Memoirs from Deutschland V

I met a person from Iran on the third day of my stay at Iran. He was a friend of my buddy. After everyone left the restaurant, he accompanied me until the station. While walking, he asked me my age. He was pretty much astonished when I said I was nineteen.

Then, he went on to tell me how much he wanted to come to Europe when he was eighteen. He had even got the admission. But his mother was adamant and did not leave him to come to Europe. He later came when he was 24 years old.

He told me his life would have been on different level if his mom had been different at that time and told me how lucky I was. I realized on my journey back to my room that he was indeed right. I was contemplating on what he said. My parents were always supportive of me. After my board exams, I said I wanted to take some off the track course and my parents readily agreed. They never insisted that I must do this course or that course. It was always my choice. Same story goes for the internship as well. I told my parents that I am applying for the internship and all they asked me was to be safe when I go there. Nothing else. Thinking about it, I realized I have been blessed with such parents. That night, I sent a silent thank you prayer to God before I went to bed.

Memoirs from Deutschland III

If there was one thing I was uncomfortable with while in Germany, it was the silence. The silence that people maintained in trains, in offices. It was a bit unnerving.

The first night I slept in my own apartment there, I must confess I was a bit terrified. I felt the silence very unnatural. I guess I had never ever been in complete silence until then. In India, when we sleep, there is at least a fan running. There is some noise. Back in Germany, in my room, there was no fan. Well, fan did not seem necessary. The nights were chilly enough. So once things got settled down, there was complete silence. Except for the music which I used to play, there was no external noise. There were occasional sounds of footsteps outside the door in the hallway of the flat and sometimes, there might be voices. Other wise, it was dead silent.

Even the dogs seemed to know how to remain silent. My friend used to complain about this: "Here, dogs dont bark, mosquitoes dont bite and children dont cry..." Yeah, quite true. I think it was nearly a month after my stay that I heard a dog bark. I guess the dog was in a ecstatic mood as it was putting its head out of a big speeding truck. The simple sight made me happier.

I used to travel in train daily to reach my university office. I was completely offed by the silence I saw in the train. I guess perhaps they should take out a leaf or two from the Indian Transportation systems on human behaviour in trains. The kind of interaction that people have in any given transportation system in India was missing there.

All my observations in the first two days about the silence and germans were proved wrong in the subsequent days. I am saving it for the next post.

Memoirs from Deutschland II

One thing that I admire the most in Germans is their sense of respect for the rules and regulations. On my first day, my buddy took me around for administrative works to be completed before I could join as an intern. I was totally awed by their administrative process. They had loads of paperwork to do before an international student joins. But still, there was one thing that impressed me. It was their efficiency. Paper works, loads of them were completed in a matter of minutes.

Another impressive train is that people rarely jump traffic signals and they never do in the presence of small kids. When asked why, my buddy told me that he did not want to set a bad example for the kid.

Unlike in India, no matter what the social status of a person be, when it comes to queues, he has to stand in line. There is no quicker way. But, normally one doesn't need to wait for more than fifteen minutes to get something done in public offices. This is unheard of in Indian government offices.

In Mensa(canteen), professors stand in the same queue as the students and get their food billed. There is no show of power or any such thing. There is no show of influence nor money. They seem to follow one very simple rule "Respect: Give it to get it". Quite true.

So coming to the reason for writing this post, today I had one awful day with someone trying to use the influence for self, which might lead to complications to others. I had a hard time convincing the person not to do so and to make the person think of the greater good for God's sake. My evening was totally spoiled and I was reminded of Germany where I never encountered such a problem, where rules were followed to the last dot and where the quickest way to get things done is to follow the rules.

Memoirs from Deutschland I

In one of my earlier posts, I had written about my encounter with the legendary German kindness. So let me continue from where I let off.

From Frankfurt airport, I had to take a train to Stuttgart. Quite unwittingly, I had booked a train with a transit at Mainz Station. I had not foreseen the enormous luggage that I would have. The transit seemed tedious.

There is one more thing very famous about Germans. Its their punctuality. Even trains are mostly punctual. But, as my luck would have it, the train I was waiting for, was late. I arrived at Mainz station only to see the my connecting train ready to start. Though it was just a platform away, I was not going to be able to make it in time. I had nearly 30 kgs of luggage to drag with me. It was a hit and miss case. I somehow dragged myself onto the platform only to see the train start off. There, I was, at a small station stranded. I went to the service point of DB there only to find out that the service people knew very little English. In few simple words, I explained my situation and managed to make them understand. I soon found out that I was stranded at the station for two long hours.

My buddy, Andy who was to pick me up at the Stuttgart Station had already foreseen the possibility and had given me his number to call in case of delays. Now, there began my first experience with the German Public Telephones. After some initial hiccups, I finally managed to call and inform him that I am going to be two hours late.

Finally, the train arrived and I got into it. I had to shell out forty five euros for the journey (when converted into Indian Rupees, it is too high). Finally, I arrived at Stuttgart at around 10 30 in the night.

My buddies were waiting for me. Normally, an international student is always assigned a German Student who would help in all possible ways to make your stay comfortable. I was extra lucky in this regard. I had two buddies, Andy and Veronica. I would say, they are the sweetest persons I met in Germany. The first time they saw me at the station, I was quite a mess. I had a trolley bag with broken arm which I was dragging in one hand, another air bag tightly packed to the last inch on the other hand, a big shoulder bag and then, the one sided laptop bag on my shoulder with puffy eyes and cocooned in jerkin. They offered to carry my luggages which I relinquished quite happily.

