~~ Memories of long travels..

M/S Silja Serenade, returning from Helsinki to Sthlm

Sometimes people amuse me by their linguistic abilities. I remember, during my cruise to Helsinki from Stockholm, the bartender said, "Namaste". He also did not fail to notice that I am not that impressed. But then that happened, "Eppadi Sugam? (means, How are you, in Tamil)," he asked. It is interesting to see some Scandinavian speaking Tamil. He replied himself, "I should reply, 'nallam (means, good, in Tamil)'. right?" Big smile. :D

This time in Shenzhen. Not many people speak English. But then a few shopkeepers in the shopping districts - they were trying to greet me in multiple languages, probably including Hindi, Bengali, and many other regional languages. I was in a shop confirming two phones are identical. The lady replied, "Same phone thaan (means, they are indeed the same phones, in Tamil/English mix)". These people know how to sell the stuff. :D

The trip to Shenzhen was remarkable. It was a long journey, and included a 12h30 mins non-stop flight from Amsterdam to Guangzhou airport. The last time I travelled this long was for the Mentor Summit at Google HQ. It included a 17 hours of flight: Los Angeles <-> Dubai.

This time I was watching 3 - 4 movies each trip (going and return). So when I reached the destination, my eyes were red. I do not recommend watching too many movies on the flight. :D Usually I don't remember the movies I watch while flying, specially because I watch movies from the languages that I don't understand - with English subtitles, of course. However, this time, I was able to remember one movie (Miss Granny, a Korean movie), and find its songs online. I really liked one particular song - you may like it too.