‘Unity in Diversity’

Statutory warning: Do not read this post in an empty stomach

In our early days in Bombay I still remember running around with my brother to buy red rice for mom and finally calling up my dear friend Arun to bail me out. Incidentally he had just completed his weekly shopping at the hypermarket. He had gone back in only on my request,while he was at the cash counter getting the rice billed a lady came and enrolled him for a lucky draw. Thanks to his good heart he won the contest and along with Shilpa they went on a trip to Pondicherry. 

Bombay was where I was exposed to some of the best street foods in the entire country. Vada Pav and Pav bhaji weren't very appealing to me because of my inherent dislike for potatoes. But I loved bhaji pav(palak deep fried with batter), I would even say that I was sort of addicted to the snack. While in office I would religiously visit the roadside stall which served piping hot Bhajiya and pav. People who wanted to smoke used to accompany me on short breaks while I was on the  way for my daily fix. 

During my time in Bombay I was also exposed to a variety of Gujarathi dishes. I loved Kachori and theplas out of the lot. Chaat was also something that I loved. For some odd reason I am fixated to fried and spicy stuff. Quite often people have a sweet tooth,on the contrary I have a spicy tooth. Towards the end of my stay in Bombay I came across a place in Kandivali East which offered the best Missal Pav. You have an option to customise the offering as to how spicy you want it to be.Being someone who craved for such kind of  food even I couldn’t handle the spicy version of the dish.The rasam which was extremely spicy was a strict no no during summers because even during winters you would sweat just by eating it.Bhajiya pav and Misal pav occupied the second and third place in my list of all time favourite foods. No prize for guessing what occupied the first place

By the time of my marriage I had totally given up on eating rice and was content to eat roti, daal and bhaji(vegetable) 3 times a day. Jeslin was appalled by this fact and was wondering as to how I could put up with such monotony.  Ignoring my protests within an iron hand she introduced a bit of a variety in my eating habits. Puttu,dosa,rice etc slowly made a re-entry into my life post marriage. I still remembered the excitement of Jeslin when for the first time she prepared butter chicken at home. Until then I never knew that making the dish was so much work.

Jeslin is an avid foodie; she loves trying out new recipes be it cooking or eating out. Her quest for good food coupled with our love for beef took us to the neighbouring state known for its great beaches. Goa,was a whiff of fresh air in comparison to the din and fury of Bombay .Even before the trip Jeslin would diligently prepare a detailed itinerary of the must visit food joints during our 2-3 days visit. Our days over there would be planned in such a way that we hit all the spots with some sight seeing squeezed in between.This was a far cry from a visit with my mother and brother a few years back. Then it was an itinerary of churches to visit that was prepared every day. Throughout the day we would set upon taking mom to different churches while me and my brother would be chilling out. This time around most often we would be hitting a patisserie(thanks to her sweet tooth) or a restaurant.Brittos at Baga beach and Aunty Maria in Panjim would be our picks because we visited these 2 places religiously every time we were there.(Our goa trips would definitely be a topic of one of my blog posts soon) 

Aunty Maria

Brittos

Brittos platter

Our trip to Hongkong went a long way to satiate our craving for beef since beef was sort of unavailable in Bombay at that point of time. For the first time in our lives we ate a subway sandwich with beef in it, same was applicable to the fare of Mcdonalds as well.Visiting the Haagen dazs outlet at Victoria Peak in HK was quite memorable.There is an amusing reason as to why I remember my maiden visit to Haagen dazs outlet in Hiranandani back in Bombay. As usual it was Jeslin’s idea to go there until then I never knew about this premium ice cream brand. For the first time in my life I realised that ice creams could also be so expensive. What is more I had an upset stomach the next day.That was my body rejecting insanely expensive stuff. I am happy living my life with my bhajiya pav and missal pav.

Bombay was a foodie paradise of sorts I still remember when we used to take off for South Mumbai during the weekends. The day started off with a brunch either at Cafe Mondengar or Leopold. After roaming around for a good part of the day we would grab a meal from one of the Malayali restaurants.The rest of the evening would be spent at Nariman point and Marine Drive. The day would end with a topping of ice cream from Natural’s before heading back to our place somewhere close to midnight. Candies in Pali Hill for its rustic charm Jimmi’s for the best burger in town, Martin’s for its authentic goan dishes,Bade Miyan’s for its Mughalai dishes were places frequented by us among many others. 

