We are not one among many but a different and special one. Today’s tigersamachar is dedicated to our great bathroom singers like Venket Subramanian, Chicken Haris and Anto Pradeep. I hope all of you agree that it is one of the most important matter in everyday life of all kinds of people in the world.

Let’s go to India House, Paris again, there you can see a notice in the fourth floor insisting us to keep the toilets clean. I will quote a sentence from there.
……It is very boring to see the traces of feces in the toilet……
From this, what we can infer is, it was very interesting for them to see it before and now, and gradually they get bored of it!!! This is the first time in my life I hear about people who are interested in seeing such things. Let’s hope this post will open their eyes to think about correcting it.

Now, I would like to mention my experience related to toilets that happened in India house at Cité Universitaire, Paris. As they mentioned in the web site of India House, they are trying their best to make you feel like India in the heart of Paris, along with following European culture. Yes you’ll feel a mixed culture there.

The best example is the toilets in India house. As it is in Europe they are not providing water in toilets and at the same time, to feel like in India they are trying not to provide enough toilet papers too. This is one of the worst case of mixing two different cultures.

Let’s return to the story. I woke up at seven in the morning. I searched for toilet paper in our (Raghavan’s) room, there is not even an empty role of toilet paper. The lady who is in charge of cleaning the room, did not provide the tissue paper last day because she doesn’t like him. This is her custom, If she doesn’t like someone she stops giving toilet papers for them.

She is trying to kill those people by this simple trick. I will explain it here for the sake of silent killers who read tigersamachar. If you do not provide toilet papers or water for the residents, they will try to manage without going to toilets and finally they die of severe damage to the digestive system.

Actually Raghavan has no problem with her and she is considering him as an enemy because of some misunderstanding, that he is not talking to her, the truth is very simple, he cannot understand French and that’s why. But the poor lady doesn’t know this.

I tried all neighbors, but all are in deep sleep, I thought it is not fair to wake someone up and ask for toilet paper. So I went to the toilets of 5th and 6th floor to serach for toilet papers and got a little but that’s not enough for me.

I took it with me and to get some more I went down to 3rd floor. But the case is the same as in 4th floor. While I am coming out after the search in the toilets of third floor with the one I already got from 6th floor, another guy came and asked me “excuse me, can you please give me that tissue paper…”, just like borrowing money from a beggar.

(Re-post of entry dated / 9 September 2007)

As usual Keralites have changed the concept of ‘missed call’ itself. It is common everywhere in Kerala that one used to tell his buddy that “I’ll make a missed call ……….”. Actually nobody can make a missed call, only possible thing is “one can miss a call”!!!

It is impossible to discuss about missed calls without mentioning two of my friends, Sharafu and Sajeer. If the mobile companies like Vodafone, Airtel etc.. want to organize a contest for best missed calls, this two guys will share the first and second prize.

Let’s see how Sharafu becomes the winner. One of my friend received several missed calls from him during midnight, he called him back to see whats the matter. Sharafu replies: why you are so late to call me back after getting my missed call— (not missing his call.., just receiving his missed call!!!)—. The reason for his missed calls is there is some problem with the electric circuit in his room and sharafu wants his friend to be there to solve it. Yes, even for important personal problems, he make only missed calls!!!

The next, Sajeer is very interesting character.

He used to make lots of missed calls to his friends, Once we saw him buying a BONUS CARD to activate the offer from Vodafone to make unlimited calls from 11pm to 8am. Still he is making only missed calls, and when he was asked the reason for that, we fed up by hearing his answer.

I activated with that bonus card, not to make free calls but for, I don’t want to loose money if anyone pick the phone when I make missed calls…What a great idea!!!

I dedicate today’s tigersamachar for all those who changed the concept of missed calls.

Please make a missed call once you read this post.

I think you puzzled reading the heading, these are not the words of tiger; but of the famous british writer Bosworth Smith. Who wrote:

He was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without Pope’s pretensions, Caesar without the legions of Caesar: without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue; if ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by the right divine, it was Mohammed, for he had all the power without its instruments and without its supports.

Since I am writing this blog from France, it will not be worth if we ignore the words of LaMartin, the famous French historian and writer. Let’s translate his words about Prophet Muhammed in his famous book (in French) “Histoire de la Turquie”. He wonders:

If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammed? The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men in 1/3 of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and souls. his forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayers, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death; all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma. This dogma was two-fold, the unity of God and the immateriality of God; the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with words.

“Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammed. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?”

Hope this post will help you to think about learning more about this great man, who came as the mercy/blessing to all the worlds. Wish you a very happy ramzan.

I am so happy that my visit to AEI, Hannover coincide with their get together. I did not expect such a great program other than meeting many malayali friends all around Germany who are in the field of scientific research.

The program scheduled to be on Sunday, 16th of September. But it was not limited to one day since most of them came on Friday and Saturday to enjoy the whole weekend.

Saturday itself the house has become a small Kerala in the heart of Germany. All are speaking genuine Malayalam, I mean not talking malayalam with English accent.

However nobody is wasting even a single chance to show there expertise in German language. Some are managing to talk two three sentences in German. But I don’t think any German citizen can understand the German language of this ‘Mallu Germans’.

Let’s go to the kitchen. Ajith and Dr. Sajan managed to buy everything in the list provided by Dr. Gopan, a gifted cook from Mannar currently a researcher in Germany. We must appreciate Ajith and Sajan for their effort to locate and find the items mentioned in the list with the help of Wikipedia and English – German dictionary.

Gopan proved it is possible to make a full Kerala style sadya even in Europe. I tried my best to find at least a minor problem with the curry items he made, but it was an unsuccessful attempt. Yes, it was absolutely a perfect one.

This post will not be complete if we forget to mention Ajith, who made the rice, It is obvious that all the items of Gopan can be tasted well only if we have enough rice and that is the importance of Ajith here. However I dont know how could he arrange a barcode for the rice. This is the first time I am seeing a barcoded rice.

Last – I mean last because we have payasam at the end, it doesn’t mean last in its importance – but not least we have to thank Dhanya and Chitra who worked hard, may be harder than Gopan worked to make all other items, to make the tasty payasam. It was really awesome.

I would like to thank all behind this great get together and especially the one who arranged me a visit to Hannover exactly during this time. If you are a good organizer, you may arrange a get together like this but never a better one.

Dear friends, do you really want me to continue the ‘Summer in Hannover’ series?. If you are not interested we can stop this and write something interesting for you. OK, I will cut many things and try to finish up this series in the next post.

The bus is moving through the busiest motorway of France, Autoroute-A1. I am very happy because the route is new and has some importance, furthermore I got a nice friend. After some time, the Bus left Autoroute-A1 to enter Autoroute-A2. Yes we are following the conceptual ‘European route’-E19. There is nothing except light forest on both sides of the road. You can see SOS posts frequently and the information boards to show ‘Next Telephone Post’ after 20 KM, Restaurent 45 KM away, etc.

The people in the bus brought my memory back to the general compartment of Indian railway. If I have no luggage, I prefer only general compartment because you can see there the real India. I will write about Indian railway later on. Here also the people are very frank and friendly. Not like the one we are finding in flights or TGVs.

I found some people going down and coming back after sometime. I was curious to know where they are going and I asked my friend about this. Her answer was very simple and helpful for me, there is toilet in the first level of the bus they might be going there. I thanked Eurolines for providing such a facility in bus that I never expect.

We reached Belgium boarder by around 22.00 Hrs. The picture of an international boarder in my mind as an Indian was totally different from the Schengen Border. I surprised to see the border. You can see nothing special except a board to let you know you are entering another country.

I read “Belgique” (French form of ‘Belgium’) inside a circle of 12+ stars. The boards you see when you enter Calicut corporation area is far bigger than the information board at France-Belgium border. The same case is at Belgium-Netherlands, and The Netherlands-Germany boarder also. Even to cross Kerala – Karnataka/Tamilnadu border you have to face some check post. This made tiger to call this borders as God’s own borders.

Unfortunately the photo I took was not clear because of rain, however I will give a photo of a Schengan border that I got from internet to give an idea about such borders.

We are in Belgium now. At the border we left French Autoroute-A2 and entered Belgian Autoroute-A7, that too the part of European route-E19. I felt the Belgium government is spending more than France for the maintenance of motorways. Even though the quality of the roads are same, I think they spend much money to make the road more beautiful. The bus stopped for fueling and the driver said it will stop there for half an hour. We, myself and our German friend had a burger and some cool drinks at the Café near to fuel station.

