Afterthoughts about the Jantar Mantar Protests

I have spent several days now wondering about a bunch of questions. Why did the government not respond to the appeals of the protesters for more than a month? Sonam Wangchuk was taken away to Safdarjung Hospital forcibly against his will. They quoted the court order and concern for his health. To what kind of Government is such a forceful removal a more acceptable option than engaging in debate? We are not about a semi-educated villager. We are talking about a scientist, a social activist, an environmentalist, a leader who could move millions to rise. Why did the police unleash such brutality on the young protesters? How was this easier than a government representative coming and giving the protesters a fair hearing? Why was the mainstream media quiet about what’s happening out there, and when they were speaking, they were analysing the involvement of the opposition and anti-nationals! When did the profession of journalism fall to such depths?

But here’s the big question: why did people like us still quiet? Look at WhatsApp groups. Family groups. Class groups. Residential society groups. They were all quiet. Absolute silence! People are talking about the war in Middle East. They were talking about FIFA world cup. They are talking about monsoon. And useless memes and good-morning messages never stop. But about the biggest demonstration in several decades – pin-drop silence! Why? Anti-Modi camp will try to write it off as Andh-bhakti. I feel it’s more devious than that. It’s masterful use of fear at many levels.

EXTERNALISING THE VILLAIN – A POLITICAL MASTERSTROKE

Consider the following list of problems:

• Ineffective education system
• Inaccessible, expensive and unavailable healthcare
• Crumbling infrastructure
• Rising unemployment
• Pervasive corruption
• Inequity along many axes: class, caste, gender
• Pollution
• Climate change

These are our real problems. We all suffer from them. They are what pulls down the daily experience, reputation and value of being an Indian. They are what makes us a poor, underdeveloped country. But the worst aspect of these problems is that they are internal. It’s hard to identify who is causing them. Since you can’t locate the perpetrator, you can’t easily solve them. A part of them lives in us too. Through that 100 rupee note we passed to the traffic police to avoid paying traffic violation fine. Through those 20,000 rupees we paid to purchase a fake degree. That jumping the signal to save a minute. The first step towards solving these problems is to accept that we are party to it – however small – and mustering the courage to try to stop being one. That’s why they are so difficult to solve.

The government has convinced the vast majority of the population that the following list of problems are bigger than the above problems:

• Increasing Muslim population
• Immigration
• subjugation of Hindus
• Hostile neighbours
• Terrorism

Some of these problems are real, some definitely aren’t. Definitely, none of them is comparable in their damaging potential to the first list of problems.

But these problems are good-to-have problems because of two things:

• The villain is clearly identifiable.
• That villain is not us; it’s someone else.

So, whether these problems get solved or not, they keep your conscience assuaged, your rage directed to something or someone else.

A government who is able to leverage the above fact will achieve unprecedented support – among semi-educated elders and villagers, among educated IT professionals, among guilt-ridden diasporas. This permission to fear and hate someone else – a clearly visible and identifiable enemy – for all your misery has a phenomenal balmy effect. This externalisation of the national problem alone helps a government earn an unshakable support among millions of honest and gullible Indians who had been writhing in discomfort for decades wondering why they can’t get rid of their misfortunes.

Making 6-lane highways, erecting humongous statues of leaders, building temples, doing surgical strikes and achieving space explorations gives those complementary visuals that the government is at work fixing stuff. This does the remaining work in persuading crores of supporters to wilfully blindfold themselves. Now, all they do is dream about seeing an India back in the days of its glorious past – no hostile community, no hostile neighbours, no terrorism, Sanatana Dharma proclaimed the indisputable king of all ways of life. They have just seen that starting to happen under the current government, and they will keep their eyes closed until they know it’s done. Of course, till then, their unconditional, vehement, sometimes militant support is at the service of the incumbent.

These blindfolded citizens, armed with stinging tongues and a devotion amounting to religious are the first line of defence for an authoritarian regime.

DANGER OF DISSENT

The next use of fear is by making it more difficult and dangerous for an ordinary citizen to express your unhappiness about any aspect of the government's functioning.

Dissenters are silenced at many levels:

• People like us can be conveniently ignored. We have small voices with non-existent following. Mostly, we are best ignored if we are few and far between.
• Next, every group we are part of has at least a few people who are ready to use sarcastic or abusive language, gaslighting and trolling against any disagreement or dissent, now that the number of supporters is above a critical value. Their job in life is to bring down the level of civility of any debate to a point where it becomes unpleasant to take a stand. In many such cases, I have sometime tried to hold my ground. But I have realised that the point of such discussions is just to make it unpleasant enough for you so that you stop. It's a cyberbullying game.
• The next level is to threaten. IT cell comes into action here. What one unpleasant so-called-friend, relative, neighbour can't do is done by trolls. They will throw filth on you through comments, posts, and even issue threats. Dissenters and non-supporters are called names like anti-national, anti-Hindu, AAP-tard, libtard, intellectual etc.
• The next level is hooliganism. The threats turn physical, legal or official. Framing in fabricated cases, detention, or physical bullying through police or goons. Police brutality on demonstrators and protestors is a live example. Social media are under continuous surveillance. People expressing any anti-state thoughts are identified and subjected to harassment, threat, bullying, or real harm often using state-institutions like police and law.

