Rebooting Country: Norway to India

Talk about being MIA. Seems like my last post was AGES ago. I'm just going to blame it on moving countries.

The hubby and I decided we were going to move back to India by November 2012. I had this bunch of things I had to get done before I left beautiful Europe and Norway that was our home for over 3 years. So in short here are all my excuses for not blogging for so many many months....

• Getting the travel bug out of me with lots of last minute travel - The Ascot Races, Paris, Bulgaria, Bodø
• Doing 2 amazing hikes with friends in Norway at Prekistolen & Kjerag and seeing NOTHING thanks to the Norwegian weather.
• Watching Roxette LIVE along with Lenny Kravitz and Tom Petty& The Heartbreakers 
• Having my mother visit and take her to Paris
• Seeing a Moose. Yes this was top priority I couldn't leave without seeing a Moose... (I did manage to see a bunch of other animals from the region as well)
• Celebrate my birthday one last time there (I was suddenly legal to enter a bar which had an entry criterion of 28 !) 

   

And once these were done the packing started & I got the Farewell of my life from our friends. The tears didn't stop for a very long time..                                                                            

Farewell Cake with the Marius Design

Before I knew it the Norwegian chapter of our lives closed, I was back home in Bangalore. What started next was a whole different kind of crazy - 7 weddings, My Sisters Graduation, Norwegian Christmas Dinner we cooked, House Hunting, Luggage Arrival & custom clearances & finally setting up home .. you get the picture.

Ribbe - A Norwegian Christmas Dish

Not like we didn't have enough on our plate we decided to adopt a dog - YES a DOG. Turns out she is the center of our lives - an absolutely bouncy, love-able, sometimes crazy Labrador. Silly people who abandoned her truly had no appreciation for this furry ball or the immense amounts of love she brings with her..

Ms.Penny Lane Muffin

Changing countries comes with its fair share of challenges but brings joy in equal measure. More to come on that ... for now this is just to say I'm Alive, Kicking & got a few more posts up my sleeve... 

You can take the Indian out of India but you cant take India out of the Indian !

I went down town to the area where it feels most like home here in Oslo  - Grønland. It's where one of my favourite stores is - one which is full of undiscovered treasures of different textures, smells, familiar banter & then  mixed in are treasures that make you feel close to home, & then the few that stir a childhood memory  - yup its the Indian - Pakistani grocery store. From dals, to all the masalas to make a perfect curry to ready-made rotis, paneer, Indian green chillies, coriander in bunches, bindi, haldirams, frooti and maggi this IS my treasure trove of all things home !

Today I went there on the  'we need more rice' trip. After trying a variety of rices available here in Norway nothing came close to our good old sona masoori, we (well more me) decided to stick with the Basmati from the Indian store. Cost wise it is identical to other rices here,so no we are not being posh unlike in India where Basmati rice means your having guests to dinner.

As I was saying - walking home I couldn't help laughing at myself lugging back this 5kg bag of Basmati India Gate Rice - nothing screamed 'I'm Indian' more than that and to make the picture more realistic I had 3 other shopping bags strapped across me and one very aromatic bag of briyani take away.

Sitting on the couch at home still laughing about it I remembered the Chumbak poster we have up in our loo - ' You know your Indian Because.. ' and so many times when friends have come out of the loo here they've laughed and remarked about one thing up on the poster than resembles what we have ..

1. Yes we own a pressure cooker (2 infact)   
2. Yup a rice cooker too
3. The toilet mug is tucked away in the corner (transported all the way from India)
4. The house doesn't smell of tomato, onions and garlic but they are 3 ingredients that can be produced on demand (curry patta &chillies included) 
5. A whole shelf dedicated to tupperware a.k.a  the collection of plastic haldi stained dabbas by the dozen  (this one is infectious a lot of our friends here now have their own personal dabba collections minus the haldi stains) 
6. Correct the fridge is jam-packed with leftovers in the above mentioned dabbas

And

I definitely have my 5kg bag of rice !!

Leaving me with the conclusion .. that you can take the Indian out of India but never India out of the Indian ....

My Hues Of Autumn

                                       
''Some call it autumn, some call it fall, some say the season is the best of all, look all around and you will find that fall is here.... just look for the signs. See red and yellow, orange and brown, bright coloured leaves are falling too the ground ... ''  -This kiddies song puts it so aptly.

Living in Norway you actually get to experince the 4 seasons in their entirety. Till I got here they were just the 4 main seasons that we loosely referred to. But being here and experiencing them is absolutely something else.


Autumn is now officially one of my favourite seasons - no not because I like the rain, or the mush, or the one day cold - one day hot weather, not because the days start getting shorter but very simply -
The Colours. 

A road with some beautiful houses - very close to where we live

Autumn brings with it some of the most stunning hues of greens, yellows,oranges & brown I have seen, leaving the city bursting at its brim with sunshine when there isn't too much sunshine doing the rounds.

An Autumn evening Sunset as we saw it from our living room

Autumn is almost drawing to a close &  I've clearly fallen in love with the colours considering I have inserted  them into my wardrobe.. so I will have a spot of Autumn Sunshine all winter long ! ;)

Add Mr.K's Golf bag models  the Hat & Scarf

One of my favourite purchases !

