Tuebingen

Tuebingen, the university town, is beautifully located between the famous Black Forest
and the Swabian Alps.

Travelling by express train through the mountain valleys in 1959, combined with the
serving of an exotic breakfast, was an exciting experience for me and the first of
its kind among the panoramic surroundings changing rapidly in succession as the train
moved at great speed.

The university had been founded in the fifteenth century after obtaining the required permission from the Pope.

My desire to go there was to renew contact with Devinder, a close friend, and to seek
any advice he could offer me, a newcomer, after having lived in the West for over
past two years.

An acquaintance, an older gentleman from Jalandhar district, had voluntarily accompanied me me to act as a guide having past travel experience in Europe.

I had met him when boarding the Italian ship at Cochin. We were pleased with our
fellowship during the long sea journey to Genoa, which had many interesting episodes.

At one occasion, when we were revelling together at our recitations of Urdu verses and Punjabi 'bolian', we encountered a little misunderstanding from an Englishman who had
been drinking alone for so,e time in a corner of the empty bar of our ship.

Obviously drunk, he presumed that we were laughing at him.

As we were still enjoying our verses, he shouted at us loudly.

"... we ruled over you in India in the past. We are soon coming back to rule again...!"

I was about to react to this uncalled outrageous remrak. My companion noticed it
coming and put his hand quickly on my shoulder and quietly nodded to me.

"Never mind. You will come across such behaviour sometime...just ignore and stay calm."


We rode the bus to reach Tuebingen and enjoyed the travel through forested terrain.

Devinder was delighted to see us.

After enquiring about our well-being and those of our near kith an kin, a courtesy for
those arriving from India, he suggested we take a walk though the campus as we go for
dinner.

While walking around the campus, he pointed to some Iranian male students in the company
of German females.

"Lot of Iranians are studying here. Certainly the result of positive association that
Reza Shah Pehalvi had cultivated for Germany during the pre-war years."

Reza Shah's tilt towards Germany under the Nazis was a known fact.

As the World War started, the Allies forced him to resign, in an attempt to keep Iran neutral because of its importance as a country with abundant oil resources.

As if somewhat jealous, Devinder confided to us that the Iranian students were very
popular with German girls, a fact that became obvious when I reached Iran and
noticed that some of the top officials in Iranian Government were married to German
ladies.

It was already getting late. We stopped going any further and were led to dinner at a
nearby restaurant in the town.

My first request on arriving there," May I have some water to quench my thirst."

The server brought a bottle of beer instead, to which I said "no", because I was
longing for the refreshing drink of cold fresh water only.

"Drinking water is not a common practice here", my friend told me.

He went on to explain why it was so.

"Much of the natural water supply had been polluted in the past by German industries.
It is safer to drink bear instead."

As a good host, he proceeded to plead a special request on my behalf, to get me served
with bottled water.

I had heard him saying to the receptionist, " My friend has just arrived from India and
is still new to the country".

We enjoyed the dinner and coversation, and were soon on our return journey to Stuttgat.

I cherish the memories of my visit to the university and Stuttgart of 1959. The city has grown extensively with passage of time.

It was in prime glory when I revisited it in 1977.