Blog Marathon - October 2022 - Day 10 - I came upon a lighthouse (Book Review)

It was a quiet Sunday in a literal sense. There was no school, no office, no cleaning to be done. I decided to spend some time away from the screen and picked up a book to read. I had actually started it a couple of weeks ago, but as always, something else came up and that book was forgotten. I read the book in one go, and oh boy, the book moved me profoundly. It brought me to tears on some occasions. And I love books that help that sensitive part of me, which I have buried down somewhere, resurface now and then.

I came upon a lighthouse, written by Mr. Shantanu Naidu, that gives us glimpses into the lives of the great Ratan Tata. We have all seen him as a stoic yet sensitive businessman who loves his country a lot and would go to any lengths to help the country in a crisis. The association of the author with him started with a project that was too close to his and Mr. Tata's hearts; stray dogs getting killed by speeding vehicles. The author was appreciated for his sensitivity towards the canines, and Mr. Tata came onboard as a funder. After that, the presence and influence of Mr. Tata grew by leaps and bounds in the author's life, and the reader can very well sense his admiration, love, and respect for Mr. Tata. There's almost an age gap of around 55 years between them, but their camaraderie is so heartwarming. Mr. Tata was his friend, mentor, guide, and employer at the same time, and the author has been brave enough to admit that he had his own struggles and learning curves till he got into the core of the business and the day-to-day activities. Mr. Tata works non-stop till this age, and he always wants people around him well equipped with information and ideas to save time. The mischievous and funny side of Mr. Tata will definitely bring a smile on the reader's face and will once again instill belief in this great icon as to why he is so great. His down-to-earth attitude will warm your hearts and his hard master role will leave you flabbergasted.

The book is written in a simple and lucid style, and I often burst into laughter while reading. I was misty-eyed when the canine chapter made an entry. The book is beautifully illustrated by Sanjana Desai and she has done a terrific job in giving the characters a shape and form in this book!

I particularly loved these lines in the book.

Lighthouses get shrouded too. Sometimes there's fog, sometimes mist, sometimes a storm. But the beacon is always lit. It's always there.

It so sums up the unassuming personality of Mr. Tata. He doesn't even have an idea of how many lives he has touched and changed. But he is always standing tall, standing proud of his country and always thinking of how to serve the nation and help his countrymen!

I so very wish that everyone got a mentor and a friend like Mr. Tata in their lives, who just by being there and not judging, makes the journey easy and beautiful. 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, and I wish Mr. Shantanu many more interesting projects and the lovely company of Mr. Tata.

Blog Marathon - October 2022 - Day 7 - 20 years ago (Part 5 - Concluding Part)

Coming from an Asian country, there were a few things in Germany that were very difficult for us to accept and digest.

Constantly smoking, leaving cigarette butts on the road, drinking beer in trams or trains, kissing in public, holding hands in public, having a partner of the same sex, seeing someone walking with little or no clothes in one's room, paying for your own food only when in a group, not waiting for others to gather at the dining table and start eating, etc. was a huge cultural shock for us. We tried to look away every time we saw someone smooching. We were not comfortable watching others do it. And they had no second thoughts about it. I used to think it was a nice gesture to hold hands with my partner while going for a walk or shopping. But that's it! I am not comfortable doing it in public. Such is the hold of the Indian code of conduct and morals on my conscience.

We got a chance to see a few German movies. The movies were very bold and explicit with violence, nudity, and sex scenes. That made us highly uncomfortable in theatres or watching with other Indian friends. There was once an Indian film festival at the university where movies like Asoka and Dil Chahta Hai were screened with German subtitles. Many foreign students were present for this festival, and they all loved Indian movies. Annika was a fan of Dil Chahta Hai, and she asked me to send her a DVD from India once I went back.

The professors at the university were very good, but there was no personal contact with the students. They came, they delivered, and they left. The students didn't even look at them while they were teaching. I found this very unusual. I always looked at the professor when he or she taught, nodded at what she or he said, and appreciated it with my eyes and body language. But no one else actually gave eye contact or nodded like me. They were busy taking notes or doing their own stuff. This was again very different than my experience at college and university in India. But that was the way they were tuned, I guess. There is nothing right or wrong about it; it is just a matter of perception.

We were once invited to a local German school where our friend Susanne taught English and maths. The students were very curious to see us and talk to us. I interacted with them in German and talked about India to them. I told them that I could speak four languages and wrote a few of their names in Hindi on the blackboard. Then I sat behind in the last row and observed the class and the teacher. The atmosphere was very informal. The teacher announced to the class that she was pregnant, and the kids wanted to know the name of the father of the baby. It was different than how I had studied at school. Then the time was over and I got to interact with one of the teachers there, and surprisingly, she turned out to be a good friend of my professor at the university. They had both studied together in Germany and were good friends. They lost touch later, and she was overjoyed when I gave her the email address of my professor. She promised to write back. It was a great coincidence, and I was happy to be the reason for the renewal of their friendship.

