Ramblings    
A Little Bit of Ireland

I came to Ireland four years ago and instantly fell in love with this place! The place is green throughout the year, the people are friendly and the weather is great (great for me and miserable for most as it rains throughout the year!) Winter is a bit different as the trees are all bare. I know the months here from my surroundings. Come February/March and the place is filled with Daffodils and in April/May it is Tulips and June/July it is Roses! The color and beauty of this place is amazing.

I did not know where Ireland was till I actually got a job here. Even today if I have to explain to someone back home as to where I am working I say I live in Dublin, 45 minutes flying time from London towards US, and in the Atlantic. My grand mom still thinks I live in London. At this stage I have given up explaining to people that Ireland is outside UK and a separate visa is required to reach this place.

Though Irish is taught in schools people generally talk English. The signboards are both in English and Irish and I’ve heard that in the countryside they still speak Irish (Gaelic). This country is small, and it takes a maximum of five hours to reach from one coast to the other! The currency used here is the common European currency ‘Euro’.

For such a small country there are 44 airports and nearly 5000 golf courses.

Dublin City is not very clean (otherwise generally Ireland is clean) and most of the people spend their time in pubs drinking. Football, Rugby and beer are life to the people here. The place comes to a halt when there is a football match. The Lord Mayor of Dublin has asked the Prime minister to pass a legislation to open the pubs early in the morning during world cup so that people can sit in the pub and watch the match on a big screen with the friends having a pint of beer.

My first job was with Guinness Ireland Ltd., which is a brewery! They were surprised when I told them that I had never heard of Guinness before, Guinness is that famous!

Ireland like India was ruled by the British and they share a love hate (mostly hate) relationship with them. Till about thirty years back they had no proper roads and no proper standards of life. Today things have changed for the better though it stands nowhere compared to any city in mainland Europe.

There are quite a few Indians mostly doctors, software engineers and businessmen - in that order. There are quite a few Asian food stores and we get anything and everything Indian that we want. We get all sorts of Indian vegetables from lady's finger to bitter gourd! Life here is easy and enjoyable. My only problem here is that I don't have a direct flight from Dublin to Madras (or any city in India)! Well, that gives me an added advantage of seeing a new place each time I fly to India...

Well I will stop here as I tend to ramble on given a chance, more about some other city, some other time soon....   

– Shyamala Sathaiseelan
May 14, 2002

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