My experience at Solitude : A sudden realisation.

I know I havent written for a veryyy long time, though my initial promise to myself was to write every week !

But i just dint find the inclination..thoda tha, par itna nahi..so just dint..

But today i experienced something deep..that i would like to share here ..

A quick background info 1st  :

Well, so in July 2010 I played this tournament in Benasque, Spain. I was 21 years old & it was the 1st time that I had planned to play a few tournaments in Europe - on my own -  unlike with this whole team , which is what we normally do. So well ofcourse i was very excited esp since Benasque was the 1st of these 4 tournaments. Also benasque is a very beautiful & picturesque "hillstation" with exactly the kind of "ambience" that i preferred at that time - green hills & flowing rivers ! But i doubt if i would have felt any less happier or excited had it been the 91st time that i was travelling on my own ( cause 100 is always special rite ) or had benasque been this awefully boring town. As i was just in a happy space in my life then. I was in loooooveeee with chess and I loved just being able to play chess. I remember I made A LOT of good friends in this tournament..I was not much bothered about my immediate results etc. I was hunting for my final IM norm at this time, & i happened to miss it & I dint even win a prize actly, but I was sure it was just a matter of time before that I started achieving my dreams !

                                                      ME AT BENASQUE :)
                                        ( my t shirt reads "beautiful inside" :) )

Many times in the past 4 years i have longed to go back to that moment and be that person again. So confident, happy & thankful for this life - for no seemingly obvious reason ! Sure, I was the reigning World junior champion , but I had also lost rating in ALL the tournaments that i played in post world juns ! So many times, especially after a bad tmt, i I have longed to go back to that time , that mindset..been jealous of that 21 year old me.

( On a side note : Maybe 21 year olds generally feel more confident as they havent experienced much of life yet but think they do, as they are not 'juniors' any more ? Also, my feelings about my former self maybe a bit exaggerated as I once read that we have a tendency to romanticise the past..well anyway u got the picture. )

One speciality of my time at Benasque was my daily routine of going for long walks atleast 3 times a day..! morning, afternoon & evening..just to clear my mind & feel good..I remember there was this beautiful "long walk road" of mine..with flowers, & trees, & hills & rivers..

Each time that I walked down this road, I felt so lucky to be able to experience something like this, to come to europe , to be able to be a chessplayer and play chess..I would wonder what can get better than this ?

Well..

So, I m here at solitude for the past 3 months rite ? & there is this HUGE forest behind our academy, have i mentioned that ? Infact this castle was built by the duke so that he & his family could stay here while he went out for his hunting escapades in the forest behind..& well, a lot of people go for walks in the forest so even i would have followed in my 1st month , had it not been for "The Legend of the Hungarian Guy & the Wild Pig " . Well so there was this hungarian fellow at solitude last year who was attacked by wild pigs in the forest & had to be hospitalised & sent back to hungary ! I heard his story in my 1st week here, with mixed up details ofcourse, so was super scared of going anywhere near the forest...

    A pic I found on the net depicting an aerial view of Solitude surrounded by the forest.

But last week, i finally DARED ! I figured, well every1 goes..so it must be ok..yeah well its not the best policy to follow the herd but sometimes it works out fine. So follow I did :) & since i have seen bhaag milkha bhaag now & also have access to the songs from that movie, I regard jogging / running to be a better form of exercise than walking these days. So I decided to go for a jog in the forest..& i try to go everyday now..well its the most surreal beautiful liberating experience..

The pathway from Solitude which leads up to the forest

                            

In the day

 Today evening

                                   

Today as i was about to enter the "solitude forest"..i looked around..it was 6.20 pm..so the moon was out , a full moon at that ! but it wasnt dark yet..there was the golden glow of the sun, which made the trees look half brown & half orange..huge talll thin trees on both sides & so many pathways in between..providing u with so many crossroads & choices..i just go straight as this awesome inspiring music i am listening to keeps saying "bas tu bhaag milkha " .. so i dont think and just run. I pause it from time to time to listen to the sounds of the forest..its eery / calm / chirpy..it could be anything u want actually :) there is even a cute little cottage in middle of the forest & its open in day time - so u can sit there & read a book & have tea .. & u know whats the best feeling ? The best feeling is to run all the way & reach this particular point - & look around. Usually there are a lot of people running & cycling on those tracks but they keep moving rite - so when I reach this place & look around, theres no one.. & i can simply gaze till very very far in all the four directions, with me in the centre, as if I have conquered something. It makes me feel like the HERO of my movie!

The running track 

                                                Had a full moon today evening

So today evening, just as I was about to enter the forest and was thinking about all that I was going to experience inside, it hit me - THIS TOPS BENASQUE MAN !

No more regrets about leaving benasque behind anymore ;

               " There are far far better things ahead than the ones we leave behind " 

                                                           - C.S. Lewis.

                                                                      :)

Sorry , the pics from the forest are not so great as i took them from my phone and it was evening already..Will upload better pics as soon as i take some :) 

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 !!