How good is your uncommon common sense?

Puzzled by the title of the post? You might be wondering what the hell this “Uncommon” common sense is? And, if its uncommon then why it would anyway be considered as a common sense?

Well.. I believe, there are two components to the common sense. First is the common component, which is really common in almost all of us. While the second component, the uncommon component is a blessing that very few of us have got.

Actually, I had developed this belief in my high school days because of one very small incident. In my high school days in Navodaya Vidyalaya, we had to stay in the hostel. We would get to watch movies if there was some special occasion or some good movie was out. At that time the movie “Raja Hindustani” was doing quite well and all the students wanted to watch that movie. With our Principal’s permission, we rented the video cassette for this movie and all of us gathered in the community hall to watch the movie. The school’s TV set was out of order and our principal was generous enough to provide us with his TV set. As I was a school captain at that time, it was my responsibility to organize all this. We got the TV in the hall, connected the VCR. As the TV was off, I pushed the TV knob to turn it on. But it did not. I tried different ways like pushing it again, rotating it clockwise and anticlockwise etc. without any help. Everyone around tried his hand at the TV to switch it on and no one could. Finally, I rushed to the Principal’s home and informed him that there is some problem with the TV and its not working. Principal also asked us the very common questions like is the TV cable plugged? is the power on? Did you check the main switch on the TV? When I told him that we have tried almost everything we could think of, he also got worried and rushed to the hall. The first thing he did was, he pulled the TV knob and bingo!! The TV turned on immediately.

After that incident, I realized that even though one can apply his common sense to most of the things, there are some “seemingly normal” things where one has to apply his uncommon common sense. What I mean is, one can still apply the common sense to these things, its just that the way of thinking or the perspective needs to be a bit different. All we had to do to turn on the TV was to just pull the knob. All of us all the things but pulling. I call this as the uncommon common sense. May be few people call it thinking out of the box or lateral thinking or what not..

In the course of time, I seemed to have forgotten this uncommonness of the common sense. But a similar incident happened to me today. And these memories came afresh in my mind…

Today, I was the last person leaving the office. Our office has a burglar alarm that needs to be switched on before locking the main office door. The alarm can not be switched on until all the other doors are closed and locked. As one of the doors was open, I pulled it in and locked it. But somehow it was not locked properly and the alarm was showing the warning that the door is not locked. When I tried to unlock that door, I could not unlock it. I again tried all the possible ways to unlock it that I could think of without any help. Unfortunately, I always locked the doors, never opened any of them. (Never happened to reach first to the office .. ). So finally, I had to call someone from our office downstairs for help. He unlocked and locked the door again. I had to ask that guy, how can I unlock it? He told me that I have to just pull in the lock a bit and then rotate it to unlock. And to my frustration, I once again did not try to pull…

Well.. I am still optimistic about myself as I also believe that this uncommon common sense can be developed. But one really has to keep his eyes (I would say, all senses) open, be a little curious about things and also learn from his mistakes!!

A little hope..

A couple of weeks back, I was feeling very low and hopeless.. And in my effort to get out of that feeling and be optimistic again, I managed to write this small poem.. (Well, at least I believe its a poem.. )

Give me a little hope oh god
Give me a little hope..

A hope that will keep my life flowing
A hope that will always get me going…

A hope that things will never be the same
A hope that things will always change..
A hope to help me weather through the dark night
A hope to live so that I can again see the sunlight..

A little hope is just that oh god I ask for
A little hope in the heart that I would die for..

– Amol

Women are really from Venus!!

Lately, I have been reading the book – "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus" by John Gray. I think this book really helps one understand the difference in the way men and women think. I am not yet finished with this book, but I generalized the things for myself. From my perspective, Men say what they mean and women say what they do not mean! Well, I know this may invite a few arguments.. but hey this is what I think.

Let me elaborate on my perspective. I think that men usually say things exactly the way they are. To understand what a man is saying, you can almost go by the literal meaning of the words. This is due to the fact that men share information. Whereas to understand what a woman is saying, you have to keep in mind that women usually generalize things. Women share emotions not information. So when a woman is saying something, simply try to apply the generalized emotion to the specific instance.