Candies

In my early days for my trips to Bombay after my vacation in Trivandrum there is a special reason as to why I prefer the Netravathi express even though there are alternate faster trains in the same route. After your brief stay in your hometown you are already depressed going back to business. The train journeys are always melancholic and reflective. Quite often I settle down with a book or just go and stand near the door. It is very much soothing during the monsoons to watch the greenery of the Konkan whiz past you. To make your loneliness more bearable you turn to the best South Indian food on offer during your travel. You could gorge into the piping hot Parippu vada(dal vada) and Pazham pori(banana fry). Not to forget the Chicken biryani with fried chicken, which is like a last hooray to ease yourself into the hustle and bustle of Bombay. My brother would take it to the next level. He would always ensure to drop me off at LTT Terminal for the onward journey so that he could get hold of some South Indian goodies from the train pantry.

During the last drive out of Bombay literally wrapping up my life in the maximum city after 8 years,we stopped at the Misal pav place in Kandivali for breakfast one last time. My brother who had left the city a few years prior to me had come specifically so that we could drive back to Trivandrum (a distance of close to 2000 kms) in my very own Maruti Swift.Exactly a decade back we had come to the city for the very first time for his Law College admission. At that time with great difficulty we found a place to eat some overpriced idlis just for the heck of it. Today there was an idli guy just adjacent to the Misal pav guy but we chose to ignore him and eat a Marathi dish over a south indian dish. Life indeed had come a full circle for us; we came here as Malayalis but are taking back with us a part of the Marathi cuisine in our hearts. This is exactly what you mean by ‘Unity in Diversity’.

P.S: Idli is no more considered a south Indian dish. I had a Gujarati friend of mine who prepared and served idlis on the occasion of her daughter’s birthday party.Alternatively, you can also find a guy doing brisk business selling Chaat in front of the Olive Eva hotel which is a stone’s throw away from Infopark, Cochin.    

Click here for Part 1

Food for thought

Statutory warning: Do not read this post on an empty stomach

Wheat rotis puffed up with a few burnt edges are prepared by placing the flattened dough over the naked flame of a stove using tongs which make them really soft.This is my very first memory of food.It was our staple diet in Gwalior where I spent the early part of my childhood.At that point of time there was no concept of eating out but once in a while I was treated to some really tasty butter chicken ordered from some eatery in town. As a kid I loathed vegetables except cauliflower.

Uprooting myself from the hindi heartland and landing up in the southern coastal tip of the Indian subcontinent is like falling into a rabbit hole akin to Alice in wonderland. The culinary shock is one among the many challenges that I was exposed to when I moved to Trivandrum,Kerala. For starters wheat was hardly used here it was rice, rice and more rice throughout the day. To top on that you had fish literally every day. No one had even heard of butter chicken in my household. Mind you this is the early 90’s I am talking about here where there is no internet and only Doordarshan. Tired of my whining, my maternal aunt once made a chicken curry and topped it up with slices of butter. She tried to pass it off as butter chicken. This was sacrilege for me with respect to food. I flew into a rage when it dawned upon me that my culinary sensibilities were being ridiculed. To be fair on her she had lived her entire life in Kerala and her window to the outside world ‘Vanitha*’ never featured North Indian dishes. Cauliflower was also another casualty because it was not that readily available those days.

*The most popular women’s magazine in Kerala for more than 2 decades

The only food from Gwalior that stood the test of time was the ‘Aloo Paratha*’ which my mom made for breakfast once in a while to make me feel at home. As a matter of fact this was the first dish that my wife learned from my mother. This in itself is a testimony as to how important this flat bread is in my life. Oh yeah Jeslin makes great Aloo paratha these days, she realised quite early that mastering this skill could in a way be the key to marital bliss.

Coming back to my childhood in Kerala I was slowly warming up to fish and rice. After a point of time fried fish became a force of habit for lunch and dinner something that I missed a lot when I was living outside the state. Somewhere during my adolescence I was introduced to the all time favourite Kerala Parotta and Beef fry. It was love at first sight, akin to all the malayalees around the world; this is not a food for us but an emotion. Not to forget the Puffs(pattice for the rest of India) from the bakery* was something very underrated while you were here but you yearned for it when you stayed out of Kerala.

*bakery-this is not a traditional bakery which bakes bread but is a shop which sells evening snacks the whole day long. You won’t find such shops catering exclusively for such things anywhere in India. 

