Most of us, Indians, had their first encounter with snow in Denmark. And the only ice we ever came in contact with until then was kept in the plastic mold in our freezer that served as a life giver in the staunching heat in India. So, it’s quite understandable that the current weather would amuse us, amaze us, awe us and would be a bit of a pain as well. The irony is that most of the Danes are feeling the same way. They are amused, amazed, awed and pained by the excruciating winter freeze that has engulfed Denmark and much of Northern Europe.
And it’s hard to miss the impact it’s making on people’s lives when you watch news reports of passengers stranded at the major airports in Europe, or when you drive on the highway at 60km/hr and very frequently see vehicles tossed and smashed, or when you hear that Autohjælp had the busiest day ever, when it received 5300 calls from stranded drivers across Denmark. And a day when, referring to the weather, one of your 55-years-old colleague comes and tells you that this is the first time in her life she has seen anything like this, you are overwhelmed by the fact that you are actually witnessing something that might find reference in the journals.
But the beauty this intense weather brings along with it is unmatchable. How the rays from a sublime sun at the horizon cut through snow laden trees and glitter the ice crystals on the surface of the snow is a sight that warms your body and freezes you soul. You feel as if you are a part of a huge canvas and you are ready to sacrifice many summers just for that momentary glance.
One cannot get all the best in the world. But we can at least try to pick the best from the worlds we live in!
This is a tale of how Google almost made me change my mind about coming to Aarhus. When it was almost confirmed that I would be coming to Aarhus University to pursue my further studies, I remember googling 'Aarhus', to see how the place that was going to be my home for the next few years looked like. I was astonished to see what I saw: very old, crooked houses, streets paved with stones, a guy dressed in medieval attire sitting on a horse cart... And I remember saying to myself, "Are you really sure you want to go and live in this Amish town?"
It was only when I landed in Aarhus that I found out that what I saw on Google was actually a small old town within a town - Den Gamle By. And no wonder that there were more pictures of the old town than of the new one: it was more exciting than the 'boring' town that surrounded it. 9 years on, now googling Aarhus is a different experience. There are magnificent aerial pictures of Aarhus. There is Aros and its famous Boy. And there are computer simulated drawings of how the new harbour of Aarhus will look like. Now that the old crooked houses and stone-paved streets of Den Gamle By have taken the backstage, the weather can take the centre stage again and scare people from coming to Aarhus!
Let me commence my blogging with one of the cultural shocks that I experienced in Denmark. Coming from Punjab and not seeing any policeman for almost a month was 'tough'. A month after landing in Aarhus I remember gazing at the first policeman with eyes wide open and saying to myself, "Oh! he is so fit and smart". This impression, of course, had an undertone with respect to my expectation of how a policeman should look or behave.
A Danish policeman had thrashed my impression of a very colourful, slow responding, pot bellied, policeman standing on a roadside, occasionally hitting his lathi on a rickshaw. And here there was no belly, no lathi, and no rickshaw.
I dedicate this first post to the colourful, witty and often talked about, Punjab Police - 'A touching moment'
Mostly Cloudy 14 oC