Tag: germany

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Trends

Google compiles 8 magical World Cup moments

From a coach staggering backwards to the fastest goal in under a minute, Google tracks 8 moments fans loved this World Cup.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

After four weeks of anticipation, excitement, aggressive performances, tears of disappointment and some crazy instances, the FIFA World Cup has finally reached the finale stage. As fans await to see the strongest football teams play in  the ‘Battle de finale’ and lift the FIFA Cup this year, Google Search recaps some of the crazy yet entertaining moments the fans cherished again and again during their journey to the finale.

Kroos#1) Highest score in a World Cup victory. An historical battle by all counts, with an exhilarating performance by the German squad that delivered a shocking record World Cup defeat for Brazil, German midfielder Toni Kroos, who scored two back to back goals in the first half’, epitomised Germany’s improved game.  Germany searches for “highest score in a World Cup victory” spiked by 370x during the match.

#2) Klose to history. German striker Miroslav Klose became the World Cup’s all-time record scorer with his 16th goal during their semifinal against Brazil.

#3) Falling coaches. Another such moment emerged during the recent Argentina- Belgium match where Alejandro Sabella, the Argentina coach, quickly gained Internet fame after he became so engrossed in a chance for his side during their World Cup quarter-final against Belgium that he almost fell over.

#4) Cheers and tears. During the round of 16 battle, Argetinian commentator Pablo Giralt could not hold back his tears as he summed up the feelings of many Argentineans after Angel Di Maria’s Tears118th minute winner goal versus Switzerland, letting his emotions take over him in an epic live on air match commentary. After an enormous “ggggggoooooooooaaaaaaallllllll” came the tears!

#5) Full paisa vasool. Piojo Herrera is by far, the most entertaining coach to watch at the World Cup, managed to grab everyone’s attention with his celebration style. Fans searched for Mexican Coach “Piojo” online after his epic side-line celebrations during Mexico- Croatia match.

Japanese fans#6) Clean and clear. Japanese fans, armed with blue rubbish bags scoured the stadium for any mess and made sure the Football Arena was left in good condition as the Japanese team played their set of matches during FIFA. The positive gesture from Japanese fans was appreciated by Football fans across the globe.

#7) Quicker than Maggi noodles. The fastest of this World Cup and one of the quickest goals in the tournament’s history was up on show for fans as USA captain Clint Dempsey wasted no time against Ghana, scoring the 2014 World Cup tournament’s fastest goal a mere 32 seconds after kick-off.

#8) Torres wardrobe malfunction. And finally, from the fashion ramps to the Football Arena, Fernando Torres wardrobe Wardrobe malfunctionmalfunction during the first half of Spain versus Australia match did bring some unusual cheers among the crowd. Fans continued to search for the player and the incident online after the match.

 (Text and graphics courtesy Google Inc.)

Categories
Achieve

The artist of the opera

Mumbai’s Ratnadeep Adivrekar is the first Indian artist to exhibit his work at Wagner’s magnified opera in Germany, this month.
by Medha Kulkarni

It is said that when art beckons, all one can do is follow it.

Ratnadeep in his studio This was certainly the case with Goregaon-based artist Ratnadeep Gopal Adivrekar. The son of two artists, Ratnadeep (39) grew up in a home surrounded by art, and rebelled against it by opting to study Science instead. He pursued the subject determinedly until one day, in a sudden moment of clarity, he realised that all he wanted to do was paint. Since that day Ratnadeep has not looked back.

His journey as an artist began in 1997 and the road came with its ups and downs. However, Ratnadeep relentlessly pursued his art and today he is poised to become the first Indian artist to exhibit at the internationally celebrated Wagner’s magnified opera.

The exhibition consists of 16 works (see two examples below left and right), 10 of which are oils on canvas and the rest are charcoal and acrylic works. The works will travel to different cities in Germany for three weeks before being housed in the permanent collection at the Wagner Museum on July 19. The oil paintings represent iconic scenes from Wagner’s most celebrated operas and the charcoal and acrylic works try to paint a picture of the man himself, his life and the magic that has kept his works alive.

