indimilano

Master Chef of Zara!

2010-10-27T11:57:00.000-07:00

For a change, this time indimilano post is NOT about a trip.

This is about the day we got to know this cooking genius!
Mr. Saravana Kumar, our class mate and friend from Politecnico.

He had invited us to his hostel room at Zara for a home made lunch.

He had already prepared the 'Maida' sculptures by the time we reached his room. After all, he's a Madirasi expert in Porottas!

of course, the ladies were there to help and to taste! :P

Some more special preparations from the master chef...

Chicken Curry/Fry!

Egg Curry!

Idiyappam/Noolpittu!

Mutton Curry!

Payasam!

Whoa!... that was a killer lunch!!

And then, we tried to watch a movie! . ..dumbest thing ever to do even after such a tasty and heavy lunch!
Hence, when Aamir khan said "aila.. Juhi Chawla!" we were all snorring! :P

***

By late evening all the food that had gone inside had turned into pure energy! And as you would expect, we woke up into complete chaos! :)

Saravana!!!!!... that was a soopar kool lunch!...
Invite us again for yet another sussooppar lunch! :)

Tour di Parigi

2010-09-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

When we were in Politecnico, weekends had never been some days to sit idle and relax... they had always been hectic... travelling... and experiencing europe! And for that, you have to prepare; especially if you need to do all the fun, extra cheap! :)

One fine day, we all decided to plan a trip to Paris... and this is the story of what happened there after and how we even ended up spending one night in the streets of some remote area in the outskirts of Paris!

Day X

That day, we booked tickets for six of us from Centrale station, Milano to Paris!

Sitting outside the Centrale station, eating the 50¢ Ice-creams from Mc.Donald's was fun; discussing over and over about the trip that we just planned... by the way, Manoj, do you remember eating the ice-cream which fell on the pavement?

Day Zero

That Friday evening, we were all set for the big trip.

and when we reached Centrale station, we had enough time to wait for our train...

and we waited... for our 23:35 train (Parigi is italian for Paris)

and with that awesome night journey in a soopar fasht train, we were on our way to paris!

Day One

And next day morning, we were in Paris!

As I had mentioned before, we had been planning our trips extra cheap. And after a lot of Googling, we had booked tickets for a hotel in a galaxy far far away... I know, my bad...

back to train charts...

We had to travel through too many tubes to finally reach our destination.

A little more walk through the outer sectors of Paris... we reached our Hotel. Looks ultra cheap eh?

Whenever we arrive at a station, the first thing to do was to collect as many maps and brochures about that place possible!. From our past experience, we had realized that this was going to be our survivor's kit in a European country where they doesn't really speak English.

Of course, the first thing to do, while waiting for our room keys was to dissect each and every fiber of those maps!

But when we got the room keys, we realized that truth!..
"itna paisa mein itnaich milenga!" ...

our rooms were dirty and stinking... and had some free gifts from the previous occupants! what the!!!...

Anyway, in no time, we were all set for the dream destination...

First stop, Arc de Triomphe; the triumphal arch honouring those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars (wiki says).

We still have no idea what the hell was going on there that day with so many soldiers all around and military vehicles on the road. Whatever it may be, it was fun time for us!

I need not mention that specifically; but those soldiers were totally harmless :)

Some more photo sessions and we were now hungry to be there at the heart of the city to see the one and only...

Eiffel tower!

It was almost evening when we actually reached the place and it was a breathtaking sight! That thing just stood there with attitude. And when the evening became darker, they switched on the lights on the tower.

For us, to have such an unexpected, extra awesome Europe-tour was like watching a movie. And to be specific, the movie: Euro Trip!!. And to make that experience complete, we even found "Bratislava" on the floor mat in front of the Eiffel tower!!

I'm sure, these pics can never ever convey the grandeur of this place and structure. But still, I'll post some here.

When we reach a place like this, the most common urge will be to get on top of the structure to see how it feels like. But we somehow managed to suppress this feeling and went ahead to a tall building nearby to see how Paris City looks like...

and it looked like this!

689 ft above ground level, on the terrace of the Montparnasse building, the view was just breathtaking!

People just stood there astonished, looking at the search light on top of the Eiffel tower, sweeping the City of Paris!

And on our way back, we even got to see some rare photographs at the cafeteria, which showed the Eiffel tower being constructed.

Day Two

This day was dedicated for the Louvre museum and its premises.

And this day was interesting because our team got split, although we all started together from the hotel room! Obviously, that wasn't intentional but it just happened. When some of us went to check out an automobile exhibition while the other were busy eating!

Anyway, the Louvre!!
Those who have seen/read The Da Vinci Code, must remember this place!

Well, that's just how it looks from outside... but inside.. it's a treasure!!!!!! seriously!!!

I'll insist any one if they could afford it, must have at least one visit to the Louvre museum!

Forget the fact that they have plenty of masterpieces by the greatest artists ever lived on earth; just looking at the grand scale of those exhibits will make you dumbstruck!.

For example, look at this painting's scale!..

And its details!!!... you could even see their eyes detaild. Photography was prohibited inside, and this is the only zoom level I could manage ;)

We were talking about masterpieces a few minutes ago... and they were all over this place..

But since those innumerable signboards kept talking about these two things, I'll post them here for you.

1. Mona Lisa by the one and only... Da Vinci!..
But I must admit, it didn't really make a punch since it was too small for a master piece!!! yup.. seriously! :)

2. Venus!..
.....Hmm... Gabbar singh!!!!!!!!....

and of course... sometimes, it was fun to have fun with the sculptures every now and then :)

Of course Louvre was awesome!.. but you know.. it was too much of awesomeness that at one point, we were saturated. But believe me, even after deciding to stop and return, we had to spend a lot of time inside the museum tying to find an exit.

Every door which looked like an exit opened up into another exhibition hall which was even more interesting!

Anyway, after some more attempts to get out and subsequently visiting some more interesting galleries, we were out of the museum.

and as anyone can guess...we were hungry!

One interesting way of cost-cutting that we had devised was to depend upon department stores instead of restaurants! Just walk into a nearby dep.store, pick up one pack of bread, Mayo and Nutella! whoa!.. that's our meal.. anytime.. anywhere!! :)

Paris City was really intersting at night with all of its ancient churches and other pieces of architecture.

Church of Notradam with its flying buttresses...!.. it was an experience in itself to watch this in real-life, instead of those black and white images from the Xeroxed text books in my architecture days.

A few more walks through the city, looking at the gorgeous buildings we came back to the Louvre courtyard.

And it was time for us to click some photographs of ourselves in front of that extremely famous Glass Pyramid of Louvre!

but the interesting part is that just few minutes before the other group was doing the same circus that we did later :)

And later, both teams got back to our stinking hotel room...

Day Three

It all started with that really cold breakfast we had there... We had great plans for the day!

