Rescued finally...

I'll stop vowing to post often because it never seems to work with me.

My last Saturday here.. in my small messy room overlooking the big garden of someone very big.
And next Saturday, I'll be back to where I belong.

3 months back, I came here... and today I stand transformed in a way I never expected or imagined. And in this sojourn, I met a beautiful friend, an understanding roommate and a person to look up to for advice. Tias. She is from Indonesia. Doing her second Masters in Political Science.

Right from the day I arrived, I have found a familiar something in a totally unfamiliar face. And she has taught me much more than she herself realizes. Teaching me basic things like cleaning the apartment to something much subtle like expanding my views about what MAY be possible that my constricted mind does not allow me to think, we grew a strong bond. Her urge to know about India amazes me! Till now we have covered discussions ranging from the dhaba outside our college to Tata moving out of Singur, over the small kitchen table. And what has awed me beyond anything is her inclination to learn how to use the pressure cooker to cook khichdi. Any now, I can proudly say that I have successfully taught her the recipe of khichdi and she can pick up the right dal from the Asian shop and make khichdi with the right proportion of water, rice, dal! And what worries me now is that I’ve been too much of an Indian influence on her. And now her eating habits stand transformed. Pancakes (Indian parathas) and sabzi cooked in oriental style and not to miss dal has become her daily menu leaving no space for her once beloved tuna fish, tofu and curdbean cake. LOL

Last Thursday, we decided to celebrate my birthday, our friendship and my last week in Kassel together. I was looking forward to it for a very long time. And in all the excitement and our desire to stay out for long, something had to go wrong! Unknowingly, she left her key in the keyhole while I closed the door. And both of us stood outside and realized!! It’s Germany, where security is beyond words. Once out, you have no means to open the door. Even though you might have a key in your hand but a key hanging from the other end traps you. Handicapped! And all the fun that we had planned stood crippled.

Yet, realizing the foreseen and the unforeseen miseries to be incurred before we entered our ‘Home, sweet home’, we decided to still enjoy the evening and contact the Studentenwerk office for help the next morning and spend the night at her friend’s place. I agreed.

And we set out.. under the partly clouded sky with a sunshine smile. And sooner or later, we completely forgot about what had happened or rather what was to happen the next morning and enjoyed walking in the streets of Kassel having ice cream before dinner, clicking picture, taking wrong trams.. we arrived at a small European restaurant for dinner where we sat until we were the last ones to leave. And at 11pm, homeless in Kassel with keys right down my jeans pocket, our beautiful evening came to an end and we took refuge at her friend’s place.

The next morning began with a struggle, RAIN! Being adapted to the uncertain European climate, we went back home. We tried opening the door with a plastic card as her friend had taught us the night before but in vain. We went to the Studentenwerk office and waited for it to open but were denied help. Finally, being left with no option, we called up a private service to open the door. Price? 70 euros . Speechless! We had to solve it on our own now. We went back again. This time, we asked the neighbour with the big garden for a ladder. Tias, had made up her mind, she would climb up and get in through the open window. But how was a question? Thankfully, our kind neighbour had a long ladder. And there.. our plan neatly worked out. Tias boldly climbed up to the 2^nd floor and slid in through the window.. And we were rescued!!!

An experience I call it and Tias, the star :)

Lin- The Savior !

Nothing has ever troubled me more than my laptop! Very recently, when my laptop is out of the warranty period, and I'm away in a new new world where I know not about HP repair centres, my lappy, very artfully choosing the right moment, decides to trouble me! And that too in the most irritating way you can think of.. it shuts down every 20 mins!!!

I was thoroughly alarmed when I saw this happen a couple of times. On further investigation, I realised that it was getting very heated and every time it reached its maximum temperature limit, it started hibernating. But what alarmed me was how could the temperature shoot up so quickly. Hence, finally realising that the CPU fan was to blame for all my worries, I decided to buy a cooling fan for the laptop.

Meanwhile, my laptop created quite a scene at ISET (place im interning). Everyone seemed quite perturbed with my lappy's condition. Finally, Lin suggested the idea of using a table fan to cool it down. Well, i must agree that it did work until today. Today, my lappy went out of control...became so stubborn that it would shut down in 10 mins... Thats it, I already started imagining what was about to happen.. CRASH !!!! End of documents, gmail, skype...end of communication!!!

......not yet done imagining......

After quite a while, I got transported back to reality ! And I saw 2 or 3 people inspecting my lappy. Finally, they came to the conclusion that they'll inspect it with a thermal camera!!!! I was like WHAT??? Then Henrich seeming to be deep lost in analysis explained that he could take thermal pictures and then we would know the temperature of the processor and what to do next. I just nodded. Deep within, I was thinking, 'Maaaaaan, my lappy needs immediate cure, it cant wait for your hifi technological analysis!!!!!'

