I was in my office in Bangalore when one of my colleagues told me that she was traveling to Germany for our project. She is a 'senior resource' as she had about 4 years of 'workex' (I hate the IT lingo, workex is work experience). I inquired about her arrangement for accommodation in Germany and she said she would live as a Paying Guest with a Sri Lankan family. That came as a surprise to me. I know that people in Bangalore run these PGs for the "Software Engineers" who come from all possible parts of the country. But a PG in Germany !?! parvagilve!
So, when I was asked to go to Germany, the obvious choice was the PG as I did not have to bother about food. I also did not have to bother about washing my clothes, commuting to the office, not knowing the language etc... I was very happy to hear that the family was ready to give me a room to stay with them when my colleague got in touch with them.
Kusum Perera and Pali Perera are the couple who run the show at their place. Both of them are from Sri Lanka. They met and got married in their country after which they came to Germany and settled down here forever, 25 years ago. Pali works in a hospital (I don't know as what) and Kusum is a chef at Unilever's canteen. Happy couple they are with 2 daughters. The elder daughter, Isuru is studying in London and the younger one, Ina is with her parents.
They believe, serving their guests is not just for money but for the love and affection they have for people of their race. The setup is a 'win-win situation' for them and us. They get the money, we get all that we need. The husband and wife are very kind and the first thing that I was told was to feel as though I was at my place! Felt really nice.
They gave the freedom for me to move around at their place as though it was mine. Right from towels to soaps to fork and spoon, everything was provided by them. I chose to use my own things though. Once the table was laid for dinner, all of us used to sit together and have food. No restrictions on the quantity. On the contrary, she made sure that I increased my weight. The taste of the food was very different even though it was rice and dal. The rice used to be Basmati or Sri Lankan rice. She cooked very good non vegetarian dishes is what my other colleagues who eat, told me. The vegetarian was also good if not very good. What more could I ask for in a country where people look with their eyebrows up when something that has only vegetables is asked for!
The breakfast used to be either bread or cereal. They had 3 or 4 varieties of cereal. One was called Musli, which had the corn flakes, fruits, and some other ingredients which added to the taste. Then there were 3 varieties of Jams on the table if you wanted to eat bread. The toaster would be kept inside the kitchen which could be used by anyone. Then 3 kinds of juices would also be on the table for us to start the day in a very healthy manner. First few days, I liked the breakfast a lot and then it got monotonous :( The same bread and jam became boring to eat. No other go, I could not ask for something more and I ate it all.
The dinner would have rice and atleast 2 vegetable curries. At times, she prepared Sambar or even rasam. At times, it would be only rice and curries. But everything tasted different but good. After the dinner, they would force me to eat either a real big banana or eat ice cream. They wouldn't let me go until I chose one among the two. I feel what they take is less for what they offer. It is the trust and love that matters more than the money for them. They just did not tell it but proved it to me over the days.
Kusum would collect the money once a week with a sweet 'Sarath, thank you ne' [Thats her accent, Sri Lankan-German]. The room had a small wardrobe, a big window, a cot, a light, a carpet a few swtiches, a table and even a few hangers inside the wardrobe [You should know everything in detail!! ;) ]
Pali owns a Mercedes Benz E class. The mean machine is in my favorite color, Black! It really makes a statement. He would drop and pick us up from the office in his car. Benz E class is a costly car no doubt, but on the road, out of 10 cars at least 4 will be Benz, some or the other model. It is just another car for these people!
I really felt touched when Pali asked me for permission to give accommodation to another guest in my room as it had 2 cots. I told him it was his house and his decision. He said that did not matter for him. What mattered was another guest staying with me, may make me feel uncomfortable and they were ready to deny had I said it would not be okay for me. My god! I was really taken aback.
The couple follow Buddhism and I also learnt that Kusum loved Ganapathi a lot. She asked me which God I pray. I really did not have an answer because it is just God for me without any name or religion. I said we pray Shiva as he is our 'mane devru' She then asked me if I knew Ganapathi! I said every Hindu will know Ganapathi. She then asked me if I can perform Pooja back home in India on her behalf. I was overwhelmed with the simplicity of this woman. I said I would definitely do that. She was very happy and showed me her collection of Ganapathis and Shankas which otherwise, would not be shown to anyone. A privileged guest I was!
An interesting part of their family is the love story of Kusum and Pali. Pali fell behind Kusum when both of them were in school. He then asked her to marry him, she said okay. But problems cropped up a couple of years later when they were supposed to be married. Pali worked as a sea man on a ship traveling to quite a lot of countries at the age of 17! Kusum's mom did not like Pali and was reluctant to allow them to marry. Pali convinced her that he would take care of her and they got married in the absence of Pali's mother. She said she would not accept the relation for reasons unknown to me. The couple then fled the scene and went to Germany. Neither of them had a job. Pali has saved the money during his sailing days which helped them to go Germany. He was 19 and she was 17!! They then started learning the language and then managed to get jobs and settled down in Buxtehude.
They visit Sri Lanka once a year and everybody in their families are happy with the way these people have settled down. After going to Germany, Pali worked his way out to make money and managed to shift 30 people in his family from Sri Lanka to Germany! With the minimum education, he has done a commendable job regarding the financial help offered to other family members. Because of him, lot of people in his family got settled well in life and are self sufficient now. Pali and the top boss of the hospital are the only 2 people who drive an E class Benz to work. Kudos to you man!
With our company providing Onsite opportunities to a lot of people, I wish all of them to stay with the Perera's to help themselves and the family.
I will conclude the post with a PJ. It has been a serious post till now.
Q: Why do you think Pali offers such good hospitality to the guests?
A: Because he works in a hospital!! :)
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Happy Oster
The 3rd weekend was a very long weekend for us. Thank God, our customer does not work on holidays. We had an off on Good Friday and Easter Monday giving us 4 full days to enjoy. But our varuna deva was chilling at his place I think because of which we had a snowfall.
I woke up on Friday to see a pure white carpet laid on the roads, cars and trees. We had a snowfall. Owing to the weather, we could not step out of the house. If it is a holiday for companies, it will be an off for even shops here. Every small shop was closed on Friday making it a very boring day for us. Kusum was a bit relaxed on Friday and said that she would take us out for lunch. Believe me, even the restaurants are closed on holidays here. The Buxtehude city looked as if somebody had ordered a curfew! Only a handful of people were found on the road, all the shops were closed, the traffic signals were switched off as there was no traffic. What a sight that was!
A small restaurant where you can take parcels also if needed is called an imbiss. A normal 'hotel' as we call in Bangalore is called restaurant here. A hotel in Germany is a 'lodge' in Bangalore. I found it very confusing. In the main city area, there is an imbiss run by Turkish people which was open on Good Friday. Even though the roads were fully empty, Pali did not park his car on the road. Instead drove across the road and parked in a parking lot. Yappa, teera atee aaitu idu
We went inside Sultan Imbiss and Pali ordered a vegetarian dish for me. I don't know what my dish was called, but it was very tasty and it had lots and lots of oil in it. At the end of my meal, I felt like puking because of the amount of oil used. It had steamed rice, a wide variety of vegetables literally soaked in oil and some yog hurt sauce on it. After our lunch, we walked down to St. Petri's church.
As soon as I entered the church, I heard prayers being sung by people. These prayers sounded like an Opera singer singing some tragic song, no offense meant. The church is very very huge and it is said to have been built in 1196 AD. The list of Pastor's of the church was put up which seemed like a never ending list to me. I then lit a candle inside the church for the first time in my life. There was a tray filled with sand where we could fix our candles. I shot a few photos of the church and then all of us went back home. I watched a couple of movies that I had downloaded and ended the first day of my weekend.
Pali had told us that he would take us to Bremen if the weather would be good. But our varun was not in a mood to let us go. The snowfall was much more than the previous day. All day long, me and my colleague watched 3 movies.
Sunday was Easter (Oster in German). Nothing special for me or the Perera's. I lazily got up at 11 AM and had my breakfast. Pali said we could go out for a walk in the woods near his place and that excited me. Immediately I picked up my camera and 3 of us were off. Just opposite to Pali's place is a stud farm that has around 60 horses. We could not get to see the horses as the weather was suitable for them to come out. After this farm, is a forest like area that has only huge trees everywhere. We roamed around in the supposed-to-be forest for about an hour. We met a few German families that had come there to celebrate Oster. We could not tolerate the cold breeze any more and we walked back to home quickly.
The rest of the day and Monday very boring as usual. Everything was closed and varuna wanted us to take some more rest. I was just waiting for the weekend to get over. At last, the weekend indeed got over and I started work in full swing at the office.
A boring weekend and a boring post! I'll try to write something interesting in the next post.
I woke up on Friday to see a pure white carpet laid on the roads, cars and trees. We had a snowfall. Owing to the weather, we could not step out of the house. If it is a holiday for companies, it will be an off for even shops here. Every small shop was closed on Friday making it a very boring day for us. Kusum was a bit relaxed on Friday and said that she would take us out for lunch. Believe me, even the restaurants are closed on holidays here. The Buxtehude city looked as if somebody had ordered a curfew! Only a handful of people were found on the road, all the shops were closed, the traffic signals were switched off as there was no traffic. What a sight that was!