It was our last day in Paris, and we checked out from the hotel.

As I had mentioned before, we had great plans for the day. And the most important of it was the visit to Catacombes de Paris, which is a huge underground tunnel and stuff, filled with human skeletons. These are images that I collected from the net, just to show you what you could actually see there.

We were so excited on this day's trip that you can actually see on our faces!..

Watch the video..

After so much of enthu, we had to come back just looking at the entrance gate! :(

It was a monday and "Catacombes de Paris" was closed on Mondays!

Well, that doesn't mean that the day was ruined... we had another great day ahead.... which was much more beautiful than we ever expected...

A walk through some of the French Gardens (I know, technically this was not a french garden.. but you see, if it's a garden in france, we can call it a french garden.) when it was drizzling slightly... nice!

Our next location was The pantheon. In fact, when I first saw the name Pantheon on the map, I thought it was the one with that opening on the dome. But that was in Rome and I'll talk about later when I write about our Rome trip.

By the way, let me share something interesting that we saw. Looks like there's a lot of Motorbike/Cycle theft in Europe. Everyone chains their vehicles to something. Be it a 500cc motorbike or an orinary bicycle. But still, some people fail to understand which part of their vehicles values the most :)

Well, I was talking about pantheon a few lines before.. here it is.

As usual, once the architectural beauty was all digested we had nothing much to do other than going crazy and clicking crazier photographs.

Being in Paris, one thing that we never wanted to miss was a visit to the notorious Moulin-Rouge. It was raining slightly... but still we managed to get there... and that placed looked just awesome!

There was this subway vent on the ground, like the one which blew Marylin Monroe's skirt up. And it was there we clicked this pic of ours about which Tanu once said "...our pic outside Moulin Rouge.. nothing can beat that!" Yup.. seems true!

As I told you before, it was raining slightly and to just stand there at the street corner, looking at the beautiful lights reflected on the wet streets was pure pleasure..

Art-Nouveau! Something that I had studies in my architecture text books. And on of the most talked about example was the Paris "Metropolitan". I always wanted to see one when I was in Paris.... and finally I could, just when I was walking 'back' to the Subway entrance...

Way back:

That was the end of it... or at least, we THOUGHT that it was the end of it... but it wasn't.. a series of unfortunate events were just about to begin.

The last bus to the airport had gone already! and the air port was in some remote area in the outskirts of Paris... around 100kms from the city! (Again! just because we book cheap flights!.. and this international flight to Italy was for 1200 rupees!!!!)

The last bus had gone and we had to figure out a way to reach the air port. Asking help from someone from a Non-English-Speaking country is hell!! No one understood what we were asking... and even if they could manage, they spoke back in French!!!..

Bouxeaus de vaus pagria pleurx!!! what the hell do we understand from sounds like that???

But somehow, we managed to get in touch with one Sreelankan Train officer who helped us find the right train for us... but remember... only for HALF the way.. !!!

"That's fine, we'll hire a taxi or something from there"... -we thought... and waited for the train.

But things didn't happen the way we thought it would... the station where this train dropped us was somewhere in the middle of nowhere...!!..

We reached there around 11:50PM and there there were no damn taxis.... none!!!... and the next train that could take us to the nearest station to the airport was at 6:30AM!!!

All that we could do was to sit quietly in the station... where it was slightly warmer than the cold weather outside. Even the 5 layer clothing couldn't resist that bone chilling weather.

But that didn't last long!!..
When it was midnight, the station master told us that the station will be closed at night, and we can come back in the morning for the 6:30 train.

Come back??????
Where the hell do we go... to come back??

We are in the middle of nowhere... no hotel, no taxi... where do we go? It's F'ing cold!!

But we had no other choice but to spend the night on the street!..

And that area was totally deserted!.. there were no one on the streets...

and at first, we thought we can manage the chill, inside this telephone booth... but infact, it was of no use...

I told you it was cold... but only when we checked it later on the weather chart next day we came to know the temperature there that night...

it was 1°C!! .. can you imagine?.. one more degree down, water is ice... that's 3rd grade science!!

And finally, some one found this Halogen lamp on the ground... which was installed there to light up the building.. Whoa!!!.. that was heaven!!.. well.. That's against the usual concept of heaven and hell, where hell is supposed to be hotter... But no way.. this time, this extra hot halogen lamp was heaven for us...

Like shepherds around a fire, we spent the night there sitting around the halogen lamp, defrosting our hands and feet, which had become "lakdi ka pair" (manish.. your story again)...

That was it... and when the station re-opened, we all ran back in, had some hot coffee from the vending machine (did we?)... and it was time for the train..

There wasn't much time left.. and we had no idea how far the next station will be from the airport. But we had no other choice... and finally when the train came, we said bye to Persan Beaumont!!...

Mr.Murpy had gone for a leak it seems...because from then on, we were lucky... When we reached the station, there was just ONE taxi waiting outside which could accommodate 6 people!! :)

A little more drive and we were at airport.
It felt a bit sad to throw away all the Mayo/Nutella bottles that we always carried before the security checks.. we were not allowed to have check-in baggages... we're back-pack travellers!!!

...and it was time to fly back...

Day Four

And when we reached back in Milano, after this Incredible... and later Adventurous Paris trip, it was pure happiness... time well spent!!!

ciao!.. Grazie a dio!!

Firenze!

2010-07-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

The first Study-Tour was over, and it was time to go back!
And the most important question remained...
Go back where? Milano?

But we had other plans in mind for the weekend! -Florence!! a.k.a. Firenze!

On our way back to Milano, some of us got down at Bologna, from where we had to catch a train to Florence, which was not so far from this station. Meanwhile, Rachita had plans for a short Paris trip, but unfortunately she missed the train that morning. Like if we care.... look at the expressions of the people in this pic :)

Soon, we were in train on our way to Florence...

A few hours of train journey and we were there...

Couldn't resist a few more clicks in front of those great looking trains :)

Day 01

We reached there almost in the afternoon and the first thing to do was to find a place to stay.. or to be more correct, a place to dump our luggages safely! Thanks to google, and suggestions by sahil, we found this nice place called Plus Youth Hostel where we could actually dump our stuff and jump out for the day out.

We were just roaming around in the city, exploring every street and bridge... eating pizza from the street side shop or thinking whether we should actually rent a cycle to move around the city. Well, finally we didn't hire the cycles though.

As far as I can remember, the most important thing that we did that evening was the visit to Accademia Gallery where we could see the.... I mean.. THE david. But of course, the queue was long.

But what interested me the most there was the Half-finished works of Michael Angelo. Those sculptures just stood there as if Michael Angelo was still working on them and he just went out for a coffee or something!!

Looking at those forms emerging from huge rectangular blocks of stone, we can actually say that he was in fact, chiseling out the rest of the stuff just to reveal the sculpture inside.

