Freitag, den 17. Juli 2009

So, the INTERNATIONALE ESSEN TAG went off great. I was initially a bit hesitant about how the humble potato sabji would do, but guess what, it did great!

There were 7 cheeses from France, Switzerland, mexican rice from Mexico, chocolate cake from Poland, etc. The humble bhaji was displayed with the headline ,KARTOFFEL GEMUESE VON INDIEN, Bon Appetit!' Potato-sabjhi from India, Bon Appetit, along with our national flag.

Several people wanted the recipe, the dish was a hit, well, 1 coz it tasted good :D and 2, coz was a good option for those who opted for vegetarian. Surprisingly, there were several people who are now vegetarians by choice. It felt real good, especially since it was so last-minute. The recipe:

1. Pour oil in a vessl, add chopped garlic and red-chillies
2. Add chopped onions and wait till they turn translucent
3. Now, add the masala from home (dania, jeera, red chill pdr and some garam masala) and let the onions absorb the spice.
4. Add the chopped potatoes (in cubes) and some water so that the potatoes become tender.
5. When thepottatoes are tender enough. i.e can be cut with a knife, add salt as needed

Serve with love and a lot of patriotic pride!

Yesterday, 16th Juli, was a rip-off day. We visited the State-Library, where the entire library system is extremely complicated and not in accordance with a book-lover´s tastes. For example, all we wanted was to borrow a German-English dictionary, but guess what, dictionaries cannot be borrowed! they have to be read (?) in the reading-hall. There are computers all over the place, where one needs to type in the book(s) that one needs to borrow, basically search for them in the online-catalog, once you find the book u need, u click on ORder (BESTELLEN), if the ORder-link is not seen, that means the book cannot be borrowed and instead the room where the book can be found is given.

Once u click on order, the order is assigned a number and u are givena time wehn u can pick the book from the PICKING-AREA. The PICKING-AREA is a room with shelves that are numbered 01-50, these symbolize the last 2 digits of ur library membership number. so, u go the shelf that bears ur number, and pick the books, then go the counter, and they issue it for u. the books lie on the shelves for a week, post which, they are sent back to the holding area(?).

There is also a service provided, where if person A has borrowed a book and Person B wants to order the same book during the lending-period of 1 month,. person B reserves the book for a sum of 1€, which means that Person A cannot renew the book, if she wants to when she returns it. But no one checks whether or not the person wanted to renew it, that to me is a rip-off, because if the book is present in the library just waiting for me to pick it up, why do i need to pay for it???

My other issue is that, there is no one room, where all the books that can be borrowed can be browsed through or even a link where all borrowable-books are displayd. So, u are basically expected to know what u need to borrow. Give me an old-fashioned library anyday, where i can browse through the books, read the burrbs, hold the books for a while, carry 10 books in my arms and then borrow them. The beauty lies in the browsing and not in the borrowing. Oh by the way, this whole membership cost me €10, i better pay regular visits there. maybe they have wi-fi, will take my laptop and use it in that case, but only if its free!

Ketaki ended up paying €1.90 for a newspaper, which we later realized is too expensive. Aren´t newspapers supposed to be for everyone and more cost-effective? We plan to frame it when we get back to Bombay and charge people for reading it, maybe we´ll be able to recover the €1.90 and also the €10.

Today, we (Class C1.1) went for lunch together to an Asian specialty restaurant called ,Papaya,... I had a burnt-rice with vegetables, that basiclly meant egg rice with veggies, was pretty good, i nullified the semi-blandness with the chilli-chutney provided :) and had the Spezi- which is Cola & fanta mixed, and is a German invention.

We discussed cuisines and lifestyles in Moscow, Mumbai, Germany, paris. incidentally the lone Parisian at the table wasnt a major fan of Paris, and said that life for him is actually stressful. to which i would agree a bit, among the capital-cities\main cities of the world where I´ve been to, Berlin comes across as a nice , calm city, where one can experience both a large city and have a quiet life, if one so wishes to. London, Paris, Rome, New York, Bombay; chaotic in comparison.

Interstingly there were 3 Russians on the table and when i told them that there is a lot of Russia in Goa, they were surprised. I remember seeing streets with all signages in Russian, german too on a trip to Goa and told them all about it. We now have at least 5 people wanting to make a trip to Goa, Bombay. i wish i could do this travel-bit full time and make a living out of it.

A few minutes back, it rained as it does in Bombay , without the sun and with a lot of force. its not normal weather for berlin this time of the year, and goes to show how much we have changed the forces of nature.
In other news, Kavita is planning to write on Bollywood as the theme for her REFERRAT (presentation). i think its a great idea, and have told her to incorporate our cryze for foreign locales and the roles that cities play in our movies. Kavita,s landlady has invited the 3 of us to her place tomorrow morning for breakfast. its at 9!!! so i need to wake up on time tomorrow. cant be late for breakfast! There are also several French students here, who I think are the cutest, well-behaved, friendly and very international, in the sense that they mingle with everyone, and are genuinely interested in knowing about other cultures. Pity they are all in the afternoon class.

There is a SPAZIER-GANG (walk) planned for Potsdamer-Platz, where we had incidentally gone yesterday in our quest for a dictionary. There are markings all over , where the Berlin wall stood. ther is so much history here, that sometimes, i think that it inhibts the people from totally being themselves, as if they still feel guilty for all that hapened so mnay years back.

I´d better get going, oh by the way, i paid a visit to the libray properly for the 1st time today, and spent 2 hours over some Grammar. I realize that I have a long way to go, and have miles to go before i sleep.

tc,
Tschuess,
Anya