On the way to the south of France during the easter holidays, we had a chance to visit Geneva and Annecy. Geneva is a global city, a financial centre, and a worldwide centre for diplomacy due to the presence of numerous international organizations, including the headquarters of many agencies of the United Nations and the Red Cross. In the aftermath of World War I, it hosted the League of Nations. Geneva hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world. Annecy is a beautiful French town situated around 35kms from Geneva. Its also nicknamed as the Pearl of the French Alps. The boating in the Annecy lake with blue skies is a must and the downtown is very picturesque.
We decided to spend 2022 easter holidays in the southern France. We first arrived in Marseille, Situated in the Provence region of southern France, it is located on the coast of the Gulf of Lion, part of the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Rhône river. Its occupants are called Marseillais. Basilica of Notre Dame of la Garde, Marseille Cathedral, Palais Longchamp are some of the notable places to see in Marseille. There is a ferry ride which goes to the other small islands nearby Marseille. The Mediterranean sea with blue skies is certainly a treat to the eyes.
When Ratheesh and Prabu visited me in Basel during the summer holidays, we decided to go to Glacier 3000. Unfortunately, the cable car was not working when we reached. The people who were stranded in the top were rescued by helicopter. It was certainly very disappointing but we made the best by making a small trek and had a good bath in the lake nearby followed by lovely food and drinks. The weather was absolutely great and it was a day to remember.
Junior Chamber International (JCI) in Germany is always referred as Wirtschaftsjunioren. The Landes Konferenz (LaKo) of Wirstschaftsjunioren Karlsruhe took place in June 2022 in Karlsruhe. I thoroughly enjoyed this conference since Karlsruhe is known for its start up culture because of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Met young brains and young entrepreneurs in this conference and the gala party with the food was really worth attending. Also met Jothir and Anu in their home on the way and made some great memories.
Rafting and Kayaking are two common sports when you live close to the Rhine river. Rafting and whitewater rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving over water. It is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle.
A kayak is a low-to-the-water, canoe-like boat in which the paddler sits facing forward, legs in front, using a double-bladed paddle to pull front-to-back on one side and then the other in rotation.Most kayaks have closed decks, although sit-on-top and inflatable kayaks are growing in popularity as well. With Anita and Anish, we did Kayaking for the Vater Tag 2022 and with Prabu we did the Rafting since we had enough people during the summer holidays.
On August 1 2022, being the Swiss national day, we had a chance to visit Toggenburg and go to the top via cable car to Churfirsten. Toggenburg is a region of Switzerland. It corresponds to the upper valley of the river Thur and that of its main tributary, the Necker. Churfürsten is a mountain range in the Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland. They form the natural boundary between the canton's Toggenburg and Sarganserland districts. They are the southernmost range of the Appenzell Alps, separated from the Glarus Alps by the Seez river and Walensee. They consist of a limestone ridge running east to west, with the individual peaks formed by erosion. The ridge is defined much more sharply to the south than to the north, with an almost vertical drop of several hundred meters towards Walenstadtberg and eventually Lake Walensee at 419 m. The southern slope of the range was significantly formed by the Rhine Glacier during the Würm glaciation.
Prabu visited me during the summer holidays of 2022. We made lot of day trips during that time. Seealpsee is a lake in the Alpstein range of the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden, Switzerland. At an elevation of 1,143.2 m, the surface area is 13.6 hectares (34 acres). The lake can be reached by foot from Wasserauen or from Ebenalp. It is a popular tourist destination. A network of routes around Ebenalp connects Seealpsee with other notable sights in the Appenzell Alps, such as the Wildkirchli and Säntis. It was raining cats and dogs but we made the best out of it as usual.
Lausanne is the capital and largest city of the Swiss French-speaking canton of Vaud. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and facing the French town of Évian-les-Bains across the lake. Lausanne is located 62 kilometres northeast of Geneva, the nearest major city. There is an aquarium in Lausanne which is worth visiting and we had a chance to visit the Olympic Museum in Lausanne and the kids had a great time. The get togethers with Naresh and his family is something we always cherish to the core.