A small restaurant where you can take parcels also if needed is called an imbiss. A normal 'hotel' as we call in Bangalore is called restaurant here. A hotel in Germany is a 'lodge' in Bangalore. I found it very confusing. In the main city area, there is an imbiss run by Turkish people which was open on Good Friday. Even though the roads were fully empty, Pali did not park his car on the road. Instead drove across the road and parked in a parking lot. Yappa, teera atee aaitu idu
We went inside Sultan Imbiss and Pali ordered a vegetarian dish for me. I don't know what my dish was called, but it was very tasty and it had lots and lots of oil in it. At the end of my meal, I felt like puking because of the amount of oil used. It had steamed rice, a wide variety of vegetables literally soaked in oil and some yog hurt sauce on it. After our lunch, we walked down to St. Petri's church.
As soon as I entered the church, I heard prayers being sung by people. These prayers sounded like an Opera singer singing some tragic song, no offense meant. The church is very very huge and it is said to have been built in 1196 AD. The list of Pastor's of the church was put up which seemed like a never ending list to me. I then lit a candle inside the church for the first time in my life. There was a tray filled with sand where we could fix our candles. I shot a few photos of the church and then all of us went back home. I watched a couple of movies that I had downloaded and ended the first day of my weekend.
Pali had told us that he would take us to Bremen if the weather would be good. But our varun was not in a mood to let us go. The snowfall was much more than the previous day. All day long, me and my colleague watched 3 movies.
Sunday was Easter (Oster in German). Nothing special for me or the Perera's. I lazily got up at 11 AM and had my breakfast. Pali said we could go out for a walk in the woods near his place and that excited me. Immediately I picked up my camera and 3 of us were off. Just opposite to Pali's place is a stud farm that has around 60 horses. We could not get to see the horses as the weather was suitable for them to come out. After this farm, is a forest like area that has only huge trees everywhere. We roamed around in the supposed-to-be forest for about an hour. We met a few German families that had come there to celebrate Oster. We could not tolerate the cold breeze any more and we walked back to home quickly.
The rest of the day and Monday very boring as usual. Everything was closed and varuna wanted us to take some more rest. I was just waiting for the weekend to get over. At last, the weekend indeed got over and I started work in full swing at the office.
A boring weekend and a boring post! I'll try to write something interesting in the next post.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Office Alone
The 2nd week at the office started with an exciting news for me. My manager from India called me and told that I had to stay for some more time in Germany as the work which was scheduled for a later time had to be completed when I was there. As soon as my manager told me this, I was wondering what he would tell my colleague.
Exciting for me, but saddening for her. She was asked to follow the initial plan and had to return back to India 3 days later. I quite didn't know how to react. I was very excited and happy that I had got 3 more weekends to explore this country. On the other hand, I would have to work all alone in the lab and finish all the work by myself which was being shared between the two. She was depressed a little but she said it was okay. Kusum and Pali felt very sad after learning that my colleague would leave Germany in 3 days. I tried convincing her that the schedule when we left India was that we were going back in 12 days. It was just that she had to execute that plan and my manager had a new plan for me.
We then completed the remaining work in the next 3 days in the hectic schedule as usual. Then was the time for her to bid good bye to Stinky and leave the customer's office. Stinky showed his cow teeth once more and shook hands with her. She was done with the smell here!
She had the flight from Hamburg to Frankfurt at 8:15 AM the next morning. Pali said it would be good to leave Buxtehude at 3:30 AM to avoid the last minute rush and missing of the flights. He asked me to accompany him to drop Pooja. Her luggage weighed around 26 kilos with the German goodies that she had shopped.
Early in the morning, I woke up at 3 AM and the temperature was around 2 degrees. We lifted her huge heavy suitcase and put it in the E class Mercedes. We then set off to Hamburg airport in the freezy-windy breeze. The car has superb features in it. Pali just pressed a button and within minutes, the seat on which I was sitting got fully hot and it was very very warm. What technologies these man made machines have! He told me that people will have 2 sets of tires for the cars. One set for the winter which has an anti-skid feature and another for the summer. Maintaining that car is really a very big economic concern.
We had only 3 minutes for my colleague to alight and get moving into the terminal as the car could not be parked infront of the terminal. My colleague pulled a trolley, put her baggage and she was off to namma Bengalooru!
On the way back, Pali and I talked about the cost of living in Germany and I learnt that it is indeed a very costly place [Especially me converting euros into rupees]. Theirs is a family settled down in Germany for about 25 years now. Even at 4 AM in the morning, the traffic signals were followed by every vehicle on the road. Wonder what makes them follow so rigorously.
Work in the office was a little boring having to sit all alone the whole day. The next day onwards, I had lot of work and Stinky was always there to sit with me and make me also stink! The weekend arrived and there were no specific plans made in the group. Some wanted to shop, some wanted to roam around. Finally we decided that we would be going to Hamburg to shop or roam. I wanted the latter.
Saturday morning, we got up late and reached the Buxtehude railway station at 10:30 to be greeted by other colleagues who had reached 15 minutes before us. We purchased the group ticket to Hamburg and I was told that we would be going to Harburg first and then to Hamburg. One of our colleagues had come from Bangalore with his wife and they were staying in a rented room in Harburg. Harburg is very close to Hamburg. That is all I know about this place because we got down from the train, went to his place, and got into the train again!
We went to his place and I suddenly felt as though I was in Bangalore. I could hear Kannada everywhere. It is a building that has about 5 houses all filled with Kannadigas! My colleague and his wife basically hail from Shimoga district. Felt really nice to talk to somebody who knew my language. The couple offered a light breakfast to all of us and I most eagerly said yes!
Well well well, the most unexpected tindi, the infamous uppittu was given in a plate along with sev. Baaiy chapprskond tinde naan antu. When amma prepares uppittu for breakfast, I will be the first to start cribbing to eat it. But when the same thing was given in Germany, aaha nan magandu yen tindi guru anta annusthu. The plain uppittu was mixed with Bisi BeLe bath pudi and the aroma of BBB was too good. Even though I had bread and jam at Pali's place, I took another serving of this special delicacy (only in Germany, alli matte goL shuru maadode) and savored it till the last spoon.
Along with the couple, we all left to Hamburg, the second largest city of Germany. We got down at the Hamburg Hauptbahnof, the central station of Hamburg. The group decided to meet in front of a huge electronic store, opposite to the station and dispersed. Me and my colleague were not interested to shop but we wanted to see a few places. We were simply looking around and we spotted a museum infront of the station. We went into the museum by paying 8 euros. The museum was marvelous. The give a mobile phone like instrument which we need to carry when seeing the artifacts displayed. Few of the artifacts will have an audio symbol and a number on them. If we press the number on this instrument, we get commentary about that artifact. An innovative and an effective method!
We spent more than 2 hours in the museum looking at ancient civilizations of Asia and Greece. We then went into a jewelery exhibition within the same premises and then a photography exhibition. The photography exhibition did not have any superb or breathtaking photos. It was mainly posters of advertisements that was displayed. Very nice collection they had. We had about 2 more hours to meet our colleagues infront of that store and we were hungry. We strolled in the streets of Hamburg for a while and found a McDonald's. After having a burger, our legs wanted some rest and we sat down on a bench. Even though the sun was shining, it was very cold. We could not sit more than 15 minutes on the bench. We then went into a garment store and did window shopping for a while and then met our colleagues. All of us went inside the 5 level store and saw an amazing display of all kinds of electronic products available. It took almost an hour for us just to see the products that were on sale. The time was around 6 and we had to leave for Buxtehude in the train.
Hamburg outing was not so interesting as it was supposed to be. We again fell short of time to explore the place. A plan was made to visit Hamburg on Sunday too, but the weather did not allow us to step out of house. It rained all day long.
All that we did on Sunday was to watch a couple of movies, eat and sleep till evening. In the evening, Kusum and Pali planned to entertain us by singing Sri Lankan songs for us. Pali was all excited to sing his favorite songs. He immediately put on his Karaoke CD and sung a few love songs for his wife. It was a nice evening.
Exciting for me, but saddening for her. She was asked to follow the initial plan and had to return back to India 3 days later. I quite didn't know how to react. I was very excited and happy that I had got 3 more weekends to explore this country. On the other hand, I would have to work all alone in the lab and finish all the work by myself which was being shared between the two. She was depressed a little but she said it was okay. Kusum and Pali felt very sad after learning that my colleague would leave Germany in 3 days. I tried convincing her that the schedule when we left India was that we were going back in 12 days. It was just that she had to execute that plan and my manager had a new plan for me.
We then completed the remaining work in the next 3 days in the hectic schedule as usual. Then was the time for her to bid good bye to Stinky and leave the customer's office. Stinky showed his cow teeth once more and shook hands with her. She was done with the smell here!