   

The Pattern for the Yellow Knitted Hat can be found Here & the Extremely Easy Scarf Here

Nice to Meet you .. Oops We've met! Of Norwegian pleasantries

Scandinavia in general has a interesting set of social greetings that you exchange but one particular one has got my interest :

'Takk for Sist'
So when meeting someone for the first time you ofcourse extend out your hand and say ' Helen, 'hyggelig' (the second word basically translates to 'nice to meet you'). Now initially I made sure I said nice to meet you because thats a clear indicator you don't speak the language but in the aim of 'integration' I've started using the word hyggelig which of course leads to a response / conversation in Norwegian and me looking a bit confused and waiting for the correct time to say 'err I'm sorry I don't speak norwegian yet'. So really I squash the aim in a matter of seconds but that's an entirely different topic :) But one must remember this greeting is used only the first time you meet the person.

Subsequent times that you meet this person you are going to be using the term that interests me the most 'Takk for Sist'. Literally this means 'thank you for the last time' and could be extended to either it was nice meeting you last time or thank you for the fun time we had together or the lovely dinner etc you get the picture. What's even more interesting is that time is of no consequence. The *LAST* time could even have been a year ago ... so this is clearly where my problem begins.... my most recent experience went something like this ... 

Helen: Hei, Helen, Hyggelig

Person: Hei Helen, Takk for Sist .. 

Helen in her mind: **BIG Oppss !!**

This is usually the point where I then feign ignorance of what just happened ...I think I'm just going to stick to my safe pleasantries in english and definitely ones I can wangle my way out of when met with situations like this :)

Clearly Norwegians have a  better memory than this Indian ...... Must Be All Fish !

Thank God Its Friday - More Like ..Yummy Its Friday !!!

In Norway they seem to have this fantastic work tradition of 'honouring' the last day of a working week. Each company has their own way of doing it ..In a friends company on a friday a fresh oven baked batch of Pain au chocolat arrive at the office as a mass email is sent out and everyone gathers to devour them. In my husbands company they have 'Friday Beers' the canteen fridge is stocked on a friday and post work whoever wants gathers for well ... some beers, another friends company also has beers and sometimes a games night AND in our company friday means one thing .. YUMMY HOT WAFFLES .. at about 11:15 the smell starts wafting through the office and the call for lunch comes must faster :) We also on most Fridays have a wine lottery which I've won once .. ah the joy of taking home a bottle of wine on a friday.

The weekend here is sacred and everyone knows and appreciates that. Emails from friday morning onwards all end with a customary have a great weekend attached to it, there is no sense of guilt or apology that the weekend is here - that its time for you to take a break (sometimes in India i felt that .. hence the comparison). I love that together as a company with your colleagues you welcome the weekend and have something to look forward too after a week of work ..

I normally work from home on a friday, but for  fridays i come into work like today - i can always be sure that there will be fresh waffles to greet me, make my friday happier and welcome the weekend in all its glory !!!

Have a Great Weekend :) 

Do-It-Yourself : Norwegian Style

DIY is almost like a gene embedded in every Norwegian. From simple handy craft projects to complex building of walls, patios, laying their floors, building their kitchens, cleaning their homes, maintaining gardens that are storybook worthy .. you name it and I will find a Norwegian that's done it .. and all of this comes with a self pride of being able to create & build their own.

Coming from a country like India where most of the time there is someone to do things for us ... this concept was well a bit alien not to mention absurd. Why should I build something in my house when i can get someone to do it for me without me lifting a finger, or just buy it right off the self. That parts slowly changing (not that i've built anything apart from ikea) but in small ways I'm starting to understand that pride of doing it yourself...

Thanks to friends here I've had my mini introduction to this .. with friends B & T we not only picked apples from the apple trees in their garden (this itself was a treat for me) we then proceeded to make jam, marmalades,chutneys.. out of it, then sterilize the bottles and then stored them, also add apple pie to that list .. In India I would buy home made Jam .. now i have my own cupboard full of homemade jam = a certain sense of pride of doing it myself

                                                

With my other friend M she re-introduced me to Knitting .. now I'd done this once before as a child for SUPW and honestly it seemed like the most painful thing, leaving my grandmother to finish my 'piece'. Never touched a needle after that labeling it something i would do when i was well at an age i thought would be appropriate. With nothing to do on 4 hour bus rides everyday knitting seemed like a perfect occupation and I started off .. I've finished a scarf for kiran a hat for myself and decided Tina needed one to mark her visit to Norway and made her a hat as well. This morning I put on the hat i knitted myself,and was strutting around almost wishing i could point at it and say 'yup made it myself' (a norwegian would probably point at their sweater and say the same back to me) = a certain sense of pride of making it myself.

                                                   

Over Christmas B decided we should make christmas decorations and happy was I when she asked me to join, with the forewarning that my creativity skills were umm questionable. Forewarning in hand we started and by the end of the evening we had these beautiful advent candle stands (sorry about the bragging I'm still in awe)and later on something for the front door. It sits proudly on the centre coffee table at home and when Tina saw it and refused to believe we made it .. well no guesses what feeling came out = a certain sense of pride.

                                                   

I think what truly enables them to do all this is 1. the time: their work life balance is almost an art form the rest of the world needs to learn. And 2. their ability to enjoy the simple things of life, in its most basic form and from that stems the need to create things yourself. (I'm not ignoring the fact that getting things done her comes at an insanely high cost and hence DIY makes even more sense - but that aside there is no denying the force of their DIY gene)

I hope this DIY gene will stay with me, and maybe I will have some new found skills when i return to India = no shortage of jobs for me :)

To the Norwegians who have introduced me to this .. thank you and hey you know who to call when you needed some labour, all in the name of cultural understanding ;)