Sorry - Samvatsari

I reached Fulda from Rottweil in a four hour train journey. The journey on ICE is wonderful. Travelling at more than 200 kms hour in wonderful comfort. Indian Railways has lot to learn. But then its pretty cheap travelling in Indian Railways as compared to the 80 Euros I paid for this trip. The countryside train journey is beautiful with big farms all around and cattle and horses gazing.

I was going through all my mails of last week on the train and came across a mail from Ritu mentioning Samvatsari on 9th. I was curious about this and was really amazed about this annual Jain community 'Sorry Telling Day'.Samvatsari is considered as the most pious day of a year and Jain people do prayer on this day to ask for the forgiveness for anything they did to hurt someone by means of thoughts, words, acts or deeds. They would ask for pardon from all the living being - human, plants, animals etc. Any word , action that might have hurt anyone. It really takes guts to say sorry and that too for no reason (thats what everyone thinks). Just imagine what state this world would be without this single word and another word close to this could be Thanks. I have seen lot of misunderstandings, my sudden wrong actions - intentional or unintentional just getting sorted out when I said sorry. We copy so much from other culture like Thanksgiving day, Valentines day, mothers day ...... archies has created a day every day but I see no effort from these marketing companies to promote this great day. I think we should try more to look into our culture which is tried and tasted over the centuries. Lets take the first step to say sorry to atleast those we know we have hurt intentionally , forget about unintentional or to other living things. And lets also remember to say Thanks.

As I watch the news in my hotel room - the world economy looks in a mess. Lehman Bros has gone bankrupt, Merrill Lynch is being taken over by Bank of America, AIG is being funded. Share markets world wide has taken a beating. Currency fluctuations is mind boggling. Dollar from 45 to 39 to 46 , Euro from 55 to 70 to 64 against the rupee in a span of one year. I dont know how do we manage this at LNM as every time I tried to hedge I am loosing.

I had a wonderful dinner at a spanish lounge here. First time I had spanish food. It tasted awsome but had lot of cheese. Well I had reason to celebrate - I won a good order for my company today.

Summing up the trip

Today is my last night in Europe. I am at Stuttgart and fly to Frankfurt tomorrow morning for further connection home. This has been a great trip as I got an opportunity to go to places which you usually dont travel. In my last trips to Europe I had visited only the metros but this time I got an opportunity to go inside small towns, villages - places like Bad Salzungen, Leimbach, Fulda,Burghaun, Rottweil, Aichhalden in Germany - Graz, Zeltweg in Austria, Turku, Tampere, Lahti in Finland. I travelled on planes, cars, trains and buses. This gave me a great perspective about the continent. I went into mines 800 meters into the ground and 110 meters up on the tower. I went into the Eastern part of Germany , the historic border which at one time was making so much of tension in the world. How removing the borders has bought peace and triumph. Is it not so unfortunate that how much trouble we create with these man made borders. The trip in the mine was so enthralling. How difficult it is for some people who work there in the dark. Such a hard job some part of the society is doing to make our life comfortable. Touched World war 2 history there. Theres a cave in the mine where Hitler had hidden tons of Gold, Billions of Dollars and best paintings of Berlin Museum but unfortunately US noticed it and after the war dug out every thing. Its said they carried every thing and till recently have been returning to the different countries there Gold and money. I saw a Crystal mine there with sparkling crystals and they do a light and sound show there. So dazzling.

I got an opportunity to try different food. Things I don't eat at home. It was difficult to get lot of choices in vegetarian food but never slept hungry and unsatisfied. Drove motorboat in Baltic sea and Dakota bike - so much like our bullet. Was so close to nature. Air never breathed so fresh. By the way I had mentioned name of a place above Bad Salzungen. Bad does not mean BAD but Bath. At all places in Germany where they use Bad before the name of the place means there is a natural water source which cures diseases. The walk around one of these source - gives you such a wonderful feel. It really feels something has touched you in.

but the biggest gain has been the people with whom I interacted. They were so nice and homely. The hospitality was so great that we don't even do anything like this in India though we call ourselves good hosts. How happy these guys live - not creating unhappiness by there own doing. They accept the situation as it is not trying to worry about things not in there control. I am really bowled over by the touch. Another lesson I learn was punctuality. How I was able to plan every thing nicely as every thing moved in time. A train, a bus, an appointment, a taxi call. If we can do this back home how much more we can deliver. I have a whole day journey tomorrow and it will be tiring. I hope I carry on this writing once back to the daily chores at work and home. I also look forward to my trip to US which starts in a fortnight.

So Here I am at Turku in Finland. This is the 15th country I have seen in my life time and except for Dubai all has been business related.It was a two hour flight from Frankfurt to Helsinki and then three hours bus journey to this place. Helsinki looks like an old airport. The bus drive was great and I think the best time to come here is may be one more month from now. Still there are no leaves on the trees after the winter onslaught. I recollect participating in my school drama when I was in 5th standard on Indian Freedom struggle and the starting lines of the drama were "The sun never sets in the British Empire" but even if the sun sets here it is for really small time. At 10.00 pm when I reached this place the sun was still out like we have around 5.00 pm in India. The birds were flying to there nests. So that means it was going to set shortly and till the time I went to bed it was still not completely dark. The hotel I am staying here is great. They have English channels on the TV. And the most important the internet is free. Using internet has been the most expensive thing for me here. You pay almost 10-12 Euro for an hr. or you need to take daily packages which i usually took for 30 -40Euros. This brings me to the topic I wanted to write. Having been to almost 6 countries In Europe in my four trips here I have found travelling and leaving in Europe more tough and some what not as carefree as you find in US for Vegotarian Indian like me. One of the major reasons is the cost. Its really expensive in Europe and I dont know how they survive with this kind of cost and working just 40 odd hours in a week. What I found that things cost same in US and Europe just the currency changes and thats a 60% effect. Hotel rooms here average 80-100 Euros and same in US but in dollars. Gas here is 1.5 Euros as compared to .80 Euro in India or now alsmost same in US. A taxi ride of almost 40-50 kms can kill your days budget. The secod biggest problem is language. I mean its so funny they have no signboards in English or no announcements in English and its different language every where like here its Finnish and German in Germany. There was a bus change to my ride yesterday and the driver announced about it but I didnt understand a bit and when I saw everyone getting out I just got out and then found out that for this bus this was the last stop. So you feel very unfriendly type. In US its so different - Any place You go you can understand every thing and relate with them. Its more adventures here like you dont know whats going to happen next. Infrastructure both palces is same. Superb, something I dont know India will ever have. Systems superb and everyone follows the law and respects it. The better thing in Europe is the History. You can feel History here and old buildings with typical European architecture. Its same from a small village to Munich or Vienna. While travelling to Europe you feel a bit out of place where as in US its so much like i know this place. And to top it you end up seing every 7th to 8th guy Desi in US.Food - absoultely no problems in US. I will be travelling to US in another 2 weeks and will be driving with Duane may be 2000 kms in 5 days but its nice and enjoyable. In next 15 minutes my host is going to pick me up from the hotel for a sight seing to this town, Turku look like a beautiful place. My hotel is by the side of a river and great view. I am taking my camera today and hopefully will be able to share some of the pictures of Turku. Enjoy your Sunday. But one think I must confess about Europe - the people are good and help you out.