Seitenwechsel : Changing roles

On Friday 24th April 2009 a week long internship of Seitenwechsel at Café Augenblicke came to end and I was on my way back to home. While passing through the streets of Sternschance (a famous area in Hamburg), I had some kind of strange feeling. Were these the same Sternschance streets, where many of weekend evenings we have spent in cafés or in bars? I could not believe that in the very center of such colorful place (or ‘party’ place) full of clubs, cafes and bars, there existed absolute different world of Jesus center and it’s Café Augenblicke. I was in a deep thinking of if it was end of my internship or new beginning of perspective towards life.

JesusCenter, Hamburg

During many of our business presentations and seminars, we spoke about business plans counting in millions and billions of Euros. However, we often neglect the consideration of number of people in our own society, for whom even a meal worth a Euro was expensive. Lot of time we spoke about Corporate Social Responsibility and our role as manger in corporate world to be accountable for everyone who has stake in our day to day business. But I must say a new chapter of social responsibility was understood by me during one week of social internship.


with Neomi and Sarah at Cafe Augenblicke

Recently I participated for the Seitenwechsel® program, at Café Augenblicke at Jesus center e.V, Hamburg. The main idea behind Seitenwechsel® program or “Changing role” as directly translated in English is to prepare understanding for executives and managers from corporate world towards the social responsibility.

Manny (a regular guest at Cafe Augenblicke)

Organizations such as Jesus Center have a very important role in society no matter what the cultural, ethnical or regional differences are. The internship at Café Augenblicke not only provided me and great opportunity to understand how social problems in Germany are being tackled but also it was a wonderful experience of working with a motivated team comprising of different personalities coming from different backgrounds and working towards one goal. I should say, I have better understanding of a person whom I see on the street bagging or into addictions of drugs or/and alcohol or from the environment of violence. I will never forget the discussion with these guests coming to the Café and their struggle with the life. It widened my personal horizons and forced me to reconsider my own values.

Some of nice memories at Cafe Augenblicke

Of course one week of social-internship is definitely not enough, but it is in fact enough to refresh your conscious about the environment around you and your social responsibility towards it. I hope that NIT will continue to encourage its students to participate into such programs in the future. These efforts boost the future managers in the society by helping them learn to deal with people from different cultural backgrounds and mindsets and also to make them responsible citizen.
At last the only words that come to my mind are from one of the brouchers of Jesus Center e.V...“Damit das Leben Gewinn”... (with that the life has won…)

-Hemant Nagda
June 2009

About india on last LS elections (2009)

recently i came across some really nice writings about India by V Mitchell, New York times, writing about India on Loksabha elecions (2009). worth sharing.

THE INDIAN ELECTIONS-NEW YORK TIMES

It is truly the greatest show on Earth, an ode to a diverse and democratic ethos, where 700 million + of humanity vote, providing their small part in directing their ancient civilization into the future. It is no less impressive when done in a neighborhood which includes de-stabilizing and violent Pakistan, China, and Burma.

Its challenges are immense, more so probably than anywhere else, particularly in development and fending off terrorism -- but considering these challenges and its neighbors, it is even more astounding that the most diverse nation on Earth, with hundreds of languages, all religions and cultures, is not only surviving, but thriving.

The nation where Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism were born, which is the second largest Muslim nation on Earth; where Christianity has existed for 2000 years; where the oldest Jewish synagogues and Jewish communities have resided since the Romans burnt their 2nd temple; where the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile reside; where the Zorostrians from Persia have thrived since being thrown out of their ancient homeland; where Armenians and Syrians and many others have to come live; where the Paris-based OECD said was the largest economy on Earth for 1500 of the last 2000 years, including the 2nd largest, only 200 years ago; where 3 Muslim Presidents have been elected, where a Sikh is Prime Minister and the head of the ruling party a Catholic Italian woman, where the President is also a woman, succeeding a Muslim President who as a rocket scientist is a hero in the nation; where a booming economy is lifting 40 million out of poverty each year and is expected to have the majority of its population in the middle class already, equal to the entire US population, by 2025; where its optimism and vibrancy is manifested in its movies, arts, economic growth, and voting, despite all the incredible challenges and hardships; where all the great powers are vying for influence, as it itself finds its place in the world.

