My experience at Solitude : A day trip to Switzerland !

Date : 16th Jan 2014

To be honest it was very difficult to write this post , because there is just soooo much to write about and sooo many pictures to share ! I dont know if I will be able to describe all the beautiful sights i saw and convey all the emotions I felt during this trip - which infact lasted only 14 hours and nothing major happened either - I'll try !

So, did I suddenly decide to just take a bag and go and see switzerland all by myself, within the 1st week of my arrival to germany ? Ok, I can be impulsive I know, but not so much ! Last week I met the officials of the Stuttgart Chess club - Claus and Bernd - who happen to be just very warm and friendly. I am still getting used to not being shocked when i meet them cause they are just tooo sweet !

Thats me with Bernd and Ana Matnadze on the left and thats Claus on the right.

Ana is georgian but settled in Spain, She saved me from total isolation by co-incidentally chosing the same time as me for her solitude fellowship :)

One of their club members, Vera Nebolsina , who also happens to be an ex fellow of Solitude , was having a 'performance on chess ' ( !! ) at St. Gallen, Switzerland on the 16th and so I, along with Ana , tagged along with Claus and Bernd to cheer for Vera and also to check out exactly how pretty is switzerland..is it worth  the hype ? !

Our route. St. Gallen is a 3.5 hour drive by car from Stuttgart, but we had 2 stops in between  - The picturesque town of Stein am Rhein and the famous Lake Constance !

On the way to swiss I was constantly confused about whether we were still in germany or had crossed the border as the area around sttugart is also very clean, picturesque, full of cute houses with those typical fensterladen windows and vast green stretches of land..

Soo how do u know that u r in switzerland ? 

1. U will see the snow clad Swiss Alps and squeal in excitement ! 

The sky was such a beautiful blend of blue white and grey tht day, tht its difficult to figure out where the mountains end and the sky begins..

2. U will see ponies and horses crossing the road :)

3. U will find that most of the houses and buildings are joint to one another and if its a bunglow then it has its walls painted with these typical designs  -

4. Germany has clean streets and fresh air but in Switzerland the streets will be cleaner and the air purer !

5. Everything will be much more expensive !! :)

But none of these pointers cud have prepared me for Stein Am Rheim, for I never thought such a place could exist in today's times ! The entire town is so beautiful and artistic, tht you feel as if u r inside a painting, a movie, a theme park, a book ..  in a different era altogether ! 

                                       
                                         STEIN AM RHEIN !

WITH ITS BEAUTIFULLY PAINTED WALLS !

Well, infact this town was built in the medieval era, so now u know why one feels so ! They have managed to preserve most of the ancient buildings as not much of the town was destroyed in the war. Infact Stein Am Rhein was even awarded some prize for preserving its architectural heritage ! Many of the buildings are inhabited by people, though i think these extra artistic ones, like the one u see above, are just preserved, to be admired from a distance. 

The Rathaus ( Town hall, seen in the pics above ) was built in 1500.  

                                       
                          an elegant fountain in the middle of the tiny street 

                                          

                             i was clearly delighted :)

u will find many ancient motifs and even gothic concepts on the wall paintings and architure. For eg. Wot u see in this above pic is the village church, with 2 dragons on its sides with water coming out of their mouths in earlier times !

                                         
                                         Built in 1478, and still inhabited !

                                   

                                         Me having eine schone zeit ! 

And once you are done admiring all these pretty buildings, u discover the river rhein calmly running through this town , offering a place to just sit in solitude amidst nature..but tht I can do even in stuttgart and we had to be at St. Gallen on time so we decided to move on ..

                                       

I have realised - if u want to see Europe, u shud go and see the tiny towns and villages. And travel by flight as less as possible..try and make friends with some1 from tht town or atleast tht country..If u r a chess player, u cud just visit one of the local chess clubs and make friends easily ! The country side and natural sights are the most beautiful..the air is clean, fresh..with hills, rivers and castles around u ! Cities to sab ek jaise hi hote hai. Its enough if you see just 1 or 2. Barcelona dekh lo to lagta hai sabse happening city dekh liya duniya me ! Also, if u r one of those people who have this compulsive habit of listening to music while travelling, then make sure u forget ur headphones at home and just look out of the window while u r out there ! U dont wanna miss that..be in the moment ! Talk to people around u, get to know them, the place..observe..its much nicer to get to know about things through conversations and discovery rather than through google !


Will write about the rest of the trip in Part 2 ..till then hope u liked the pics & ciao !

My experience at Solitude - Day of arrival and 1st impressions !

9th Jan 2014 : Day of Arrival at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany.

