Haupstrasse I think means main street. Haupstrasse is to germany, what M G road is to india. Every city has a haupstrasse. Even walldorf, the sleepy little town that I sleep in everyday, has a Haupstrasse. Heidelberg's Haupstrasse is a human sink - from all over the neighbourhood people take buses, trams and bikes and land here - it's like human waves from every direction rush and fizzle out in the shores of this street. You see chinese tourists with their micro mini digital cameras, Americans and their university sweatshirts, loud italian families, weekend shoppers, kids, youngsters and bored software engineers who have nothing better to do.

The streets got something for everybody. It's got buildings that are four centuries old. It's seen student protests, revolutions, housed poets, writers (mark twain among others), has theater halls, clock towers, godowns and universities. It's also got Irish pubs, coffee pubs, starbucks outlets, pizza huts, Espirit show rooms, book shops, bars, 1 euro shops, authentic pizzerias, movie halls (that show english movies too!) - you name it and you have it! If you walk far enough on the road, you will see the market area and an empty square that on summer evenings house a lot of visitors and a lot more beer. Beyond that that is a hill and a greenery that I haven't plodded yet.

And every once in a while, there're narrow lanes on the sides that lead you out to a corner pub that's housed students for no one knows how long, beyond the pubs is the river neckar and then the hills - but these spots are curiously deserted when compared to the tables outside the pubs and coffee houses.

Standing in a corner and watching people on this road is itself an experience. The women especially - No, I am not talking on behalf of my alternate brain between my legs. Men are monotonous - we have to admit. Though the meterosexual man with his manicured toe nails and dyed plaited hair is making serious progress, we are still a long way back. Women are treat to watch - they are a wonderful splash of colors, of style and costume. Every woman - be it a sixty year old lady tightly-bunned hair, a backpacking teenager, a fourteen year old, a pregnant woman or a mother of two - has a distinctive style and grace when she moves, a rehearsed nonchalance even when she throws her head to the side and gives you a coy smile. Every move has been tried and tested and is implemented perfectly. Watching them is like watching a professional actor, who is aware of a thousand eyes watching but can display an ease and a poise.

That's one good thing about europe - you have the time and lifestyle to stand and stare (without the jostling human crowd and the soot that settles under your eyes if you stay long enough in the roads of bangalore).