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Here I am, this is me
There is nowhere else on earth, I’d rather be…
[A song by Bryan Adams]

Well, working in the same company for the same client, there is no other place where I can go other than Germany. So, I’m back in Germany for an extension of my previous project but this time only for 20 days.

On a Friday morning, my manager called me and said “You have to travel urgently to Germany and reach the office on Monday. The client wants one person from here”. There were so many things to be done, booking the tickets, getting a laptop, getting my foreign exchange, booking the accommodation and what not! Phew, I had to do everything and make sure I reached the customer’s office on Monday morning.

At the end of Friday, I managed to get most of the things done but for the ticket which was the most important thing. Thanks to our travel team, they work on Saturday too; I got the ticket in the evening and was supposed to travel on Sunday night. Since the notice period was very short, there was no direct flight from Bangalore available and my travel co-ordinator booked the route Bangalore-Bombay-Dubai-Hamburg.

Sunday morning, I started the packing and left my place at 6 PM to catch the flight at 9:30 PM from Bengaluru International Airport. The journey in the taxi took an hour and half with the chauffer Basavaraj. As soon as I got into the taxi, Basavaraj asked me if I wanted the A/C to be switched on giving a hint that he did not want it. I said the natural air is any day better than the conditioned air. He was very happy. During the long talk with him, I realized that being a taxi driver is no easy job. They should know English, should have passed 10th Standard, should know the in and out of the city, should have 5 years of driving experience, should be aged at least 25, should be courteous to the passengers and the list of requirements goes on and on.

Even with so much of qualification, the sad thing is Basavaraj does not have a fixed salary per month. Everyday, he has to pay 900 Rupees and take the taxi from the office and start his day. He then starts bidding for calls and if he is in luck, the call centre employee assigns a request to Basavaraj. He then has to fill the fuel for the taxi out of his own money and drop the passenger to the location. Whatever the customer pays is his salary. On a given day, he may make anywhere between 100 to 1000 or sometimes 2000 rupees. Just one phone call from an irate customer to express his dissatisfaction is enough for Basavaraj to lose his job. His is a job where even a single mistake committed makes him deprived of the essential needs to run his family. The traffic jams in Bangalore add to his woes when customers scold him for not reaching the destination on time.

When we were talking about all this, I reached the airport, paid him the money and checked in my luggage at the Jet Airways counter; thus started my journey to Germany.

I reached the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai at 11:30 PM because of a slight delay in the flight. In Mumbai, the domestic and International airports are different and there is a free shuttle service for the passengers who visit Mumbai as a transit point. I approached the shuttle helpdesk and obtained a coupon with which I could board the shuttle bus and waited for the call after collecting my luggage. Soon, the announcement was made and I sat in a Volvo bus which was to take me to the International airport. On reaching the international airport, the task at hand was to locate the Emirates Airlines entrance for the check-in. The check-in did not take much time; I got a window seat from Mumbai to Dubai and then an aisle seat from Dubai to Hamburg.

After waiting for 6 long hours, I boarded the Boeing aircraft which was fully loaded with In-Flight-Entertainment (IFE). Each seat had a small LCD display monitor. The passengers had to use a small handset which served as the input to the IFE. About 200 odd movies in many languages were available to watch and about 40 audio channels for different kinds of songs. In addition to the audio/video, there were two cameras installed in the aircraft; one at the nose, another at the bottom. The view from these cameras was telecasted as two channels in the IFE. The takeoff and the landing views were very nice though the clarity was not good. Spending 4 hours to reach Dubai was not at all boring. The meal provided wasn’t good though.

The Dubai Airport is not good when compared to the Frankfurt airport. But the choice for shopping is more in this airport although the costs are a bit high. I was hungry as usual and started looking for something vegetarian. Soon enough, I found an Indian restaurant, McDonald’s serving a Veg Burger and a shop selling croissants. I quickly exchanged 10 Euros and got 49 Dirhams. Then I got myself a burger, fries and coke and sat down for my meal. It was really a very nice and filling meal as the food in the flight was not good.

An announcement was made for the 7 hour journey from Dubai to Hamburg in an Airbus aircraft which had little less in-flight-entertainment than the previous flight. I spent most of my journey sleeping and watching one of the most stupid movies ever made, “De Taali”. I really fail to understand who can think of such stories for a movie and spend so much of money for making it!

The temperature in Hamburg was around 14 degrees; sunny but cool. I waited for my luggage for about 20 minutes and then hired a taxi and reached Pali’s place in an hour’s time. Kusum received me at her place and I quickly freshened up and had a little bit of rice and dal and then left for the customer’s office.

The manager at the customer’s office was in a meeting and he could not meet me. The time was about 4:30 PM. Since there was nothing to do, I left the office and put my memory into test. The test was to remember the way back to Pali’s place which is about 4 and a half kilometres away from the office. The leaves from the trees dropped to the ground very frequently from which I remembered it was the autumn season. The golden yellow leaves on the road and the pavement looked very beautiful as though somebody had laid a carpet. On the way, I came across a traffic signal where I had to cross a road. I stood near the traffic signal waiting for it to turn red for the vehicles and green for the people to cross. A minute passed, but the signal did not turn to red. I thought it may take some more time and waited for another minute only to realize that the light was not turning red. I thought I should just run when no vehicles are around as we do in India just when a small girl came on a cycle and stood beside me. The moment she came, the traffic signal showed green for us to cross. I was wondering how lucky the girl must be to get the green light as soon as she came.

Only after I reached to the other side of the road did I realize that no luck is required but a little bit of observation sense. There is a button in a pole beside the road. When this button is pressed, the traffic light goes to red for the vehicles and the pedestrians can cross. I did not notice that this button was just beside me when I was waiting! Having learnt how to cross the road, I reached Kusum's place in a couple of minutes. Quite a few new guests had come to stay at their place, all from another company in Bangalore. During the dinner, we introduced ourselves and thus ended my first day in Germany.