Where is Everybody?

After living in New Delhi for the past 18 months, wherever I go, I feel I am in a place less crowded.  Delhi is crowded, and initially it was bothering me.  There are times people literally bumped into me as I walked on the streets, and did not even acknowledge being brushed.  With time, I got used to it, and I probably do the same now.

I boarded Air France flight from Paris to Montpellier a few days ago, and a tall man welcomed me – and just one man.  He had a tag on his shirt which said ‘Securite’ in French, and I assumed that he must be an Air Marshal.  I did wonder why would an Air Marshall advertise himself, but did not follow that route of thinking.  He then, closed the door, made announcements on the PABX.  The plane took off.  Lo and behold, he started to push the refreshment cart, offering passengers drinks and snacks.  Then he went down the aisle again, collecting rubbish, made announcements, sat on his seat, the plane landed, he then opened the door to let us out.  One man is doubling for security and hosting of 200 passengers or so. 

I arrived at Novotel where I was to stay.  It turned out that the bar was also the reception and the bar tender was doubling for receptionist.  Went for breakfast in the morning, there was no one around, plenty of pastries and croissants, packed food – you name it, there it was.  Made myself a coffee, collected whatever I wanted to eat, ate, returned the used plates and put the rubbish in bin and walked out.  Noone was there!

I am not sure if this is the way productivity is increased or this is because there’s a shortage of people in these countries. 

Is it Technology or Attitude?

Everyone loves German Cars, and everyone who had been to Germany knows that everything works there, on time and as planned.  How come, I often wondered?

I almost lost 50 Euros yesterday at a ticket vending machine at Bonn railway station.  I needed a ticket to Frankfurt, went through the menu, ordered the ticket and inserted a 50 Euro bill, which got stuck in the feeder.  I just could not walk away – its 50 Euros.  I could not see anyone from Railways hanging around, and was not sure that I should walk and find one, leaving 50 Euros on the feeder.  I could not retrieve it, but what if the next guy could before I return, and how will I convince whoever that it was my money ?!

I saw a policeman walking among the crowd.  He was well built, his head was above the crowd, and he walked like a gentle giant.  I waved at him, and he came to the machine and raised his eye-brows, asking what I wanted.  I explained what happened.

He asked, ‘Are you in a hurry?’.  I said no.  My train is about 50 minutes from then.  He said, 'Just wait here, and I will bring someone to help you'.  In five minutes he came with a railway officer.  This officer was about half the height as the Policeman, must have had some Chinese genes in him.  He looked more of well-fed Chinese person than a German.  I thanked the policemen, he had a firm handshake.  He then left.

The Railway officer took his smart phone, took a photo to record the vending machine ID, and asked me to go with him.  I said that my money is stuck.  It was only then he understood what the problem was.  He said, just wait, ran in typical Chinese short steps, back to his office, and returned with a forceps in no time, grabbed the note and pulled it out gently.  I got my money back.

Then he went through the menu again, and got me the ticket I needed, I thanked, he bowed and left.

Train came about six minutes late and arrived at Frankfurt three minutes late.  In a two and half hour journey, the train driver apologized for the delay at least four times.  It had been raining a lot, the reasons for the delay. 

I reflected on the whole episode.  What would have happened if my money was stuck in a vending machine in another country?  I will be busy filling too many claim forms, and would have left with a faint hope that one day I will get my money back.  The chances of a policeman helping me will be 50:50 at best.  The railway officer helped me, as if his money was stuck, and the train driver kept on apologizing for 3 to 6 minutes delay for reasons beyond her control? 

The whole episode was too civilized for me, and I concluded it’s their attitude, not their technology, which makes everything works in Germany.

Railway Friendships

While I waited for the shuttle bus to Terminal 1 at Frankfurt airport, my eyes locked into another pair.  They belonged to an old man, scruffy, hair not combed, unshaven beard, clothes un-ironed.  He too was a passenger, and I felt he did not like me staring at him.  I shifted my eyes away.  He walked passed me, returned, walked passed me, then got into the bus, we both waiting for.  I lost track of him.

