Monday, July 18, 2005

redefining Germany for you

Germany: A country better known as a land of Hitler, a nation characterized by Nazism and a place infamous for the arrogance and belligerence of its citizen.

But often I find that the reality begs to differ from the media. I suppose I should write something about it coz I’ve been fortunate enough to see the reality through my own eyes during my short stay here. And Aschaffenburg is not Berlin or any other cosmopolitan city with an evolved culture of tolerance. Here we have 14 Pakistani taxi drivers and 5 Indian software engineers. That’s it.

Before proceeding with my various experiences let me tell you that this small country has given a lot to the world. As a person who has some interest in literature and philosophy I know the name of Kant and Nietzsche and Hermann Hesse and Franz Kafka. I am sure you know about Beethoven and Einstein. It is unfortunate that the English world has made Hitler as the icon of Germany. But even Hitler arguably contributed in the precipitation of our freedom.


It is a beautiful place. It is not beautiful because of its exotica or unchallenged technological advancements but because it is inhabited by beautiful people. Let me explain.


Do you know about any other country that reunited after a division? Here the people actually broke the wall of Berlin and presented the most unique and heartwarming instance of reunion.


A BMW car whose capacity to turn heads can only be competed by supermodels is zooming on the roads. Its possession can and does make a man a swollen-headed swaggering monster (and a prisoner in Tihar Jail for running it over 5 persons in Delhi) in my country. But not here. Not here because they have not just bought it, they have made it. And perhaps that’s why they stop to give way to bicycles or people who want to cross the road. And mind you, I am not writing it after one or two random experiences, this is the regular practice here. Did our elites even bother to buy this along with the car? I understand that in India your car wouldn’t budge if you care to stop it for pedestrians but what about our attitude? Any answers?


These people are great people. They are great because they do not suffer from deep-rooted inferiority complex like we do. Remember I am talking ONLY about educated Indians. I am talking like people like us, like me who need electronic gadgets to breathe with confidence. I too like electronic gadgets but not our servility. I disliked the Harley-Davidson bikes despite its formidable lineage. Whatever, I was talking about Germans. These people walk barefooted on the road without being jeered upon. The girls lie down on the pavement without being stoned with sarcasm. In my office my seniors explain while kneeling down on the floor without minding my sitting comfortably on the chair. They don’t mind. They are cool.


I don’t intend to prove them superior to us. I don’t need to. They are so. At least I have no doubts about it. All I want to do here is to say that we’ve chosen a slippery way to be like them. If we really wish to emulate them then we must learn to appreciate their attitude towards everything.


While returning from Heidelburg we met a man who was greatly delighted after knowing that we were software professionals from India. He addressed as ‘the famous Indian software engineers’!! He then waved at us after getting disembarked from the bus. Nice work gentlemen! I am proud of you all who had paved the way for us. We are not only gaining acceptance but respect too! I didn’t narrate this anecdote because I thought this to be a stand-alone incident. I didn’t know that it was a part of a thought pattern developing in Germany and may be in other European nations as well. But today its repetition amazed me. While we were appreciating the music played by a girl in the market I asked a bystander what instrument she was playing. It was harp. This initiated a conversation. He too was quite impressed by the same fact. He asked me to explain how do we manage to be so good. All I could do was smile. You know what a great programmer I am. But he didn’t know that. He invited me to his place Vittsburg. We had no pen and paper so he went to a cafĂ© and wrote his name and phone no and gave that to me. What say guys? :)


This day has been great. In the morning I booked the tickets for Paris. Yeah finally we are visiting Paris next weekend. :)

Many small incidents followed but I’ve deleted them coz they might seem very unimportant to you. I wish I had brought a diary with me to note those little things, which means a lot to me.

Monday, July 11, 2005

The Castle

Saturday 09.07.05

I woke up early, switched on my laptop and played music... Deewana hua baadal.. from Kashmir ki kali. I was quite enthusiastic and I had to charge up others too. After all we were going out. After all life had started playing pleasant tunes and all we had to do was to dance and enjoy.

We had our regular breakfast at Asheffenburger Hof, the hotel where we stayed. We walked down to the main station and bought ‘weekend ticket’. You must know the concept of state and weekend tickets in Germany. The state ticket costs you 20 euro and 5 people can go wherever they wish in that state with one ticket by train.. and even by bus or tram. The weekend ticket costs you 30 euros and again 5 people can travel in entire Germany with it. If you don’t know or forget this, you screw you wallet. I did while coming from Frankfurt to Ashaffenberg.

The journey was pleasant. Watching the tilted-roofed houses arrayed along the sides of streets trigger your imagination.

We reached to Heidelberg at around 11.40 am. This place is 1.5 hrs far from Ashaffenberg if you travel by train. I don’t know how far is it geographically. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. Physical distance never matter. Anywhere. Well, Kabby (Tejinder) had called me there. He is hell of a crazy surd and my batchmate in IITD. But he made my day. Hang on, I will tell you everything.

