On a pleasant autumn evening...

He anxiously took his seat in the row just behind the driver, hoping that, like all days, she would take the seat diagonally across from him in the adjacent row. Sometimes, human will is so powerful that whatever is willed becomes true. Perhaps, it was one such evening for him. He had never spoken to her and he was pretty sure that she did not even know his name. However, it did not seem to matter for him.

The bus started. Strong winds held the rain at bay. Dark clouds seemed to herald an earlier-than-usual sunset. Tree leaves were changing colors from one day to the next and in that weather, as the bus gathered speed and the winds kissed the leaves, he was transported to cloud nine! The harvest season was underway and nature was glowing with a prominent swagger perhaps with the premonition that the predicted harsh winter would soon take its own toll...

As he thought about the changing seasons, he happened to catch her eye. He had wanted to steal a gaze or two and be reconciled to it for the short journey's duration because he knew the power of those probing eyes...She met his eyes and held his gaze for what seemed like an eternity. Later he would realize that it must not have been more than 5 seconds. Yet, those large round black eyes and the smile playing on her lips left him acutely embarrassed as if someone had caught him with his pants down. She was smartly dressed in a heavy jacket and blue jeans. He couldn't help notice that her choice of ear rings had improved. She now had long blue ones that probably danced in tune with her every change in expression.

The Sun was suddenly out from behind the dark clouds and it looked like a rainbow might reveal itself...she wore her ear phones and turned her gaze to the window. However, every time he tried to turn to catch sight of her, she became aware as if it was a game. This only added to his embarrassment and he buried his face in his bag. He wished somebody would call him..wished earnestly for something to happen that would relieve him of this pleasurable torture...!

After what seemed like ages, his stop came and he got up. She did not spare him with a graceful exit. Instead, she locked her eyes with his. He got down and just then, a flock of birds alighted from their spot on a balcony and as the signal turned green, flew gracefully above the heads of the people crossing the road. Perhaps, they best exemplified the urgent flutter of his heartbeats at that moment!

Why I love traveling..!

It was around 10 AM on a Sunday morning in the city of Strasbourg. I was sitting near a souvenir shop in the neighborhood of Little France. One of the most beautiful neighborhoods I have ever had the fortune to be in...a slight drizzle made the view more romantic. I remember the scene in vivid detail because something was intensely pure and genuine about the emotion I felt at that point. I cannot name it but I'd not be exaggerating if I say, I felt completely aware and at the same time as light as a feather. I have experienced similar feelings while biking down the slopes of western ghats back home, while commuting by the coal field express from Dhanbad to Howrah and whilst walking along the marine drive in Bombay.

Whenever I pack my stuff and step out, I do so with an open mind and a spring in my step. When I travel alone, I seek to engage my fellow travelers in trivial conversations, for I have discovered over time that good people are omnipresent. Last weekend, I was lucky to have breakfast and coffee with a girl from Brazil. Having completed her advertising course in London, she was on a tour of Europe. We talked about social media, advertising mix, traveling alone and traveling in groups, multinational companies from Brazil, Indian mythology and entrepreneurship.It was probably just 30 minutes but then two strangers from two different continents meeting in a third continent and talking about certain topics close to their hearts...well, I suppose only traveling can make this possible!

The night before, I arrived at the hostel to find an eclectic crowd at the reception bar. Even though I was alone and I knew nobody in that crowd, the jovial manner was infectious. I smiled and greeted a couple of people and was greeted back with equal warmth. That very morning, my first one in a new city, a young Brit had guided me to the nearest metro station and had offered his mobile number so that I can call him if I lost my way. Many a time, this genuine goodness of spirit makes me recollect what F Dostoevsky famously remarked "I do not want to and I cannot believe that evil is man’s normal state"

Traveling also, by virtue of the experiences it provides, inculcates a heightened degree of sensitivity. An ability to accommodate fellow human beings in our happiness and sometimes, experiencing an irrational joy in the presence of a total stranger...thanks to traveling I have experienced this often. A few weeks back, I overheard a conversation between two guys on the way back from work whilst they were making plans for the weekend. One guy said, "Traveling is perhaps the only thing that makes you richer without increasing your bank balance" He was spot on!

Love, friendship and separation - Different languages, universal themes

Some themes are universal, the themes of love, friendship and separation for example. I have been spending evenings in my apartment room seeing some exemplary cinema. I realized when I saw the brilliant collection of foreign language movies in the Stuttgart library that, this is one world - a world that is neither hollywood nor bollywood - that I had never experienced.  I took the plunge...


Mommo (Turkish)  -

A brother and sister, at a tender age come to terms with the harsh reality of their mother's death and their father's remarriage. They live with their grandfather and suffer the torment of their father cold-shouldering them and favoring their half-brother. Mommo is heartrending, beautiful and disturbing at the same time. 


