Ikus Summer Excursion

Even though I don't know any of the trip organisers personally, I take the liberty to mention their names here and thank them from the bottom of my heart for organising such a exciting tour.
Magdeburg - Ludwigslust - Mirow - Ravensbrück - Magdeburg

We started at 8am on the bright and cool day with beautiful weather...with so many happy and cheerful faces. As the journey started our bus went through the country side of Germany with beautiful fields stretched widely on the either side of the roads and the randomly placed wind mills helped only to enhance the beauty of the view. The houses in these places need to have special mentions because of their pretty cute colorful looks with little backyard for every house.

After a short break at a petrol station on the way, our journey towards Ludwigslust castle continued. At around 11.30am we reached the town of Ludwigslust. The small German town is serene with relaxing ambience and lot of greenery. Interesting part of the city is that there is no much difference between the regular houses and the Kleingartenlage. A small walk through into the Ludwigslust castle gave a glimpse on the European society in the medieval period. The exhibits like chandeliers and the vintage furniture looked so exotic and extravagant.

Ludwiglust palace

Overall the castle is good with well maintained surroundings. After spending a little time in the castle we visited a church. Later journey to Mirow continued. At around 5.30 we reached the hostel. Inspite of rain washing out our campfire...the evening turned playful with volleyball, table tennis and Frisbee.

Our Stay

On the second day after breakfast we headed for the real exciting part of the trip.. Canoeing. After collecting the canoeing gear along with necessary instructions from our guide we went into the waters of Mirow Lake. The lake was big enough covering an area of at least 1-2 sqkm. Initially there was a trial run just to get in touch with canoeing. After a while all our boats assembled at the center of lake. From there we are supposed to reach a place called "island of sea roses". Immediately after the heads up for the destination, happened the most fun and exciting part. Our boat with 3 people in it lost the balance and flipped completely. All of us drowned into the water. There was panic for a moment because of the unexpected incident. As I don't know how to swim it took a while for me to get my breath back. Then 2 of us tried to flip the boat back to position but it didn't work and only made things worse by hurting my friend's arm. Soon the situation came into control and our guide flipped the boat back into the position. We also managed to get into our boats. In this hustle, our box containing our mobiles, camera, wallet and id's also drowned along with us during the flip. The stuff is nearly 1.3 lakh rupees(1800 euros) worth. Thankfully my friends from other boat caught hold of it. Now our rowing towards our destination resumed. After 1hr we reached the place. It is typical to the region with beautiful white flowers floating across the water. And from there we went on to a beach nearby. We had our lunch and started rowing again to a some other lake. This time we had to pass through the forest. The strip of the water stream through the forest is only 6 ft wide and we had to pass this with our 3ft wide boats. The surroundings are very dense with swamp lands. It was not so easy to maintain the direction of boat as the path was zigzag. But the experience was crazy. Finally we rowed all the way back and returned to the starting point in the evening at 5PM. Later we had barbeque and campfire. Finally this day happened to be memorable for all of us. It was adventurous too...but only for our 3 of us who drowned. :P

Barbeque     PC: Dinesh Reddy

     PC: Dinesh Reddy

On the third and final day, we left our camp site after the breakfast at around 10am in the morning. Now we were headed towards Ravensbrück memorial. It was one of the concentration camps for women during world war 2 started in 1939 and liberated in 1945. In contrast to the exhibits in Ludwigslust this place is filled completely with heart touching stories and the dark mood still reverberating in the entire place. With our guide leading us into the camp we heard so many sad stories and came to know how miserable were the lives of camp workers and the prisoners. Then we moved into the museum of the memorial. We had a look at the historical artifacts that were used in the camp and the listened to some recorded interviews of the camp survivors.

Assembly area for prisoners

Overall the place is reckoned to be with historical and emotional importance. We left the memorial at around 2.45PM and headed to Magdeburg.

Finally this tour is truly remarkable and I once again thank the ikus team members Angela, Prafull, Osama, Fine and Anke for well organised affordable and wonderful trip.

I don't want to kill my GrandFather

Thanks for all who read my previous blog "Magdeburg Diaries".

This blog has some brain tickling content. If you are unable to make any sense out of it while, quit reading. Else comment your views.

Let me start with a very basic principle of physics. You are able to see an object because there is some light falling on it. If there is no light, then you cannot see the object even if it is huge. And moreover you are seeing the object instantaneously. Now look at the image below.

This is the image of Great Andromeda Nebula, the nearest galaxy to Milkyway. You might have seen such images many times previously. But this time congratulate yourself for looking into past. Yes, it is two million years Past. I'll tell you why. Same rule of physics could be applied here as well. This colorful place in our universe is 2.537 million light years far from earth. That literally means that the light ray from this galaxy has travelled for 2.537 million years and then it was captured by our telescopes. Infact, that light ray started from the source even before the existence of human race on earth. Since the speed of light is extremely high 3*10^8 m/s this difference becomes infinitesimal and couldn't be felt usually in our daily life. Unbeknownst to ourselves, we are looking into past every time. Therefore we have nothing like "Present Continuous". Everything is either "Past" or "Past Perfect"...😛😛.