Chillon Castle is an island castle located on Lake Geneva, south of Veytaux in the canton of Vaud. It is situated at the eastern end of the lake, on the narrow shore between Montreux and Villeneuve, which gives access to the Alpine valley of the Rhône. Chillon is amongst the most visited medieval castles in Switzerland and Europe. It was a great get together with Naresh family on Anita’s birthday in 2022. Also had a chance to visit Charlie Chaplin museum which is very close to this castle. Wonderful day spent with nice friends and well wishers and a great weather.
Lots of gray hair both in the head and beard, 40 completed revolutions around the sun. Time flies away!! On Friday afternoon, my friend from Hamburg, Prabu, arrived in front of me surprisingly. Slowly a few friends turned up in the evening, then I started to realize it was a surprise party organized by my beloved wife Anita. It was a great party to get to know my neighbors since we recently moved to a new home. Amazing hard work by my wife Anita because till the last minute she maintained the suspense and never spilled the beans.
Without knowing there was a surprise party, I organized another party a week later. Thank god, it didn’t fall on the same date and there were no participants who were overlapping in both the parties. Life has been very fair to me in the last 40 years besides some hiccups, challenges, ups and downs sporadically. Thanks to my mom and dad who gave everything in their life to see me happier and my love Anita & Anish who took it after them and all my friends and well wishers who supported me in all weather and in all seasons.
The Mediterranean is always special after living near the Alps mountains in Switzerland. Blue skies, salt in the air, amazing drinks and food, nice friends. I couldn't have asked for more for my summer vacation of 2022. My best German friend Michael suggested joining his family and friends in Calabrian in the south of Italy. There was a direct flight from Basel to Lamezia Terme and Tropea is the place where we stayed around. Plan for me to is stay in the camping tent but I just got the sticks but not the actual tent lol. One of our friends had a small tent which he gave to me and saved my sleep ;)
Had a chance to explore some of the Islands near Stromboli, Liperi. Stromboli is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the north coast of Sicily, containing Mount Stromboli, one of the four active volcanoes in Italy. Tropea is a great city to hang out for a day with ancient sculptural monuments. It was a great relaxing beach holiday with a lot of beach volleyball and after that drenching in the sea followed by lovely drinks and apero with friends. I thoroughly enjoyed this holiday to a great extent and thanks to Michael and his friends who gave me great memories on this trip.
Coming from Chennai, southern part of India raised as a tropical animal, snow is always special. To play Cricket on Ice is even more special and a double whammy. Fortunately, had a chance to umpire for the Cricket on Ice tournament 2023 in St. Moritz. Lake St. Moritz is completely frozen during winter and Cricket on Ice dates back to the 90s. Besides umpiring I also got a chance to roll my off spin for some of the teams which did not have any players.
The off spin worked perfectly well on a low bounce pitch and could be part of a team which won the 3rd place. During the break I also had a chance to do Skiing in St. Moritz with amazing slopes and nice sunshine. There was a gala party at the end of the final games and it was truly a great experience which will reside in my memory forever.
During the Christmas holidays I had a chance to explore Western ghats places - Aliyar dam, Valparai, Coimbatore, ISHA Yoga center with my dad. We started from Chennai in our car, took a break in Salem and went straight to Aliyar dam. One of the picturesque postcard locations with a mountain backdrop, waterfront and the reservoir. The drive from Aliyar dam to Valparai was fascinating with sharp hair pin bends and I must say Valparai is an underestimated place in Western Ghats. The lush green tea estate spreading over acres of land was pleasant to the eyes. Had a chance to stay overnight in Vethathiri Maharishi ashramam in Aliyar. One of the serene, quiet places in the midst of the Western ghats forest.
Also explored ISHA foundation near Coimbatore, the hugely built Adiyogi statue was a treat to the eyes and the laser show in the evening is a must watch in ISHA foundation. We went to Kovai kutralam as well with our cousin and thanks to Ramu anna who accommodated and took care of us. It was one of the great road trips I made in the south of India.
