Visit to Berlin city

I live and work in Düsseldorf. One of the most interesting German cities. This is my first visit to Berlin and I was quite excited about it. Compared to other cities in Germany, Berlin is a lot more cosmopolitan.

Berlin Central Station also called Berlin Hauptbahnhof, has been built uniquely and designed as a crossing station. There are multiple floors that host different connections e.g. long distances on one floor and local trains can be boarded on different floors.

Berlin Light Festival

In the evening I visited a famous monument in Berlin, Berlin Brandenburger Tor. On the same day, Berlin Light Festival 2023 was started. It was gorgeous to see the Brandenburger Tor lit with the colors of the world. 

Next, I walked toward Postdamer Platz where the light festival was even delightful to watch.

The next day morning I had to work from Berlin, so retired early in the evening, after having a sumptuous dinner at Amrit Indian Restaurant. 

The next morning I visited the Berlin Wall or Berliner Mauer as it is called in German. It is a must-visit for anyone visiting Berlin for the first time. Although the Berlin Wall was taken down in November 1989, this part of the wall is still preserved and has been painted by world-renowned artists. 

Address for East Side Gallary is Mühlenstraße 3-100, 10243 Berlin.

In the evening I visited, the Berlin Holocaust Memorial transcends its role as an architectural masterpiece; it stands as a testament to the enduring strength of memory and remembrance. Serving as a poignant reminder of the past, it simultaneously issues a call to action for the present and represents a beacon of hope for the future. An excursion to this memorial offers a profound and unparalleled experience, essential for anyone seeking to comprehend the Holocaust and its lasting impact on our world.

Düsseldorf: Durga Puja | Icche - Unsere Wünsche e.V | www.icche.de | Rhein Ruhr Durgotsav 2021

Durgapuja in Düsseldorf and NRW by ICCHE

Rhein Ruhr Durgotsav 2021

Durgapuja in Düsseldorf and NRW will be held at Bayreuther Str. 31, 40597 Düsseldorf between 11.10.2021 and 15.10.2021

Last year ICCHE celebrated Durga Puja online 

Rhein Ruhr Durgotsav 2020, due to pandemic situation. But this year ICCHE is preparing for the Durgapuja event, following Covid regulations and restrictions in NRW region.

What is so special about Düsseldorf Durgapuja by ICCHE?

Celebrating together is fun. ICCHE stands for Indian Cultural Club for Heritage and Entertainment. ICCHE promotes Indian culture and Heritage in Germany. ICCHE Durgapuja event - Rhein Ruhr Durgotsav is fun. ICCHE follows puja rituals in an authentic manner. There are arrangements for lunch and dinner. In the evening, the cultural committee hosts a variety of cultural events, Indian Classical Dance, Indian Classical Songs, Drama, Music Band performance, Food Fest.

Is Düssldorf Durgapuja for Düsseldorf or people from other cities can also participate? 

ICCHE working commitee - SAATHIs are from all around NRW region. Rhein Ruhr Durotsav 2021 has visitors and members and supporters all around North Rhein West Phalia, e.g. Essen, Aakhen, Dortmund, Köln 

Due to covid, ICCHE Team encourages you to book the tickets online at your convenience.

3 Days Pass - Family

It includes Lunch, Dinner, and all events for 3 days for a family.

Claim your 3-day family passes HERE!

3 Day Pass - Solo

It includes Lunch, Dinner, and all events for 3 days for one person.

Claim your 3-day family passes HERE!

1 Day Pass - Family 

It includes Lunch,  Dinner, and all events for 1 day for a family.

Claim your 1 family passes HERE!

1 Day Pass - Solo 

It includes Lunch,  Dinner, and all events for 1 day for one person.

Claim your 1 family passes HERE!

Special events

Special evening events celebrating Navaratri/Durgapuja - Düsseldorf Durgapuja by ICCHE.

 11.10.2021 - Folkyr Music + other cultural events

 12.10.2021 - Garba + other cultural events - Housefull 

 13.10.2021 - Indian Classical Dance presentation - Bharatakatha  + Bengali Band - ICCHETORI + Other cultural  events

 14.10.2021 - Indian Ethnic Wear Fashion Show + Bollywood dance/songs 

Day 1 - Maha Sashti - 11.10.2021

Book Tickets now for the Maha Sashti's evening program. Entry is possible for 11.10.2021 from 16.30 CET onwards. Please note that this is only the Evening Pass (Dinner + Cultural evening).