They say, the purest form of love is unselfish where two people trust each other completely. Ahmet's love for Ayse in this Turkish movie is a fine example. He does everything in his capacity to make her feel happy and cared for. The poverty of the village, the bleak future staring at them and the unceasing slander machinery of the neighborhood seem to have little effect on the boy. His answers to many of his sister's innocent questions exhibit a maturity and sense of responsibility beyond his age.


Many times during the course of this one and half hour movie, I felt a lump in my throat. 


La lengua de las mariposas (Spanish)

This story takes place just before the onset of the civil war in Spain. Moncho is apprehensive about his first day at school but in no time begins a beautiful friendship with his teacher, Don Gregario. The two make for an unlikely couple. The boy’s intelligence and curiosity and the old man’s love for nature gel together and make for delightful viewing.


Moncho’s brother Andrés is smitten by a mysterious woman while his own father has an illicit daughter in the village. These sidetracks offer rich glimpses into the Spanish society of the age. 

Of special mention is the part in the movie when the teacher quotes the Spanish poet Antonio Machado from one of his sonnets, “A deserted bed, a cloudy mirror, and an empty heart” when the boy asks his teacher about his wife.

Äideistä parhain (Finnish)

Eero crosses over to Sweden against his will along with numerous other children during world war II. Separated from his mother and having lost his father to the brutalities of the war, he walks into a home only to be received by a frigid Swede in Signe Jönsson. The boy tries in vain to escape to Finland risking his life in the process. Fortunately, Hjalmar, Signe’s husband befriends him. 

With time, Eero understands why Signe often loses her temper. The portrayal of the relationship between the child and the transformed Signe is movie making at its best. Soon a time comes when the boy has to return to his biological mother, who, by then is grappling with guilt. 

This story, at its core is about separation. The two world wars did unimaginable damage to the fabric of the European society but they also shed light on what can only be termed the tenderness of the human spirit. Classic moviemaking!

Turkish, Finnish or Spanish, the language might be different, but certain themes are universal. Movies like these also impart cultural lessons and for that single reason alone, are worth taking an interest in!

Reading experience unparalleled!

I am a die-hard fan of good libraries...the first reasonably good library I encountered was in my first year of college. The Madras Institute of Technology library in Chennai might not be the biggest and it is certainly not the most well maintained, yet, it had a special charm for me. I borrowed books almost every week but almost always, returned them untouched...the library was my abode during short breaks and the aircraft model opposite the entrance always reminded me of black and white images. 

Then, there was the British Council Library near the TVS bus stop on Mount road. There were days when I had spent more time there than at my college campus. If I got a 4 hour break between classes, I would catch a MTC bus, go to the library, browse through the collection and come back in time for the class....those days!! 

In Bangalore, I began to frequent Mylib. Located in the southern part of the city, it is a compact, well equipped library that lives up to its "neighborhood library" tag. Run by two wonderful and passionate people, am sure, it will branch out and expand soon..! You can read my post on it here.  Even at work, my love for libraries remained undiminished. The SRR campus library of Intel and the Koramangala library of Bosch, well, to me, they are special places!

Books & Media collection

Now, coming to the point of this post, I recently became a member of the Stuttgart city library. At a yearly membership fee of 15 EUR, one can borrow as many as 15 items at a time (books or media) and return them a month later. It has nearly 20 branches distributed throughout the city. Whilst I have been frequenting the branches at Feuerbach and zufenhausen, the latter mostly, today, I decided to visit the main branch at Mailänder Platz. 

Reading area for children

It is a massive structure, spread over 8 floors and boasting of jaw-dropping infrastructure! I have never in all my life seen such a rich collection on so many wide variety of subjects. Art, Culture, travel, business, management, information technology, literature, books for young children, music, dance, languages and media in almost every European language ‐ the collection is simply mind blowing! 

View from the one of the gallery halls

Infrastructure is ultra modern and tasteful. There is an entire floor of media and books dedicated to children on the second floor. It is a treat to the eyes to see such interiors....if only, we do even 10% this back in India!! A cafe at the 8th floor serves drinks, salad and pastries. Of special highlight are the gallery halls, located centrally in every floor starting from the 4th. 

I picked up 2 finnish, 1 french, 1 spanish and 1 turkish movie, a novel by JM Coetzee and an essay collection by Emerson....pure indulgence! 

Rain drops on a summer morning...!

She lives in a street named Solitude alley. She is quite a dream...I like to think, I enjoy walking alongside her. Even such a thought puts a spring in my step and makes my imagination race...

Today morning, as I was walking past Solitude alley, I caught her at the window. She had just removed the blinds and her face glowed as the rising sun met its match. She looked dressed up and ready. Next moment, perhaps, she would have turned to the mirror and fastened the last strand of unruly hair firmly behind her ears.

I continued my walk to the Rathaus bus stop. The driver is a young chap. He wears his shades no matter what the weather is and he drives with such concentration that I often wonder if he is on a tightrope walk. His face lacks any expression and he saves his gaze only for the road ahead. Anyways, I am dithering from the subject....