JOURNALISM GONE TO DOGS

It is shocking to see that the incidents in Jantar-Mantar barely found a mention in mainstream medium for the first one month or so: news channels, newspapers—hardly any of them is saying anything about the massive demonstration going on in Jantar Mantar.

Uncooperative media houses can be intimidated by the government using various means accompanied by corporatisation of major media companies. These corporations could be friends with benefits with the government and have a lot to gain by ensuring that their newspapers and channels publish what presents the government and ruling party in bright colour.

Under such conditions, most mainstream media houses turn into already lapdogs of the ruling regime or get tamed through intimidation.

Another way to abuse journalism is by spreading so much misinformation that there's no way to tell what's the fact. Eventually, people just believe what they want to. This causes unbridgeable gaps between groups since members of one group think of those in another as lunatics. Such groups are easily to rule on especially when the biggest group supports you.

Let me be very clear. I am not claiming that the current government has done all the above. All I am saying is that if they have done such a thing, they are not the first. This method has been used multiple times by fascist and radical leaders to sway the popular opinion with amazing efficiency. Fear always works when used on a large population. You just have to find the right villain – jews, leftists, Muslims, intellectuals, NRIs. And you have to capture all mainstream media. And you have to intimidate isolated voices of dissent before they can hear one another. There! You are one of the most popular leaders in History. Example: Hitler!

GREY REALITY

As most Indian get informed about such movements from social media and compromised mainstream media, we all get a very skewed view of reality based on what the sources want to project. I was particularly concerned about the possibility of multiple sides of the reality being there and deliberately exposed myself to multiple viewpoints which were in opposition to the legitimacy of the movement. Here are some which emerged:

• The movement was funded by anti-India elements and was by definition an eyewash.
• The movement was compromised due to involvement of multiple parties without any control.
• The opposition parties rode on the opportunity to create trouble.
• The protests weren’t completely peaceful. There were instances of violence and abuse from the protesters.
• The demands were not aligned with the stated goal.
• Sonam Wangchuk was running his political agenda.

MY VIEW

I am not in a position to agree or disagree with any of the above claims. All of them may be partially true. I again proclaim my wholehearted support for the protests for the following reasons. These are not dependent on facts but on how I look at things:

• There are undoubtedly a very large number of people who are not completely convinced with what a great government we have today. I am not fully against the current government. But I am not a big fan. There definitely is a strong divisiveness visible in their political stance. They also tend to be manipulative (especially when it comes to public opinion) and authoritarian. They have openly used the way of mass misinformation and throttling of journalistic freedom to sway public opinion in their favour. One of their worst acts has been to let the genie of Islamophobia out of the bottle: it has completely vitiated the atmosphere around. This has given them tremendous political mileage. But the damage this has done will take decades to undo, if at all.
• Over the years, we have been silenced through variety of intimidation techniques discussed above. Rooms where abusive sentiments about one specific community are expressed, listened to and normalised with impunity are not safe for healthy, respectful debates. At least I am hesitant to express my lack of devotion for the current government openly in such gatherings which constitutes a large majority of them. Silencing of such voices through the creation of a threatening public atmosphere has created a misplaced feeling that that the government currently enjoys total fandom.
• The importance of the resignation of education minister was symbolic at best. What really happened was that people like us got a voice through the protesters. I think that it’s a major win of democracy in that sense, since there was no precedent of the current government taking kindly to any kind of dissent or disagreement. It’s set an example that when the public wishes to say something, the government must listen.
• The government should reign in their IT cell and blind fans who are going crazy on social media trying to project this episode as another of their big covert political victories (look for videos saying something like ‘the protestors didn’t realise what the government just did to them! …’). This is also turning into a pattern where political goof-ups and defeats are projected as covert tactics by the invincibly strategic government. This is clearly to assuage the hurt sentiments of the fans who take any political defeat of the government as personal and keep them on the government’s side.
• I am equally disinclined to write off this government as out-and-out bad, as some people would like to picture them. Not all the stories about their achievements can be a fiction. Some definitely are authentic and we should give it to them. I feel, on the good side, there are traits of action-orientedness, assertiveness and development orientedness in this team. I think, it’s very important to have a balanced view of matters and not just burn effigies.

