All posts by Madhavan

My trip to Locarno – “Italian” Switzerland : a Photo blog

Tourism, Travel, , , , , ,

As the Autumn was already underway, the temperature had started dropping and sunny days were becoming a rarity. The forecast for last weekend was not exactly great, with prediction of a cloudy Saturday. So,my friends and I decided to go to the warmer southern part of Switzerland. These places,Lugano and other towns nearby, are part of the canton Ticino, borders Italy and the climate has a Mediterranean influence.

We took off early Saturday morning and our train was a CIS Alpino train(jointly operated by the Railways of Switzerland and Italy). Since the train route cuts through Alps and has several tunnels & curves, the CIS Alpino trains are tilting trains. These trains are designed to counteract the centrifugal forces in curves and enhance passenger comfort.

During the journey, the train passes through the beautiful city of  Arth Goldau and also the famous Gotthard Rail Tunnel. This tunnel was completed in 1882 after 10 years of struggle. During the construction of the tunnel, several workers died due to construction accidents and also during a worker strike that was crushed by the Swiss army. This tunnel is 15 km long and was a breakthrough for the trans-Alps train traffic.

After 3 hrs of journey, we reached Bellinzona from where a train was ready for departure to Locarno. The journey time to Locarno from Bellinzona was about 30 minutes.

As we stepped out of the railway station, we got the first glimpse of Mediterranean ambience – Palm trees.

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The climate was not perfect and was quite cloudy. But the clouds could only partially take away the beauty of the town. The Lake Locarno was especially beautiful.   lu2

As we walked along the town, we came across some of the restaurants that serve Italian specialties – Pizzas and Gelatos(Ice creams). Here is a picture of a Pizzeria cum Gelateria.loc3

Other sights included flower sales on the roadside.

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Soon we reached the city square called “Piazza Grande”. It is here that the annual famous “Locarno International Film Festival” takes place. If you are here in August, you can get a glimpse of some of the famous film stars. The films are shown in cinemas during the day, but during the night, films are shown in open-air in this “Piazza Grande” on a giant screen.

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Pretty close to the Piazza are these old Castle remains.

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After roaming around the city, we headed back to lake. The tree leaves were changing colors and provided a great visual treat.

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Walking along the lakeside was a delight. If only the sun had come out for some time!!

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After having a coffee in one of the open-air restraunts, we arrived in the train station. We boarded the train for Bellinzona for our next leg of journey. We had heard that there are some great castles in Bellinzona and planned to spend some time there before proceeding to Lugano, another beautiful city.

The details of the trip to Lugano can be found here.

Are you a “non-veggie” vegetarian?

Custom, Food & Drinks, , , , , ,

If you are a vegetarian, there could be occassions when you become a “curiosity generator”.  When people around me learn that I am a vegetarian, I usually get a series of questions in this order(more or less).

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1. Do you eat fish? No.

2. Do you eat egg? No.

3. Do you eat milk-based products? Yes.

4. What is the reason for being a veggie – Religous? Yes.

I have to say that this happens mostly when I happen to be outside India. In India, vegetarians are pampered with choice. And the questions are very few. After all, 31% of Indians are vegetarians(according to this study). While living in USA, the choice for veg. food got drastically reduced, but the situation was still managable. There was a veggie burger,a veg. pizza or cheese pizza,  a veg. sandwich, a bean burrito or  veg noodles available somewhere nearby. The situation is quite similar in Europe as well. But China was an altogether different experience.

During my initial days in China, I did not have the courage to go to a restaurant alone. Either the menu is all in Mandarin, which I could not read, or in some cases when a menu had the pictures of the dishes, I could not ask and confirm if a dish was vegetarian. So, one of the first things I did was to get a note written in Mandarin from one of my Chinese colleagues which said ” No meat, no fish, no egg please”. I showed this note to the waiter while ordering food. Whenever I went outside my house, I never forgot to carry my home key, mobile, wallet and this “food ordering note”. And when I started my Mandarin classes, the first thing I learned was how to say I am a vegetarian.

The “fun” didn’t stop there. China is a predominantly non-vegetarian nation where only Buddist monks or very pious people are vegetarian. So when I order a vegetarian food, the unmistakeable look on the face of the waiter(es) is ” Is this guy from Mars or Jupiter?”. During a couple of occassions, I heard some giggling immediately after I ordered food. Perhaps I was the butt of some joke ??!!

Even though I have been a vegetarian for so long, I didn’t know quite a few things about vegetarianism. Like, some of the classifications of vegetarians or some jargons. There are also different definitions of who is a vegetarian. But now, I know better, thanks to an article from BBC. The article talks about a “classic vegetarian, vegan, meat-avoider, meat-reducer and green-eater”. Then there is a “flexitarian”. The article also points to “The Vegetarian Society” , which has been in existence since 1847(long time indeed).