One of Ratnadeep's works to be shown at GermanyWhen asked what the most challenging part about working with his chosen medium was, he said, “Oils are suitable for large works, but the advantage of working with oils is also its disadvantage. The idea has to be pre-determined. One cannot go with the flow as is the case with charcoal and acrylics. However, with charcoal and acrylics, there is no room for error. One wrong brushstroke, and I have to start from scratch.”

It took one and half years of gruelling work to make this exhibition a reality. Ratnadeep spent some time in Germany, studying Wagner’s works. He also went to several operas and met with distinguished opera conductors to understand the nuances of an opera. “Western music is very different from Indian music, but Wagner’s operas have a lot of themes which are common to the Mahabharata as well, and that’s where I drew my inspiration from,” he says. Wagner operas were inspired by Nordic tales and the themes of love, power, greed etc. are common to those as well as the Mahabharata.

The conceptual style of the works shows layering and this reflects the multi-layered nature of Wagner’s operas themselves. Synthesia means a direct visual translation of music into paintings. “I didn’t experiment with synthesis as it tends to create very subjective work. I wanted my works to be accessible by a broad cross-section of viewers,” explains Ratnadeep.

According to him, the Wagner show is his “greatest artistic achievement to date”. The most challenging part, he elaborated, about working on this imageshow was the pan-cultural association. However, the works have been received well and he’s looking forward to the opening of the show on July 19.

On being asked if he would do more shows based on music he laughed and said, “No. Not for a long time at least.” Ratnadeep also has a solo show at the Tao Art Gallery in Mumbai later this year.

(Pictures courtesy Ratnadeep Gopal Adivrekar)

Categories
Become

Touring India today

Entrepreneurs Harsh Sonawala and Abbas Slatewala talk about going from being travel junkies to running their own travel start up.
by Swaraj Dhanjal

We all know how big a pain it is to plan one’s travels! And if the trip happens to be to a foreign locale, the task becomes even more tedious. Some people might take refuge in the service of major tour operators, but don’t we all know how it feels to be part of a herd, moving together in packs and doing things which are pre-planned by the tour operator?

Now imagine the plight of foreign tourists when they think about travelling to a diverse and complex country like India! The good news is that they need not spend sleepless nights any more, as two Mumbaikars have teamed up to solve their travel woes. ‘India Someday’ is a travel start up by Harsh Sonawala (28) and Abbas Slatewala (29) that offers customised India tours to foreign tourists.

The great idea
Harsh (2)Harsh (in pic on left), who has tried his hands at many crafts like advertising, film editing and eCommerce before starting India Someday, was always a traveller at heart. “I would pick one State and travel across it for like one month, mostly alone,” he says. On one of his travels, he met Abbas (28), also a hard-core travel junkie, in 2008. A common love for trekking and travelling brought them together. They planned a trip to Bhutan and got along a few friends, too. “All our friends loved the trip, the way it was planned and the overall execution!” exclaims Harsh. “Also, I was unofficially helping a lot of friends plan their travels, so all of this got me thinking that it was a good business model.”

Starting out
They started off by creating a structured process for the work they were already doing – assisting their friends with trips. One of the first things that they decided was to call themselves ‘Travel consultants’ and not tour operators. “We assist people in planning trips; the clients play an important part in the planning. We don’t simply hand them an already cooked plan as a trip,” says Abbas.

Having the process set up was just the first step. Next, they needed partners, so they began with hotels. “Getting hotels to acknowledge us was a big challenge,” remembers Harsh. Building relationships with hotels proved to be a tough ask; some hotels, initially, just wouldn’t work without upfront payments.

What so special?
The USP of India Someday is that trips are all entirely customised, and the process is completely transparent, with a clear picture of services offered and the complete fee provided. “We even give people the option to book their own tickets if they want to,” says Abbas. The duo also does not recommend places or hotels to their Lauren and Kai used India Someday's servicesclients unless they have been to those places personally. “The biggest differentiating factor is that we are travel enthusiasts running a travel company and so our perspective matches that of our customers,” says Harsh.

