The Petite Frau

Last New Year’s, my parents and I embarked on a somewhat impromptu road trip from Heidelberg to Brussels at the behest of my lovely aunt, who wanted us to pay her a visit in the Belgian capital. Luxembourg is a short detour from the usual driving route. The extremely tiny and exceedingly wealthy country of Luxembourg had been on my mind for quite some time owing to a Luxembourgish friend of mine, Constantine, a 20-year old who always gushed about his country and could speak 4 languages, namely, German, French, English and Luxembourgish, like most citizens of the country. We drove for a few hours along the route dictated by our trustworthy GPS device and at some point, veered from the autobahn into the countryside, through small towns and rolling vineyards. Just as we crossed the border into Luxembourg, a town with a very familiar name greeted us - Schengen. Normally, when a person travels from one country to another he or she requires permission to enter the country which is given...

When I look back at the time I visited Hungary in 2017, I can’t help but think that I must’ve possessed superhuman strength at the time. I had been living in the city of Munich then, in a student dorm. After 3 years of living in the dorm, I was no longer a student and had to move out of what had been my beloved home for so long. I’ll cut to the chase without getting too sentimental about it. I moved all my belongings, of which I had accumulated a great amount over the years, to a couple of friends’ places in a span of 2 days or so. All this required a lot of manual labour. My friends and I had to carry very heavy boxes from point A to B countless number of times. This involved a lot of walking, going via metro, more walking and climbing lots of stairs, since most old buildings in Germany shockingly don’t have elevators. To top it off, we had to finish it fast in order to catch the overnight bus to the Hungarian capital, Budapest. We finished up just in the nick of time. I hurri...

Fireworks in Heidelberg on September 1st It's a chilly, cloudy Monday afternoon in Walldorf, Germany and I'm sitting at work, munching on some french fries that have turned cold and soggy over the past couple of hours. I'm not shirking work, I've actually finished with my work for the day and it has been a slow week, owing to the fact that it's vacation season in Germany. August is the last month of summer and so schools are closed for a couple of weeks, prompting families to go on vacation. So did I, but my vacation had nothing to do with the end of summer, but rather to spend time at home in Delhi with my parents and brother. So I was missing in action, in Europe at least, for almost the whole of August. Last week I reluctantly bid adieu to India and came back to an almost empty office in Germany. Most of my colleagues, including my boss, were and some still are on vacation. I like an empty office, it's quiet and peaceful. I brought a box of ...

Prague Castle in all its glory, as seen from the Charles Bridge . Once upon a time, when I was still a student in Munich, I had all the time in the world and had none of the responsibilities that come with being a working professional like I currently have. And so, I made plans to go off to the Czech capital, Prague, for a weekend with my then roommate, Surabhi. Surabhi was, and hopefully still is, a vivacious girl and had come to stay with me for a couple of months. Before she moved into my place, we were mere acquaintances from our university but thankfully, we got on really well, like a house on fire. We had initially planned on visiting Prague with a few other friends, who for various assorted reasons had to cancel. So this was a defining trip for the two of us because it was the first time I was charge of a whole trip and it was just us two girls travelling by ourselves. I couldn’t have asked for a better travel mate! We booked our hostel online and set off to Prague...