The list of jargon doesn’t end there. Here is a sample.

  •  Lacto-vegetarian – a vegetarian who eats dairy products but not egg
  • Ovo-vegetarian – a vegetarian who eats egg but not dairy products
  • Lacto-ovo vegetarian – a vegetarian who eats both egg and dairy products
  • Fruitarian – someone whose diet has only fruits and related things
  • Raw vegan – one who eats only raw vegetables

There are more definitions, but I guess most of the vegetarians fall in one of the categories above. So, next time someone asks me what type of vegetarian I am, I have a two word answer – “Lacto vegetarian”. Only thing is, I will still have to explain what it means 🙂

PS: The BBC article titled “The rise of the non-veggie vegetarian” is available here – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8341002.stm

Image credit –http://www.flickr.com/photos/yolagringo/ / CC BY 2.0

Delicious Swiss cheese Fondue

Food & Drinks, , ,

Last Sunday started just like any other Sunday. I slept more, and by the time I woke, the sun was already strong and beating down. After having breakfast, as I was lazily  browsing through the mails and other news, my landlord invited me to join him for lunch. The previous week, I had shared Sambhar rice(that I cooked) with him and he said he liked it. At that time, he said that he will help me understand Swiss food better. That moment has come now.

I quite happily accepted the invitation, since I would get a first hand experience with some authentic Swiss food(I also didn’t have to worry about cooking lunch that day!!).

The dish was called Fondue, which is usually eaten during winter. Fondue basically has two items. The first is bread in the form of cubes. 

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And the second item is cheese. The cheese used in this case is a mix – Moitié-moitié (or half ‘n half): Fribourg Vacherin and Gruyère. The former is a greyish-yellow cheese and is made of cow milk(and originates from the canton or state of Fribourg). The latter is a yellow cheese, also made of cow milk and is from the town of  Gruyères. The Gruyère cheese is slightly salty and the Fribourg cheese is a bit resiny and acidic.

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The cheese is melted in a pot.A burner keeps the cheese warm and prevents it from solidifying. 

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Now, it is the time for eating. Take the bread cubes, dip it in the melted cheese and, savour the taste. I must tell you, this is a really delicious dish. And a heavy one too.

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The people here usually take pineapple or pear with the Fondue. In our case, we had pears and we dipped the pears also in the cheese. Yummy, Yummy..

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As we were having the lunch, I was told about the other popular Swiss dishes РRaclette and R̦sti.

Raclette is also similar but the cheese is half-solid and potato slices subsitute for the bread cubes. Onion, meat and other vegetables are also used instead of potato slices.

Rösti  is also made of potato and is usually considered a breakfast item. It is basically potato grated and fried and is very similar to Hash Brown potatoes.

When we finished the lunch, the landlord said that when they make Raclette next time, he will invite me again. “Wow! Thank You”.

I eagerly look forward to having Raclette soon. I am also pondering what Indian dish I should cook and share with them next. Shahi Paneer? Rajma Masala?

My visit to “The top of Swiss Alps”

Tourism, Travel, , , ,

As I checked the weather forecast last Thursday, I was delighted that after 2 weeks of bad weather, the Saturday promised to be a sunny day. This revived my “travel itch” and I discussed with friends as to where to go on that Saturday. We decided that we will go to Schilthorn, which is one of the mountain peaks in central Switzerland. But it turned out to be a totally different day than we had planned.

We planned to meet in Bern(the capital of Switzerland) and I left early in the morning and got a one day unlimited train travel pass(for 54 Swiss Francs = 54 USD) . As I boarded the train, I got the message that some of the friends didn’t really get the communication about our travel plans. So, there would be a delay of about a few hours from our original plan. Since I didn’t want to waste that much time waiting in a railway station, I felt that I could go a little further and come back before continuing our planned trip. So, I decided to go to Matterhorn, which is on the Italian border of Switzerland and is also one of the most popular Alps skiing resorts.

From Bern, I took a train to Brig,  from where there was  a mountain train to Zermatt, which is the base for tourists and skiers going to the different locations surrounding Matterhorn. As I arrived in Brig, there was a morning chill but the sun was already going up and I could see some snow covered mountains.

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When I came out of the main train station, I saw another station for mountain trains and a train waiting for departure for Visp and then onto Zermatt.  

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The one hour train journey was quite an exciting one and climbed close to 1000 meters – from 670 m above sea-level(asl) at Brig to 1604 m asl at Zermatt. This route is also used by the famous train “Glacier Express“, which travels from St.Mortiz in south-east Switzerland to Zermatt which is south-west, along the Alps. The Glacier express is also known as “The slowest express train in the world”.

on way to Zermatt

 When I reached Zermatt, the sun was already shining and the climate was quite pleasant. Zermatt is a beautiful little town and had some excellent views of the mountain. Zermatt

As I walked through the town towards the cable-car station, I got my first glimpse of the Matterhorn Peak. And what a stunning view it was!!