Where all of this is happening, is India, and as greater than 1/10th of humanity gets ready to vote, it is an inspiration to all the World.

- V Mitchell, New York, NY

My experience with baking the cake.

Friday 29^th May 09…. Last day of Henrike and Fikri in office, as they finished their Diploma thesis. So as a general customary in Germany, Henrike invited all the colleagues for “Kaffee und Kuchen”….or Coffee and Cake. Yesterday she decided to bake the cake own her own, which is very common practice. So I asked her if I can help her and she agreed. In fact I don’t know how to bake a cake, and this was a great opportunity for me to learn. Fikri is probably as lazy as me, and he decided to buy the same from supermarket.

So… the story begins from yesterday evening after the office. I and Henrike first went to my place to pick up Camera, which I was in deadly need to capture some nice moments in the evening. Next halt was a supermarket to buy cherries for the cake.

On the way to Henrike’s home in Witten (about 10 km from Dortmund), she showed me many farming fields and “Bauhof”.. kind of a big houses located near the fields. At we reached her place with a large field in the backyard. Away from main city, the place was very calm, and green all over.. The place was really beautiful and worth leaving.

I met Henrike’s mother, father, brother and a friend of him there. I shall admit, it was really nice to see such big family leaving together in Germany. I wore an apron to protect my office cloths and we started baking the cake.

(me and Henrike)

First layer of cake was made up of wheat, backing power, butter and sugar. These were thoroughly mixed and layer was applied on greased surface of baking tray. Then came the next layer, with same ingredients, but in addition “Kakao” was also mixed.

Once these tow layers were evenly spread, Cherries were inserted from the top and pressed till it passes through both layers. Now the first phase of preparation was over, so Oven was set to heat up and we waited before putting the baking plate into oven.

(base layers with Cherries)

Mean while, Henrike showed me her living room and “Klavier” (Piano). By now, the oven was almost heated, the baking tray was put in, and temperature set to 200°C. Now we need to wait for next twenty minutes at least, so Henrike showed me how to play Piano. She taught me how to read the notes… believe me, I never though it would be that difficult.

Then she started playing some of the notes she knew. Amazing!!! I was just speechless for a time being. Suddenly for me, the respect for all musicians specially the one who play Piano, raised more that any thing.

(Henrike und Klavier)

Now since 20 minutes were about to get over, we started making top layer of vanilla pudding. First milk was set to boil. In parallel vanilla pudding powder, butter etc were mixed and pudding layer was prepared. The baked cake and the pudding layer both set to get cooled.

This left us with some more time, so Henrike took me and Elena for a small walk around and showed new water fountain installed in the house, the “Bauhaus” where tractors and other farming equipments were parked. We also met Max, the “Jaghund”.. the hunting-dog. Its was full of fun seeing all this things.

By now, both the baked cake and vanilla pudding were cold enough and third layer of vanilla pudding was put on the cake….. it was so tempting, that one can not resist itself from eating it. I was just about to take a piece from the tray to taste… but was stopped by Elena and Henrike.

(henrike, Elena and me)

Finally we put the tray into cold fridge in the basement, so that it can be eaten next day with one more layer of chocolate coming on the top…. I could not stop dreaming how great it would look and taste tomorrow.

Today in the office when I saw the cake… I just couldn’t believe myself helping Henrike to bake it yesterday.

(the last piece of Cake...)

This was my first experience of baking cake. I must say, baking a cake is for sure not easy task.. but looking at output, its worth taking up. As Julia (one of the office colleague) said, one must bring self baked cakes for the last day “Kaffee und Kuchen” gathering…. I think probably I will bake my own cake on my last day of Master’s thesis.

Hemant Nagda

29^th May 09, Dortmund