Sri Lanka, LTTE, Emerald Isles, Coral heaven and much more..

I am not sure how many of you know that I had been to Sri Lanka for my honeymoon. Dangerous place eh? :)

May be not, I would say.

I want to talk in detail about Sri Lankans and LTTE. I want to give voice to Wasantha - the guy who chauffeured our car in Sri Lanka. he had a lot of stories to tell...

More interestingly during our 8 days stay in Sri Lanka, we had varied experiences.. but, wait... this will take more than 30mins I had for today to write (alas..). I need to refer my notes to write on Sri Lanka. I promise to jot down next time I sit down freely..

PS - well, this is a rather meaningless post nah?

Ciao till next time...Harsha

The times.. of MJ. Michael Jackson.

I am one of the last people to listen to English music or videos.. sadly I do not understand English songs. For one.. the beats are too loud or the the lyrics are so fast that I fail to catch the meaning of the song.

As I have said before, I stick on to Hindi videos for most part. I feel happy to be dished upon the masala tracks.. the racy run of the mill songs you see on Channel V or MTV. I fail to feel remorseful for this behavior. I am the perfect target for the present Hindi films.

But, why have I put MJ in this article title? The man they call Michael Jackson. I somehow had fallen prey to the dance numbers of a guy called Prabhu Deva. I loved his Tamil and a couple of Hindi videos.. his moves were different from others... It was only a few years back I realized that this guy imitates MJ.. and thats how I got to know Michael Jackson. I have rarely seen his videos, I dont remember his songs.. I dont even feel a thing that he is gone.

But, the way people have reacted to his death is mind blowing! I even read an article which talks about the number of times he had plastic surgery. http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Jackson.html

He was a strange guy..
I even read forwards from friends related to his house.. cum wonderland.. cum obsession cum entertainment park.. (or whatever you may call it)..
Heard this guy took at least dozen pills a day...
Made $2Bn in his lifetime and still owes $400M in death
Had a string of failed sex change operations...
Virtually NO nose, no hair, no skin (on the face as some reports suggest it was pure silicone left)?
Hmm... donno what more some of his fans would know...

But, all in all a weird guy.. may be thats why he became such a famous guy.. hated, loved, respected and pooh-poohed at the same time..

May be.. it was better not to be famous, be black.. but alive? may be happy with homely wife and kids.. but not that rich... may be this may be that... but, may be.... more than anything world needs such weird people. You see, they call them legends.

Ciao till next time...Harsha

Europe – the funny, good, bad and indifferent parts..

I had never actually been to Europe before, but for short while waiting for transfer flights. This trip for a week was the first time I have set foot (in real) on Europe. It is a very different place from Asia and America. Europe is all about culture. In every city, every village- you will find some sort of history associated with it.

I felt German people to be very friendly, though they seldom understand English (at least the older people don’t). I realized that I did not carry the address of the hotel I was to stay when I landed in Munich. A rather helpful German lady guided me through the metro station and helped me buy a ticket. It was funny when she asked me if I was a Russian J. I would make a rather short and dark Russian for sure :P

The other thing I was a little surprised about was- the almost laid back attitude people carried with them.. the gentleman who arranged the customer meetings in Spain said that he envied the French who work 40hrs a week, while he worked for 52Hrs.. (now I would like to be in his place!).

Bah.. its so costly to travel and stay! Its almost twice what you would spend in US. Be it for the hotels (a 4 star hotel costing anything over 100euros to 150 euros) to taxi fares and food prices which almost makes Indian prices look like a 90% discount sale..

But, the one thing which surely impressed me was the vast number of museums and monuments spread across everywhere. It might seem a little strange- but people actually go to the museums pretty often- if you ask someone what he would prefer- going to the nearest art museum or the movie theater, the museum would be a hands down winner!

In the US its not a strange thing to be a Indian (except may be in places like Texas because you see.. in California every third person you meet is a Chinese or Indian), but here.. everywhere you go there is white skin all around. People are a little indifferent when they see you.. hey who is that desi roaming around! I couldn’t help but give a smile when I came across a fellow desi in Spain… he returned my smile offcourse (I have never tried smiling at a desi in US, lest he takes offense)!

All in all Europe is a great place.. and I fell in love with the place. I am sure I could do good business with the Europeans..!

PS- Why am I not differentiating between different countries?... Hmm, good question- to come to think of it, though people speak different languages, they all seemed same to me. May be I need to visit again to differentiate..

Ciao till next time...Harsha