Adhrit's Annaprashan!

Well I wanted to share this interesting post with you.
We have lovely friends in Zürich Brinda and Srijit, who had a new addition in their family, lovely Adhrit.
We had gone to Zürich for Adhrit's Annaprashan ceremony, as we come from a different part of India, this is not done generally from where we come. I was remebering Shivangi's ceremony as well which we had in Erlagen for her.

Here's more info about ANNAPRASHAN.

Adhrit's mom, granny and aunts are all talented painters so it was no surprise that he selected a Paint brush from the different things offered to him.

My best friends wedding! Heike n Baris got married!!

Yes Heike and Baris got married. And we had gone to Istanbul for the wedding.
Heike is once of my first and best friend in Germany, with her my friendship goes back to the time when we used to speak English with each other and since I learnt German we have been talking in German.


3.Oct.2008 ( my sister's bday as well)

The first day we reached there we met Heike's family (brother Rene and her mom n dad) along with her aunt uncle and 2 very sweet cousins(Desiree n Doreen). We all were staying in the same hotel very close to Baris's mom's home. We started our trip with a lunch together with all the family members at Baris's home. Baris's mom Seval cooks amazing food. Baris' family is also so warm n lovely, it was a pleasure indeed to meet Baris' mom (Seval), sister(Tutku)n brother in law(Mutlu) after 4 years.
After lunch we joined Heike n Baris n heike's family for a small trip to the bazaar. For Heike's family bazaar was different as they were not used to so many people and Heike's mom being a little claustrophobic, it was a different experience for them.I bought a very nice glass lamp and some huge tile coasters from there( very oriental and preytt).
In the evening, I had offered to make some daal for the entire family and I made it, which was eaten as soup :)first. then there was a session of drinking wine and all of us retiring to bed early for a nice sleep. The big joke at the dining table was that as we were always so many of us eating together on the dining table space was a limitation so Heike's d joked that its like eating in an aeroplane with very little elbow movement space:)

4th Oct (The wedding day and Heike's dad's 50th Bday)
We began the day with having an early breakfast(9.30am) and then joining Baris' mom and Heike's mom, aunt and cousins for the appointment at the hairdresser. We took the local tram, bus and metro and reached the place in an hour, the surprising part was that 6 of us got our hair done in just one hour. Heike's family found the part that there were only men hairdressers strange and amusing as in Germany most of the hairdressers are women. Here's a before and after snap.


Then we all came back and went for a small stroll with Heike's two cousins to a nearby mall before getting dressed for the wedding.

I wore a Sari for the wedding and all others were very smartly dressed in lovely dresses. The venue was also very nice with the beginning with cocktails and snacks close to the pool and the civil marriage ceremony organized at a table on a place higher to where everyone was. I was Heike's Witness (a big honor and pleasure for me)and Mutlu was Baris's witness. One of the lovely part was when the lady from the registration office asked something and I Was supposed to say Yes,noone taught me what I ad to say so I just repeated what Mutlu has said but apparently I had done that so well that there was a lot of clapping and Baris repeated so many times later on as well that I was great and had pronounced the word perfect. It was a very emotional moment for both the families which included some tears of happiness as well.
After that we all went upstairs where food was arranged. We shared a table with some if Tutku's college and school friends, one of whom was working for Mahindra and had been to Mumbai a number of times. All women were very smartly dressed in lovely dresses n high heels, was a pleasure to see such chic people.
Heike and Baris began with the first dance and cut a cake and we all ate and danced a lot and met many other Turkish friends.The music was really nice with some turkish songs and loads of 70's english songs and we all including both the families danced a lot. We also met one of Heike's friend who had especially come for the wedding with her husband from Jordan.
The best part was that the wedding was very short n sweet, it started at 7 pm and was over around 1 am. I really liked Heike's dress, she was looking like a princess and even Baris was looking very handsome! I wish both of them loads of happiness. Unfortunately I don't have some nice pic of Heike n Baris together, will ask her to send me some and will then upload those, the ones we clicked are all so dark (hmm time to buy a new camres is ist?)

5th Oct (Anurag's n Alexi's bday)


Our plane was at 3am on 6th, so we had another day in Istanbul! After breakfast, we all went for a walk to Bosphorus and wanted to take a boat ride, but unfortunatley it started to rain ( the only time when we had a little bad weather during the whole trip, so we just went to a cafe n had turkish tea,coffee n cake there.
Now as boat ride was canceled, all ladies and Baris and Heike's bro Rene decided to go to Hamam but I didn't want to go there and joined instead Vivek and Heike's dad n uncle to a trip to the biggest shopping mall in Istanbul. It was really amazing to see the big shopping mall, it has all UK, USA and European brands, I bought a coat from Marks n Spencers and Vivek also bought a Jacket. After that we joined everyone for dinner at one of the restaurants where Vivek enjoyed lovely big grilled fish. In fact we got to see another wedding which was being organised at the same restaurent. After that we all came back to Baris's mom's place and chatted till 11.30, till we left for airport.
I would say it was a wonderful experience for us to spend time with families of our two wonderful friends. I had always told Heike that I am eagerly waiting for your wedding so that I my see a bride in lovely white Wedding gown and this dream so finally came true. I am so happy for them! Wishing both of them a very happy married life!

