In Vienna

 As I land at the airport of Vienna I am excited that I am visiting the most ancient city and really do not know what to expect. As a historian I know that Vienna’s history dates back to the post-Christian century when the Romans established the military camp Vindobona and called Vienna Vindobona. This name comes from the Celtic word Vendunia and translates as forest stream. In fact later in the evening when I visited the  Museums Quartier   one of the ten largest cultural quarters in the world, I can see that the city has preserved some of the artefacts of the Roman period ruins. By 10th cen Vienna was called  Ostarrichi, which meant "the kingdom in the east". However it is after 12th cen that Vienna saw its hey days under the Babenbergs. A hundred years later, the Babenberg dynasty came to an end. Today, only the red-white-red colours of the Austrian flag remain as a reminder of this important noble family. When Rudolf von Habsburg was elected king in 1273, and the  Habsburgs would reign in Austria and establish a large and powerful  empire. Austria reached a first peak under Emperor Maximilian I. He expanded the empire, introduced important reforms and  erected sumptuous buildings. The disintegration of Austria became apparent in the 19th Century, and under perhaps the most famous emperor and empress that Austria ever had: under Emperor Franz Joseph I and his wife Elisabeth, Sissi. In 1914 the First World War began, and after its end in the year 1918 Austria was reduced to the small country it now is. It lost its colonies and access to the sea. Vienna suffered hardships during World War I. Amidst food shortages and revolution it became, at the end of the war, the capital of the small republic of Austria. As I drive down from  the airport I see a lot of industrialisation and the establishment of huge industrial infrastructure. 

Vienna was home to the world's first psycho-analyst Sigmund Freud. It also boasts of   Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1848 as the first professional orchestra in Vienna. They are considered to be one of the best orchestras worldwide. Until recently, wines from Wien, or the wine-growing region of Vienna, Austria's capital city, were regarded as being simple 'Heuriger', or wine tavern wines. The 'Wiener Gemischte Satz',  is now internationally acknowledged as being a truly Austrian wine. In Vienna, there are over 27 castles and more than 150 palaces. Vienna truly is the blend of the ancient and the modern, though I would not place it in the same category as Paris. Compared to  Paris, Vienna was badly destroyed during the World War and after this many new constructions came up and these were not necessarily a copy of the  Romanesque, Gothic or Baroque style but very modern buildings.

Austrian Cuisine

 Unlike the French cuisine the Austrians cuisine does not use much cheese. However like the French cuisine it also consists of primarily meats of all kinds but there is also a large variety of soups and vegetarian dishes.  Most of the names of the Austrian dishes were in German and I found it very difficult to remember these high sounding names. Austrian cuisine is  composed of influences from throughout the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.  During its hay days the  Habsburg Empire stretched from the borders of Imperial Russia to the Adriatic and consisted of more than a dozen nationalities with over 51 million people speaking sixteen different languages. From 16th century onwards, the cosmopolitan Habsburg rule extended over Switzerland, Alsace, Burgundy, Spain, Holland, Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. All of the above have influenced Austria's cuisine in their own way.

Austrian cuisine today therefore has influences from Italy, Hungary, Bohemia, Germany and the Balkans.  Austrians in general love to enrich clear soups with all sorts of solid ingredients, some of which differ by region. While cut carrots, parsnips, turnips, leeks and celeriac make for a good broth, it is the extras that count: Semolina balls, liver dumplings, bacon dumplings, strips of pancake, soup pearls, and egg puffs are the most popular add-ons. The soups were delicious and one could enjoy them as they were closer to our taste.One could find a lot of Turkish eating joints also through out Vienna.  Apart from the foreign influences on Austrian cuisine, every Austrian features their own local dishes: Frittatensuppe (crêpe soup) comes from Syria, Speckknödel (bacon dumplings) from Tyrol; and Salzburg, Mozart’s home, has contributed the so-called Salzburger Nockerln, a sweet soufflé made from eggs. Austrian cakes and pastries are a well-known feature of its cuisine. Perhaps the most famous is the Sachertorte, a chocolate cake with apricot jam filling, traditionally eaten with whipped cream.