Finally, I left Kerala after my engineering.I had been campus recruited into an IT major, stationed at Chennai. Understandably by then Kerala cuisine had made deep inroads into my dietary habits. Sreejith and myself were put up in a paying guest accommodation in Adayar where we were provided with breakfast and dinner. Every single day we had idli and coconut chutney for breakfast which got extremely monotonous after a couple of months. Post that I recollect vividly that for a few years I used to run for my life the moment I heard the term idli. Once in a while whenever we craved for home our malayali gang made it a point to visit some of restaurants over there which served Kerala cuisine.There was a place called ’Murugan’s idli‘ bang opposite to Besant Nagar beach which was always thronged by people,a testimony to its popularity. This was an anti thesis when I was struggling to come in terms with idli.

One of our popular hangouts was a chinese place called ‘Wang’s kitchen’. Eating there was like going for a movie. You go there and wait for a table for 45 minutes,once you get your table and make your order you need to wait for 40 minutes for the food to arrive.The 2 course meal would be savoured at a leisurely pace to eat up another 45 minutes. At the end of it you will be a lot lighter in your pocket but you spend the same amount of time as in a movie.

My next stop was Delhi, it felt good to be back to the Northern part of the country after a gap of 16 years. Slowly rice made its way for chapati and after a point of time gradually I stopped eating rice altogether. But nothing prepared me for the influx of potatoes that muscled its way into my diet rather forcefully. It was a given that you had an ‘aloo’ dish for lunch and dinner day in and day out. Add to that you had Aloo paratha in the morning there was just too much potato floating around that I started to have nightmares about potato. One day when I asked my breakfast guy for a change of fare. He promptly brought a sandwich the next day with a twist though, it was toasted bread with a filling of potatoes,it literally left me pulling out my hair in desperation. Many years after that I used to diligently extract potatoes even from Sambhar or any other dish and keep it aside saying that I had my share of potatoes for my lifetime during my time in Delhi. Even today at times by a force of habit I pick out potatoes from a dish because it is still very much ingrained in my subconscious mind. Delhi also enticed you with the sweets it had to offer. The gulab jamuns,gajar ka halwa(this was my favorite as a kid in Gwalior), Agra ka peetha to name a few were devoured with great anticipation.

Karims for mughalai food and the wares of the paratha wale gali of the Chandini Chowk area were my favourite hangouts when it came to food. Whenever you felt homesick you went to the Malayali restaurants of IANA colony in South Delhi.I still recollect vividly going to the Kerala house for the much anticipated special Onasadya in 2009 along with a few of my fellow travelers. Relishing a wholesome Malayali meal after a few months of solitary life post the sweltering summers in the national capital felt nothing short of divine.

Onam 2009

I sometimes regret that I didn’t get much to explore the food scene of Delhi. On my defense I wasn’t there to chill out but was in the midst of achieving the dream of cracking one of the toughest exams in the country. Hence, the time to go around was severely constrained thanks to the punishing schedule of coaching classes and self study which was equivalent to a work day.A few years later it was a dejavu moment for me when I visited Karim’s along with Jeslin who was floored by the taste of Mutton burra among many other dishes . I made it a point that we had to have a pitstop in Delhi during our honeymoon enroute to Manali as a pilgrimage to remind myself of the tough UPSC days.

An ode to Delhi

Click here for part 2

Mindcurv @ 9

Cover picture courtesy: Alexandra Mate

Walking through the beautifully landscaped Infopark campus my shirt was soaked with perspiration. I cursed myself for not having taken a rickshaw from the hotel I was put up. It was my first day at work and I was already in a mess. I decided to hang around the lobby of the World Trade Center to get a grip on myself. The summer sun was punishing even at 9 am in the morning. Barely 2 months back it was here that I met up with my long lost friend Lekha after a decade. I had flown into the city for a day for my final round of interviews. A lot had happened after that visit. Within a span of 30 days I had to literally wrap up my life in Mumbai. I had landed in the maximum city in the middle of a monsoon with just 2 bags and a bunch of dreams.The last month in the city was excruciatingly hectic with a multitude of things to be done within a short span of time .With a heavy heart I left behind the place that I called home for close to 8 years.

after a decade

The pitstop helped me immensely and I was fresh again as I walked into the lobby of my new organisation Mindcurv. I met Venkat at the reception who was assigned to me as a buddy for the day. Being welcomed into the new organisation with so much warmth was quite novel experience for me I should say. It calmed my nerves to a great extent and I was slowly putting myself into ease.There was more on store for the day with my buddy taking me out to lunch at a restaurant which serves north indian cuisine.

