Amazing Switzerland

 Reached Switzerland on 29th of June, 2017. A fantastic place so close to nature and beautiful surroundings with lakes, snow covered, Alps and green meadows. No wonder the favourite place of Bollywood directors for the sing and dance sequence.

13th Women's World Congress in Brazil

As I leave for the 13th Women's World Congress in Brazil on 27th July, 2017, I rewind back three  year  fro

m now to our Women's World Congress in 2014 in India, where this book was released and I still consider

this  as one of my favourite books for 18 Feminists across the world have shared their stories. Though

there is so much difference in terms of place, location and time frame for each author, there is a common

thread of struggle in all these stories  where the personal becomes the political be it Cynthia Enloe,

Uma Charkravarthy, Anita Nyberg,   Simona SharoniMaitrayee Krishna Raj, Tahera Aftab,

Geraldine Forbes and many others.As I leave for the 13th Women's World Congress in Brazil I rewind

back three  year  from now to our Women's World Congress in 2014 in India, where this book was

released and I still consider this  as one of my favourite books for 18 Feminists across the world have

shared their stories. Though there is so much difference in terms of place, location and time frame for

each author, there is a common thread of struggle in all these stories  where the personal becomes

the political be it Cynthia Enloe, Uma Charkravarthy, Anita Nyberg,   Simona Sharoni

Maitrayee Krishna Raj, Tahera Aftab, Geraldine Forbes and many others.

A walk in Odenton at 8 P.M.

 On 20th July, 2017, a walk at 8.00 in the evening at Odenton in Maryland. It looks so bright and sunny.

Mount Titlus

 It's easy to reach Mount Titlis from Lucerne via Engelberg, and the cable car will take you up the mountain from here. The train trip between Lucerne and Engelberg takes around 45 minutes, then the total gondola travel time to the summit is about 30 minutes more. Famous for the world's first revolving cable car, Mt Titlis in the Urner Alps of Switzerland, is found between the cantons of Engelberg (Obwalden) and Berne. Saw this on top of Mount Titlus. This shows that many Indians visit this place and Switzerland owes a lot to Bollywood, especially Yash Chopra films for making it a favourite holiday destination.

The village of Gruyères in Switzerland

 On 30th June visited the village of Gruyères in Switzerland. This  lies in the Swiss canton of Fribourg, and is known for cheese-making and its mediaeval town centre. The picturesque city of Gruyères lies at the foot of the Pre-Alps in the canton of Fribourg. Visited the village of Gruyeres from where the best chocolates of Switzerland come. Like the other places it is full of meadows and a green cover and a river flowing nearby with a castle at the top of the hill. This  medieval castle was  built around 11th cen and it flourished till 16th century and a history of 20 counts is available for this period. The word Gruyeres comes from the French word Crane whom the first count saw when he came to this jungle and took is as a good omen and decided to make this his home in 400 A. D. The village has a medieval charm with its streets and narrow lanes and the castle on top of the hill stands tall.

A Polish wedding

 Attended the wedding of my Nephwe Mayank in Warsaw. The wedding took place first in a church In Lowicz, a land of churches few dating back to 11th cen and many from 16th century onwards. In the morning there was a beautiful sight when ever one wore a traditional dress. Polish traditional dress looked beautiful. After the wedding there was lot of dance and eating through out the night. We were tired and left around eleven at night for the hotel but the others kept eating anf dancing. We think the Indian wedding is a big fat wedding but wait till you see a Polish wedding.

In Warsaw, Poland

 Reached Warsaw, Poland late afternoon of 24th June, 2017. From the airport to a large distance nearly 50 to 60 miles or may be more, I am not sure there is a big wall nearly 15 to 20 feet that covers the road on both sides. I felt very frustrated that I could see nothing beyond except when there were few gaps in the wall. Is this to hide some thing or stop noise pollution. I still am not able to find out why is the wall built and will speak to few locals about this. The people are very friendly and met few school boys who were eating in a restaurant and asked us  where are you all from and when we said India they were very happy and said Oh India to us. The weather is beautiful and it was chilly in the evening.