Travelogue

Many of my friends have been pinging me on Gtalk with aur, kya chal raha hai yaar (or paale in place of yaar, if it's kaifu) and it gets a little boring sharing my experiences in Germany with all of them individually, so I’ve decided to write a post about it. Also, I twisted my ankle yesterday and to be honest, I can’t really do anything more exciting at the moment. So, here are my initial impressions of Deutschland:

The German People

Germans are often portrayed as hot tempered, callous, beer guzzlers by Hollywood movies (remember Beer Fest?) but in truth they are courteous and amicable people. Yes, they drink a lot of beer but I haven’t yet found a German drunk senseless (Alright, there was a drunken man who had trouble recalling where he lived, but he wasn’t German!). In my relatively short stay here, one thing I’ve noticed is that Germans are very social people; I’ve already been invited to barbeques, dinners, birthday parties, beer parties at pubs and even a classical concert . Thanks Jan, for most of the invitations.

Another aspect of the German personality that I wasn’t aware of is their patience. A lot of my colleagues at the institute have trouble understanding my English but they’ve never shirked away from a casual conversation or a scientific discussion. In Berlin last weekend, during a meeting of Indian Students interning in Germany organised by the DAAD, there were only 3 people serving lunch to 200 plus students. To put things in context, that’s the sort of pressure under which every chotu in an IT mess would freak out and run away back to his village. But a young German man at the vegetarian counter (whose task was even more difficult since he spoke no English) maintained his calm throughout and politely greeted everyone that he served, even a guy from IITK who pointed at boiled carrots and asked if that was vegetarian food (“Vegitarish?”Duh, would have been my reply!). Talking about patient Germans, Hilmar deserves a special mention. He’s a Ph.D. student in my group, who lent me his spare bike for the duration of my stay and being the clumsy idiot that I am, I wrecked it (details at LC). Yet, not only was he cool about it, he also offered me his second spare bike, for the remainder of my stay!

Places I’ve Visited

Before I left, a lot of you joked that I would end up working all the time (which definitely hasn’t been the case) and hardly travel. Well, I have travelled a little and visited some places besides Halle. Although the list of places below is fairly modest compared to the number of places Pari has been to (by the way, he almost got arrested in Poland, bug him a little to get the story), it’s still worth mentioning.

Halle- Serene

Before coming here I was really excited because of the Halle Open (for the non sporty types: it’s a tennis tournament played as a warm up for Wimbledon and Federer generally plays it), but when I got here, Jan told me that there are two Halles in Germany and the other one hosts the Halle Open, :P ! Despite this very unpleasant surprise, Halle is a really nice city, very peaceful and comfortable to live in. I love jogging along the river Saale and loitering in the City Centre with friends.

Weimar- Cultural Paradise

I’m not sure if Weimar is officially a city or a village, but I’m pretty sure it has fewer people than Connaught Place on a working day; nonetheless, if you look up the list of its famous residents on Wikipedia, it reads like the who’s who German culture. Many famous German artistes resided and did their best work here; Bach, Goethe, Schiller, Hummel and Liszt to name a few. Weimar is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and I really enjoyed a guided tour through the city.

Berlin- Awesome

Berlin is a great place to be if you are looking for an uber-modern metro or a historically fascinating city, imagine Delhi and Varanasi in one! From the Brandenburg Gate to the kaDeWa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaufhaus_des_Westens) - the largest departmental store in Europe according to Berliners, second largest after Harrods, London according to Londoners; either way it was colossal(at first I thought it was a castle)- Berlin was the total package! I managed to do some sightseeing during the day and sampled some of the city’s nightlife too and it was all very enjoyable. The whole trip would’ve been even more enjoyable had SP not freaked out when some Norwegian girls invited four of us for... (details at LC again).

Leipzig- Typical Metro

On the day I visited Leipzig, the city was hosting a gothic music festival and it was interesting (read hilarious) looking at people dressed in gothic fashions. I did not have the opportunity to see a lot of the city but it seemed like a bustling metro.