While reading the book, some of the incidents that had happened to me come afresh in my mind and I realized the blunders I had made at those times.

A couple of months back, one of my friend’s was very upset with me. She was saying that I do not have heart, emotions and everyone out there is a professional. I somehow managed to get the things in control and tried my best to improvise. The reason for her being upset was, when I was supposed to share her emotions, I was sharing my information and offering her solutions in a typical Martian style.. This is while reading the book I realized that what a blunder I had made at that time. And now I wish, I would have read this book before that incident..

Many times my mother (well, we are only 2 in our family right now) tells me that no one loves her.. no one cares for her.. and every time she would say this, I used to wonder and used to offer her explanations, again in the typical Martian style.. She would say this, every time I would not talk to her or would not pay attention to what she was saying. At all those times, I used to be tense and used to go in my cave as a typical Martian does. And she in her Venusian style used to talk to me or ask me questions to help me relieve my stress.. and this used to cause me more stress..

Anyway, after reading this book and understanding the fundamental difference in the way men and women think, I hope to handle the relations better!!

A first skiing experience..

Yesterday, along with a big group of Cognizant and Satyam people, I went to Flumserberg for skiing.. Flumserberg is one of the biggest and affordable winter sports resort in the eastern part of Switzerland and is located between Chur and Zurich. One can reach Flumserberg in a couple of ways. One can either get there by public transport (train / buses) or even drive directly by car or taxi. Flumserberg has something for everyone. There are a couple of steep slopes for the expert skiers, a few moderate slopes for the intermediate skiers and a couple of simple slopes for the beginners.

All of us were supposed to gather at Zurich HB at around 9.45 AM and take a 10.12 AM train to Unterterzen. Besides a few people missing the train, we were pretty much as per the plan. From Zurich HB, it was an hour’s smooth and enjoyable journey to Unterterzen from where we took the aerial cable cars (gondola) to reach the top of the mountain i.e. Flumserberg. The cable car station is located exactly in front of the train station and one can get there easily by following the directions. (I am simply in love with Switzerland for its systematization.)

From the aerial cable car one can get a breathtaking view of the lake of Walenstadt down until the lake of Zurich on one side and the snowy mountains on the other. You can see quite a few chalets on your way up. If a family or a group is planning to spend a couple of days, its a good idea to book the chalets well in advance rather than staying in the expensive hotels.

After reaching to Flumserberg we had a small meal and then we were all set for the fun! We rented the skiing equipments and got a ski-teacher as almost all of us were beginners. He taught us a few basics of skiing and asked us to practice the basics. I think its a good idea to hire a personal teacher or a teacher for a small group rather than hiring a single teacher for a large group. This way you get the personal attention and you can learn skiing much faster.

We practiced the basics for a few hours till we could not handle it. Though all of us were drained out of energy, we were energized by mind and resolved to visit the place again for getting some advanced lessons.

From the last couple of days I was emotionally stressed so I was in two minds about going out for skiing.. But thank god, I decided to go with the hope of cheering myself up out of the stress.. And I was not simply destressed but even forgot all my worries or dare I say, I forgot the rest of the world and just enjoyed skiing.

All in all, it indeed turned out to be a life enriching experience!

The meaning of enjoyment..

Actually, I have written this post a few days back.. But I was not sure if wanted to publish it as it is very personal in nature. But finally I decided to take the plunge and here you go…

I never used to enjoy anything.. and I also used to feel guilty after doing something for myself!!

People around me seemed to feel that I am enjoying things. I think, I had become a fabulous actor in pretending that I am enjoying stuff and I am very happy. No one ever doubted that I am all alone despite having so much rush around me.. and I guess that’s the certificate of my acting abilities.. I had become so habitual to putting on the enjoying or happy looking mask that I even forgot that its ok to be sad, its ok to not to enjoy things when others are enjoying and above all I even forgot that its ok to do something for myself without feeling guilty. Being happy always, being the source of motivation or being the supporting voice for everyone had become the obligation for me. Over the years I seemed to have lost my right to express my sadness, loneliness feelings.. Everyone would come to me, share his/her feelings, problems and would expect some solution from me.. but no one ever realized that I have problems too.. I also need someone to help me, support me. I always needed someone, who could just say, go fight, I am with you.. Do not worry if you loose, I will still be with you..

