The Oktoberfest

No, its not a spelling mistake! The germans spell October with a 'k'.  The world famous 'Beer' Festival is celebrated during different weeks of September and October in different parts of Germany and other countries.

The first Oktoberfest was hosted by King Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria (now a state in southern Germany) to honor the marriage of his son, Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Sachsen-Hildburghausen on Oct. 12, 1810. After the wedding, a lavish public celebration was held outside Munich. The party went on for over five days and since all the participants had a good time, they just decided to have a celebration every year thereafter and it became a tradition in Germany!

Having landed in Germany 'at the right time', my University had organized a visit to Munich to attend the 200th Oktoberfest. It is most famous, as it all started there. However I was skeptical as to how much fun it will be for me being a non-drinker! I had earlier seen videos of the celebration over the internet and had an impression that its all about gulping down endless mugs of that horrible smelling liquid!!! (I am expecting at least one death-threat from the drinking community for saying this! ;-D) However our excursion was to change my opinion.

Before I go on, let me mention that beer is very important to Germany, both financially and socially. Financially because in large parts of Southern Germany Beer, Wine and Sekt (german equivalent of Champagne) industries have been playing an important role in the economy for ages. Socially beer is an important bonding agent between the people. The german word 'Gemütlichkeit' with a poor english translation of 'sociability', is often associated with the fellowship between people over a mug of beer!

We could feel the pulse of the Fest already in the U-Bahn (local train) on the way there. People from all over Germany, if not all over Europe seemed to have arrived in Munich and were herding into the already full compartments at each subsequent stop. Such crowds are unusual during ones everyday travel in Germany. But today the people, mostly clad in traditional german outfits - men in white shirts, short funny pants with suspenders and long hats, women in low neck tops and long skirts didn't seem to mind the crowd and the pushing! Being accustomed to the ever full buses in Bangalore, this was just another day at the office for me! There were cops stationed at each station to control and manage the waves of visitors arriving and leaving at the stations. We finally managed to be carried with the wave of people to the Fest.

As it turned out, there is a lot more to the Beer Fest than just the beer! The numerous joy rides range from the pleasing 'merry-go-round' kinds to the scary 'not for the weak hearted' kinds!!! ;-D There were also the 'win something' sort of game parlors like the throwing the ring, shooting the target and so on. Also worth a mention, a wide variety of food ranging from the sausages to grilled meat to cotton candy. The part that I enjoyed the most was the crowd of visitors, which reminded me of the processions we have in India during festivals. The only difference was the smell of the holy water in the mugs they were carrying!!! ;o) However the experience I really missed there, was a chance to enter one of the huge 'Tents' where one might say - the real fest was taking place! Having landed on a Saturday, all hope was shattered by the already huge crowds, attempting futilely to barge in past the huge bouncers at the doors!

But I had this opportunity at the Volksfest in Bad Canstatt, Stuttgart a few weeks later. Like I told you earlier, Oktoberfest is also celebrated in other parts of Germany. On the evening of a weekday, the crowd was not as huge and we easily managed to get onto a few rides and most importantly into many of the 'Tents'. Breaking the suspense, a 'Tent' is the huge warehouse kind of a wooden structure where ravellers are served unlimited beer in huge 1 litre mugs (of course at a HUGE COST!!!). If that doesn't get your spirits high enough, there is loud music played by the 'band of the day' at offer! The menu also reads grilled beef and pork! You typically find groups of friends and family sitting, standing and dancing on the large wooden benches, humming with the lead singer and downing the last gulp of beer, before ordering one more from the very busy waiters!

The germans really know how to celebrate!!! And if you want to join them, no better chance than the OKTOBERFEST!

Purchase Chase

This is the first post I am writing after the arrival of my new HP laptop. The events and hardships leading to its delivery at my doorstep inspired me to share this post with you!

Shopping was never difficult in India. When I needed something, the way to procure it was pretty straight forward. Just walk or drive up to the friendly neighbourhood store and buy it off the shelf. I do not mean to say that one cannot order stuff over the internet in India. But I still prefer the old fashioned way of shopping - taking a walk through the store, choosing a product that fit my needs, changing my needs to fit the price ("cheap and best" I mean! ;-D) and then probably trying to get all I can for the money I am paying! Jokes apart, I always walked out of the store with the satisfaction of having seen and liked the product and taking it home with me.

This trivial routine became very complex and tedious in 'pursuit' of a laptop here in Germany! You rarely find showrooms of branded goods in Germany. Companies prefer to sell their products either over the internet or through dealers. In case of laptops and other electronic goods, the popular names are - Saturn, Media Markt and the like. My search began with innumerable futile visits to these dealership outlets! When the product was agreeable, the price was beyond budget. And when the price was right, the product was not pleasing. I finally gave up and decided to delegate the job of choosing a suitable model over the internet to a trusted friend!

Having decided on the model with the right configuration, features and look, I embarked upon the all important step of making the purchase! Since my bank account was not set up yet, payment over the internet was a bit of a problem. After two wild-goose chases on foot to the HP centers in remote industrial areas of Böblingen and Nüfringen, several failed attempts to make the payment with a friends credit card and innumerable calls to the expensive HP Customer Care line (I dont think they really 'care'! At 42 cents a minute, I feared that I would end up spending close to the price of the laptop on these calls, trying to find out the status of my purchase in my non-native german!), I finally managed to do an account transfer to HP.

