Grüezi - Eurpoe that I saw (2)

Grüezi is a word the Swiss people use to wish others The dictionary meaning of it is good morning/afternoon/night or even hello. It is pronounced roughly like “gruetsi”. It sounds to be a German word but used widely by the Swiss. The people in Switzerland speak four languages – German, French, Italian and Romansh. Out of the four , German is the language majority speak. But the German they speak is not the one the people speak in Germany. The dialect the Swiss people use is called Swiss-German. A pure German speaking person may find it very difficult to make out what a Swiss German speaks. But the script they use is original German. So the people of Switzer devised a language for themselves, but forgot to make a script.

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Since different parts of people speak different languages in the country, the common language that connects them all is English. People use English even to communicate with the people from their neighbouring countries like Germany, France, Austria, Italy and Liechtenstein. Switzerland is geographically locked inside these countries. Most of the people can speak English or at least “ a little bit of” it. So, if we need any help we can easily communicate with them. However the older generation may not know English. The accent is easy to understand unlike the British or American ones. Thankfully, they have their own English accent. I could never follow the heavily accented American or British English. I normally avoid watching Hollywood movies because of this accent blues.

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Though Switzerland is not a super power in football, the headquarters of FIFA is situated in Zurich. All the power centres of European football like France, Germany and Italy are their neighbours. Still, Switzerland could not make it big in the football arena.

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On the first day of my arrival in Zurich itself, it took a stroll down the streets of the city. Oerlikon, the place where I stayed is well connected with other parts of the city by Bus, Tram and Train. My main aim of the first walk was to find out how a swiss-bank looks like. But I could not figure out a bank like thing that may be dealing with billions of dubious money from all over the world. I could see some banks that bore the name like GE Money or a Coop Bank. Most probably the banks that deal with dirty money hold no name in public. Only the customers may know the name and address of these banks.

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Though an infamous swiss bank could not be located, I could stumble upon an Indian restaurant. Madras Curry House. The menu that was displayed outside showed Idly, Poori and many tandoori items. Most of them were meat based. I wonder why an Indian restaurant in a foreign soil should be so fond of meat. Is it not their duty to proclaim and propagate the non violent principles we were expected to follow?

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All along the roads, we can see a lot of shopping malls and business establishments. Many people roam around inside these malls. Anyway these big halls are sufficiently heated and it is comfortable remaining here to beat the cold outside. We can see so many pram pushing men also. Usually we see women do this work. These men shop for vegetables and groceries with the kid in the pram. Mind it, men and women have equal rights and equal duties too to perform! Good tiding in the gender equality front. To me it gave a rare sight, as, back in our country men were not seen pushing a pram.

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In fact we do not use pram widely as we have to push it all along our dirty roads. Many times we may have to jump to avoid the stream of urine flowing from the adjacent wall!!! We prefer carrying the kids on the hips, shoulders or hands. I too carry my kid even if he is seven years old now. Though I cannot walk with him for hundred meters, it gives immense pleasure to me in doing so. I do not want to see him grown up. I wish the little innocent face and the unadulterated walk and talk remain unfaded for ever. But o’ God, you make him grow up and as a price for it, YOU take back his innocence (the photo you see here of mine and my kid is taken when we visited Andaman).

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Many of the shops at the main city centre show watches at the decorated windows. Swiss watches, as we know are the most famous watches in the world. Many people stand in front of them and take a good look of them. I just dropped in to a shopping mall there. The name of the mall was Coop-City. It has a chain of big complexes all over the Zurich city. The price of every commodity was prohibitively high. Still as a memento, I bought a table clock that looked like our vintage time-piece.

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Switzerland is famous for chocolates. Even in Dubai airport, they sell Swiss chocolates. We can see varieties of chocolates in the shops with attractive prices. I found this is the only commodity we can afford to buy. Though they are not so cheap, as a mark of our visit to the cities like Zurich, we are bound to carry something back home. So, best thing to have is chocolates. If we happen to visit Ooty or Kodaikanal, there also we can find handmade chocolates. They promise us to pack these chocolates such a way that it will not melt and set together by the time we reach home. If we believe them, consider we lost some money. These chocolates can never bear the temperature of the mainland. Ok, if we buy chocolates in Ooty or Kodai eat them there itself.

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Streets in Zurich are arguably neat. No trash is found thrown carelessly anywhere. Nobody was seen pissing or spitting on the streets. Perhaps these are the positive fall outs of prosperity and less population. But if anybody happens to visit the city of Kochi, we can see many people whip out their private part right at the street corner or closer to a wall and relieve themselves. They need not necessarily be poverty stricken or an illiterate and uninformed ordinary soul. Many educated people also join the chorus that is out to stink the public places in our country.

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Space is not a constraint anywhere. Enough space is left out in front of the commercial buildings, hotels, restaurants and on the road sides. No need of parking the cars and other vehicle hap hazardously. This itself gives a pleasant look to the city. All open places are paved with tiles and are being maintained neatly. At one of such places, I could see people playing chess. The chess board is the squares formed by the tiles. The pawns of the game were at least 2 feet high. The players could stand and move the pawns along the squares of the chess board. There were a number of teams playing chess on the courtyard of a shopping complex.

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The same place, on the week- end, ie Saturday, was turned into a market place. It looked as if the entire people of the locality had converged there on that day. From tomatoes to potatoes to flowers and carrots to meat, everything was on sale there. All shops were in makeshift structures and many of them where inside the vehicles themselves. As I was just walking around, I glanced at the price of tomatoes. One kilogram of tomato costs around 5CHF ( 1 swiss franc is equal to around 43 INR). This makes our Bharat really mahan. There we get a bagful of tomatoes for this price. Forget about the quantity of pesticides that may be present in those red vegetables for the time being.

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Zurich lake gives a beautiful sight. In Tourism’s parlance, it gives a panoramic view of the pristine water, floating big white ducks, beautifully constructed buildings in typical olden architecture, the nices decorated banks of the lake and above all the backdrop of the ice covered beautiful hillocks. We can just walk on the walkway all along the bank of the lake. The lake extends to the city as a small canal. After getting down at main rail station Zurich Hb, we can easily reach the lake by walk. One can take a good walk. It extends to a few kilometers-I walked for two kilometers. We can otherwise just sit on one of the benches and lazily observe those floating white ducks or the architectural beauties situated on both the side of the lake. Otherwise go for a cruise in the ship or a small ride in the motorized boat.

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In anyway, it is a perfect place for honeymoon. If anyone feels like to do a PDA(public display of affection) no problem. If the husby and the wife want to smoke cigarette, just do it. No one cares for anything. Those who missed honeymoon first time, don’t lose heart. Just pick and keep your international credit card in your purse, pack your belongings and set out right away with your spouse and children. You will not regret. Look to the other side, the gorgeous Alps is calling- who can resist its seducing charm?

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After a short trip to the heart of the city, I beat a retreat to my room. As I have been walking back after disembarking from the train, through the underpass of the railway station, I spotted a man standing on his heels with folded hands. He was there when I was going to see the city. He looked young, but the purpose of his being on the side of the underpass was to beg for alms. Beggars in Switzerland? Yes, believe me, there are beggars in this rich country too. Relax and take heart. Poor people are spread all over the world. They have not only made permanent abodes in the third world countries…