I knew I was in heaven then. I knew I was going to have a great time with them at that moment. And indeed, it was quite true.

Kindness Unexpected !

Well, in the last post I had written about my first air trip. Here is an continuation of the things that followed that showed me that all those stories I had heard about the Germans being very kind, were indeed true.
So, we reached Frankfurt at around 2 30 pm on 2nd of May. We had a lot of luggages, I mean, a real lot. I was carrying nearly 30 kgs of luggage myself all stuffed into two bags. So imagine the weight it would have had. One was a suitcase trolley and other a traveller's bag. We actually had all our luggages put in a trolley. But we had to go to Stuttgart from Frankfurt in train. The train station was within the airport, but we had to leave our trolley behind since we did not know how to take them up the escalator.
I was pretty proud of myself until the moment that I had not yet slipped and had any mishaps. Well, normally I have a lot of them. My friends comment that I was not taught to walk properly at all. So one can well imagine how proud I was. Somehow, carrying all the 30 kgs of luggage, I was trudging along. As per the Murphy's law, the moment I thought everything was alright, i slipped on the escalator with my luggage and had a minor mishap. I did not actually fall down, but broke my trolley's arm in the process of balancing myself. So now, I had to carry both the bag and the suitcase. somehow I got off the escalator only to reach the top and realise that we were supposed to go the other way. I was standing there, with all the luggages, talking my friend's ear off about the weight of these luggages and speculating on how i was going to carry all of them without any further mishaps.
There was an airport police who was standing near the escalator. He was watching me struggle with my luggage for quite sometime. He came over himself and suggested that we get a trolley. So my friend went off to search for a trolley while I was left standing with all the luggages around me, actually looking like a girl lost in the festival. The officer, then called someone and told them to bring a trolley and then came with it himself and arranged all our bags on the trolley. After my friend returned with another trolley, he showed us how to take it down the escalator and we bid adieu.
I was so grateful. It is not normal that we would find someone show such kindness without being asked to. And that too, a police, no way! not as far as I have seen. But here was a German officer who helped me with my luggages even though I did not ask him to and even though he did not have to. It was then I realised that I have just had my first brush with the legendary German kindness.
It really touched me. That moment, I knew that the German officer will always remain in my memory as this kind stranger who came forward to help and showed me how a small act of kindness can bring a big smile on someone's face and make them happy.





P.S.: This post is dedicated to that unknown German officer who brought a smile to my face by his unexpected kindness.

My First Take-off

I know I have been away from my dear blog for a while. Well, I cannot say I was lazy this time. I have been busy. Yeah, very busy. I was going to go to a foreign country for the first time and I had to pack for it all alone as I had to leave two days after my final exams. The exams, the shopping, the packing, all kept me very busy. Now, when I think of it, I really wonder how I managed to study anything at all.
I am a Big Dreamer. Yeah, I am. So, I spent my days before the trip dreaming about it and now I am living my dream. I have come to Germany, for my internship. They say, the fruit is even sweeter when you are made to wait. Yeah, it definitely is. I can really write one full very long post about the difficulties I faced for this internship. The days filled with worries, thinking 'will this work out ?' 'will it happen?' But, now that I am here, I can say those days did not go waste. This internship would be one of the best times in my life.
There are many things that I would like to write about. Many things have been my first in this internship. So, here's an account of my first take-off.
My flight was at 4 40 early morning of 2nd May. I was not packed until 8 pm of 1st May. I literally, had my mom screaming at my ears to pack up. I finished it in 3 hours, cramming up all the stuffs that I were to take with me, my mom throwing things at me which i was supposed to pack but have forgotten. It was total chaos. But, since when had I ever not been in a chaos! Then, by 12 I was ready to leave to the airport. I was dead tired. I had roamed the whole evening, the whole stretch of Adyar, looking for a studio to take passport photos without any success. I reached the airport in fifteen minutes. I was early, very much. I could not help but ogle at all those perfectly dressed pilots and air hostesses who were crossing the lobby I waited. Finally, it was time to check in. My parents and my uncle had accompanied me to the airport. I had always thought that I will be in tears when I leave (considering the fact how easily tears come to me). But strangely enough, I did not. My mom was almost close. I consoled her that it is just for two months and that I will be fine. I could not believe I was smiling and consoling. My parents were the first to leave. Two of my friends who were also coming for the internship with me bid goodbye to their families. I can say, I was the chattering box that night. Talked the whole night away waiting for the flight.
Finally, the announcement for the boarding came. I was really excited. Being a bit religious, I made sure that I put my right foot in when I entered the plane. Lol. Our seats were in the last row. Soon, the captain announced the flight was about to take off. I wanted to watch my first take off. I was falling asleep. I really had to fight myself to keep my eyes open to see the take off. Never once did it cross to my mind, that since it is my first flight, I might feel the air sickness during the take off. The flight kept on going in slow pace in the runway. It did so, for a long time, a very long time.
And finally, it did take off. Swoosh, I could feel the take off by the pressure I felt on my ears. But, thank God, I was not air sick. It was then the thought crossed me, "Yay, I did it! I am finally on my way to Germany".