I found my way to the train station at Terminal 1, figured out the difference between a long distance train and a regional train, bought my ticket and found a seat.  I had to transfer to another train at Mainz, and the travel time from Frankfurt to Mainz is only 20 minutes.  I had five minutes for this transfer.  Needless to say I was a bit nervous, concerned if I could make it.

I heard a passenger arguing with the TTR, not sure what it was about, but wanted the TTR to clear me so that I could get down when the train stop at Mainz any minute.  I could not see the arguing passenger.  When the train stopped I moved my luggage towards the door, the man I saw at the bus stop was in front of me.  He pointed a bag, I said it’s not mine, he said that was his.  My bag was in front of his one, blocking his access to the bag.  I pulled my bag back; he took his one, and asked where I was coming from.  I said, India.

‘Key se hai’, he said in poor Hindi accent, I smiled and said ‘it’s Key se ho - meaning how are you’?  He said, ‘Oh, whatever’.  We both got out, and the platform I had to find was just on the other side, and he too waited for the same train to come. He sat on the bench, and said that the TTR fined him for getting into an express train.  His ticket was for a normal train.  Then he said, ’oh, it was only money – just a piece of paper; ever since the Americans put ‘In God We Trust’, on the dollar, the money has become cheap. I smiled, and said now money is not even paper, its plastic or electronic digits.  It’s another story he said, and went quiet.

The train to Bonn via Koblenz came; we sat next to each other.  I was not sure if he was curious, or just wanted to talk.  I was not in any hurry, and I obliged as a listener.  He covered a range of topics from sex to international politics.

'You know, my wife and I like sex, but we are old, so, we bought a sex engine BMW'. In German sex is six, I figured.  'The only problem is that I am not allowed to drive faster than 210 km/h', he lamented.  

‘What’s the hurry?’, I was sarcastic.  ‘You are right, I am seventy five years old, my wife died eight months ago, and I have a lot of time in my hand’.  'Oh by the way, how old are you?’.  

‘Fifty nine’, and expected him to say that I am still young.  This is what I hear from elders I meet. ‘I thought you are near one-hundred’, and winked.  He has settled the score.  We both laughed.

It’s about an hour so we had been talking, and I asked for his name.  He said it’s Heiko Hodson.  He did not bother asking for mine.  

Our conversation continued.  He talked about his job in a nuclear plant in Germany which got shut down later; the five day war in the Middle East, at a time when he was based in Kuwait as a Radio Technician; training Zambians in radio-technology in Zambia, and how he convinced a donor that training in Zambia is cheaper than in Germany (and got himself posted Livingston, Zambia as the training coordinator); the Russian student he hosted in Germany without a rent; and the holiday he just had at St Petersburg with her.  On Chinese, he said, ‘they will colonize the moon, and rip all its resources, and leave a mess.  Then you have to see Moon only on old photos.  Mark these words of Heiko Hodson’.  He was categorical, convinced that Chinese will be a force to accept, not just to reconcile with.

As train whizzed along the Rhine, he commented that he has not seen the river levels so high; then expressed relief that flood will not enter his city because the levies are built high; then expressed dismay that the same levies will cause high velocity discharges troubling those downstream.  'No one cares about others,you know'he bemoaned.

Koblenz neared, he was ready to get down, he looked at me and said, ‘you have another forty minutes to Bonn, and I hope you can find some Chappati there’. I said, I will be looking for sauerkraut, sausages and beer.  He wanted to have the last word, and said for me it will be Cognac.    

Here’s my latest railway friendship.  We meet strangers for brief periods, engage in conversations, and then walk away.  These friendships are meaningless, but conversations could be otherwise.  I could see a man with a good sense of humor, information and satisfied with his past.  He wants to talk and I was glad to listen. 

I recalled something I read a while ago, ‘Marry a woman with whom you can converse.  At the end that matters more’.  In his wife’s absence, I was his conversation partner, just for an hour or so of our lives.