Sunday, 6th February - 07:15 am
The german guy has a lot of interesting things to say - Seems germans had this contest of what is the best german word. People can send it entries and explain why they think the word they chose should be the best word. The top two winners were

First prize: Habseligkeifen - which from what I understood means, the essential belongings of a person. During world war 1, lots of people in the french border had to take their real essential belongings (their habseligkeifen) and such people were referred to as good men or trustworthy men. So, any man with his Habseligkeifen is someone who could be trusted and who is a good man. I don't know if I have understood him correctly. It's a difficult thing to explain in a language different from your own.

Second prize: Rhabavbermarmelade: This one refers to a fruit (a pink sour fruit that's added in salads he said). It was chosen because the word sounds like a whole song when he says it. Even a non-german is fascinated by it even though it means something quite trivial.

He was also saying how things are so quiet in a german train and how in some trains when the pretzel (a german bread) lady enters the train, they would actually announce it - "The pretzel lady has arrived. Please buy yourself some refreshments". I was wondering how it would be in an indian train - "The chai guy has arrived. Oh, another chai guy has .. now a coffee guy .. a masala vada guy ... the magazines guy ... Now a few eunuchs, forget it! A lot of people have entered the train. Amuse yourselves!"
- posted by Super Ted @ 1:42 AM