Visiting Chennai during the Christmas holidays is indeed a dream come true. When it's really cold and dark in Europe, the weather is so perfect and pleasant in December, January in Chennai with temperatures hovering around 25 to 30 C. Had a great time playing Badminton in the evenings with my school friends, nice home made food, movies, delicious food in restaurants, meeting friends and relatives, visiting beaches quite often and the list goes on. Had a chance to witness a world cup final football match between Argentina and France in one of the seashore restaurants with viewing on a giant screen. Normally, I try to visit Chennai every year but because of Corona, had the highest gap of 3.5 years and I truly cherished this trip.
Angela and Torsten were supposed to celebrate their 25th marriage anniversary in April 2020. Covid came and it got postponed several times and finally it happened in September 2022 after 2.5 years. We had a chance to attend this grand function in Chemnitz. Angela and Torsten have been lovely couples for more than three decades and have achieved everything in their lovely family life up to grandchildren now. It's always a pleasure and great feeling to spend time with Angela and Torsten once in a year.
As an unsuspecting group of 8 young, strapping gentleladies and gentlemen we met at the EuroAirport Basel full of life, vigor and joy.
Upon landing in Hungary, our dear cabin staff asked us to sing Happy Birthday to Leandro, a guest flying in row 7 😁
Why this is relevant for this JCI report, even I don’t know yet! What I do know though is that for pictures, you will need to scroll to the very bottom of the report! 😎
Afterwards, we quickly proceeded to the train station, where we ate typical Hungarian food, Asian Street Food (due to limited time).
We also had the chance to partially experience Hungarian (train station) reality, firsthand witnessing a drunk man being physically thrown out of the store (around 1PM) where we were shopping. He was accused of stealing and didn’t want to show his jacket’s content.
I would ‚love‘ to say that our (Hungarian-style) train trip was a dull, boring one, but after a killed gin bottle and quite a few cans of beers, our trip became exponentially more interesting.
After our kind construction lead/host, Tifó, picked us up at the train station, we ended up driving through a little village, called Fügöd, which is a segregated place with only gypsies living. Many of them on 30m2 with 12 people living together and no access to water.
As for the rest of the night, it was pretty relaxed, going to sleep early after quite a few glasses of wine/beer/gin&tonics and talking about borderline truth or dare topics.
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Karina and Julia were kind enough to prepare breakfast for all of us, consisting of scrambled eggs, bacon, coffee and other yummy things we bought before.
A bit like being at camp! What we only suspected at this point is that we’ll need all the energy we can muster for the day ahead..
The work day started strong, our projects included clearing a path for a pavement by taking layers of dirt and grass out, then setting the boundary for the concrete, filling it up with rubble and gravel. In the meantime some of us inside the to-be donation shop took out damaged wall elements (with the pieces being transported to the back of the house), took down a piece of the ceiling, while Dominik cut down a gas pipe and cut out an entire fence with a ‚flex‘. Absolutely amazing and satisfying teamwork, which means it’s time for a well-deserved lunch break!
To summarize the afternoon, let’s see some numbers:
– 50 wheelbarrows of concrete to set the pavement
– Which means 13x25kg=325kg of cement used
– So with wheelbarrows we carried 4 tons (!!!) of concrete over the afternoon
– Number of group breaks taken = 0
– Years that JCI CH will be visible on the pavement of the InDaHouse donation shop = hopefully many 🙂
Interesting facts: we reused the broken tiles from the roof that were taken down, putting it under the concrete as filling.
We had 1 coordinator (Tifó from InDaHouse Hungary) for 8 people, who did a fantastic job keeping the instructions lean and to-the-point with myself acting as translator.
For some time we were the talk of the town as it didn’t happen often before that a Swiss group appeared in Hernádszentandrás, a village of ~350 people.
And we did all this hard work in beautiful sunny weather topping at 21C, so many people were out and about.
Special shout out goes to Debi, our MVP who worked like an artist machine squatting/kneeling the entire afternoon to make the pavement nice and flat.