She had the flight from Hamburg to Frankfurt at 8:15 AM the next morning. Pali said it would be good to leave Buxtehude at 3:30 AM to avoid the last minute rush and missing of the flights. He asked me to accompany him to drop Pooja. Her luggage weighed around 26 kilos with the German goodies that she had shopped.
Early in the morning, I woke up at 3 AM and the temperature was around 2 degrees. We lifted her huge heavy suitcase and put it in the E class Mercedes. We then set off to Hamburg airport in the freezy-windy breeze. The car has superb features in it. Pali just pressed a button and within minutes, the seat on which I was sitting got fully hot and it was very very warm. What technologies these man made machines have! He told me that people will have 2 sets of tires for the cars. One set for the winter which has an anti-skid feature and another for the summer. Maintaining that car is really a very big economic concern.
We had only 3 minutes for my colleague to alight and get moving into the terminal as the car could not be parked infront of the terminal. My colleague pulled a trolley, put her baggage and she was off to namma Bengalooru!
On the way back, Pali and I talked about the cost of living in Germany and I learnt that it is indeed a very costly place [Especially me converting euros into rupees]. Theirs is a family settled down in Germany for about 25 years now. Even at 4 AM in the morning, the traffic signals were followed by every vehicle on the road. Wonder what makes them follow so rigorously.
Work in the office was a little boring having to sit all alone the whole day. The next day onwards, I had lot of work and Stinky was always there to sit with me and make me also stink! The weekend arrived and there were no specific plans made in the group. Some wanted to shop, some wanted to roam around. Finally we decided that we would be going to Hamburg to shop or roam. I wanted the latter.
Saturday morning, we got up late and reached the Buxtehude railway station at 10:30 to be greeted by other colleagues who had reached 15 minutes before us. We purchased the group ticket to Hamburg and I was told that we would be going to Harburg first and then to Hamburg. One of our colleagues had come from Bangalore with his wife and they were staying in a rented room in Harburg. Harburg is very close to Hamburg. That is all I know about this place because we got down from the train, went to his place, and got into the train again!
We went to his place and I suddenly felt as though I was in Bangalore. I could hear Kannada everywhere. It is a building that has about 5 houses all filled with Kannadigas! My colleague and his wife basically hail from Shimoga district. Felt really nice to talk to somebody who knew my language. The couple offered a light breakfast to all of us and I most eagerly said yes!
Well well well, the most unexpected tindi, the infamous uppittu was given in a plate along with sev. Baaiy chapprskond tinde naan antu. When amma prepares uppittu for breakfast, I will be the first to start cribbing to eat it. But when the same thing was given in Germany, aaha nan magandu yen tindi guru anta annusthu. The plain uppittu was mixed with Bisi BeLe bath pudi and the aroma of BBB was too good. Even though I had bread and jam at Pali's place, I took another serving of this special delicacy (only in Germany, alli matte goL shuru maadode) and savored it till the last spoon.
Along with the couple, we all left to Hamburg, the second largest city of Germany. We got down at the Hamburg Hauptbahnof, the central station of Hamburg. The group decided to meet in front of a huge electronic store, opposite to the station and dispersed. Me and my colleague were not interested to shop but we wanted to see a few places. We were simply looking around and we spotted a museum infront of the station. We went into the museum by paying 8 euros. The museum was marvelous. The give a mobile phone like instrument which we need to carry when seeing the artifacts displayed. Few of the artifacts will have an audio symbol and a number on them. If we press the number on this instrument, we get commentary about that artifact. An innovative and an effective method!
We spent more than 2 hours in the museum looking at ancient civilizations of Asia and Greece. We then went into a jewelery exhibition within the same premises and then a photography exhibition. The photography exhibition did not have any superb or breathtaking photos. It was mainly posters of advertisements that was displayed. Very nice collection they had. We had about 2 more hours to meet our colleagues infront of that store and we were hungry. We strolled in the streets of Hamburg for a while and found a McDonald's. After having a burger, our legs wanted some rest and we sat down on a bench. Even though the sun was shining, it was very cold. We could not sit more than 15 minutes on the bench. We then went into a garment store and did window shopping for a while and then met our colleagues. All of us went inside the 5 level store and saw an amazing display of all kinds of electronic products available. It took almost an hour for us just to see the products that were on sale. The time was around 6 and we had to leave for Buxtehude in the train.
Hamburg outing was not so interesting as it was supposed to be. We again fell short of time to explore the place. A plan was made to visit Hamburg on Sunday too, but the weather did not allow us to step out of house. It rained all day long.
All that we did on Sunday was to watch a couple of movies, eat and sleep till evening. In the evening, Kusum and Pali planned to entertain us by singing Sri Lankan songs for us. Pali was all excited to sing his favorite songs. He immediately put on his Karaoke CD and sung a few love songs for his wife. It was a nice evening.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
A trip to the capital
SUNDAY!! According to the plan made by the 'manager' in our group of 6 colleagues, we were to visit Berlin on Sunday. The travel to Berlin from Buxtehude would take around 6 hours and we had planned to leave Pali's place early in the morning and reach the railway station by 6.
Kusum booked a taxi for us the previous night and we reached the railway station at around 6 in the morning. Our route was to reach Hamburg from Buxtehude and then go to Berlin. The herculean task that lay in front of us was purchasing the tickets in the station. Everything here is automated and it feels bad to interact with the machines and not the humans. There is a vending machine in the station where we can purchase the tickets. The system is very different here. We have to choose a 'ring' to which we are going to travel and then purchase the ticket. The whole of German railway system has been divided into rings. Ring 1 would be local to Buxtehude and the neighboring towns. Ring 2, a little bit far and Hamburg is in Ring 4. The division is done based on the distance from the source. They also have this concept of group tickets which are available at a discounted price. A group ticket for 5 people in a weekend costs 17.8 euros. This ticket can be used anywhere in Germany for a period of 9 continuous hours in a weekend. A bit complicated, but that's how it is.
Anyway, we ultimately managed to buy a group ticket for 5 people and a single ticket for the sixth person. The train to Hamburg arrived shortly and the first insight of a train was awesome. The trains here can in no way be compared to our trains in India. There is no outlet from the train in the WC's for the waste to fall down on the track. Hence, no stinking stations. Nobody gets down on the tracks and crosses to reach the opposite platform. Nobody can sleep in the station as the temperature in the night will be less than zero degrees. So, you see why the station is so clean and sparkling. The trains cruise at a speed of 80 to 100 kmph. Thats the normal train with a normal speed. Super fast trains called the ICE trains may go at a speed of 150 kmph I think. We took an S Bahn train and reached Hamburg in 40 minutes. The Hamburg station is very big and one can see only shops everywhere inside the station. Another thing that I noticed was that there no announcements made for the arrival or departure of a train. That is because every 1 or 2 minutes, a train would come or go. They have big LCD screens for each platform where the next train or the information about the train standing will be displayed, in German of course.
We hurriedly marched towards the ticket booking area of the station and our manager purchased the tickets to Berlin. There was no direct train from Hamburg to Berlin. We had to get down at a station named Schewrin and catch another train from that station to reach Berlin. The long distance trains have 2 decks to accommodate more people. We went into the upper deck. The feeling was totally different sitting inside this train. It did not feel as though I was sitting in a train. It felt like sitting inside an aeroplane. The seats are very elegant, every seat has a small trash can beside it, the windows can not be opened, the doors open by themselves. Very sophisticated. No, I really did not feel that I was traveling in a train. Every coach of the train has 2 LCD monitors which keep flashing information about the next station. It displays the next station's name and an estimated time to reach the station. The time displayed is very precise. When the train is nearing a station, there is an automated message that is announced telling the passengers about the station and which exit door they have to use to get down. Then, the driver of the train also makes an announcement in German, I could not understand what it was. Apart from the LCD screens that are visible to every passenger, there is also an LED display giving information about the stations.
Software engineers working in India have clients all over the world. We develop softwares for these LCD displays, a software that opens or shuts the door, a software that makes an automated announcements and so on. The common people in these countries enjoy the facilities while we are very much satisfied traveling in a Lalbagh express or a Kittoor Rani Chenamma express. Such a sad state that we have the brains but not the money. Nothing is going to improve unless we stop corruption.
Sorry, back to my trip to the capital. So, the journey to Schwerin took about an hour in the super-duper hi tech train where we had to wait for about half an hour for the next train. The temperature was really low and it was too windy. Even with the thermals and the jackets, all of us were shivering. Then 3 of us went down into the subway which should be used to change platforms. In this subway is the store Subway! We went there and had a sub and some hot coffee. Our manager was tensed that the 3 of us were missing from the platform as the train would arrive in 10 minutes. We then went to the platform, the train just arrived and we again got into the upper deck of this train. The journey from Schwerin to Berlin took about 3 and half hours. We finally reached Berlin at 12:30 PM.
6 hours of journey in 969 words! Now thats too much, isn't it? Who cares, I'm writing for me to remember.