In this modern technological age and being an engineer, I feel ashamed to admit that I blamed fate for the turn of events!!! ;0D But now that the money had been deducted from my account, I started believing that getting the laptop of my choice could become reality one day!!! This was followed by some more Euros spent on german language trials talking with the 'friendly' customer care personnel and using reverso and leo in making sense of the information of the HP website, trying to track the shipment.

Just before all hope was lost, I walk up to my room at the Student Dorm one fine evening and there lies a little black box waiting for me at the door! Now when I work with this laptop, I often amuse myself thinking of those frustrating chases and smile foolishly! ;o)

Thought For Food

You read it right. Lets give a little thought to the food here.

Like in most of Europe, food in Germany is comprised mainly of non-vegetarian items. Pork and beef dominate, although fish, chicken and turkey are also eaten. Egg is common place. Vegetables and salads are meant to go with the meat and are mostly not eaten by themselves.

Naturally, vegetarians from India have a tough time here due to this limited choice. If you are a strict vegetarian and manage to find an item with none of the above, I have some more bad news for you. The vegetables in it are probably cooked in animal fat or oil! Vegetarians suffer most during travel and are usually found searching for a bakery or the 1.1 Euro veg burger at Mc Donalds! Over a period of time, many learn to make peace with the oils and some even learn to eat eggs. When close to home, they prefer to cook their own food. And thanks to the 'Indian Stores' in the vicinity, they get the groceries to cook almost all items they were used to back home.

Being a 'choosy' non-vegetarian myself, I can vouch for the fact that life is not easy for the likes either. That's because non-veg for me means egg, fish and chicken, with the occasional mutton. But you hear these names very sparingly here and I pounce on it when I do hear! One can argue that once you are a non-vegetarian, eating some other meat is just a matter of getting used to. But eating beef is a religious issue for the Hindus, like Pork is for the Muslims.

Frankly, I am not the right person to be getting a view of German food from as I have hardly eaten anything that is very german! But what I have explored, is a wide variety of icecream and bakery items like breads and cakes that can tickle the taste buds of all. Also a popular german fast food is the 'Curry Wurst', a sausage dipped in a (supposed to be!) spicy curry. I mean, spices are using very miserly in german cuisines and most dishes are bland or sweet. A typical eat out worth mentioning is the friendly neighbourhood 'Turkish' Döner Kebap Shops. Turkish are large in number in Germany and you always find one of these shops everywhere you travel. A Döner Kebap is the turkish version of the 'Shavarma' with meat of turkey or beef and salads stuffed into hand made bread.

The Dark Past

There are a few things you should never talk to a German about. On top of the list is Hitler and the Holocaust. Especially to those of the older generation. It is a very sensitive topic for them. I have even heard  first-hand from a German, that many Germans are not proud to be german due to this unerasable black mark in their history books.

From history lessons in school, but mainly due to my association with my German Employer Company in India, I was aware of the history of Europe, especially during the World Wars. But I got better insight into the german perspective of these times, during the intercultural trainings that I attended in India, which focused on Germany. What added credibility to the presentation, was the fact that the trainer was a German. So I heard it from the mouth of the proverbial horse!

During the last weeks I could impove my understanding of the matter, through a lecture at the University and an excursion to the former concentration camp at Dachau, close to Munich (or München as the Germans call it).

The cloudy, rainy and cold morning seemed befitting of the scheduled visit to Dachau. Today it stands as a memorial to the innumerable victims of the attrocities of the 3rd Reich (12 year long reign of Hitler). The atmosphere of the place felt gloomy and depressing, like at a funeral. As we walked through the museum halls, which once housed the prisoners, our guide tried to be as cheerful as possible, while she narrated the shocking realities of those dark years. The harassment and cruelties that the inmates - political dissidents, journalists, homosexuals, gipsies and above all - the Jews, had to withstand would melt hearts of stone. But apparently not of the National Socialists (or Nazis as they are better known). The narration, graphic images and documentary video of the horrific torture inflicted by these demons, sent chills through my spine. As we took a tour of the compound from workshops to cellars to experimental gas chambers to dead-body incinerators to mass graves, the heavens seemed to shed cold tears on our raincoats and umbrellas. The most aweful experience was at the main gate to the concentration camp bearing the line "ARBEIT MACHT FREI" (German line meaning 'work makes you free'). The most sarcastic and absurd statement to be made in the context!

Dachau was one of the several thousand concentration camps spread over Germany, Poland, Austria, Russia and few other countries that Hitler managed to conquer. But its purpose was to impose forced labour under inhumanable living conditions and working schedules. The deadlier ones were some camps, mainly in eastern Europe built for the sole pupose of genocide - of primarily the Jews, about 6 Million of whom lost their lives during the 12 years in addition to large number of others previously mentioned.

