Tuesday, April 19, 2005

EinbahnStrasse and Ondu Nimsha

It was the first day in Germany. I came out of the hotel and saw a board on the pavement which said "EinbahnStrasse". My limited knowledge of German told me that this is the name of the street because I knew that Strasse meant street. In the evening I decided to walk around the place and suddenly I got lost. I went to a police car and asked him the way to EinbahnStrasse. It was a foolish decision. I could have asked for my hotel. May be i wanted to show off my knowledge about the place! The policemen immidiately could make out that i was a tourist (my skin color helped them in this khoj) and asked me where I wanted to go. I told them the hotel name and immidiately they told showed me the way. Back in the hotel, I asked the receptionist for a map of the place. He gave a map which had many EinbahnStrasses. Then I checked with the receptionist again. He said "EinbahnStrasse" is "One-way street".

A north Indian friend of mine went to his new office. He was introduced to the guys with whom he had to work. But after sometime he thot that he did not know 1 person. He also assumed that this person is a big shot. Whenever there was some discussion on phone or during coffee breaks he could hear this person's name. Finally he asked his collegue "Who is this Won Nim Shah?...You people talk about him everytime but you never introduced him to me." They had a hearty laughter and explained him that Won nimsha was 1 minute and not a person.

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