The few lines in the previous post about wars in Europe remind me about something that happened last week in Stuttgart. A construction group was busy in activity at a site, and they unearthed something which we have only heard stories about, but its fairly common across this place. I'm talking about bombs. And huge ones!
While digging through the layers of earth, the site workers happened to come across a HUGE bomb, unexploded since last many many years - which apparently was dropped there during the world war 2. And there it lay, untouched and undestroyed....
That was enough to cause frenzy all around and soon the area was cordoned off, while the special bomb squad folks jumped in. Traffic and movement of trains came to a standstill around that area.
By the way, Stuttgart was one of those cities that was almost completely destroyed by bombing during the World War, and had been newly rebuilt. Thats the reason for its modernistic public transport and its public buildings. In and around Germany, its a fairly common thing to discover these sort of things, but hey, a bomb is a bomb! Who can beat that...?
On a lighter note, an interesting theory I read, about how the World War I started:
"A Serbian rebel killed an Austrian prince, so everyone declared war on Germany."
:-)
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The Inscrutable Europeans
Firangs are weird people!
I'm sure half the population of Europe would find ME, the asian, weirder, but as the owner of this conversation I'll just let that point of conflict pass.... :-D
Ya I know, each society has a way of norms, behaviour and lifestyle and blah blah... but puhleese let me have the menial pleasure of ripping apart the ways of some foreigners that I find really surprising or stomach-tickling or both!
With all due respect, they (my clients) are the ones who provide the bread and butter for my employer, which in turn does a (half) decent job of giving me my daily bread.... so...
Firangs have a way of doing EVERYTHING systematically. Thats a good thing, considering that they usually end up doing a quality job. (especially engineering and sports!) But 'systematically' usually has an after-effect of turning into 'boringly one thing at a time'!
Try getting towards a salesman here when he is attending another customer, and all you'll get is a big IGNORE! Of course you'll have to wait till he is over with the current person that has occupied all his limited attention.
Try telling a foreigner about 2-3 different things simultaneously, and you can be damn sure his processor will hang! Good-ol' multitasking - I dont think its exists in the foreign dictionary.
And they in no comparable ways can get closer to us desis in terms of money-management, cash-optimization! (I'll tell you what it means... by an example)
A friend of mine in Amsterdam had the following interaction with his client. (he was offered the luxury of being given a lift to office by the client Project lead (PL))
Friend: Hey, I'll wait at the R-square and you can pick me up from there.
PL: Okie, what time you'd be there?
Friend: Oh, just gimme a miss-call on my cell just when you leave, and I'll be there in 5 mins.
PL: What is a miss-call? why would I give you a 'miss-call'?
Friend: Oh, its when you give me a call and I don't pick it... Just to let me know that you are on your way.
PL: (confused) But why would I not pick the phone if you call me?
Friend: (aaaaaaahhhhh !!!!!)
Once at a shop I managed to cough up a bill of 5 euros and 18 cents. I paid the cashier a 10 bucks crispy note and wished I wouldn't be stralled with a handful of loose change of cents. Then I realized I had 20 cents with me that might save me (and her) some bit of trouble. So I handed that to her with a new 5 euros note and asked for the 10 rupee note back. That did it! Her system totally crashed! Firstly because she had already entered 10 in her cash registers, and secondly bcos she totally lost track of the transactions that we were mutually were into! (whatever happened to math classes in junior school?)
And of course there is this vast cultural difference - which a desi is duly subjected to, from the moment he/she enters phoren land. Be it the Public Displays of Affection, or the way senior citizens are treated (bad, really bad), or the way individuality and professionalism is rooted here, or the way they eat, drink and party - everything is oh-so different here!
A greet to everyone you meet - its the norm. Its really a good thing to have around - politeness and 'assumed' nicety, but after a while when you see everyone speaking the same thing artificially, EVERYDAY, it can get to your nerves.
(Prakash seems to think on simlar lines) :-)
A friend of mine who had recently moved in with her husband to Stuttgart was asked by her landlady whether the guy was her husband or boyfriend! (ya, I know live-in relationships are slowly picking up in India too, but a question like this?)
Another friend of mine had this conversation: (oh so typical :-))
Foreigner: Are you married or single?
Friend: Single :-)
Foreigner: Do you have children?
Imagine this being spoken in India. Something like this would send the person on a minor heart attack!
