playground

We (fellows from asia) returned from Meunchen to Berlin this evening after traveling to a few cities inGermany. It was a memorable experience. I have been looking forward to this week since the time the itenary was uploaded in the website. 
Dresden, Weimar, Frankfurt am Main and Meunchen were the cities we visited. Each city had its own charm and charisma. Saxony, thuringia, hessen and Bavaria—- the four states are only about an hour apart if you take the train, but they stand out in terms of culture and landschape.
I am a foodie and I feel good when i share my food experiece with my IJP friends. Mr. Gerrit Book our tour companion for Dresden and Weimar, asked me if I would like to visit a Indian restaurant. But I was more intersted in exploring the German cuisine (yes, there are many other dishes apart from kartofelln salat, kase und bier) and that I prefer to avoid Indian food when outside india ( it is way too expensive and also it is germanised). So here started my rendevous with various regional dishes in germany. Regional cuisine can tell you so much about the culture and history of the region.
So in  Weimar, I got to taste the most famous potato dumplings and the finest wine from thuringia, Frankfurt grunsauce and roasted potatoes with Apfel wine or just Appler! The Bavarian capital Meunchen, has a lot to offer in regional cuisine. Spitzel (german noodles as it is known) and pretzel soup were new to me. The weissbier with its unique flavour and the dunkel bier with a coffee flavour was amazing. I must tell you about the employees canteen of Allianz HQ inMeunchen. 
So that is about food. Now I will move to how benefical this trip was to me. Such a trip is a easy way of learning the history of the country and to understand culture. Of course we had meeting with the political editor of Sachische Zeitung in Dresden, that gave me an idea about their news selection. Visit to Radio Lotte at Weimar provided us an insight into the function of public funded media in Germany. 
In Frankfurt, Peter Sturmm, politics edior of FAZ, spoke to us about the history adn development of FAZ and how they are sustaining the quality and readership over a peroiod of time. We also visited the Deutsche Bank office and came to know many things about banking solutions especialy during economic crisis. Markus Weigner of Multiculturen  angelegenhiet educated us about dealing with issues realting to migants living in Germany. Hemade the session interactive by narrating an anecdote and asking our opinion about it. 

In meunchen, the meeting with Allianz got very interssting once we discussed about India and how effecively micor financing system was being implemented by  Allianz. A familiar name in the Indina subocntinent as Bajaj-allaince, we had many questions to ask them and the three-member team answered us patiently.Siemens and the schandal, was not publicised that much in India and therefore the presentaion by Mr. Ruggenburk, was informative to me. his presentation on complaince code implementation set me thinking on so many levels. 

i shall write more on the first two weeks of our experiene soon.

We are back to Berlin, safely! After 8 hectic days of traveling through different cities of Germany, we safely reached to Tegel Airport. Thank god Polizei did not chase our colleague turned Mama, Chitra Dipa.

Dipa forgot to bring her passport. Through out the journey from Berlin – Dresden- Weimar-Frankfurt-Munchen, cities and out skirts of those cities, she did not carry her passport. She only had a colored photocopy of the first 2 pages of pass. However nobody asked to see. Strange! And that means anybody without pass can travel without hindrance in Germany. At the last moment of our journey In Munich airport we noticed that she is not carrying the original pass. Here she could have some trouble, when she was asked to produce it, all of a sudden she became anxious, but really here also we did not face any problem. Anoxic anxiety lasted few hours. We hurriedly came out  from the airport. But it was raining outside. And bit cold. However, Dipa looked relieved; she called back to Mr. Trapp who was assigned to show us Stadt Munchen.

Mr. Trapp is unlike Mr. Gerrit Book. He knows little, and is candid to accept the truth. He sounds extravaganza of politeness mingled with surfeits of irritations. He always avoids anxiety but is always chased by anxious thoughts.  Although Mr Trapp is a nice person so as Mr. Book too. But he never ever pretended that he knows everything. He tried to answer almost everything we asked. If he failed, next morning  he is ready to answer it, he has mastery on history, literature and Chinese language (so our Chinese friend Shi Feike got some access) and the most important thing to mention about him is, his patience.

So our trip to Dresden and Weimar were really precious and happened to be classical. In Frankfurt we encountered the pace of the city, Shivani Deshmukh.

This diehard fan of Shahrukh Khan, smart, sleek and se(ks)y Indian lady studied in Mumbai, learned German language, came to Germany, married a German guy (probably civil engineer) and glued to Deutschland. However through out the tour she proved her. She always tries to be punctual, calculative and professional; however, the arty Indian soul shows up. Good! Very good!

Her ambitions are like high-rises of Frankfurt, I liked it.