Travel to Germany / Europe: A middle-class Indian’s guide

This was my first visit to Germany (or Europe), and I was trying to search a blog something like this, but unfortunately I didn't get it. Now since I have figured out most of the answers on my own, jotting it down so that I may help somebody.

• The first and foremost thing- Always carry your passport with you. No matter where you go. Preferably keep it in your pockets, and avoid keeping it in your handbag. If you happen to miss your bag then you can't even imagine the problems awaiting rendezvous with you :)  
• Carry one more photo id other than your passport. It could be your company id, or driving license or anything else. Also it is a good idea to always carry the customer invite letter if you are going on Business Visit.
• Don't forget to carry a water bottle [decent, refillable, sustainable-- not just empty Bisleri bottle– don’t embarrass Indians please :) ]. Trust me it is going to save you a lot of money as you'll need to buy the water separately, other than your food :). You’ll be able to conveniently refill your bottle, almost anywhere. One more thing: at airport or railway stations, if you don’t get water dispensers it is perfectly fine if you refill it from taps in wash rooms… it is very much drinkable.
• Another most important thing is power plugconverter / adapter. In India most of the power plugs come with 3-pin, while in Germany (not sure about other places in Europe) everywhere the plugs are of 2-pin. You can go to Chroma or any local electric shop and get a adapter/converter which can be plugged into a 2-pin and allow your 3-pin to be inserted on the top of it. This is an absolute must, as you’ll really have a tough time in find these converters here. Trust me; if you forget this, you are going to miss it more than your wife (arguably) because neither your laptop, nor your iron-box, nor the mobile charger is going to work.
• It would be great if you carry a double SIM mobile phone or at least a phone with your Indian number active. This has two advantages:

• One: Your Indian number will not be deactivated for being offline for 40/45 days. Just don’t make any outgoing phone calls or messages. You’ll not be charged for international roaming. 

• Two: You’ll continue to receive messages from Bank and more importantly near and dear ones. In return, you can text them with any online sites. Just keep in mind, not every time these messages get delivered, there are considerable numbers of drops. 

• Be informed of the weight you are carrying; most of the time the check-in baggage limit is 23KG. There’s ambiguity when it comes to hand baggage. Some airlines allow one bag other than your laptop bag, some consider just one bag.  Now you can do a trick, buy a max allowed size cabin baggage in which you can also keep your laptop along with other stuff… you may stuff it as per your need, as typically hand baggage is not weighed at airport [this is my experience—do it at your own risk, who knows if you are that unlucky fellow]
• If you are very specific about your food, then within these 23 KGs try to get as many ready to eat items as you get. Trust me; I was also not willing to bring anything but I unwillingly brought it and it helped a lot.
• (Travelling within Germany) Please be more careful when the source-to-destination is multi-city. You can get your reservations done at railway stations... but be informed that it can have a connection via 'bus' as well. In the tickets if you don't find a platform number against a specific connection, verify it with the clerk.
• Don’t act lazy by depending on your mobile; take a good camera, you’ll definitely need it. Also, on timely basis upload it on an online album to mitigate the risk of losing them altogether.
• Avoid taking photos which have PII (personally identifiable information)... it could also be vehicle number plates. It would be a good idea to talk to local authority about this.
• Respect traffic signals-- even if it is 3 O'clock in the morning, and nobody is on road.
• Thank people for small gestures... and Smile :)
• Last but not the least— if you are a hard-core Indian guy, carry a ‘mugga’, you will never see it there… and you’ll definitely miss it every morning if you are not very much 'comfortable' with tissue paper :)
• Feel free to make this list exhaustive by adding your comments, it would help others :)

Tips for practicing Muslims:

• If you are very strict and eat only Halal, then definitely you’ll have a tough time… face it; because here food is pork and alcohol oriented. Even if you are eating veg (something like 'veg fried rice') it would be fried in same oil, so be very watchful.
• There’s something called ‘Doner’ or ‘DÖNER’-- it is a Turkish dish much like Shawarama. Most of the Doner shops are run by Turkish people who sell Halal, but it is always better to confirm it for your own satisfaction.
• BTW, Masjids (Mosque) here are called Moschee, in case if you wish to find them. Mind you, most of the time they will not be with in typical Indian Masjid architecture.
• Buy leather socks. If you wear it, you need not wash your feet every time you make wuzu (ablution). You just need to do ma'saa. Discuss it with your trusted Aalim for more details. This would be helpful throughout your trip as it would be very difficult to find a place at airport or office where you can wash your feet regularly for all the prayers.
• Almost all the airports will have "Prayers Hall" or "Meditation Rooms". Take help from ground staff or police officers, you'll find them pretty helping. (At least I had a great experience)
• Whenever there's change in time due to "Daylight Savings". Please verify the Jama'at (congregation) timings in Masjid. Once I missed Friday congregation due to this.
• Be careful of most of the chocolates— they might contain Rum or some kind of alcohol.

PS: I am not endorsing Bisleri, Amazon, Chroma or any other brands... the reference is provided to help you see/understand the products.

Great example of my pathetic memory-- Gmail saved my life.

Yesterday, for some official reason, I had to mention my marriage anniversary date in one of the company websites. I completely forgot it-- not just the month, even the year. Trust me, all I remembered was, it was 6th of the month and was Saturday. It would have been terribly embarrassing if I would have called my parents to ask "When did I get married?" 

And also, I could not dare call my wife, as I felt it was life-threatening.

Then finally I searched "Sent Mails" for marriage invitation and got it from there. Gmail literally saved my life :p

Trip to Switzerland - Saturday November 3, 2012

[Statutory Warning] Viewer discretion is strictly advised. 

This is a lengthy, boring blog, with pathetic style of story-telling, mingled with horrible sense of humor, along with the art of shamelessly projecting the plot revolving around myself. This could only be digested by friends who are tolerating me since last 30 years, or at least who think that its been 30 years ;-). 

So, if you are not the intended viewer, do close your browser immediately and spend your time in doing something sensible.

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

Okay... so, let me start with the ticket booking itself. When I booked the tickets and informed my friends (or should I say colleagues??) that I am going to Zurich... the obvious question was-- for how long? I said: 6:30hrs!! I was mocked that I am traveling 24+ hours just for staying 6 hours... but those who know me know it very well that it is not unusual for me to do such so-called irrational or illogical things.

Coming back to where we started-- Trip to Switzerland (Zurich - Interlaken - Swiss Alps - JungFrau)

So, my starting point was Erlangen and journey was starting at 1:21AM. Quite obviously I did not sleep, and called up a taxi for Erlangen station. Although it was not very far (just 1.6 KMs) from my hotel (Hotel Kral) but I just thought of playing safer as it was pretty late in the night. Alright, I started at 12:30AM and was happy to see the taxi right outside the hotel, well on the time... but sooner that happiness went for a toss, as soon as I saw a not-so-comfortable driver, who was a Z-Black Kallu-mama. His first question was -- do you have cash!!! Without sugar-coating the words I should honestly say that -- Meri bilkul phat gayi!!! I had heard not-that-great things about these people, so played a little safe, I told him that yes, I have 10 Euros which should be sufficient for taking me to the station. Luckily my phone rang-- he said, take the phone-- I answered the phone saying-- Ya, I have already boarded and am reaching station in 5 minutes. The truth is-- that was not an incoming call-- it was my alarm, and I pretended that I have lots of friends coming with me :-) Ultimately I reached safely Erlangen station-- Thank God!!