LET’S NOT REPEAT THEIR MISTAKE

The force of the recent protests was undeniable. Eventually, it boiled over to the point where the government was literally forced to listen. For several weeks, the government acted as if they are too big and strong for the protestors to even lend a listening ear. It was convincingly proved that they are not invincible. I wouldn’t consider it an exaggeration if we say that the government was literally brought to its knees. It’s a great win for democracy. Governments of future should remember that they are elected to serve, not to rule. When the public wishes to say something, they better listen.

But now is also the time for us all to stand back and remember the risks of excesses. In our excitement, we may end up making the same mistake that most of our pro-regime compatriots have been making for the last decade or so, i.e. externalising the evil (see above). Our fight is against a broken education system and corruption, not specific people or organisations. While the current regime may have become an instrument of this evil, they are not the evil themselves. Let’s not direct all our wrath against them and forget who or what we are fighting against. Let’s remember the famous saying: "Hate the sin, not the sinner." Vanquishing the external enemy is the easier bit and often doesn’t mean much. The really hard part of winning this battle involves asking uncomfortable questions and turning the spotlight on us. Let’s face it: It’s possible to change the destiny of our beloved country, but only when its people understand their responsibilities as much as their rights.

The struggle against the elusive evil, a part of which resides in each one of us, is going to be a long one.

Trip Journal - Aschaffenburg Germany

My travel journal

(Created directly from the travel notes written during the trip. Hence, you will find many remarks as if it is happening while I write. I have deliberately not changed them in this post.)

If you are interested to go through the full travelogue, you are most welcome. If you are feeling impatient/short on time, please feel free to just go through the pictures and their captions. If you are even more short of time, then you may want to flip through the Google Photos Album.

Context

Sometime around July 2025, Barbara Sprick, who teaches in university here (Aschaffenburg), visited IIIT Bangalore looking for a visiting lecture. I volunteered and the whole thing worked out well. So, here I am.

Beginning

I started from home exactly at midnight. Even before we left Electronics City, the taxi driver got into an angry exchange of words with another person on a two-wheeler. I reached airport at 1.20am. Soon, I realised that I had arrived way too early. I could easily have delayed my departure by another 2 hours.

At the check-in counter, I met with a minor hiccup. My cabin baggage was too heavy by about 2kg. So, I had to shift some of my stuff into the large check-in bag.

After checking in, I reached the boarding between 2–2.30am. I tried to catch a nap on the chairs. But it was a bit cold and noisy. Probably, my mind was a bit excited too. So, couldn't sleep at all.

The flight started on time. I was served vegetarian breakfast in the flight. I gathered that all the fine-grained meal-preference inputs they have on the website doesn't closely correspond to the reality on board. On board, they just gave us a different set of choices. For me, a vegetarian option was the best match.

There in the Bangalore-Bombay flight, they upgraded me to premium economy. A girl named Swathi was sitting beside me. It turned out that she too was travelling to Frankfurt to join her husband who was already there for work.

Bombay airport is a busier, messier place. There was some confusion, and three long queues. The first one, I am not quite sure why it was there. The second was the security check. The presiding officer was taking his duty very seriously. He was singling out many passengers. He did it to me too. I had to put my luggage back for scanning after readjusting as per his directions. Finally, I stood in a really long queue for immigration check. All this got done comfortably within the time I had (which was about 3 hours).

AI2027 -- the plane that took me from Bombay to Frankfurt

The Bombay-Frankfurt flight took off on time as well. Here too, my seat was changed from 51C to 34H. Again, I had vegetarian meals. I watched two movies. One was 'One Battle after Another' starring Leonardo De Caprio. It was a nice movie, but I don't think I understood everything. The other was a Japanese anime named 'Look Back'. It was about two young manga artists. It was nice too, but I felt that the story didn't get any closure.

In this flight I shared the aisle with a couple who were travelling to Germany to meet their son who is doing his PhD here.

The flight reached nearly 45 minutes before schedule. Earlier I had found out that the sunset here is at 9.30pm. So, I would definitely reach my hotel before sundown.

The immigration queue was very long. It took us 1.5 hours to get done with it. In the queue I met one Rohith, an employee of Bosch. He turned out to be very helpful. He guided me to the airport railway station. We exchanged numbers and said good bye. I intended to use the vending machines for purchasing my ticket, but couldn't do that immediately as they were all in German. I took help from an old lady to get the English UI. Another Indian, again a Bosch employee, happened to be around. He helped me select the ticket. The ticket costed me 19 Euros, which was very pricey for me.

Anyway, I caught the train around 7.20pm. There was a brief moment of anxiety that I had caught the wrong train. But that wasn't the case.

