Leipzig

After four weeks in Leipzig our Indian guest journalist from Bangalore has returned home. Prior to his departure the chief reporter of the Deccan Herald recapitulates his experiences in Leipzig. The 33-year-old arrived with ambivalent feelings and experienced some difficultes in the beginning- but in the end he felt sad having to say goodbye to Leipzig.

When I was told that I would be touring a German city for a month on an invitation from the Goethe Institute, I had imagined it would be Berlin or Munich…and was disappointed when I learned that it was little known East German city called Leipzig. In fact, it took me some time to learn how to correctly pronounce ‘Leipzig’.

My friends, who were familiar with Germany, painted a rather unpleasant picture of the city. I was told that it was an old city where only old people live and the problem of unemployment has been nagging people. I became a bit worried about my one month stay in such an alien city. My tumultuous travel from Bangalore only made me more anxious. I missed my connecting flight to Leipzig from Munich due to delay in the arrival of my earlier flight from Doha to Munich and, when finally landed in Leipzig on a chilly and wet evening, I found my baggage missing at the airport. As I walked out of the airport hoping that I would get my baggage back, Kerstin Decker and her family met me there and assured me things would be fine.

It’s been four weeks now and I now have a completely different view about the city, which is modern and vibrant with wide and well-paved pedestrian paths, cycle lanes and roads, effective city tram service, attractive shopping malls, street side bars and beer gardens, impressively-restored monuments and heritage buildings and a lot of greenery around. This city of just half a million inhabitants is free from all kinds of pollution. The weather too was largely warm and sunny most of the days.

Initially, the city was a puzzle to me. Finding places seemed a huge problem as I could not understand the language and hardly anyone here spoke English. I was scared of crossing the roads as vehicles drive right hand side. Trams passed close to me and sometimes I used to feel like they are going to hit me. Initially I used to loathe weekends. All roads remain deserted and shops shut. But soon I learnt how to survive this city and later found all these more convenient system. Now I can easily make out important locations in the city. I have picked up few German words like tschus, danke, bitte (bye, thanks, please). I also started enjoying the long walks on silent, pollution-free city.

I had an opportunity to meet the family members of Kerstin Decker and Dr Konrad Kretschmar, who is also a city councilor. They all showed immense affection and love. They were so eager to know more about India, the way of life there and about some unique practices of people. I had in a way become a celebrity in Leipzig, thanks to widely popular Leipziger Volkszeitung. Everywhere I went, people would recognise me as Indian writing for LVZ. Those who could not speak English, like a waiter at the restaurant where I had my breakfast everyday, would show me my article published in the paper and would wish me all the best in German.

This is my last day in Leipzig and I feel sad to say goodbye to this city, which has been my home for the past one month. Before I depart, I promise myself that I will visit this small and beautiful city again.