But waiting there outside that museum, in that long queue was quite taxing. But the street artists some how provided us with some entertainment, like this sheet of paper where Amresh got his name painted.

Some of us were happy with this one museum that we never wanted to spend €10 again to see few more statues. We were kinda saturated. But as the other part of the team went ahead exploring some more museums, we set out to check out the city.

It was a great time exploring that small sweet city... and at night the two teams met again!

... and had an awesome Indian dinner in Florence with Tandoor Roti and Kadai chicken!

While walking around the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, we never felt the real importance of the place, how great it is considered even just to be there. And the realization of the fact that we were NOT like those tourist groups who were walking like ducks behind that tour-guide with a red flag, made our day much more awesome!!

and at some point, we could even catch a bird's eye view of the entire city. Thanks to manish's camera which almost fell of the edge of the city while it was counting down to click.

The walks were just fantastic, and the place, just indescribable. By this time, we had already walked though most of the city streets and bridges. And at one of those bridges, we met this man, playing guitar. He was all into himself, completely immersed in his own music. I couldn't do anything but just stand still somewhere near and listen to the music when he started one of my favorite music pieces ever.

... and it was time to come back to the hostel... a brief halt at the park nearby.

As I mentioned before, Plus was a nice place, where we could get decent accommodation at a reasonable price. It was fun, just spending time with funny stories and stuff. Manish, we'd like to hear that "Lakdi ka pair, aur gaay ka pet" wala story once again from you!!!

Day 02

A good night's sleep and we woke up into the next day of Florence Trip. Walking through the Plus Port brand store, we made our way to the breakfast room.

Like most of the youth hostels, the hostel charge included the breakfast as well. But in contrary to our expectations, that was a great breakfast we had there, which in fact fueled most of the day later.

But as we set out for the city visit again, we were all in tears... almost! That city was completely filled with sculptures!.

You might be wondering why do we have to be sad to see so much of wonderful art right in the open in the streets. Because, we paid a lot of money just to see them 'inside' the museum yesterday!!! And now see, everywhere you look, there's a statue!..

Well, we had to move on... now walking through the same streets that we were exploring last night.

But today, it was much more fun, to see so many street artists who were dressed up like sculptures!. and this cupid was the best among them!! He had a talent for amazing expressions!

...and once again, photo sessions!!!

Well, if you look closer, it's not just Tanu, but we're all in there!

If we had a fake bird's eye view of the city yesterday, today was the time to have it in real. We had to climb really a long way up the mountain just to catch a glimpse of this majestic city, with it's basilica bulging out into the sky like a Queen Bee in a bee swarm!

But it was not just the view of the city that was catching attention there. Uh oh! David again!! That was a copper replica of the famous sculpture David, by the great artist, Michael Angelo! Couldn't resist clicking a photograph of ours, right under his masterpiece! -if you know what I mean.

Although that copper sculpture looked kinda okay from a distance, it was really ugly with all that bird shit right from his head to toe. According to Manoj, from behind, he looked as if he had Diarrhea!! :)

Well, if you think, David was the only one naked around there, you're wrong! we had some guys in some really weird Aprons that could've even made David jump up from the pedestal!

Well, although we didn't really buy any of those aprons, it was indeed fun clicking pics! Had a great time up there checking out the souvenirs, clicking pics and enjoying the view of the city once again!

And on our way back, we met all those street artists once again. Creating stunning artistic works and Spreading happiness for free!

And this time, we got even more close with the cupid!

Once again.. walking back next to canals of that beautiful city...

And finally, it was time to say good bye to Florence... a.k.a Firenze!
We started our journey back from Firenze Train Station that day evening.

And one more great train journey, we all were back in Centrale, Milano!!!

Thank god, yet another awesome trip to add to our great European memories!!!

Trip 01, the rest of the days

2010-07-13T11:05:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,

After a looooooong time, I'm restarting this blog.. with entries from the past :) May be this will help us remember and re-live the awesome time we had there!!

Well ya, by 'awesome', I meant "AWESOME!!!"

We were at Recanati (still...) and each day was a memorable day... visiting places, eating pasta, drinking wine, roaming around, having fun in that great, small town to come back and sleep at the cozy hotel room.

Well, to talk about the hotel room, hmm... see, this was the view from my window!

And as I mentioned before, it was great fun to empty all the wine bottles on all the tables and go for a walk(?) Singing and dancing to the "world's most pathetic dance" tune, and making noise that reverberated along the narrow corridors of that beautiful township.

and we celebrated Neha's birthday right in the civic center courtyard with a bum-dance! This crazy dance form was introduced by Saravana where people are supposed to write H-A-P-P-Y-B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y with their bums. And needless to say, it was deadly hilarious!!

And one day, when our coordinators took us to the Recanati Beach, it was fun time again!

And one evening to Loretto church. Architecture in italy is something that you should enjoy with all your heart. Just roam around, be there at the piazzas, town squares, church courtyards and enjoy those type of spaces that otherwise you won't even find in India.

And there we saw some funny technology for lighting candles. You put a coin as offering and one candle will light up!! ha ha ha!!!

Of course, it was a study tour and we had been visiting Italian factories, design houses and much more. One thing that I must say about the factories is 'automation'. When we went to this Florim tile factory, It was all bloody damn automated, that virtually we couldn't find any human being there!!.

And the first one that I met there (except for the guy who was showing us around) was the cleaner guy with a bucket and mop. Just check out this video where you can see robots (or automated machines) which runs around stacking tiles, and moving them around. (I can't find that video now.. will update as soon as i find it)

And while we were at Faber, we found a poster which looked very 'Indian' :) and indeed, it was Indian :P apparently, this Faber guys have strong Indian business connections (they have a store even in Thrissur, Kerala)

We visited so many Italian factories, stores and design houses that I can't really mention everything here. But some of them, which really stood out of the crowd, I must mention here. Like FAAM, who had the 'best' logo ever. and I bet no one can ever beat the Starting Slide of their presentation!!!!

But I'm sure, it was not just that slide which went into our hearts as sweet memories!

Heard about this place called Urbino? Don't mind if you haven't.
The point is, we had been there!! :)
Yet another awesome city in an awesome land!

I'm confused at this point that I have sooo many photographs that I'd like to put here.. But it's practically impossible. Anyway, I hope these few photographs will revive our old memories and create a mental picture, which we all can enjoy.

And on our way back, we say a flock of sheep again. It was Laura and Chiara who told us about this practice of "saying bye bye to the sheep". As per Italian belief's. Believe it or not, saying bye to them always brought us plenty of "money pockets" :P he he!

And after two weeks of great fun, we had to say bye bye to Recanati as well. But not before that night when we all food and wine once again with Mr.Bossa, Chiara and Laura. Still remember all the noise we made that day, and Chiara's toast.

