The Lufthansa staff lived up to its expectations. Cold, curt and inhospitable. As usual I lost my glasses and requested the stewardess to help. She tells me "I am sure we didn't take it!" sometimes I wonder whether we see hostility in others as a society that has been subjugated too long or are we really treated like this ? Or is this really about Indians? Would A Indian treat another white man the same way? I don’t know. Most Airlines have Hindi announcements, the Business class is mostly occupied by Indians and the Economy class is mostly occupied by whites. Does that make them dislike us even more? I really have no clue. But I do sense a mixture of hostility, fear and awe for Indians. Most of it is media created I think.
Moving on, we were in a beautiful lane in Salzburg. In fact the oldest in Salzburg. As old as the city is. Very narrow...which meant we had to carry our bags to our Apartment. Hafez, our Pakistani Taxi driver would not let me touch the bags; he took mercy on a poor fat Indian!
Typically Medieval and tight with paved stones and a climb. We were comfortable in a little apartment in the heart of Salzburg. We decided to stay in an Apartment because I was taught the virtues of being in an apartment by my dear friend Eugene and Kathleen. You almost become a citizen of the place once you start living in an apartment. You begin to understand the nuances of their lifestyles... like the electrical connections...the grocery shopping...the food habits...the floors and the walls, the colours of the walls everything starts making sense to you and slowly the culture of that place starts becoming a part of you , yet you have the travellers objectivity to look at things...
We went to a musical show called the "Sound of Salzburg"... it had live songs from "The Sound of Music", local folk songs...it was a unique theatre. You had to reach there at 7.30 if you wanted dinner. We didn’t, for obvious vegetarian reasons! And if you don’t eat, you reach there at 8 and they start the show at 8.30. The audience was a group of about 150 people. People from almost every continent. Asians, Americans, Australians, and Africans and of course Europeans... The show had so much love and life and joy and celebrations... we seem to only enjoy in our private occasions in India. A marriage or a birthday... but how many of us can actually go to a show, enjoy the local folk music, dance and sing with the singers?
My business instincts tell me, that if someone picked up this idea, about doing a theatrical show with a of say "Bahina Bai”, a great folk poetess who wrote poetry as she would grind her grains, it would be fabulous... maybe Prasad should consider doing this as an incubation project at FLAME?
And then Mozart. Everyone knows everything about Mozart. But there was one striking thing about the Guide and the people we spoke to about Mozart. They did not go overboard in glorifying him. In fact they seemed a little understated about his genius, but every little detail of his life, every letter , every symphony , his notes, his love, his house, even his shoes and potty are all kept like a national treasure! And I just heard we lost Gandhijis spectacles!
.... More later... too much to say...
I am here on a journey of self-discovery. The journey of self-discovery, I realize needs 3 major components... complete anonymity, not a soul should recognize you...second it needs solitude , a space and a time for reflection, finally a sense of hamrony with who you are. The first 2 are quite easy on a forgeign land.. but the 3rd one tkaes a bit of time... I hope I find it soon!
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