Cultural Misadventures

I have been in Germany for a month now and there have been plenty of exciting times, too many to mention all at once. So, I’ll fleetingly mention 2 things that happened last weekend. I was in Berlin for the DAAD scholarship holders’ meeting. The total number of scholarship holders that showed up was about 220 and since we’re talking of people from Indian engineering colleges, needless to say there were hardly any girls (only 15 to be precise). The DAAD had organised 2 boats for a boat trip in the river Spree (pronounced Shpree) with the entire group split into half. My boat had about 100 boys and 10 girls -of course I was on the boat with more girls- and to any of the people strolling slong the river bank we must’ve seemed like a gay cruise. About ten minutes into the trip a German couple mooned us! Some of us thought of mooning them back, but we decided against it, not because we were shy but because that would have made us look even more like a gay cruise!

The second thing also happened in Berlin, at dinner with some of Jan’s friends. I had many interesting conversations with a man named Tobias who was part of the invited group. After dinner I got up to leave and return to Halle. Tobias also got up to say goodbye, unsure of what was appropriate - handshake or a hug - I extended my right hand and then realised that he had extended both of his arms for a hug. So, I started to extend my left hand for a hug, when he figured out that I wanted to shake hands and started to retract his left hand. The final gesture was a hand shake, with the shoulders leaning forward and the left hand towards the other person’s right arm. Rather than just letting the left hand hang there in no man’s land, I decided to pat his right arm and simultaneously he also made the same decision. Forgive me, if you can’t picture this contortionistic feat, but let me just sum up by saying it seemed like an African-American gang greeting. Though it felt stupid, people told me afterwards that it looked really synchronised.

I’ll write another post about the second half of the trip once I come back. Comments, as always, are welcome and peskily encouraged. Ciao(I am still not saying tschüs).

The Little Town that’s Catching Up

In my first ever trip to the Deccan Plateau, in the recently elapsed Holi vacations, I visited a small place (with a population of only about a three-quarters of a Lakh) called Baramati for some conference. Primarily an agricultural town, famous for its sugarcane farming, Baramati is quietly catching up to the bigger cities in terms of computer literacy. To a first time visitor Baramati would immediately come across as an endearing place with its peaceful surroundings and cleanliness, not to mention roads that a metro would be envious of. I was impressed by the small town instantly but I had no idea that it was pioneering a digital revolution. So when a chatty journalist claimed that almost everyone here knows what a computer is and atleast half the population knows how to use it, I couldn’t help but laugh(under my breath, off-course). Though I was convinced that it was an exaggeration and a very elaborate one at that, I decided to test his hypothesis by asking a road sweeper if he knew what a computer is, he said off course he did, a computer is a machine that plays music and gives print-outs!

The conference in Baramati was on the benefits of information and communication technology to communities with bigwigs from Microsoft, Intel etc. participating. Initially, I thought that a rural town was an odd location to host it, especially since Pune was just a hundred kilometers away. But once I got to know more about Baramati, I realized that it was the ideal location for the conference as it is a shining example of a community embracing IT to improve their daily lives.

The local hospital in Baramati practices telemedicine. Every day it sends hundreds of Mega Bytes of data via broadband internet to hospitals in Bengaluru and Mumbai and receives diagnoses within minutes. There is a community computer center that employs computer savvy locals to provide services like railway reservation, airline reservation, resume building, typing in English and several other languages, computerized Janam-Kundalis and loads more. Microsoft runs a program here called “Unlimited Potential” where it teaches local housewives to use the computer. Intel too has been particularly generous in offering buses equipped with computers serving as mobile computer training centers for school children. Their community radio is as modern as any private radio and is run by locals. When I asked the woman who manages the broadcasts at the radio center what happens if there is a problem with the computers, she casually replied that we can handle 80% of the problems ourselves and we can always call one of the boys from the nearby engineering college to help us out.

Baramati is the home-town and constituency of Sharad Pawar(yes, the BCCI Chairman), who the people claim is responsible for the development of Baramati. If that is true, I can’t help but admire his work. If only every other politician was as devoted to his constituency India would be a much better place.

Assorted Nuts

To give credit where it's due, let me tell you that the idea of writing a travel diary occurred to me after reading Ravi's blog. Of course, I was also inspired in no small way by my railway trips to and from Delhi, over the weekend.

