Monday, October 03, 2005 - 5:14 am:

doXaatuNa prdoXaat jaaNyaa laa nauktIca ³01 Aa^@TÜbar rÜjaI´ tIna vaYao- puNa- JaalaI² %yaainaima<aanao ........ ²

I came to San Sebastian, three years ago, on 1st October 2002 for Ph.D. My plane landed first in Barcelona, a port city where 1992 Olympic games were held. It was a nice to see Barcelona from the sky. (Blue sea and bit cloudy morning !) It was first time for me to travel abroad. I have to wait for my next flight for almost 8 hrs. at Barcelona airport. (If I was taking a bus from Barcelona to San Sebastian, it would take 6 hrs only. But as I was new comer, boss didn’t ask me to take that risk.) This was due to communication gap between me and my professor who on the second last day sent an e-mail to me asking if I can change my flight timing from evening to mid-day. But it was impossible to change the time of flight for me on last moment. (And one can not change the flight time of a his second flight of a `connection flight´ because, his luggage is processed according to the earlier stated time. Luggage and person should be flying in the same flight for security reasons, except in case of lost / missing luggage. They are allowed to miss the luggage but not the passenger <:D> ) Finally I arrived at San Sebastian airport at 9.00 pm. Landing at San Sebastian airport is a nice experience. The airport is situated 20 km away from the city near sea. The plane first goes straight over the sea and then turns back to land. It feels like, we are landing in the sea. It’s a domestic and very small airport. My professor was waiting for me, outside the airport building without signboard, I was the only non-european on that flight. (clever fellow! ) He took me to my hostel, already booked by him for me. Generaly for students, professors already book a hostel room and if the student like it, he continues or he look for another room/flat. He showed me the hostel and he left for his home which is in Pamplona, a city 100 km away from San Sebastian. Pamplona is the same city where San Fermines, that famous Bull-Running festival is held every year in the month of July. I was feeling little guilty for not changing the flight timing when I come to know that professor has to drive 100km in the night. But he was not worried because it is his everyday routine since 10 years……..

Next day he came to hostel at 8.00 am and took me to Univeristy, making a small tour of the city, showing me useful locations like supermarkets, bus stops, railway station, gardens, public parks, and above all the beautiful beaches. I recognized the building from long distance as I have already seen it´s picture before on webpage. Then there was a formal introduction to all professors and laboratory colleagues. He showed me the lab, the library, canteen and other facilities in the Chemistry building. We discussed about my journey and some chemistry and the first day passed nicely .

From the next day routine started, as I got my first project which eventually turned into disaster after 8 months and I was frustrated for some days. The second project worked fairly good before scrapping it to start 3rd project which was very close to second one in chemistry. This worked nicely and resulted in a research article which we published in Journal Of the American Chemical Society (JACS) in Feb 2005. The fourth project again was scrapped after 6 months of hard work to enhance the results from 80% to 90 + %. Professor only considers results of above 90% success, so it’s a very normal thing for us to scrap the projects resulting in 80 to 85% success. Currently I am working on my fifth project which I hope will not be scrapped ……………….

I am living in San Sebastian which is located in Basque Country. The very first impression of this place was very nice, so clean and green. It’s a border city, with France on the north of Spain. Spanish border with France border is 20 km from here. But due to European Union, borders are irrelevant after 1999. Landscape is just like Kashmir and H.P. in north India. Weather is almost rainy all the year with some rest in summer i.e. June to September. Due to rain, city is quite green.

Basque country is a collection of 6 provinces, 3 from north east of Spain and 3 from south west of France. They are collectively demanding for a separate homeland named Basque Country (Spanish name: Pais Vasco). Their claim is of being one of the oldest culture in Europe which is true also. Basque Country is the richest region in Spain. The local language is Euskera (commonly known as Basque language). A separatist movement E.T.A. (means: Freedom for Basque Country) is operating within Spain and France. Before 1999 Spain and France were accusing each other of being responsible for helping ETA in each others territory.( This is just like a cross border terrorism between India and Pakistan.) After 1999, EU coming into effect, ETA operations came to hault upto some extent. There are some reports of blasts, shooting or search operations now a days but intensity is less. ETA is a different kind of terrorist organization who inform to police about their blasts 10-15 minutes before scheduled time(!) so that common people don’t loose their life. That is the reason why, in last 40 years only 1000 targeted killings were observed. Keeping in mind that every life is precious, still if we compare violence in other areas of world for an independent state, this is too less damage, I think. There are regular protests in Basque country in peaceful manner. Thousands of people take part in these protests which especially occur if National Police arrest or kill an ETA member. ETA has a good philosophical support from the Basque people. (ETA is also the name of enterprise which operates webpage of Shiv sena´s mouthpiece, Daily Saamana. www.saamana.com It’s a coincidence that both ETA and Shiv Sena fight for the regional identity ) But they all know that their dream of homeland will not come into reality. As Basque region is the richest region in Spain, there is one benefit to live here. Living standard is high, living cost is high and so the illegal immigrants are very less. They cant afford the living cost . So we easily escape the crime and disorder due to illegal immigrants. In rest of Spain, there is huge problem of illegal immigrants. 20% of total population is illegal mainly from Latin America and north Africa