Frankfurt Hbf

Reached Aschaffenburg

The site of a beautiful city with apparently 

no people was both fascinating and terrifying

I reached Aschaffenburg at around 8.10pm. I walked all the way to Milchhof Apartments. It was drizzling, the distance was non-trivial, place unknown, and I had three pieces of luggage. All the way from the station to Milchhof, I hardly saw any human face. There's an annex building of Milchhof right on the main road. I saw a man standing at its doorway. I asked him about Milchhof and immediately it turned out that he didn't know English. We somehow communicated through gestures. He pointed me to the adjacent building. I could find the letterbox from where I picked up my sign in packet. However, that building turned out (after I had explored all its 3 floors) to not have my room. I explored a bit more and found my room in the second floor of this other building.

Milchhof Aparments - The place I stayed in

The room has some really convenient features. A double bed. A kitchen space, a microwave, a coffee maker, a 2-plate induction stove. A nice bathroom, a wardrobe with huge mirror, plenty of utensils, a dining table, a 3-seater sofa, a tea-table, a one-seater sofa, a TV. It took me quite a while to explore and figure out the amenities in the room. I asked Barbara, AI and just fooled around a bit with things. By that night I had setup most things and had operated the microwave.

Low Charge and Anxiety

Around that time, it hit me that not having brought the power bank and/or the universal adapter had been a mistake. The charging plugs of none of my devices were compatible with the sockets here. My phone was rapidly dropping charge.

I ran to the railway station first thing the next morning and got the universal adapter from the station shop.

Me - relieved after buying an adaptor

Sunday in Frankfurt

Almost all my days during my trip

began with a cup (goblet) of self-prepared

ginger tea

Around noon time I set out for Frankfurt to meet Shamit Bagchi. I met him at 1.30pm at the Frankfurt Hbf railway station. We walked around for some time. Had pasta and wine for lunch. Then we walked some more. We said good-bye around 4.30. I took the 5.30 train back to Aschaffenburg. I bought eggs, butter, milk and bread at the station. Night, I cooked Dalma and rice. It was good for more than two meals.

Iconic Frankfurt Main Railway Station Building

Lunch with Shamit Bagchi

Eurostar

Sunday afternoon at Frankfurt

Evening shadows in Frankfurt Railway Station

... and here's one of the secrets of how I keep 

good health during my travels. I keep active.

In short, I walk -- mostly. I walk like hell!

08-06-2026 Monday

And here's the other secret. I eat in moderation.

This time, I could take it to the next level.

I mostly had self-made food. Bread Omelette

became my staple breakfastduring the days 

in Aschaffenburg

Morning, I made bread-omelette and chai.

A walk through Aschaffenburg -- What a pretty little town! 😍

Late morning, I walked to the university, which is about 1.4km from Milchhof. I met Barbara near the university lawns at around 11.30am.

TH Aschaffenburg University of Applied Sciences

- Beautiful Campus

I got to attend a function presided by the chief minister

of Bavaria -- Markus Söder

A moment with the University Students' Music Band

We attended the inauguration of one of the university buildings by the chief minister of Bavaria. I made acquaintance with the student music band. I had some snacks which more than sufficed as lunch. I didn't quite enjoy it.

I also attended a department tour of the Applied AI department. There, I suddenly had to go to the toilet. Probably, the function snacks did not agree with my tummy. It was too cheesy.

Meanwhile, Barbara was gone as she had a lecture. We again met her at 3.15pm at her office. I also attended Barbara's lecture on Theoretical computer science. She taught universal Turing machines.

 I returned shortly afterwards to my room. I had the dalma-rice again.

I cooked Dalma-Rice on Monday night

09-06-2026, Tuesday

I decided to spend the morning at the hotel to prepare my lecture. It was a productive and slightly depressing morning. My Wednesday lecture got prepared.

I took a walk at around 11am. I found a nearby store and bought some coriander leaves.

For breakfast I had moori. Lunch I finished the remaining dalma along with three theplas.

Afternoon, I walked to the university. I sat at the cafe and worked. I purchased a cappuccino. It was both productive workwise and fun watching the young students. Some were working, some were partying, some were just hanging out. And all of them were smoking.

Barbara came around 4.30pm, I think. She left again shortly for something. I called home and was in a video call with Shilpi when Jóakim arrived.

A beautiful evening in the banks of river Main

Barbara and Jóakim leading the way

The medieval period city wall showing markings

of water levels during famous floods

Beautiful streets and no people

My dinner on Tuesday -- don't ask me

the name!

