The Chocolate Bar

Its Valentine week!! Love is in the air! Sheesh.. I don't know how many of you got this mail, but I did recently. Check this list out

7 Feb Rose Day
8 Feb Propose Day
9 Feb Chocolate Day
10 Feb Teddy Day
11 Feb Promise Day
12 Feb Kiss Day
13 Feb Hug Day
14 Feb VALENTINE’S DAY
15 Feb Slap Day
16 Feb Kick Day
17 Feb Perfume Day

It seems as if the sulky perfume companies did not like being left out, so they were added to the list as an afterthought. So, gloomy as I was, not having received any roses or proposes, trying to enjoy the weather, I did manage to wrench out a chocolate from someone special! I won't go into the details of how it happened, but it did manage to brighten my day, and toss me into a nostalgic mood.

It was a chocolate coated cereal bar that I got (its not her fault, thats the only interesting thing the cafeteria had on offer, I'm sure). Cereal bars are a recent addition to the Indian confectionery list, and have pervaded the markets recently. What this bar did, was it took my thoughts back to a little camping site known as Königstein, Saxony (Sächsischen Schweiz), on the Germany-Czech border, close to the city of Dresden, where I remember having my first cereal bar.

About 40 university interns from all over Germany, studying in universities all over the world came for this camp. Initially I was a little skeptical, I didn't think our conversations would last very long. They would ask us if we lived in huts or on boats in India, and we would have a hard time explaining things, but that was not the way things turned out...

I'll actually skip the details and start from day 2, breakfast, or maybe a little before breakfast. There was a proper arrangement of showers with hot water, however, these showers were paid. 50 Cents for 2 minutes if I remember correctly. Yeah, they still worship Hitler in some parts and do their level best to realize his dreams in whatever little way possible. The bloody showers were timed! And the inn-keeper refused to buy back extra tokens. So you had 2 options. Either you could buy extra tokens and play it safe, or you could try saving some money and risk being stranded with soap on your face and no water to wash it with. No guesses. To make things worse, we didn't realize on the first day that the 'timer' was tied to the tap. So, if you turned the water off, the timers stopped too! I know, it doesn't sound like Archimedes needed to take a bath there to figure that out, but in my defense, most people were busy making a fuss about the facilities (specially the Americans!), and no one bothered to find a way around the problem. So, after the fastest-and-most-expensive-running-water-shower of my life, I headed for the meal area, still groggy from excess of free beer the night before.

The breakfast was a lavish display of the do it yourself type. There were an array of breads, spreads, cold cuts and non-alcoholic drinks. We were told to eat as much as we could, and we were also given zip-lock bags to pack something for the trek, because we were going to be in the jungle for the next 10 hours. So, we made ourselves elaborate sandwiches, layered with what not.. and then, in the corner I noticed a little bag full of something that looked like chocolate bars. They were in fact cereal bars.

If you think I have anything to say about cereal bars, you are wrong. That is not what this post is about :) In fact I myself don't know what it's about! So, lets carry on. We were divided into 4 groups and we set out for a trek. You can see snaps of this camp here. We ended the trek and were welcomed back at base with cheap 2 Euros to a litre wine cartons!

All I really had to do was to say, thank you for the chocolate, I really appreciate it, more than you think!