Marketing the company
When asked about marketing India Someday, Harsh said that they haven’t spent a single rupee on marketing. “Our first customer was a friend’s friend,” he says. After that they set up a Facebook page and things just began to snowball!

The first year saw most of the customers coming in from their friends’ references. A unique and innovative step that they took was to give prospective clients the contact details of past customers so that they could get in touch with them and check about the service personally. “This helped us build a lot of trust with our clients,” says Abbas.

The decision to stay away from advertising was a conscious one. “We are a team of four and we don’t think that we would be able to handle all the traffic generated by any advertising,” foreigners travelling in indiasays Harsh. They say that they don’t need advertising right now as word of mouth has worked wonders for them thus far.

Harsh and Abbas, however, won’t just stay limited to word of mouth and are planning for international PR by hiring a few interns in France and Germany, countries which provide the bulk of their clients. They also plan to hire a few more interns to handle the increasing number of customers.

Going from strength to strength
Their three-year-old company has witnessed double digit growth, starting from 40 trips in 2010 to 100 and around 200 trips in 2011 and 2012 respectively. The company earned around $300,000 last year, a remarkable feat for a small start up.

The journey, however, had its fair share of problems. “We wish we could have expanded quicker but the nature of our business model doesn’t allow us to do that. And if we try to change the business model, try to become more formal, cut times, then we won’t be India Someday,” says Abbas. Finding good employees is another major challenge for them.
On the brighter side, meeting their clients and receiving positive feedback from them is very encouraging. “We recently met a large Columbian family and every member had liked something or the other about the trip,” says Abbas. It is always good to receive feedback and advice from clients, they add.

Many valuable lessons have also been learnt in these three years. “Partnerships are tough,” exclaims Harsh. He says they have learnt a lot about running a business in a partnership. “Finding the middle path is important, as is respecting each other’s thoughts,” adds Abbas.

What’s next?
EmilyIndia Someday recently got itself a new office and the duo has been spending a lot of time planning the firm’s future plans. “We are targeting 350 trips in this financial year,” says Abbas. “We will be marketing ourselves and also hire new people,” adds Harsh.

The biggest trick up their sleeves, however, is their plans to start a travel consultancy for Indian tourists as well. “We are looking at Asia for this, as both of us have travelled a lot across Asia and it is also comparatively cheaper than the West,” explains Harsh.

Both Abbas and Harsh, after having worked for different corporates, seem to have found their calling in entrepreneurship. “I never had a problem working for someone, but I hated being just a cog in the wheel,” says Harsh. Abbas feels that, “All entrepreneurs will eventually end up doing something because it either makes business sense or because they are passionate about it!”

Check out India Someday at http://www.indiasomeday.com/

(Pictures courtesy Harsh Sonawala, blogs.wsj.com, www.indiasomeday.com )

Categories
Do

Two students, the environment and Germany

Bayer Young Environmental Envoy Programme combines study with green sense; chance for Indian students to be ecological representatives in Germany.

Know a student who is environmentally-conscious who likes to travel to far-off places? This upcoming programme is just what he or she needs.

Bayer is providing young environmentalists with an opportunity to win an all-expenses paid week-long field trip to Germany. This is part of the company’s forthcoming Youth Environmental Envoy 2013 programme scheduled to take place in Germany this year, and it invites entries from students with active participation in an ongoing or completed environment project. The entries will be shortlisted based on various criteria such as sustainability, inventiveness and project management.

From the shortlisted entries, two students will be chosen to represent India as Bayer Youth Environmental Envoys 2013 to Germany. The week long study trip will give students the opportunity to gain a firsthand experience of best environmental protection practices by the company, people and government in industrialised countries.

Last year, Gaurav Maheshwari and Swapnil Kokate represented India from November 4 to 9, 2012 in the programme, where they got a first-hand experience of how sustainable environmental practices are pursued jointly by the people, government and industry. The excursion entailed visits to various waste management and recycling sites as well as workshops on nature monitoring and conservation.

The Programme is a global environment education programme organised by Bayer and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to help young people learn about trends and perspectives in the field of environmental protection and sustainability. It is open to all Indian students in the age group 18 to 24 years, holding a valid passport and actively involved in a current or completed environmental project. Further details on the criteria, joining procedures and application forms are available on the India section of www.byee.bayer.com. The last date for submission of entries is July 31, 2013. The application form for the Programme is available online.

