Holi & Easter in Germany! Back in Time...

Clicked by Jan or Nicole: From L-R: Nils, Mike, Katja, Daniel, Freder, Arthur and I after Holi at the University, Darmstadt.

It was quite a surprise when one of my room-mates, Nils asked if there was a traditional Indian Festival that we could celebrate… I answered that there is Holi during this time. Then I asked my mother over the phone and she replied, “Yes, it is close by, on the 22^nd of March!’ That was in the year 2000. Since my hosts (for internship), the AIESECERs in Darmstadt, Germany were scheduled to meet at the University on the 20^th, we decided to celebrate in advance… Carnival colours were used to colour each other’s faces and as a treat I had carried black-eyed beans and ‘chaawal ki kheer’ which they knew as ‘Milch Reis’!

Mrs. & Mr. Busse, Mike & I at their house for Easter, clicked by their neighbor/friend's daughter.

Soon, they were all about to go for the weekend to their parents’ house, and as was the tradition, they decided to give a taste of the festival to the interns also. So, ‘chinophile’ Mike took me to his parents’ house in Donnstadt for Easter. Yes, he was totally in love with all things Chinese then and is also married to a lovely Chinese woman now! Actually, it is not just about Mike’s ‘punar-janam’/ past-life, his parents used to live in Taiwan when he was young, so that sort of, explains the bond. I find it a bit scary because I lost friendship of a Chinese woman but I am sure, discipline and wisdom come easily to Germans, and he operates out of love, so, they must be very happy. I cannot see myself married to a Chinese person ever, unless it is Meiyang Chang, of course…

Anyway, it was great being there and also visiting Shwetzingen Park with Mike and Rupa.  Spring was awesome.

This peacock danced for five minutes straight, for a couple in love… They were showing affection to each other and even Rupa (a staunch traditional girl who used to describe PDA as 'infection') smiled at them. I was going crazy clicking photos as I had seen so much greenery after ages! Well, it had been four months since I had been away from Tropical Calcutta… And naturally, both my friends got irritated… But it was so beautiful!

This was also a pretty state of the weather when I had reached at the end of November 1999. Later, just when the Spring began, these trees had purple blossoms for a few weeks! We can see Mike here, with a broom he had borrowed from my room-mates. The apartment was close by, as I walked up with Nils from Jahnstrasse tram stop that day admiring the snow and Nils suggested we must take a picture of Mike with the broom. My room-mates used the broom to clean up the cellar for the Christmas party. I had made ‘pakoRas'... which thankfully came out well and people loved, especially Frank. BTW, I wanted to put better pictures and make some changes when all the text on Frank's blog vanished. I shall share that again with better pictures. For photos on this blog, I must give credit to my brother who took great 'pics' of 'pics'. Thank you :)