I thought the Hamburg railway station was 'what a hi-tech station!' The shops inside the station made me feel as though it was a shopping mall. Berlin station-u adr appa! The Berlin station is atleast 2 Forum malls put together. It is Europe's largest railway station. The trains run at two levels from this station. The levels are perpendicular to each other. We got out of our train at the lower level which was a sub way.
The station from outside looked very grand. A huge glass building it is like a big software company in Bangalore. Far across the river, I could see the German flag fluttering and then there was a long tower which is the TV tower of Berlin. Let me tell you just a few facts about Berlin. This city is more than 750 years old! It has a record of being the largest construction site in the world as all the historical monuments are being re-strengthened to stand for few more decades. It was the border for East and West Germanies until 1989. The border was separated by a wall called the Berlin wall. This wall was brought down in 1989 and Germany has been one country since then. See, I have improved my history!
We had only about 5 hours to see Berlin as the journey back would again take 6 hours. So, we decided to take an arranged city tour of Berlin. Just as we decided this, a guy came behind us and told us that his company arranges city tour of Berlin and that we could go in their bus around the city. The offer was nice and we hopped into the yellow bus that would take us around the capital.
During the tour, we saw a lot of historical monuments the names of which are very very difficult to remember. Every seat in this double decker bus had an earphone through which we could hear running commentary about the monuments. But the quality of the equipment inside the bus was not good. There were 15 stops during the tour. We could get down anywhere we wanted and the next bus would come in 10 minutes. This way, we could keep traveling till 5 PM. We got down first near a 13th century church. This church was damaged almost fully during World War II and a new one has been built beside it. We went inside the new church. All the walls in this church have blue colored glass blocks and they were illuminated. There was no other light inside the church. The Brass idol of the God was really very nice to look. After sitting for 2 minutes there, we came out and saw huge buildings everywhere and people busily moving across. Berlin is the largest city of Germany. Due to its size, the number of people in the city is also very high. But, the vehicles on the road are very less when compared to Bangalore's traffic. The local trains and the buses are used to the maximum extent by the people here. We got another yellow bus and continued our tour. We saw the largest palace of Berlin named Schloss Charlottenberg. We could not get down and go inside as we didn't have time. We then saw the Parliament building, the embassies of different countries, a few museums, and a few other monuments whose names I don't remember!
The next stop where we got down was near a museum named Count Charlie near the Wall but none of my colleagues were interested to get in as the entrance fee was close to 14 euros. Losers in life! So, seeing the wall from a moving bus was my haNe baraha
I convinced the people in my group to get down at the Gendermenmarkt square where there is a big auditorium and a German Cathedral. The auditorium was closed as it was a Sunday. But we saw 3 artists playing saxophone and an accordion outside the theater. From there, we again got into next bus and we got down at the Brandenburg Gate. This gate, was once the entrance to Berlin. People with all kinds of costumes were seen waiting for the public to take their photographs and give them some money. For the first time, I saw beggars in Germany here. After clicking photographs of the gate and a few people in the costumes, we got into yet another yellow bus to reach the railway station. We then walked near the banks of river Spree and spent some time in the cool breeze. With another 6 hour journey back to Buxtehude, thus ended our trip to the capital. A tight, jam-packed-scheduled trip!
Kusum booked a taxi for us the previous night and we reached the railway station at around 6 in the morning. Our route was to reach Hamburg from Buxtehude and then go to Berlin. The herculean task that lay in front of us was purchasing the tickets in the station. Everything here is automated and it feels bad to interact with the machines and not the humans. There is a vending machine in the station where we can purchase the tickets. The system is very different here. We have to choose a 'ring' to which we are going to travel and then purchase the ticket. The whole of German railway system has been divided into rings. Ring 1 would be local to Buxtehude and the neighboring towns. Ring 2, a little bit far and Hamburg is in Ring 4. The division is done based on the distance from the source. They also have this concept of group tickets which are available at a discounted price. A group ticket for 5 people in a weekend costs 17.8 euros. This ticket can be used anywhere in Germany for a period of 9 continuous hours in a weekend. A bit complicated, but that's how it is.
Anyway, we ultimately managed to buy a group ticket for 5 people and a single ticket for the sixth person. The train to Hamburg arrived shortly and the first insight of a train was awesome. The trains here can in no way be compared to our trains in India. There is no outlet from the train in the WC's for the waste to fall down on the track. Hence, no stinking stations. Nobody gets down on the tracks and crosses to reach the opposite platform. Nobody can sleep in the station as the temperature in the night will be less than zero degrees. So, you see why the station is so clean and sparkling. The trains cruise at a speed of 80 to 100 kmph. Thats the normal train with a normal speed. Super fast trains called the ICE trains may go at a speed of 150 kmph I think. We took an S Bahn train and reached Hamburg in 40 minutes. The Hamburg station is very big and one can see only shops everywhere inside the station. Another thing that I noticed was that there no announcements made for the arrival or departure of a train. That is because every 1 or 2 minutes, a train would come or go. They have big LCD screens for each platform where the next train or the information about the train standing will be displayed, in German of course.
We hurriedly marched towards the ticket booking area of the station and our manager purchased the tickets to Berlin. There was no direct train from Hamburg to Berlin. We had to get down at a station named Schewrin and catch another train from that station to reach Berlin. The long distance trains have 2 decks to accommodate more people. We went into the upper deck. The feeling was totally different sitting inside this train. It did not feel as though I was sitting in a train. It felt like sitting inside an aeroplane. The seats are very elegant, every seat has a small trash can beside it, the windows can not be opened, the doors open by themselves. Very sophisticated. No, I really did not feel that I was traveling in a train. Every coach of the train has 2 LCD monitors which keep flashing information about the next station. It displays the next station's name and an estimated time to reach the station. The time displayed is very precise. When the train is nearing a station, there is an automated message that is announced telling the passengers about the station and which exit door they have to use to get down. Then, the driver of the train also makes an announcement in German, I could not understand what it was. Apart from the LCD screens that are visible to every passenger, there is also an LED display giving information about the stations.
Software engineers working in India have clients all over the world. We develop softwares for these LCD displays, a software that opens or shuts the door, a software that makes an automated announcements and so on. The common people in these countries enjoy the facilities while we are very much satisfied traveling in a Lalbagh express or a Kittoor Rani Chenamma express. Such a sad state that we have the brains but not the money. Nothing is going to improve unless we stop corruption.
Sorry, back to my trip to the capital. So, the journey to Schwerin took about an hour in the super-duper hi tech train where we had to wait for about half an hour for the next train. The temperature was really low and it was too windy. Even with the thermals and the jackets, all of us were shivering. Then 3 of us went down into the subway which should be used to change platforms. In this subway is the store Subway! We went there and had a sub and some hot coffee. Our manager was tensed that the 3 of us were missing from the platform as the train would arrive in 10 minutes. We then went to the platform, the train just arrived and we again got into the upper deck of this train. The journey from Schwerin to Berlin took about 3 and half hours. We finally reached Berlin at 12:30 PM.
6 hours of journey in 969 words! Now thats too much, isn't it? Who cares, I'm writing for me to remember.
I thought the Hamburg railway station was 'what a hi-tech station!' The shops inside the station made me feel as though it was a shopping mall. Berlin station-u adr appa! The Berlin station is atleast 2 Forum malls put together. It is Europe's largest railway station. The trains run at two levels from this station. The levels are perpendicular to each other. We got out of our train at the lower level which was a sub way.
The station from outside looked very grand. A huge glass building it is like a big software company in Bangalore. Far across the river, I could see the German flag fluttering and then there was a long tower which is the TV tower of Berlin. Let me tell you just a few facts about Berlin. This city is more than 750 years old! It has a record of being the largest construction site in the world as all the historical monuments are being re-strengthened to stand for few more decades. It was the border for East and West Germanies until 1989. The border was separated by a wall called the Berlin wall. This wall was brought down in 1989 and Germany has been one country since then. See, I have improved my history!
We had only about 5 hours to see Berlin as the journey back would again take 6 hours. So, we decided to take an arranged city tour of Berlin. Just as we decided this, a guy came behind us and told us that his company arranges city tour of Berlin and that we could go in their bus around the city. The offer was nice and we hopped into the yellow bus that would take us around the capital.
During the tour, we saw a lot of historical monuments the names of which are very very difficult to remember. Every seat in this double decker bus had an earphone through which we could hear running commentary about the monuments. But the quality of the equipment inside the bus was not good. There were 15 stops during the tour. We could get down anywhere we wanted and the next bus would come in 10 minutes. This way, we could keep traveling till 5 PM. We got down first near a 13th century church. This church was damaged almost fully during World War II and a new one has been built beside it. We went inside the new church. All the walls in this church have blue colored glass blocks and they were illuminated. There was no other light inside the church. The Brass idol of the God was really very nice to look. After sitting for 2 minutes there, we came out and saw huge buildings everywhere and people busily moving across. Berlin is the largest city of Germany. Due to its size, the number of people in the city is also very high. But, the vehicles on the road are very less when compared to Bangalore's traffic. The local trains and the buses are used to the maximum extent by the people here. We got another yellow bus and continued our tour. We saw the largest palace of Berlin named Schloss Charlottenberg. We could not get down and go inside as we didn't have time. We then saw the Parliament building, the embassies of different countries, a few museums, and a few other monuments whose names I don't remember!
