Saturday, November 21, 2009

International audience!!

I signed up for google analytics some months ago to see how much my blog is read. It gave some interesting stats.

1. Total number of visitors: 325

2. Unique visitors: 220

3. 325 visits came from 18 countries (AMAZING! international appeal).

4. Number of pages viewed: 525

5. Average time on site: 1:16 mins.

Some of these visits have been through google search. Some of the keywords that lead to my blog are

1. sensible one liners

2. raghav gandalf mahatma speaks

3.one liners on smartness

4. raghav anduril gandalf

5."sydney carton"

6.'through my eyes ...ideal india'

7.+changing face of tamil film industry raghav

8.answer machine greetings lotr

9.arshavin

10.canon hg 10 club

Also I forgot to mention the list of countries of visitors.

1.India

2.Australia

3.United States

4.Netherlands

5.Germany

6.United Kingdom

7.Singapore

8.Canada

9.Belgium

10.Malaysia

11.Greece

12.Malta

13.South Africa

14.Pakistan

15.Brazil

16.Palestinian Territories

17.Spain

18.Japan

With my growing international appeal I should be nominated for next year’s nobel peace prize. “Why not?” Many seem to be asking the same question.

Many

I did many things in the last two weeks in Germany,

I have many things to say about my two weeks in Germany,

I got many things to do in Germany after two weeks,

and many things have happened in these two weeks.

But I am not going to tell them all because it would take many days to complete.

There are many things in my head, but sadly (and rightly so) not many people would be ready to listen to them all.

Many of these things I have seen in these two weeks would have been experienced by many people in many different situations, but did any one of them experience all these things in the same circumstance as mine?

I do not think they would have, and I am sure many people would agree with me on that.

I think that is the case with all the people. Each person experiences many things that many others too do but the circumstances and ordering of the many events differ in many ways. This makes what each person experiences unique.

This is one of the many beautiful things about life.

(PS after all this I have finally remembered what I wanted to write about. Watch out for the next blog!)

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Travel part 2

I landed in Dusseldorf, Germany last evening. I was greeted by a small mess-free airport. It was a pleasant experience till I walked out of the aero-bridge.

The passport check was right in front of the aero-bridge. I, ofcourse, had a valid visa – which I showed to the officer behind the glass. He asked me the purpose of visit – and I told him sincerely. He then asked for any documents I had. Ah, I knew he would ask me that and I had specially printed out the documentation and had it with me in my folder. I pulled out the folder from my bag and looked for it.

“Where is it? I clearly remembered keeping it in the folder along with the documents for insurance and ticket quote and itinerary". The officer was more interested now. I gave him a smile and said, “It is right here, just a second.” In a heavily accented English, he said “OK”. I was ruffling through the papers and then I suddenly realized I was right. I did keep the document along with the insurance papers and travel quote and itinerary. But that was more than a month ago when I had applied for the visa. I had collected these documents and given it to the embassy. Ah, yes. I looked up at the officer and gave a stupid smile, “I don’t seem to have it here” , but I have it in my laptop and I could show it in 5 minutes.” I am not sure what the officer thought, may be that I am so stupid and could be of no harm to Germany or that I have a genuine and legitimate reason to be there and just forgot my document. He wanted to know if I was loaded with enough money – which I was and I showed him. And he let me go – a fine fellow.

I then walked out and picked up my luggage and took the train to Dortmund. There I was met by a friend who took me to my accommodation. The room was beautiful, much much more than what I had expected. This morning I met the professor and she was friendly and we had a brief discussion. Then I met Shyamal, a friend from my Bachelors degree, and it was good to see him after 4 years. Thats all upto now. I am planning to visit Berlin this or next weekend. It should be fun.

Later for Later for later.