(Picture courtesy bikinginaskirt.blogspot.com)

Categories
Overdose

Iss English ki toh…

Jatin Sharma takes up the cudgels on behalf of the non-English speakers, wondering why we’ve become lingual terrorists against them.

“Oh , he is such an idiot, doesn’t even know English.”

“Do you know she just said, ‘I don’t riks my life’?”

“His English grammar is pathetic.”

These are some lovely lines that have fallen on my ears time and time again. In fact, once while I was at a production house to meet a friend, waiting for the lift to arrive, I heard someone shouting. It was a woman, about 30 years old, and she was talking, no, shouting at someone over her phone. Since my lift hadn’t arrived yet, I took the chance to listen in on this screaming person.

What I heard shocked me. The girl was yelling at her mother for coming to her birthday party to surprise her, because the girl was embarrassed. Why? Because her  mother couldn’t speak English. The girl felt really bad when her mother tried to speak English in her front of her friends, and failed with a line. She felt even worse when her friends laughed.

Before hanging up the phone, the girl said, “You are such an embarassement, mom. Learn English.”

My lift arrived. As I entered it, I began to wonder: why would someone feel elated or dumb, happy or sad, secure or insecure in this world only on the basis of them (or somebody else) knowing or not knowing how to speak English? Since when, and why, has English become so important, that we have started judging people on the basis of the language they speak? Why has the world forgotten to dwell on the importance of good thought?

Language, as I know it, is a tool to express and understand your thoughts. It doesn’t matter whether it is Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Punjabi, Marathi, English, French, Italian or Pashto. No doubt that English is what most of the people in the world speak today, but judging other people and their talent on the basis of their fluency in English is just ridiculous. You can rejoice if someone’s English is extraordinary, but making fun of people who don’t know English is just demeaning them.

A rickshawwallah from Benaras once told me, “Angrez chale gaye, angrezi chhod gaye! Pehle angrez ke ghulam the, aaj angrezi ke ghulam ban rahe hain (the English have gone, but they have left English behind! Englishmen ruled us, and now English is making us its slaves.)” He was very happy that he cared for people more than the language they spoke. I asked him about his education. He said that he never attended school, but that he is still literate because he knows not to judge people.

“Angrezi bolne se koi vidvaan nahin banta, Shiva ko angrezi thode hi aati thi! (Nobody is intelligent because they can speak English, did Lord Shiva speak English?)” he said. I knew I was going to remember these words for a lifetime.

We judge each other on the basis of how well we speak English, and we are brazen enough to laugh at people who don’t speak it well. Has anyone realised that English is a foreign language? It became a world language only because of the British man’s rule all over the world. They made slaves out of other people and became rich by looting and plundering. So there’s nothing to feel proud of if you speak their language well.

And if you think that the British can speak English well because they are British, think again. I once met a girl in India – she was from England – and when I read her diary, the first thing I noticed was that she couldn’t even spell the word ‘sympathetic’. I laughed in my head; if she had been Indian, I would have just pointed at her and laughed aloud, making her feel really stupid about not knowing how to spell an English word.

Let a language be a language. Don’t make it a tool to judge a person. We are Indians, we are doing great in the world. Our culture is already awesome, packed as it is with so many languages. We have Sanskrit, which is forgotten in our country but which is becoming really popular in Germany. We have the Vedas, and we are the fathers of yoga, which is a phenomenon all over the world.

So what I’m trying to say is, it’s okay if Indians behave like Indians. Why try to turn them into Englishmen and Americans?

And while we’re on the subject, I want to point out that the English language itself has some fundamental flaws of pronunciation. I still don’t know how you can have a ‘p’ at the start of a word and say it is silent. I still haven’t figured out why certain words have similar spellings and completely different pronunciations. Also, why is the word ‘the’ pronounced differently in two different situations? And why did the British change the names of our cities; are these names so difficult to pronounce? I can say Kolkata and Calcutta equally well, so why can’t they?