Every Time on my way back to Mumbai as the train snaked through the countless tunnels of the scenic Konkan region, peering out of the window into the green vegetation drenched in the monsoon rains had always evoked in me an immense longing to come back to my hometown. As I walked back after work that evening everything felt surreal to me because it was yet to sink in that I was indeed going to be working from God’s own country.

I was initially very skeptical with the job switch primarily because I had spent a lion’s share of my career in the Telecom industry. The e-commerce domain was quite new to me and needless to say it was uncharted territory for me. But my first couple of months with a fantastic team put all my doubts to rest. I was slowly getting into my groove. Even before the dust settled I was asked to get ready for an onsite assignment to Germany. I was astonished with the leap of faith that Mindcurv was taking by entrusting me with a huge responsibility in an ambitious project with one of their biggest clients.Another memorable event* was conducting interviews during a walk in drive organised by Mindcurv to select my team.

*subject of another blog Life has come a full circle(click here)

My first Onam in Kerala in many years was out of the world thanks to the amazing Mindcurv Onam celebrations.The scenic venue and the fervor with  which everyone whole heartedly participated in the event evoked a deep sense of nostalgia in me.There was a whole range of cultural events which included the Mahabali contest(selecting the guy who felt real), Malayalimanka contest(Mr and Ms personality),Group song(Onam songs).This was reminiscent of the Onam celebration* during my Engineering college days in Trivandrum which was ages back.My heart leapt with joy as I got to tick off one more item off my bucket list by taking part in a Thiruvathira** and making a mess of it but it was still great fun.

*subject of another blog Onam Memories(click here)
**Thiruvathirakali is a unique dance performed in Kerala

Picture courtesy: http://www.rahuldevakumar.com/

Picture courtesy: http://www.rahuldevakumar.com/

Picture courtesy: http://www.rahuldevakumar.com

Picture courtesy: http://www.rahuldevakumar.com/

Picture courtesy: http://www.rahuldevakumar.com/

Picture courtesy: http://www.rahuldevakumar.com/

our team in its infancy

Landing in Germany exposed me to a different ball game altogether. First of all I was blown away by our beautiful office in Essen. It was actually a house which was converted into an office space with kick ass surroundings. It reminded me of the palatial mansion named after my grandmother in Kerala where I spent a good part of my childhood.    

My first visit to Europe was special for a variety of reasons. It felt good to be living and working in a foreign country.Rubbing shoulders with the founders of the company Amjad and Naaz was definitely the highlight. Lunchtime conversations at the boardroom with Ross,JP,Maik,Vincent,Timo etc was always engaging. Fiercely played table tennis matches at the basement of our office with Andrea, Jens, Dennis and Warren helped us to switch off momentarily amid the hustle and bustle of our work day. Goofing around with Jens with the toy guns on some Friday afternoons was always fun.Whenever, I felt homesick all I had to do was to walk up to either one of Mani,Shibin,Amal,Shalini,Kannan and speak in Malayalam for a few minutes. Bar hopping with Deepu,Jinoy and Jerald was one of the main activities over the weekend.

Another blog during my time in Germany Rush Hour(click here)

On the work front being the understudy of Sunil was equally challenging as well as rewarding. The kind of efforts he puts into each of his tasks and his constant zeal to understand the nitty gritty of everything made me seriously ponder on every task that I did at that time. During the chillier mornings when we used to grab a piping hot coffee enroute to the client location and the conversations that we had when we travelled to and fro were indeed memorable.

In my last week in Germany I was also lucky enough to be part of the amazing Christmas celebrations of our Essen office where we had a great party with our families in attendance. Ozghur in his Santa Claus attire distributing gifts to the children made me miss my family back home. This was also a great opportunity for me to socialise with a number of my colleagues from other office locations like Cologne and Utrecht who had congregated at Essen for the big party. It was a night of fun and frolic and everyone enjoyed it to the core.

