My short stay in DreamLand...

:) Perfect time to start blogging again.. perfect because I have time (that itself makes it perfect) :) 

Coming to onsite alone, though has it's sad aspects, but also sure does has its perk. And I am realizing it best, sitting here in my apartment in Zurich, Switzerland, listening to a variety of my favorite songs. Not that I cannot listen to songs after office, in India, but they do not get my undivided attention! I cannot concentrate on lyrics too much. I do not listen to them in repeat mode for hours together! Here I am doing all that and much more :-D Listened to DDLJ, DTPH, KKHH, Saathiya, Aisha, Soca Na Tha etc many more such.. :D

Trip to Zurich happened twice in a span of one month. First was very different from the second in a lot of ways. For the first time I stayed for a week from 5th to 12th Nov with Jyothi and since it was an onsite for me after 6 years, was not very sure how would it be. To come to terms with leaving Aashi (only 1 1/2 years) behind was the most sad and painful part of it. And I will admit that I missed her so terribly during this 1st trip that almost cried everyday when I saw her on web chat. Was sure not easy for Abhishek to manage her alone along with his office work. But he just managed well! :) I had my apprehensions that the next stay would be even more difficult as I would be alone, will have to manage project pressures alone, would be here for longer duration, the end dates were not fixed and so on and so forth.. But God had different plans for me. :) 

The adventure started from day 1. I was supposed to fly by Air India during the first trip and managed to miss the flight!! (Ofcourse not due to my mistake.. but as I mentioned that it was Air India.. doesn't that say it all? The flight from Bangalore to Mumbai was delayed and hence missed the one from Mumbai to Zurich.  Wasn't easy to get the Air India folks book me another flight. Took me 4 hours to follow-up and finally had to raise my voice in between the commotion (as there were lots of passengers who had missed their flights due to delays with Air India). But again..despite the trouble to get them re-routed to another flight, got a chance to fly by Qatar airways). Met a scientist on the way who also missed the same flight and he was a good company till Zurich. coincidentally also met Shweta didi's old school friend Renuka in Doha.. she was on a trip to Turkey with her husband. Finally made it to Jyothi's apartment by 2PM on Saturday afternoon. (It was sweet of her to come to pick me at the airport)

During this one week of first trip, Jyothi showed me Zurich lake and we roamed on Zurich streets singing songs of DDLJ (ofcourse Jyothi just hummed along ;-) ) It was nice to have a company all the while during this trip as it was my first time in Europe. We traveled to office by the public transport (tram) and took us 10 mins to reach there. The fall colors were still to be seen in patches and the road to office was good. I enjoyed the change of cold weather. In evenings we cooked lunch for the next day and dinner at home. Work wise it was tough managing multiple projects in different time zones.

I went back after my stay of one week and was happy to be back with family and never really missed Zurich as such. Was excited about my brothers wedding and had loads of fun meeting all cousins and relatives and parents!! I wanted more time in India, and I again should confess that had no inclination of coming back. To top it, my scheduled date of travel was advanced by 3 days and had to fly back the next day I returned from my brother's marriage. Was sure very very hectic and did not make me happy. I was so upset and also did not have enough time to get any gifts from India for anyone in Zurich :(. I then to an extent compensated it by taking the clients for lunch.

But, as against my fears, the second trip was even better. Infact, I can surely call it memorable :) I definitely had got acquainted with clients, people, places and streets in my first trip. So that made it much easier. This time my apartment was just 5 minutes walk and Praveen, Tej, Indus guys, Rutuja.... all stayed in the same apartment or just few blocks away so had company in some ways. 

 I reached mid week on my second trip i.e. on Wednesday morning i.e. 23rd Nov at 6am. Praveen had taken the apartment keys the day before and so was easy for me. I joined office at 8am the same day. From then began the challenge to support UAT users in testing. I was out of touch with this project for a long time and did not have as much functional knowledge as Jyothi. But then read through all documentations, tried and understand it all, as I had to help them in best possible way. The users were supportive too! The best times spent here was in the testing room where we did a lot of testing along with lot of chit-chat and knowing each other better. Arda, Patrizia, Silvan and Stefano.. were my UAT users. Other than these there were other project users in the room as well like Meera and Moilin (Praveen's project users). I generally went on coffee breaks with Arda and Patti... Without really realizing, we were building friendships which would last a lifetime (I hope!).

 During the subsequent days of work there, the friendship grew better, stronger and closer. We started chatting more on webex, going for coffee breaks more often and longer :D, shared our experiences and thoughts more and also more openly.. I started to like the place, the work, the office.. Being the whole day in the UAT (testing) room was fun along with work in true sense!!

Let me remember each of them and the time spent with them..

Silvan, a German and a customer service core user, was sincere to the core ;-). His sincerity and his questions mostly only about the application and his struggle with trying to frame his sentences in English was kind of cute.

Stefano, an Italian and a customer service cards user, was the youngest amongst all. Just 20!! But sure was much mature than his age. I had a very carefree rapport with him. Used to call him bad boy and liar and we had a typical way of saying it..we used to say it super fast followed by 'Grrrr' (never mind :-D it was crazy!) ! It was interesting to know about Italy from him and our conversations were more on our thoughts about music, world etc.

