Mice Theory

I had Munich’s city map in my hands but even that couldn’t help. In a city having almost 3 dozens of museums you need a map with a much better resolution. In a low resolution one, it becomes hard to figure out if that museum behind you is the one where want to go or the one in front of you, or maybe your destination is infact on the next street . Khanna had asked me to make sure that I visit the Deutsches Museum before I board my flight to New Delhi. I had only a couple of hours of left with me. Asking the localites about the Deutches Museum wasn’t helping either. They were as confused as I was. I had no reasons to complain. I would be equally confused if a German walks up to me and asks me the way to ‘National Philatelic Museum’ in New Delhi. But then, Deutsches Museum is the world’s largest science and technology museum, and still it seemed to be at large.

It was then I saw that man in cycling attire parking his bike outside a cafe.

“Excuse me”, I said. “Can you please tell me the way to the Deutsches Museum?”

I saw a jap-mala around his neck as he turned back to respond. He was somewhere in his forties.

“Deutches Museum?”, I emphasized on the proper noun as the rest of the sentence was probably jibberjabber for him.

“Oh! That is easy.”, he could speak english pretty well. “You skip this street and turn right on the next one, pass that bridge and you’ll find the Deutsches Museum on your right.”, his hands moved in sync with what he said.

“Thank you so much. That was very quite precise.”

“You’re welcome. What place are you from? India?”

“Yes, I am. How did you guess?”. It was obvious he guessed that from my skin colour. But then, I wanted to continue the conversation and hence asked him.

“Because I have been to India. I loved the people there. I really respect them.”. Now this wasn’t obvious.

“What did you do there? Cycled around the country?”

“No, we didn’t. Our group is covering the alps these summers. Though the himalayas are on our list, we’ll be there soon too. What brings you to Germany?”

“I was here for a two month internship at the University of Ulm. Have to board the returning flight to New Delhi tonight.”

“Oh! New Delhi!”. He was excited. “I actually visited New Delhi when I went to India. I loved the people there. You know! They have so less with themselves and yet they are so happy. Here you can have a car like that here(points his finger to a high-end Volkwagen), but still you’re not satisfied. But people there are so much satisfied with their lives. Isin’t it?”

I was surprised and hence I asked, “By any chance, did you go to the ISKCON temple there?”.

“Yes you are absolutely correct. That is the place where I had spent most of my time and met the wonderful Indian people.”

“You haven’t seen real India then”, I said. Either he didn’t get what I meant or he misheard me, as he didn’t react to what I had just said. I didn’t care to explain it to him either. Be it a misconception, atleast some have something good to say about us