Three of us left shortly afterward for the city centre where they were going to treat me to dinner. City Centre area was extremely beautiful. Cobbled streets, street side cafe, old beautiful buildings, medieval and ancient structure, e.g. churches, castle. There was the river and at its banks these food trucks.

We walked around a lot and finally chose a restaurant. I had a dish that had mushrooms and potatoes and of course cheese. It was nice and filling.

We walked back to the university. Barbara dropped me at Milchhof in her car.

I don't think I could do anything much after coming back to Milchhof.

10-06-2026 Wednesday

First lecture day.

I made some egg bhurji, packed the cup-noodles and bhurji and left pretty much as soon as I could for the university. I had my lecture at the second campus which is a bit further away from Milchhof. I was under the impression that I was late. It turned out that I was an hour too early. But I walked quite fast by my standard and was quite sweaty when I arrived.

Giving a series of lectures to international students was

itself a learning experience for me.

My lecture was at 11.30am. There were about 15 students. I spoke about event-driven architecture. Many students seemed pretty distracted/busy with their devices. In this university, they neither take attendance nor say anything to the students for not paying attendance. This is a bit strange and difficult for me. Nonetheless, I think, the lecture went off pretty well. Only six students returned for the afternoon practical class. They were interested and it was nice.

In between I had my noodles and egg bhurji for lunch.

After the lecture, I returned to the hotel. I purchased some eggs, a hat and a room perfume for Shilpi from this large store which is on the way.

I made Khichdi on Thursday night

I prepared khichdi which came really delicious. I am looking forward to have the rest of it in dinner tonight after I return from Bamberg.

The day's lecture was part of the Software Architecture course that Jóakim teaches the second-year students.

11-06-2026 Thursday

Thursday. I woke at 5 am. My research lecture wasn’t prepared yet. I spent the next two hours working on the slides.

I didn’t get any time to prepare for the morning lecture in the Software Engineering course.

I reached around 9.35 am. The lecture began at 9.45 am. I taught software design using the calendar program example. We continued after the 15 minute coffee break. Most students disappeared after that. Those who stayed back were the interested ones. So, it was nice again.

After the morning lecture, we three went to the nearby bakery and had our lunch. I paid for it. Barbara had brought a box full of cherries from the tree in her yard. We kept having them along the way. For lunch, I had a egg sandwich like thing. It was nice!

We returned to the same room (127) for my research talk. There were 7 people in all. I spoke for 45 minutes. The dean was there. Barbara, Jóakim, two senior students and two junior ones. The talk happened uneventfully. I discussed our work on CRV detection. Incidentally, around the same time when I gave my talk, Ganesha was giving an identical talk in Morocco as a part of NETYS conference.

After the talk we sat in the same faculty room for quite some time. The dean was there too.

After this Barbara and I walked to her place. She gave me her bicycle. But instead of letting me go home, she took another bicycle and came along. Probably she wanted to see it for herself if I was able to ride the bicycle or not. And may be she wanted to ensure that I got trained to ride the bicycle in her supervision. I think, she was extremely kind!

We rode for a long time. My estimate is 10 km or more.

We went to a restaurant and had our dinner. Barbara paid. I had a pizza and iced tea. She had french fries and non-alcoholic beer. It rained for some time and the temperature dropped sharply. It became shivering cold when we started on our way back.

Barbara eating a lot of french fries

German pizza - my dinner on Thursday

We rode together till a point, then parted ways. I reached Milchhof with some help from Google Maps.

The bicycle Barbara lent me. I decided that keeping 

it in my hotel room during the night was the safest option.

I was very tired and it was later than I had planned. I dropped the plan of washing clothes and relaxed. In time, I took up the task of booking my train ticket to and from Freiburg for my Saturday trip to meet Ivan. I realised that my card was not being recognized by the DB Navigator app. Finally, I requested Ivan to help me with the ticket booking. It took quite a long time and was nearly midnight by the time it got done.

I slept well and woke up around 2.30 am to some alarm sound. It turned out to be the induction heater which didn't like my putting the cleaning cloth on it to dry. It took another hour for me to get back to sleep.

13-06-2026 Friday

Today was the trip to Bamberg and I haven't reached back home. Already enough adventure. I am not looking for any more.

I woke by 7.30 am and left bed at around 8. Made tea. Got ready. Cleaned utensils, and clothes.

Left Milchhof at around 9.45 am. Went to the station on the bicycle. Bumped into Jóakim on the platform. Parked the bicycle in a parking space on platform 1.

I bumped into Jóakim at the station 

Aschaffenburg, in fact all of Germany, is a bicycle friendly place.

There are bicycle stands at all places.

Trains and buses allow people to enter with their bicycles.

Took a direct train to Bamberg. It dropped me there a few minutes after 12.30 pm.