I forgot to mention the time change on the last Sunday of October in my previous posts. It's a yearly ritual in Europe. On the last Sunday of March and October, the clock is reset. The time difference between India and Germany during summer time is 3.5 hours. That starts on the last Sunday of October. One sleeps one hour less. And then, on the last Sunday of October, the clock is reset and one starts sleeping one hour longer. The time difference with India becomes 4.5 hours, which is a little too much for me! We were invited on the last Sunday of October to a restaurant by a girl called Dagmar, whom we had met in the library of the university, and we had instantly hit off as best friends. We met with her roommates a couple of times during our stay at their place, and this time they had invited us to a restaurant at 6 pm. We didn't know about the time change and reached there early, only to realise that we still had one hour to go for the others to come. We then went to a small bakery and had coffee and cake there. Coffee and cake is the usual afternoon teatime that we have in India. Strong black coffee with no sugar or milk and a sweet (not so sweet as in India) cake as an accompaniment is very common here. Young and old meet her for coffee and cake as if it's a celebration. I missed my tea with ginger and milk and never warmed up to the excellent varieties of coffee available in Germany.

On February 1st, 2003, I returned to India after gaining a wealth of knowledge about the people, lifestyle, and culture of Germany. I was proud of the fact that I was there on a scholarship, and I had no idea what the future had in store for me. I returned as a different person, one who started appreciating Maharashtrian and Indian food very much, one who started appreciating the Indian culture and values even more, one who appreciated the presence of family and friends even more!

It's good that we can't foresee the future. Who would have known that I had to re-visit this country in 2003, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2015 and spend the next five years from 2017 to the current day here. More about these trips, sometime later!

 

Blog Marathon - October 2022 - Day 4 - 20 years ago (Part 2 - Friends in Germany)

After spending a month or so exploring the city a bit, we met our first friends in Magdeburg. Raghu and Ankita met us at an exhibition where we had gone, and we were happy to see Indian faces among the crowd. We exchanged each other's numbers and decided to meet again. We had a small phone for three of us, given to those two girls by a German friend. We used it to give missed calls to our parents in India so that they knew everything was fine with us. And the calling was very occasional, maybe once a week or maybe not. We had discovered an internet cafe in the city that was in a central location, and we started going there two-three times a week. Sending mail to family and friends was cheaper and easier than spending euros or INR on calls. Who had imagined that 20 years later, the scene would be completely different? 

So, with Raghu and Ankita, we went to many places in and around Magdeburg. We went to Leipzig and a few other towns near Magdeburg. We were like one big family. Raghu, being the eldest, took care of us and cooked delicious rice varieties for us. He was doing his PhD there and intended to also do a post-doc. He was a brilliant and funny guy and often cracked jokes in his not-so-great Hindi. Ankita, on the other hand, was from North India and spoke excellent Hindi. She was bubbly, talkative, and very loving. She was also doing her PhD at the university. I don't remember how they both met, but they were doing their doctorate degrees in two different areas. Raghu stayed on the university campus, and he had a small room and a kitchen. He told us that he had gathered the furniture in his house from the roads. We were astonished. All the things were in good condition. And then we realised that it was very common in Germany to leave unwanted pieces of furniture on the road on a particular day of the month, and if others find it good and useful, they can just take it home! We often spend our evenings in Raghu's room. We played cards and Antakshari, and cooked together. It was a comfort to be together with fellow Indians, though we didn't know each other well enough. 

The next friend we met was a German named Susanne. She was a student at the university too, and we were both attending the same classes on teaching German as a foreign language. No one else came to speak to me in the class, but she did. I often shared fruits and my tiffin with her, and she was very surprised by this behavior. Maybe she was not used to it or it was different in their culture. We slowly started talking and meeting outside for a coffee or just a stroll in the park. I had the advantage that I could speak the German language quite well and the language barrier was no longer there between me and her. She invited me to her house one evening for coffee and showed me her dad's DVDs of Raj Kapoor's films. Her dad was a fan of Indian movies, and they often watched Indian movies with German subtitles, but on DVD. There was no Netflix at that time. 

Annika walked into my life just like that, thanks to the other two girls from the English department. Annika had come to Mumbai as an exchange student, and those girls knew her from then. She took us under her wing and showed us around. We often cooked Indian food at her place and danced to Indian music and songs. We staged plays, wearing different costumes, and we played dumb charades. We often watch Hindi movies together. She loved Hindi and was practising it quite a lot. Sometimes she said some funny things, which made us laugh like crazy.

Michael and Sina were the people who literally saved us from dying of cold in the winter. When they came to meet us at our place in the initial weeks, they brought a lot of woollen clothes for us and also got us a phone, as it was easy to move around and fix appointments with friends etc. They stayed in Hamburg at that time, and they came to Magdeburg, especially to see us. They invited and hosted us in Hamburg for a week and showed us around. They took us to fairs, to see the famous prostitute street in Hamburg, and to an Irish pub later for drinks, where we just had coffee and water! They loved my creation of a mixed onion and tomato curry with lots of mozzarella cheese in it. Annika knew them too, as Michael had also been to the English department in India and that was how he knew the other two girls. They also took us to Berlin for a week at their friend's house and showed us around Berlin.

