The one thing I don't miss about home

Today is Ganesh Chaturthi. There's no way to forget that, is there? Of course there is that Kalnirnay calendar hanging in my kitchen. And then there are scores of posts on social networking sites which ensure you are constantly reminded. Photos, chants and celebrations galore.

This is the time of the year when I would be fuming. At the loud music, at the so-called festival enthusiasm all around, the chants of bappa moraya and the utter waste of money and resources that goes around all over the place. Step out on the streets and there are these people dressed in their finest waiting to make merry at the cost of overall social peace. I pity every year the infants, the old, the ill, the minorities (including atheists like me), birds, dogs, cats and the cattle. I hate to imagine what people do in case of eventualities with clogged roads and unconcerned crowds.

I find no sense of enjoyment in putting together plaster of paris with environmentally unfriendly colors and then dumping them into our water resources. I find no serenity in those loud aartis with no relevance to modern life. I find the hypocrisy even where there is a pertinence unbearable. As a strong follower of Lokmanya Tilak and his preachings, I feel that this is one instance in which he failed to see the Frankenstein his creation would turn into.

To tell you the truth I have come to hate this festival over the years. And this is perhaps motivated by, but in no measure exclusively becoming from, my agnostic tendencies.

Here in Germany this year, I look out the window into glorious sunshine and hear my heart beat. A moment that would have been unimaginable back in my own country this day every lunar year. I know for sure it is one thing I will NEVER miss about not being back home.

Disclaimer: these views and opinions are my own. There is no intention to harm anyone's religious sentiments. I would not dare to do that, would I?

Keeping your house - and street - clean in Germany

I learnt when I moved to Stuttgart about the (rather strange) tradition of "Kehrwoche". There is perhaps no literal translation of the term but it means "cleaning week". A Swabian tradition that puts each household responsible for the cleanliness in the apartment for that particular week. And that means sweeping the stairways or wiping the window panes or shoveling the snow off the entrance, the household takes care of it all during that week.

I come from a country where labour is so abundant that for a few rupees all of this would be taken care of by someone else. Cleaning your house too is a job that is done only if the household help does not arrive. Given this, it felt rather strange initially to be put in charge of cleaning. But it took one week of doing the job to see that it wasn't so bad after all. In fact, it was easy to see that it would increase social responsibility and boost overall levels of cleanliness, as well as a collective sense of responsibility.

I reluctantly changed my mind in just a few weeks after our first Kehrwoche. I realised that hardly anyone actually does it in our apartment block, let alone meticulously. I have been keeping a watch on the state of the building just to find no change in it for days on end. My own motivation to clean has, not surprisingly, gone down rapidly since the first kehrwoche. What a pity that in a country known for its strict, upright way of life, the tradition of kehrwoche has turned into mere lipservice!

In the last few days I had reason to justify a further deteriorated opinion of the so called attitude to cleanliness. The family who lived in the house below ours shifted out last week. On their last day here, they put together all the trash that they did not need in a heap on the pavement outside our building and just left! For a whole two days after that, several people came and picked up stuff that they wanted from this heap - toys, baby gear, electronic equipment, utensils. This happened round the clock - even at 4 am (wonder if it was so that no one would notice them doing that). They also did not do it nicely - they ripped apart bags and threw away what they didn't need right there on the street. I just wish I had clicked a picture of the dirty mess that was the result.

How disappointing that both those who left the trash and those who dug through it did not care about the consequences of their actions. Of course, no one will come to clean that street and over time the trash will dissipate due to the rain or wind. Thankfully it was not my turn at kehrwoche, for if it had been, I would have surely been extremely disturbed about it.

Amazong?

Anyone who uses Amazon knows what value it brings to our lives. Undoubtedly. I have picked up gems and ended up with unbelievable bargains myself. But all is not always rosy, ain't it?

I want to recount a rather strange incident involving Amazon.

My sister recently gifted us a Kindle. Then she also gifted me some ebooks on the Kindle. One of those ebooks she paid for was 'not available in Germany'. Amazon then offered me the option of converting the value equivalent of the book into a gift voucher. Left with no choice, I went for it.

I almost forgot about that credit until I got a great book recommendation from a cousin's wife and decided to purchase it online against my voucher. To my dismay, I was compulsorily directed to amazon.de to purchase the book but the German site would not allow me to redeem my voucher since it was one issued by amazon.com and not .de.

