Bird watching

I know what you are all thinking, yes that did also happen the last weekend, which I’m not going to discuss here anyway, so stop thinking about that. Here I’m to discuss about the bird sanctuary that in Villars-les-dombes. I was accompanied with two angels who are there in the picture.
Birds without borders, is the keyword of this extraordinary 35 acres bird sanctuary with over 2000 birds from the entire planet. This is a perfect place for a picnic also. U can escape for a while and stay in the ponds and stay close to the birds, while you walk around the place. It’s been designed to ensure to present an exceptional visit, respecting the freedom of the birds living there.

Thunderstrom

As I was checking the weather forecast for the week, it had forecast for thunder storm a particular day. On that doomed day I reach home early and sat there waiting to capture the lightning effect & I’m still waiting…better luck next time

This picture was taken when the rain was approaching the town I was living in. You can see the tower in the mountain along with the clear demarcation of rainy area to no rain area.

G Force

Don’t worry it’s not the G force that I experienced due to my racing? It’s the Gala fun I had on the 21st June. Oh yes I went to Karting on the day of Fete de la Musique in the evening after office. Karting was really nice here. I had done Karting in Chennai but its no the same here. Back in India the race I participated we all start to race and try to win, here the winner is adjudged based on his performance and his timing clocked in the stipulated time. The best thing here is we got the printout on the best lap timing and number of laps completed along with the timing recorded for each lap. It’s like watching a real race and we would get an online update on the track. Any guess on the position I was in ?#$%

Then after that it was time to say good bye to M as she is going back to India, so went for a dinner in a Thai restaurant which was a treat from M. After that we wandered in the streets of Grenoble and listening to all sorts of Music that are played on the streets, Every 50-75 meters people had their band and were performing. In a small street close to 4 bands were there giving their performance. Such a nice fun, music from all possible countries are performed, I was surprised to see a solitary guy sitting in a major junction and performing with his Guitar, he was special he was playing nice numbers and was having gr8 fun. Then we reached home and went to sleep watching the full moon and listening to the music that was being played. This picture was taken when I went to Barcelona, this is a Red-Indian group was doing a performance there and the same group was in Grenoble performing on the fête de la musique day.

Fete de la musique - on the the longest day in the year

Fete de la musique : Annual music festival in France and all over the world

Christian Dupavillon has this narration for the event Fete de la musique:

One morning in January 1982, the Director of Music at the Ministry of Culture, Maurice Fleuret, sent me a memo saying that the French owned more than four million musical instruments. Three quarters of these instruments lay deteriorating in cupboards, attics and cellars before departing this life in dustbins and on rubbish tips. I couldn't help but lament their fate.

Afterwards, the memo turned out to be not so sad - indeed, it spawned a great idea. Why couldn't, one day a year, those cellos, guitars, trombones, kettledrums, triangles and big bass drums wake up, be restored, produce sounds, find someone to play them and enchant anyone who cared to listen? Why, on that day, couldn't performers, professionals and amateurs alike, play completely freely indoors and out, everywhere, in public squares, under porches and on covered walkways, areas of school playgrounds and hospital gardens, at entrances to music academies or under cafe awnings just for the sheer pleasure of playing? All that was missing from this mammoth concert was a name, a date and a Prince Charming to awaken Sleeping Beauty.

The first such festival took place on 21 June 1982. It was given the homonym "Faites de la musique", "Make music". The day of the summer solstice, the longest day in the year, was chosen, almost coinciding and thus competing with Saint Jean Day.

To avoid annoying those people who, for one reason or another, loathe music and during nocturnal hours equate it to "disturbing the peace at night", the festival was held from 8.30 p.m. to 9 p.m. The diversity of the performances and large number of "venues" were to make it a totally new experience. Music-lovers swarmed around monuments and thronged streets and squares.

The following year, the time restrictions were dropped. Today, after twenty-three successful years, the festival is firmly established. Orchestras, brass bands, jazz, rock, pop, techno, ethnic, rap and funk music groups, gospel singers, school and church choirs, music-hall performers, musicians from different French regions and indeed from all over the world celebrate music every 21 June.

What is the fête de la musique?
It's the day - it's now a firm fixture - when musicians, whether they're amateurs or professionals, can play wherever they want at any time, day or night. They might choose a station concourse, a school playground, the inside of a cathedral or church, a café, the steps of a town hall, historic building or prefecture, a passage-way, a prison and so on. Amateurs, often nervous when they have to sing or play an instrument in public, have the chance to play freely without feeling self-conscious.

While some professionals criticize it for being a gimmick and others complain that it has been taken over by sponsors and media organizations, the fête de la musique gives anyone who wants to the chance to play or listen to absolutely every type of music. A virtually trouble-free festival of over 15 hundred concerts in a single night!

A world-wide festival
The fête de la musique is becoming increasingly international. Because it's fun, because music alone knows no language or cultural barriers and is free from politics, because of the huge variety of "events" and participants, and because everyone has music of some kind within them even if they don't admit it, this festival could become the world's Number 1 music festival. In 2000 the fête de la musique took place in over a hundred countries, including the 15 countries of the European Union, Poland, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Cambodia, Vietnam, Congo, Cameroon, Togo, Chile, Nicaragua, and Japan.
That first festival was to set a trend. Such festivals are a brilliant way of focusing attention on an art or indeed a human tragedy. France now has the Journées du patrimoine [Heritage Days] on the last weekend in September, the Printemps des poètes, the Fête du cinéma, Lire en fête [book festival] in October, the week-long Fête de la science in October, launched in 1991, the Techno Parade on the second Saturday in September, and World AIDS Day, first held in 1988. The day will come when all these events will be marked in almanacs just like our saints' days still are.