I turned back just in case, destiny for once decided to be friends with me! To my utter disbelief, there she was, sauntering down the solitude alley...can you imagine silence whispering in your ear? If you find it difficult, perhaps, you should listen to the sound of the first rain drop that hits the ground on a pleasant summer morning. It is not loud enough to be noisy but it qualifies for a sweet whisper...I strained my ears, yes, it was beginning to drizzle.

Our dream did not have an umbrella and neither did she care. She lifted her head slowly and looked up - a movement that appeared to me choreographed to perfection. Just then, a drop caressed her eyelid. She batted her eyelashes, a gesture that can look only sensuous on her.

She began to walk briskly whilst a miracle was underway. The rain drops seemed to single her out. They were gentle on her. It became a spectacle in no time. Right in front of me, the heavens were blessing the dream.

As she stepped inside the bus shelter, the spell was broken. The heavens ceased shedding tears and the sun peeped again emerging from the thin clouds.

A puff to the good old days!

Fiery Elias entering the platform at Korntal

A Puff to the good old days – well, thinking of a name for this post was tough, adjectives to choose from were many! Finally, decided on this one because of the faces I remember from the ride – There was this old gentleman for example, bespectacled and pale; he sat looking wistful, but with a slight hint of a smile on his face. Never once did I see him move during the entire length of the ride; he was admiring the landscape but it was something more than that – Yearning? Nostalgia? I know not. What I did realize was, some events by sheer dint of circumstances bring back good times…this ride certainly did! 

Chugging along

The ride is organized by the by the GES on the first Sunday of every month from Korntal till Weissach in the Stuttgart region. Thanks to the efforts of the society, tourists and natives alike get to experience a rich flavour from the past. We boarded the first service of the day at 9.05 AM from Korntal. A schedule of all the services with the travel fare is available here. The stretch spanning 25 kms takes 1 hour by the train. 

A charming machine

The chugging of the engine was a black and white melody, the whistles and the steam it breathed out while evoking many a movie scene also had a soothing effect. Perhaps, it made us all long for a world where things moved slowly and surely, nerves were less frayed, people were more content with whatever little they had and grittiness of character was given its due. 

There were scores of kids with their grandfathers and grandmothers. The way two generations -which seem to have little in common at first sight – connected made for quite a sight! It was drizzling all through the brief journey till Weissach adding to the beauty of the landscape. People leaned on the rails between carriages clicking pictures, smoking or cuddling their children. One hour went by in a jiffy and we were in Weissach. 

Carriages at the rear

It took nearly 40 minutes before we were all set for the return journey. We had a peep into the engine and people from this charming town gathered around the train to click more pictures. On the way back, the carriages were more silent. Perhaps, nobody wants good things to come to an end!

This can be the best time of your life!

"Time flies by when you are having a bit of fun", remarked a member of the band 'Peter Jones and the lazy bandits' when there was only 5 minutes left for their performance to end for the evening at the Ludwigsburg street music festival. The band then went on to play a beautiful song.  

'Peter Jones and the lazy bandits'

The lyrics go like this > 

What´s the sense in looking back,
When looking back can be so hard?
Nothing there that you can change,
Can only change the one you are.

Time and time again we´ve learnt,
Tomorrow holds the golden key,
The key to open every door,
Keep the faith and you will see.

This can be the best time,
This can be the best time of your life,
This can be the best time,
This can be the best time of your life.

So you´re older now, my friend,
But I can see the child inside,
Give the child some room to play in,
Let him rest when he gets tired.
And don´t forget when times are hard,
And gloomy skies are all you see,
There´s a plan within the plan,
Tomorrow holds the golden key.

This can be the best time,
This can be the best time of your life,
This can be the best time,
This can be the best time of your life.
This can be the best time,
This can be the best time of your life,
This can be the best time,
This can be the best time of your life.

So what´s the sense in looking back,
When looking back can be so hard?
Nothing there that you can change,
Can only change the one you are...

  It was 10 o clock on a beautiful summer evening at the Blooming Baroque in Ludwigsburg where the yearly street music festival is held. The first day of the festival this year, the garden was teeming with families, kids, couples and the elderly, all immersed in their own worlds listening to some of the soul stirring music on offer. This song stirred something in me and I was spellbound until it ended...!

A few bands at the Ludwigsburg street music festival

Earlier in the evening, as I was waiting in the queue to get a ticket, a gentleman came up to me and asked if I have a ticket. A little bewildered, I replied in the negative. He then proceeded to tell me that he has an extra ticket and I can get lucky. Lucky, I did get. To be part of a festival that is renowned for attracting good bands from all over Europe, year on year was indeed some fortune! 

People moved in the vast garden area listening to one band and then the other. Many families let the kids play around. When a young boy casually climbed one of the stages and tried to grab a microphone (perhaps to accompany the lone singer and performer on stage then), the crowd was amused...Certainly, one memorable evening!

Check out the website of the band  'Peter Jones and the lazy bandits' here.