For the last two days I have been writing emails to Amazon's customer service and trying to get this changed to no avail. Basically it means that my sister can't get back the money in the UK. I can't redeem the amount here in Germany. Purchasing from the US-based site and getting it shipped makes no sense whatsoever. What a waste!

I'm really amazed at this strangest policy from Amazon. Fair enough that they encounter tax/VAT based problems if they transfer credit across countries but I read on some forums about many other people facing similar issues. Surely there can be a better way to handle this? If the site automatically detects my location, then why can't my account be automatically credited to be used only on amazon.de?

My brother-in-law suggested that may be someone from the US could login to my account and try to redeem the amount. I am yet to try that out with the hope that Amazon may still offer me a solution. However, if anyone has a better idea, do comment!

Dreams are made of this stuff...

I keep wondering why I assumed that Austria would be just like Germany. Consequently I expected to derive similar value from the capital of Austria. I owe the city a huge apology. It not only proved me wrong but it also gave me an incredibly beautiful treat on the first day of the tour. I think it was all the more magical because it happened to be my birthday.

The city has surprises in store at each corner. Literally. Breathtakingly lovely monuments with awe-inspiring facades, palatially wide streets, a deep-rooted cultural history that makes it the legendary stuff that dreams are made up of. Oh how we marveled and oomphed and just roamed the city awe-struck, re-discovering love together the whole day! No amount of photos could capture that feeling!

At each turn when we thought there cannot be anything more beautiful, there was another and yet another. The domkirche, various fountains, opera house, imperial palace complex, minoritykirch, parliament building, war memorial, university - a beautiful city with modern transport, lush green and spotlessly clean, and new architecture that blends into the old with surprising ease.

I loved loved loved this place. Thank you Vienna for that unforgettable birthday experience!

Our very hungry caterpillar

Keya is fascinated by the Very Hungry Caterpillar story by Eric Carle. I find it equally lovely too. We don't have the book yet, but we have a caterpillar puzzle that has been gifted to us by a friend. And we watch the story online at least once a day at this site: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/online-storytime-books-toys/379003588/ (third story in this list).

This morning we decided to make a caterpillar out of bottle lids. I've been collecting them for ages now and have quite a large collection of various colours and sizes. I got the idea from another blog and here is the product, based on whatever raw material we had at home.

We first tried sticking the lids together but it would not work due to the grooves on the lids. Also realised that sticking would not make the caterpillar flexible enough to crawl around. Then I found these small plastic coated wires that come twirled around electric appliances. I made holes in the lids on opposite sides and used little pieces of the wires to hold the lids together. That way they stay together and the caterpillar can really move and crawl around. Avoided the temptation of adding too many lids. Used a piece of a pipe cleaner for the antennae. Have stuck some clay for the eyes until I can buy googly ones or think of something else around the house for eyes.

Now we are having fun taking our caterpillar around the house and making it eat through a lot of food... hthe poor little thing's bound to have a stomach ache by tonight! :)

Vogtsbauernhof Museum in the Black Forest

Sometimes you hear about places and build your own expectations. And when you visit those places you are either delighted or disappointed depending on which way the place turns out vis-a-vis your imagination.

Last Saturday marked my first visit to the "Black Forest" guided by one of our friends here. I had a rosy, romantic idea of the "Schwarzwald". I always imagined lazy, laid back villages with music, food and chivalry; nature at its best and traditions at their richest. I was elated by what I saw. The picture fit with that in my imagination seamlessly.

Our destination this time was the Black Forest Museum or the Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof. We traveled to Freundenstadt, and then rode the Schwarzwaldbahn up to Wolfach. The connectivity from Wolfach turned out a bit problematic. The bus stop was supposedly in the town and when we went there we realised that it had shifted to the station, bringing us back to precisely where we had alighted earlier. In the bargain we missed a bus and could get the next one only an hour later. No labour lost though. We reached by mid-day. There wasn't a very large crowd at the ticket counter and we got in swiftly.

