My parents have probably not realised over the years that I am actually an adult now, and for that very reason I was expected to somehow screw up something when travelling from India to Duesseldorf. I was, of
course not of the same belief, until I reached the Zurich airport,that is, from where I had to take my connecting flight to Duesseldorf. It was as if the whole universe was conspiring against me, in order to make me miss my flight.I blessed the IGI in my mind when I saw the XL-size queues at the security check.Somehow, through some miracle though,I managed to be on time.I am sure that is going to earn me some respect now in the family,where I have always been the youngest ,and by corollary the least responsible :/
The first thing i notice about this country : so few people! I am so used to bumping into random strangers on the street in India, in the metro and in the queues leading to the trial rooms in those malls, that German streets look as if it's the opening week of KBC and everyone is inside,glued to their TV sets, and as if KBC is a 24 hour phenomena here.Back home, however,that is also the result of crass men pretending to have mistakenly brushed against you,apologising for it with creepy smirks on their faces! Touch -wood, but here you can never expect something of the sort.However skimpy your outfit maybe,you'd hear no whistles! On second thoughts,that could also mean that I am probably one of the uglier women here,but hey,that doesnt happen to any other woman either ,and therefore, all is right with the world again! It is pretty funny to see fb and gtok statuses of people back home,craving for rain and bemoaning high temperatures,when the rains here have pretty much driven me crazy. I don't find rains so "romantic " or "beautiful" anymore, since it is a twice- a-day phenomena and also the number one factor for spoiling all your plans.Nevertheless, whether it is the rain, or the greenery,or the superb architecture,or the butter smooth roads, Germany is alluring.full stop, no arguments.
FIRST DAY AND EVERY DAY :
first day turns out to be pretty much as expected. i meet a lot of people from Hochtief, all much much elder to me and with names pronounced in a way we Indians are not meant to roll our tongue.And remember. Thankfully at least I am not in Shanghai, where, in addition to these, I know my friends must be facing the problem of successfully distinguishing faces from one another. But this problem does apply to the buildings and streets.They all look so similar and, it beats me,in a country facing no kind of scarcity, why should it be imperative for them to save paint and metal by not putting enough signboards declaring the name of the building on its facade? You look up a humongous building and after much circumambulation around it, find a
small board revealing the identity of the building, and that too, very very reluctantly.The names of the streets are more of a concern though, in the long run. It took me a whole week to be able to spell and pronounce the name of my street Skaggerrakstrabe 6,correctly.The Germans sure love their own wacky pronunciations, even more than the English.Somehow they choose to pronounce Strabe as Strasse,and the word for bye bye is tschuss, which would make every Hindi speaking Indian suppress a smirk when they first heard how it sounded!
A month before I came here, I was made to forcibly practice the art of finishing my food in the mess.Germans wouldn't take it, was what Dad said.And so everyday in the mess, Mansha would hover over my head like a blood curling bird of prey threatening me with dire consequences if I didnt finish my food.Ah, its a lot tougher here, when I take up something in my plate that I have never tasted before,more so, never would like to see on my plate again, and am sitting in between 20 seniors in office, struggling to finish it.Lunch time is a careful battle between using the knife and fork correctly, since my arms never seem to have enough strength to cut efficiently with that couldnt- be-more-blunt knife ; tolerating items,at least one each day,taken in the excitement of experimenting, that spell acid to my tongue,and ensuring that my face doesn't show the pain the food is causing me; telling myself that I can finish the large quantity of food that the attendants have put on to my plate,assuming my diet wouldnt be any smaller than the localites; and most importantly,finishing on time. How skilled must Germans be, to eat so much, so efficiently and so bloody fast! Embarrassingly, I am usually the last person to finish the food ,on the table, with the additional guilt of everyone waiting for me. On top of that, they expect me to talk in between! Phew, multi-tasking has got on to a whole new level here.The few days that I finish first, I couldnt be more condescending! :D
PS : embarrassingly,i must ask,what really is the spelling of embarrassingly?