It was 12:40 when I reached the platform, needless to say that very-very few people were visible there (I deliberately used the word "visible", because I am not sure of how many invisible souls have been haunting around... hooooooooooo, scary, please come back to the topic). Okay, so at 12:44 came a train to Nuremberg, that's where I had to go, but I had a ticket of 1:21. Standing at the platform, just outside the door of the bogie, I was a little confused, to-go or not-to-go, that stupid train did not wait for me to decide and went... how rude!! anyway, I let that go without any regret, and waited for my train at 1:21. By now goods trains started passing the platform and I kept waiting... it was 1:40... and it was pretty unusual that a train in Germany is so bloody late. There's a display board that shows, which one is the next train on a particular platform and what's the time... it went blank. I sensed that something is wrong... I checked complete arrival-departure chart of Erlangen and I could not find a train at 1:21. I realized there's some issue for sure... I checked my ticket again... and found out that there's no platform written against that timings-- secondly, it says BUS REV!!! This means, this 1:21 was the bus to Nuremberg and not a train. For sure I knew that I am in a mess... but still knew that situation is still under control as the train from Nuremberg was at 5:10AM. I went outside the railway platform/station... and I realized I was the only person visible (yes again that - Visible theory).

I checked with a taxi driver... a typical dadi-ji... she knew nothing in English... just pointed me to somewhere, it was bloody dark, 2AM aur meri akeli jaan. I checked with some passengers-- no clue; checked with bus drivers-- of no use. I was not willing to trust any stranger for dropping me at Nuremberg, imagining what could happen to a good looking young man at 2 O'clock in the night... so ultimately I called the Herzo cab agency, Bayz Taxi, for taxi from Erlangen to Nuremberg, and Khalid thankfully picked the phone and said that he'll take 25 minutes to reach here... and I was more than happy to wait for that long.

Ohh, by the time taxi comes, let me tell you something about Herzo and Bayz. Herzogenaurach or in short Herzo is a small town next to Erlangen in the state of Bavaria. Most of the offices of adidas are based out of Herzo. Bayz Taxi is a cab agency run by Akram; most of the time we call him up for cab from Office to Hotel and he (along with couple of other drivers) is a good friend now. Khalid, who received my phone, is one of his drivers, he is basically from Iraq.

Okay, back to main story. I didn't have to wait too long, at 2:10 someone came searching for Hiraaj (yes, some of them pronounce Siraj as Hiraaj) ... he was Osman, another driver from Bayz. Khalid asked him taking me to Nuremberg. Yeaaaaa, this ended the era of anxiety and insecurity. In about half an hour's time he dropped me to Nuremberg, pretty conveniently. Thank God!!

Phew... ultimately reached Nuremberg station before 3AM. I checked with one of the shopkeepers for waiting room but he said no; not sure if he understood what I asked for :-). I went to first floor, couple of chairs were laid out and people were waiting, watching and sleeping there. I tried sleeping setting the alarm for 4:50AM, but before that I thought of doing a dry-run whether I'll be able to realize if my cell is ringing or not-- and quite obviously I decided not to sleep as alarm was hardly audible.

So, this so-called waiting space was just outside a pub / club, where a lot of young crowd was moving around-- obviously very much drunk...  Let me confess shamelessly that quite a few girls were feast for eyes... and some of them were just unbearable-- sometimes because of their pathetic dressing sense and sometimes due to awful colorful hairdo / wierdo, whatever you call it... and I had no option but to watch people moving around the places. Anyway, cutting it short-- very different experience. Ultimately I boarded Munich train from Nuremberg without any issues. Later-on I caught Zurich train from Munich... and I realized what a beautiful country Switzerland is.

I reached Zurich at 11:46AM... almost on the time, barely two minutes late. Anand (ex Boss; now much like an elder brother) played a perfect host, came to Zurich railway station to pick me up. Without wasting any time we drove down to Interlaken. I was told that, from India whoever comes to Zurich / Switzerland definitely visits Interlaken... so I thought why should I be an exception. 

While he was driving and was watching it... I realized that the city was so clean, and beautiful... actually pixel perfect, if I could call it. I definitely knew that the place we are going to visit would obviously be beautiful but trust me that journey towards those places was amazingly breathtaking.