In the initial days, I got chance to visit some places. Garnika (Basque name) (Spanish name : Guernica), the city which was destroyed by Hitler during second world war. It was bombed on the busy market day killing thousands of people and complete destruction of city. Now we can see re-built city with a museum showing the history of destruction. Mundaka is surfer´s heaven. As like San Sebastian, many Australians and Americans come here for surfing.Biaritz, French town, near from here, is a surfing place too.Zumaia is a nice coastal village. I visited Madrid just for official work. I could see only city museum and music academy. My visit to Barcelona was a great pleasure. Two days before my first India trip in October 2003, I was invited by a Indian couple (from Kerala, now living in Thane) . They both were Post-Doctoral fellows in Barcelona University. We visited the Olympic Village, where 1992 Olympics were held, the Royal Palace, Gaudi´s church and some gardens. Gaudi was a well known Spanish Architect. He built numerous buildings in his time and at the end he was trying to build a church. He started with his plans but after some time, he died in a tragic metro train accident which was noticed after few days. All his papers were lost in that accident. The work stopped after his death. Now a days some Japanese scientists are examining his old architecture style and making plans accordingly to build the church again. That’s why it is said to be the oldest ongoing project since last 150 years.

A Brief account of Spanish life style :-

Madrid is the Capital of Spain and Barcelona is economical capital. This is a good country for tourism and short stay. But it is not a good place to live for long time and work if you are more serious about work than enjoying life. Language is also a obstacle. There are very few Indians in Spain, mainly located in Madrid and Barcelona. These are mainly Panjabi people who work in farms or heavy metal industry and run Indian restaurants. Spain is a republic with nominal Monarchy. H.H. King Juan Carlos and H.H. Queen Sofia is the Royal couple. Prime minister and parliament are functioning like Indian system. This is similar to England and Japan. The difference between British royal family and Spanish royal family is, simplicity.

Spain is a country which belive in Drink, Dance and Bull-fight. Party people !!! People here are of soft nature and are kind to help you all the time. Spanish is national language . Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world after English. English is very rarely used . In day to day life, English is of no use as none of the Spaniard want to use English. Older people don’t know English and youngsters are still learning, so prefer Spanish instead. This is biggest problem in Spain for a outsider (other than Latin Americans or Mexicans and Spanish speaking 27 countries in the world.) Initially, I have to ask my lab mates to write Spanish sentences for me to go to supermarket or bus stop or post office etc. till I could learn some Spanish.

Work pressure does not exist. People do their job in silent manner without loosing the joy of life.We work to live and not live to work is the philosophy of life. Siesta i.e. short sleeping time after lunch, is very important for every Spaniard. This may be the only country where people sleep for an hour after lunch and then resume to work. Day by day they are getting problems to continue this habit as working style is changing in whole world. (This is against the very principle of being Spaniard.) Night life of Spain is fascinating. Thursday night(just one day left for work), Friday night(work finished), Saturday night(free time) and sometimes Sunday night( just a bit ) are the most busy nights in Bars, Pubs, Discos and entertainment places. All the people, youngsters or old are on the streets and bars or pubs or restaurants. Dancing and drinking everywhere. Its party time!!! Fiesta!!! Spanish music is well known. Flamenco is a special dance from Andalucia, southern city of Spain. Spanish girls dance really nice! I love to see them dancing! Unfortunately I can’t dance even on simple steps !! Monday morning is a hard time for most Spaniards !!!

Spanish wine, specially, Vino Tinto from Navara province of Basque country, under brand name La Rioja is famous. People start their lunch and dinner with wine and ends the same with wine. White wine is also popular. A special wine from apples , called Cider or Cidra is a seasonal drink. There are places called Cidreria where you can drink fresh Cidra from fresh apples and eat only non-veg. food. I visited many of them but starved for food. Sometimes Cidreria people arranged for Chiken and egg dishes for me on demand.