My lunch at Bamburg

I was quite hungry. So, I found a cafe to have my lunch. Got a nice vegetable sandwich and coffee. Then started walking to the town hall.

Bamberg proved to be incredibly beautiful! Old European vibes. Medieval architecture. Cobbled streets. Street side cafés. A beautiful river cutting through the city. Everything was mind-blowingly beautiful. The town hall, Library, Rose garden, the old court, the churches and the red-tiled rooftops. I went berserk clicking pictures.

Rose garden with many rose varieties

The view of the tiled rooftops was one of most beautiful 

sights in Bamburg

Suddenly around 3.45 pm I noticed that the charge in my phone was down to 18%. I immediately decided to start my return journey.

The charge in phone kept dropping rapidly. While, I wanted desperately to get back to Aschaffenburg as early as possible, it also got clear that the charge in my phone wouldn't last till I reached under any condition.

I thought what conditions might arise and what information I may need to deal with that. I could think of my Deutschland-Ticket number and phone numbers of Barbara and Ivan. I noted these down in my small notebook.

I got into this train that was standing right there. I got down at Schweinfurt Hbf. Took one to Würzburg, and from caught this one. Hopefully I will get dropped at Aschaffenburg without any further incident.

As the train started, the DB app/Google Maps immediately removed the entry corresponding to this journey. As a result, I had lost all information about the further connections -- which stations to get down at and which trains to catch from there.

As my phone was anyway out of charge and I wanted to minimize the likelihood of making a mistake that would delay or create any other complication, I was asking people for confirmation: from co-passengers and the station information desks as well. I used 3 trains during the journey. The two intermediate stations were Schweinfurt Hbf and Würzburg. At each of this, I had to run to the platform through the subway, locate the information desk and collect the information about the next train that would take me to Aschaffenburg.

At Würzburg when I asked about the next train to Aschaffenburg, the lady at the information counter, who wasn't comfortable with English told me that the next train was due to leave in another 3 minutes from Platform 10. I ran to platform 10 only to find another train standing there. Initially, I thought that my train would come in after this one left. I even started waiting for its departure. However, accidentally on glancing around, I saw that my train was already there, a little way down on the same platform. I ran to it and barely made it in time to catch it. What an adventure!

So, the rest of the trip was peaceful. I reached Aschaffenburg, I think around 8 pm. My bicycle was safely locked where I had left it in the morning, and no one came to me asking for parking charges. I reached home (Milchhof) within 10 minutes of that. On getting back, I warmed the Khichdi and had it nicely.

13-06-2026

The day started early. I was headed to Freiburg to meet Ivan. The decision was to travel to Frankfurt by 7.10 local and catch the 8.50 am ICE from there. On reaching station I learned that the 7.10 local was cancelled. The next local would reach Frankfurt at 8.40. Obviously, that was way too close to 8.50. Time to spend some Euros! I purchased a 23-euro ticket and caught the 7.35 ICE. It took me to Frankfurt with enough time to spare.

Aschaffenburg Hof on Saturday morning

In Aschaffenburg station, while waiting for the ICE to Frankfurt, I met a senior couple from Calgary, Canada who were here to celebrate their 35th anniversary of marriage. We talked amicably for some time. We all enjoyed the fact that they were finding the country very crowded (since they live in Canada which is anyway thinly populated; plus they were farmers living in the rural stretches of Calgary where you don't meet people for 100s of kilometres apparently) and I was finding it almost deserted, since there so many people in my country!

I had a cappuccino at Frankfurt station. Figured out in time that the platform of my train had changed.

The train started in time and reached Freiburg in time. Ivan was on the platform waiting.

Ivan travelled from Lausanne and I from Aschaffenburg 

to meet at Freiburg

The sketch I gifted Ivan -- this was inspired from a scene

captured last year during our road trip in Switzerland on

our way to the snow place.

We settled all the gifts in his car's trunk and then started wandering aimlessly.

The museum with interesting prehistoric exhibits from local excavations

We got into a beautiful old looking building that turned out to be a museum showcasing relics from the prehistoric times to the medieval period of the local history. It was very nice.

One of the two churches we saw in Freiburg

Thereafter we saw two churches. One of them was really huge and enigmatic.

Had gelato -- wasn't quite as good as in Italy, but came close.

I had some imported tea :D

My lunch - Quiche

Busy street with lots of Tourists

We had very nice lunch at a place where the waiters happened to be mentally challenged people. My lunch was quiche which is basically some salad with pie. And also, some coffee—espresso but with milk and sugar. We also had a gelato later and iced tea (peach flavoured). All through the day we kept talking about variety of topics:

• parenting
• linguistic jingoism
• about my book on conversation
• about importance of declarative programming in prompt engineering
• device addiction and social alienation among youngsters
• fashion culture among Europeans.