The museum is an open air place, with exhibits housed in life size erects. Whether the labourer's cottage or the worksheds or the mills, you get to see everything as it was earlier. There are plenty of demos though their timings are a bit awry. We could not catch the ones on the mill or the black forest cooking because we reached too late in the day. We had two kids with us but they enjoyed too thanks to farm animals and a few play things that caught their interest. It was a little bit difficult to move around with a stroller since we had to leave it outside the houses and then come back to retrieve it since the exits were almost always at the back. Overall it made for a fine day outside with lots of learning.

The icing on the cake, literally, was the black forest torte that we ordered at the restaurant. It was mouth-wateringly delicious, lusciously filled with cherries, soft cream that melted in the mouth, laced with just enough rum. I think that taste is going to linger in my mouth for a long time to come.

Blown away in the sand!

I find the whole concept of the 'spielplatz' or play area here in Germany somewhat unsatisfying. That being the gist of it, let me list down what I like and what I don't.

What I like:
- Each area has at least one spielplatz. It is the responsibility of the local Rathaus or the civic office to ensure that. And they take that job very seriously.
- Each spielplatz caters to children of all ages. From activities for babies and toddlers to basketball courts for  teenagers, there is something in it for everyone.
- Equipment is well designed, safety standards are very high.
- Each spielplatz is unique. You won't find one like another. Very innovative, thoughtful games. E.g. An excavator replica to sit and try out, crocodile spring to jump on, basket swings, maze of pipes.

Now you may wonder where the unsatisfying part comes in! Then let me tell you my issues with these:

- My biggest problem is that all spielplatz have sand on the flooring. This seems mandatory. Children carry their sand toys e.g. pails, shovels, moulds and play in the sand. What's wrong with that you may ask. Nothing. It's a great way to improve co-ordination, motor skills, etc.etc. But my observation is that a child is ONLY playing with the sand for about 80 percent of the time that s/he spends in the ground. I find that very troublesome.
- Let me also mention that the sand never gets cleaned. (How can it?) Which means it's not the most hygienic or ideal surrounding for a child. Especially when it rains, the sand can remain wet for more than a day after.
- Play things are just not adequate. There is mostly just one slide, one swing and one other out of a see-saw or a merry-go-round or a small house. I can't imagine that sustaining a toddler's attention for more than a few minutes at a time, which basically gets us back into the sand each time.
- The baby/toddler area is mostly not properly fenced. Which means you cannot afford to let the child off sight for even a minute.

Now I like to take my daughter out to the ground so that she can get some physical activity, let off some steam, get some organized exercise. With most children around her just sitting around and digging, I find it impossible to continuously prod her alone to swing or slide.

There are two spielplatz around our house but I find my motivation to take my kid to either of those totally waning for the aforementioned reasons. There are several other play areas scattered around the city and these days with the superb weather, I've started taking the kiddo to a new place each time. Hopefully that will give us both some different stimulation each time!

I want to make a studied comparison here with the situation in another developed country so as not to sound like I am cribbing without a reason. When we were in France, we went to at least three play areas in two different cities. Play areas were really 'play' areas. The ones we went to were nicely fenced with just one or two gates. There was this very beautiful soft matting all over, not sand, which made it equally safe for the child and so much easier to clean/maintain. There were so many different kinds of play equipment that my child refused to leave even after an hour (mind you, without sand). Mothers could hang around on the benches lining the sides and keep an eye. They didn't have to be constantly on their toes wondering where the child might run away to next.

With more Europe trips coming up, I find myself just as enthusiastic as the kiddo to visit play areas in different cities/countries. My checklist is ready for comparison.

The ruins at Calw, and a Saturday ruined

The monastery ruins at Calw/Hirsau near Weil Der Stadt have five-star reviews at travel sites. Read those and your expectations can really soar. Like in the case of all our trips, even the day ones, I had spent hours going over various sites and finding information. All in vain it felt as soon as we got there.

I think this was the first place in Germany that I was truly disappointed with. One look and I felt like returning right away. The monastery ruins are very old, and the complex has been built starting the 1st century and added to thereon. You would expect a certain, almost pious feeling at such a place. But what do we find there? A beer festival was expected that evening and preparations were on in full swing right across the Marienkirsche, with half the area cordoned off for it. Weird!

The most majestic part of the ruins were under restoration. Which meant no access to those either. They were completely covered with cloth and scaffolding. Pity there was no mention of the restoration or the beer festival on the website which I checked just the day before we went there!