I got impressed on mutual understanding of Europeans in that trip. When my friend got headache, without any hesitation or fear she accepted the Paracetamol tablet I gave to her. I really surprised because, in India no one will be ready to accept something from the fellow passengers. Even our government use to warn us not to accept anything from your fellow passengers.

Even though the bus went to Germany from Belgium through Netherlands, we’ll jump directly to Germany from Belgium to reduce the length of this post.

It’s morning 6 AM, we are in Hannover now, I felt very sad as I have to leave the lovely friend I found in the Bus, she has to get down at Berlin. Let’s dedicate the tigersamachar series “Summer in Hannover” for this cute friend.

Now the real problem starts. I don’t know German language and the only address Rejish (Kuttai) gave is “Dieckmanstraße 5, Hannover”. He could not come to receive me because we don’t know where exactly the bus will stop. Some how I managed to reach their house taking one hour. Kuttai and Ajith were there to welcome me.

First of all I had a shower and then had tea made by Kuttai. I wondered seeing the cup they used to have tea. One such cup is equivalent to 5 ordinary cups!! As I like tea very much I too had a full tea like them. There was bread and chicken curry as the breakfast (this chicken curry was a special one, because it was prepared by Mamu, who is living in Netherlands, He was there the day before and I got the chance to have his chicken curry, truly saying it is not tasty compared to the one that Kuttai made).

The main thing I noticed in their house is a weighing machine. That is equally useful for both of them, for Kuttai it is to reduce his weight and for Ajit to improve his weight. It does weight management through motivation and warning.

I will complete the series Summer in Hannover in the next post and probably I will write it in Hannover itself. Next post will cover the visit to Kuttai’s university, special type of people called Naturists (Nudists), we found in the park and finally the return of the tiger.

Now, I’ll explain why I don’t want Mahabali back. His return to Kerala is affordable, but I never want Mahabali to rule our great India. I am saying this as I respect our freedom fighters and I am a nationalist. Please read this passage carefully without prejudice.

l’d like to mention the legend behind Onam in a few words here. Lord Vishnu, in the guise of a Brahmin boy, Vamanan, went to Mahabali and asked him to sign on a 1-2-3 Agreement, according to that deal, Mahabali has to grant him three steps (sqft) of land. The wish was granted and Vamanan covered the whole land with his two steps and then he came back to the King asking him where can he place the third step. The king to honour his word, offered his head as the third step. Vamanan pushed Mahabali ‘deep down into the earth’ (Pathalam[1]). Pleased by his honesty and generosity, the lord in turn granted him a wish that he requested, he could visit his kingdom and people on a particular day once a year. We will go to our subject now.

First of all, I strongly object any type of government other than democratic. Even though Mahabali was a good ruler, without discussing with people or their representatives, he gave “Pattayam”[2] for three sqft of land. It shows there was no enough funding for intelligence agencies at that time, that’s why they could not find the real intention of Vamanan. Such a non practical ruler is not good for a country. We can also infer that he banned communist parties when he was ruling us, otherwise they won’t allow for that 1-2-3 deal with Vamanan and protect Mahabali from such a tragedy.

Let us go to the legend again. During his era, it says, all people are alike. But the development of a country is through diversity. All are alike means the condition was that of a state of emergency. If we try to make all people alike we have to face the fate of USSR.

I believe his rule was not appriciated by people because nobody defended and tried to protect him from Vamanan. Also he has no enough military force to defend his country form such external forces. That is the reason he could not withheld from the 123 deal once he know that was a trap.

Again, it says in the legend that no one was false in speech. We all know very well that the words of media and “media syndicate” are not correct always. Then, if there were no false speech, he might have banned media and no freedom of speech during his rule. Yes, that is called the state of emergency. Do you want such a situation again?

Finally, it is clear from the legend that the condition of the country was worser than “pathalam” at that time. Otherwise, he could request something better from Vamanan as the wish, instead he preferred to stay in “Pathalam” for 364 days and a transit through Kerala just for one day. Which shows, he know very well that “Pathalam” is better than Kerala and he wanted to live there peacefully.

However I celebrate Onam and prepare a very good floral carpet called “Pookkalam” in my house. But it is not to welcome Mahabali/Maveli, but to welcome my friends. My festival is the festival of my friends and my country. So I celebrate Onam.