The result, I had become too cautious, I almost lost the ability to take risks, I started feeling guilty for doing things for myself and above all I stopped enjoying things and become kind of introvert. I had spent quite a few days or even months in such a situation.. I was in depression and still no body knew.. no one ever realized.. I guess I have learnt this art from my father.. He always used to seem happy to others no matter how worse the conditions are.. He suffered three accidents in his short life of 45 years.. Many times he used to be in immense pain.. but for others in our family, the patients (he was a doctor) he immediately would get off the bed and treat them smilingly.. I used to wonder where his immense pain has gone.. and I witnessed quite a few such moments.. One of the greatest things he taught me was to fight until the last breathe.. And this helped me break the shackles of depression. I came out strong and with the willpower to fight without anyone’s support. I learnt to find solace with myself. I learnt to motivate myself and others around me. And I developed the “never say die” attitude..

Its after getting the job, I learnt to take calculated risks. I learnt that its ok to make mistakes, just you need to learn from them and avoid them the next time. I realized that my opinion is important and I learnt to voice my opinion, I realized that I am worth something, I learnt to respect myself. And its all because of the great bosses I have got..

But its after coming to Switzerland and with my friend’s help, I started understanding the meaning of enjoyment. I realized that to enjoy you do not need anything big or significant. One can enjoy simply by spending time with oneself, chatting with friends, doing something one loves doing and many more such things..

I guess, its not that I was not enjoying things.. my definition of enjoyment was wrong or I have not correctly understood what enjoyment really is.. Now, I have started enjoying many things like cooking, chatting with friends, photography, the beautiful climate here, my work and many other things..

Actually, I am now learning to enjoy every moment of my life and that too without feeling guilty!!

Do I deserve it?

The opening page of my personal diary reads:

“You get what you deserve! If you want to get more, then first deserve more..”.

Ok, let me first admit that I planned to write a few important incidents in my life in that diary. The purpose was to learn something from those incidents. I wanted to learn about how my mind, my thought process works in different scenarios. Hence the plan was to analyze the incident at least twice.. immediately after it has happened and after a few days when I will be in neutral state of mind. Well, that did not really work out for me as I was unable to get some personal time, where I can do something without anyone’s interference or any disturbance.

When I came to know that I will be going to Switzerland, self-discovery was one of the points which I had on my list of things to do in Switzerland. Oh.. I seem to be drifting away from the topic. Let me get back on track!

In my engineering days, somewhere I had read this statement – “You get what you deserve!” and since then this sentence has had a profound impact on my life. The “Do I deserve it?” question is the result of this statement. Whenever something happens to me, does not matter if its good or bad, I simply ask myself “Do I really deserve it?”.

This question makes me introspect myself.. It makes me aware about the things I have achieved, the things I still have not achieved. I start thinking about ways to improve my skills, be more deserving..

The habit of questioning myself, also helps me in avoiding the reaction and give me a chance to formulate a good, meaningful response to the incident.. Avoiding a reaction is very important, as when you react there is a good chance that you can actually worsen the things rather than improvise them. I have realized that, under the influence of the incident our mind works in a way favorable to us. That is, when something good happens to us, mind makes us think that “you got it because you deserved it!” and for something bad it makes us think that “you are not getting what you deserve!”. When the mind is under influence, it safely forgets to consider or ignores the other neutral or unfavorable aspects. That is why the second, neutral introspection is necessary. I usually ensure that, I act after this second introspection, which gives me a fair chance of acting correctly.

I have been practicing this thing quite from a while now. But I still tend to react in certain cases and also my both introspections still do not match in most of the cases. Its been a big challenge for me and I guess, I still have miles to go….

Now the golden question, why do I do this? The answer is simple, I always want to ensure that I am getting what I deserve and the reverse as well.. I do not like getting what I do not deserve, as I think that there is someone who is more deserving than me and he must get his due!

Many times I have seen people complaining about things.. most often their point is – they have got less than what they deserve.. be it personal life, job or anything else.. the inference is the same. People seem to be getting less than what they deserve. And then I wonder, as most of the times I feel that, I have got what or even more than what I deserve. I am curious why this is the case.. if someone has any answer, I am all ears!!

