Merry Christmas from Germany and Austria!

Merry Christmas to all my friends and colleagues. I am writing this from the Cologne Airport as we get ready for our flight to the Austrian alps in Salzburg. We leave for Vienna this morning along with Sathish, Vasanthi,Aashish and Chetna... Looking forward to visit Mozart's home town  and the sights from the movie Sound of Music at Salzburg. Unfortunately Ranjini and Samiksha could not join this trip as their visas didn't get through. Also looking forward to meet Prasoon Sharma from my previous project in the UK. Prasoon flies in with a few of his friends from Stockholm..
More pictures from Vienna,Salzburz and probably Prague if the weather permits.Until then ciao and tchuss!

An Illustrator called Super Mario

Mario Miranda, who for so many years captured the vignettes of Indian life and polity passed away today leaving a void that of an great artist,cartoonist whose characteristics Mario had imbibed in his repertoire as a painter.He along with RK Lakshman were the finest in their field atleast in an Indian context and I have always enjoyed what they have sketched whether it being Times of India or the erstwhile Illustrated Weekly of India. I still haven't understood why B&C had to shut down the Weekly 19 winters ago. I am sure space wasn't the reason. Mario, like any seasoned cartoonist was sensitive to societal happenings and instantly sketched the context through his characters - Who can forget the immortalised "stereotypical images of the Anglo-Indian secretary Miss Fonseca, actress Rajni Nimbopaani or the Catholic girl Petrification Pereira" week after week in the Illustrated Weekly. Those were the days when laying hands on a new magazine like the Weekly, Sunday, Blitz or the Caravan meant you had access to the latest in the world of journalism and bi-partisan news. I was, as a high school  kid inculcated into reading these at the (CFTRI) Food Research Institute Gymkhana in Mysore while my father played endless hours of table tennis with his colleagues from the scientific fraternity. Table tennis with hot tea and bajjis during breaks and the Weekly defined a typical rainy evening when you couldn't go to the 2 clay courts to play tennis. These were the years that growing up meant reading up a lot as television was still nascent and it was easy to follow such icons who would be heroes until probably Sachin Tendulkar,Shahrukh Khan and the likes came to the scene.  Following Behramji 'BusyBee' Contractor (Free Press Journal and later the Mid Day), MV Kamath, Pritish Nandy, Mario Miranda, Khushwanth Singh and Anil Dharkar (Illustrated Weekly), The ever controversial Russy Karanjia (Blitz) and Vir Sanghvi (The Sunday) was a regular habit then in the limited window I had to the media world. 
With the passing of every stalwart from that era only brings fond and nostalgic memories. It was only last week when the ever young Dev Anand passed away. 2011 has already taken away a lot of artists..While tributes are pouring for Mario, the best one was probably from a tweet  "After a singer, painter, actor, photographer, art director and filmmaker, God needed an illustrator in the heaven of 2011!"


Living in Germany these days, the Mario painting that comes to mind in the German winter is the Floh Markt (flea Market) from the collection 'Germany in Winter'. More on the Floh Market experience sometime soon

The Flea Market - Winter in Germany, Mario Miranda

RIP Mario, You will be missed.

A Super Cause

Sometime ago, I wrote about the Mathematical genius Anand Kumar and why i admire him. Expectedly enough, Anand is in the new again today for being selected as one among the 20 pioneering teachers identified by a UK based magazine. While I am not sure of the methodology behind this rating nor the award and recognition this carries, what strikes me most here is the model that Anand has adopted and the phenomenal success he has managed to achieve


Read my previous post on Anand Kumar here


From Rediff.com 5th December 2011
Anand Kumar, founder of Super 30, a free coaching centre in Bihar which helps economically backward students crack the IIT-JEE, has been selected by UK based magazine Monocle among the list of 20 pioneering teachers of the world.


One of Monocle's recent editions is an education special looking at the sharpest schools, some pioneering teachers, tech stars and bikes for the new term.


Anand Kumar and his Super 30 initiative is the only entry from India in the select list. He has found mention in the category 'Class act-globe Top 20 teachers' for the way he has been able to groom students from the poorest sections of the society consistently over the last ten years.
Apart from Anand, others to find place in the list include names like NeilTurok, Pierre Keller, Munir Fasheh, Sarah Elizabeth Ippel and others from different parts of the globe.
According to Monocle magazine, due to his revolutionary teaching and commitment to the cause, Anand is as popular as any Bollywood star.
Recently, Asia's reputed magazine Asia educator had also done a detailed feature on Anand's struggle and the making of Super 30. It described him as an 'incredible Indian'.
Last year also, Time magazine and Newsweek wrote highly about Anand. While Time described Super 30 as the "best of Asia", Newsweek included Super 30 in the list of the best 'innovative school'.
Several international magazines, including Europe's Focus, have praised Anand for his Super 30 initiative. Besides,Discovery channel, NHK Japan, Aljazeera, and French 24 made documentaries on him. Some of the Bollywood directors are also interested in making a film on Super30.
Discovery channel made an hour-long documentary on Anand Kumar, while a film made by a British producer won the 'Viewers' Choice Award' in the Los Angeles film Fest.
Anand Kumar, who could not go to the Cambridge University for higher studies due to extreme financial constraint after the death of his father, started the Ramanujam School of Mathematics in 1992 and founded the Super 30 in 2002.
His Initiative, Super 30 provides free food, stay and rigorous coaching for nearly a year to 30 poor and talented students selected through a two-tier examination process.
Most of the successful candidates have come from the most underprivileged sections of society.
In the last eight years, the novel initiative has helped 212 students clear the IIT entrance test. During each of the last three years, all the 30 students of the institute made it to the IITs, drawing worldwide attention.
The students have to pass a competitive test to get into Super 30 and then commit themselves to a year of 16-hour study each day, Anand Kumar said.

Bonn - Salz and Brot

My work as a consultant brings me to the beautiful city of Bonn in Germany this autumn Bonn is my home for the next few months. We are doing a large SAP implementation for a leading company in Gemany. Moving into Bonn has been quite pleasant thanks to the coterie of friends,colleagues and the professional help from home finders and other agencies help me relocate in Germany
 
After the initial stay at a hotel for the first couple of weeks in a distant suburb of Sankt Augustine, the time it actually took me to finalize an apartment, meet the landlord and get the agreement in place. I was ready to move into my new home in the Bonn-Beuel district, my blissful abode that will shelter me and keep me warm until the next year. Bonn Beuel is not a very happening district in Bonn and is often called the wrong side of the Rhine ;-), but am more than happy with this place...I finally was ready to move in and on a Wednesday morning in October, my colleague from work Norbert Fuchs helped me drop my bags to my apartment before heading to work. My home is a nice little apartment, something of a cross between a studio and a 1 bedroom apartment. But I must say that its very well furnished and has good heating, something without which you would never be comftable despite the Rhine valley being the warmer region in Germany. My apartment complex itself has mostly Europeans living in i t and I love my pad especially since its street facing and for the tranquil residential quarter not to mention a 3 min walk to the nearest S Bahn station. Of all the things that accompanied me moving to an apartment, one that will be in my memory would be the house warming gift that i recieved from my colleague from IBM Deutschland, Norbert..A big loaf of bread and a pack of Salt.

My House warming gift from my German Colleague

Norbert did explain the rationale and the intent behind these gifts-Bread(Brot) to imply that one would never go hungry and Salt (salz) to replace tears,spice up the life and to bring good luck-All so well intended
A lovely tradition that reminds me of my home in India where everyday life is so full of activities driven by customs and traditions and seeing something like this in the middle of Europe brings no less Joy. More on my life in Germany in these pages soon..