Berlin Diary

There’s a sense of fulfillment in this once-divided city, as brick and mortar and glass buildings erase the physical vestiges of the Wa...

There’s a sense of fulfillment in this once-divided city, as brick and mortar and glass buildings erase the physical vestiges of the Wall that once divided German from German, East from West. Here, Kipling’s reference to ‘‘never the twain shall meet’’ meets its concrete grave. Unemployment may be touching 20 per cent in the former East Berlin district compared to a much lower rate (between 3-4 per cent) in the West district, and clearly, the former East is hardly as flush with the attributes of the pleasure principle. (Although Karl Marx Allee, the central thoroughfare in the East, has been allowed to keep its name, Lenin Allee has had to make way for a UN plaza.) To South Asian eyes, though, it’s nothing short of a reincarnation miracle to witness pubs and restaurants, jewellery stores like Chopard where only 13 years ago existed dilapidated structures. Paris’ Galleries Lafayette staked its claim to a piece of the former East just off the Unter den Linden, while Starbucks does roaring business just off the Brandenburg Gate. Checkpoint Charlie, the central scene for many a movie, still flaunts the portrait of an American GI, but he looks tame. When hammer-and-sickle badges and Berlin Wall T-shirts begin to come at a discount, it means the action has clearly moved elsewhere.

And what of the Wall itself? Robert Frost’s spirit would be glad to know that Berlin is quite done with ‘‘walling in and walling out.’’ In fact, the couple of places where the Wall still exists is stamped ‘‘tourists only’’. But with the element of surprise long gone, even they have been reduced to a little trickle.

• The shadow of Pakistan has dogged PM Vajpayee in Berlin, although the PM has tried to shake it off briefly, pointing out that his visit to Germany was the first in 10 years by an Indian PM and ‘‘so much distance is not good.’’ Meanwhile, the re-education about the ancient connection has come as a bit of a relief. Bonn, was about a century or so ago, affectionately known as ‘‘Banaras on the Rhine,’’ such was the interaction between Indian and German scholars. Twentieth-century links, between Rabindranath Tagore and Goethe, Subhas Bose’s pleas for help to unseat the British empire, are better known.

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The Indology link remains a big one. Twenty-two German universities offer courses in India-related subjects. The PM’s announcement of a two-week Bharat darshan to one German student every year is in line with improving the Indo-German connection.

• To be confronted with your mortality could be the unmaking of many a man. But Vajpayee had the benefit, last evening at the Indian community reception, of not only an atmosphere charged by the rendition of the Ram dhun, but also his own poem. He seized the opportunity to first make light of himself and his age (‘‘jeevan to beet hi chala’’), then recited from memory. The circle of life, he went on to muse, is what makes it worth living. ‘‘Maut ho sakti hai, par zindagi ko thukraya nahin ja sakta, mrityu par vijay prapt karega jeevan.’’ Today’s Der Speigel magazine carries another Vajpayee reference to endings and conclusions. Asked by a reporter, what he would do if his third attempt at making peace with Pakistan fails, the PM answered: ‘‘I will retire.’’

Trump accepts tariffs caused ‘rift with India,’ says it wasn’t an easy thing to do

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