The next stop where we got down was near a museum named Count Charlie near the Wall but none of my colleagues were interested to get in as the entrance fee was close to 14 euros. Losers in life! So, seeing the wall from a moving bus was my haNe baraha
I convinced the people in my group to get down at the Gendermenmarkt square where there is a big auditorium and a German Cathedral. The auditorium was closed as it was a Sunday. But we saw 3 artists playing saxophone and an accordion outside the theater. From there, we again got into next bus and we got down at the Brandenburg Gate. This gate, was once the entrance to Berlin. People with all kinds of costumes were seen waiting for the public to take their photographs and give them some money. For the first time, I saw beggars in Germany here. After clicking photographs of the gate and a few people in the costumes, we got into yet another yellow bus to reach the railway station. We then walked near the banks of river Spree and spent some time in the cool breeze. With another 6 hour journey back to Buxtehude, thus ended our trip to the capital. A tight, jam-packed-scheduled trip!
Sunday, March 16, 2008
First weekend! Day 1
After the hectic 5 days of being fed up of seeing stinky wear the same shirt and pant, it was time for us to explore Germany and get rid of the 'stinking stinkyness'
Saturday morning, 4 of us left from Pali's place after the breakfast. The weather was very pleasant, just about 7 to 8 degrees may be. We started walking and had no specific place to go to. You have to be very careful while walking on the footpaths. The cyclists are not allowed on the road as they have a dedicated part of the footpath for them. We being Indians, didnt know that cyclists had a share in our footpath for their tires. A cyclist rang his bell and I didn't realize that he was asking for place for him to go past us, we thought he was ringing the bell on the road. People here are very kind. He stopped his cycle, called out for us and asked if he could go. Apologizing for our ignorance, we let him go and then were careful enough not to tread on their path.
The people who walk on Bangalore's footpath will find it very easy to walk here as there are no bikes honking for their way on the footpath! Did I say honking? I have never heard a horn blowing till now!! Yes, people never honk here. Strange. We honk just for fun or to inform somebody near a turning 'please dose hodibedi, ee kade inda naan bartaa ideeni' or to call a person who is one among 50 people on the road, i wonder how THAT person would get to know its a call for him.
But, our honking is fun. The people also are very silent here. Anywhere you go, unless you go very near to people who are in a conversation, you can not hear the usual chatters. People in the trains are also dead silent. So is the train! The sealed windows and doors don't let any sound to come inside and it is very boring inside the train to sit so silently.
Every road has a footpath in Buxtehude no matter how small it is. If thats the case with this small town, I'm sure the whole country will have the same kind of roads and footpaths. People follow the signals to cross the roads. That was really surprising to me. Nobody crosses the road even if its fully empty unless there is a green signal. When we were standing to cross the road, a passing thought struck my mind. In our country, how many times do we SEE the signal meant for people to cross, let alone following the signals? When big vehicles such as buses and cars don't bother to follow the signals, what are we talking about the pesky human beings on the roads.
The Buxtehude city is supposed to be a very old city, which has been built in the 17th or 18th century. During the world war II, this was one among the very few cities where no bombing happened. Two reasons. One, a rumor was spread everywhere in Germany that Hitler was near Buxtehude in a city called Stade [pronounced as staaday. Hey, I haven't told you how to pronounce Buxtehude. It is boo-ksti-hoo-dah] Another reason was that apple was grown only in Buxtehude during the war. Had they bombed this city, nobody could have got apples! This story was told by Pali to me, I don't know how much of it is true. Well, I leave this task for you. Learn the history and tell me, I'm very bad at it.
The main city area has streets made up of cobble stones. The buildings were built at least a century ago. Every city has a main administrative building called rathaus, it is the town-hall of the city. All the government buildings have a copper sulphate colored top portion which signifies that it is a government building. Beside the rathaus is the St. Petri's Cathedral which was constructed about 150 years ago. Unfortunately, the church was closed by the time we reached. I was told that people from all over the country come to this church to pray. Will visit the church again and then write about it.
While I'm writing this, its raining hailstones here. The weather has been pretty bad for a few days now. The hailstone rain then becomes ice-rain and then a snowfall. How I wish I can see all of these.
There is a stretch in this city where one can find the beautiful Margareta standing in river Elbe. Margareta is the last cargo ship that was used in Buxtehude. For the first time in my life, I saw a ship that closely. The road is on either side of this river. A few authentic German and Italian restaurants are alongside this river which I'm sure, will not have anything vegetarian. The place was very calm and clean needless to say.
The shops in the streets of Buxtehude are very attractive with the dazzling display of the products they sell. A direct replacement of Euro by Rupee would turn the situation very funny. A Mercedes Benz E class would cost 44,000 Rupees, A swatch watch would cost 140 Rupees, A Samsung HDTV would cost 2500 Rupees, A good formal shirt would cost 18 Rupees, A full suit would cost 249 Rupees. My God! Imagine if it were to be like this in India. And then there is the Euro shop where all the items cost around 1 Euro. A big packet of Snickers would cost 2 Rupees, A scented candle would cost 1.49 Rupees and the list goes on.
A simple multiplication of all these costs with 62 will give you an idea how much they would actually cost. Germany is no cheap. A haircut here costs 10 euros, thats 620 Rupees! I can have 20 haircuts done in Bangalore for that. People here value even a cent a lot. Not like us where we ignore 50 paise, its 30 rupees here!
After roaming around in the streets of Buxtehude, we all were hungry and it was time for us to search for a place where vegetarian food was available as 2 of us in the team do not eat non veg. After walking for 10 minutes, we barged into subway and ordered for a 6 inch sub with a coke. They have a free re-fill of the drink that you take, I had 2 servings of coke. One can re-fill any number of times any drink of his choice. But the weather does not allow you to take more than 2 servings. One of my colleagues came up with a whacky idea of having an ice cream in the 6 degree temperature! All of us agreed to her and we bought ice creams of our choice which cost anywhere between 25 cents to 1 euro. With the ice cream in one hand and German goodies that everybody had shopped in another hand, we all went to a park to spend some time.
The river Elbe infront of the benches in the park was just amazing. The ducks in Elbe came very near to us. The water is dirty in Germany too!! The German government has built small 'houses' for the ducks to stay and these white ducks keep roaming around the river all day long. The cool breeze, the sun setting and the ice cream... it was just a perfect way to spend an evening.
The temperature was going down and we all started feeling very cold. It was time for us to leave. A beautiful day in a beautiful city, I really could not believe that I saw all this with my eyes. A wonderful experience that I can not forget. Buxtehude, a place to visit!
Saturday morning, 4 of us left from Pali's place after the breakfast. The weather was very pleasant, just about 7 to 8 degrees may be. We started walking and had no specific place to go to. You have to be very careful while walking on the footpaths. The cyclists are not allowed on the road as they have a dedicated part of the footpath for them. We being Indians, didnt know that cyclists had a share in our footpath for their tires. A cyclist rang his bell and I didn't realize that he was asking for place for him to go past us, we thought he was ringing the bell on the road. People here are very kind. He stopped his cycle, called out for us and asked if he could go. Apologizing for our ignorance, we let him go and then were careful enough not to tread on their path.
The people who walk on Bangalore's footpath will find it very easy to walk here as there are no bikes honking for their way on the footpath! Did I say honking? I have never heard a horn blowing till now!! Yes, people never honk here. Strange. We honk just for fun or to inform somebody near a turning 'please dose hodibedi, ee kade inda naan bartaa ideeni' or to call a person who is one among 50 people on the road, i wonder how THAT person would get to know its a call for him.
But, our honking is fun. The people also are very silent here. Anywhere you go, unless you go very near to people who are in a conversation, you can not hear the usual chatters. People in the trains are also dead silent. So is the train! The sealed windows and doors don't let any sound to come inside and it is very boring inside the train to sit so silently.
Every road has a footpath in Buxtehude no matter how small it is. If thats the case with this small town, I'm sure the whole country will have the same kind of roads and footpaths. People follow the signals to cross the roads. That was really surprising to me. Nobody crosses the road even if its fully empty unless there is a green signal. When we were standing to cross the road, a passing thought struck my mind. In our country, how many times do we SEE the signal meant for people to cross, let alone following the signals? When big vehicles such as buses and cars don't bother to follow the signals, what are we talking about the pesky human beings on the roads.
The Buxtehude city is supposed to be a very old city, which has been built in the 17th or 18th century. During the world war II, this was one among the very few cities where no bombing happened. Two reasons. One, a rumor was spread everywhere in Germany that Hitler was near Buxtehude in a city called Stade [pronounced as staaday. Hey, I haven't told you how to pronounce Buxtehude. It is boo-ksti-hoo-dah] Another reason was that apple was grown only in Buxtehude during the war. Had they bombed this city, nobody could have got apples! This story was told by Pali to me, I don't know how much of it is true. Well, I leave this task for you. Learn the history and tell me, I'm very bad at it.
