The European Bug - A desi's perspective

I am a desi. At heart, in thinking, by habit, by mindset. For me, Europe means Yash Chopra's movies.

I am part of the Great Indian post-1995 Engineering Graduate club.
I talk about India in 21st century, Indian value systems, honesty, ambition and simplicity sipping a Rs.50 coffee at Cafe Coffee Day or Barista at Indiranagar.

I dumped my Metallurgical Engineering education ( ?? ), conveniently avoided foundries and shop floors and jumped straight into the IT pool. After all, software "allows me to use my brain, provides me more scope to prove myself". (Never mind if I am just running jobs, agents, spending 4 hours on changing font sizes, updating timesheets and organizing team meetings)

Splashed about for a year.5 in Infosys, "the bellwether of Indian IT (whatever that means)" and moved to IBM - "The dancing elephant providing solutions for a small planet".
Currently in the UK, trying to hang on for 6 more months.

Okay, now that we've established who I am, let me throw some light on my Europe trips.
I must say that all the above effort to paint a picture is to basically let you know that I am part of that category of Indians which is somewhere in between the elite Mittals, Shyamalans, Bosess and the poor souls who risk lives for menial jobs in the Middle East.

Like a middle-class Indian Resident, I am a middle class Non Resident Indian. I can afford to take European holidays but not with 5-star champagne cruises. Will plan for 5 countries in 10 days, not 10 days in a seaside villa. Ready to try out a couple of wines, but ultra careful on food (no meat, no meat).

Before we start, a few tips/tidbits :

- Like any sightseeing exercise, a trip to European countries will overshoot budget.
Doesn't matter even if it is a total kanjoos budget (in which you carry your luggage for a whole day without spending the night at a hotel and you pack rotis, fruits, chips etc for 3 days )

- The cities are a dirty as our regular Indian cities.
- You will see more desis (Thou shalt not wish/help each other) than the local Europeans.
- Do not try and polish your English. Europeans are not interested in English. Just speak plain English, slowly.
- It is not always cold. May - August is HOT. Even if you've seen 40 deg C in your hometown, you will feel hot here at 25 degrees. Don't know why.
- Pickpockets and conmen do operate. Travel in a desi group, split cash between bags and pockets.

And the universal advice to all desis :
Please do not convert every Euro (Rs. 55) or Pound (Rs. 82) when you go on these trips. Just relax and have a holiday. Avoid the urge to cover 20 attractions in 1 day just to back and brag to your friends.

Okay, now..
I had the opportunity (read that as "mood to spend pounds" ) to go around Paris, Belgium/Holland, Scotland and smaller places in UK like the Isle of Wight, Bath etc.
Italy was missed due to a last minute brainwave by a Sardar colleague that the budget was overshooting. Not interested in seeing Switzerland as a bachelor.
Germany - boring.
Austria, Sweden, Finland - cancelled due to realisation of the rupee value of Pounds.

In the next few blogs, I'll try and pour out all my memories of these trips using the best English I can :-))