More interesting

I was flabbergasted to read the following information. Though many a time I used to get confused with the two terms "British India" and "Princely State", I learnt that they are mutually exclusive. If somewhere was in British India it was not a Princely State, and if it was a Princely State it was not in British India. British India was Bombay, Sind, British Baluchistan, North West Frontier Province, Punjab, United Provinces, Central Provinces, Madras, Bihar, Orissa, Bengal and Assam.
What surprised me even more was that there existed 140 large, and 420 small states that made up the rest of India were not part of British India.

Read on more here for more interesting stuff

Why is this?

Germany - English name for Deutschland
Allemagne - French name for Germany
Alemania - Spanish name for Germany
Deutschland - local name for Germany

Does anyone of u know this?

Frankfurt-Lyon air route

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up....

by Robert Frost

Have u tried this?

ICICI bank offers transfer of money from one VISA to another VISA card be it debit or credit card. I tried doing this and this happened successfully from ICICI to my HDFC card and to the account subsequently. This takes close to 3 working days for the transaction to get completed.

This has finally happened

In the recent past there are a few things which happened only now

# After numerous travels in the last 5 years for the first time I had a delayed flight. Lufthansa from Chennai to Frankfurt got delayed by 4 hours
# Last Saturday 7 of us got struck in the lift at close to mid-night, then we managed to call the fire-men and they came to our rescue in 20 minutes
This picture was taken by my brother on the back waters of Kerala

Bourgoin-Jallieu

Bourgoin-Jallieu

On the 5th of June, sunny bright day we all went to Bourgoin-Jallieu near Lyon for a 12km hiking trip. This was taken on the way after 3 hrs of walking near the fields. We saw a lot of berries tree and u know what we would have done?

Journey updates - Glacier express to Polar express

I’m not talking any thing about any express trains here. It’s about my trip to India. Before I went to India I made a trip to Swiss where in I traveled by Glacier express then to India to Chennai aka Madras, Nellore, Chennai, Nellore, Chennai, Bangalore & Chennai where I watched The Polar express then to Grenoble.

The moment I landed in India I made a quick visit to meet G and the same evening left for Nellore for my brother’s engagement, Oh my God I could not withstand the heat at Nellore. I’m still wondering, having born and brought up in Chennai how is it that I was not able to withstand the heat. Engagement went well with close to 80 people attending, Then later in late evening was happy to spend some time with M after a very long gap, one of the happiest moment of the trip.

Then back to Chennai before I start my meetings with banks a visit to the famous Kapaleshwar temple at Mylapore. I had forgotten my HDFC debit card in France and my ICICI card had expired. What a surprise was awaiting me there with financial crunch? Inspite of having money I was not able to use the same, with marriage around the corner and my credit card companies refusing to increase the credit limit, had a tough time for shopping.

Then comes the best part of all the time, While this bank issues going on in one end and I was busy applying visa for the UK, with this Visa(not the bank card), I should be going to Scotland, I don’t know when don’t ask me. I was expecting this to be one of the toughest tasks but on the contrary banks gave me the tough time and I was able to get my Visa with ease. In between all these everyday I used to start from home at 6.30am in the morning and reach late in the night around 11.30 pm, happily distributing the invitation of my brothers marriage, Pat comes the question so when is your marriage, I grin and ask if u have any girl can you refer me and slip from that place before they ask me any futher questions.

Having completed one primary tasks of my visit to India having completed - getting the UK Visa, I have to move ahead for the main task, my brother’s wedding. Now heading back again to Nellore after visiting Srilaks, thanks for the handycam and the perfume Sri, met G, Chand & a few of my friends whom I met after a very long time. The only person whom I missed is P as I could not meet her as planned in Frankfurt airport. Chand and I had met after a very long time. For the last close to 3 yrs. When I’m in town he would be out some where else in the east and when is in town I would be in Europe. So finally we made it a point to met him so work him up at 6.30 in the morning and had a small chat with him. With some tear-filled parting for which I was not prepared, which made me to self-assure that I should be soon coming back to India soon as I miss all this fun & companionship.

Wedding gang

Wedding oh my goodness, I was not prepared for this superub fun fair, I was immensely happy as I met all my family members and friends. This was an occasion where in I was sleeping less than 3 hrs every day for 4 days. This photo is taken with a few family & friends from my Sister-in-law side. After all the fun it was time to come back to Chennai and prepare for my visit to Bangalore.

Bangalore

Bangalore gave me a real sweet surprise in terms of weather. That was the best part of my stay in India considering the weather condition, chill mornings and sunny afternoons and raining evenings. We had a client visit during the same period and this picture was taken from the Ebony 13th floor restaurant, there was a fire some where close by MG Road.

Back to Chennai preparing for my travel back to France watched The Polar Express, with a lot of Kutties (small kids, what are u people thinking #!%). After the movie driving back home got a call from Syam’s which was a sweet surprise. Thanks Syam for the same.

Redesigned

Kindly have a look at my redesigned index. This would give you lil information about the places I have visited. I intend to write about the places I had visited before starting this blog so it can give u an idea of how well u can plan for your trips in Europe. Bon Voyage

Nature

This picture was taken in Munnar by my brother during his visit there

Swiss-France

This is a not so clear picture taken from the aircraft during from travel from Frankfurt to Lyon, this shows the ariel view of the Swiss-France separated by the Lake Geneva