I am just glad that the Holocaust lasted only for 12 years and that Germany has been able to recover and build itself up to what it is today. However I feel that, the sad memories of the past will continue to haunt the Germans for a long time to come.

Street Smart

Rules are very important to Germans and most of them follow these rules to the finest detail, although there are like always, exceptions.

The most obvious manifestation of this is their transportation system. Every foreigner getting off the plane has to immediately fall in line. There are rules to walk on the pavements, cross roads, use escalators, drive cars and to use the public transport. In the fast paced routine, the clockwork of the transportation system works smoothly as everybody plays by the rules!

The most impressive instance for me is crossing roads. At every signal crossing is a button, which those intending to cross have to press and wait till the crossing signal light goes green to walk across. Seldom do you find people crossing streets anywhere else on busy streets or walking across when the light is red, even when there is no vehicle in sight till oblivion! And these are no loafers with all the time in the world! They are busy people with things to be done, trains to be taken, places to be reached.  It seems as though life pauses for a second and then goes on as they hurry towards their next destination.

Apart from the written rules there are many unwritten ones, which the people follow religiously. Cars stopping to let people cross, people helping strangers with their luggage, making way for those in a hurry on escalators, helping old people and women with kids in buses and trains, all vehicles on the road coming to a standstill to let police cars and ambulances pass - to mention a few.

Another aspect that I noticed is the honesty of the citizens with the transportation system. Most times, there is no one checking our tickets in buses and trains. But everyone promptly buys one from the driver or a machine or has a long term ticket.

In all, the transportation system and the citizens work hand in hand to make the complicated network of planes, trains, buses, taxis and private vehicles simple to get around Germany. 

Love At First Sight

My love affair with Germany (not with a German! ;o)) actually started before the touch down at Frankfurt! As the plane started its gradual decent towards the ground, the view from the window changed from heaps of cotton like clouds, to a blur of green patches, to a clear view of the meadows and fields and later the city. The vehicles on the well planned roads seemed to move about in a very organised manner, at a fast pace, like a group of trained honey bees.  Being the  photography - maniac that I am, I grabbed every opportunity to click the button! ;oD But it soon became clear to me that most sights here are worth a picture and I gradually learnt to be more selective! ;-)

As I stepped out of the plane, began my experience with the highly planned and organised systems of Germany, of which I had heard a lot earlier from my colleagues at my previous German employer. Having met at the airport, 6 of us fellow students collected our luggages and took the train to Esslingen via Stuttgart. The first shock awaiting me at Esslingen was the taxi stand outside the train station. Mercedes Benz cars with yellow number plates! Back home, these cars are usually associated with the rich and the famous. But with the variety of cars I noticed on the road day after day, it stopped surprising me and became a common-sight!

Similarly many of the aspects here, have become common-sight for me now. But I am eager to discover and explore more. In the posts to come, I will share some of them with you.

The Flight

Here I was at the Bangalore International Airport, with my 4 pieces of baggage on a trolley, waiting by the electronic signboard to be signalled in for check-in. Having been a 'land-lover' till then, it was to be my first time off the ground! And I behaved just like a first-time-flier in an airport - TOTALLY LOST! ;-D The innumerable travellers, counters, signboards and announcements baffled me and I was luckily rescued by two of my to-be collegemates who were also travelling to Germany the same day!

What added to my nervousness, was the fact that I was carrying a few kgs more than I was allowed to! Somehow the weighing machines in the airport showed the bags to weigh a good 3 kgs more than the machine at my aunt's house! I was preparing myself to plead with the Air India staff or in the worst case pay up. Finally it was time for me to face the moment of truth at the weighing counter! But miraculously the person at the counter didn't seem to notice the overweight of my luggage. :-) He infact was very friendly and even enquired about the details of my studies. The specialization of my Masters, Automotive Systems seemed to fascinate him enough to overlook the meter-reading! ;-D Well, good for me. Maybe most manage to get away with excess baggage anyways, but it was a lucky start for me all the same. :-) The rest of the customs formalities and security check went on eventlessly. (I am not complaining. Thats a good thing! ;o))

But the take-off was exciting for me! I became as excited as a kid with his first bicycle, annoying another student who was travelling with me to the same University! ;-D The lights of Bangalore and Mumbai (where there was a stopover) from above was breath-taking. Well I guess it doesn't amuse you anymore after the first time! But I enjoyed Numero-Uno thoroughly. Good food, good sleep, cordial airhostesses and the lovely view from my window seat kept me engaged till our touch down at Frankfurt.

The Background

Disclaimer: This is NOT about a dream! Rather about the realisation of one! ;o)

After about a year of dreaming, wishing, planning and working, here I am living the outcome of my efforts! But I would not call this a 'success story'! Rather a 'success journey'! And along the way, I would like to share my experiences, observations and opinions with you.

Coming from India - a country with a wide variety of cultures, religions, languages, landscapes and people, it is an enriching experience for me to explore Germany. I look forward to observe and appreciate the similarities and the differences, the positives and the negatives in comparison to my home country. My intent is to expand the horizon of my thinking and approach, rather than criticizing anything or anyone.

I hope that you will enjoy reading this blog and that I will be able to keep your attention till the end of each post! :-)