The day was quick to pass and it was time to say Good bye again.

The train left Freiburg at 5.27 pm as per schedule. Journey till Frankfurt was free of events. I was carrying all arrangements to keep my phone from getting discharged. Discovered that there was free WiFi on the train. So, made a video call home.

After reaching Frankfurt I took a train that would take me to Aschaffenburg through one change. As required, I changed at Hanau Hbf. I was chatting with Barbara and somehow, I made a mistake in reading the announcements. I got down at a station named Dettingen with '8 minutes to go!' I sensed my mistake as soon as I stepped down from the train. But the train had already left by the time I could do anything.

I checked the DB app for the next train. It was RE55 due after half an hour on the same platform. The station struck me with its tiny size and desolation. I waited.

About 25 minutes down, a train arrived on the other platform – RE55! I will remember that moment as one of my most panicky moments! I started running looking for the subway to get to that platform. I couldn't find one. I even momentarily considered jumping across through the tracks. I waved at the driver, which he didn't notice, of course. The train left! I called Barbara and said that I had missed RE55 too and that I was in trouble.

Even as I was talking with her, I saw the announcement of the upcoming arrival of RE55. I realised that the one I had missed was going in the other direction — towards Frankfurt. Phew!

I got into RE55 alright and reached Aschaffenburg without further incident.

I was tired and hungry. I made bread omelette and had nicely. I watched a movie (Transcendence) for some time and slept around midnight.

After all these adventures I was feeling relieved for having survived them.

I didn't know then that more adventures awaited me on the next day!

10 pm, 14-06-2026, Sunday

It's so dreamy to imagine that I have been living in Milchhof for more than a week. Last Sunday morning I was feeling so helpless because my devices were running out of power. From that little crisis to many more, not the least of which I am going to relate now.

Today morning, I woke up late, around 7.30 am. It was already 8 am before I left bed. Very soon, after making and having my morning chai, I was down to making egg curry. Cooking took a good amount of time. Interspersed with other tasks, it was already 11 am by the time I got done.

Then I went to take bath. And while bathing, it struck me all of a sudden that my hotel booking might not be till Tuesday morning but till Monday morning. When I finally could come out of bathroom and check, my fears were confirmed! I had earlier made the booking till 16th, but later changed it to up to 15th, thinking that the latter date was the last night I spent at the hotel. So stupid!

PANIC!

So, I called Stephen, the hotel guy, and asked him if he would give me a day's extension. To this he straightaway refused quoting full booking as the reason.

I called both Barbara and Shamit. Both didn't pick. I informed both that there's a crisis (though not revealing what the crisis was) asking them to call back. Shamit was the first to call. I told him the situation and requested him if I could get shelter at his place tomorrow night, and also by the way, postpone tonight's dinner plan at his house to tomorrow. He readily agreed. I could hear his wife saying in the background that there was no problem. I was embarrassed and profusely apologetic. But given the situation, I had to make this request. So, that was decided. Staying the night at Shamit's place at Frankfurt also makes reaching the airport significantly easier. So practically also, this seems like a great idea, at least from my point of view.

A while later, Barbara called up too. It was decided that, the next morning, she would come and pick my luggage in her car, and drop it at her office, while I would follow on her bicycle.

Egg curry - my lunch (and dinner) on Sunday (June 14)

During all this I also had my lunch – egg curry and rice. It was delicious!

Afternoon, I wrote my travelogue and also had a video call with family.

I tried to sleep for a while but couldn't sleep.

Around 4.30pm, I went out on the bicycle and cycled around in the city. I purchased Tipu's gifts and also something for Shamit's two little ones.

I came back around 6.40, heated the remaining egg curry and rice and ate that up too. In the afternoon, I had already completed a large portion of my packing. I also completed watching the movie 'Transcendence' which I had started watching yesterday.

OK! Pretty much caught up till now!

Hoping that no more adventures await me now till I reach home.

Good night!

June 15, 2026. – Monday 10.40 am

Morning, I finalised the packing, had 4 toasted slices of bread with butter and finished the left-over milk. I left the room around 9.30am. Barbara came at about 9.45am and took away my luggage. I bicycled to the university main campus and had a cappuccino.

Barbara came in some time. We sat and chatted for some time while she had her coffee. She had called this other professor Michael. So, we waited. Michael joined around 12pm. Barbara left as she had more lectures to give.

Michael and I had a very good discussion about possibly common regions of interest in research. He is into Applied AI. So, the primary theme that emerged was of using AI as an auxiliary engine to automatically derive formal specifications in variety of domains. Of course, in software engineering, but also in medicine, regulatory compliance, manufacturing and accessibility. We parted with a promise to follow up with a written concept note.

