[Again
wishing all readers a very happy new year.]
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| Eager to go |
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| At airport terminal |
While
I had been to Poland for short stints twice earlier, this was the first time while
I was there right in the midst of peak winter season for a slightly longer stay.
When I was a child, my only knowledge about this country of Poland was its
capital Warsaw that we used to mug up with many other country-capitals of the
world. Now many years later, I was in a city of Poland – Wroclaw – a name that
I had never heard till my first visit.
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| Poland and its European context |
Poland
had a chequered history with interspersed periods of freedom and foreign rule. Till
1918, there was no independent Polish state. The Second Polish Republic was
established and existed from 1918 to 1939. However, the second world war in
1939 destroyed this Polish republic when axis power Germany and ally Russia
joined hands to attack Poland from west and east respectively thereby splitting
Poland. When German ambition soared and through Operation Barbarossa they
attacked the mighty Russia, a full blown World War II ensued. After protracted
period of war which Germany eventually lost, Russia took control over Poland
and made it a satellite state (i.e. a country that is formally independent, but
under heavy political and economic influence or control by another country).
This situation lasted till 1989 after which it made a peaceful transition from
a communist state to the capitalist system and parliamentary democracy.
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| Completely submerged cars |
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| Caught in a blizzard |
So,
here I was in Wroclaw, a city of a thriving and growing nation. On my arrival,
temperatures were bearably cold but as my stay progressed, temperatures kept
falling down. In its peak, it fell to a mind boggling -20 degree Celsius. Such
low temperatures meant that even fully covered body could not handle the
chilling cold. Taking out the gloves for any reason meant a sharp chilling pain
in the hands. Such low temperatures meant we had to scurry for cover. This was
my first stint in a city full of snow. Till now, I had seen pictures of Shimla
being covered in snow. But here it was snow all around. Still, my inners,
gloves and my faithful jacket were enough to protect me from such low
temperatures. Multiple sweaters or jackets were never called for. Still, for
nose and mouth there was still lot of problem. And more often than not, we had
a running nose…
The
very low temperatures never dampened the spirit on the street. Be it day or
night, -20 degress or 0 degrees, the city center was filled with students of
the Wroclaw University. As there was this university right in the middle of
city center and hostels and pubs all around, there was lot of youth and energy.
To top it, we had a large shopping area, where vehicular entry was prohibited. So
there was plenty of space to walk around.
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| Snow covered city and the cameraman on the prowl |
Managing
cities in winters required lot of efforts from the city administration. In the
mornings after the snow fall, the roads were all covered with snow. And big
machines used to keep running around guzzling snow and moving them aside. Even
for pedestrians and cycle lanes, there were small machines that used to clear
the snow. On odd days when the machines were late, we used to walk on snow to
catch our bus. It was not uncommon to see the cars taking lot of time to get
started. It was like the old days in our country where there was a “choke”
button in ambassador cars that had to pulled to enhance fuel supply and to make
the cars start. In extreme cases, I even saw people pushing cars to get it
started. Poland being a developing country, there were cars smaller than Maruti
800 to gas guzzling SUVs – all forms of car were visible. The saving grace was
that there were no two or three-wheelers slowing the traffic movement.
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| My building backyard |
Since
underground parking was probably very costly (more so when average size of 2
bedroom apartment was merely 600 sqft), most of the cars used to get parked out
in the open. The night long snow meant that the first task in the morning was
to clear the solid layer of snow stuck on the windshields. People were seen
wielding plastic shovels to clear the snow from their cars. It was not uncommon
to see cars disappearing under a thick blanket of snow.
Our
office was four bus stops away. And the bus stop was just few minute walk away.
But on very cold days, those few minutes were also very difficult. The saving
grace was that the shopping mart was just 5 minutes walk from my house.
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| My cozy apartment |
My
first use of bus was mired with problems. Firstly, I was not sure if it went to
my house or not. I tried to ask but no one answered – language was a big
problem. Then came the more difficult part – I wanted to buy a ticket but there
was no conductor. I took out lot to change from my pocket and showed to a lady.
The lady kept on murmuring in local language but there was no help. Then she
took out tickets from her purse and game me one. I paid her for the tickets.
Then a boy on the next seat told that the ticket was for a child and that I had
to buy two such tickets. I brought another one from the lady. The boy then told
that you can buy ticket on bus but you need credit card. There was no conductor
on bus and it was totally up to us to buy tickets and get it verified. The next
morning, I was able to buy tickets from my credit card. And then in evening, I found
the machine that dispensed the tickets. For the remaining part of my stay,
there was no problem except on my last day. When I was returning from a mall, a
man was frantically kicking the ticket vending machine. I thought his money had
got stuck so he was angry. I pushed him and put a five zloty coin for a two
zloty ticket. I suffered the same fate and I did not get the money or tickets. I
also thought of kicking the machine!!
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| University in full glory |
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| Graffiti on walls was not uncommon |
With
age catching up and my paunch increasing exponentially, I started going to gym there.
But on the very first day, I faced a major problem. The gym opened at 8.00am –
the time for me to go to office – but I went there at 5.00am. The security
guard tried explaining to me that gym was closed and that it would open later.
But I did not understand. Then he wrote 8 – 22 on paper. I understood that the
gym would open late. But I kept on asking for the keys and finally after being
fed up, I made the entry in the register and went inside. The next day, same
problem was repeated. But this time, the good guard was replaced by a bad guard
Buntaji. He refused to allow me inside. I tried telling him that this problem
was solved already but could not explain that I had already gone once earlier.
So there was me and the guard trying to outdo each other. But then lightening
struck and I showed him the register and old entry where I had entered at
5.00am. Seeing the entry, he could not do anything. He said 10 minutes. I said
yes, 10 minutes running.. And the keys were with me again. Now the register is
there and no one can stopped me third time. I went to gym at various times and
always found the guard to be awake. Not like many many years ago when my father
fell after climbing the main gate of our house - the guard at that time was peacefully
sleeping. Here, the guards don’t sleep at night – at least the ones I saw – even
though they are all alone in freezing temperatures.
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| The lock bridge |
Coming
back to city, very few knew English to language remained a persistent problem. It
was common to bring home water from a superstore only to find it was soda water
(with gas). After staying in various alien countries including china and japan,
I had realized that using the mouth was a waste of energy. So I always used
signs to communicate. For haggling and bargaining, calculator came in handy.
People were generally friendly and it was not uncommon to see coffee gossip
sessions.
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| One of the many architectural landmarks |
With
freezing cold, there was not too much of sightseeing on offer. Yet, its
architectural splendor and churches were a sight to behold. And then there were
number of shopping malls and a lean season that matched my stay out there. So
all weekends were spent bargain hunting for the best and cheapest stuff out
there – so plenty of clothes, jackets, purses/wallets, shoes and chocolates were
purchased. And even after coming back to India, the demand for more goodies
never stopped coming. May be for another trip to country.
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| Chachu at a shopping mall |
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| Shopping center |
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| Churches ... |
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| Many miniature statues that were seen on streets of Poland |
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| Another miniature... |
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| A landmark on a busy city crossing |
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| And more |
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| Churches et al. |
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| On a bylane, in the background were spires destroyed during world war. |
Chachu,
27th March, 2012
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Edited Comments on Chachu's Column Chachu's
Column #42: Of Lavasa and Future Cities
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
How are you doing? We went to Lavasa few weeks back for 2 days. We
went there just for holidaying. I think bunglows there are 2nd houses of riches
in mumbai or may be delhi. (Courtesy name withheld)
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