Day 2 - Maha Saptami - 13.10.2021

Book Tickets now for the Maha-Saptami evening program. Entry is possible for 12.10.2021 from 16.30 CET onwards. Please note that this is only Evening Pass (Dinner + Cultural evening).

Day 3 - Maha Ashtami- 13.10.2021

Book Tickets now for the Maha-Ashtami evening program. Entry is possible for 13.10.2021 after 16.30. Please note that this is only the Evening Pass (Dinner + Cultural evening).

Day 4 - Maha Navami- 13.10.2021

Book Tickets now for the Maha-Navami evening program. Entry is possible for 14.10.2021 after 16.30. Please note that this is only the Evening Pass (Dinner + Cultural evening).

Please note that ICCHE is a registered Verein. For any tickets booked, the amount will be used for donations. You can additionally donate,

Name: Icche - Unsere Wünsche e.V

IBAN: DE04 8306 5408 0004 2552 67

Deutsche Skatbank

5 reasons why kids have fun holidaying together

During my recent trip to Cochem, Germany, I felt that when kids,travel and holiday together, they have lots of fun. I did some research and found out that there are many other positive aspects to it.

5 reasons why kids have fun holidaying together 

• Kids mostly enjoy company of other kids because their mentalities match being in same age group.
• It increases their interaction with people other than their own parents.
• Basic human behavior is to learn from others. Its also same for Kids. It is a fun way to learn new skills from other kids.
• They get love and affection from other grown-up travelers. 
• Elder kids acquire leadership qualities to deal with youger kids, like taking care of them and managing other younger kids. 

Trip to Mosel Valey

 The national holiday of All Saints 'Day falls on November 1 , followed by Saturday on November 2, followed by Sunday on November 3. Wow ! Long weekends are great for short trips in Europe. I asked few of my friends if they already have any holiday plans. We made a short call to snyc up our ideas and decided to head on to Cochem. Cochem is a beautiful town in Germany and is located in Mosel Valley. The Mosel is a river that flows through Germany, France and Luxembourg. This was my second trip to Mosel valley area. There are many reasons to visit Mosel Valley for second time. It is not far from Düsseldorf in Germany,where I live for work, secondly you get amazing wine in Mosel area, last but not the least the area is very beautiful and romantic.

Mosel Valley Pictures

Cochem

Some crazy guy posing at Mosel Valley

Burg Eltz Castle

The Burg Eltz castle is a hilltop castle from the 12th century. It is around 40 mins drive from Koblenz and 40 mins drive from Cochem. The view from hiking trail is really beautiful. It is however supposedly one the most haunted places in Germany. Specially when you visit during halloween. Can you imagine we visited just one day after halloween. Although in day light we did not experience any spooky feelings, but hiking trails leading to the castle was extremely thrilling.

Burg Eltz Castle - view from hiking trail

Burg Eltz Castle - View from valley

A letter to Prime Minister, Narendra Modiji

Sir,

First of all I would like to congratulate you and your party wholeheartedly for such a decisive victory in the recently held Lok Sabha Elections. Your party's agenda for these elections this election has been development, good governance leaving behind low-level politics based on caste and religion division. What is really significant is that idea has been widely accepted by the people of India, which can easily be inferred from the election results. Being a responsible citizen of India I would like to participate in this movement and want to connect with you to express my gratitude and to raise a few points of concern about the problems that India is facing currently which needs to be looked at with a priority.A special thanks for this opportunity.

* Women Safety: I believe women are the greatest assets of our country. We all seem to understand that but sometimes some of us ignores this fact by abusing them mentally or physically. We must make India a safer place for women. To achieve this, I propose the following.

1. We may ramp up the country's internal security infrastructures by implementing CCTV cameras at important locations.Strict,responsive and helpful team of vigilant must be put in action.
2. We should create more awareness on women empowerment and security.Social media play an important role in this regard.
3. Last but not the least we should have zero tolerance to any crime indulged against women and making this a priority in national agenda.All court cases that cater the complaints and grievances raised in this regard should be fast-tracked and accountable.