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From Zermatt, one could take another train to a peak called Gornergrat, and cable cars to 3 glaciers including “Matterhorn glacier paradise”. I chose to go to the glacier paradise and took the cable car. On the way to the top, I had to move twice to another cable car. These cars were taking me to the peaks that had an altitude of close to 4000 meters. From the cable car, I could see snow, and more snow.

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 So, after close to one hour from Zermatt, I reached the destination -“Matterhorn glacier paradise”. And paradise it was. It was all covered in snow. There were almost zero cloud, bright sun and the snow reflecting the sunlight. It was very windy though, and the temperature was about -10 deg C.

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On a clear day like this, one could see a lot of peaks with altitude above 4000 meters asl. And many of them are in Italy. The picture below shows the Italian peaks of the Alps.

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There was also the glacier. Could there be a more beautiful view than this?

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Skiers were having a fantastic time and there were loads of them, many from USA, Italy and UK.

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Here is a closer look at the skiers.

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On the way down, I could a get a great view of the majestic Matterhorn peak.

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So, after the unplanned visit to Matterhorn, I talked to my friends about our original plans. By this time, it was already close to 2 pm and it didn’t make sense to go to Schilthorn. So, we decided to postpone it for later and to meet at a place called Spiez. As I arrived there and went out of the railway station, I was swept aside by the beauty of this small town along the Lake Thuner. 

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 As one of my German friends told me, Spiez has a special place in the heart of Germans. The reason was that their football team was accomodated in Spiez during the 1954 World Cup and this team went on to win that year’s Football World Cup, held in Switzerland.

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Soon after, my friends arrived and we all spent some time in Spiez before leaving for our homes.

The beautiful day was yielding to night, but I am sure I will go back to Matterhorn again.

What is in a name?

Custom, Language, Tradition, , , , ,

Roman Polanski, Polish film director, has been in the daily news here in Switzerland because of his arrest and subsequent imprisonment. After a point, the news became stale but it raised my curiousity about his name. I asked myself,  “why do most Polish surnames end in – ski/cki/dzki ? ” The answer to this question led me to some interesting cultural learnings(?!).

In Polish language, “ski/cki/dzki”(masculine) or “ska/cka/dzka” (feminine) are adjectives that mean one of these – of/from/nobility. So, Kowalski means “of Blacksmith(Kowal)” and Bradowski means “lord of Bradow”. So Polanski might mean “of Poland”.  My curiosity now increased and I started looking for similarities in other languages. And I started with Russian names.

The common Russian names end in “ov, ev” for men and “ova, eva” for women. Apparently these mean son and daughter respectively. Hence the names like Kasparov, Gorbachev and Medevedev for men and Kournikova, Sharapova and Dementieva for women.

Then I remembered what a Dutch friend told about names from Netherlands. Many of the Dutch surnames start with a Van(of/from) and de(the). Examples – Van Gogh(meaning – from Gogh), de Groot(the large one).

The funny story behind these Dutch names is that, before Napoleon annexed Netherlands, Dutch did not necessarily have surnames. When Napoleon forced them to have surnames, the Dutch chose names to confuse or make fun of the French rulers. For example, according to Wikipedia, the surname Rotmensen means “Rotten people” and Naaktgeboren means “born naked“.

But two very interesting naming traditions come from Africa. In one of these traditions from Ghana, children are given one of the days of the week as a name. For example, Ghana’s first President Khwane Nikrumah was born on a Saturday and hence has “Khwane(Saturday)” in his name. The “Kofi” in ex-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stands for Friday(Thanks to Abhi for this information).

The second tradition comes from the Bushmen of the Kalahari desert(remember the hilarious movie series – the Gods must be crazy?). They have an exclamation/clicking sound in their names. For example, the name of the protagonist in the movie, “the Gods must be crazy”, is Nǃxau(Try to pronounce it). Watch a video from the movie here.

That brings us to Indian names. The north-Indian names follow the pattern of a first,middle and a last name. But names become somewhat complex in South India. The order of name changes a bit and it usually in this order – Father’s name, First name and Last name. In some cases, there is also the name of the place of origin. Take the case of one of the former prime ministers, P.V. Narasimha Rao. The full name is Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao.

South Indians encounter this name issue when they go abroad. For people not familiar with these long names, it is quite difficult to pronounce them. So, to make their life easy, these names are shortened. Haven’t you noticed a “Krishnan” becoming Kris, “Laxmanan” becoming “Lux”, “Gomathi Sundaram” becoming “Gomez” …..and a “Madhavan” becoming Maddy?

After all, what is in a name? 🙂

PS: Don’t miss a funny video from Stand Up comedian Russel Peters here.

Source information – Wikipedia