And the next day, we started our journey back to Politecnico di Milano... Just to continue all the fun that we had been having all day... will post about them soon... see ya.

Study Tour #01

2008-10-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

Allora!!..

The most awaited study tour is here.. our first official trip in Italy. The Idea is to have a one week study tour to the industrial districts of italy so as to have a lot of industry exposure and of course.. some good time ;)

Since this is a long trip, I'll keep you updated with daily updates on this same post..

Day1

We started from POLI.design on Sunday morning around 11am. A bus was ready, waiting for us at the entrance of the university. (Well the image that you see below is of the same bus.. but taken at some other time.. he he)

Well, it's a one week trip and we were all prepared with bread, Chocolates, Mayonaise etc. And we had them a lot on the way...

But you know what.. we didn't really know that even the food was sponsored by the italian ministry ... :P

After a while, Bus stopped at a Restaurant called X-Chefs. Well, the basic idea was for everybody to get some room to release their tension.. he he.. you got what i meant...

Anyway, that was quite a nice restaurant...

Our Lunch was from the same place, and we could pick anything we wanted..

Well.. yea, as you know.. it's true that if you get it for FREE, you'll even drink acid..

See.. this is what happened :)

:D I don't know, how much they spent on our lunch that day.. According to our rough guess, it's nothing less than 45,000 rupees.

-----

After this really really heavy lucnch, almost everyone went to sleep...

A few more hours, we reached this place called Recanati where our stay was arranged...

...

Ho ho!.. look at that hotel, I still don't understand the kind of treatment that the italians are giving to us.. it's just awesome!

Look, how joyful we are after getting into these rooms... where we're gonna stay for the next one week...

This is where me and Devesh are staying.. look at the view from the window.. I hope you're getting a small sense of it...

For example, the image below was clicked from our window :)

Well, we were all set... dinner is at 8'o clock, we had some time to kill..

Some of the NIDians, who're doing their diploma project here in italy had come to meet..

Me, Manoj and Manish; we just went out for a walk...

Wow, the place where we were staying is just amazing..

It's all pretty old buildings, conserved very well, that I'm wondering why the hell they constructed all these on top of this hill? May be an old for or something?? I don't know.. Gotta find out..

Anyway, The only thing is for sure is that, this place is Damn beautiful!!

On our way back, we met these two human beings.. :)

Himani and Tanushree..

Had a nice time walking around and clicking pics...

Well.. as they had announced before, our food was ready at 8'o clock.

Again, ek dam Khatarnaaak!!!

That was a grand dinner, with Lasagnia, Rice, Fruits, Meat, Wine and whatever whatever...

And we really understood what does it really mean when italians say "Slow Food"... We took almost two hours to complete our food, course by course....

anyway.. that was awesome!

But the real surprise was after the dinner!!!!

There was a small meeting at the lobby.. and we were really shocked when they distributed the "Money Pockets" :)

Well.. what they meant was "Pocket money" for us..

He he!!.. 100 Euros per head as pocket money!!.. well.. that's not bad! :D

It was PK's birthday (Praneeta) that day and it was quite fun when we gathered out side to sing the birthday song...

Well, again.. one more stroll... thruough the beautiful streets of Recanati..

It felt as if we were walking through a set made for some shakespeare movie..

that was such an amazing experience..

See the kind of spaces this small place has got...

The kind of texture of wall..

... and the beautiful narrow streets...

Some more time on the streets... sitting lukha on the tall retaining wall, enjoying the view of the whole world below us (u don't beleive, this hill is so high that we can see almost the entire planet from here!!)....

Back to the room and a small dose of the movie Euro Trip, and the day was over for us.. good night!!

Day2

Buon Giorno!!

Officially, our first day of the visit.. We were 'supposed' to be ready by 8am in the morning after the break fast.. and it was pretty strange that almost all of us could make it within 8:15 :)

Well yea,.. the break fast was doubtlesly awesome!

A beautiful morning... we were on our way to the industrial area... really enjoyed the great views of the farmlands and sea.. thanx to manish, who kept clicking these pics on our way..

After a couple of hours journey, which most of us spent sleeping, we were at Cosmob, the first industry visit.

A little presentation...

...interesting works of students...

... and a visit to their, quality checking and testing lab where furniture is tested for its durability, streangth and what not..

By the time we finished Cosmob, it was time for lunch. And when Chiara (our trip co-ordinator) announced "we're going to have a quick pasta and water and everything else is upto you" we were all smiling, thinking about the great lunch that we had yesterday!! :D

But whatever, the QUICK pasta and WATER they said, turned out to be yet another great lunch!!

These are our trip co-ordinators, from the italian ministry.

Laura and Chiara ...

Lunch is over.. and our Next destination: IFI

IFI who manufactures Ice cream display cabinets and refrigeration units, had arranged a meeting in such a grand scale that it was the CEO of the company who gave us the welcome note.

And then.. the factory visit..

These are IFI's Platinum model refrigeration and gelato (ice cream) display units.

These circular things (again, icecream storage) costs around 13lakhs..

Well.. once the presentation was over, it was eating time again :)

That was a funfilled trip that we had on our way back...

all our Indi-Instincts were out when we started singing and shouting film songs and playing anthakshari inside the bus! :) yenjaaaaayed :P

Well.. again, there was one more announcement from Chiara that tonight's dinner will not be in the hotel we stay, but at some OTHER place...

When she said that we could think nothing but the thing that we mustbe going to some cheaper restaurant...

But once we were there... surprise strikes again!!!

An awesome candle-lit, slow dinner!!

A lot of great food and unlimited wine, it was time to have some fun...

walked around again through the streets (no pics) even getting scoldings from fellow residents who were pissed of with our shouting and masti...

---

Had lots of fun today.. and it was time for some ghost stories in the dark...

Well.. the two legs you see in the above pic is Manish, who's little heart couldn't take such stories and fainted!!! :) he he :P and next to him under the blanket, mister Bhola, who got a hearattack from Acidity.... (internal joke)

:) It's really bloody late, and I need to sleep ...

Good night.. Ciao

Day 3

Well.. one more day, let me describe it as concise as possible.. this post already very long..

One more great breakfast.. (for all those great people who managed to get up in time and to be present in the breakfast area..)

Our first visit today was to a leather furniture factory.. Paltrona Frau, One of the major leather funiture manufacturer of italy.

:) you know what.. when we were standing at the stock area, where all the cow leather were stacked, it was kind of a graveyard feeling!!!..

felt like thousands of cows on those steel racks.. brrr...

Allora!.. you should see the way they cut the leather...

The full leather is kept on a plat form and the shape of the pieces to be cut are projected 1:1 on the leather by laster...

Yes!.. it looks like a mini laser show :)

and it's even more interesting to see how the technician manipulates these projected pieces to arrange them...

