The Wall Street, the Yankees, and the Dutch Connection

I realise it's been a long time since I have done something substantial on this space. First, it was the very unexpected trip to Bombay for the Mobile Marketing Summit, and then the much awaited trip back home to Gwalior. I have been on my toes for the past 10 days (Bombay can be so taxing after you are spoilt by Bangalore's comfort), and away from a nice connection to the www.

My 4hr train journey from Delhi to Gwalior got stretched to 8! It would have been terrible, but the pain was lessened by some very interesting company: Philipp and Anya of the Oranje country - The Netherlands. 

My keen interest in European soccer gives me a common ground to start a conversation with the Europeans ... and then it's just a matter of connecting the dots. Philipp happenned to be an Ajax fan - and the one team I really admire for its youth system is Ajax. So, we hit it off!

Since I am in a hurry to end this post, here's a very interesting fact-list Philipp related about NewYork.

• Dutch had a huge influence on America during its pre-independence era. Like, the Wall street borrows its name from a locality in the Netherlands: Walle.
• After independence, the states gathered to vote on the primary official system. The Dutch system lost to English by a solitary vote - else Dutch would have been the primary modus operandi in America.
• Jan is a very popular name in Netherlands. So is Kees. There were a lot of Kees, and even more of Jan in New York before the independence. Hence, the residents of New Yorks were cordially related to as the Jan and the Kees ... or the Jan-Kees .. or the Yankees. (Jan is pronounced as 'Yan' in Dutch ...  ) 

"Life without you would be like a broken pencil." "How's that?"  "Completely pointless."

(Blackadder, Series II)