There are few well known festivals / events from Spain. First is Bull fight. This is the most famous. Those people who know the reality behind this game, don’t like it. But for others it’s a big party. This is held in all over Spain in mostly summer time (June to September) There are bull fight rings ( the place where bull fights are organized.) in all major cities of Spain.

Second is of Tomatina.(meaning lot of Tomatoes!!) Fully loaded trucks of Tomato are thrown on the streets and people throw that tomatoes to each other and enjoy. This is held in the southern province Valencia .(This place is also famous for their football team. They are one of the top 3 teams in Spanish league football.) This fiesta is held in the month of August . Unfortunately this year, south of Spain and Portugal are facing drought, worst in last few decades, so this year I haven’t heard news of this festival.

Third fiesta is Bull running. This is related to bull fight but with its own speciality. There are many bull running fiestas in Spain but main is San Fermines. This is held in Pamplona, 100 km from my place. (I enjoyed this fiesta in 2003 with one I.I.T. Mumbai professor who was a visiting professor here for one month.) It is held for a week. Every day at sharp 8.00 am in the morning, 6-8 bulls and hundreds of volunteers are allowed to run on a fixed route, which is safely packed from all sides so that bulls can not come out from the fixed route and spectators can safely enjoy the race. The route ends in bull fight ring. These are specially grown up bulls for running in San Fermines, which is the last day of their life! Many tourists take part in race, especially from Australia and America. You will hardly find a single Spaniard running close to bulls. They only enjoy it from long distance and make lot of money through business. A special drink called Calimocho means cocktail which is a mixture of any cheap wine and soft drink like coca cola is hot favorite for this festival. Once can see all youngsters with bottles of Calimocho, drinking whole night!

There are few animal-rights organizations who want to stop bull fights and race due to cruelty involved , but as lot of money is involved in these games, its impossible to stop. Tradition is also another point. Many Spaniards are in favour of bull fights. They say that, the bulls are specially grown up for these festivals and we are not killing innocent animals.!!!

About sports, Fernando Alonso (and that’s the final word now a days in Spanish sports !!!) is a star now. The Formula-one car driver who became Champion (age: 24 years only) few days back. It was a party time all over Spain and Oviedo, his village in north west province of Asturias. In the past Arancha Sanchez-Vicario was tennis star from Spain. Presently Carlos Moya and Rafael Nadal are the top players in Tennis from Spain. In Davis cup tennis, Spain is always a hot favorite. Football is a religion here, as like cricket in India. None of them plays well, but everybody is a coach by himself ! The Spanish league is a famous sporting action. The richest and famous football club in the world Real Madrid (meaning Royal Madrid) is a collection of world´s best football playes like Ronaldo, Zidane, Roberto Carlos( my favorite, he always keep smiling, in good or bad time. That’s the spirit! ), Beckham (English version of Saurav Ganguly!), Figo, Raul, Guti and many more. For all football players in the world, it’s a dream to play for Real Madrid. I enjoy many matches of Spanish league and Champions League on TV. Once I got a chance to see them live when Real Madrid played against Real Sociedad, team of San Sebastian. Both goals were scored in last 10 minutes. It was a nice game. Upto 80 minutes, Real Sociedad making attempt to score a goal and Real Madrid in defensive mood. In the last 10 minutes, picture was opposite and result was Real Madrid won 2-0. Real Madrid is an enemy team for the Basque people. (because of political crisis) Loss of Real Madrid against any team in Spain, is a party for Basque people. (At least in India, we are concerned for loss of Pakistan againt India and don’t bother so much for the result of West Indies- Pakistan match in routine tournaments except world cup! ) Valenica, Barcelona, Betis, Villa Real, Athletico Club Madrid are few other prominent teams in league.

Pelota is a typical Basque game, very popular in Basque country. Its similar to squash. A team of two people or sometimes only one hits a medium size leather ball on the wall in-front with paw. Sometimes, gloves are also used. There are competitions of Pelota in Spain.

San Sebastian is also famous for its International film festival held every year in the month of September, just finished last week, in the city. This was 53rd year of festival. Because of no Indian movie or star is appearing in the festival I haven’t bothered to go to that festival since last 3 years.

So that’s all for today. I will try to update the information.

Hasta luego ! (See you later )
Suerte amigo!! (Good luck friend )
Hasta la Vista!!! (Till next visit )