And we could even see the Castiglioni's chair in the making...

And to the show room of the Frau group.. a little presentation there..

and a little more fun downstairs :)

A quick sandwitch for lunch and we were at the next destination, the shoe district of Macerata..

A nice design school, where they teach shoe design..

The place where this school was located was damn beautiful..

we went a little inside to have a look... and it was all green..

I think even my DIMI friends didn't see this place..

leave the green thing... see how all of us managed to get a group photograph

This is the complete DIMI student set.. :) the one and only complete photo!

That night dinner was with Mr.Bosso, from the italian ministry..

As usual, some of us continued at the dinner table.. having fun and enjoying recanati times to the fullest.. :)

This time we decided to walk to the other side of the city..

It was the most memorable!!.. when we spent some time at this building.. well.. now don't ask me the history of this place.. we really don't know.. all that i heard was that this statue was a poet of the 19th century.. one Mr. Giacomo Leopardi

Whatever it is.. we had fun there.. playing dumbsherards (bad spelling) and all at night.. khatarnaak masti..

watch the video

and then.. good night

Day 4

As usual a fast break fast and a long journey in bus through the beautiful farmlands of italy.

Our first stop was the indesit factory which looked like a glass 'dubba' from outside but once we were in.. we were blown away with the modern details of architecture..

Presentations are inevitable.. even these guys had one.. but interesting in someway when we compare the other presentations we've seen so far. I don't know why the so called 'italian design' is doing not well with the communication design part of it.

:) well.. some hope for we people what say?? he he

Presentations are inevitable... so as food!!!

And our next stop this company who manufactures jacuzzis!

One more pesentation...

and one more... but this time by two architects who do intersting projects worldwide.

And this was really a chance for us to how companies work hand in hand with architects and designers..

And then..... one more presentation! at the Bontempi Casa .. who manufacture furniture!

But always... some edible reward will be waiting for us :)

And then.. the show room visit!.. a lot of interesting desin stuff to get inspired.

And you know what... Bhola is back!!!!

We were wondering what the hell happened to him when he disappeared all of a sudden from the group.. cuz we remember him having a heart attack from acidity yesterday..

Look at the care and concern that we have for this Bholu!!

And back in recanati..We had another great dinner.. sorry no photos this time..

And you know what.. it was Neha's birthday we had a blast that night!!!!

Yes of course we have photos and vidoes.. ;)

and i'll let you see one.. when she gave us an icecream party!!

Lot of fun!!! that we can't ever forget!!!

one more great day at recanati.. thank god!!

About the Photographs

2008-10-13T11:52:00.000-07:00

Guys,... I would like to inform you one important thing...

Most of the photographs in this blog are clicked either by MY FRIENDS or by me..

remember, this is NOT a photography blog, but a description of our little life...

And please don't feel bad if i don't put the photographer's name with each of these pics..

thanks a lot for you contributions..

Thank you... yenjaaay :)

-bijuneYYan

Como, an instant visit.

2008-10-11T16:50:00.000-07:00

We woke up so late that saturday morning that we were not even in a mood to go and brush our teeth.

But anyway, since we had an idea to go SOMEWHERE, we managed to get ourselves ready and have breakfast cum lunch and set out to this beautiful place called COMO.

Well, without that much of a planning we went to Centrale (Chen-tra-ley) station and booked our tickets to como. We didn't even know where to book the tickets that the guy behind us had to select the station for us. anyway, this place called Como is so close to Milan that it's just 3.6 euros per person.

Well, watever, we had to take a metro train to Porta Garibaldi since there were no cheap Regionale (Ree-gio-na-ley) trains from the centrale station.

We had to wait for and hour at the Porta Garibaldi station.. so we started roaming around inside itself. doing a lot of window shopping..

You can't believe how much these italians pay for designer stuff... It's ridiculously too much expensive.. Look at this goggles (you call it whatever...) we found.. 395 euros is much more than 25 thousand ruppes!!!!

:) even the window shopping was expensive that we got exhausted and still there was a lot of time to kill...

After a lot of confusion, we found out the right train to Como.. and the journey started...

A little more than an hour we were at our destination...

Como lake was just walkable distance from the station. (We din't know that and took a bus from there.. he he)

Como is a small beautiful lake city with lot of small buildings around the lakefront...

Since this was such an unplanned trip we didn't take anything to eat or enough winter clothing.
Bought some Pizza from the nearby shop and had them at the lake side.... aaaraaam se...

It was bloody damn chilling and we were not at all prepared!!! Well, to be frank, 'I" wasn't prepared where manish and manoj had enough sweaters, monkey caps etc.. ( hee hee.. he lost it on the way back.)

But anyway, because of this cold, at least we felt like we're in another country..

till now, we had been feeling that we just had a trip to Pune or something...

Well, yea as you can see.. we kept clicking ourselves :)

You don't know how much effort goes into each and every pic..
Look down to see how did we manage to get the pic above!!

Manoj's death defying act of getting into ice-cold water.. bare foot!

Having an gelatto (ice cream in italian) when it's chilling outside and we're trembling with cold is an awesome experience that you'll understand only when try it yourself...

To enjoy the real beauty of the place, it's a must to take a boat ride through the lake...

... looking at the beautifully small buildings on the lake front...

... Spread up like they're stacked one upon the other...

It was a round trip ticket that we had taken and we got down at a small little town called Torno.

We still don't really know what exactly was going on there, may be some kind of festival or somehting.. all the families were selling something or playing music...

As usual, we continued teh clicking sessions with my favourite model Manish..

Torno was really a beautiful place... wish if we could stay there for a couple of days so that we'll get to know the place much more than what we could experience in half an hour.

That staight line that you see in the image below... which goes up the hill... is actually a railway track to reach to the top of the hill.. unfortunately, we didn't get enough time to explore..

One thing that you can't miss observing is the architecure.. it's different and interesting.

We had a nice evening was through the narrow streets of como before we left..

The night view off the lake was magnificient. with those jewel like lights along the lake front..

It was so late and we were hungry! ..
and when we went ot eat come pizza and coke, we met this guy Ehsaan from Pakisthan at the Pizza shop.. A nice guy who gave us info about switzerland and gave us lot of finger chips to eat :)

Anyway, we decided to chuck our idea to have a trip to Torino next day...
There was a train aroudn 21:30 and we were back...

An awesome trip and a nice sleep at the comfort of our own room :)

Thank god.. that was a great unplanned trip again...

Fashion week -Milan

2008-09-25T13:45:00.001-07:00

Fashion show!
something that we've seen only on TV..

(yea.. your'e right.. there had been a couple of shows in college too.. but we just didn't consider.. he he :) ... )

Well. valentina (our tutor) said

"It's okay... you can wear anything... hmm.. except 'traditional'... and be elegant!"