Configuring Websphere MQ

Ok.. I am back again.. this time posting something technical..

I had a very hard time configuring the Wesphere MQ on our server (Ubuntu) and my laptop (WinXP) as well. Though, installing MQ is not a rocket science, somehow it took me several hours to make the basic configuration work. May be i am very dumb and this post is for people like me…

After being successful, I had decided to create a simple document which will explain the steps involved in the basic configuration of MQ. And this post is the result of that….

Installing WebSphere MQ on Windows XP:

1. Launch the Websphere MQ Server installation launchpad.

2. You should see the following welcome screen.

3. Click on the Software Requirements option in the left menu and check if you have all the required softwares installed.

4. If you want to configure Websphere MQ through UI, installing Websphere Eclipse Platform version 3.0.1 is necessary. You can install it from the <Setup>\Prereqs\IES directory or from the launchpad for the MQ Server by clicking on the CD-ROM option.

5. Choose all the default options and install the Websphere Eclipse Platform.

6. Then proceed to install the Websphere MQ Server by clicking on the Websphere MQ Installation option in the left menu. Select the language and click on the Launch Websphere MQ Installer button.

7. Choose all the default options and complete the installation.

Note: if you get the error message saying Unable to launch application gsk7win.exe, ignore it.

Installing Websphere MQ on Linux (Ubuntu)

This document outlines the basic steps necessary for installing and configuring Websphere MQ. In case advanced configuration is need to be done, please refer to the Websphere MQ documentation.

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wmqv6/v6r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.mq.amqtac.doc/wq11280_.htm

1. Create the directory /opt/mqm if not present already.

2. Create the directory /var/mqm if not present already.

3. Ensure that the group and user for mqm are present. To check this login as root and check the following files:

a. /etc/passwd – contains user information. If the user “mqm” is not present add the following line to the file:

mqm:x:1001:1001::/var/mqm:/bin/bash

b. /etc/group – contains group information. If the group “mqm” is not present add the following line to the file:

mqm:x:1001:somedescription

4. Copy the installation files to /home/mq_install/ directory and navigate to that directory.

5. To install the Websphere MQ you first need to accept the license agreement. Run the following command to accept the license:

./mqlicense.sh -accept

Enter the number corresponding to the language and press enter. Enter 1 and press enter to accept the license agreement.

6. Install the necessary Websphere MQ packages with the following command:

rpm -ivh IBMJava2-142-ia32-SDK-1.4.2-1.0.i386.rpm MQSeriesRuntime-6.0.1-0.x86_64.rpm MQSeriesServer-6.0.1-0.x86_64.rpm MQSeriesJava-6.0.1-0.x86_64.rpm –nodeps

Configuring Websphere MQ on Windows and Linux:

The configuration steps are almost the same for Windows and Linus systems.

1. Windows: Navigate to the Websphere MQ bin directory on the console.

Linux: Login as user “mqm”

2. Create the Queue Manager by using the following command:

crtmqm <Queue Manager Name>

3. Start the Queue Manager with the following command:

strmqm <Queue Manager Name>

4. To stop the Queue Manger you can use the following command:

endmqm <Queue Manager Name>

5. To delete the Queue Manager you can use the following command:

dltmqm <Queue Manager Name>

6. Now, you need to create the channels and queues. For that start the MQ scripting console by entering the following command at the command prompt:

runmqsc <Queue Manager Name>

7. Now create the channel using the following command:

DEFINE CHANNEL (CHANCLI1) CHLTYPE(SVRCONN) TRPTYPE(TCP) DESCR(‘ ‘) HBINT(300) MAXMSGL(4194304) RCVDATA(‘ ‘) RCVEXIT(‘ ‘) SCYDATA(‘ ‘) SCYEXIT(‘ ‘) SENDDATA(‘ ‘) SENDEXIT(‘ ‘) REPLACE

For Linux OS just the user name needs to be added to the above command, as follows:

DEFINE CHANNEL (CHANCLI1) CHLTYPE(SVRCONN) TRPTYPE(TCP) DESCR(‘ ‘) HBINT(300) MAXMSGL( 4194304) MCAUSER(‘mqm’) RCVDATA(‘ ‘) RCVEXIT(‘ ‘) SCYDATA(‘ ‘) SCYEXIT(‘ ‘) SENDDATA(‘ ‘) SENDEXIT(‘ ‘) REPLACE

8. Create the local queue using the following command:

DEFINE QLOCAL (INPTQ) REPLACE

You can also define the Tranmission Queue and Remote Queue using the following commands if needed.