For dinner we ate in a restaurant that is quite legendary. As we learned, this place is visited from people even on the other side of Hungary (many hours away).
Anyukám Mondta (My Mother Said) has an interesting concept, sort of like a fusion between Hungarian and Italian cuisine. That’s why we ate a mix of traditional Hungarian dishes (with a twist), pizzas, etc.
We were also joined by the founder of InDaHouse Hungary, Fruzsi, her husband (Tifó, who was our construction lead) and their 11-months old daughter Zsófi. They shared some interesting facts about InDaHouse Hungary, for example that it was founded in 2014, by now they have around 20 people on salary, numerous houses they wanted to buy were actually fully donated, with their headquarters/guesthouse being built in 1.5 years by over 600 volunteers.
Regarding the restaurant, a special mention goes to the Parsnip Soup with Rabbit Liver and the Pannacotta dessert.
And then we ended the day with more fun conversations back in the guesthouse, even having the chance to talk to other InDaHouse Hungary volunteers staying there regularly.
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Rise and shine for our second day of work with a beautiful cheesy and hammy scrambled eggs, prepared by Karina and Julia.
This time however, since we finished the concrete work the day before, we did wood panelling, gravel decorating, bench rebuilding, rubbish removal, cleaning, painting wooden beams and so on.
It may not came as a surprise, but you can really get a lot done if you work as a strong team with good communication skills!
After a teary goodbye, we were on our way back to Budapest to begin the ‚Chill‘ part of the trip, with some of us having significant muscle pain.
The train ride was super simple, we just slept drank 4+ bottles of wine, many beers and played Truth or Dare, Never Have I Ever, etc.
Needless to say, the stories are worth asking those of us about that were there. It’s a separate question whether we will share…
So with a bit of a rush, we managed to leave our AirBnB apartment and go to Burger King Pörc és Prézli, where we ate typical Hungarian dishes, tasted pálinka and had local Hungarian white and red wine made with local grapes (e.g. the famous Bull’s Blood of Eger).
Just to mix things up a bit, we headed to the Tiki Cocktail Bar to enjoy some not-exactly-local, but all the better cocktails.
The boogie was in everyone’s feet though, so I was harassed to go dancing as soon as possible..
OK, it’s not like I hesitated..
So we ended the night in Vicky Barcelona to nice Latin beats.
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34 thousand steps, 25+ kms summarizes the day rather well. But for those that want to know a bit more about where we were during the day, you can track our trip with this itinerary:
Buda castle, Matthias church, Fisherman’s bastion, Hospital in the Rock, Street Food Caravan, Szimpla Ruin Pub, St. Stephen’s Basilica, Vörösmarty Square, etc.
Afterwards majority of us went back to chill in the AirBnB, gathering energy for the night ahead, starting with some lovely food and wine at KönyvBár, which is a rather unique restaurant, as they cook from a different book every month, bringing the book alive through their dishes. This time we had the chance to taste the world of Delia Owens‘ Where the Crawdads Sing.
Following that we headed to a lovely wine bar and headed clubbing to ‚Doboz‘ (The Box), after which the boys capped the night in the humongous 7-dance floor party place Instant-Fogas.
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The morning started easy enough, minus the fact that practically nobody slept enough. But hey, as JCIs we know how to work harder and play harder.
After a healthy breakfast (vegan omelette anyone?) and other energizers, the team voted to skip something historical, meaningful, a fantastic learning opportunity to rather spend more time in one of Budapest’s famous spas. After all, one ’sad‘ touristic attraction was enough for the group.
At the spa, we had varying amounts of fun, due to quite a few pools being out of order, but a definite highlight was the group massage, where we took turns massaging each other in pretty much all possible combinations. Before anyone thinks too much about this statement, it was fully 100% child-friendly.
Afterwards we headed to collect our backpacks and other luggage, ate a marvelous farewell pizza and full of happiness and joy, we went drinking to the airport, where we … drank 🤷
With a little delay, we took off successfully.