To put it in a gist, my day was filled with long queues, travel woes, a heart full of excitement coupled with sheer delight, at the academy's sight ! :p

My Lufthansa flight from Mumbai to Frankurt was sooooo over crowded , mostly with US returning Bombayites, that I was stuck in a Traffic Jam at 1 am at the entrance of Mumbai Airport for 15 mins,  had to wait another 15 mins OUTSIDE gate C before I could get in, only to join longer queues at the check in counter, immigration, boarding & even within the flight itself.! Hushhhh..I was soo tired that I slept throughout the flight..I was soo tired that I dint notice that the flight dint take off for 1 hour well past its time of departure..which had its own consequences..anyway , so basically my flight journey was not so exciting , but the next part of my journey more than compensated for it because - I had a TRAIN to Stuttgart !! YAYY !

Before I proceed further, I would like to share 1 useful piece of info :  Frankfurt railway station is connected to the Airport so its very convenient to book a train to your onward journey within Germany. However, if you are not familiar with Frankfurt airport then its advisible to keep a minimum 2 hour gap as the Airport is SOOOO HUGE & complicated that its very easy to get lost, or atleast feel lost !

             
                                         THE FRANKFURT RAILWAY STATION !

Its sheer bliss to travel by rail or road when you dont have any work to get done, deadlines to meet, or a tournament venue to reach - when you can simply be in the moment, & enjoy the experience of travelling. Even more so when you are in a new city, a new country...I spent my whole train journey just looking out of the window..:)

                                                   & clicked some selfies :p

Finally, I reached Stuttgart at around 1 pm, took a cab from the station - my cabbie was an Indian who helped me a lot with info about the place & also with my super heavy bag - and as we approached the academy this is what it looked like ..........

& as we went around the building trying to find the entrance, THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE !!

                                              THE SOLITUDE CASTLE !

Only now did I recollect that 'Schloss' - from Academy Schloss Solitude - meant Castle in german !
Thats rite ! I am staying in an actual castle and I am going to be here for the next 3 months !! yayyyy !!

Much happened in my 1st week here, but will write about that next time, for now here are some pics of the Academy campus :)

                                                   Notice the 'A' ? 

I find these typical german windows soo pretty ! I realised the windows are this way not only in the castle but infact in most of the houses in germany ..

Isnt it sooooooooooooooooooooooooo prettyyy !?!?!!!

Till next time, Tschuss !!

The Peace Within !

Gautam Buddha says , peace comes from within..

“ Peace comes from within, do not seek it without “    – is the exact quote.

I get it. If I am satisfied with myself , with my work, with the way I lead my life, I have a good chance at peace. But the question which bothers me is: if my environment isn’t peaceful, then how am supposed to be fully at peace anyway ? Does he mean that I make peace with my environment ? Or does he mean that I become immune to my environment ?

I dunnoo..I think being at peace today is much more than doing your work properly, or being good yourself..Because no matter what you cannot do much to  change all that is happening around you. When you open the papers or read the news there are going to be a 100 stories about how mean / wrong / inhuman human beings can be. Or worse still, how unjust life can be. To be honest you dont even need to read the news for that. You just have to step out of the door and have a glance around. & Its hard to ignore it all..

Last noon, as i switched on the television with the thought of enlightening myself with the going ons in the world around me, the ‘ Breaking News’ on every channel was that a certain lady had committed suicide..It got me thinking, ki aajkal itna kya stress ho gaya hai life me ki people think of ending their lives rather than face it. & If living itself has become such a big task, then what about living a good life, a virtuous life, achieving your aims, making other people happy...what about being happy yourself ?  

Many a times I have tried meditating, going for a run, or worst ( & more often than not)  – I have tried venting out my anger at a poor loved one – in order to just let it all out ! But these are just temporary solutions isn’t it ? At the end of the day, when I go to bed, the question remains -  am I at peace ? & if I am not, then how do I achieve it ?

‘Aankhon me jiski koi to khwaab hai, 
         khush hai wohi jo thoda betaab hai’ ..

( Only the one who has dreams in his eyes, & who is a bit restless, is happy )

Perhaps this verse from a popular hindi song applies not only to our dreams, but even to our reality, that we live everyday. Not only to our eventual aims, but also to our everyday routine ! Maybe its ok to be restless on an everyday basis..perhaps its making us better ourselves !

After giving it some thought , I think what Gautam Buddha truly meant was, 

Make peace with everything within you, including your restlessness. Accept it. Work on it. Try to convert it into a sense of satisfaction. But till then Enjoy it. 

Sahara Awards 2010

Hi everyone!

Well this is my 1^st EVER blog.. since I am not very good at writing, i just thought I should wait for an interesting topic instead of depending on my personal descriptive talents..& FINALLY, I have got that opportunity 2day!! Yayy!

A week ago, I got a phone call from Sahara Parivar that I have been nominated for the Sahara India Sports Awards, 2010. To be held on Saturday, 30^th October, in Mumbai.The whole Event was going to be managed by Percept - & I must say they have some super sweet people working for them.

