YetiBlog® - Munich, my father and jail.

Sam Kapasi · 9th March 2009, 11:56

It has been a long time since I wrote hasn't it?

While every single day in my life has been a new experience of late, some of it is too private to share.

But just the other day I was recounting an old experience, a street experience in Germany and I realised I'd found my next story. And so here it is, only for those of you that like reading my stories.

Enjoy.

navin · 9th March 2009, 12:00

you ended in jail! Now this I gotta see. A Yeti chained and bound!

Sabareesh · 9th March 2009, 12:00

Wow, another thread by the Yeti, Bring it on sam. Let me get a popcorn and coke.

Rajesh Rawal · 9th March 2009, 12:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

only for those of you that like reading my stories.

Enjoy.

i am one of them.but where is the story gurudev?

something wrong in my system ,or this was just a teaser

Sam Kapasi · 9th March 2009, 12:04

Europe, 1996.

It was the second time I'd undertaken a journey of rediscovering my father on a human level.

One day we discovered that we were 2 egoistic men in the house who never agreed about anything except the loss of our anchor, support and mediator. My mother.
She had passed away a year earlier and we were both grief-stricken. My father's grief was more visible than mine.

We spent many weeks together in Africa, to relax and get over our loss (yes, I get my holiday trait from my father) and 2 incredible things happened.

One, I realised that this was actually the first time I started speaking to Dad, man to man. Second, we both spoke in Hindi to each other (earlier for some reason we only spoke English to each other) , so that the others may not understand. This habit stuck.

We enjoyed Africa so much in '95 that we decided to spend many weeks across Europe together in '96. It was a first for us both.
Our journey by bus and train and boat took us to Italy (my Father's family is from Eritrea, an italian colony and my family speaks Italian), Switzerland, Holland, France and of course Germany, where an incident occurred.

This story is about this incident.

ASHISHPALLOD · 9th March 2009, 12:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

(my Father's family is from Eritrea, an italian colony and my family speaks Italian),

Man,
How many languages you can speak?
I had asked this question in another blog but never got answer.
Now, i have to find it myself searching your all blogs.

Waiting for next post.
Hope, it is, as usual, will be.......... fast.

lambuhere1 · 9th March 2009, 12:14

Now I am hooked to this one. Keep it flowing.

Love to hear it out. Pressing F5 n number of times now. Sorry about it

Sam Kapasi · 9th March 2009, 12:15

We had spent a lovely week at Engelbert, visiting the mountains and lakes.
We were ready to go to Germany in our anti-clockwise journey.

But why this stupid Munich?
What is so stupid about Munich?
I want to go to Berlin.
So do I, let's go after 2 or 3 days in Munich.
You just want to run after girls...
They're my friends!! It's nothing like that!

The year earlier, Dad and I had met with 2 wonderful German girls in upper Tanzania during our African trip. Pia and Martina. I don't remember Pia's last name but it was Martina Duckensell from Munich (München) - if you ever read this by searching on google, email me - my first name (hint - it begins with a s and ends with an m)@team-BHP.com.

It was much before emails. We would write to each other often. We'd even send packages and presents. (I used to send packs of Sambhaji beedi to Munich, lol) and I wanted to meet them both. Munich was on my way to Berlin anyway! They were wonderful people and it just felt very exciting to have people you knew in a strange country.

I want to see Munich alright? I want to meet my friends too. Now can we go there or not?
Hmmm. Ok Munich has some nice art galleries and museums.

That's all he did in every city. Look for art galleries. A city with no art was no city at all.

And so that's how it was that early Monday morning we found ourselves in Munich, capital of Bavaria, the land of beer, BMW and some art, lol.

Not wanting to waste a minute, we dumped our bags in a cheap hotel and as was our habit, I memorized the name and address of our hotel. Dad was unable to cope with the German names in Switzerland and Germany He couldn't be bothered anyways.

Dad left for his art galleries and I spent the day by myself.

And now my story begins.

jayakumarkp · 9th March 2009, 12:35

More more more! we want more!!! :P

Sam Kapasi · 9th March 2009, 12:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

Man,
How many languages you can speak?
I had asked this question in another blog but never got answer.
Now, i have to find it myself searching your all blogs.