DEFINE QLOCAL (TRANSQ) DESCR(‘Transmission Queue’) USAGE(XMITQ) TRIGGER TRIGTYPE(FIRST) TRIGDPTH(1) TRIGDATA(‘QM’) INITQ(‘SYSTEM.CHANNEL.INITQ’) REPLACE

DEFINE QREMOTE (OUTPTQ) XMITQ(‘TRANSQ’) RNAME(‘WMQ2InputQ’) RQMNAME(‘WMQ2QM’) REPLACE

9. Exit the MQ Scripting console using the following command:

end

10. Now start the MQ Listener using the following command:

runmqlsr -m QM -p 1414 -t TCP &

Note: Windows uses the default user or may be no user at all. When configuring your IMS component to use MQInputAdapter or MQOutputAdapter, you do not have to specify any username and password. Just leave them blank. In case you face any issues, ensure that you have not specified the username while creating your channel or may be the queue.

To be very frank, I almost faint when i need to work on Linux. I do not have any idea of how things work on Linux. So to create this document, i had to uninstall the already installed MQ server on our server and as i do not have any idea of Linux, have to google a bit to understand how one can uninstall the stuff. So i noted down the uninstallation steps as well….

Uninstalling Websphere MQ on Linux system:

1. Before starting to uninstall, end all WebSphere MQ activity.
   • Log in as root.
   • Use the dspmq command to display the state of all the queue managers on the system.
   • Use the endmqm command to stop all running queue managers.
   • Stop any listeners associated with the queue managers, using the command: endmqlsr -m QMgrName
   • To check that you have stopped all of the necessary WebSphere MQ processes, type: ps -ef | grep mq
   • Check that there are no processes listed that are running command lines beginning amq or runmq. Ignore any that start with amqi.
2. Before you uninstall WebSphere MQ for Linux you must find out the names of the packages (components) currently installed on your system. To list all the packages with their version information, enter the following:
   1. rpm -q -a | grep MQSeries
   2. rpm -q -a | grep gsk
3. If you have applied maintenance to the install, remove these maintenance packages before removing the base install.
4. Some of the installed packages are dependent on others. The rpm command will not remove a package if others are dependent on it. For this reason you must uninstall the packages in such an order that each one you uninstall has no dependencies from other packages. To list all of the packages on which a named package (for example MQSeriesServer) depends, enter the following:
   1. rpm -q –requires MQSeriesServer (modify the names as per the installed versions)
5. Alternatively, remove all the components at the same time by appending all the package names to the command arguments. For example, to remove the runtime, Server and SDK components, enter the following:
   1. rpm -ev MQSeriesRuntime MQSeriesServer MQSeriesSDK (modify the names as per the installed versions)
6. After uninstalling, you might want to delete the contents of /var/mqm, which is not removed by the uninstallation. Only do this if you do not need your queue manager data. For example, do not delete the content if you plan to migrate to a later version of WebSphere MQ.
7. To delete the contents along with the directory run the following command:
   1. rm -rf /var/mqm
8. You have now uninstalled WebSphere MQ.

A romantic poem

Few days back i have received this poem in one of the forwards.. posting it here as i liked it a lot..

Your lips, your eyes, your soul
Are like a work of art,
The most creative thing of all
Is your beautiful heart.

If you were a painting,
No colours could express
The beauty deep inside you,
A rainbow, nothing less.

If you were a sculpture
The clay could hardly make
Your figure of an angel
Without one mistake.

If you were a euphony
No choir could really sing
All the beautiful music
Your eyes could possibly bring.

So here I am, an artist,
With inspiration beyond belief
But to capture such rare beauty,
I’d have to be a thief………………..

Importance of focus..