:) hmm.. i know why she said "except traditional" ... he he.. i think she's still in shock of our Onam attire!!

Whatever it is.. we decided to try out something really weird.. check this out!!

"Yenna raaascala!!"

Don't ever think that anybody could've gone for this show..
We had official invitation from Roccobarocco.. kya baat hai!! he he :)

We had one of our faculty (i think) from POLI.design there at the show..
had to wait for a while... the show was not yet started.

The feel of the place was awesome!!..
A big hall full of people and media people.. great lighting and awesome sound!!

DIMIs were ready for the show.. :)

Anda yea.. jhaka jhak!!..

Flashes went like lightning..
You can't imagine the Camera crowd at the end of the ramp.. !

The first collection was really grand with heart thumping music!

And at the end... to complete the feel of an original fashion show... the designer showed up...

You can see a small video clip here.. very bad quality.. if you want.. you can go watch FTV ;) instead..!

And yea... feedback from our friends.. that's interesting..

Well.. now it's time for US.. to have some fun! :)

Yo!.. Italiano.. Fashionano!! :)

cinqueterre

2008-09-25T13:33:00.001-07:00

Someday I heard them planning..
"this weekend Cinque Terre jaana hai.."
I didn't get this word in the beginning. it's pronounced as "Cheen-qwey-te-RRe" Where Cinque is 5 in Italian and Terre is land.. so it means five types of lands or something..
any way.. when googled for images on the net.. we got an idea that it's just an amaazing place to be..

The plan was to be there at the Centrale station so early that we won't miss the train at 7.15 am. We're the people who reach at 10.15 for the 9:45 class.. i don't know how did we manage...

We.. the most important part... this was the most chaotic trip we ever had... nothing went the way we planned.. as plans started topling over at every moment of the trip.. right till the end.

Murphy's law was proved true... everytime..

Anyway.. it was around 11 of us when we started the trip.. and the idea was " First cinqueterre, and everything else as we decide on the way.

As I told you.. this was a trip with lot of gadbads... gadbad hi gadbad tha..!

Only few turned up for the trip on time that includes Me, Manoj and manish who just made it just two minutes before the trip... but still.. we waited and waited for others..
We even talked to the TC, and made the train wait for 5 minutes (Imagine.. this is europe.. still hamara chindi gir
i....) leave it.. somehow they managed to get in.. and we started our journey..

But wait!!.. where's manoj and manish?????
Well.. the fact is .. even if there were no time left for anything... they decided to get out to punch the tickets!!. and the train left!!..

Well.. sounds kind of a hindi film plot... anyway.. they had to catch another train from Milano to genova and get into another train from there...

Meanwhile, we were on the way to Montessoro...
We got a call from Manish that we are supposed to get down at a place called Sesto Lavante so that we can meet there and continue the journey..

But bad luck (or good luck?) strikes again.. and we saw the name plate "Lavagna" we mistook it for "Levante".. and got down

But whoa!! that was one of the most beautiful places i've ever seen!!

Well.. anyway.. we were not so lost.. got to know from the charts that there's another train within one hour.. so we waited...

And Voila!!!... when the train came.. Coincidently!!!. Manoj and manish were already there in the train!!

A few more minutes.. we wer in the real Levanto..

Monterosso... one of the main stops of Cinque Terre.. was our first destination and we reached there in a few minutes journey..

Whoo.. that was susch a lovely beach... that manoj couldn't wait..
when others were arranging for a place to stay he was already in.. enjoying the see...

Some more fun time and photoshoot there...

We couldn't manage to get an accomodation in Monterosso.. so we decided to try our luck in another place called Rio Maggiore!

Thanx to Samir.. who was still cooking in the kitchen when we were leaving...
We had something to eat when it was really really needed :) he he...

Rio maggiore was a small town with narrow streets and small houses..
we walked a lot trying to find a place to stay.. but everything turned out to be really expensive..

One option left was to do camping somewhere in Levanto .. a place a little far from cinque terre.. but one night in a camp is going to be really a good experience. that too for 13euros per person.. we didn't hesitate..

There wer almost half an hour left before our first train to levanto... so we decided to explore the place in Maggiore itself...

After sometime.. we got a train to Levanto.. but there was a little change in the plan..
Some of us wanted to see the Leaning tower of Pisa too... although most of us went away with the plan of enjoying once place before moving to the other..

Eight of us stayed back when the other three went to Pisa..

Our camping site was in Levanto.. San Michele..

We met this guy in yellow Tshirt at the station, the owner of this camping site..
Got a free ride from the station to this hill side in two cars... and we were ready for camping.

Nadia, of camping site gave us tents and sleeping bags.. and we were all set to set up our stay for the night..

The San Michelle camping team...

This is the beautiful camping site where we stayed that night..

A little bit of cofusion in the start, but by night fall... we manged to get all the tents ready..

Watch how we managed to get it ready here...

Well.. everything was ready... but not food!
At night, Me, Manoj, Samir, Sukirti and Sonal went out to find a place to get something to eat..

It was a long walk down the hill in search of a hotel or somthing but we couldn't find any..
It was totally dark.. and we were extremely cautious not to get run-over by any car or trucks..

It still feels fishy... still don't know what the hell they were doing at that hour of the day...
we found one middle aged couple, transferring things in a hurry from their car-seats, to the bootspace..

Well.. whatever, they were so keen to give us lift downhill.. all the way till the Pizza Place.

Whatever it may be.. we managed to get some food for the night..

Don't think that we had food here.. we're just waiting for the pizza to be prepared..

Coz it's not like the Dominoz Pizza that we get..
this is oven-fresh!.. hot steamy Pizzaaa.....

We walked all the way back again.... climbing all the way up.. with the hot Pizza in my hand.. in some way, that was nice.. it was damn chilling.

Everyone got together at the camping place and some 'whurer'.. our dinner was great.

Nadia, had told us to be quiet in the tents... coz there were other people also camped in the vicinity...

Bleh!.. who cares!... we all got into one tent and started masti..
Yea.. eight of us in a single tent... utter chaos!!

And finally.. she had to come and ask us to shut up.. he he :)

-----------
A good night's sleep in a tent.. whoo.. that was an amazingly great.. and completely different experience ever...

you know what .. it rained too in the night... but it was nice inside the tent.. in sleeping bags.

We woke up eaaaarlyyy in the morning.. around 8o clock...

Watch the waking videos here..

You know what.. These people are crazy!! they don't even have a tap in the toilet!!
I just don't understand how the hell they manage with the paper!!

Anyway.. we had some whurer bottles from yesterday for help.

Acche bacche... subeh subeh jaake chai piye!!

I still don't know how will i write about the chaos at the end..

We were supposed to pack all the tents back into its covers.. with all the accessories..
As you know already.. we mixed up everything... literally... that the camp guy went mad..
some how.. we managed to get out... since we had all the stuff ready ..