I am writing my views based on the legend I know. If you have any objection, you can voice your concerns in comments section. I hope you’ll let me know if there’s any bettr legend behind Onam that looks impressive and interesting.

Also we wish the present Maveli (our Prime Minister) will not be trapped by the 1-2-3 deal of the modern Vamanan (Bush) during this Onam season.

I am very sorry if this article hurt any of my dear readers. I know you are looking forward to the 4th part of “Summer in Hannover”. It will be published soon. Thank you for your Comments. Once again I wish you a very happy Onam.
— —
This entry was posted on August 26, 2007 at 1:11 am
— —
Notes:

[1]- Pathalam = Pathalam is considered as some thing like Hell or Below the (deep down to) earth.
[2]- Pattayam = Authorization letter from government to keep the land property with a person.

From Gare-Montparnasse we went back to India house to take my bag and rushed to Gallieni, the International Bus Terminus of Paris. Gallieni is not so far from Cité Universitaire. However we have to change three metros (RER-B, M11 and M3) to reach Gallieni, that consumes much of the time.

While booking the bus ticket to Hannover through eurolines website, I have been told to collect the paper ticket at Gallieni one hour before the departure time. Even though myself and Raghavan are new to Gallieni, we could reach the bus terminus very easily as the subway is ending exactly at the bus terminus.

Many counters are there for baggage check-in, ticket booking, etc. We stand in a queue for a counter specially for english speaking people. Got the ticket issued by presenting my ID and the reservation number. We sit there looking in the screen to display the check-in time for the passengers to Hannover. The information display looks like that of an International airport. You can see the timing of Bus to almost all major European destinations. For example London, Rome, Frankfurt, Zurich, Amsterdam, Copenhagen (Denmark), Warsaw (Poland), etc.

It appeared on the display: Counter ‘G’ for the passengers to Brussels (Belgium) – Hannover – Berlin. I queued for my turn and then requested for a window seat so that I can see the places during the journey. But I found there is no seat number in euroline buses. You will provide only a card with the coach number. It is just the platform number where the bus to our destination stops. You can select the seat according to your choice subject to the availability of seats as in our ordinary bus. Once you occupy a seat, that will be yours throughout the journey.

Raghavan has an appointment with a friend of Advocate Cheriya Raman Nair at Cité Universitaire. So he left wishing me “Bonne Voyage”. I had a sandwitch from a patisserie at the bus station and wait for my bus. The bus hasn’t come at right time. I think this euroline has some connection with Indian Railway because each bus is at least 15 minutes late.

Finally our bus came after 25 minutes of the actual departure time. It is operated by Berlin Linien Bus, seeing the bus I realized I have been fooled by eurolines because while booking I saw Berlin Linien for 25 Euro less than the fare of eurolines. But I preferred eurolines hopping it will be better than Berlin Linien.

The crew (I dont know what should I call him) collected and placed the baggages of the passengers in the baggage cabin, then he allowed the passengers to enter the bus one by one after collecting the boarding card. I preferred the top level to the first with hope that I can see place better.

I realized that searching for window seat to enjoy the beauty of nature on the way is stupidity because the real natural beauty is not outside but inside the bus. Unfortunately almost all beauties are accompanied by their boyfriends.

I found a girl in a window seat and her bag in the aisle seat. When I look at her face, with a smile she took that bag and kept under her seat. I decided to give a company to that poor gal [1].

Tiger greet her a ‘salut’ [2], She wished back the same and said something in French. I responded with a word that I used most often during my stay in France: “Désolé, je ne parle pas français[3]“. She tried to say something in German (?) but I speak only English. As of every Europeans other than English people, she said `aha, I too speak English but not so well’. I was so happy as I got a neighbor who knows the language I know, and above all she is very cute and friendly.

You’ll read more about this lovely girl and the rest of the journey in coming Samachars. If you miss next issues of tigersamachar you will be loosing the chance to read the centerpiece of the Summer in Hannover.

—
Notes:

[1]- I sit there because all other seats are occupied. Please don’t misunderstand me.
[2]- Salut (FR) = Hello (EN)
[3]- Désolé, je ne parle pas français (FR) = Sorry, I don’t speak french (EN)

That was the last saturday for Raghavan before going home for summer vacation. Therefore as soon as SP arrived we had Brunch at around 11 AM. Then we three and another one went to La Défense (the business district of the city of Paris) for shopping.

