A hunky SUVs, some offroading etc

Today I thought I would walk around the Airport area itself. I am staying at the Sheraton which is bang opposite the airport - not even a 5 minute walk. So, I take off after lunch, sticking to the cycle / pedestrian lanes, slowly leaving the Hotel behind. I see a rabbit (or is it a hare) scamper and get inside a burrow, like the prairie dogs I saw at Denver. Waited for some time for it to come out, with no luck. 

Anyway I continue walking and I should be like 2kms away the hotel when I come to a junction with big buildings - one of them being the Microsoft office. I click  few snaps and wait there thinking whether to return back to the hotel or continue forward. 

That is when I see a hunky blue SUV cross by. I think I have seen the same one earlier and glance back to look at it. There is something written in dutch on it, which I assume (wrongly, as I learn later) to be the name of the company it belongs to (that part was correct). As I glance at it, the occupants (2 males) in the front seat look back at me. 

And then I see them slow down and take an illegal U-turn on the road itself, which surprises me because folks don't drive like that here. And what the driver does next zaps me. After coming over to my side of the road, he just drives the SUV over the grassy stretch separating the road and the pavement I am standing on, gets onto the cycling track and stops near me. 

Now, this is not an offroading range for someone to try such driving. So, realization immediately dawns on me. It is the local cops. Well....

As I stand there, the Jeep parks a little away from me. While I am wondering what it is that I did wrong, the cop in the passenger seat jumps out and comes towards me, saying, "Hello". I wish him back and ask him if there is any problem. 

He asks me a series of questions, "Why am I walking around here?", "Am I alone?", "Where do I stay?", "What am I in Netherlands for?" etc etc. I tell him that I am here on work, am staying at the Sheraton nearby and I am alone. He asks for an ID and I show him my passport. He wants a business card - I hand over one. He takes these to the guy driving the SUV - they talk for a couple of minutes and then he returns the documents to me. 

He tells me that everything is OK. I ask him if it is not right to walk around. He says it is perfectly OK to walk around, but with the threat of terrorists, they have to be careful and thus the quick check. He adds. "It is nothing personal". 

Throughout the conversation, he was polite in his conversation. And thank God he knew English (pretty fluent too), else I would have had a tough time explaining myself. 

Note to self : Blue is not just KLM's colour. But also that of the local police and their uniforms. :-)

Back in Europe. My favourite place on earth, after India.

I landed in Amsterdam on the morning of 15th November and will be here till the 20th when I move to Belgium for a week. The last time I was in Amsterdam was in 1998, when me & some friends drove down from Belgium. But that was to the Amsterdam Central area which is where all the action is.

This was my first touch-down at Amsterdam Schiphol airport which is a pretty funky airport. For one thing, when you land, you can see freshly ploughed fields just near the runway, which was pretty cool because usually the runway is kind of fenced off. And the other interesting thing is that Schipol is not just an airport.
It is also the train station from where you can take local and international trains. And it also has a big shopping area inside with a variety of dining options.

One of my favourite things to do in a new place, is to walk around and explore the place on foot. While this is comparitively tougher to do in winter, it becomes even worse if it is raining. And from the time I landed here yesterday, it has been drizzling almost all day. But the good side is that the drizzle is mild and nothing to drench you. 

Yesterday I caught a train from inside Schipol Airport to Amsterdam Centraal and walked around the whole place. Like last time, the canal-network reminds me of Alappuzha. If only our government were to take some effort, it won't be long before the canal-network of Alappuzha could be a big selling point. 

Anyway, I am enjoying my time here and the food, especially the wide variety of breads/croissants available for breakfast. My last visit to Belgium was in 2002 and goes without saying that I am really looking forward to being back there this week. 

Contentment vs ambition.

Last weekend I was rummaging through the junk stacked in the terrace at our home in Kerala, looking for a
foldable kiddy-seat. We had thrown it there because it was not stable and Aman used to fall off it, when he
was a baby. Now, she had found some use for it and so the search.

Along with it, I found some other stuff that I knew the kids would find interesting - a toy-pistol, a plastic
cricket bat, a green Kawasaki Ninja replica bike, a toy binocular etc. I wash the dust of all of them and
immediately they are lapped up by Aman and Ishaan. While Aman takes the binocular and bat, Ishaan takes
the pistol and Ninja.

Ishaan is a sucker for bikes and cars and is already dreaming of riding my SheeBeeAar (as he pronounces CBR) to school when he grows up. Once the dust was washed off, the Ninja in its signature green colour was gleaming and for some time I was lost in the bike's looks.

Sheena looks enquiringly and I say, "I should have bought the Ninja, instead of the Honda CBR250".

The Ninja was the bike I wanted, but did not buy because I wasn't sure how serious a rider I was and also
the sales & service points were some 100 kms away in Trivandrum. It also cost double the CBR, but that
was worth it, since it is a direct import from Japan - quality would be better.

Sheena asks, "Do you regret buying the Honda ? Don't you like it ?"

"Well, I do like it and enjoy riding it. But since I keep automobiles for a long time, the next chance of buying
one would be light-years away, by which time I might be old to ride and thus I should have bought the one I
yearned for."

"Hmm, I thought we should be content with what we have."

"If you are content, there won't be a drive to achieve.", I reply, though I don't mean a word of it.

"I know only one person in this whole world who is absolutely content with what he has. And it is 
you."

She had the last word and she was right too. I am content with the CBR and the Ninja is just a fleeting wish.

Maybe once Aman & Ishaan grow up and reach riding age, I will get them a Ninja. And live my dream through them. That is, if Sheena allows it. No bikes for them, as per her. Due to safety issues.