Patrizia, also an Italian, we call her Patti, a collections user, was the closest and the only female friend and I cherished the time spent with her and would always do. She is the very emotional yet always smiling girl. We had loads of girls secret talks in the testing room and shared and connected more on emotional note :) She is so sensitive and caring! She remembered to bring me the Italian cookies, which I had loved when I tasted them for the first time, while I was leaving (Yummy!!)

 Last but not the least...Arda, a Turkish and another collection user. My friendship with him is closest amongst all. It did not start on a good note nor did we click instantly. I found him stupid and oversmart at the same time when I was first introduced to him in the testing room. Lots of questions from him and generally was negative about the application. I also found it strange that instead of concentrating on testing, he was finding faults! But then, I do not think that first impressions are the last impressions.. Infact, I would say, they never are!! :) Same was the case with him. We had a good time together. The base of our friendship is that we are similar in so many aspects. I respect him for clarity of his thoughts. A good nature person and am glad to have met him! Be it going on weekends for drink or having hot rum with almonds on Zurich streets or teasing each other on various things and never missing a chance to pull each others legs, all of them would be cherished! We generally talked and talked and talked! That's the best things with friends! You can be yourself and enjoy their company without pretense. Mostly the talks were about Mia (his daughter), Aashi (my daughter) or Bollywood and TV documentaries. LoL. :) But I must admit that he is not very good at planning outings. But who cares when you are with friends :)

Next weekend went with Tej to Zermatt. Oh! what a breathtaking place!! Was very cold (my overcoat of USA; which did fit me proves that I did not grow all that fat in 6 years; saved me during my stay here :D ). The journey in itself was very lovely. It took us 3.5 hours by train. Had to change 3 trains and the way through Bern was beautiful! I always only saw such scenic beauty in TV or movies! Sure makes you believe that you are in your dream land. I had a feeling that the journey should never end. The most beautiful signhts to my eyes should go on and to add to the romantic feel, the background music in my phone (all bollywood romantic songs.. specially the music of DDLJ) should go on forever and ever! Sigh!
We headed towards Matterhorn after crossing the Zermatt village. The village showed me glimpses of a typical Europe culture. Christmas decorations were in full swing and each house had a unique decoration worth giving a look longer than just glance. The flowers in balconies, the dark chocolate coloured roofs, the contrast colors of decorations outside the houses, the lovely shops of watches, swarovski, jackets, the cleanliness everywhere! My eyes were taking every bit of it with so much happiness.
We reached Matterhorn and took a ropeway towards..hmm.. someplace :D. We had to change the cable-car midway. Here is where we halted for lunch. This was the best part of the trip! we took a table outside in open in Pizzeria. it was sunny yet very cold and snow clad mountains on all sides. What a splendid sight it was! Also, we were very hungry to it added to the taste of the food. After spending an hour there we headed in the next cable car to Matterhorn peak. The view and natural beauty from the cablecar was spectacular! and weather was at its best .. sunny yet cold!
After reaching there, .. we saw a huge plain covered with snow and people skiing on it. I soo wanted to too.! (Maybe next time) We stayed there for around an hour.. mostly just clicked snaps.. seemed like we had gone there just to click snaps or rather do modelling!! I might have clicked more than 200 snaps of Tej. First (and hopefully last) time in my life to click so many snaps of someone I do not know enough !!After I got bored with it, left Tej to himself with my camera and headed back. I think he cursed me at that moment, because I fell down in the snow and he kept clicking my snaps (though he says he thought I was kidding.. I very well know that he knew that I had fallen). Then a good guy who was skiing nearby finally picked me up. There was another small incidence that I remember... There was this another kind-of old guy skiing and then he stopped near us and wanted to have snap with us. His son, who was also skiing, fell down, and we informed him to look at his son as he was asking for help. But this oldy, wanted multiple snaps and said his son would be just fine with himself. We had a good laugh over it! So that was Matterhorn, Zermatt, my first big tourist spot in Zurich..
Evenings, after office, also were bliss for me. I came back generally with Praveen or Tej. We walked back from office and it took around 10 mins (leisure walks). We took different routes generally and once home, the first thing I did was.. ofcourse login to my laptop (btw, laptop not allowed in the office, so just had desktop there). After logging in the internet, first thing I did was open musicindiaonline and play the playlist I had created exclusively for Zurich ;-) Sometimes, when Abhishek was online we had a skype chat and saw Aashi over video call. That was the most emotional part of my stay here, for all other times otherwise had actually started to get accustomed to the routine here. But when she cutely said 'Mummy aayega' (Mummy will come or Mummy came), it would bring back the memories and tears just would not listen before free flowing from my eyes :( She used to start hugging and kissing the laptop thinking I would come out of it! Sigh! Kids!! They r sooo adorable! And, needless to say, I find mine the most :) Anyway, it did not take me too long to come back to reality and make the most of the time and space I got during this stay. I washed utensils, took shower, cooked dinner, worked a litte, pinged on facebook all people whom I was out of touch for so long..and all this while in the background hummed to the tunes of my favorite songs and danced on them occasionally ;-) In the evenings, when weather was not too bad (btw, it was from 1degrees to 10degrees that I experienced during my stay), I went alone to Migros, a super market and spent hours together just window shopping from one shop to another. My friends did make fun of me, to be able to spend hours in such a place and also at times spending huggge amounts in one go :-D But I guess, for me it was the solitude I was enjoying the most.
It had been years that I did a similar thing. Last I remember getting the same feeling was when I was in USA, 6 years back. But I guess, this time I realized and valued my space even more as I have matured, am married, am a mother and have much more responsibilities to shoulder. So to have such a break and that too in a dream city with lovely people around was sure welcomed by my heart :)