I'll save you the trouble.
I speak only English pretty well. My Hindi is good, but suspect in grammar. I know the clear difference between Urdu and Hindi and speak Urdu with a light and clear tongue managing difficult pronunciations as well.
I am able to understand and speak Gujarati, but my grammar is worse than Hindi. However I do understand even theth Kathiawadi and Surti easily. I can manage a decent conversation in it

I struggle with Marwari, though my mother spoke it. I am able to understand Sindhi 100% as I have heard it my whole childhood (my mother's family spoke Sindhi) but have no courage to speak it.

Marathi, because I am from Maharashtra and studied it in school. While I am able to understand almost 100%, I speak it very badly.

Amongst European languages I speak French, but not fluently. I joke with my French friends in their language. My Italian is better than my French as my Father's family speaks it and I did a 3 years course in Italian grammar. I used this to impress a lot of girls when I was younger.

I already know the question that comes next: What about German? My German gets better everyday, thanks to my wife. When we speak in India and need some privacy, we shift to German. Most of the time it is simple German, as it is spoken by a child.
I enjoy languages and pick them up easily. I am constantly asking Jenny - What is the German word for... as she answers every single time patiently as best she can. I pick up languages easily, but I am no linguist at all.
Call me a pseudo-polyglot

ASHISHPALLOD · 9th March 2009, 12:55

1]English
2]Hindi
3]Urdu
4]Gujarati
5]Kathiawadi
6]Surti
7]Marwari
8]Sindhi
9]Marathi
10]French
11]Italian
12]German

My my,
You can either speak, write or understand those 12 languages.

You are among those who can speak more than 10 languages.
its amazing.

edit: surati and kathiyawadi may be dialects of gujrati, it does not meant that it is easy to understand. its like konkani and malwani are dialects of marathi but still i can not speak or understand konkani and malwani.

Sam Kapasi · 9th March 2009, 12:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

My my,
You can either speak, write or understand those 12 languages.

You are among those who can speak more than 10 languages e.g. P V Narsimharao, Shrikant Jichkar.
Its amazing.

Kathiawadi and Surti are not languages, they are dialects of Gujarati.

And many of the above languages I cannot speak properly. That is an unfair comparison. Please do not compare me to some great people, it is insulting to their honour. I am not a linguist at all, more like a jack-of-all, master-of-none.

hemanthisgreat · 9th March 2009, 13:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

What about German? My German gets better everyday, thanks to my wife.

Sorry for being intrusive, I know you choose your words carefully, so is this your way of telling us that you have got married.

Because earlier you used to insist that Jenny is your Girl Friend.

kalpeshc · 9th March 2009, 13:08

Quote:

My German gets better everyday, thanks to my wife.

When did this happen? I was under the impression from the 'Dilwale...' thread that you were engaged and that the marriage was supposed to happen in Germany sometimes later.

Anyways, CONGRATULATIONS for the same. I may sound demanding but when can we expect a blog about the marriage itself (with pics of course)?

It's been a long time since your last blog. This was way overdue!

Ya - we know that you do have actual work too but then we just love your blogs so much !

Sam Kapasi · 9th March 2009, 13:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by kalpeshc

When did this happen? I was under the impression from the 'Dilwale...' thread that you were engaged and that the marriage was supposed to happen in Germany sometimes later.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hemanthisgreat

Sorry for being intrusive, I know you choose your words carefully, so is this your way of telling us that you have got married.

Because earlier you used to insist that Jenny is your Girl Friend.

I am grinning. Because I know that you guys read every word carefully and had a feeling you would not miss that one.

I am not married to Jenny. However Jenny is no longer my girlfriend, but my Fiancée. But since January, we have moved in together and have set up a new house where we live as a couple in Mumbai.

To tell you the truth, it feels just like a marriage should and so I often say that word as it's a lot easier to say and write than Fiancée. But I realise I should be more careful, lol.

When we are to be married, I will announce it on Team-BHP with great pleasure.

9th March 2009, 11:56	#1
Sam Kapasi Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Mumbai (but wat Posts: 6,997 Thanked: 2,378 Times View My Garage	YetiBlog® - Munich, my father and jail. It has been a long time since I wrote hasn't it? While every single day in my life has been a new experience of late, some of it is too private to share. But just the other day I was recounting an old experience, a street experience in Germany and I realised I'd found my next story. And so here it is, only for those of you that like reading my stories. Enjoy.
	() Thanks

9th March 2009, 12:00	#2
navin Team-BHP Support Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Mumbai Posts: 25,199 Thanked: 9,307 Times	you ended in jail! Now this I gotta see. A Yeti chained and bound!
	() Thanks

