BluesImHof & Bollywood Euphoria

Finally, I got something to cheer about my present Deutschland trip. Last weekend was the best one of my two months of stay here. “Are you interested in music?” My friend and colleague asked me during lunch few days back. A Punjabi, and you need not to ask him if he likes music or not, they just love it and love it madly. So, was my answer to him. So, he invited me for a weekend break to his home place Mainz city, about 40Kms from my place Frankfurt. There they organize a music concert ‘Bluesimhof’ every weekend of July, and it was a big successful concert running since ten years.

Blues is type of Jaz music and ‘ im hof’ means in a house, so its like a music concert in a old house of a village, Sounds interesting? Yes, it was. So all set and I was in Mainz city on Saturday at around 11 o’clock, there my friend was waiting for me along with his girlfriend. First they took me around the Mainz city for site seeing, Old market, Roman temple, thousand year old Cathedral, Rhine River and in the evening we moved to their village Einglheim about 10Kms from there. The scenic beauty of the road from Mainz to Einglheim was mesmerizing. Narrow roads through the wine yards which were spread to miles on both sides, small villages hinged on the far hills, wind turbines, stud farms, it was all there in that few kilometers of stretch.

After having some rest in the cozy guest room of the typical hut shape European house we moved to the concert venue - a village house, a kind of which we have seen in old Hollywood movies, a big open area in front surrounded by high walls and a big high roof hut at the end which contains a small stage in the centre, all around the four walls there were many stalls of local food and off course the Beer. The organizer was a friend of my colleague, so we got the nearest table to the stage. We ordered our food and drinks, all set and in an hour the ‘Kai Strauss band’ was on stands.

The reason why I am writing this blog is not the wonderful performance of the group, but the interesting conversation I had there. A mid aged lady Mrs. Grazina Nicolaus was quite interesting, she was born in Latvia, her father is Russian her mother is from Poland and now she is married to a German, moreover she can speak six languages. If this didn’t amaze you the next thing she told me was – “I am a die hard fan of Bollywood movies” to that, my eyes were struck wide and she continued “Ya, you know Aiswarya Rai? She is so beautiful” and her expressions while saying this was like anything.

“And I love Shahrukh, that movie in which he got drunk for Aiswarya and eventually dies at her door step”

“Devdas” I completed her sentence.

“Yes, Devdas. It was so romantic”. She told me she had a large collection of Bollywood movies dubbed in German language. “Only the songs are in hindi, and I love their music also”.

“Have you ever been to India?” I asked with curiosity.

“Noooo” a sad reply.

“But you must go, you love Bollywood romantic movies; then you must visit Tajmahal – the symbol of love” I said and I couldn’t believe on my ears when I heard her reply to that.

“I want to, but you know I am afraid of snakes, they scare the hell out of me”

Now what’s that, from where the hell these snakes came from? I didn’t utter a word but she read my expressions. “Ya, I saw in so many movies, they always scare the girls and I have a kind of snake phobia”

I laughed uncontrollably on that. It took me long minutes to make her understand that India is not only Bollywood movies or what they show in that. Finally, before leaving for the night she half heartedly agreed to my definitions of India.

P.S.In the bed at night I was thinking ‘What was more interesting, BluesImHof or the Bollywood Euphoria?’