The main city area has streets made up of cobble stones. The buildings were built at least a century ago. Every city has a main administrative building called rathaus, it is the town-hall of the city. All the government buildings have a copper sulphate colored top portion which signifies that it is a government building. Beside the rathaus is the St. Petri's Cathedral which was constructed about 150 years ago. Unfortunately, the church was closed by the time we reached. I was told that people from all over the country come to this church to pray. Will visit the church again and then write about it.
While I'm writing this, its raining hailstones here. The weather has been pretty bad for a few days now. The hailstone rain then becomes ice-rain and then a snowfall. How I wish I can see all of these.
There is a stretch in this city where one can find the beautiful Margareta standing in river Elbe. Margareta is the last cargo ship that was used in Buxtehude. For the first time in my life, I saw a ship that closely. The road is on either side of this river. A few authentic German and Italian restaurants are alongside this river which I'm sure, will not have anything vegetarian. The place was very calm and clean needless to say.
The shops in the streets of Buxtehude are very attractive with the dazzling display of the products they sell. A direct replacement of Euro by Rupee would turn the situation very funny. A Mercedes Benz E class would cost 44,000 Rupees, A swatch watch would cost 140 Rupees, A Samsung HDTV would cost 2500 Rupees, A good formal shirt would cost 18 Rupees, A full suit would cost 249 Rupees. My God! Imagine if it were to be like this in India. And then there is the Euro shop where all the items cost around 1 Euro. A big packet of Snickers would cost 2 Rupees, A scented candle would cost 1.49 Rupees and the list goes on.
A simple multiplication of all these costs with 62 will give you an idea how much they would actually cost. Germany is no cheap. A haircut here costs 10 euros, thats 620 Rupees! I can have 20 haircuts done in Bangalore for that. People here value even a cent a lot. Not like us where we ignore 50 paise, its 30 rupees here!
After roaming around in the streets of Buxtehude, we all were hungry and it was time for us to search for a place where vegetarian food was available as 2 of us in the team do not eat non veg. After walking for 10 minutes, we barged into subway and ordered for a 6 inch sub with a coke. They have a free re-fill of the drink that you take, I had 2 servings of coke. One can re-fill any number of times any drink of his choice. But the weather does not allow you to take more than 2 servings. One of my colleagues came up with a whacky idea of having an ice cream in the 6 degree temperature! All of us agreed to her and we bought ice creams of our choice which cost anywhere between 25 cents to 1 euro. With the ice cream in one hand and German goodies that everybody had shopped in another hand, we all went to a park to spend some time.
The river Elbe infront of the benches in the park was just amazing. The ducks in Elbe came very near to us. The water is dirty in Germany too!! The German government has built small 'houses' for the ducks to stay and these white ducks keep roaming around the river all day long. The cool breeze, the sun setting and the ice cream... it was just a perfect way to spend an evening.
The temperature was going down and we all started feeling very cold. It was time for us to leave. A beautiful day in a beautiful city, I really could not believe that I saw all this with my eyes. A wonderful experience that I can not forget. Buxtehude, a place to visit!
Friday, March 14, 2008
The Hectic phase
The pressure to complete all the work before the deadline was mounting everyday. Me and my colleague used to leave Pali's place at around 8:30 and reach the office in 5 minutes' time. Everynight, after dinner, we had to tell Kusum the time at which we wanted a taxi, the next morning. She would book the taxi for us and give us a slip that had the message "7 Euros fixed price, [The office address], Thanks, Perera" in German. We had to show this slip to the taxi driver and then he would nod and take us to the office.
Language is a big problem here. Not everybody can understand English. If they understand by chance and respond back, we can not understand German. But it is fun. After paying the money to the driver and taking the 'quittung' [bill] we would start the work in the lab.
Our in-charge person at the customer's office [ I'll call him as stinky from now on], would come in at around at 10, shake hands and show his all yellow-orange teeth and say 'Good morning'. He would at times sit with us and explain how the system worked or would tell us that he would be back in sometime and leave the lab. Trust me, he wore the same white sweat-shirt and the black jeans for 5 days in a row! [now you know why I call him so].
He definitely needs to consult Dr.Bhatwadekar [the Orbit white chewing gum ad on the TV!!]. I will not be surprised if for some reason stinky had got a cow teeth transplant done. The smell, my god! it was horrible. Added to this, if we asked him a question, he would pull a chair and sit next to me so close that I could kiss him. Now, let me tell you one thing, I'M STRAIGHT and I CAN NOT AND WILL NEVER DO SUCH THINGS. I just wanted you to know how close stinky would come when sitting on a chair and I had to either breathe through my mouth or hold my breath and die.
For some reason, I have had a smelly experience in my company since I joined this account. My manager in India is stinky's close relative. [another post for all of you to smell them] We had to work till about 8 in the evening after which a security guy would come and ask the employees to leave! How I wish if this could happen in Bangalore. Too much to ask for? I don't think so..
Pali would pick us up and me and my colleague had to again boot our laptops and start the documentation update as we would not have got the license to use that tool while we were in office. All this would amount to 12 hours of work everyday! It has been really long since I worked so much in a day.
This hectic phase of work went on for the next 5 days until we had our first weekend in Germany. Another post for the weekend.
Language is a big problem here. Not everybody can understand English. If they understand by chance and respond back, we can not understand German. But it is fun. After paying the money to the driver and taking the 'quittung' [bill] we would start the work in the lab.
Our in-charge person at the customer's office [ I'll call him as stinky from now on], would come in at around at 10, shake hands and show his all yellow-orange teeth and say 'Good morning'. He would at times sit with us and explain how the system worked or would tell us that he would be back in sometime and leave the lab. Trust me, he wore the same white sweat-shirt and the black jeans for 5 days in a row! [now you know why I call him so].
He definitely needs to consult Dr.Bhatwadekar [the Orbit white chewing gum ad on the TV!!]. I will not be surprised if for some reason stinky had got a cow teeth transplant done. The smell, my god! it was horrible. Added to this, if we asked him a question, he would pull a chair and sit next to me so close that I could kiss him. Now, let me tell you one thing, I'M STRAIGHT and I CAN NOT AND WILL NEVER DO SUCH THINGS. I just wanted you to know how close stinky would come when sitting on a chair and I had to either breathe through my mouth or hold my breath and die.
For some reason, I have had a smelly experience in my company since I joined this account. My manager in India is stinky's close relative. [another post for all of you to smell them] We had to work till about 8 in the evening after which a security guy would come and ask the employees to leave! How I wish if this could happen in Bangalore. Too much to ask for? I don't think so..
Pali would pick us up and me and my colleague had to again boot our laptops and start the documentation update as we would not have got the license to use that tool while we were in office. All this would amount to 12 hours of work everyday! It has been really long since I worked so much in a day.
This hectic phase of work went on for the next 5 days until we had our first weekend in Germany. Another post for the weekend.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Day 2 at Germany
I started my day with a jump start at 6:15 AM without an alarm!
Suddenly, I opened my eyes and then realized that I was in
Went to the bathroom of the PG (One of the best ones I have seen till date, fully dry floor and sparkling clean toilet). The bath tub and the shower room as I call it were also very very clean. The shower room is very small. So small that I cant turn around with ease. Nevertheless, after cleaning my thing with the “toilet roll” for the first time in my life, I came back to my room and had a visual treat! We had a snowfall in the night and the houses and the cars were laden with snow. It was as if I was in a fairyland.
After getting ready, it was the time for breakfast. The table was fully laid and ready for me to sit and hog my cereal for the breakfast. I had a cereal which was quite different to corn flakes, but very good to taste. After eating it, drank a glass of orange juice (real orange juice without any sugar, very tangy in taste!)
Then me and my colleague Pali to drop us to our customer's office. On the way to the office, we had to withdraw money and asked him to take us to a Visa ATM. He took us to the Buxtehude city center. The shops in the city center will open only at 9 AM and we saw the shutters and the amazing hoardings of many shops. The market area is very clean and very good. All the buildings seemed to have been built atleast a century ago. The Deutsche Bank ATM gave me my 1000 Euros and we left for the office.
The drive in the Mercedes Benz of Pali is just amazing. The vehicle is …. I don’t have words to say. One thing that I observed on my way to the office is the road discipline here. People follow the lane disciple with all the ‘bhakti’ they have. I never saw anybody changing lanes to overtake, or to break the signals. The thought came to my mind was “Who told these people to follow the rules so strictly?” but yes, the number of vehicles on the road were as much as we will have the density of traffic on Bannerghatta road at around 11:30 PM. Even at that time in our own Bannerghatta road, people just want to get away from the roads to their destinations as early as possible and they don’t hesitate to break the beautiful laws of our country.
Anyway, the rules apart, the drive in the Benz was the best thing that would happen there everyday.