We had this GE year end party the weekend after I arrived the second time. Did not start on a good note though. We, as in me, Tej and Praveen came with Thanuja in her car very early to the party (thankfully) at 6:30PM. We came home, got ready in our apartments and then headed to the venue which was Crowne Plaza, not far from where we stayed. When we reached the entrance, at the counter we realized that we had not registered and hence they did not have our names recorded. But what I did not like is the way they reacted and were very cold and did not bother to find out. Thanuja did not have one too, but since people knew her, she was given the badge instantly. My mood was spoiled and somehow we got in after 10 mins or so. We entered a banquet hall where small tables for around 3-4 people were arranged and salads and drinks were being served. I found it just ok. Nothing spectacular! We took wine and three of us stood there just kind of finding ourselves out of place(atleast I did) as Thanuja was busy meeting other people. Tej and Praveen were the only ones in jeans and shirt, rest were formally dressed in suits, so the initial awkwardness was obvious. I am generally a party animal and enjoy being in parties back in India, meeting people, talking a lot with them, dancing, laughing away sharing lighter moments. Here I was feeling strange as did not know people around and got a feeling that we were not very welcomed.

But it was not very long when we found people we knew and started to enjoy the party. Arda joined shortly and was such a good friend to give me company all throughout! Patti joined a little later and was super sweet as usual and was looking soo beautiful! Had a nice time with both of them and their friends, talking, dancing and enjoying! :) Thanks Arda and Patti for making the party fun eventually and giving me company! I had a bad headache after 3 drinks and then took some fresh air outside and felt better. We stayed back till 2:30AM or so and then walked back for almost 30mins with Praveen, Tej, Samesh and Kiran.

Last working day in office was an emotional one for me. The previous day, I made hand-notes for my friends and gifted them a paper clip with a rectangle stand which had blue water inside and a fish/duck which denoted our friendship which would always be afloat. :D We clicked lots of snaps in the UAT room (the time here we spent the most). Also went to an Indian restaurant with Gustav, Thanuja and Ruedi (my clients) for lunch.


Visited some other places like Utleiberg and Flumserberg with Indian friends/colleagues. Utleiberg is supposed to be at the top of Zurich while Flumserberg is another place in the alps at an hours distance, primarily for skiing by local people in Zurich. Flumserberg visit was on my last day of stay in Zurich and was not very keen on it since wanted to spend time with friends or staying alone instead.

But anyway! All places are so picturesque and perfect. Also, public transport here is very good and the half-card system and other ease of buying tickets etc is very impressive! A costly city indeed but worth every day you spend here! Samesh is a good photographer and gave me tips on how to do it right with SLR. We played dumb charades one evening at my apartment. It was with Samesh, Praveen, Tej and Rutuja. Was a lot of fun and was a good laughing break :D!! We also went out or walks at 11pm or so sometimes. 2 days before I left, we (Thanuja, Praveen and myself) had a wonderful dinner at airport with Meera. A nice emotional girl with a lot of good taste for fashion :) She was so sweet to get Aashi a cute toy which Aashi still loves to play with (it is her favorite toy.. a dog wagging its tail :) ). Thanuja also gifted a toy-cum-chocolate which has a button, on pressing which a fan blows. Aashi loves playing with it :)


And, one of the best things that happened there was meeting Moises and Pilar! I was meeting Pilar for the first time and Moises after 6 longs years! Talk about co-incidences! I had met Moises during my work stay in USA in 2005. We had stayed in touch since then and when I informed him about me coming to Zurich, he and Pilar both were very warm and welcoming. When I got to know that they are flying down to Zurich, my happiness knew no bounds.   Though we eventually met only for 30 mins or so in a cafe near my office, it was nice. Something sure is better than nothing! Specially if it is time spent with friends :-) They came with few of their friends, all of whom were very nice people. It was good catching up with Moises and our memories of USA. Cheers to true friendships one builds in a short while but that last for life!


So eventually, when I recollect my days spent there.. apart from the beauty of the city itself and the space/solitude which I got by getting to stay alone, what I will cherish the most is the people I met and the friends I made and the time I spent with them :)


Hope to visit all of you again sometime soon in life :) I still think about you and my stay there..Stay in touch!