A few days back, I was chatting with my friends about the problems they are facing in their professional life. I realized that the problems are moreover the same and while thinking about the root causes I stumbled upon the much coveted word “Focus”. From my perspective, lack of focus is one of the major causes for being unsuccessful in achieving your goals.

The irony is, focus is one of the most fundamental things that we have learnt in our childhood. The experiment of the magnifying glass and the piece of paper came afresh in my mind. (I guess, almost everyone is familiar with this experiment) And more often than not, we forget this fundamental thing.

In the truest sense, focus means concentrating some kind of energy on a particular thing, like the paper in the magnifying glass example. So to achieve your goals, you have to start with one and focus all your energy on it unless it is achieved.  I have realized that, many of us either do not focus on anything (no clear goals) or tend to focus on so many things. We usually see others doing some stuff, which they are great at and mastered that art over time. We wish to master that thing and start our efforts. But, then we see another guy doing something else and he is simply fabulos as he had also mastered the art over the time. So we again start learning that thing as well. The end result… (well you can guess now) This quote from anonymous says it all..

“If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.”

I am not saying that one should not learn other things or should not be open for other stuff. The point here is to focus on one thing at a time and having once achieved that moving on to the next.

Having said this, other things are equally important as well. Lets consider, if someone tries the magnifying glass experiment in moon light or if the piece of paper is replaced by something thicker. Can you imagine the outcome? Following Anthony Robbins quote helps a bit in that..

“It’s not what’s happening to you now or what has happened in your past that determines who you become. Rather, it’s your decisions about what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you’re going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destiny.”

I usually advise my friends to change their perspective and start afresh. But our mind does not allow us to. The memories of past clog our mind so much that most of us simply prefer maintaining the status-quo. Therefore it is very important to understand that its better to be late than never. And amongst those who dare to start afresh, again are clueless about what to focus on. They either focus on each and every trivial thing or focus on something that is very abstract or very difficult to achieve or something they do not have skills for. The point here i want to emphasize is, you should be well aware of your capabilities, the importance of the things you are focussing on and the (intensity of) desire you have for achieving that thing. So before starting out afresh, you must conduct a self awareness test which can help you understand what you really want, do you have the required skills and desire?

We also tend to expect the results very fast. So we sometimes again start loosing our focus. I think following few things might help one in staying focussed:

1. Share your goals with someone or at the least write them down on the paper and promise yourself to keep on looking at that paper time and again.

2. Choose a mentor and discuss the things you want to achieve. Decide to have frequent reviews with him to ensure that you are on the right track.

3. Keep in the company of passionate or highly motivated people. All these people are very focused on something they want to achieve.

4. And last but the most important thing is to put in your sincere efforts. Merely saying things or planning them does not do any wonders. One has to act on them.

My first week in Switzerland…

So i have completed my first week in Switzerland…

I want to share some of my observations and experiences about the people and other things in Switzerland.

People in Switzerland:
I don’t know why but I came to Swiss with the prejudice that people here will not be that helpful. But on the contrary, I have found people here a lot helpful. Though most of them can not understand / speak English they will try and understand you and will help you if they understand what you are saying. If they do not understand you then they will simply say sorry and go ahead.

I have also noticed that they mind their own business. I mean they do not interfere in each others life. Unless you ask someone no one will even notice you and bother that you are a foreigner unlike India.

Swiss people are very cautious about their health as well. They ensure that they are eating healthy things and I have found most of them having special salad dishes before the main meal. You will find many people taking a morning or evening walk on the roads as well as in the nearby farms.

One small thing which we do not follow in India is, you are not allowed to stand on the left side of the escalator. You have to walk if you by mistake take the left side. This is indicated on some of the escalators by the footsteps, which I noticed afterwords.

Traveling:

Switzerland has the concept of zones for traveling, unlike India where we have the concept of the source and destination stations. The Zurich canton itself is divided into around 25-30 zones with a specific number representing each zone. One can get the pass for the specific zones by identifying the zones one need to travel through. Alternatively one can get the pass for all the zones as well. You can visit any place any number of times within those zones. This is amazing when one knows the system in India, where you have to specify the source and destination stations and you can travel only once during a day on that pass.