I think it’s a wonderful initiative by the Sahara Group and Shree Subroto Roy to encourage Sportspersons, especially non-cricketers, in such a grand way! Many people have money, many people have the ability, but very few people actually have the goodwill to think of such a concept and go ahead with it:)

I had heard about the awards ofcourse, & naturally I was very happy to know that I have been nominated. But then, I had just been nominated..which is not the case in usual award / felicitation functions. U usually go there, accept the award, thank them & come back! But here, I was going to be competing with a few other, if not more then atleast Equally Deserving Sportspersons for the prize! & who knows wot the jury had to say of my performance..it was an interesting situation to be in :)

There were around 20 Categories, for which around 400 journalists from the "Sports Journalist Federation of India" had chosen a handful of nominees from all the different sports, by voting. Then, these chosen nominees had been presented to an esteemed panel of 12 Jury members, comprising of some topnotch sportsmen - & women :) Chess was being represented by Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, whom I had worked with for a couple of sessions in 2005, and the Chairperson of the Jury was Mr. Sunil Gavaskar. The winner of each category was decided by secret voting, and the result was revealed only at the awards night, even to the jury!

So on 30^th morning, I started for Mumbai, they had arranged a car to pick me up as it’s a 3 hr drive from my city, Pune. My father was quite keen on accompanying me infact, but I thought there was no need for him to take leave from office just to attend “an award function”, specially when my grandmother was not keeping too well.. Later on, I realized how big this is going to be & wot an absolute IDIOT i was, to ask my dad not to come!After all, I had always wished for him to present at tournaments where I had done well, & also it would have been a good change for him from the routine stuff..I hope to more sensible the next time :)
It was a realllyyy nice hotel – The Hotel Trident of Oberoi Group, in BKC, Mumbai. I have stayed in a few good hotels before, but never was the lobby so grand, my room so beautiful & the staff so courteous! The best part about my room was the bathroom hahaha! It had glass - Transparent - "walls" !! I 1st thought it was a "honeymoon" room :P:P But the actual reason, as my cousin rightly pointed out, was so that we can watch TV from the Bathtub! Haha, talk about making everything as convenient as possible.. now I know wot these super rich people do with all their money :)

In the Evening, I went to the venue, accompanied by 2 very dear cousins of mine.
It was full of reporters - so many hosts & presenters & cameras rolling, the Red Carpet had been laid out – It was something like watching "Zoom" on Tv :p :p

We went in to find out there was a separate area in the front for all the Nominees and the Jury, along with ofcourse the Sahara Parivar, and well, other celebrities from the sporting as well as the glamour world..It was nice to see all the sporting icons of the country under one roof and I felt even more happy to know that I had been given such a rare and unique opportunity :) I was sitting with our AICF joint secretary Mr. R. M. Dongre, and Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran, captain of the India A Men’s team, which had been nominated in the “Best team” category.  Vishwanathan Anand (our hero!) was nominated in 2 categories but could not attend the event as he was playing in China..

The function started a bit late – or shud I say, as per “Indian Standard Time” :P – and while we were waiting I got the opportunity to fulfill a long cherished childhood dream – I met Rahul Dravid!!! My dream Guy!! You should have seen the look on my face when he gave me his autograph, & signed it “ To Soumya, with Best Wishes, Rahul Dravid” – How sweeet!! I think that was the moment when I felt this night is going to be Super Rocking! How often do our childhood dreams come true afterall :)

So, now the awards started - & the 1^st award happened to be the one for which I was nominated! “ The Young sportsperson (Female) of the year “ . & the award goes to…

ME!!!!

I was really happy! & at that moment I really wished my father would have been there..I hope we dont miss the TV telecast now!

Anyway so the award function went on for like 3-4 hrs. with many performances by many filmstars, & ofcourse there was the Indian Cricket Team present – including The Super Awesome Sachin Tendulkar and his wife - & also Shahrukh Khan – so well, the combination was quite entertaining & we had a nice time in general..Anand won " The Best Sporting Moment of the year" Award, for winning his World Championship Match against Topalov, so Chess won 2 awards, which is not so bad considering there are so many sports in contention :)

The only thing I felt a little bad about was that though our Indian chess team had been nominated, and all the players were in India at the time, only the Captain, Sasi anna was allowed to attend..It would have been great had they all come, as all of them are my friends and its not everyday that you get to meet players from such a variety of sports, some of them icons, some of them inspirations, & some of them young talents , all at the same time, under one roof! Also, it would have been a lot more fun :)

The funny part is, all this happened only yesterday, but I feel like it happened ages ago..like i was in a completely different world! Such breaks are always welcome - provided I can come back to reality on time :)