On a serious, more factual note:
Europeans have been at the crux of the Industrial revolution. They have been the foremost in science, technology, the arts and monarchy. They are responsible for all the development around the world (and also responsible for all the backwardness due to colonization - thats the irony) Such a small continent, so beautiful to the eyes, divided in small small pieces of nationalities, each speaking a different language, each weirder than the other! Europe is one its kinda continent (ok, ok - we don't have many continents anyways)
The funny part is - most of the nations have ended up fighting each other throughout the centuries and still have remained the most developed and rich nations. Except beautiful Switzerland which hasn't fought wars, probably explained by Scott 'Dilbert' Adams' theory that cooler nations have had lesser battles, ha ha.. Maybe while the whole world was busy killing the world, the Swiss were too busy freezing their chocolate covered nuts! lolz!
But all things apart.... there are hundreds of things we Indians could learn from these goras, of course! (too big a discussion - might take a whole new post and a very hopeful mood for that, maybe for later :-) )
Prakash and me both are seeing the ways of foreign land (in separate continents), and that is naturally accompanied by a mental comparison between that place and our very own motherland.... so be it! :-D
Peace.
And, Jai Hind!
I'm sure half the population of Europe would find ME, the asian, weirder, but as the owner of this conversation I'll just let that point of conflict pass.... :-D
Ya I know, each society has a way of norms, behaviour and lifestyle and blah blah... but puhleese let me have the menial pleasure of ripping apart the ways of some foreigners that I find really surprising or stomach-tickling or both!
With all due respect, they (my clients) are the ones who provide the bread and butter for my employer, which in turn does a (half) decent job of giving me my daily bread.... so...
Firangs have a way of doing EVERYTHING systematically. Thats a good thing, considering that they usually end up doing a quality job. (especially engineering and sports!) But 'systematically' usually has an after-effect of turning into 'boringly one thing at a time'!
Try getting towards a salesman here when he is attending another customer, and all you'll get is a big IGNORE! Of course you'll have to wait till he is over with the current person that has occupied all his limited attention.
Try telling a foreigner about 2-3 different things simultaneously, and you can be damn sure his processor will hang! Good-ol' multitasking - I dont think its exists in the foreign dictionary.
And they in no comparable ways can get closer to us desis in terms of money-management, cash-optimization! (I'll tell you what it means... by an example)
A friend of mine in Amsterdam had the following interaction with his client. (he was offered the luxury of being given a lift to office by the client Project lead (PL))
Friend: Hey, I'll wait at the R-square and you can pick me up from there.
PL: Okie, what time you'd be there?
Friend: Oh, just gimme a miss-call on my cell just when you leave, and I'll be there in 5 mins.
PL: What is a miss-call? why would I give you a 'miss-call'?
Friend: Oh, its when you give me a call and I don't pick it... Just to let me know that you are on your way.
PL: (confused) But why would I not pick the phone if you call me?
Friend: (aaaaaaahhhhh !!!!!)
Once at a shop I managed to cough up a bill of 5 euros and 18 cents. I paid the cashier a 10 bucks crispy note and wished I wouldn't be stralled with a handful of loose change of cents. Then I realized I had 20 cents with me that might save me (and her) some bit of trouble. So I handed that to her with a new 5 euros note and asked for the 10 rupee note back. That did it! Her system totally crashed! Firstly because she had already entered 10 in her cash registers, and secondly bcos she totally lost track of the transactions that we were mutually were into! (whatever happened to math classes in junior school?)
And of course there is this vast cultural difference - which a desi is duly subjected to, from the moment he/she enters phoren land. Be it the Public Displays of Affection, or the way senior citizens are treated (bad, really bad), or the way individuality and professionalism is rooted here, or the way they eat, drink and party - everything is oh-so different here!
A greet to everyone you meet - its the norm. Its really a good thing to have around - politeness and 'assumed' nicety, but after a while when you see everyone speaking the same thing artificially, EVERYDAY, it can get to your nerves.
(Prakash seems to think on simlar lines) :-)
A friend of mine who had recently moved in with her husband to Stuttgart was asked by her landlady whether the guy was her husband or boyfriend! (ya, I know live-in relationships are slowly picking up in India too, but a question like this?)
Another friend of mine had this conversation: (oh so typical :-))
Foreigner: Are you married or single?
Friend: Single :-)
Foreigner: Do you have children?
Imagine this being spoken in India. Something like this would send the person on a minor heart attack!