Picture courtesy: Vincent de jong

Picture courtesy: Terri Tu

Being back in Cochin gave me bragging rights over my time in Germany. Our team was finally taken a shape and we started off in the right earnest just before the new year. Soon everyone was keenly anticipating the annual event of Mindcurv which was scheduled towards the end of January. I had observed that many a times my colleagues used to go ga ga and with great fondness recollect the previous annual events. I was also eager to know as to what was the big deal about this event. 

I wasn’t disappointed to say the least, the event was held at the Grand Hyatt Bolgatty, a 5 star Luxury Hotel in Cochin. The day started with a sumptuous breakfast buffet followed by the official ceremony accompanied by cultural events performed by our very own colleagues. I was dumbstruck by the energy levels of my younger colleagues as they performed on stage. A good number of our colleagues had also flown in from different countries for the event. The entire Leadership team was in full attendance to take part in the annual gala event. The highlight of the day was definitely the cruise arranged in the Vembanad lake in the evening with a live musical performance on board.

 *briefly mentioned in another blog Work,wife,balance(click here)

Picture courtesy: Vishnu Madhusudanan

Picture courtesy: Vishnu Madhusudanan

Picture courtesy: Vishnu Madhusudanan

Picture courtesy: Vishnu Madhusudanan

Dusk was falling,the waves were lashing against the cruise vessel the party was getting into the mood. The musician was playing the song “Welcome to Hotel California”.Deep in thought I stared into the horizon on board ‘The Nefertiti’ . Exactly 1 year back when I was slogging in Bombay never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that in the near future I will be partying with my colleagues aboard a ship in the scenic waters of the Vembanad lake that too after wrapping up my successful maiden assignment in Germany. Fact is often stranger than fiction. I truly consider myself as blessed to be working for a wonderful company like Mindcurv.

Picture courtesy: Vishnu Madhusudanan

Memories #15-Jose Dale-Amsterdam

Amsterdam is one of the central characters of the book “Hippie” by Paulo Coelho. It is a city which stays on top of your mind if you have a decent understanding of World Affairs.Moreover, as a kid I happened to read about this city for the first from the Journal of my father who had visited here as part of his European trip at the tender age of 17 as part of a tour organized by the Young Men’s Christan Association(YMCA). At that age all I was worried about was my upcoming 12th boards and the subsequent Medical/Engineering exams. That was the very same age of my younger brother when he got himself enrolled in the iconic Government Law College,Bombay. The scene where the wiry old boy barely out of his teens waiting for me at the Terminal as I deboarded my flight from Delhi is still imprinted in my mind with vivid detail.

Gateway of India,Jun 09 

My first visit to  Mumbai never knew that I will land up there after 2 years and call it my home for about a third of my life

When I landed up in Essen,Germany I was thrilled to know that Amsterdam was nearby. To reach Amsterdam you had to first take a train from Dusseldorf to Arnhem Central in the Netherlands.On weekends you could make use of your monthly train pass which you use for your office travel to reach there.Next you had to purchase a round trip ticket to Amsterdam Centraal. This was a novel experience for me to hop between countries and that too in trains/buses. For the record Holland was the third country that I visited after Hong Kong and Germany which made it all the more special.

As I walked out of the underground station to the open air sometime around mid day what hit me most was the sight of the teeming crowds bustling past me. For some odd reason it reminded me of Bombay, a place where I called home for one third of my life. My fascination didn’t end there right outside the station you could get a glimpse of the renowned canal system of the city. I promptly purchased a day pass for the boat and hopped into one of these boats. I was in awe as I travelled through the canal transversing the length and breadth of the city. After a while I disembarked and decided to explore the city on foot. The first thing that hits you that is way different from what you are used to is the dedicated cycle track. Boy I would love to have something like this back home it made me nostalgic about my cycle*.Being a Saturday and since it was lunch time all the restaurants were full I was looking for a seat overlooking one of the canals. I decided to walk around a bit more, the Hard Rock cafe was quite inviting but I didn’t want to go indoors during such fine weather. I came across a couple of quite impressive street performers and was surprised to know that these folks tour the world to make a living out of it.  

*subject of another blog-The cycle

It was around 3:30 when I finally found a seat overlooking the canals with a burger and beer. It felt good to be sipping on a Heineken not far from where it was actually brewed. I decided to roam around a little and walk back to Centraal via Dam square(It all started for the protagonists with a little meet-cute at this very place in ‘Hippie’). As I walked back I could very much feel the vibe of the young and restless crowd which was enchanting. This fueled the fire of desire in me to come back again. It was a no brainer for me to fathom as to why there was an entire page dedicated to Amsterdam in my father’s journ. Our visits to the city might have happened 50 years apart but the feeling was pretty much the same.