We had agreed to meet at McDonalds at 3 pm. As my friends(Dilip, Louis, and Nilesh) had 3 hrs spare, we decided to see the castle first. A bus took us there. We had to walk up to the castle. Now you must be knowing that castles were made at the top of the hills. Rulers controlled the people from there only. You know the political and strategical significance of altitude. Whatever, we reached there and took pics. All of us were more interested in taking pics. It’s okay but to expect the photographer to make you an Amitabh Bachchan is too much of idealism. Anyways, the view of the city from the castle was nice. We saw many Indians there, mostly south Indians. They were, not contrary to their reputation, nice but cold. But we were more interested in the castle. And visibly so were they. It is a tourist place and you can see people from many places. I saw a big group of east asian girls. They look scary with their small eyes.

I will upload these pics soon on internet for you to see.

German beer is the best in the world. I try to feel the spirit of the place I visit as much as possible and as much as permissible by my nature. Though I don’t drink (beer) but I know that it is good for health if taken in right amount. So when Kabby, and my foreigner friends J insisted I didn’t say no. PROST!

Kabby is kewl. As a matter of principle he doesn’t talk anything non-frivolous. I don’t claim to know him in and out but when I found that Jeremy had no idea about the vastness and diversity of India, about arranged marriages etc then I figured. At the table every Prost was preceded as well as followed by some lewd err… interesting comment on some passerby girl or waitress. Many were shot too… by his new digicam. His german “I don’t care” friend was no less. Yeah the French guy was relatively staid.

We all had met at McDonalds, 15 mins after the stipulated time. It is so nice to see an old pal after an year. Our interests are poles apart but still I enjoyed his company. Initially I didn’t talk to his friends. But soon I found myself quite comfortable with them. We took a train to reach the hilltop. This was even higher than the castle. This train journey was B R E A T H T A K I N G. The slope was practically 90 degrees and we witnessed the incredible technology when the train crawled along the steep rails like a lizard. There we ‘prosted’ and listened to the non-vegetarisch conversation of Kabby and Tilo. This was followed by a trek. The view was again magnificent. I tried to capture the beauty in the camera. We had already exhausted our batteries. Thankfully Kabby had his camera with him. Today he said that the snaps are beautiful. More than that my knee didn’t complain at all. I am young again. :)

As we had visited the castle before we skirted it this time. We took a long time to reach at the foot of the hill …to the old town. Ohh I forgot to tell you the most amazing thing. The old town was like a huge fair. And while going to the railway station(a special one for the hill) we passed through the old town. There I saw a lady fully painted in ash color. Her face, her clothes, everything was painted. And she was standing like a statue at a podium. Sometimes she would move to shake hands with kids. And her movements! God it was simply unbelievable! She was like a robot. I can’t explain the finesse with which she maneuvered her body. Her expressions, her grace, everything was just out of the world. You have to see it to believe it. Ok have you seen this movie, ‘Euro Trip’? Some said that it is shown in that movie. Watch the movie.

We again ‘prosted’ in the old town. This time I tried the beer of west Germany. Earlier it was of east Germany which was lighter in color. Even after gulping down a litre of beer I didn’t feel tipsy. I don’t know why these guys act macho.

Kabby had again ‘interesting’ plans but we had to choose between spending some 50 euros more or to go back. Anyways, the interesting plan was a no-no for me so we decided to come back. Our train was scheduled after 5 mins and we had to eat too so we couldn’t even say bye to our host friends. We had to change 2-3 trains and at last we had to board on a bus to reach Ashaffenberg.

I slept as soon as I lied down.

The next day we shifted to an apartment. It is beautiful. More beautiful than we had expected or imagined. I started jumping on the beds and dancing on the floor. Our life is going to be easier now. From yesterday we have started cooking too. Now bye-bye to bland food. Life is going to be spicier.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

just some updates

I have no time to wite about my feelings here... I will just write some observations... I will talk in detail sometime later

Here people drink aerated water which is costlier than beer. And water means aerated water. If you want to drink normal water then hmm... they dont serve it. Well wait for sometime, return to your place and drink the tap water.

Perhaps this is the repetition, I am not sure. All the mystique around brands like BMW and Mercedes etc will disappear once you come here. We commute daily by these cars. :)

The german term for vegetarian is 'vegetasch', not sure about the spelling.. but this can be a magic word for you if you are a vegan like me.

We are gonna shift into an appartment here on 10th July, there is a pakistani shop where you can find the raw stuff for cooking. O how nice life would be then... :) I cant wait anymore. And I am tired of changing hotels.

Achtung baby!! Moi gonna PARIS on the next weekend!! Yup. Dont worry I will keep you(?) updated.

Repetition again perhaps. People are toooo nice here. Our experience with people have been more.. much more than we had expected. Throw the english trash which defame germans..

What else... well yesterday I tried THAI food... for 2nd time if I remember... it was nice.. I finished it. This asian restaurant is blessing...oasis here for us... and that girl who understands what we say...

I visited the local church this weeekend. A very old church it is... tourist come here to see it. And needless to say.. very beautiful too. This was my first visit to any church.

We went to shopping this saturday. My friends bought digi-cam. I took a winamp player. You have to look at it to believe how wonderful it is!

My physical activities have been reduced to ZERO. No sports at all.