to go to Italy. We planned and planned again. And planned over again. And then, we ended up in France. Normandy to be exact, with a small detour to Brittany. Nevertheless,the holidays were lovely, as they always are. Normandy has a lot to offer - from sun kissed beaches to historical D-Day monuments to marvellous cathedrals and châteaus (more on them later). But after 2327 kilometres on the road in a span of 10 days, it feels good to be back home. Good to come back to the unfailingly gloomy Dutch weather, which almost always surprises you with a glint of sunshine, just at the moment when you have completely given up on it.

And its really good because I have five more days before I start work again - one more glorious week of doing what I may please. I woke up today morning to a lovely cup of coffee (the French make terrible coffee, BTW, and for one week, my caffeine thirsty soul have just about been hanging in there) and a audio rendition of Naranath Brandhan - if you are not from Kerala, chances are you have no clue what that is - it is a famous poem by V. Madhusoodanan Nair, and literally means the mad man of Naranath.

Now, lets not really read too much into why I am attracted to mad men the first thing on my free Monday morning (free Monday morning!yoo hoo! Sorry, I can’t seem to get over it). Be that as it may, Naranath Brandhan is a very interesting character in Kerala folklore (and if you understand Malayalam, I would highly recommend the poem).

He was one of the twelve sons of Vararuchi, one of the nine wise men (Navaratnas) of Vikramaditya’s court. To make a very interesting story short ( I will hopefully get to the long version sometime), Vararuchi married a Parachi, one of the low castes of the time. They went on a trip (the ancient version of honeymoon, I presume), during which they had 12 children (I wonder at which stupid period in our history we decided to shorten honeymoons), whom Vararuchi insisted they abandon on the banks of Nila river. The 12 children, subsequently, grew up in 12 different home, in 12 stratas of the society, from the highest to the lowest. And every year they came together for annual family gatherings and such(so much for the caste system, really). And all 12 of them have their own stories, but Naranath Brandhan remains my all time favourite.

If you are in Kerala and would like to trod the untrodden path and not just the backwaters and the beaches and the tea resorts, make a day trip to visit the places of the 12 kids of Vararuchi - the amazing thing is you still find vestiges to most of the stories when you go back to the places where Vararuchi’s wife abandoned them. And the locals and the direct descendants of these families would be happy (or they were, several years back) to regale you with very interesting stories and tales of family traditions.

Well, enough of France and Kerala. Amsterdam is where I am. With this filler post, I leave you till I get some time to sort through the pictures and write some travel notes (if intentions ever come to fruition).

The title has nothing to do with the Gay Pride parade (which is incidentally held this weekend in Amsterdam - if you live in or around Netherlands, its worth the trip to Prinsengracht to watch the Canal Parade - otherwise, watch this space for photographs!)

End of digression - the title is from this week’s Economist, where they say women have won the sex war (subscription required).

Wise chaps seeking professional advancement should therefore spend their free time with groups of women, boning up on how to undermine somebody’s confidence while pretending to boost it, and how to turn an entire lunch table against an absent colleague without saying a mean word. Such skills are likely to have a greater influence on their lifetime earnings than the ability to spin an icosahedron.

Economist has never struck me a great supporter of women (the last time I remember reading about the issue was in a rather poor article, “Sex changes” last June.) This one is slightly better, though I am not convinced it is actually written in a positive note.

I don’t necessarily care for a “victory”, equality is good enough - but I am definitely not complaining when they conclude that women are better suited for modern professional life!

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!

One of the many things that I have inherited from my father is the ability to weave impossibly incredible tales. Simple as it might sound, it takes limitless faith that anything is possible, unreined imagination that will fly without boundaries and the complete lack of conscience that the poor sod listening intently at your stories has no clue that it couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Did I forget to mention that you also need to be willing to bear the consequences - I had my first experience with that when, as a six year old, I had a classroom full of students enthralled in a story on how the Red Indians are actually Indians who dug a hole deep into the earth, so deep that it crossed the whole earth, and they arrived at the other end of the world, where they discovered America - and on their way, they had to pass through hot molten lava and thats why they turned red. It was a bit unfortunate that my class teacher failed to see the humor and imagination in the tale, and decided I had to be duly punished, even though I insisted I was merely repeating one of my father’s stories and had no clue myself that it was not true - guess I was not that good at lying, after all.

Sadly for me, S now knows all too well what I know and what I don’t - and its very hard to bluff him these days. Today was one of those rare days that I almost got away with it, when I was in the mood for a discourse on the 10 different ways of governing people. I was caught out while I was in the midst of a comparative analysis of Plato’s Republic and Kautilya’s Arthashastra when it struck him that Arthashastra has been on my Amazon wish list for a long time now, and there is no way that I had read it (Ok, he insists that he knew my bluff all along, but this is my blog, ain’t it?) , which he then extrapolated to how I had never read the rest of my 9 sources too, which really isn’t true. Now that I have lost the one listener I had, where else can I vent my thoughts than on my blog..

Did you know that Xerocracy is a form of government? And that it is the rule through photocopying, in which members spread and copy their opinions and convince others, rather than through formal organizations.

Did you know that Kleptocracy, which is governance through corruption, and kleptomania, where you steal compulsively, have the same root words?

Or that Vaishali was the first Republic ever? And that the first King of Vaishali renounced his crown in the name of human rights? And this happened somewhere in the 6th century BC?

Don’t you think India might be called a gerontocracy, where the average age of the ruling population is significantly higher that than of the ruled?

Haven’t you ever wondered if demarchy, where the government is chosen at random, might just work better than democracy? If you could make a perfect random generator, perhaps you could build a perfect government?