A language, its writing and its pronunciation, must have a science driving it. Hindi has a science backing its words. Sanskrit is a flawless language, the main reason why the Germans are planning to programme their computers with it, because it has no errors.

Again, look at the French and how proud they are of their language. You don’t find them laughing at their own countrymen for not knowing English. Look at the Chinese; the Premier of their country takes a translator along on his trips and tells the world that he is a proud Chinese.

Yes, English is required for progress. But we have to be supportive of those who can’t speak English and who prefer to speak in Indian languages. No language is more superior than another. Languages are meant to connect hearts and minds. So don’t become a lingual terrorist, hating people left, right and centre just because they are incapable of speaking English. Listen to their thoughts and not their words. And while you’re doing so, take pride in yourself, rather than the person you are trying to be.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because he believes that if he grows up, he will be like everybody else.

(Picture courtesy ascentinstitute.org)

Categories
Hum log

The objects of her affection

Shrutti Garg is a talented young photographer who doesn’t like to capture people or nature – give her objects, instead.
by Vrushali Lad | vrushali@themetrognome.in

Shrutti Garg (25) is a Worli resident and ace photographer who doesn’t like to capture people’s faces, or nature. Her latest works – Objects as streets, streets as objects, and The Green Project are on display at Gallerie Max Mueller, and the two walls of the Gallerie that hold the exhibition’s photographs are strong examples of how objects are central to Shrutti’s imagination.

In a series of black and white pictures across half of one wall, there are glimpses of people carrying their belongings as they move about the streets –a woman’s bundled several bags into one shopping cart, in another, a musician’s put down his guitar on the sidewalk. In a third, you see squashy sleeping bags. The Green Project, meanwhile, has a series of colour photographs in which Shrutti’s aimed for a contrast between life as it happens and a single object or piece of clothing or even a mark on the road, that is bathed in a startling shade of green.

“I went to Cologne, Germany in 2011 through Max Mueller Bhavan for a six-month artists’ residency. Before my departure, I had discovered the word ‘flaneur’, which describes a person who walks through the city to explore it. I took this idea for the Objects… series, wanting to see how people moved from place to place with belongings they held dear, because there was maybe a strong memory attached to them. The first three months I was there, I simply walked everywhere and explored. During these walks, I saw several interesting examples of people moving from spot to spot with their belongings – some in one big bag, others in a shopping cart,” she explains.

The Green Project, meanwhile, was an exploration of two contrasting symbols attached to the colour green – of new beginnings, and envy. “I started it in Mumbai; it explores the balance between these two opposites. It was fun working on it, because I only photographed this one shade of green which was the most eye-catching, and I had to find situations and items bearing this colour. I have not Photoshopped the colour in any of my pictures. I’m not a fan of Photoshop anyway,” she smiles.

Shrutti, a Commercial Arts graduate who was attracted to photography very early in life, has always “worked in a series, I’ve rarely worked on individual pieces” – prior to this, she’s worked on Mumbai in Motion, about how everything moves fast in Mumbai but how one still has to wait, Hidden Realities and Luxurious Life Of the Streets, among others. “I also showed the Objects series and The Green Project in Germany, and it was interesting for them to see my point of view in the pictures,” she says.

She also heard a few interesting back stories of some of her subjects. “There were these two guys who met when they were living on the streets, and they would move everywhere in twos, because while one was away, the other would look after their belongings! Then I learnt that you can’t live on the streets in Munich at all. Besides, the weather plays a big role in people staying out or going underground.”

Her focus is always on objects, not on faces. “Your imagination must guide you to ask questions about the person you can’t see,” she explains. “Besides, I am very attracted to objects in the context of the environment they are in. I’m not into photographing people or nature.”

She is currently working on a privately-commissioned series of photographs very much like The Green Project, but “the colour the client wants is blue,” she says. She is also toying with the idea of a project where she asks you to part with a very precious object and substitute it with a picture of that object. “I’m also applying for a lot of residencies,” she says.

Shrutti Garg’s twin exhibition, Objects as streets, streets as objects and The Green Project concludes at Gallerie Max Mueller, Kala Ghoda, today.  

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