my new affair

I am in love with Umlaute... they are cute and adorable.. I did not even realize how fascinated I am with them in my rudimentary attempts to write a few words in German, till a friend pointed it out to me yesterday..

It seems I put them wherever my heart fancies even though they don't belong there..

well, may be I need to explain what Umlaute are.. these are those two adorable dots on top of a, o and u. Typically these become ä,ö,ü, additional three alphabets in German and in Swiss German. Do not ask me to pronounce them correctly, I simply cant. My German teacher used to exaggerate his facial movements to make us understand the difference in sound of this holy trinity of German language but every time he did it, it just cracked me up.. I never knew if it was his comical face or the sound of those alphabets.. but I just could not stop giggling inside my belly and trying hard not to blurt out laughing loud or fall off my chair in my bout of epileptic laughter... to be honest, I never attempted to pronounce those ä,ö and ü. Why should I? They were having party inside my imaginative brain... and felt no need to enter this world through my primitive vocalization.. I was also happy to play with them in my brain and have a bash, a creative bash...

but written words is a different story... I can express myself better in written words, even thoughts or sounds that I would shy away from vocalizing through my throat, flow effortlessly through my written words.. and so do Umlaute.. For example, my most favorite and first learned Swiss German word is 'Schlüsselblüemli'.. what a beautiful word!!! It sounds like a musical note to my ear but I cant pronounce it. So I just bug my friends to say this word to me again and again like a child pestering his mom to continue reading a bed time story and refusing to sleep.. But  I write the word 'Schlüsselblüemli' as often as I like. I not only like writing the word Rösti, I also eat it with great joy every single time.. I play with Umalute in my words... because they look like little persons to me..

let me explain what I mean.. Imagine each alphabet is a person, a little person.. what Swiss German will describe as Männlli, may be a personalli is a better word but I don't know if that exists. ... so each alphabet has also a personality of its own.. some are naughty, some are geeky, some are bit depressive, some are always ready to play, some are snobbish, some are shy and some are obsessive compulsive.. now imagine my ä,ö and ü.. to me they look like little naughty but friendly aliens.. with little antennae on their heads to communicate with their world... or little angels with a halo over their head, or just prankster kids pulling tricks on poor souls like me who are terrible at phonating all these hard sounds of foreign language...

but I imagine these three to be like me somehow... for example, I am very sure that their antennae start beeping crazy in joy and excitement, even turn green and blue when they see Rösti or chocolate muffins or potato chips or any tasty vegetarian food any hour of the day... they get all mushy and humble when they see a beautiful sunset, new leaves of spring, or a tiny wild flower.. they cry while reading a letter from a friend or watching a movie or enjoying a book.. they also feel sad and struggle to express their sadness and instead start fanatically organizing something at hand... they can be pleased easily and they can break into an ear to ear banana smile at smallest of a joy coming their way... I like these little special characters because I can relate to them and they give me a means of expression of my own kind... so I use them generously as I go about my way in attempts to learn the language and smile along with them.. I leave them behind me as a trademark, just the way we all leave a mark, a legacy behind us in every person, every object we interact with in our life time... and I amuse myself when idle by imagining various tricks my ä,ö and ü could pull on me... and trust me they are very very naughty and funny and crazy when it comes to pulling tricks... and they also have nonverbal communication strategy through size of those dots, colors and distance between the two dots. Everything has a meaning and deciphering that meaning is no less than scholarly work that I do for earning a living...

So I leave you all with a line rich in Umläüte.

Häve ä beütifül weekend...

mankind on move

It is not a sensational statement if I state that we live in a globalized world. I think the term globalization has lost its charm because we just know it, we take it as a standard, there is no more academic debate whether globalization is the phenomenon of late 20th century... it is a fact almost universally accepted that we live in a globalized world...