 * Joblessness: India's burgeoning population is often considered as a big challenge by many economists but it also presents a tremendous opportunity for our country if such large number of human resources can be utilized and managed well. Currently there is a big challenge in terms of joblessness that our country is facing. There is huge gap between the demand and supply for resources in terms of job opportunities. To tackle this rising problem, I propose the following.

1. Special focus should be given to Manufacturing Sector to explore huge export opportunities that lies ahead of us, which has been ignored largely in the last decade. For this need we should improving strategic tie-ups with different counties and serving them Quality products and Human Resources by analyzing the demand and shortage in external economies.
2. Grooming and promoting Entrepreneurs is the need of hour. We can strengthen our education system to create skilled individuals who can be leaders in the future and lead the society to new heights of development. Each individual counts and we have so many to make a difference. 
3. Considering India's strength that we have a large pool engineers,there lies enormous untapped job opportunities for sectors like electronics, electrical and defense. For this we can consider allowing Foreign Direct Investments specially in the defense sectors.
4. India has been lagging in investments in Research and Development, which can be considered as  investment in future. This can help us to retain the best brains that our nation produces who currently has to leave our country due to the lack of enough scope in research field. We can consider Public Private Investment model for the same.

* Stabilizing Our Economy : Our economy which has earned special attention from countries around the world has failed to realize it's real potential, due to highly sticky inflation and several other challenges. Having failed to contain inflation to comfortable levels has derailed our countries GDP  growth rate to sub 5% levels. To improve this looming situation, I propose the following.

1. We need to improve market sentiments for promoting investments in various ailing sectors like manufacturing, infrastructure, power for the revival of our economy. Interest Rates needs to be lowered we must take pro-growth stance before it's too late.Such high interest rates does not encourage new investments.We much act urgently on this.
2. To control inflation we should bet on better supply chain management and improve country's storage facilities. Proper regulatory measures must be implemented to stop food stock price manipulation and hoarding which often happens at grass root level.We need to use real time analytic Information technology systems to check real time data on the Key Parameters like demand,supply,Price trends to have a dynamic monitoring system to check rising inflation.Based on this we may formulate a price regulation mechanism to check the rising inflation.
3. Considering the fact that India being a populous nation and has huge demand in power consumption, this is the high time that we should shift our focus towards production and use of renewable sources of energy and conserve our natural assets before it dries up.
4. Tourism in India is yet to realize it's real potential.India has a diverse portfolio of tourist locations, which if can be blended with the so many diverse cultures can open a new room of opportunity for our economy and can also help in job creation.

 * Strengthening our Judiciary System: The loop holes present in our judicial system has been a big problem for our country and the situation needs to be revisited for improving it's efficiency as early as possible .It has often been seen that court trails take years long time to deliver judgment. This sends a wrong signal and often encourages the wrong doers at all levels. We need to improve the efficiency of our judicial system which can reduce crime, corruption and other wrong activities to achieve a better society to live in.

Thanks & Regards,

Subhodeep Bandyopadhyay

(An Honest Citizen of India)

16th May'14 brings a new direction in Indian Politics

Tomorrow is the d-day.It's 16th May,2014.It's a historical day for Indian politics and it is just few hours away for the poll results to be declared for the world's largest democratic nation, India. It is need less to say, the country has suffered from poor governance, multi-crore scams,stagflation and many more crippling issues over the last decade.Stagflation is a term used in economics to describe a situation where the inflation is high, the economic growth rate slows down, and unemployment remains steadily high.  But,who is to be blamed? It is the none other than the ruling government which is run by the Gandhi family,which is a prominent Indian political dynasty. Their political involvement has traditionally revolved around the Indian National Congress. 