On a serious, more factual note:
Europeans have been at the crux of the Industrial revolution. They have been the foremost in science, technology, the arts and monarchy. They are responsible for all the development around the world (and also responsible for all the backwardness due to colonization - thats the irony) Such a small continent, so beautiful to the eyes, divided in small small pieces of nationalities, each speaking a different language, each weirder than the other! Europe is one its kinda continent (ok, ok - we don't have many continents anyways)
The funny part is - most of the nations have ended up fighting each other throughout the centuries and still have remained the most developed and rich nations. Except beautiful Switzerland which hasn't fought wars, probably explained by Scott 'Dilbert' Adams' theory that cooler nations have had lesser battles, ha ha.. Maybe while the whole world was busy killing the world, the Swiss were too busy freezing their chocolate covered nuts! lolz!
But all things apart.... there are hundreds of things we Indians could learn from these goras, of course! (too big a discussion - might take a whole new post and a very hopeful mood for that, maybe for later :-) )
Prakash and me both are seeing the ways of foreign land (in separate continents), and that is naturally accompanied by a mental comparison between that place and our very own motherland.... so be it! :-D
Peace.
And, Jai Hind!
Sunday, November 12, 2006
A 'Reverse Lagaan'
We had a kinda 'Reverse Lagaan' setting today! Don't get confused - its just a stupid phrase coined by me for this blog post... (probably just bcos I could think of nothing better to describe the scene with :-) )
A gang of desis (all office colleagues) decide to gather together for a long-due round of Cricket on a lazy Sunday! After the people had gathered as per IST, the game began in a small ground amongst a quiet neighbourhood. The ground not being large enough, restrictions were made on long shots, lest every self-confessed Dhoni went on a window-pane breaking spree!
Now coming to the 'Reverse Lagaan' part - remember the scene in the movie where Bhuwan and his friends sneak in near a cricket ground boundary and begin wondering what the 15 goras were doing with 2 sticks and a ball? Thats what happened today with us - only that this time the desis were inside the ground and the goras were out, ha ha!
As our game went on, passerbys (all native Germans) began wondering what kinda silly game we were up to! Some found it quite interesting and paused for a while to have a closer look. Amused they were, yes!
Some tried chatting up with the boundary fielders, asking them:
1. What this funny game was called and if it was something they knew as Baseball?
2. How the hell was one supposed to play it?(now that none of the desis there spoke an acceptable level of German, is a different thing)
And it having rained the previous night, the ground was muddy and slippery, but who cared! A few hours of cacophonous cricket so far from Bharatvarsh - was just what the desis needed to feel happy! Clothes and hands were all dirty after the game... but who cared!
My long-unexercised arms still ache from the numerous wide/no/dead balls in an over - all due to the fact that I touched bowling after years!
(and my blue jeans looks like a 'before' piece from a 'before-after' commercial for a stain-removing detergent!)
But who cares, we had fun! :-)
Speaking of cricket and dirty clothes, here's something that I recently came across:
"I cannot for the life of me see why the umpires, the only two people on a cricket field who are not going to get grass stains on their knees, are the only two people allowed to wear dark trousers." ~Katharine Whitehorn
.
A gang of desis (all office colleagues) decide to gather together for a long-due round of Cricket on a lazy Sunday! After the people had gathered as per IST, the game began in a small ground amongst a quiet neighbourhood. The ground not being large enough, restrictions were made on long shots, lest every self-confessed Dhoni went on a window-pane breaking spree!
Now coming to the 'Reverse Lagaan' part - remember the scene in the movie where Bhuwan and his friends sneak in near a cricket ground boundary and begin wondering what the 15 goras were doing with 2 sticks and a ball? Thats what happened today with us - only that this time the desis were inside the ground and the goras were out, ha ha!
As our game went on, passerbys (all native Germans) began wondering what kinda silly game we were up to! Some found it quite interesting and paused for a while to have a closer look. Amused they were, yes!
Some tried chatting up with the boundary fielders, asking them:
1. What this funny game was called and if it was something they knew as Baseball?
2. How the hell was one supposed to play it?(now that none of the desis there spoke an acceptable level of German, is a different thing)
And it having rained the previous night, the ground was muddy and slippery, but who cared! A few hours of cacophonous cricket so far from Bharatvarsh - was just what the desis needed to feel happy! Clothes and hands were all dirty after the game... but who cared!
My long-unexercised arms still ache from the numerous wide/no/dead balls in an over - all due to the fact that I touched bowling after years!
(and my blue jeans looks like a 'before' piece from a 'before-after' commercial for a stain-removing detergent!)
But who cares, we had fun! :-)
Speaking of cricket and dirty clothes, here's something that I recently came across:
"I cannot for the life of me see why the umpires, the only two people on a cricket field who are not going to get grass stains on their knees, are the only two people allowed to wear dark trousers." ~Katharine Whitehorn
.
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