Now comes the strangest part. There was a bus-stop right across the ruins. We just missed a bus and there was no bus for the next two hours! The main railway station is 2.5 kms away. Reluctantly we started trekking back. Stopped on the way at the Kloster museum. That one is interesting, some bits in English. But nothing marvelous. Or may be we were already psyched with the place by then. Luckily we found the Hirsau railway station 500 meters away and got a train to Pforzheim in 15 min.

Itchy madness

I've been down with a severe skin allergy. It started suddenly about a week ago. I woke up scratching and realised I had these red bumps all over my legs. Took an anti-allergic and went back to sleep thinking all would be well. Like hell!

It has now been 8 days. The rash comes and goes, spreads to different parts of my body, is variedly itchy and has basically taken over my life and my mind. At first I was hesitant to see a doctor for something that silly (I am the types who think doctors exist only for life threatening circumstances). So I put off what seemed like an increasingly inevitable visit, trying out some home remedies and reading up what was available on the Internet.

Last night it became unbearable and I finally dragged my itchy self to a doctor this morning. The doctor was a pleasant young man, and thankfully spoke some English while I conversed in broken German using words I'd pre-derived from Google Translate. The appointment itself turned out better than my expectation.
The outcome didn't.

The doctor basically told me I had to be "my own detective" and use trial and error to determine (out of thousands of possibilities) the reason for my allergic skin rash. It could be just about anything: food, water, deos, mites, detergents, sun exposure (The hilarious part was that he kept comparing life in Germany to that in Sri Lanka in spite of at least two sheepish mentions from me that I am from India!). I was told that once I figured out, I would figure it out for life! Liked that... Though for the life of me, if only I knew how to do that.

The only silver lining of that visit was that he confirmed that the rash was not infectious and thereby not contagious. Don't have to worry about P or the kiddo catching it.

Hmm. So begins a journey to a very fuzzy end. Wherein lies an itch-free, rash-free night. Don't know when or how I will achieve that. Need luck! Wish me some, please!

Necessity forces mothers to innovate!

I find myself continuously scouting the net for different ideas to entertain the toddler. No mother will deny that it is a very hard task! Plus the idea is never to just pass the time, right? You need to inculcate a variety of learning, encourage skill development, not to mention throw in values, etc etc. Especially since we have moved to Germany and the day care avenue for new games and activities is pretty much gone from her life, the kiddo displays perpetual boredom. Whatever new toys only get so much attention before they get branded as 'old' like the tons others lying around the house.

Anyway. A friend suggested looking up flea markets for great bargains and so we went to this KinderFlohMarkt on Sunday. It was a great experience [a Pune equivalent both in terms of spread and scale would be a "Bhavya Pradarshan"! Can't explain that even if I tried, so non-Puneites kindly ignore]. Some of the items were used but they were in good condition. We decided to use our judgement on what passed and what didn't and went ahead and shopped.

We bought a few toys for the tod, but the most exciting one was this collection of alphabet and number mats for almost nothing. An unbelievable bargain! It is now day 3 and I think I have brought home a treasure:
We played with the mats the traditional way, i.e. pieced the mats together in the order of alphabets and letters. We tried various variations, making long trails or making simple words from letters she knew.

Today we tried something totally different. We made a huge game out of the mats. It took a lot of prepping: First we separated the base and alphabet/numbers, then spread the base mats in a line starting from the bedroom into the living room with about a foot between every two mats. Then we made little chits and wrote down some simple actions on them - bark like a dog, moo like a cow, touch your toes, jump up high, etc.

The game went like this: Roll a dice, jump the number of mats equal to the number on the dice, find and fit the alphabet/number on that mat, then pick up a chit and act out what was written on it. Change player and continue. Kiddo not only enjoyed the game, enjoyed its numerous rules, often reminding me when I 'accidentally' skipped a step - like Aai, you forgot the chit! Of course, she could neither read the dice, nor count steps nor read the chits without help from me, but we had fun nonetheless.

She won both the games we played, needless to say. But the ultimate winner was her mother, considering we spent a whole hour playing with the mats! :-)

Update: We've since discovered even more ways to play with the mats - hubby made blocks/cubes out of 6, then 16 and then all 36 mats. We are also sorting by colour, learning alphabets and numbers and even made a hopskotch!