The work in the office was very hectic and we had lot of work to do in the very tight schedule. But we succeeded in completing more than what we had planned and finished our work at around 8 in the night. Pali picked us up from the office and on the way back to his place, he took us about 2 kilometers away from his place to a locality where about 1000 people stay. This locality once used to be Hitler's camp for his men to stay. About 5000 people stayed in the camp during the World War II and then this has almost been demolished and now a posh locality has come up.
There are still people in the neighborhood of this locality who support Hitler's ideologies and it seems they don't hesitate to assault a person who is not from their race. Yaav kaaldal idaaro pa jana.. thu
Pali advised us not venture out in the dark near his place too fearing the language and the racism problem. 20 kms from Buxtehude is a place call Stade. Hitler gathered around 6000 Israelis in this place and 'gassed' them to death. I got to know the story only after Pali told me. [Forgive me, my history knowledge is less than poor]
Thus ended my second day in Germany leaving me to think about my friend Hitler and his story. I will learn the history of this country and share it with you one day. Keep waiting. Gute Nacht [Good night in German]
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Love at first sight!
The Lufthansa aircraft landed in Frankfurt early in the morning at 7:30 AM, German time. The first aerial view of the roads and the city was splendid. The dirtiest of the things here look as the neatest things for me. The much-hyped immigration check was done within a minute for me and I was permitted to enter Germany!
The Frankfurt airport is so so so huge that I think about 20 or 30 HAL airports would fit in it. Our HAL airport has about 6 to 7 gates I think. But this one has areas A, B and C each of which has 65 Gates!
Yes, it is that huge! The shops inside the airport were so attractive that I felt like finishing my shopping there itself. The whole airport has over 200 shops that sell everything under the sun! Whew, this was too much for me. My perception about an airport was that of our own soon-to-be-closed HAL airport.
Varied people from all the classes, races and regions were hurriedly moving around to catch their flights. The gate from which my aircraft to Hamburg would let in passengers was A13. There is a subway that one has to go through to reach the A area. The sub way is just amazing. There are 4 lanes for people to walk in. The two extreme lanes have these escalators (I dont know the exact word, forgive me for that) which move on the ground so that the people dont have to walk. I felt that it was made just for people like me. Trust me, even though I tried to find a speck of dust or dirt, I could not. I dont know if the people are so sensible or the cleaning department is just amazing! Both of these are definitely needed for our country, the former being more predominantly required.
The breakfast in the flight was not enough and we were hungry. Time for us to search for vegetarian food. People here dont understand what is vegetarian. We have to specifically tell them that we want something that has no meat, no fish and no chicken as they consider red meat to be meat.
Finally, we managed to find a shop that had something that had only vegetables and cheese along with bread. Yes, the raw vegetable sandwich. There was also a kind of sandwichy-burger called Fraukachu (I dont know the spelling, but thats how its pronounced). I bought it and it tasted good. It was a bun which had a few vegetables, a cheese spread and a leafy vegetable between it.
Waiting for some more time in the awesome airport, we were ready to get into another Lufthansa aircraft which was to take us to Hamburg. The one hour journey was very pleasant to Hamburg with my German female co-passenger :) Unfortunately, she fell asleep soon after the flight took off from the ground and woke up almost when we had reached the destination. The sight of the clouds and the aerial view of Hamburg during the landing was splendid. I could not stop myself from thinking about the various flight phases an aircraft will have. My client manufactures aircrafts and our project deals with these modules that fetch the avionics parameters to the aircraft.
We waited for about 20 minutes to get our checked in baggages and Pali was standing at the gate to give us a very warm welcome. It was indeed very warm inside his Mercedes Benz. The temperature in Hamburg was around 5 degrees and the 2006 model Benz gave all the comfort that was needed. Pali fulfilled my dream of sitting in the car, Thanks man!
The 80 kilometer drive to Buxtehude took just 35 minutes and we were at Pali's place to freshen up and get ready to reach our customer's office. Their home is a 4 bedroom house thats not so very big, but its very cozy. The room that I was given is their elder daughter's who now is studying in London. After having bread and juice, we left for the office. I was to 'face' the customer for the first time in my life. Yes, I was a bit tensed but the excitement was more than the tension.
We went into the reception and showed the invitation letter and then met our point of contact at the customer's office and he led us to the 'Testrig' to show us the setup for our system that we were to test in the ensuing days.
We called Pali at around 7'o clock and he came within minutes to pick us up from the office. The temperature was 3 degrees! Kusum had prepared a very tasty-srilankan touch-dinner. She usually prepares 2 or 3 kinds of rice and 3 to 4 kinds of curries. The readily available yoghurt is the last part of the dinner. The non vegetarians relish her dishes a lot. Everyday, she prepares something new for them. As for us, its the same curry with a different vegetable. But, the taste of the food is nothing less to that of a good hotel in Bangalore.
The first day in Germany was too much for me to take. The cleanliness of the cities, the road discipline of the people, the hospitality offered by the Pali's... all just left me dumb struck.
The Frankfurt airport is so so so huge that I think about 20 or 30 HAL airports would fit in it. Our HAL airport has about 6 to 7 gates I think. But this one has areas A, B and C each of which has 65 Gates!
Yes, it is that huge! The shops inside the airport were so attractive that I felt like finishing my shopping there itself. The whole airport has over 200 shops that sell everything under the sun! Whew, this was too much for me. My perception about an airport was that of our own soon-to-be-closed HAL airport.
Varied people from all the classes, races and regions were hurriedly moving around to catch their flights. The gate from which my aircraft to Hamburg would let in passengers was A13. There is a subway that one has to go through to reach the A area. The sub way is just amazing. There are 4 lanes for people to walk in. The two extreme lanes have these escalators (I dont know the exact word, forgive me for that) which move on the ground so that the people dont have to walk. I felt that it was made just for people like me. Trust me, even though I tried to find a speck of dust or dirt, I could not. I dont know if the people are so sensible or the cleaning department is just amazing! Both of these are definitely needed for our country, the former being more predominantly required.
The breakfast in the flight was not enough and we were hungry. Time for us to search for vegetarian food. People here dont understand what is vegetarian. We have to specifically tell them that we want something that has no meat, no fish and no chicken as they consider red meat to be meat.
Finally, we managed to find a shop that had something that had only vegetables and cheese along with bread. Yes, the raw vegetable sandwich. There was also a kind of sandwichy-burger called Fraukachu (I dont know the spelling, but thats how its pronounced). I bought it and it tasted good. It was a bun which had a few vegetables, a cheese spread and a leafy vegetable between it.
Waiting for some more time in the awesome airport, we were ready to get into another Lufthansa aircraft which was to take us to Hamburg. The one hour journey was very pleasant to Hamburg with my German female co-passenger :) Unfortunately, she fell asleep soon after the flight took off from the ground and woke up almost when we had reached the destination. The sight of the clouds and the aerial view of Hamburg during the landing was splendid. I could not stop myself from thinking about the various flight phases an aircraft will have. My client manufactures aircrafts and our project deals with these modules that fetch the avionics parameters to the aircraft.
We waited for about 20 minutes to get our checked in baggages and Pali was standing at the gate to give us a very warm welcome. It was indeed very warm inside his Mercedes Benz. The temperature in Hamburg was around 5 degrees and the 2006 model Benz gave all the comfort that was needed. Pali fulfilled my dream of sitting in the car, Thanks man!
The 80 kilometer drive to Buxtehude took just 35 minutes and we were at Pali's place to freshen up and get ready to reach our customer's office. Their home is a 4 bedroom house thats not so very big, but its very cozy. The room that I was given is their elder daughter's who now is studying in London. After having bread and juice, we left for the office. I was to 'face' the customer for the first time in my life. Yes, I was a bit tensed but the excitement was more than the tension.
We went into the reception and showed the invitation letter and then met our point of contact at the customer's office and he led us to the 'Testrig' to show us the setup for our system that we were to test in the ensuing days.
We called Pali at around 7'o clock and he came within minutes to pick us up from the office. The temperature was 3 degrees! Kusum had prepared a very tasty-srilankan touch-dinner. She usually prepares 2 or 3 kinds of rice and 3 to 4 kinds of curries. The readily available yoghurt is the last part of the dinner. The non vegetarians relish her dishes a lot. Everyday, she prepares something new for them. As for us, its the same curry with a different vegetable. But, the taste of the food is nothing less to that of a good hotel in Bangalore.
The first day in Germany was too much for me to take. The cleanliness of the cities, the road discipline of the people, the hospitality offered by the Pali's... all just left me dumb struck.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Preparing to travel
It was a beautiful Sunday and the air was filled with lots of excitement at my place. I was about to travel out of India, to Germany, for the first time in my life! The journey would a long one as the tickets were not available on time. Amma was all ready with her Chatni pudi, Palya-da pudi and some kind of Avalakki pudi that were to go into my all new black Samsonite suitcase. Akka had a packet to be delivered to her friend's brother somewhere in Germany. The last moment packing was hurriedly being done by Akka and Amma.