As snobbish as it may sound, geniocracy may not be as bad as it seems? As often misinterpreted, geniocracy is not a rule by the most intelligent, but it merely says that people who form the government should be above a certain level of intelligence, usually a certain % higher than the average.Now, is that really something unreasonable to ask for?

If there was such a word as malarchy, US just might qualify for it?

Had you heard of Ajayocracy, which is a rule by people who cannot hold their drink? If that isn’t a weird way to pick your government, what is?

Governance is not such a boring topic as you might have thought, is it?

Something about this tugged at my heart strings:

Bury this verse
for it torments me
Whisper it to the wind
it doesn’t care.

Came across this at the site Burying a tormented verse

On a sullen Dutch summer day,
With no hint of sun or rain,
When even the trees refuse to sway,
I search for hope, but in vain.

I hear her voice across many a mile,
Faint against the torrential pour,
And the cough that hides behind the smile,
Wishing I was there, and nothing more.

When my head was spinning and very hot,
She had picked me up and held me close;
Even though I was numb and but a tot,
That memory, I cherish like a golden rose.

When the world had all but fallen apart,
When even breathing was just a drain,
She had smiled, straight from her heart
And I knew then, all would be well again.

Yet, I sit here, worthless, in a faraway land,
What is it that keeps me here, I wonder;
When all I want is to hug her and hold her hand,
What could be worth keeping me and her asunder?

Could I go home, just to make a cup of herbal tea,
So she could watch the rain, with me at her side?
To answer without a phone, when she calls for me,
Just to be there, to hold her through every stride?

I stare out from my window at the sultry summer sky,
And wish I could be home, by any wild wonderful way,
Perhaps a pair of wings that would let me soar and fly;
Yet all that stares back is a dark dismal dreary day.

Get well soon, my mother dear.

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.

Easter holidays are not that far and its a long long weekend! Obviously, it’s too late to get cheap tickets anywhere (thanks to all the annoying people who can plan ahead), but that’s not going to stop me from making a list of places I would like to go to. After all as Eco says, there is nothing more wonderful than a list, instrument of wondrous hypotyposis.

1) Athens - the Acropolis, the Parthenon, Plaka, Ancient Agora, Syntagma, Ermou Street, Kalimarmaro Stadium, Mt. Lykavitos, Kolonaki - its definitely on the top of my list!

2) Copenhagen - I haven’t read all that much about Copenhagen, but it look so nice in all the pictures! And I have never been to any of the Scandinavian countries and this would be a great first! Have you seen the city bikes there - wonder if they would let me export one back to Amsterdam?

3) Venice - Who hasn’t dreamt of visiting Venice? I think my fascination probably began many years ago when I first came across the Merchant of Venice - it was one of the few European cities I had heard about at that time. Anyways, summer, apparently, is not the best time to visit Venice - so if not this time, won’t be till the later part of the year.

4) Prague - Everybody seems to be going to Prague these days, and coming back with rave reviews. I want to see it too!!

5) Istanbul - if Turkey doesn’t figure in the list, my better half is not coming to the travel agent with me. Not that I don’t like it, just that he is so insistent on it, I just like to play the devil’s advocate. And I have to admit that Venkat’s travel notes have made me really reconsider Istanbul and it has finally squeezed its way into my top ten list!

6) Berlin - I know! I know! I cannot believe it too that I used to live in Germany and haven’t visited Berlin. As part of my German class assignment, I had to write a long essay on a German city and I cheated and picked Berlin, even though I had never been there. So now, I have to go!! Its a question of my conscience! Also, I HAVE to see the Berlin wall and the huge glass cupola inside the Reichstag. And of course, have a refreshing cup of coffee “Unter den Linden” (under the Linden trees), because that’s what I had done in my rather futuristic essay.

7) Nice - Because I need to experience the French Riviera and Transavia usually offers cheap flights to Nice. I have lived near beaches all (or almost all) my life, and its been almost two years since I have been on a really warm sunny beach! The sea, the sand and the sun - I can almost hear the waves!

8) The midnight sun - I know easter is too early to see the midnight sun, but I really hope to catch it this summer. And I should be able to get tickets to any one of the seven places above - and then I intend to use this list for the rest of the summer trips - and the midnight sun definitely figures in that. Haven’t decided where to go yet - Sweden, Finland and Norway experience the midnight sun - so it will be one of the three.

9)Aurora Borealis - Now that the list has sort of lost its original purpose of Easter holiday choices and disintegrated into possible things to do this year, let me add watching Aurora Borealis to it. It’s been on my mind ever since I saw those out of the world pictures some time back, which I was so tempted to blame on someone’s Photoshop misadventures - yet are so real, and so beautiful. I never really got around to finding out how to be at the right place at the right time. I should keep an eye on these - Aurora Forecasts and IRF. If you have “been there done that”, any suggestions on picking the place and the best time to go would be most appreciated.

10) CSI Miami - Last but not least, a trip to Miami! Did I mention I miss beaches? Have you tried searching for US and tourism in google - why does Chicago come up tops?

That’s it for now! Now I keep my fingers crossed that I’ll get some tix for Easter..

I am on my way home. I see a young man walking towards me. I hope he would be capable of keeping his mouth shut. My heart skips a beat, till he walks past me.

I walk a bit more, and I see an old man driving by. And oh, he is slowing down! I wonder why his car windows are tinted. My heart skips a few beats, till I see the red traffic light ahead.

I continue on my way, and I see a drunk man. I pray that I would survive the ordeal, if he behaves like all drunk men tend to do. My heart stops beating, till he staggers away.

I am almost home. I say a silent prayer of gratitude.

The constant fear - will there ever be an end to it?

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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?