The journey had every sign of being a crappy one, when my waiting list ticket wasn't confirmed. Fortunately, I remembered someone told me that a guy from Metallurgy was also going to Delhi on that day. So I made a few inquiries, in the hope that this guy would have had more foresight than me and booked his ticket much earlier or at least had the prudence to pay a little extra for a tatkal ticket. Unfortunately, such maturity can't be expected from an ITian and least of all from a Meta guy (No offense people, but even you know it’s true!). So after a few phone calls, I found that this person whom everyone referred to as "Khandu" too was without a seat. I have never been in such a situation before where I didn't have a seat so I went over to the nearest TT and asked him if someone with a wait list ticket could board the train. His reply was that I could but I wasn't entitled to a berth. His exact words were “no berth only Earth", and then he looked around to see if someone else had also heard what I am sure he considered to be the smartest thing he had ever said. Alas, amid the random kinesis at the railway station I was his sole audience. He looked hopefully at me expecting to be congratulated on his impromptu wit but I was in no mood to laud such a wannabe prose.

I decided to look at the seating charts randomly in the hope of finding someone whom I knew. My luck was in and I found that a senior who lived in my hostel was the occupant of berth 9 in S1. He graciously offered me his seat and I called Khandu to tell him that he too could come over and share the berth. After sharing a Maharaja Mac and a Veg Surprise with Piyush Puri(the senior) we began to talk. The string "world war", came up in casual conversation and a short, slender, bearded person sitting in front of us sprang into attention like a schoolboy smacked on the butt with the drill master's cane.

His opening remarks were a redefinition of world war and claims that the two world wars described in history weren't the real world wars. Piyush and I nodded instinctively (the instinct, no doubt has been developed as a result of classes in IT) in the hope that some acknowledgment would shut him up. Unfortunately this was just the encouragement that he needed and he settled down comfortably to share his viewpoints further. Piyush and I tried ignoring him, turning away, conversing amongst ourselves, pretending to be sleepy but this idiot just didn't get the message. When the weirdo began talking about some deep rooted conspiracies I played my trump card of putting on my earphones. Once my earphones were on, he decided to increase his volume and in between Zepplin and Smash Mouth I heard him deny the existence of Hitler. Piyush at the time had his head in his hands and the look of a trapped man.

When Khandu showed up in our coach after about two hours of the journey (he had apparently been offered a seat in S4 and I assume that after a while they decided to give him the boot) Piyush seemed to be half asleep and suffering a headache (and I really don't think he was pretending), the nutty professor was still going strong. As if to greet the newest member of his audience he reached into a large carry bag and whipped out a pamphlet titled "Vishwa Kranti", his bag was filled only with copies of such pamphlets. He extended it to me and I turned it over once and returned it with fake praise. He then began a sermon of how science is a lie and scientists are busy covering this to maintain their social positions. At least by now a couple of other people had shown interest in his unconventional views and I was off the hook.

When Khandu and I came back after a brief foray at the Allahabad station Piyush seemed to have shaken off the ill effects of listening to a few hours of total bullshit and the three of us sat down for dinner. The revolutionary by now had a sizable audience and even at a few minutes past ten, no one was asleep in our compartment. Khandu seized the opportunity and laid down on a vacant berth. Piyush and I did the same. When at about 2.00 AM someone told Khandu to get lost in very clear terms, I advised him to go and share a berth with Ajit, a friend of mine who had boarded the train at Kanpur.

When I woke up in the morning, the psycho, now fully refreshed, was preparing to launch another attack of words. I decided to go say hi to Ajit, primarily to get away from the ceaseless random babbling in my compartment. As soon as Ajit saw me he told me that a he had a close encounter of the homosexual kind last night. Khandu apparently went to him at 2 in the night and very bluntly stated “I want to sleep with you”. Believe me, I am not paraphrasing! Ajit obviously misinterpreted that (who wouldn’t?) and told Khandu to stay away in a very panicky tone. As far as the story goes Khandu then returned wondering what he had done wrong and spent the rest of the night sitting on an occupied berth in our compartment.

The train was delayed by an hour and this gave the unusually energetic orator the time to describe his plans for political reshuffling. He said that athletes should run the country and Tendulkar should be Prime Minister. He also told us that he was going to deliver a seminar in Delhi and invited everyone to attend. When the train crawled into New Delhi Railway Station and we were readying to get off the bearded man asked us very matter of factly “Bhaiya, Kya lagta hai Manmohan Singh mujhe jawab de sakte hain?”