Thereafter, I proceeded to city in search of a stationery shop. I wanted to buy some gifts and souvenirs for various people.

In the mall, I purchased some gifts for Shamit's daughters, Barbara and Jóakim. I also couldn't resist the temptation to purchase one fountain pen and a painting brush for myself. The mall, by the way, took me a long time to find. It was possible to wander so much as I had Barbara's bicycle. Or maybe Google maps would have performed better in guiding me if I had walked. In any case, I later discovered that this mall was on the same road as the Railway station.

I returned to campus 2. I sat in the staff room and completed the Ocaml code for the hyphenate program. Also had a video call with Shilpi.

Barbara finally came at around 5.25pm. We rushed to the railway station and said a hasty good bye as I wanted to catch the 5.45 pm train to Frankfurt. I comfortably made it to the platform as the train was late by 5 minutes.

I reached Frankfurt at around 6.30pm. Encountered a bit of minor issue in locating the M46 bus stop for Shamit's place. A short video call with Shamit fixed that issue. I got into the M46 bus within another 2 minutes. I almost repeated my previous day's mistake by getting down one stop too soon, but I self-corrected in time. Shamit came to the bus stop to receive me.

Unfortunately, the only picture taken (by Shamit) during my stay at their place on June 15

I will remember my evening and night and morning at Shamit's house for their warmth. I spent the most time with Madhumanti, Shamit's 10-year-old elder daughter who is interested in art and dance. I also chatted a lot with Shamit's mother-in-law who seemed to be an intelligent and knowledgeable woman.

They had prepared a fairly elaborate Bengali meal for dinner and gave me a separate room to sleep in. The realisation of how I had inconvenienced my hosts was very embarrassing for me, but this time I just avoided mentioning.

That night, I faced some difficulty in sleeping primarily as the dinner was very heavy. Next day, I got up at 6.45am.

Tanuka (Shamit's wife) made nice cheese omelette toast. Shamit booked an Uber for me. Again, I tried to convince that I should pay, but the entire family came down on me to say how that was a bad idea. I didn't argue.

The way to the airport was 15-20 minutes. The taxi was running at 130+ kmph on the highway. Shamit had erroneously booked the taxi for terminal 3. Luckily I casually mentioned to the taxi driver that I was supposed to go to terminal 1. He changed course and probably added a few minutes to the ride.

The process in the airport involved all the usual drills: check-in, security, immigration, boarding... nothing significant enough to be remembered and documented.

The flight took off punctually at 12.10 pm and I saw through the window the German landscape receding, and like all travels coming to an end, I experienced mixed emotions -- a sense of achievement for having made it to the end safely, a touch of nostalgia for the good times that had come to an end, and the excitement of going back home.

Good Bye! Deutschland! Hope to see you soon again! 

The flight was comfortable. I had a window seat. The two adjacent seats were unoccupied. So, I could use more space in doing things. My infotainment display wasn't working. One of the air hostesses suggested that I shift to the adjacent seat. I didn't accept this. Later, round faced air hostess connected me to the Wifi network. It worked for some time then the connection broke. I didn't try anymore partly because I didn't want to be a bothersome passenger. Further, I knew that this would drain my phone battery. Unfortunately, I didn't have the phone charger with me. So, I shifted to the middle seat and watched two movies. One was Deva starring Shahid Kapoor and Pooja Hegde. It wasn't a good movie. The second one I watched was Laapataa Ladies. This was a fantastic movie with feminist themes.

There were two meals. The first one had a quinoa salad and rice, daal and gobi sabji. The second had a bun-like thing and a brownie something. Both meals were quite good.

That classic expression of mixed feelings - the sadness 

on a great trip coming to an end and the joy of returning home.

We landed at Delhi at around 1.20am today morning. Usual airport drills followed. Long walks. Baggage claim. Recheck-in. Customs. Immigration. The 3-hour layover at Delhi airport was more than enough to make good a relaxed transport.

I caught the 4.30am flight to Bangalore, which touched down around 7 am.

I came out of airport after picking up my luggage and took an airport taxi. I was conscious that I may be going for a more expensive option. But I was feeling quite tired and eager to get back home. Also, the two suitcases were not easy to handle together.

I caught the taxi at around 8 am and got back home at around 10.15 am. The taxi ride costed me around 2500 rupees, nearly thrice how much I had paid on my way to the airport.

The first familiar person I met was Sinthia, downstairs. The second was Jhuma from whose place I collected the house key. She offered me tea, but I was too tired even for that. There was no one present at home when I came. I found a bowl of Jamun kept for me and a beautiful homemade pin board affixed above the study table.

This brings my travel to its conclusion.