Despite the clamoring public who have repeatedly requested I besiege them with more fascinating glimpses into my wondrous surroundings, I think I shall just ignore their plaintive cries and do what I like doing best - writing monologues meant for the benefit of no-one but me :-)

During our extremely exotic Pizza Hut lunch (HEY - don't cast stones before understanding how difficult it is to eat outside in a country where even desserts have meat in them ... at least with the pizza, I was able to confidently point to the innocent margherita with no fear in my vegetarian heart ... dharm bhrasht and all that) But oh - must must must let you know that Germany is possibly one of the only countries which lets this much accursed birthday-party-and-screaming-kids chain not be deprived of its tipple. In plain language? They serve ALCOHOL!!! Yes, Pizza Hut had a wide range of beers, wines and other cocktails (although the cocktails were a speculation - it was all written in German) and to provide proof of the same ... PFA the photo. I just could not help thinking about our own little desi Pijja Hat, or Pidja Hut (Said in the same way as 'Chal Hat / Hatt') depending on the level of Gujjuness inherent in you, and of all the annoying meals we have had there because of the presence of those happy little frolicking children - and how, a nice drink would have actually made that meal, oh so much more tolerable.

(A glass of the ol' red to the left, and some stolid beer to the right - pls note the Pizza Hut sign)

Today was 'May Day' in Germany (yes, and of course in the world too - its just that my limited world view now limits everything around me) and they had some fascinating practices which I felt compelled to share with my legions of followers, and to hopefully get them to ask that vital question - "how much free time do these people have?"!!!

Haan - so, well, every May Day, people put up these branches / twigs (sometimes small trees - looks like in Germany, size does still matter) decorated with ribbons and crepe papers and hoist it over the house of someone that they love (yes, these things do still exist) as a sign of their undying nonsense etc etc etc. (OK - maybe the last part was my interpretation but you get the general idea) So found quite a few right outside my house (and for the smart-alecs, even if he was whipped and tied to a tree - Gaurav would never do something like that ... i.e. as in if he were able and all that of course :-) Pictures follow ...

So you get the general gist. Spread the word of love, my dear friends ... because, as profoundly quoted by a person of unknown origin on a significant single color sticker I found randomly adhered to a post box ... No, and no means no ... NO sex with Nazis. (Below) Cheerio.

Finally - a picto-post after all my promises ... this is of the charming little town on Monschau, its only sad-ish claim to fame being that it was one of the few areas that was almost untouched during the WWII carpet bombing of Germany ... hence it still retains a lot of that ol' country charm and quaintness. Educate yourself at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monschau

Aah. The little joys of a little town. Indescribable. And de-lish ice-cream as well.

Its a gloomy day in Aachen today, with a possibility of rain hanging over us. I guess every day cannot be perfect. Signing off ... but just for now - I feel a post coming up soon.

Sush

Thought I'd just put in a quick one before settling down to the chaos of the day (surprised - anyone? Yes, chaos can also come via Skype and Gtalk right into sedate litte Aachen ... sigh, the rigors of a connected life)

Was reading about dear little Dubya's attempt at writing a memoir (sure someone had to tell him the difference between a scrapbook and a memoir) and found Letterman's take on it simply too good to be passed up. See it here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/28/letterman-takes-on-george_n_555180.html

And double trouble - Laura dear has also decided to publish her own memoir detailing her troubled times at the less-than-White House (it really must have taken inordinate courage to stay married to a man who so routinely f**ked up on such a global scale ... although I doubt that is the chief content matter of this book :-) It instead dwells on incidents we 'didn't' know about ... such as his poisoning at the G8 summit (someone in the interiors of Afghanistan is saying Bond-style 'I-expected-him-to-dhiee' read: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/george-bush-poisoned-during-g8-summit-laura/114178-2.html?from=tn) ... however I have listed a few things that came to MY head about earth-shatteringly global questions which I would like to see answered in such a monumental literary effort:

1) How does one read a book upside down? (see: pic) Especially a nursery book with mostly PICTURES??!!

2) Why are you trying to eat a kitten?

3) Exactly what deep diplomatic venture were you hoping to achieve with this?

Anyway ... sign-off time. For laughter's sake, one more.

Tata. (Not Young). Pictures later - pukka promise.

Sush

In the news ...

Came across an article that made the proverbial 'blood boil' http://www.slate.com/id/2246903/pagenum/2 and as usual, got around to thinking how in supposedly moving forward in the developed world, we seem to have just regressed back.

For some reason, we - as in larger terms of the 'human race' - are becoming increasingly obsessed with a vague kind of guerilla justice / kangaroo court verdicts, and just don't have the patience to evaluate the right or wrong in any situation. We want to see people arrested, civilians bombed, general mass chaos and destruction - and THAT strangely assuages our hurt feelings. Weird.

I remember the madness surrounding Kasab's trial. We went after any lawyer who represented Kasab as being unpatriotic and 'Paki' (almost like thats a quality!) heedless of the fact that representing him - just like making minus 20 IQ level music and dance shows or cleaning city drains - is just ... a job. I in fact found it far more healing to my soul that he was forced to face every victim of his - and hear their stories again and again. Yes - he may be so depraved that all of it was like butter off a non-stick pan, but just for that one oft oh-so redeeming chance that he just may, just could actually feel a tinge of guilt! Then we would have succeeded in doing what generations of conflict, warfare, torture, trauma didn't do to him - make him actually, well ... human.

More stuff for blood-boiling-inducing reading. Oh well. Life, I guess.

http://www.slate.com/id/2252117/pagenum/2

Signing off,

Sush

PS Didn't know I had this capacity to write - ability - yes, capacity - no. Next will be another photoblog.

A Nazi Finishing School. Nice.

Spent my first sunday in Deutschland soaking up some history at the very historic 'Vogelsang' site - often referred to as Hitler's forgotten castle, or more inappropriately, a 'finishing' school for Nazis. Don't want to imagine what the curriculum was like ... (Torture 101 anyone? followed by back-to-back lectures of Gas Inhalation 102 ...)

Read more at http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,496026,00.html

Else, see the pictures!

Above is the main barracks / central area ...

And this the view from the main barracks ... hey, at least you can't fault the Fuhrer on a sense of style!

I know ... there's some advertising guy thinking he has JUST bagged the Cannes Lion for this yellow rubbish. Sheesh.

These were the barracks that the soldiers of the future were expected to stay in - I know, fairly plush-y. But pls to note the de-cline of 20% slope (is that the opposite of incline?) which I happily skipped down with my nimble feet. Needless to confess, the trip back was not that pleasing, and I was exactly 20 steps from cutting my feet off and sacrificing them to the patron saint of Vozelgang.

If you bothered going through the link before, you'd read about the "monstrous five-meter high Germanic 'Torch Bearer'". Gaurav did try to prove his cadidature, but he was disqualified on grounds of the fact that he was holding a ladys handbag and various other fairly irrelevant factors.

An overall view of the whole place - it was fairly huge and took around 2 collapsed lungs, 1 and a half damaged knees and a dollop of sanity to finish.

The few good men who line the football stadium ... umm, i.e. of course until they had most of their 'good parts' knocked off during the invasion by irate troops who considered even granite carved stone figures to be the 'real german thing'.

Phew ... that took years. Now I understand why I'm considered out-of-date ... one of those little newbies in my office would have done this balancing a ferris wheel on one hand and a juggling clown on their nose. Oh well - all I can promise is that ... THE LAYOUT WILL GET BETTER!!!

SIGNING OFF (damn forgot to take off the caps :-)

Sush