We drove close to 200 KMs, through the mountains, and lakes and tunnels; saw amazingly different shades of trees and mountains and lakes, how clean and mesmerizing... I must say that the journey was, by no means, lesser enjoyable than the destination. Like a typical Indian and a normal human being... I also clicked some pics giving some funny poses :)

After taking couple of breaks-- for namaz and snacks, we reached Interlaken / Alps... supposed to be the favorite shooting location of late Yash Chopra.... but personally, I fell in love with JungFrau!! Wow, what a beauty it is. Let me shamelessly share the link of photos I have taken there to support my praises for the location: https://plus.google.com/photos/104440763679498673409/albums/5806985681918658225?authkey=CLf31cL-86a_vQE

Anway, I offered Asar in the Alps.. by that time it was almost 4PM, and we decided to go back as my train to Munich was at 6:15PM from Zurich... and we were around 200KMs away from the city. Anand has always been a Formala-One racer... and I was very sure that we'll reach in time... the only potential risk was traffic jam at the entrance of Zurich city... cutting it short... while returning instead of taking snaps I preferred to have video recorded... and trust me it was a feast to the eyes.

Despite of traffic jam, we covered that distance in about 1:45 hours conveniently... I reached station at 5:45... I offered Maghrib at prayer hall which is located at one floor down at the railway station... right opposite to platform number 13.

Now the next potential risk... Zurich train was supposed to reach Munich at 22:45PM and Munich train was supposed to leave for Erlangen at 22:55PM... so just 10 minutes for getting down, changing the platform, searching for compartment and boarding... that is when the train is on the time. I checked with TTE and he confidently said... "we are on time"... and I went ahead with his confidence.

As expected, we reached Munich at 22:45PM and as soon as the train stopped, I ran for catching the train... what I see is one gentleman is stopping me... I didn't bother as I had to catch the train in any case. That guy chased me and said-- Don't run... this is Police -- "boss, apni tto phat gayi". I told him-- Do you want to see my passport or ticket? and I handed over both the docs to him... while he was looking at my passport, his colleague took my ticket and started walking away... I shouted at him.. as it was hardly 5 minutes remaining for the train to depart.. and that Einstein was going to check the platform number on display board :-) somehow I thanked him and snatched back my tickets and ran madly towards the train... and finally boarded it before the scheduled time... I was pretty tired but was extremely happy that I could spend my weekend in best possible manner. And moreover, this journey was a dream coming true for me!!!

This reminds me of Rajesh Khanna's famous lines from classic movie 'Anand':
"Zindagi lambi nahi, badi hona chahiye" similarly, "trip lambi nahi *badi* hona chahiye"

And, this trip was definitely big one!!!

Lots of Love,
Siraj ur Rehman Khan
November 5, 2012 -- 10:12PM
Erlangen, Germany

Son shining ;-)

Looks like, I have left no stone un-turned in spoiling my extra ordinary son... so much so that, now he says "Abba!! dekho... ITEM" .

Phew... mind you, he's just 2 yrs [Alright... 2 years and 3 months]. Even I don't have the privilege to say that it was a mistake or it was unintentional... because once I was looking at an image of Drew Barrymore... and this genius asked... "Abba, ye kya hai?" and you know, the answer was like carved on the stone... God forbid, if he says something like this infront of my Dad... I'll be literally DEAD :((

But there is something that saves my blushes... [Haan yaar, I have taught him something good also] And that is... he uses "InshaAllah" pretty frequently... almost as much as I do. Secondly, he keeps thanking Allah :) for example:

Habeeb: Abba, packet main kitne biscuits hain?
Me: Beta.. bohat saarey hain.
Habeeb: Bohat saarey hain? Allah ka shukar hai!