Some scientists believe in a theory which tells us that, the events happening in the universe are saved on a dimension called "Time". If I travel along that dimension then it is called "Time travel".

So if I travel backwards in time and kill my grandfather even before his marriage, there is no possibility that even my dad or mom is born which in turns prevents my birth. So my very existence to travel in time and kill my grandfather is invalid. This would lead to an unending time loop, In which as I was not at all existed there is no one to kill my grandfather so my dad/mom is born and I am born. Now I travel in time and kill my grandfather. But then my existence is invalid so my grandfather is again alive....This ends up in a loop and the time is repeating. This is called "Grandfather paradox". But if the same happens in a larger scale in which I kill General O'Dyer, it would create bigger ripples in that timeline and would end up in a much different possibility as his actions were associated with hundreds of people. That is called "Lets kill Hitler" paradox.

So I conclude that

• Travelling into past that we cant see may land you in unending time loop
• Travelling into the past that we see will no longer be the past. It becomes Present. 

To tickle up your mind further I put forward an article that I read in Facebook and that is called as "Liar's Paradox". The problem here is with a sentence "This statement is false". If "this statement is false" is true, then the statement is false, but if the statement states that it is false, and it is false, then it must be true, and so on.

Contents in this blog are only my views, opinions and beliefs. If something of this is proven to be wrong, please enlighten me.

Credits: Curosity.com, DC comics, Wikipedia

Magdeburg Diaries

Ps: Beware of the craziness and ironic content

This is my first blog ever. I never thought that one day I would start writing down my views and ideas. Thanks to ME!!!!!!!!!

2 months in Magdeburg, Germany. Time is freaking fast...As typical Indian I found many things that works differently here. First thing that I need to mention is about the people that I meet in my everyday life. Almost everyone like immigration officer, co-passenger, bus driver, police officer, shop keeper...everybody seem cool and pleasant.(Unless you start some offensive debate..:P). I was amazed when people gave a gentle smile and greeted each other but later i came to know that it is their nature which we hardly see in India(Indians are Melancholic brilliants..:P). Before coming to Germany I heard a lot about punctuality and cleanliness of Germans. But frankly speaking that was a bit of exaggerating the things. But yes, they are punctual. And also clean..with little bit public littering, broken beer bottles on footpaths and only 5-6 cigarette butts for every one square meter area. :P. 

Germans love their language. 99% of the things will be German language. No native uses his phone in any other language except German. They don't take things for granted. They work hard. I met a guy who works for a TV channel, Radio station and also drives a transport van. He makes up his living by doing multiple things. He just didn't stick to one thing. He is friendly and very much down to earth. I am wondering how he manages his time. And the best part is..Er kann Englisch sprechen(He can speak English)...:P. These people take sports and hobbies very seriously when compared to Indians. 

Everything goes in process. The traffic is so disciplined that we hardly see any violations. One more which astonished me is that these people don't make their wash room floors wet. This is actually a very good idea but initially I felt little complicated to implement this.

By the time I understood that I started liking this country, I faced some things which seemed heavily bureaucratic and too much red tape is involved.To get my University Id card I should have insurance. To buy the insurance I need city registration. To complete city registration I must submit the residence proof with valid contract. To obtain a housing contract I should have a bank account. To open a bank account I have to get a letter from BürgerBüro. By god's grace I was able to get out of this mess very quickly because of my roommates and a senior who helped in finding accommodation. One more thing that I don't like here is the neighborhood of the people. Since 2 months I hardly saw my neighbor. I can't know even if a terrorist lives in my next door. Thankfully this is not the case in India. After coming here I am fed up of listening two words "Appointment" and "Contract". Even to get small things done they ask for appointment which sometimes doesn't make any sense and sounds stupid. It took 24 days to get our internet connection. In India it would have been only 24 hours. Now I am used to all of these :D

Being a vegetarian is not an easy thing in Germany. Unfortunately, we don't find okra(Lady Finger) and coriander here..(My favorites). Never ever go to a halal meat shop if you are not a non-vegetarian. The utter discomfort present there may create a vomiting sensation in you. Sadly only one variety of vegetarian burger is available in McD. So no eat outs for me. People eat chicken, pork, beef and fish. I think this is one reason why they are more sturdy and bigger that Indians. The calf muscle of a young German lady will be definitely bigger than a strong Indian man..(General observation). Alcohol is gnikcuf cheap here. These people don't have belt shops..:P Daaru is sold in supermarkets. Just go and grab your favorite brand.

The cold weather here is supposed to extreme..atleast worse than Hyderabad. Recently I had my all time lowest temperature experience. It is -4 C. That chilled my spine to a new extreme as I went to my German class in that condition. Unlike most of the Indians, Germans are mad about football. In a football court near to my flat, I see guys practicing football when the temperature is below zero.

Finallyy....Germany is a very good place to live...But India is better for me as I am an Indian....

That is all for now.....

So far this is my experience in Deutschland. If anyone feels that some point is offensive defensive possessive decisive or apprehensive...please ignore it...i never meant what you thought.