City of Berlin – yet another learning. A one week assignment in Germany with the first day in Berlin. As I walked to the office in the morning, I saw trees singing a melancholy breaking up with their leaves! The sight appeared a bit painful but I tried to grasp what it was telling me – I failed to read them. I walked further and this sight of trees kind of disturbed me but I resisted to pay attention.
It was a busy day and with quite some meetings and discussions done, we were set to travel to a conference in Bremen, another lovely city. Autumn showed its colours.
We, a team of five planned to leave Berlin at 4 pm. Predicting the travel time of 3.5 to 4 hours to cover about 390 kms, we started our trip. Our plan was to reach Bremen by dinner. “No stops in between. So get ready and make your visits to the rest room now before we start” our manager mentioned. We geared up for our four hour travel.
Covering the lovely landscape around Berlin, we moved on. Brandenburg appeared beautiful under the bright sun. He was slowly losing his charm after a tiring day. He passed different colours and showed us his magical painting skills on the bright sky. “Subha is with us and no adventure yet” my colleague remarked.
We moved on to see slow moving traffic ahead. “The route seems busy. Due to traffic we may need three hours to cover the remaining 315 kms” they said. With experiences of 3.5 hours to cover 20 kms between Whitefield and Manyata in Bangalore, I laughed at their statement of traffic for 3 hours for 315 kms.
Slowly the traffic became stagnant. My first traffic experience in Germany! German news read “Transporter breaks down and some animals escaped!” – at first the information seemed too small. It was 5 pm and we were stuck in the same place. A prediction said that the traffic would clear at 6 pm. “One hour is not long!” I told myself. We opened and closed the doors to get some fresh air. We cracked jokes about the workshop for next day and killed time.
6:01 pm and we were moving! “What a prediction” we awed. “Should we hire the planner who said it would be over by 6 pm?” we smiled. “We need such project managers in our team” we remarked. By then we again had to stop. New news – prediction says we need to wait for three hours for the traffic to clear. “450 animals were effected – some escaped to the wilds and some are injured. Until all are rescued no vehicles can move” the news said. It was 7 pm then.
We managed to find a petrol pump with a rest room and small bunk shops. Relieving ourselves, we picked a quick snack and a coffee. Our colleagues were looking for alternate routes but couldn’t find any bypassing the transporter! We drove through the woods, saw some lovely little town and moved on. We could only laugh at the situation as we knew getting frustrated takes us no where!
“Should we drive back to Berlin?” we smiled. “Should we drive through the alternate route via Hamburg?” another question. Our stomachs yelled – let’s decide after dinner. We found a little restaurant in the little town that looked hardly crowded. As we entered inside we saw quite some people inside. “Sorry, there is no table available. We are full for the night!” the receptionist remarked. We came out and couldn’t hold anymore but giggled loudly!
“Seems we are under the lucky stars today!” we laughed. “The restaurant must have made their business for the month!” We made a plan B and thought driving towards Hamburg to reach our final destination would take an hours time more than the actual but still better. “However we’d drive through the woods to get back to the regular route” – our gut feeling said.
We drove and drove and finally saw the Northern star! Traffic moved and we were away from the tail of the Anaconda! Cars started zooming again. “100, 125 and 150” read the speedometer! It’s 11 pm and I see 190 kms left for our final destination. Prediction shows we’d reach our hotel at 1 am. Our workshop plans to start at 8 am tomorrow. Should I call this a short night or a long night? Missing my argument partner on such topics!
With quite many pointers and well prepared presentations, I still told myself that I could add few points to my slides once I reach my hotel at 8pm. “Now I’d just land on my bed once I reach!” How funny is this!
A lot of planning since a month on this travel! We did talk about the mode of transport from Berlin to Bremen, advanced reservation of a bigger car, logistics, dinner event etc. We were even well prepared for the next days start! Funny that I’m writing this on my way to Bremen still at midnight enjoying the darkness around, zooming in the car with some colleagues who have fallen asleep.
What did my experience teach today? Autumn – the fallen leaves and the trees relationship with them! The traffic and the unexpected situation! The trees were not singing a melancholy but rather learning to adapt themselves to the newer situation without their leaves. They were getting adjusted to the environment and learning to “be a Roman while in Rome”.
The traffic and the giggles and chats we had – taught us to take a situation light when unexpected. We were getting adapted to unexpected changes in our plan, tried to laugh through tough times and adopt plan Bs and Cs and whatever – isn’t this agility??
The unusual sight of the fallen leaves kind of made me think but I ignored in the morning. The traffic was a second reminder today and finally I paid attention to what nature had to tell me! Few weeks back, I was in a dilemma if the decision I had taken is right and now Mother Nature answers me.
“Adapt to the changes around you, take the situation as a challenge, sustain and grow new leaves! Smile at every hurdle, find alternates and get your route towards your goal” I got my final message!
It may seem “Man proposes and God disposes” but yes you can still find your way and purpose in Gods will! With a good learning, I continue my drive to Bremen to reach in the next one hour! And this time I’m not surprised if I get new challenges – I will still keep going!