Another good thing is: seeking mercy of Allah... whenever he's tired [or acts, as if he's tired :)] he'll breathe a sigh and say "Allah raham karo" :)

This are just few examples, and there are many more. I know... as of now he's just aping me... what is to be seen is, when he grows up, and starts understanding the things, will he still stick to these goodies...? I hope so, INSHA-ALLAH :)

PS: This Drew Barrymore episode was pre-Hajj era, so don't pound me with sarcastic comments; ab main kaafi sudhar chuka hoon... atleast I think so ;)

Using Google Visualization APIs for counties in US

I was trying to create a heatmap which shows the energy consumption graph of different States / Counties in US. The sample code was working fine with 'world' view but when zoomed-in, it was showing me only New York in colored, however displayed all the counties... as usual not much help [or to correct myself, not easily search-able] on relevant topic :(

Finally, after lot of trial and error I came to know that: the example provided at documentation is bit misleading... it simply uses "New York" while it should follow "US-NY" pattern... this way it was able to recognize "New York" somehow, but when I write "Miami" or "South Dakota" it didnt color the region.

So, cutting the long story shorter, here's is the working code [in which most of the developers are interested :) ] ... the description was for search engines not for u ;)

<html>

<head>

  <script type='text/javascript' src='http://www.google.com/jsapi'></script>

  <script type='text/javascript'>

   google.load('visualization', '1', {'packages': ['geomap']});

   google.setOnLoadCallback(drawMap);



    function drawMap() {

      var data = new google.visualization.DataTable();

      data.addRows(6);

      data.addColumn('string', 'Country');

      data.addColumn('number', 'Energy Savings');



      data.setValue(0, 0, 'US-AZ');

      data.setValue(0, 1, 18);

      

  data.setValue(1, 0, 'US-LA');

      data.setValue(1, 1, 32);

      

  data.setValue(2, 0, 'US-MI');

      data.setValue(2, 1, 21);

      

  data.setValue(3, 0, 'US-MN');

      data.setValue(3, 1, 30);

      

  data.setValue(4, 0, 'US-CH');

      data.setValue(4, 1, 26);

      

  data.setValue(5, 0, 'US-NJ');

      data.setValue(5, 1, 17);



      var options = {};

      options['region'] = 'US';

      options['colors'] = [0xE57878, 0xECEE5D, 0x6CEE62];



      var container = document.getElementById('map_canvas');

      var geomap = new google.visualization.GeoMap(container);

      geomap.draw(data, options);

  };

  </script>

</head>



<body>

  <div id='map_canvas'></div>

</body>



</html>



Hope it helps.

Best,
Siraj

Prolong your youth

I [actually my wife :)] was reading an article on IDiva.com [indiatimes.com] by the title "Prolong your youth". They people gave five tips for skin care... and I found that if we stick to our basics... we are already following 4 out of 5... and wait, 5th was for applying some cream and all... so for that I can always show you umpteen number of articles on internet insisting NOT to use such creams... meaning??? just follow the sunnah and prolong your youth :)

here's an insight for all the tips given:

Tip #1: Dont forget to wash your face when you go to bed.
My Take: Anybody??? right.... always do Wuzu before you go to bed... as simple as that.

Tip#2: About 85% damage is caused by direct exposure to Sun.
My Take: Wear hijaab / burqa... what else can protect you better from Sun [and also from Son-of-Bit&%#]

Tip#3: Wash your face at least twice a day
My Take: Anybody offering namaz would be washing it more-or-less five times a day

Tip#4: Eat well, follow a good workout regime.
My Take: Again, offering namaz allows us doing decent workout, knowingly or unknowingly... but mind you... we don't offer namaz for exersice, thats just a side-effect.

Tip#5: Use anti-aging creams... and blah blah blah
My Take: Ya Allah... this far more dangerous than what I thought... read on:
http://www.naturalnews.com/022893.html
http://nydailynews.healthology.com/skin-problems/skin-problems-news/article4103.htm

Take care,
Siraj