2014 Lok Sabha elections is all about voting against anti-incumbency and one person who has been able to make most of it is Narendra Damodardas Modi ,NDA's PM candidate for 2014 Lok Sabha elections.Popularly known as NaMo, Mr Modi is on his fourth term as Chief Minister of Gujarat.Riding on the success of Gujarat development model,Mr.Modi's high octane election campaign is most likely to have swept most parts of the country's vote share.Mr. Modi is being seen as the most prominent political leaders in the country much ahead of Rahul Gandhi,the Congress Prime Ministerial candidate and newbie politicial face, Arvind Kejriwal from Aam Admi Party.It is for this very reason that Mr.Modi has been a frontrunner for the post of Prime Minister.Political pundits are betting all in for Narendra Modi. He is also a favorite among the business community.The stock market is making new record highs each day to welcome him at the helm of the country's affairs.If there is no if and there is only but ;it is that BJP numero uno needs to shred off his communal image if he has got any and must practice development oriented inclusive politics.However in my personal opinion it is better to look forward to a political party which is called communal but acts as secular than a party which calls itself secular and behaves as a communal force.With high hopes for a better future ,I believe a stable government willing to take India to new growth levels is need of the hour.Indian countrymen were sick and tired of the ruling party's misgovernance and definitely were looking for a change in the current situation.Indian politics seems to be heading towards a new direction, and NaMo seems to be the exact solution India was looking for.Though this can only be confirmed after the results are out on 16thMay,14,but we can definitely expect some change in dynamics of Indian politics.

What’s next in store for Indian Politics?

In recent assembly elections there has been a major drag in the ruling party’s political support. Today election results were declared for four states Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan which points out the ruling party, UPA‘s (primarily Indian National Congress) failure. The victorious opposition party BJP‘s mood is upbeat and is shining bright under the leadership of Narendra Modi. The UPA party’s president Sonia Gandhi in an interview said “This result calls for deep introspection. We have to understand to look at the many reasons for this defeat. We have to look into the way we did not take our message to the people.”

Indian National Congress not only has a very strong foot hold in the country but only has ruled the country for maximum time period. What has resulted in this quick transition in country’s political scenario? Will the trend in same in 2014 Lok Sabha elections as well? The following factors have been decisive off late and might affect the 2014 Lok Sabha elections as well.

1)      Policy Logjam: The ruling party runs a coalition government, with various regional parties offering external support. On multiple occasions it has been observed that Congress party’s policies are not always accepted by these regional parties and as a result the ruling party fails to delivers most of what it promises.

2)      Lacks leadership: Since 14^th Lok Sabha, over the last decade Mr. Manmohan Singh has been the Prime Minister of the country, but questions has been raised by many about his less vocal style of leadership. Though UPA is yet to declare its PM candidate for 16^th Lok Sabha election,  Rahul Gandhi is being seen as the top contender for UPA’s PM candidature. However Rahul , having made his political debut in 2004 have failed to emerge as a leader at least at the national level. Opposition party’s PM candidate Narendra Modi (who is highly popular for Gujarat’s success story and his strict administrative ability) is considered as a far better leader than Rahul Gandhi.

3)      Scam-tainted image: The country has witnessed several scams involving millions and billions one after the other under this UPA 2 governance like 2G spectrum, Common Wealth Games scam, Coal scam etc. The common people hard earned money is drained to Swiss accounts and in return they only get to see these billion dollar scams well presented in Television programs. People are now even tired of watching these much entertaining TV news programs and instead want to see programs about the growth of the country.

4)      Lacking pro-growth stance: In past few years the country has been going through a low growth trajectory. Price rise has been a persistent problem not mainly because of supply crisis but because of middle tier price escalation, lack of storage facilities, all of which can be avoided but nothing collective has been done in this regard. Job market has been dull and rising unemployment is not a good sign either.  

      If things are not sorted soon,the wind of political change will reach the other states in no time.Early elections are also possible if the ruling party fails to improve their governance.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela .. a star of his time

South Africa has a long history of racism, dating back to the 17th century on arrival of the first European settlers to the African continent. The black majority populations were dominated and subjected to all forms of political and economic discrimination. White government enacted numerous laws to ensure a system of total racial segregation known as apartheid, meaning "apartness" in Afrikaans.

Today Nelson Mandela is considered as one of the world's most quoted public figures and is known for dismantling the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalized racism, poverty and inequality, and fostering racial reconciliation. In apartheid South Africa his words and teachings, like those of other African National Congress activists - were banned. Books written about him were banned - unless they portrayed him as a terrorist. Media organizations were prevented from reporting on him or using his pictures. He was jailed for almost three decades, 27 years to be precise. But nothing could stop his fight against racism, such was his determination. He was the first black South African become president, and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election.

He had received several honorary awards like Noble Prize, the Indian Bharat Ratna, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Soviet Order of Lenin and in South Africa he is often described as “the father of the nation”. He died recently died on 5th Dec, 2013 but the heroics of this legend will never be forgotten.