An Interesting Sunday and Other Sundries

A Musical Sunday

Sunday was a beautiful day in Eindhoven. The sun was shining brightly in the blue sky, the birds were chirping, a crisp smell hung deliciously in the air (ok, the last may not be true, but it adds good effect doesn't it? ;-) ). Looking out from my window, I gazed upon this fine spectacle at 11 AM and thought it would be nice to take a walk to Jeremy's place without a jacket. The reasoning behind this decision is defensible, the previous day was a comfortable 18 degrees Celsius and I had no reason to believe that this morning would be any different.

Well, the Dutch weather turned out to be every bit as unpredictable as I heard it was, and then some. I stepped out of my little, heated, space box and started walking. Once I was at a good distance from my space box, I started a slight shiver. And then my teeth started to chatter a little. But that did not deter me, it was a beautiful walk and I even stopped to take a picture. Here is a snap of one of the paths that connects me and Jeremy :

Don't let the warm looking scene fool you!

Anyway, I managed to make it to Jeremy's in a non-frigid state. Once I was there I learnt that it was 10 degrees Celsius. Its the coldest I have ever been in, and here I am walking through the wind in a thin cotton t-shirt! I survived, and am more thick-skinned for it. But how there can be a 8 degree difference from one sunny day to the next is beyond me.

The whole point of venturing out to Jeremy's place was not to get frozen, but to rendezvous with Tom Verhoeff ( a member of the Software Construction Group at the TU/e). He was picking us up at Jeremy's house to take us to his own home.

The occasion for our visit was that Tom's neighbourhood was holding a musical festival of sorts. As part of this festival the people of the neighbourhood play some musical pieces in their own home, and everyone is free to drop in. Jeremy and Tom played a duet of the piano and the recorder with Jeremy on the piano. They played a piece from Rhubbra together. Then Jeremy played a solo from Claude Debussy. They closed with a duet called Intermezzo, I forget the composer. They had two twenty minute performances separated by an hour, and the audience as between 7 and 10 in each case.

The first thing that struck me about the whole event was the impeccable organization and the punctuality. It started with the pickup. Tom was scheduled to pick us up at 12 noon, and he was there at 11:58 on my clock. And, since Jeremy was not ready when Tom arrived, Tom mentioned that he was a little early and not to worry. The people here are punctual to the second. For those who know me, they will know I am reveling in such a setup!

About the organization of the event. Everyone in the neighbourhood had a printed sheet which listed the time of each performance, the venue, and the pieces being performed. Each performer performed their piece twice and each performance lasted 20 minutes, with 10 minutes left to allow audiences to go from one venue to the other. All the performances were bang on schedule. The entire event moved like clockwork with each house doing their part to perfection. Coming from the every lazy and laid back Mumbai, this was a breath of fresh air which really tasted good!

I also observed that the standard of living is very high over here. This seems to be a middle-class neighbourhood, but they have beautiful houses, with backyards, parks, and the like. Each house has all the modern amenities that you could need. From the brief encounter I have had with the life-style, I think it is very good. People are free to focus on the jobs they like doing and don't get stymied in the details which seem to pre-occupy too many people back in India. The simple things remain simple. I will not go into this in more detail over here. Talk to me to find out more!

The neighbourhood was very welcoming to us foreigners. After the event there was a get-together for the entire neighbourhood in one of the houses. We were welcomed and many people made efforts to speak to us. The standard of English is impeccable and the Dutch are not shy of using it.

A final observation is in order. For the first time, I felt that the "western" things that were done, really belonged. I mean, the wine at the after-party, the drinking songs, the kind of music that was sung and played. It is part of their culture. It is their identity. It all seemed to fit in. When similar (western) things are attempted in India, it feels like it is an import, not quite the real thing, not quite the right fit. I got this impression distinctly, and so I think it is worth mentioning. I can't give a further justification as of now.

We rounded off the evening with a dinner of Dominoe's Pizza at Tom's house. His daughter Eline, an adorable child of 5 or 6, provided us with entertainment. I had fun playing with her and I even picked up a bit of Dutch in the process.

All in all it was a wonderful day and quite instructive. Experiences like these make one more comfortable in a new place, no matter how comfortable you were to begin with. I could talk normally to everybody I met (once the language was established as English!). And that is a nice feeling to have. It certainly makes one feel less "foreign".

Shopping anecdotes

While the English of the Dutch middle class is impeccable, the same can't be said of those who work at supermarket chains. Sample Jeremy's adventure. I have a shopping anecdote of my own though. On a lot of the products available in Dutch supermarkets, I find the mysterious words "Roomboter". Now since this appears on sugar, to butter, to salt, to cookies, to ... you get the idea, I began to wonder what it meant. Jeremy told me that it meant "High Quality". I was reminded of our famous marketing gimmick in India, where they plaster the qualifier "new" on to every product, no matter how old. So our good old Parle-G, which has remained the same since the age of the Neandertals, is still sold with the word "New" plastered on it. If one still finds Nirma washing powder on the store shelves, it will probably be called "new" by its manufacturer. It seems that the Dutch are as obsessed with high quality as Indians are with newness. So the concrete may have changed, but the idea hasn't. This is just one more example that some things just don't change, no matter how far you travel.

Making friends, a multicultural mix

The other day I was in the mood of getting acquainted with my neighbouring space-boxers. I decided that the best way to do so was to go up to a door and simply knock and say "Hello, I am new here and just wanted to say 'hi!' ". So I go up to a random door and knock. It was occupied by a Greek guy who is living with his German girlfriend. They had an another space-boxer over for dinner. She was a girl from Serbia and Montenegro (formerly Yugoslavia). I spent an hour and a half with them and it was a fun experience. There was no particular reason for the fun, it was a pleasant way to spend time. Four different English accents made for some pretty interesting hearing errors which made me laugh at the time, but I forget the details.

The next day I picked another random door. This time I was greeted with an Indonesian guy. I was chatting with him and while I was there an Ethiopian guy and a Kenyan girl payed him a visit. So I spent time with a wholly different set of people. Again, I enjoyed my self. Although this crowd was distinctly more reserved than the European one.

My impression from these episodes is that people my age are more or less similar. Habits may differ, outlets for recreation may differ, but in the end everyone wants similar things from their life at this age, and in that there is always an understanding. I hope to meet many more people in what seems to be a very nice melting-pot. Any numbers between 50 and 170 are appreciated. That will be the number of the next door I knock on (provided I haven't knocked there already). For reference, my number is 152.

Saving the best for last, my baby has arrived!

And now, I have some very good news to share. I finally, finally, got my Apple iBook G4 laptop. I have been running it for a day and it is really a charming system. I like what I have seen of Mac OS X so far. For my geek friends, check out these pictures and drool. For the more normal people, there is nothing of interest here.

From the outside, a sleek, fair beauty.

And it gets prettier ..

That's all

That's all for this week folks. I am glad that my readers enjoy reading this blog. I enjoy writing it as well. So expect more soon.