As usual.. a final pic at the camping site..

On the way back we could even witness a nice marriage with the just married vintage car and all..

Well. ...now it's time for us to get intimate with the Monterosso beach that we saw yesterday..

That's us playing volley ball on the beach.. ;P

As usual, very less beach pics since all of us were in...
Anyway.. we were not so kanjoos outside...
here are the other pics...

Since we had enough time left.. we started walking through monterosso..
And yea.. as you can see... breathtaking beauty!!

Again.. one more photo session before leaving..

but as you know... anything started in someway.. should end in that way.. eh??

We were lost on our way back too...
We were supposed to get down at some other station and catch another train to Milano...
instead... we were still inside the train that we got in from monterosso... sleeping nicely!!

Luckily.. this TC.. such a nice guy.. guided us where to get down .. and which train to take back to Milano....

Anyway.. SOMEHOW.. we managed to get back to our rooms :)
Thank god!

verona

2008-09-25T13:31:00.001-07:00

Yet another fair visit.
This time it's to a little town in italy called Verona..!
Sounds familiar? well.. yea, the city of Romeo and Juliet..

We started from Cadorna, the same bus which came to pick us from the airport on the first day was ready for us.

That was a long journey to this distant town. A nice long road through the green fields of italy. Wine yards and much more... Although most of us slept on the way.. including me.

Well.. forget the fair... of course it was really interesting and pretty big too..
But i know it won't be that great for you if i put pics of all the stalls.

But anyway.. here are some..

And there was this special display by this architect called Simonelli.. a concept for a new campus living.. see the interiors.

What you see above is a TV which is also a mirror.
and you can see the whole of DIMI crowd in reflection including me.

Want to be in a bedroom like this ever?

Well.. Anything will do.. but what about a toilet like this? i don't know.

Well.. what to write more about a fair.. we came back in the evening :P

disco

2008-09-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

What is more interesting that getting free food and free entry to an international discotheque?

There's this association called "international week" who organizes parties almost every now and then. And yea.. as i told you.. the best part is.. it's absolutely free for international students.

And you as you know already.. if we get something for free... this is what happens...

For more pics.. (their website.), click here
THE END.

genova

2008-09-25T13:15:00.001-07:00

Hmm...
Our first planned visit in italy.
But still things were't that difficult since our friend's brother from Politecnico was there with us fir this trip.

Althogh a lot of people had decided to be a part of this trip.... as expected, only a few turned up in the morning... but still.. that was quite a nice number for the first trip.
We started from Milano Centrale, a beautiful... station with huge steel vaults.

And yea, for those people ... like us who only travelled in our Second Class sleeper... this interior might look a little different.. but still.. we don't change.. that's why you're getting pics like these..

Within a few hours we reache Genova.. a beautiful old town with great buildings and interesting architecture..

But one funny thing we found there was this false ornamentation. They just paint whatever they would've constructed.. i don't know why...

Interestingly we could find somebody familiar there.. :)

As i told you, the architecture of that place was really interesting..
you know what, this is the place from Mr.Christopher Columbus started his journey to find India.. Bechara landed up in America by the way... but still.. he's important for us too..

See this.. this is from inside the church. What you see behind as a niche is axually a pipe organ which is played from the keyboard below..

Spending some time at genova, we continued our journey to the beach.
and finally...

Had never seen a blue beach before.. and this was really a great great experience for us.

A place filled with lot of interesting buildings all around..

Have you ever seen a beach with buildings all around?

and yea, it's time for a final click... say cheese.. beep beep.. click!

parkvisit

2008-09-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

Some sundays had been really really lukha..
and this sunday.. we slept... and slept like a log till afternoon..

I don't even remember having breakfast or lunch...

Anyway.. that evening, we decided to visit another green patch that we saw in the map near to ouir place where we stay..

A well maintained garden... it took some time to realize that the streams were all artificial.

This is one of my fav pics.. (clicked by Manish)

:) That was a great evening...

fooding

2008-09-25T13:08:00.001-07:00

A little about what we eat ... you've heard a lot about italian food eh :P

Well, this is our food storage.. a small fridge in every room.

We fill it with all that we buy from ESSELUNGA, GS or di per di (our favorite.. or cheapest stores here)

We cook anything... and everything...
We try everything.. be it Pasta with sambar powder or Omlette made by mixing Egg, Milk, Bread, Onions, Garam masala and fried in Deep boiled Butter with Mustard seeds... :)
to say the truth... these dishes usually turns out to be really tasty!!

And one interesting thing about our cooking is that each of our dish is Unique!!
... axually it's unique because.. once we make it.. we can't make it again..
Food just happens... we don't make them...

Hmm.. sometimes it's good NOT to have kitchens in your own room. Actually this idea of community cooking has brought lot of interaction within our group. Lot of noise in the ground floor.

And yea.. this is the only time when we have something spicy and indian..
wah!.. wah wah!!

macef

2008-09-25T13:04:00.001-07:00

Macef fair...
The biggest design fair in italy at one point in time...
Hmm.. they say it's not that great now.. although we didn't feel it that way...

That saturday morning we gathered at the Cadorna Station.. where this famous Needle sculpture is located.

Yea.. it's the same needle that you see in the masthead of this blog.
Here's the image of an old tram of milan...
it's so inspiring to see them preserving their heritages..

And see the kind of care that they take towards barrier free designs!

After a short journey.. we reached Rho-Fiero.. where the Macef fair was going on..
This building is designed by a great architect.. don't know who... :) check it out yourself.

And again... the best part is the free food.

If you look closer.. you can see all of us here...
Since we got passes as "Buyers" ... it was a grand reception we got with the cusines

:) that's me with a flaming head!!

And yes.. all those packaging designers.. come see somehting inspiring...

:)

lake

2008-09-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

One fine eveing.. we thought we'll go somehwere...

We saw some green patch in the map and thought it must be an ideal place to spend one evening.. Did not go how to get there.. but still we just started...

Ofcourse.. water is something you get for free in italy.. you may find fountains every where.. but the ironic part is that if you have to buy a bottle of water.. you have to spend like anything!! Even water is bloody expensive!

Another funny thing about italy is that here these guys doesn't seem to be trusting new technologies.. reminds me of Mr.Bean, when i see them locking their Scooters and Bycycles to the posts nearby..

He he.. but still... people manage to get away with what they wanted..

Look at this Orange cycle.... must had been complete the day the owner locked it to the post.

---

Well.. we walked a lot.. looking at the map.. changing buses and all..

and at the end.. managed to get to this beautiful green patch of land..

Don't know... but it felt very good to be away from the city with lot of buildings around..

to be in a calm and quiet place like this .. chatting and watching people fishing and all...

