The node of all Orbits: July 2005

The node of all orbits

The node of all orbits.
The name of this blog isn't original.
I owe it to the writer of the deepest and most apologetic romance,Thomas Hardy.
I read the phrase in "The Woodlanders".I also got my screen name Winterborne from the same book.(and not because I was born in winter,if one more person says that I will disappear permanently and with immediate effect)

My time in Deutschland (okay, Germany if you like) is almost over.
Instead of writing my training report,I am looking out at the Spree river,and the sprawling skyline of the city I have grown to love in a short time.The view of sprawling skyline is somewhat stunted by a wicked tree that probably did not choose to grow here.

Dhananjay

U-bahn and the smell of rain

In the underground ( U-Bahn) this saturday, this big German guy walked up to me puposefully.Being in the east side of Berlin(where most of the skinheads hang out),at 1:30 in the night,I thought it was a good idea to make my will.He took two steps forward and says"You want to sell your T-shirt?"(in German first and after a blank scared look, in English)
This was the "Beer makes you smarter,it made Budwiser" T-Shirt that I was wearing.
I laughed it off then,but now I regret it,considering the state of my finances.

*******************************************************************************

Now,if I were captured by the most uncouth,unkind and gory aliens on THEIR planet(I have a solid back here,DPS RkPuram style),and I could offer them just one thing (from earth) to melt their hearts and spare my life,I would have made them smell the scent of earth when it just starts raining.Till today morning that is!
I discovered that Germans find the smell disgusting and close all windows when it starts to rain.Miro,who works with me,made a disgusted face when i told him that I actually love the smell,and so do the rest of the Indians.Indians,was I right or am I in for more shocks?

Ah,the smell of rain,if I start describing it.....
I would attribute my(an Indian's) love and a typical German's dislike for the smell to our associative memory.We love everything about the rain,because it comes after a brutal summer.Here,the rain robs them of the 3 months of the summer they get here.In the absolute,the smell of the rain is neutral,not meant to captivate or to disgust.I hate this didactic tone that I had in the previous sentence.You can blame it on Milan Kundera!

Someone said(actually the guy in the pic) 'You haven't lived if you havent been to Riese.Interestingly,in Finnish,the Riese means pain in the backside.We got here through some to the point unsolicited advice!