Instead of a monthly pass, one can get an yearly pass as well which is more convenient and cheaper as well.

In Switzerland, there is also a concept of half pass or half ticket (not sure about the exact phrase for it). One can take a yearly half ticket pass for around 150CHF. This is very useful when you want to visit the places other than covered in your monthly/early commutation pass. If one has the half ticket pass then you have to pay just the half fare for visiting any place. One should get this pass when one decides to go for site seeing.

The other important thing is the same pass works for the trains, trams and buses as well. This is again a great feature especially when one compares it with India.

One thing I noticed while traveling by train was, people do not sit beside you even if one sit is empty. I did not understand the exact reason behind this. Is it because I am a foreigner or is it their very nature that they do not easily mingle with other people? I think i need to find out more about this…

Traveling by train:

All the trains are numbered like S1, S2, S3 and so on. One needs to find out the train number which can then be used to find out the timings and station information.

Most of the short distance trains are double decker and there are two classes for trains. First class and second class. A first class coach is indicated by yellow strips/lines on the coach. You may find the bottom layer of one or more coaches to be marked as first class while the upper layers not marked means second class.

Every coach has speakers which inform you about the name of the next station that will come within a minute or so. The doors of the coaches are automatic. There are buttons inside as well as outside which open the doors if pushed.

There is a waste-bin under every window as well as near the door where you can put the waste or any crap. And people really put the waste or crap in those bins unlike India where we have the habit of throwing things around.

Every station has at least 3 things besides the watch and other usual stuff:

1. Automatic Ticket machine
2. Zurich zonal map
3. Timetable of the trains visiting that station

Some of the bigger stations also have the electronic display boards which constantly show the information of the next trains coming/going.

Swiss people first allow the passengers to get down and then only they start moving in, that too without a hurry. They are so disciplined… I remembered the situation in India and we are nowhere closer to Swiss people. One reason is definitely the population difference. But i think we can still do better if we wish to.

I was also amazed by the way they have interconnected their traveling system. Once you get out of the train most often you will find a tram or bus waiting outside of the station. This is really wonderful and that’s why traveling here is very cozy and relaxed.

People can even carry their cycles and baby carriages in the trains. There is a special area just besides the door for the cycles and baby carriages.

Traveling by tram:

Just like the trains the trams are also numbered. Every tram station has the tram numbers displayed indicating the trams which will halt at that station.

Every tram station again has the above mentioned 3 things. The station also has the route map of every tram. The current station is marked with an arrow on that map. The next stations are printed with black color while the stations which have already been traveled were a bit grayed out. So even if you just know the station you want to travel to you do not have to worry about the direction of the tram. You can simply go to the station on the other side of the road to take the same tram (i.e. one with the same number) going in the opposite direction.

Every tram coach again has an electronic display as well as the sound system which tells about the next station that is going to come. The display also shows the list of next 4/5 stations and the time in which the tram will reach there.

Buying Grocery:

Buying grocery is a big challenge for a foreigner coming to Switzerland. This is because of two things: people do not understand English and you do not know the names of many things in German but the products are named in German.

“Migros” is one of the chain of retailers like we have Subhiksha, Spencers, Reliance Fresh, More etc. where you can get pretty much everything. I mean what swiss people use in their daily lives.

But if you want to buy Indian stuff then that’s a bit tough. Yesterday I have found out one store named “Barkat” where you can get most of the Asian stuff. From pulses to readymade chapatis you can get most of the stuff there.

Traveling to “Barkat”:

You have to take 14 number tram from Zurich HB. (Oops, I forgot to write that the main train station at Zurich is called as Zurich HB (Zurich Haupt Bahnhof).

Take the tram going to Triemli. You have to get down to “Schmeide Wiedikon”. Just before the Schmeide Wiedikon station the tram takes a right turn ( while going there) where you will see Migros on the right side where as Barkat at left side. Just keep in mind that you have to walk backwards for around 100 m after getting down at the Schmeide Wiedikon station and keep on looking at the right side while you are walking back.

There I met a Hyderabadi guy who is doing MBA in Switzerland and is doing a part-time job as well in Barkat. He showed me around the shop so that I can buy most of the stuff I have to buy.