Amma had kept all my clothes on the cot for me to approve which should go into the suitcase and which would stay back in India waiting for me to come back in 12 days' time. I went into Amma and Nana's room and approved the things that were eligible to travel with me to Germany. After everything went into the suitcase, it was time to weigh and see if it was less than 20 kilos. As expected, the weight was around 23 kilos and now was the time to do further filtering of the clothes that would come with me. I opened the suitcase and the first thing that I removed out of it were the packets that Amma had prepared painstakingly just for me. But what the hell, I was going only for 12 days and I could manage without all these as the woman in the place where I was to stay, cooked very good Indian food.
Akka convinced me to take atleast the chatni pudi and i removed a few of my clothes and the weight was around 18 kilos.So, the baggage was cleared to be loaded into the Scorpio later that day.
Then was the blessing ceremony by the elders of the family for me to have a safe journey. I prostrated in front of the God and later one common namaskaara to all the elders.
(Yes, my posts will be this detailed and lengthy, skip the finer details if you just want the "Synopsis")
It was time for me to leave for the airport to avoid last-minute-rush and namma bengalooru traffic. We reached the airport ahead of the schedule and we bade good bye and checked in to the Chennai bound jet airways flight.
Having to wait for close to 5 hours in Chennai was a tough thing. As soon as we came out from the domestic terminal to go to the international, I was reminded of my 4th month stay in the city. The same weather, same language, same people.. felt good.
With a little bit of hesitation, the immigration officer cleared my visa and let me stand in the loooong queue for the security check to board the flight. The wait in the queue was horrible, we stood for close to one and half hours and then went through the security check procedure. There was ample time for our Lufthansa aircraft to take off after everything was done. My colleague and I
barged into a book store and she bought a sudoku book after I suggested her to buy one (coz I didn't have the money!)
We started solving a puzzle together when we were asked to board the Boeing aircraft which was to take us to 'foreign!!'
Gone are those days when the typical brahmin aunties and uncles considered foreign as a country. Nam huduga foreign ge hogtaa idaan ri. Parents, friends and relatives of the traveler would boast in front of others as though they themselves had gone abroad!
The Hi-Tech software engineers' clan of these days keep traveling around the world as though the previous generation used to travel from Bangalore to Mysore or Bangalore to Hassan. Uncles and aunties of today are busy discussing the weather in other countries, the famous places, the duration for which their sons or daughters would be going, the exchange rates and the what-nots
Okay, back to my travel. The hostess in the flight. Ah! What a smile she had. The aircraft was really huge, not the ones that our Gopinath or Mallya use. Each row in the aircraft can accomodate 10 people. There were two aisles and I had got a window seat. My co-passenger was a 'foreigner'. He didnt know English and I dont know any other international language and hence, my 10 hour journey from Chennai to Frankfurt was a very silent one. It was dark outside for me to keep gazing the skies. The leg room between the seats was also not comfortable adding to my woes. I didnt quite enjoy the journey. The food nevertheless, was good. We were offered a dinner in the night and a breakfast early in the morning.
I think i'm writing a bit too much for anybody to have the patience to sit and read the whole article. I will tell you about my 'Germany Experience' in a fresh article.
Thanks for reading the whole article.
PS: This is the synopsis: I got an opportunity to travel to Germany, I did my packing and left India from Chennai to reach Frankfurt and then would go to Hamburg. End of article.
Amma had kept all my clothes on the cot for me to approve which should go into the suitcase and which would stay back in India waiting for me to come back in 12 days' time. I went into Amma and Nana's room and approved the things that were eligible to travel with me to Germany. After everything went into the suitcase, it was time to weigh and see if it was less than 20 kilos. As expected, the weight was around 23 kilos and now was the time to do further filtering of the clothes that would come with me. I opened the suitcase and the first thing that I removed out of it were the packets that Amma had prepared painstakingly just for me. But what the hell, I was going only for 12 days and I could manage without all these as the woman in the place where I was to stay, cooked very good Indian food.
Akka convinced me to take atleast the chatni pudi and i removed a few of my clothes and the weight was around 18 kilos.So, the baggage was cleared to be loaded into the Scorpio later that day.
Then was the blessing ceremony by the elders of the family for me to have a safe journey. I prostrated in front of the God and later one common namaskaara to all the elders.
(Yes, my posts will be this detailed and lengthy, skip the finer details if you just want the "Synopsis")
It was time for me to leave for the airport to avoid last-minute-rush and namma bengalooru traffic. We reached the airport ahead of the schedule and we bade good bye and checked in to the Chennai bound jet airways flight.
Having to wait for close to 5 hours in Chennai was a tough thing. As soon as we came out from the domestic terminal to go to the international, I was reminded of my 4th month stay in the city. The same weather, same language, same people.. felt good.
With a little bit of hesitation, the immigration officer cleared my visa and let me stand in the loooong queue for the security check to board the flight. The wait in the queue was horrible, we stood for close to one and half hours and then went through the security check procedure. There was ample time for our Lufthansa aircraft to take off after everything was done. My colleague and I
barged into a book store and she bought a sudoku book after I suggested her to buy one (coz I didn't have the money!)
We started solving a puzzle together when we were asked to board the Boeing aircraft which was to take us to 'foreign!!'
Gone are those days when the typical brahmin aunties and uncles considered foreign as a country. Nam huduga foreign ge hogtaa idaan ri. Parents, friends and relatives of the traveler would boast in front of others as though they themselves had gone abroad!
The Hi-Tech software engineers' clan of these days keep traveling around the world as though the previous generation used to travel from Bangalore to Mysore or Bangalore to Hassan. Uncles and aunties of today are busy discussing the weather in other countries, the famous places, the duration for which their sons or daughters would be going, the exchange rates and the what-nots
Okay, back to my travel. The hostess in the flight. Ah! What a smile she had. The aircraft was really huge, not the ones that our Gopinath or Mallya use. Each row in the aircraft can accomodate 10 people. There were two aisles and I had got a window seat. My co-passenger was a 'foreigner'. He didnt know English and I dont know any other international language and hence, my 10 hour journey from Chennai to Frankfurt was a very silent one. It was dark outside for me to keep gazing the skies. The leg room between the seats was also not comfortable adding to my woes. I didnt quite enjoy the journey. The food nevertheless, was good. We were offered a dinner in the night and a breakfast early in the morning.
I think i'm writing a bit too much for anybody to have the patience to sit and read the whole article. I will tell you about my 'Germany Experience' in a fresh article.
Thanks for reading the whole article.
PS: This is the synopsis: I got an opportunity to travel to Germany, I did my packing and left India from Chennai to reach Frankfurt and then would go to Hamburg. End of article.
Introduction
At last, i've started to write something!
First things first, a small introduction about myself.
I'm a 23 year old kannada brahmin boy working in the "IT" industry as a software engineer. People call me as Dumma, obviously because of my size.
I'm a just another guy in the ocean of the "IT" industry. Had no goals in life, am in search of one now.
For brahmin guys, the choice for education is just straight and simple. You either become a doctor or an engineer. Now being a doctor is very difficult because i had to work in the "Real time"!
So, the choice was simple and after completing my PUC in PCMB (yes, this is the best course for wannabe doctors and engineers as the options will be open which means you can take a decision to study a course just before the CET counseling begins), i joined an engineering college for a BE in computer science.
After 4 grueling years of studying how a computer works, i even got a job in what is called as one-of-the Country's-best-companies and started my career a year and a half ago.
Then happened the least expected event in my life, I was chosen for my first ever "Onsite Assignment"!! Don't think that i applied for the visa immediately and started my preparation. I was stupid enough not to have a Passport with me!
After having lost the first chance because of no passport, i finally got my passport done and another chance came my way!
I, was all set to travel out of India for the first time in my life to Germany!
PS: I'm writing this in Germany. Thought of introducing myself first and then write about my experiences here. So, this post is just a brief introduction for you to know something about me.
First things first, a small introduction about myself.
I'm a 23 year old kannada brahmin boy working in the "IT" industry as a software engineer. People call me as Dumma, obviously because of my size.
I'm a just another guy in the ocean of the "IT" industry. Had no goals in life, am in search of one now.
For brahmin guys, the choice for education is just straight and simple. You either become a doctor or an engineer. Now being a doctor is very difficult because i had to work in the "Real time"!
So, the choice was simple and after completing my PUC in PCMB (yes, this is the best course for wannabe doctors and engineers as the options will be open which means you can take a decision to study a course just before the CET counseling begins), i joined an engineering college for a BE in computer science.
After 4 grueling years of studying how a computer works, i even got a job in what is called as one-of-the Country's-best-companies and started my career a year and a half ago.
Then happened the least expected event in my life, I was chosen for my first ever "Onsite Assignment"!! Don't think that i applied for the visa immediately and started my preparation. I was stupid enough not to have a Passport with me!
After having lost the first chance because of no passport, i finally got my passport done and another chance came my way!
I, was all set to travel out of India for the first time in my life to Germany!
PS: I'm writing this in Germany. Thought of introducing myself first and then write about my experiences here. So, this post is just a brief introduction for you to know something about me.
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