Sadly, I have lost contact with all of them except for Susanne and Annika. Thanks to them, the five winter months in Germany were not dreadful, and though I was away from my family and friends, I knew that they were all just a call away. I wish them happiness, health, and peace wherever they are in the world. Because of them, I started trusting people more and became outgoing and confident!

to be continued...

Blog Marathon - October 2022 - Day 3 - 20 years ago (Part 1 - Introduction)

I was just 22 years old when I first traveled to Germany. That was the year 2002. I had just completed my post-graduation in German. And had stood first amongst the four students that year. I had won a scholarship to go to Magdeburg as an exchange student at Otto von Guericke university for five months. It was a winter semester starting at the end of October till February 2003. I was accompanied by two students from the English department and we landed on 3rd October 2002 at the Berlin Tegel airport. A professor had come to pick us up from the airport and he took us to Magdeburg by road. We were highly impressed by the German highways and the speed at which we were traveling in the car. 

We didn't have the slightest idea that Germany would be shut down on the 3rd of October. It was after all the reunification day and how did I forget about it completely? I studied History, Geography, and Literature for my Masters's degree and was well aware of what all transpired between the Russian and American blocs after world war two. I was the translator and interpreter for the other two girls and we hit off instantly. We explored the city that day and found nothing to be open except a few cafes. Our caretaker(who was a student at the University) took us to eat Pizza that afternoon. And it was the first time, I ever had Latte Macchiato in my life with a hazelnut and vanilla flavor and I became a regular at drinking it at every opportunity. I was a tea lover and this creamy coffee won my heart.

The autumn had just set it and it had begun to get cold. The days became shorter and though the sun was shining, it was often minus 25 degrees. The orange, yellow and red hues of leaves left the roads looking very decorative. But the things around us were so new that we could hardly register these beautiful sights. The cultural shock was huge. People smoking cigarettes like crazy, a public display of affection that we were not used to all in India, people minding their own business, not interfering with others or neighbors, and feeling emotional for India, parents, and friends were all very new. Being a vegetarian, there were little or no options for me except bread, pasta, and milk products like cheeses, fruits, and vegetables. We had hunted one Chinese stall which served us fried rice and that was often our dinner. It was also very cheap and economic for students. We had taken varhadi thecha with us which often turned out to be a savior for us along with bread and butter. Going to restaurants was a no-go. It was extremely expensive and we had nothing to eat there except salad. 

Slowly and steadily, we started getting comfortable in a foreign country, in a student city, with a few newly found Indian and German friends.

To be continued...

Puzzle solving

It will be a month soon that the schools and offices and shops are closed owing to the Corona pandemic. Everyone has the same routine of getting up, having 3 meals a day, watching TV or surfing the internet, and sleeping. A few activities like baking, writing, reading, sketching, going for a short walk in the fresh air may be the activities for the few privileged ones. Still, for an average woman, it's just cooking, cleaning, and answering many questions. The man of the house is busy working on the home office model, and his help can hardly be anticipated in this new scenario.

A new beginning

The year 2020 started with a bang. I flew back to Germany to a new area and a new house and a new routine on the first day of this year. T was with me and bags full of love and stuff, back from Mumbai. It was a freezing evening, and due to the delay of the Air India flight, our whole schedule got upset, and we reached Karlsruhe in the evening at 7:30 pm. There wasn't a single taxi on the Karlsruhe central station, and our friends, Monika and Harshal, rushed to our help. Harshal picked us up from the train station and took us home. Monika had cooked the tastiest meals as always, and I felt so much at home. They both accompanied us back and brought our stuff to the new house. God shows his presence in such people and their selfless help.

Goodbye 2019

The month of December was very crazy. I didn't realize how the month started and how it ended. It has been very hectic, and I didn't realize how time just flew, and our tenure ended in the first house in Karlsruhe, and it was time to move to a new home and start a new life. Our tenure in Germany got extended, and I looked forward to another exciting phase and a beautiful new year 2020.

Rise and shine

21st November 2017 to 21st November 2019

2 years' stay in Karlsruhe completed!

How were these two years?

मी माझी

सॻळीच गणितं चुकली
सगळेच अंदाज फोल ठरले
इतरांना खुश ठेवायच्या नादात
स्वतःलाच हरवून बसले

मला नक्की काय हवं आहे मला कधीच कळलं नाही का?
इतरांच्यात सुखात मी माझं सुख शोधत राहिले का?
ह्या सगळ्यात मला नक्की काय मिळालं?
कोलमडून, एकटी पडले, अगदी जमीनदोस्त झाले

चुकां मधून माणूस शिकतो, त्याला शहाणपण येतं
माझ्या सारखी एखादीच
त्याच चुका पुन्हा पुन्हा करून
स्वतःलाच मूर्ख ठरवले

पण आता सावरले, माझेच मला उमगले
माझा आनंद माझ्याच हातात आहे
मला आता स्वतःसाठी जगायचं आहे
मला काय हवे आहे तेच करायचे आहे

एक दार बंद झालं की दुसरं दार उघडतं
काहीतरी हरवतं तर काहीतरी गव‌सतं
स्वतःच्या शोधात निघताना
एक वेगळंच बळ मिळून जातं