At La Défense Raghavan disappeared into the crowd, and only SP and tiger are in the picture now. We planned to go for a movie and went to Denfert-Rochereau to search for theater showing VO (Version Originale – English version) movies. The only VO movie we found there was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Bought two tickets for 19.60 Euros and watched it. It was a special experience for tiger as it is the first movie tiger watch in a theater, after coming to France.

Sunday we went to Madras-Café at Gare-du-Nord for lunch. The waiters there hesitated to serve tiger at the beginning. I dont know why they did so, let’s leave it. Then we went to Gare-Montparnasse to send SP to Le Mans. Now SP disappears from the picture.

Let’s go back to the Hannover trip. Before that a flashback of the ticket booking. Tiger already planned to go by bus as that is the cheepest way and can enjoy the trip well compared to flight or train. However just for a formality and to know whether there is any better option I discussed with SP and Raghavan on wednesday.

I am sure about SP will suggest to go only by flight,and Raghavan, who used to go Palakkad from Calicut to catch Island Express to go Bangalore taking 14+ hrs instead of going directly to bangalore from Calicut in Bus in 8+ hrs, will suggest only train. So I cannot expect a right suggestion from both. Also this is the main reason for we three cannot go for a trip.

First I searched in NachtZug (overnight train) website, but it costs around 230 Euros for a return trip to Hannover. It was too late to make use of Carte 12-25 for 50% reduction. Then I searched for cheap flights but that too costs around 300 Euros as this is summer/tourist season. Finally I went to Eurolines website, and found round trip ticket for 115 Euros. Without thinking much I booked one so as to leave Paris on sunday evening and return on thursday night.

After booking I thought about the possibility of using toilets on the way. I called Eurolines customer care to ask them whether it will stop somewhere on the way. They said it has stops in Belgium and Netherlands. So the biggest problem (using toilet) we face during a journey got solved.

I think this is more than enough for today. Coming posts will not be boring and dry like this. Wait for the colorful articles about Summer in Hannover in the forthcoming posts of tigersamachar.

Prior to start our story I would like to talk about two days I spend in India house, Paris before this trip. Friday evening tiger came to India house for a reunion with SP and Raghavan.

The food in the 4th floor is in a pathetic state after the chief cook Advocate Valya Raman Nair left Paris. However people are managing to prepare something and call it as tasty food. It was Raghavan who made the dinner for that day and I noticed excess oil in curry and other items. After dinner I asked Raghavan, why he add this much oil in everything. His answer was that of a typical Malayali – “That oil was not mine and so I added a lot” -. Thanks god for the salt is his own!.

Finishing up the dinner, Tiger, Raghavan, Bhaskar and Sarati went for walking in the moon light in Cité Universitaire campus to get a relief from the hot summer in paris. The campus looks like the IIT campus but the difference is there is no deer or monkeys. However you can see lot of beautiful girls there, that is almost impossible to find in IIT Campus.

We walked talking about the dramatic incident happened in india house just before we leave. I cannot mention it here as it is a sensitive topic. However I still wonder how it is possible to open a door without using a key or breaking the lock!. Let’s leave it as we already wrote a lot about India house in previous posts.

On the way we noticed some trees that lost skin in some areas leaving white patches on dark background. Raghavan said “it looks like …bla..bla..bla…. sorry I don’t remember that word”. He doesnt know how to tell the name of that symptom in english. Tiger or even Bhaskar, who is working in biological sciences or Sarati cannot get that word, but we know what it is called in our language such as ‘Vella-pandu’ in Malayalam.

As usual, tiger was curious to find that word, and after SP reached there on Saturday, tiger asked SP about this, unfortunately he too doesn’t know. But he is not ready to leave it saying he doesn’t know. He said there is no english word for that as the skin of english people are white and they cannot recognize it and that’s why there’s no chance for having a suitable english word. I asked many of my friends but nobody knows the proper word.

Finally I sent a mail to the Living Malayalam-English-Malayalam Dictionary, Nalin Kumar (Nalinakshan Vaidyar). Within seconds I got the reply with the correct word, vitiligo. Leucoderma (also called Leukoderma) is another term for vitiligo. I hope today’s tigersamachar helped you to learn a new word.

I think you have reached the heights of boring. Let me stop here for today, you will read the rest of Summer in Hannover in the forthcoming posts of tigersamachar. Check tigersamachar regularly for latest updates.