With two weeks left for my 6-month extended business trip in Cologne, Germany, I was yet to find a tenant for the apartment. There was no shortage of spam calls from half-cooked Indian names with sketchy accents, eager to have my bank details to transfer funds immediately. The height was when I got one from a tax agent ready to arrest me for tax errors. The gullible half of me had already given up on the Euro-trip and picturing life in jail, while the Mr. Hyde in me carefully assessed the validity of the situation on Google.

Anyway, 3 days before my departure from Cincinnati, I would have my tenant. That was a good start to my big temporary transition. The flight across the Atlantic for this transition was the part I was looking forward to the most. Thanks to corporate policy, I was all set for my maiden business class voyage. Of course, come the day, I had serious qualms about my belongingness in all this. Suddenly I was very aware of the fact that I was from Kanpur – a city not exactly known for classiness. Ironically even Kanpur formerly had a name starting with C (Cawnpore).

After about 30 mins of day-dreaming near the Gate area, I remembered to give my uncle a call to inform him of my status. He was pretty excited for me & asked how I was liking the lounge. “What lounge? There is a lounge?” Apparently yes and the I had never bothered to find out. Kanpur scores!

I ran upstream of a horde scampering to make their flight, found my lounge and entered through the sliding glass doors with ‘Lufthansa’ engraved in golden yellow. Waiting for me inside, was a parallel universe with comfortable couches, shimmering mood-lights, a plethora of snacks and a bunch of dignified people in business formals. I hesitantly entered, clad in cargo pants & a yellow Nike T-shirt that read “Longer Harder Faster”. Anyway that was for them to look down upon. For me, a problem of plenty lay ahead. “Where do I start? – Must have the chicken and the bread and the soup. The banana and the energy bar would be good to have in my bag. What should I drink? Coffee, cola, beer, wine or something new?” I had to calm myself down and conquer one item at a time.

An hour went by in a flash. I gulped down the remaining wine, as they called my name for boarding. There was an internal secret passageway that led straight to the jet-bridge. I was among the first ones to board. The walk along the aisle was short one and there was my seat, which wide enough to fit my arse and another half. There were buttons everywhere, a huge screen and oh so many storage spaces. Once again I had to take a deep breath and decide the sequence of exploration. As I sipped the orange juice offered to me the moment I sat, a weird guilt hit me. I hated seeing the people enjoying business class when walking to my economy class seat and well, I could feel some negative vibes towards me at that moment.

I placed my phone, wallet and passport in different storage slots as we began preparing for take-off. The moment we reached cruising altitude, I pressed all the buttons multiple times to examine all the potential positions to enjoy the flight.  I was greeted by a smiling attendant. Was I in trouble? She asked if I was “Mr. Phani … Graaa…hi?” & then offered me the range of items available in tonight’s menu. Within minutes, the food & beverage carts were out. My eyes widened & turned away at the same time as I needed a little break from the last meal at the lounge. Or at least that’s what I thought. Once served, I scooped out every bit of the delicious ham, bread and dark chocolate cake served on beautiful glass cutlery.

A few hours into the flight I was still bedazzled. I continued to adjust my seat in order to find that perfect partial supine position with adequate lumbar support in order to watch my movie. I reached for my phone, but it was nowhere to be found. Turns out, I had calculated one storage slot too many. The lay-flat configuration of the seat created a little slit for my phone to slip through. The next scene, had me standing up while two attendants with flashlights took my seat apart as the fellow passengers stared along. Kanpur -2! They told me that I wasn’t the first one to go through this. Apparently on one of the flights the cellphone caught fire while getting crushed under the seat. At least I wasn’t that guy.

I spent the remainder of the flight getting my first real sleep at 35000 feet. It was soon time for a hearty breakfast followed by touchdown at Frankfurt International. With that, ended my short stint at elitism as I found myself waiting for my train on the platform with hundreds of other people.

My business class tickets cost a fortune, but apparently the train ticket was where I was going to save the company some money. I had chosen the 2-hour Intercity train for 14 Euros as opposed to the 1-hour high speed Intercity express (ICE) for 60 Euros. My jet-lagged mind was ruing the decision as back to back Cologne-bound ICEs passed by.

My medium speed train arrived soon. As we commenced our journey, I got some joy of the fact that this train felt a tad more like trains back in India. It had the jerks of a locomotive hauling a rake, the clitter-clatter of lower sound-proofing and the swinging motion of ordinary suspension.

I had taken an ICE on this route before, so there wasn’t anything new to see. But I still tried to keep my eyes open – just to avoid waking up at Hamburg. We passed some fields followed by a couple of small towns with characteristic German houses that had cream-colored walls and brown roofs. There were a few hills in the backdrop and right in front of it, was the sparkling Rhein river. I began to realize that this was a different route, as we kept getting closer to that scene. I couldn’t believe my eyes, as the tracks would get right next to the banks of the river. I lost every bet I made with myself about how long this scenery would last, as it continued for almost an hour. The train took screeching curves to snake along the river. The hills would soon be on either side of us and vineyards started dominating their slopes. As if this wasn’t dumbfounding enough, the setup would soon be adorned with castles atop the hills and believe it or not, on islands in the river.

Two hours seemed rather short, as we slowly pulled into Cologne. I walked up to the Residenz am Dom, my accommodation for the next 6 months. It was just 5-minutes away – strategically chosen by me to avoid having to rent a car & hence force me to use public transport for a change. Of course, the downside was that this was mostly a retirement-home. The elevators were designed to give retired people a sense of passing time as I reached the 4^th floor after what seemed like an eternity. As I shut the door to the neat but dead silent place– a feeling of emptiness hit me. I realized that the excitement of transition had ended & the onset of settling in had begun. I had to think about what sim card to get, what food to cook and how to spend my time alone here. Of course most of my weekends would end up being in a different country if not a different continent.

After a long afternoon nap, I went for a walk. I headed straight to the cathedral, which is right next to the central station. It was hustling and bustling with people, just as I had hoped. I walked around the perimeter and then towards the shopping streets, near the Dom. It was choc-a-bloc with people and my normal “laidback and looking around” gait was impossible to execute. I brought on my alert-walk and visited a few shops for essentials. My excursion continued, now heading towards the river banks, which was again lively, with all kinds of performers around the multitudes of outdoor seating restaurants. I wrapped up with a 15-minute session of idly watching trains chug in and out of the Central station to & from the love-lock filled bridge, preparing myself mentally for what lay ahead.

 

Cologne for me, would end up being that state of limbo between being a trip and a settling location. I developed routines, but each one of them had something novel to offer every day. These lively streets would end up being my everyday post-work routine for stress-relief. Yet I would keep trying new kinds of Gelato every now & then. Of course Stracciatella and Magnum sticks were standout winners. The Dom and river banks had a surprise or two in store almost everyday, which ranged from piano players to giant bubble makers to even a frenzied celebration for the Hindu god – Krishna. The Rewe at the station would be my day-to-day grocery store, which would also lead me to discovering gems such as Lambrusco wine, curry sauce and Hanuta dark chocolate wafers. While I never succeeded in having a complete conversation in German, I still learnt some new word or phrase every day. And of course Cologne would also be home to several new friends in my life, along with being my launch-pad for many solo adventures. Skip to the present day, it has been almost two years since I have settled back into Cincinnati (the regular “C”) but the pleasant memories of the temporary “C” continue to inspire me to keep trying something new.