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.
Friday, March 14, 2008
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)