The überraschung wonderland

We dream about things, places, people, cakes and cars. I have an exquisite one about my favorite destination. The story began when I was 12 years old.

The Language Connection

The history of this particular fantasy of mine dates back to those days, when I was a fan of the History subject at school. Miss Dorothy made it all the more interesting for me; she made people and places of old times come alive through her way of teaching.

The chapter was World War II and I was quite inquisitive in knowing how people killed each other ruthlessly and of course, how the war ended. This particular chapter had a good 10 pages about Adolf Hitler. Now, don’t you dare think I fantasized about him!  I still remember this part clearly, “Hitler didn’t care two hoots about Rhineland”.  Here, it was not that Hitler didn’t care about something; it was this particular phrase in the English language that caught my attention. I have a little appetite for such things. After the encounter with this phrase, I started using this in my everyday conversation increasingly. When my brother asked me if I did not want to know a particular test cricket match's score, I'd go "I care two hoots about cricket". He normally shoots back a ghastly look and goes away.  Coming back to the story, I read that chapter thoroughly and I developed an inclination towards Germany.

I collected news articles about Germany and I made it a point I got the spelling and pronunciation of ‘Deutschland’ right. Later, I even went on to learn the basics of the language.  “Ich bin verheiratet”, I’d say to anyone stalking me; which wouldn’t make a difference anyway. ;)

Of Chocolates and toys

Back then, my parents knew of someone who lived near Ulm in Germany. That someone used to bring ‘überraschung’ when occasionally visiting India. These chocolates are Easter special- egg- shaped chocolates, milk chocolate in the inside with dark chocolate shells. Inside the chocolaty goodness, there used to be a yellow box, which had lovely dismantled pieces of toys in them. I fell for that innovation.  You can relate them to the kinder joy type chocolates we have here in India, although the quality of the toys in the later being absolutely pathetic is another thing altogether.  

Of Beer and October

There was this show in TLC about Oktoberfest which showcased how people get together during this month and drink beer (Well, I know there are a lot many things they do; but only this caught my attention). Some gorgeous women serve around 20 mugs of beer in one go. Now, how cool is that? I’d love to witness this beery extravaganza sometime. And… How can I forget the pretzels, sweet ones!?!

 

 

That’s all folks!

Tschüss!