Can't deny.. this reminded us about our good old times at IIT

sitting on the deck of powai lake.. watching the sun set...

Coincidence.. even the iconic swans if IIT Bombat were there...

Nice place..
does this look like milan to you??

POLI.design

2008-09-21T05:27:00.000-07:00

Hmm.. it's not as we thought.. not at all...
Politecnico di Milano.. is a big university.. pretty old too..
See.. what you see down below is their Bovisa Campus.. And POLI.design is where that Red circle is shown.. we're right in there..

First day when we came to the campus.. we were really lost..
Walked around a lot to find POLI.design..
And somwhere we saw this building...

Later we got to know that this was the Politecnico's Library

Look down.. click on the pic.. for full size view!!..
I don't know.. these guys make amazingly great graffiti!!

I still wonder.. WHY do they do it...
and if they do it just for fun.. how come they're so nice in this art...
every image is an art piece... whew!!
---

OK.. what you see down is our class..

We're 31 students in here.. including those two professors from NID who has joined the course..
well.. as you can see.. it's a nice class ...

First day.. wooo.. they had arranged a delicious(looking) lunch for us...

Wow.. that was awesome!!..

And as the best part is that it's free....

And you know.. the Fanta here.. is not Orange (Although the bottle is orange) it's almost yellow in color and tastes like lime juice :P

And now what you see now.. are NOT pastries..

Look closer.. it's NON-VEG..
you can see Prons, Tuna fish etc.. arranged in nice creamy toppings..
To say the truth.. it was yuckey!!

This is Francesca (left) and Valentina (right).. our tutors..

---------------

Well.. although the lunch was free on the first day,.. that was not the case everyday.. :(
And to eat outside is extremely expensive..!!!
what you see here is a luch worth 5Euros (arouind 325 rupees)

Anyway.. the class is fun..
and interesting too..

That's valentina -our tutor. sitting in the center.. and Hussain (left), an indian Student at politecnico.. Doing masters in Strategic design.. Now here to help us.

Ofcourse..we're what we are.. he he :P

The next day, we had a visit of the university campus.
was nice to see such a high quality environmnt and highly sophisticated workshops.

The model of the new building at politecnico.

Valentina explains the 3D scanning equipment..

--------------
And one day.. one fine day.. :) it was ONAM..
We missed the IDC onam celebrations big time!!.. really!!
but still.. we managed to dress up a bit and go to the class..:)

Mis. Galbiati (our prof) was so amazed to see us in this strange cloting (remember, this is milan.. the fashion city!!)..

Well.. Onam is never complete without Banana chips..
(thanx to dhuri and soumya for the idea.. axually they asked me to distribute the chips in milan... Although i brought it to IDC for them..)

ok.. everything's good..
thank god..

Officially out!

2008-09-08T01:19:00.000-07:00

So we've got 200 euros now to buy the utensils for cooking.
:) sai hai!!

Well.. we set out to IKEA, a supermarket.. where you get things for very cheap prices..
But later.. we knew that even their products were cheap.. bad quality!!

Well, on the way, out.. there's this guy.. outside our house..
According to Manoj, this is the only guy here to whom you can speak english..!

:) Came to know that this is a statue of St.Francis Assisi...

But you know what... i saw this sculpture for the first time, from the window of my room in 5th floor.. That too.. i saw this around 5:00AM... and thought that it's some homeless sitting in front of the church... :)

Hmm.. This is the other supermarket, to which all the other money sensitive people should go.. Actually, our idea of chep shopping is always ESSELUNGA.. (our north india friends like to call it "Aise-Lunga" :P he he..

We roamed around in IKEA for a long time... picking things sensitivey so that we don't miss anything and the overall cost won't exceed 200Euros..

Well.. when we were out... we got a lot of insights about this city and its culture...

Well.. to say the truth.. this is pretty common here... and people are so happy to express themselves.. good thing to do...

Milano!

2008-09-05T03:28:00.000-07:00

So we're in Milan!

We didn't have to wait for a long time in the airport for the DIMI people to come.
There were three people from POLI.design to greet us, two of them indian students Saddak and Sahil, and our tuotor Valentina Auriccio.

We had been waiting for a bus eating the delicious swiss chocolates we saved from the plane. And a few minutes the buses were ready.

Sahil and Saddak explained a lot about milano on the way starting from locating the places on the map to further details on how to live in milan..

A tiny nap and we were in Bertoni. that's the street where we live in milan!

Francesca (our other tutor) showd us the rooms and all

:) haaa.. it's a nice place to live in.

Manoj, Manish and Myself in one room.. big enough (or may be too big) for three people. nicely furnished with cupboards, tables and a chhotu sa fridge :)

Alessandra Explained everything in italian.. (he he :) we didn't understand a thing as she kept on talking in italian... thanx to our tutor Francesca who kept translating whatever she said. ..)

A small kitchen where we can cook together. And the good news was that we got €200 to buy utensils :) (will write more about that shopping trip tomoro)

Food from the plane had done something weird in my tummy that i had to sleep all the time in the eveing when all other went out to explore the city.

It was around 10:00 pm italian time when they came back.

Get set Go!

2008-09-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

whew!

at last we're ready to fly to italy!

Ready with our 30kg baggages with lots of stuff to eat in milano... we were about to leave from IDC. Manoj, Manish, Neha from NID and myself. all set for the trip.

That was a great farewel that we got from IDC.. lots of love and good wishes from their heart.. that we could feel it. Thanx guys.. we'll miss you a lot! Lot of juniors, superjuniors batch mates.. that was a great great feeling to say bye..

A taxi from IDC to Mumbai airport.. a journey with lots of excitement. Suresh was with us all the way till the airport. Where we found many of the other members ready for the trip.

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We started half an hour late at 00:50am, 2 Sep 2008 in Swiss air, after all those security checks and clearance bakwas. We were all seated separately although me and manoj could manage to get a seat together.

One good things about international flights is that you get lots of free food and drink. May be because of the same reason, khate khate mera tummy kharab hogaya :)

Since it was a night flight there were literally nothing to see outside and we were off to sleep pretty soon. The seats were really non-ergonomic (at least for the Indian proportions) that it was bloody difficult to get a sound sleep. And when somehow we managed to get a little sleep…

“Excuse me sir,” …. That was the air hostess,..!! serviing breakfast at 4:00 am. Free food hai na.. how can we just leave it aise, even if we were sleepy, sote sote wo bhi khaliya :)

We reached Zurich, Switzerland around 7:30am. Manoj stepped out of the plane, putting his right foot hard on the foreign land breathing the cold fresh air or Switzerland!

We had a connection flight from Zurich, a small jetplane in which they served delicious Swiss Chocolate and Coffee! Hmm.. yummy!

It was a short flight above the alps and the views were awesome!

and within a few hours we landed in Milan… :)

… to be continued.