S Chakrapani,
Executive Vice President, Sanmar Foundries Limited
When you hear the name Maastricht, you immediately think of Amsterdam, of tulips in bloom and all the exotic locales the dream merchants showcase in the movies. And so it was with me, the dream of experiencing Holland in all her glory, very close to realisation, yet slipping away.
The Schipol airport has somehow been a transit point for me. During the period November ’01 to August ’04, I transited almost twice every three months en route to Tyco, Houston, for the quarterly reviews. Each time the aircraft touched down at the runway at Schipol, I would think to myself that at least this time I would take a break to look up Amsterdam. It has always been wishful thinking. My first visit to Amsterdam in 1993 vetted my curiosity of Amsterdam. En route to Boston, I took time-off and cruised on the Amstel river and strolled around the market close to Amstel station. You see, I didn’t want to get lost in transit or in translation!
The opportunity to visit Holland popped up in 2006, when I was asked to visit the Valve World 2006 exhibition at Maastricht town scheduled between 7 and 9 November ’06. Clubbed to this was a customer meeting in England and there also was a compelling need to extend the trip up to USA.The prospect of realising my dream still remained one a dream. So it was business as usual and I had to settle for a ‘short sight’ seeing trip when I went from Madras to Manchester to Maastricht and returned to Amsterdam! A very myopic sight seeing indeed! The trip from Manchester to Maastricht was very long; I left early morning of 7 November from Manchester airport, transited Heathrow and
Schipol, to reach Masstricht late in the evening by 7 PM.
When I arrived at Masstricht town, the good news was that the hotel was bang opposite Masstricht station. I was pretty excited by the prospect of returning to Amsterdam by train. Rail routes are better than flight routes in Holland and I began dreaming of that train journey that would unveil the mysteries of Holland to me.
But prior to that were some basic instincts like hunger pangs that had to be attended to. Sitting all by myself at the restaurant, I glanced at the inedible dishes listed on the menu. All I wanted was a plate full of vegetarian something. The waiter looked at me, listened patiently to my ‘out of the world’ request for a vegetarian meal and with a promise, dashed off to conspire with the chef to present me with the rare fare.The promise also included a lead-time of fifteen minutes. In what seemed to be a summation of the time adjustment from Madras to Manchester to Maastricht,I was presented with a plate of edible vegan fare. There was a huge dinner plate with a teeny sized bell pepper (capsicum) right in the middle and stuffed with potato, cheese and tomato.
I propped up this meagre fare with lots of bread, croissant and tomato soup. I thanked the chef and went up to my room on the fourth floor.
I spotted many people walking out of Masstricht station carrying food packets. I came down, walked across and found a mini super market inside the station. I picked up some croissant, bread, cheese spread,
some cookies, some bananas and a few bottles of mineral water. It ensured that I had enough stock of food in the room and would not stay hungry, should I feel so in the night.
It was cold outside, zero degrees Fahrenheit. I was well prepared with jacket, overcoat, hand gloves, etc., and walked through a part of Masstricht town for about half an hour and returned to the hotel. I could get a feel of the place, as I spent three nights in that town. The days were dedicated to Valve World 2006, the evenings and late nights to the streets of Maastricht.
Returning to Amsterdam, I stopped over at Zoetermer on the night of 10 November. I looked around some more market places at Amsterdam during the day, still cherishing my dream. And so it was as usual, yet another myopic sight of Amsterdam. Tulips bloom for the Rekhas and the Madhuri Dixits, not for a visiting Chakrapani. So I continue to dream of an experience of Amsterdam! I am an optimist. Dreams are forever. Some day they come true!