Onboard the flight we swear, we had absolutely nothing to do with the epic annoyance of everyone who sat around us on the plane. To this day, we have „no clue“ why everyone threw ugly glances at us, after singing Backstreet Boys‘ Everybody and similar classics on the late evening flight.
(To be frank, it was really not that bad…)
After a touching farewell, we sped off home to get ready for the work week 🙂
Now for a word from our trip ’sponsors‘:
Go to Hungary they said, it will be fun they said.. To the left, to the left. Hadi hadi, tubi-tubi. Pigeon burger. Turn down for what. Dance floor. Wheelbarrow. Boarding completed. Where’s Sathish? Making arrangements. Fudge. The Love Bench. Chicken dance. Photo break. Sklaventreiber. „I kiel you“. Daddy. Köszönöm/köszi. Amnesia haze. Mama duck.. quack-quack-quack-quack-quack-quack-quack. Ducklings. Anwesend. Prrrrrrrrrrr. Magnesium. Never have I ever.. Truth or Dare. Let’s go for a cigarette. Nap time. I need a toilet.. now!
Oh no, oh no, oh nonononono.
Cheers on behalf of,
Camp Mom, Chief Cement Officer, Dani Wheelboy, Mr. Arrangements, MVP Debi, Señor Paloma con Queso, The Baker, The Nail Lady
Ratheesh and Gayathri visited us in the month of October and we traveled together to Swetha’s house to celebrate Diwali 2022. It was a great celebration with India winning against Pakistan in the T20 World cup with a last ball thriller in Sydney. We burst crackers with some nice sweets and food. The kids had a lovely time playing with each other and it was a memorable 2022 Diwali celebrations.
It's always great to spend quality time in Neuschatel with Swetha’s family. It was a peak summer time near the lake Neuschatel. We rented a five seater bicycle, we roamed around the lake Neuschatel and we made a small picnic with awesome food prepared by Swetha. In October we had a chance to celebrate Diwali once again in Swetha’s house accompanied by Ratheesh family with lovely delicious dishes. There was a surprise party organized by Swetha for Venu’s 50th birthday and it was indeed a gala one for Venu. While we were on our way to Geneva, we stopped by Swetha’s house during the easter holidays and had a lovely lunch before we headed towards our road trip. Thanks to Swetha and Venu for all their hospitality in the last years and we always enjoy travelling to Neuschatel for the positive vibes.
Cricket Switzerland's T10 Championship final round was held in the beautiful, scenic, picturesque Zuoz Cricket Ground near St. Moritz. Cricket Club Wettingen qualified for this final round in Zuoz and had a great experience playing Cricket in the foothills of the scenic Alps with one of the matches ending in a last ball thriller. This ground is similar to the picturesque Queenstown cricket ground in New Zealand. It was a great sunshine on Day 2 and Day 3 making great playing conditions for the various matches. Nagendran Kanthaseelan was in blistering form with scores of 54, 46 and 21 in three matches. I take this opportunity to thank Cricket Switzerland for their help, support and great efforts in organizing this wonderful T10 Championship final rounds in Zuoz successfully.
Temperatures dropping below 0 degree celsius, gets dark in the evening earlier, winter at its peak: any option for sports?? Indeed, Indian Association Basel conducted a Drei Laender Badminton tournament in Sporthalle Birsfelden on 12th February 2023. The following categories were played in this tournament.
Kid’s Singles (9-12 years)
Junior’s Singles
Junior’s Doubles
Women’s Doubles
Men’s Doubles
Mixed Doubles
Around 100 plus matches and 75 plus enthusiastic Badminton players took part in this tournament and it was a wonderful display of Badminton’s skills during the various stages of the games from the participants with the feather corks throughout the day. The excess from this tournament will be sent to the relief funds of the Turkish/Syrian earthquake and for the educational allowances for the needy kids in India. Indian Association Basel (IAB) takes this opportunity to thank every participant who were part of this initiative and Sports Club Roche (SCR) – Badminton section who offered the hall for the whole day which helped the tournament to be conducted successfully.
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