the ridiculous to the sublime

i'd meant to be in Mysore until my visa almost expired - July 9th, but then i started looking for work...and, one of my contacts came through - big time. I had an interview on Monday, the 22nd of June for a SAP training job in Den Haag (The Hague), Netherlands. The interview took all of 20 minutes...an hour later BHP had offered me the 3 month contract...20 seconds later I accepted. I wasn't having a lot of response from the UK, so why not go where they actually wanted me...

one of the catches - they wanted me to start on June 29th - so scrambling for flights, visas, security clearances, contracts...details, details...so my last week in mysore was a bit of a blur. but i got to spend some good time with the Dirty Scooters and was blessed to spend my last couple of hours with Liz, Bec and Alex...leading up to that i'd been scooting round Gokulam - saying goodbyes, returning guitars, saying farewell to Saraswati - as it turned out my last practise at the Shala for this trip, I was in exactly the same spot as my first. The gates were opened late so there was a mad scramble for spots. I'd lost my regular front left spot, the only spare spot was centre at the very back

the ridiculous - the roads in India being total chaos - i had a driver take me from Siva's place to Bangalore airport - one of his 4 sisters had just been taken to the ER, so he was on the phone every 2 minutes of the 4 hour trip up to Bangalore...ridiculous is the amount of security at Bangalore airport. I don't mean ridiculous in a bad way - but in an over the top kind of way...

the sublime - arriving in Frankfurt airport - the epitomy of German efficiency.

the juxtaposition of India against Germany is pretty interesting. even though I was sad to leave Mysore, and earlier than I'd planned, I'm glad for the chance to keep travelling to new places as a reflection on my attitudes, emotions and habits - samskaras if you will - I know that's one of Liz's favourite yoga words ;)

the efficiency of Frankfurt? epitomised by the security screening - the plastic tubs that you put laptops, jackets, belts etc in, are automatically returned, bowling ball style to a guard standing at the front of the security section...the ergonomics and efficiency are seemless

Frankfurt to Amsterdam - 50 minute flight...then used my credit card to buy a first class train ticket to Den Haag. Turns out i sat in second class, which the guy checking the tickets pointed out, second class was fine with me. I used my debit card to withdraw some euros, which I've been using in Den Haag - after I found my hotel and crashed monumentally - i was absolutely spent after running round all week and getting about 5 hours rough sleep on the Lufthansa flight

the sublime - the urban planning of Den Haag against the ridiculous (in a good way), effervescent growth of Bangalore

i've got some Mysore words left, I think, but travelling again opened my eyes and senses and keeness to put some words in my blog :)

the perfect chai...

is one of the names that our band is going by at the moment...as artists, we're more concerned with the music than the name of the band...we might even go without a name...though the latest thinking on that is...the band is now called The Dirty Scooter Crew...

Dirty Scooter because we're gritty, down to earth musos = Dirty...also coz Bec and Liz reckon that Scooters are dirty, polluting machines...bec had a brilliant idea to call the backups = rickshaws, but Dirty Scooter Crew and the Rickshaws is too much of a mouthfull..so Dirty Scooter Crew we is...and here are some of the members in a Rickshaw on the way to Julian's 40th dinner at the Metropole;





our band includes bec (from Florida) and I on acoustic guitar, liz (from Florida) on backing vocals, tambourine and chai, nat (From Illinois and Mexico) on backing vocals and asking questions, alex (from Malaysia) on backing vocals and reading, hanuman (from ?) on human beatbox...and the latest additions, all the way from Norway = Elin and Lars - these guys are in a real band in Norway so they add a lot of class to the lineup

our favourite time of the week is Friday band practise, where the beers come out;


we cite our influences as Neil Young, Green Day, Concrete Blonde, Gomez, Tom Waits, Pink Floyd...and India - being the motivation for a lot of bec's lyrics

we reckon we're a couple of weeks away from gigging...which is what we've said for about the last month or so :)