Finally we came back on 6th and slept the whole day through and life has been the same old routine since then. will come back with another interesting post next week as we have something planned this Sunday as well.

Here you will find some general pics of Istanbul.

whatz this? specially for dogs hmm

Another interesting product that I would like to share with you, initially whenever I used to go for a walk I used to wonder at these small green boxes everywhere. I was happy to note that cleanliness is so much important here, that when your doggy poops you have to pick it up and dispose it off. With these boxes having disposable bags readily available all over, I guess it makes it easier to pick that up or.
well for most of us Indians the question would be, really do I have to pick up my dog's shit as well, I would say ya why not when you have such amenities available all over, why not work to keep your surroundings clean,
(am sure now the question is do I have a dog, wellll not till now, though I love dogs)

.Driving in Europe.

Yeah!!!! I finally passed my Theory test for driving.
Having driven in India for so many years, well to be truthful I didnt much miss not driving, the public transport being wonderful here and also Vivek being a wonderful driver :).
Since Mallaika entered our lives, Vivek was really after me to start driving again.

The entire process of having a driving license in Switzerland is really complicated.
1. First you have to take a 8 hours first-aid course ( I did mine 2 years ago...)
2. Then you have to fill up a form, get a eye test stamp on form from optician and then along with some identity papers send it out.(I finally managed to do it this april)
3. Then you get a TheorieprufungsAusweis, which is like an identity and entrance card for the theory exam, and have to register for theory. (I registered for 6th sept and passed it in one go with only 3 mistakes, you are allowed 14 so it was a good score)
4.After clearing the theory, you get a L driving license (I am finally at this stage).
This is valid for 2 years and within this time you have to do another 8 hours theory course)and in this time you have to pass the practical test, you get only 3 chances to do that and in case you donot manage in these 3 chances, you have to get yourself tested by a psychologist and get his ok before you get another chance (pheww...that's absolutely true).
All in all I had one driving class and driven Mallaika 4 times with Vivek sitting beside me.
Driving in Swiss- yes its different from India, I luckily haven't forgotten how to drive but after leaving driving for almost 5.5 years, my driving has gone rusty. In fact more than me Vivek was a little disappointed with my confidence level. Well I am happy with the way I drove coz, it would definitely take me many hours of driving to come up to my level back in India and also taking into consideration all the rules that one has to follow here.
I didnt have any problem with gears being on the right side, only big time problem I have is with the indicators, yeah thats really funny, whenever I have to turn on the indicators, I turn on the wipers, well here in swiss the indicators are on left side but in India on the right side. Other than that surprisingly I didnt have much problem.
Rest as Priya with whom I chatted a little today said that her motto is GEAR UP, I am inspiring myself to gear up as well for more hours on the road driving.
Well wish me luck guys!

I love Weekends!

I really thank all the wonderful people who decided to have a Saturday and a Sunday off to break the monotony of the week.
After having worked even 6 days a week (once or twice even 7 days, I have learned to cherish my 2 day weekend.
In India my Sunday was packed with shopping, meeting friends, spending time with family and doing all the pending stuff in one little single Sunday.
Here the best part is Sunday everything is closed, so you just cant do shopping even if you want to (initially this was something very strange for me, everything closed on Sundays, really??). Most of the people prefer to spend Sunday only with their families, so no visiting either(although I guess for past some weeks we had been eating off and on with Divya and Anurag on Sundays as well). You can't even vacuum or wash on Sunday so what you have is a total free, restful, relaxing, sleeping Sunday.
With me and Vivek spending almost the first half talking with our families in India, I find it nice to have a relaxing Sunday. Its also nice to have Saturday free as you can catch up with friends on Saturday night (party n pubbing time), do the shopping or maybe just window shopping.
I guess now I move on to my window shopping Saturday...
see you all soon!

आई ऍम back

I am back!
Was just going through my blog after a long time, and discovered well being modest that yes I can write...
n its always good to share thoughts..
So now I will try to write at least once a week.
Lets begin with a lovely collage the idea for which I borrowed from Mari's blog.
Thanks MARI!!

Bags with a difference from Freitag

I have been thinking of writing about these bags since a long time. There are some innovative people in this world who have brought a newmeaning to recycling.

It was 1993 when Markus and Daniel Freitag, both brothers and graphic designers, were in need of a bag. Zurich locals ride bikes. And they get rained on a lot. So the Freitag Bros. wanted a functional, tough, and water-resistant bag to carry their designs. Inspired by the colorful traffic on the highway extension in front of their apartment, they sewed together a messenger bag from an old truck tarp, took seat belts for straps and used a spare bicycle inner tube to keep the edges from fraying.

FREITAG products are made from original recycled materials – used truck tarps, used car seat belts, used air bags and used bicycle inner tubes. Because the materials are tough, the products are too. And because it is made from an original piece of tarp, every single FREITAG product has its own, individual design.The used line bring a character to each Freitag product.

For these designer pieces you have to shell out something between 70-500 francs,more at http://www.freitag.ch

A post after a long time, hope you guys are doing good :-)