Finally, Lin stepped into the sitution and said, 'Poor, I think its very simple. For all you know, the CPU fan might have a layer of dust over it.' It did make sense to me but I wasnt ready to believe that the problem could be this SIMPLE. But decided to listen to Lin. Lin took me to the secretary and got the vacuum cleaner from the store room. He cautiously, vacuum cleaned it. And he was right. There was a whole layer of dust over it!

Finally, I turn on my lappy and it survives... without table fan.. without noise... ! And it is 5 hours now, and is still surviving.

Lin says, 'Poor, I give you a year's guarantee on that'.
I smile and reply, 'Lin, the savior!'

... Fullstop

There she goes- Sixpence none the richer
Random blogging, finally stopped at: A walk in the clouds
'Where two dot ellipses are the norm'
daylight still..
surviving a headache
tired of facebook, gtalk.. seek no more
want to put an end to thoughts..
i retire

Stadtfest Kassel !

Kassel, a small city guarded by hills is where i dwell. Its no big city like Frankfurt or Hamburg but still has something about itself. Its calm , submissive, homely aura is what I love the most. But last weekend my very own Kassel stood transformed! The annual cult festival, popularly known as Stadtfest Kassel was celebrated last week and Kassel didnt look like Kassel anymore! It had a magical glamour about itself and I was left awed!

Deciding to be a part of Stadtfest with an Indian look, I got all enthu to wear a kurta and a shawl. And there!!! I go out on the streets and all eyes on me!!! I was awed again !! For a moment I thought i dressed up like a clown seeing the hard stares! With some courage I decided to go ahead till the city centre where I was supposed to meet my 'Kgp Losers' :P LOL (Pradeep and Mayank are my Kgp Losers.. They've been friends ever since I landed in this unknown land and we've been together for the most part and I've had a terrible time with them and they love irritating me and pulling my leg.. hence, Losers! Not literary ofcourse! They are IIT products! Still I dont care :P) Finally, they confirmed that there was nothing wrong with my appearance, only that I looked very Indian! Well, now thats a fact to be proud of so I stopped worrying.

The fest covered a large area and was hosted in 4 different places. There
were mainly German, English, Arabic, Red Indians bands. We had a
great time strolling in the streets, stopping to listen to instrumental pieces or songs, some familiar and some in wholly different languages.

At times tired of walking, we would sit down in front of the huge Rathaus (meeting hall) and observe the changing mood of the city! It was lovely.

Also, along the streets, there were stalls of everything you would want to shop! We looked around.. I wanted to buy earrings for my roommates but then I felt awkward in a guys company. LOL But it sooo turned out that these guys seemed more interested in picking earrings for my roommates! I was awed again! But this time it was a very mischievous awe! lol I had fun pulling their leg for a change! And not to forget.. beer shops and food stalls of all types filled the streets. We tried some of the most unknown stuff there having no clue of how they would taste!

A long evening filled with fun, awe and mischief ended my day. And the next morning, while travelling in the tram on my to ISET, I saw the empty streets and felt the old shyness of Kassel. And I finally realized that I was back from a magical world!

To live with an anomaly

Guess what time it is???
7:45 pm !

Now living with the reality that sun sets at 9:30 pm is such a misery! Believe me, I feel it steals away the darkness of the night or the beauty of the evening twilight from you. Whenever you wish to quiet down and be left alone, you see the sun happily smiling at you and you feel so discovered. And it is a very disturbing feeling!

And how can I not mention.. I go to cook in the kitchen at 8 pm and see the kitchen flooded with light and greeting me. First day, I assumed I was cooking lunch!!! But as time passes and you come back late after a loaded day and hope to have a quiet supper, you dont quite get what you want!

May be this is the only thing Im left to adjust to in this new country!

HIiii !!!

I'm back again after a long long long break! It has been almost a year I suppose. And a year's span has seen a lot of events... some very good and some not so good. Third year has been the most hectic year so far leaving no time to sit back and relax! Oh god! I feel weird writing after so long! Im just not getting the flow.. but Ill try :)

Yaa so after a year full of events filled with fun, adventure, uncertainty, responsibility, disappointment etc etc I reached a point where the semester ended before my eyes and I was left crying! Ooppss I shouldnt have made this confession here.. but since it has come out I dont wish to erase. Crying because my dearest seniors were leaving. Through the 3 years I got very close to a few of them and shall truly miss not having them around! One very special group Ill miss is my Writers' Circle.. I loved all my seniors though they had all the fun pulling my leg, imitating me, making nicks, teasing me with possibly anyone under the sun (including Dr Loren Acton) LOL.. but how can I disagree I had my fun throughout being the centre of attention :P
Ohh I just hope that any of them is not reading it!

Okk.. after all the emotional stress, I end up here in Germany! Its been a week now that I have been here.. and I truly love it! My research guide says, "A small small girl in a big big world" Lol i guess Im the youngest at my workplace. And all I can say is that its beautiful here!

I think Germany deserves lots and lots of posts!
Now that i have time and content.. I vow to post more often :)

Guten Tag
Poornima
lol.. Im called Poor here :(