But sometimes I still get amazed by the complex personal and national identities (and stereotypes as well) this has led to. How these identities collide in everyday life.. for example, I received an email from someone who lives in Sydney Australia, who says she is of Chinese ethnicity and she is born first generation New Zealander. She is visiting Europe in summer. What an interesting way of defining herself? and what it must be like to be her, to belong to so many identities but still feeling somewhere in between, being in a constant search for feeling comfortable in some community, some group, some country, some continent?

Another example, my train ride from Zurich to Basel this morning, I had to listen to a conversation (rather loud and public) between fellow passengers, a man and a woman. The man defined himself as an artist, he comes from Guatemala and holds Guatemalan passport. In his words, he has lived in New York and New Delhi and many places in between. He speaks English and French fluently but feels that he is loosing Spanish, his mother tongue. He was talking to a young woman sitting opposite him on the train. The conversation started with him trying to guess her nationality. He claimed he loves to play this game and is accurate 85% of times. In this case, he was wrong even after 3 guesses. She is from Poland but has lived in the UK for 10 years, has also lived in Ukraine and Russia and her family currently resides in Ukraine. She speaks fluent Polish, English, Russian and tiny bits of German. Her family has expanded into many parts of continental Europe through marriages and relationships. It was interesting to overhear the conversation between these two for 50 minutes. They talked about their lives and identities but they also shared their experiences of having lived in many countries, positive as well as negative. They had strong opinions about cultural differences and they also had strong preferences on where do they feel truly at home.

Talking to strangers in public places such as trains is quite common in India. At least that is how I have experienced it and remember it and I don't think that habit has disappeared in last 5 years. But in Switzerland, I rarely see such interactions. The fact that these two talked for the entire train ride was quite unusual and they acknowledged that this was possible because neither of them was Swiss. I am not sure about that statement. But this is what they both believed.

I want to meet someone who has never left his place of birth, nor has his family moved anywhere.. you know the true locals...  I would love to listen to such a person and understand their story and experience.. does that even exist? if we look at human history, movement and more recently migration in search of food, shelter, love, growth, stability, safety is as old as story of mankind... it feels like we all have been moving all along, strange because deep down inside us, the reason to move was to find an anchor, a place to belong, a place that can be our home.. some of us found it, some others are still searching but may be there are some who never had to search for such an anchor. They just knew they were in a right place ... I am really curious to meet such a person...

A little boy lost in his book

This morning, on my tram ride to work, I saw a little boy sitting by the window, deeply engrossed in his book. I could not stop myself from starting a conversation with his mother. Generally I am afraid to talk to strangers in Switzerland because it is not a common practice here that a stranger starts talking to you that too in English.. But today I made an exception..

I grew up in company of books. They fueled my imagination and curiosity about the world. They also inspired me to get out my comfort zone at a very young age.. Reading a book still gives me an immense joy. But when I look at all the multimedia and games that predominate the childhood today, I feel a dull ache in my heart.. Nothing against the play stations, video games, computer games and clutter of i pads, smart phones, kindles and computers, they have a role of their own and advantages too.. but still loss of books that can be smelled, touched, held in one's hands and carried in one's school bag makes me a bit lost... I do admit that in last decade or so, all I read was professional literature.. and that affected my brain rather adversely.. so recently I decided to bring books back in my life, to give them their deserved honored place... I started borrowing and buying books that have nothing to do with my work life.. and they make such a difference...

So seeing this boy this morning lost in his book resonated deeply with my own life... and my compliment was well received by his mother.. boy was not interested in talking to me.. I am sure his book was more interesting.. but the mother shared my feelings.. She said she grew up with books and is very happy that her son shares that passion... she also noted that it is pretty rare for boys to be fond of books.. and she hopes that her boy would continue to be friends with books..

I wished them both happy reading hours and walked out of the tram feeling happy and inspired to write this blog post... when i was a child, my mom told me-'if you want to be a good writer, you need to read a lot of good books'.. I agree but I want to add, being able to observe everyday life and noticing such little experiences also helps me write...

Keep reading and stay happy... Have a great day ahead...