Carrier of Smiles

Look around, O bird and spread out your wings

Undo the bondage and rip off the strings

Spread out your wings and off you fly

Up ahead awaits you the blue endless sky

 

 

And in your flight, carefree you sing

A melody so joyous that a smile does it bring

Carefree you sing as you sing out your heart

A song that heals a heart torn apart

 

 

Find out a tree, and on the branch you land

For a moment you rest to adore the world grand

On the branch you land and collect a twig

And build a nest small to house your dreams big

 

 

And up ahead you fly, and sing and dance

And do care for none, just ahead do advance

And sing and dance O carrier of smiles

The sky is too large and you have to cover miles…

 

Photo Courtesy to my dear friend and a fabulous photographer (and I know he would deny) Chitram Banerjee. Enjoy the visual treat of his photos… Its worth it… Trust me.

 

And a Happy Ganesh Chaturthy to all of you… 🙂

Paradise… Not too far…

With not much money in hand and just the strong breeze as my companion, I visited a place, which I am convinced is not far from paradise. A city so wonderfully built that one can walk through its lanes forever and never get tired (I walked for 4 hours, and want to visit the city again). Not many ‘tourist spots’ as such but the city by itself is definitely worth a visit. Officially I visited only two spots… The Kronenburger Park and the Bridge. But what I enjoyed the most was walking on the streets…

Here are the flowers which greet you as you enter the park…

And if that was not enough to bring a smile onto your face, meet these extremely fearless birds. They hardly do care about a huge 6 feet tall figure approaching them (oops I forgot; I used to be tall in India… Here they might be habituated to see taller figures all day 😦 ).

Well talking of heights, there were two ‘creatures’ who really stand tall, gaurding the city…

Ya.. but we too are humans, it wouldn’t be difficult for us to cross the bridge…

stand on one of them and look around the park…

And then again… I move on through the streets to click snaps of the city which embaraces you with its charm…

Only to reach the railway station…

whose call to come back home was ignored by the enchanted traveler. Strolling through further in the opposite direction (guided by the faint memory of Google Maps), I come across a street which caught my attention; and 15 seconds later did I realise that I was on the Bridge… and hence started my long walk across the Bridge…

On my way back, standing on a bridge vibrating along with the breeze, and looking at the amazing city, I realised, maybe this is the way, we the humans can add our bit to the beauty of nature, and perhaps make it closer to the paradise…

Into the Dutch Terretory…

Someone please show me some more people on the streets….

Shocked! In every sense of the word. I would never have thought myself in a world, so desperately devoid of people. No buzzing of horns, no groups of people haggling around on a tea stall, no tea stalls for that matter! Oh surely! I am surely not in India!

 

Instead I am in a land of absolute beauty. It seems as if each pebble in the city has been planned for its position. Dirty Streets? do they even exist? And sun; does it ever set? (well, we have already talked about it…, so not again). And above all, the people: This is what you call self discipline. Faces which smile as they look at you…maybe even say a Goedmorgen sometimes… Oh yes! this is a dreamland. Hats off to the Dutch for creating a small, wonderful land of theirs.

 

I must admit, it was me who stood in awe most of the times, understanding and appreciating this absolutely foreign culture; however it was interesting to see them fascinated about Indian terrains like Himalayas, Indian Mythology like the Ramayana and curiously enough, the Indian Marriage system. 🙂

 

It has been almost a week since I arrived here. I am still under a significant workload, so have not got a chance to visit Amsterdam or other parts of the Netherlands. Not much regrets for that as of now because I am still rejoicing the beauty of this super-organised world. More on the trips and experience in later posts. For the time being I leave you with the following snaps I took on the way from the University my the place of residence at Nijmegen.

 

 

 

 

Ya… the monotonicity of the colour of the houses confuses me a lot…

It has been the fourth time in six days today that is have entered the wrong building assuming it to be mine…

 

 

 

And yes, it rains too frequently here… (just wanted to share it as a fact)

Don’t Fear… Its just a Camera…

The Tree and The Morning Sun

When Nature Greets us a Good Morning!

Let the randomness of the universe increase forever…

-Introvert

Through the Curtains of Fog

Here are some snapshots from around my hostel, taken early morning…

Moods of the Sky

It is amazing to see how different colours spread very differently on the greatest canvas the the world…

Presenting the shades of the same canvas at different times and at different places…

Ahmadabad

Kolkata

Bhopal

Restaurants and Food at Ahmadabad

The four layered Mocktail

Clicks of Some Mouth-Watering Delicacies…At Ahmedabad

Panner Tikka Masala

Another Delicacy: The Name Betrayed my memory

The all time favorite: Tandoori Chicken

 

Floral Snapshots: In Kolkata

Some snaps of flowers, plants and sky in the rainy season…