9th March 2009, 12:00	#3
Sabareesh BHPian Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ambarnath Posts: 338 Thanked: 88 Times View My Garage	Wow, another thread by the Yeti, Bring it on sam. Let me get a popcorn and coke.
	() Thanks

9th March 2009, 12:04	#5
Sam Kapasi Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Mumbai (but wat Posts: 6,997 Thanked: 2,378 Times View My Garage	Prologue Europe, 1996. It was the second time I'd undertaken a journey of rediscovering my father on a human level. One day we discovered that we were 2 egoistic men in the house who never agreed about anything except the loss of our anchor, support and mediator. My mother. She had passed away a year earlier and we were both grief-stricken. My father's grief was more visible than mine. We spent many weeks together in Africa, to relax and get over our loss (yes, I get my holiday trait from my father) and 2 incredible things happened. One, I realised that this was actually the first time I started speaking to Dad, man to man. Second, we both spoke in Hindi to each other (earlier for some reason we only spoke English to each other) , so that the others may not understand. This habit stuck. We enjoyed Africa so much in '95 that we decided to spend many weeks across Europe together in '96. It was a first for us both. Our journey by bus and train and boat took us to Italy (my Father's family is from Eritrea, an italian colony and my family speaks Italian), Switzerland, Holland, France and of course Germany, where an incident occurred. This story is about this incident. Last edited by Sam Kapasi : 9th March 2009 at 12:06.
	() Thanks

9th March 2009, 12:14	#7
lambuhere1 BHPian Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: @ Driver's Seat @ Posts: 708 Thanked: 106 Times	Now I am hooked to this one. Keep it flowing. Love to hear it out. Pressing F5 n number of times now. Sorry about it Last edited by Rehaan : 9th March 2009 at 23:41. Reason: abt = about. Avoid SMS language please.
	() Thanks

9th March 2009, 12:15	#8
Sam Kapasi Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Mumbai (but wat Posts: 6,997 Thanked: 2,378 Times View My Garage	Switzerland, Sunday, 1996 We had spent a lovely week at Engelbert, visiting the mountains and lakes. We were ready to go to Germany in our anti-clockwise journey. But why this stupid Munich? What is so stupid about Munich? I want to go to Berlin. So do I, let's go after 2 or 3 days in Munich. You just want to run after girls... They're my friends!! It's nothing like that! The year earlier, Dad and I had met with 2 wonderful German girls in upper Tanzania during our African trip. Pia and Martina. I don't remember Pia's last name but it was Martina Duckensell from Munich (München) - if you ever read this by searching on google, email me - my first name (hint - it begins with a s and ends with an m)@team-BHP.com. It was much before emails. We would write to each other often. We'd even send packages and presents. (I used to send packs of Sambhaji beedi to Munich, lol) and I wanted to meet them both. Munich was on my way to Berlin anyway! They were wonderful people and it just felt very exciting to have people you knew in a strange country. I want to see Munich alright? I want to meet my friends too. Now can we go there or not? Hmmm. Ok Munich has some nice art galleries and museums. That's all he did in every city. Look for art galleries. A city with no art was no city at all. And so that's how it was that early Monday morning we found ourselves in Munich, capital of Bavaria, the land of beer, BMW and some art, lol. Not wanting to waste a minute, we dumped our bags in a cheap hotel and as was our habit, I memorized the name and address of our hotel. Dad was unable to cope with the German names in Switzerland and Germany He couldn't be bothered anyways. Dad left for his art galleries and I spent the day by myself. And now my story begins. Last edited by Sam Kapasi : 9th March 2009 at 12:20.
	() Thanks

9th March 2009, 12:35	#9
jayakumarkp BHPian Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Pune, Palakkad Posts: 207 Thanked: 103 Times	More more more! we want more!!! :P
	() Thanks

9th March 2009, 12:55	#11
ASHISHPALLOD Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: MH42 Posts: 2,006 Thanked: 334 Times	1]English 2]Hindi 3]Urdu 4]Gujarati 5]Kathiawadi 6]Surti 7]Marwari 8]Sindhi 9]Marathi 10]French 11]Italian 12]German My my, You can either speak, write or understand those 12 languages. You are among those who can speak more than 10 languages. its amazing. edit: surati and kathiyawadi may be dialects of gujrati, it does not meant that it is easy to understand. its like konkani and malwani are dialects of marathi but still i can not speak or understand konkani and malwani. Last edited by ASHISHPALLOD : 9th March 2009 at 13:07.
	() Thanks