When the plan for the big fat Jose Dale meet up was hatched I was particularly happy that I could get to visit the Dutch capital again. After we pushed off from the Bulldog outlet we decided to go to a good place for dinner. Aaron and Adrian armed with google maps were leading the party. Our destination was a restaurant somewhere in the vicinity. You could feel the nip in the air, everyone covered their heads and the gloves came out. It was a bit windier than usual. There was a ferry just about to leave and we were directed to get in quickly. All of us scampered in just in time before the anchor was raised. All of us were in pretty high spirits by that time. The party had just started the ferry docked out and we disembarked. The moment I set foot on the place I knew that something was amiss ‘we were lost’, this looked like a deserted island of sorts. We realised our folly for letting those casanovas lead. I took control of the situation and ushered the party back into the ferry which was now returning back. No complaints though it is good that we could squeeze in a ferry in Amsterdam that too in the night;  one item off the bucket list . 

getting lost

the casanovas

an unexpected boat ride

We were famished by the time we got back and promptly entered the first Döner Kebab that we came across. Aarti was tiring out fast, being on the road since the previous night was taking a toll on her and she decided to call it a night.She had to catch a flight back to London the next morning.We implored her to delay her departure by a day but since she was flying back home to Australia the next weekend she had her hands full.With a heavy heart we bid adieu to the gang and left.I rued the fact that I had met her after a decade, next time I wish it could happen much sooner.

Dinner

The pitstop had definitely satiated our hunger a wee bit and we were up and kicking again,the night was still young.We decided to find another comfortable place where we could all fit in chill and spend some time together.The search finally took us to the coffee shop named after Popeye I guess. The move paid rich dividends because of the fact that it was getting pretty cold by then and we needed to keep ourselves warm.Close to midnight we decided to call it a day with the promise of meeting the next day.

The next morning close to mid day with great difficulty thanks to the late night partying we assembled at Julia’s cafe at the Centraal station. This place had by now become a defacto meeting point for us. It was Adrian’s birthday and the big sister wanted to drag him to church.  All of us tagged along and we began walking in the direction of the dam square. After  a bit of walking we felt  that Google maps had yet again pulled a fast one on us when it took us to a Mcdonald restaurant instead of a church. But thankfully we found the church in the midst of the din and fury of the busy shopping street. Our next stop was the Heineken beer museum,it was getting colder as the time progressed.The sun was playing hide and seek because of which everyone wanted to get indoors. The Heineken beer museum was totally worth it .All along while sipping beer we never knew that there was a painstaking process behind the creation of beer. We had a lot of fun over there, the icing of the cake was the complimentary beer at the end of the tour . It was like drinking Heineken inside Heineken.

picture courtesy: Kavita Jayakumar

I almost got hit by a speeding bicycle as we left the place, the reason being we are not used to looking out for cycles back in India. The rest of the day we spent roaming and were very tired by the end of it. Aaron took the bus back to Stuttgart the very night because he had to go to work on Monday.The third day dawned to us and it was time to bid adieu to each other the thought as to when we are going to meet again was weighing down heavily on everyone’s heart.As usual we met up for breakfast and it was a solemn offer to see each other off. I took my train to Arnhem,Meena took  a train to Hague,Teenu took a flight to London, Kavita took a flight to Budapest for the onward journey to India, Adrian stayed back in Amsterdam for a couple of days before his flight back home. 

until we meet again

It was curtains down to a memorable trip which will be etched deeply in our hearts for the rest of our lives. We are going to repeat this story to our kids day in and day out until they are going to get tired of hearing it. Somewhere Ambrose Jose Dcruz and Lilly Dcruz (our grandparents) the architects of Jose Dale would be happy with the fact that we have kept alive their tradition of coming together. Reminiscent of the four brothers scattered across the world coming together once in a blue moon to their home in Tangy,we the next generation have taken this homecoming to another level.Next time when I go to Jose Dale I am going to frame one these pictures and hang it on a wall over there to remind everyone of our wonderful trip to the Dutch capital.They need to know that Jose Dale is not a physical entity but rather a feeling of oneness in the hearts of everyone who has inhabited the house at one point or another no matter which part of the world we live in. 

blast from the past

all smiles

Click here for Part 1