Visiting Dr. Erwin Neumayer

 In Vienna I was invited to the house of  Dr. Erwin Neumayer  who has a great love for Indian art and culture. He is a historian and  the well-known author of some very famous books on Indian art such as, Prehistoric Rock Art of India,  Bharat Mata: Calendar Art and India's Freedom Struggle Popular Indian Art: Raja Ravi Varma and the Printed Gods of India. I found it very interesting to see that Erwin had a cut out of Amitabh Bacchan in his study and we took a photograph in his study.   Both Erwin and his wife proved to be great hosts and after a lovely Indian  lunch of rice and curry ,  they took me around to show their beautiful city.

We first visited the  Schönbrunn palace (meaning "beautiful spring"), a name coming from the artesian well from where water was supplied to the palace. This was the residence of, Franz Ferdinand II, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire  and whose  assassination on 28 June 1914 sparked the First World War. His wife , Eleonora Gonzaga,  loved hunting, and spent much time here and made this her residence after the death of her husband. It has some 1441 rooms and some beautiful gardens. 

We next went to the Vienna woods from where we can see the Danube river. The 45 kilometres  wide range of hills is heavily wooded and  a protected forest. a popular recreation area with the Viennese reaching into the city of Vienna itself. . The Vienna Woods are bounded by the rivers Triesting, Gölsen, Traisen and Danube, and are the border of the four quarters of Lower Austria. It was nice to see grapes orchards from where the famous wines of Austria come  and some densely covered forests in the vicinity of a city. On the edge of this forest is an ashram built by Chinmayyanand's followers. I was thinking what a beautiful place to meditate and may be some day in future i can come and stay here for a few days.

Key Note Address In Vienna

On 18th May, 2014, I gave my Key note address.  I am invited to Vienna to participate in a workshop on Actors - Discourses - Practices: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Governing Trafficking in Women. 110 Years of Experience. Participants came from different parts of the world though I was the only one from South Asia. There were  papers from Warsaw, Australia, Austria, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Russia, Pennsylvania, USA,  Thailand . This was a mix of Academicians , NGO, Policy makers, Government Officials, Police makers, activists  and research students. This was a wonderful experience and I learnt a lot from others and many of the confusions in my mind with regards to trafficking conventions became clear. We could understand the enormity of the issue though prostitution is legalized in Netherlands and Germany and I could understand the advantage and pitfalls of this. Austria has an ambivalent attitude to Prostitution and it does not criminalize it but accepts it but there are a large number of illegal persons from Eastern Europe who are now in the trade. 

On being invited to give the key note and the organisers had asked me if they can make my talk public. I agreed and hence mine was the only talk that was open to public.My talk was from 5,30 to 7 and followed by a dinner. During tea break a lady came up to me and said that she will be introducing me to the public. I just nodded and though she must be one of the organisers and after introducing me this lady sat down in the public to listen to me. After my talk was over she came once again and acted as a moderator when people asked questions on trafficking in south Asia. It was only later that I discovered that this lady was a minister in the Austrian Government and currently Dr. Helga Konrad, has been appointed OSCE Special Representative on Trafficking in Human Beings by the Chairman-in-Office, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy and is a leading politician in the European Union  dealing with issues of trafficking. I had similar experiences in Netherland, where the minister for Gender came on a cycle all alone and left the same way after giving her talk   and in  Brazil where the minister had dinner with me in the hotel and as we were having dinner she ordered for a taxi to take her to the airport for she had an important cabinet meeting in Brussels the next day. 

All these experiences  made me really think as to how we developed the tradition of key note addresses with a lot of fanfare in our country.  Though we have reduced this considerably in Hyderabad in many places and regional Universities where I am invited we have speeches after speeches by every one sitting on the dias, garlanding, lighting of lamps, shawl being given, bouquets’ being given along with gifts  and thee key note address just gets lost down the line. I am wondering as to how did this tradition start ? I am sure we cannot blame the Colonial government for this is not done in UK today. Is this a relic of the Princely states in India? Imagine a minister coming to an Indian Conference to introduce some one and listening to others. Our ministers only come to talk and give speeches whether the subject is theirs or not and here was a person who had done so much work , was an important figure politically and just sat and listened to me. I got a lot of pleasure just imagining the fact that a Mayawati, a Mamta Banerjee , a Jaylalita, a Sushma Swaraj or a Renuka Chowdhry come and attend a Conference to listen to some expert and go away quietly. Will we see this day? After my talk there was dinner and I learnt another thing where they stated to many participants you are most welcome but please understand this is not an invitation. Our Conferences are almost like our weddings with a lot of eating, cultural activities put together. I am organizing the Women’s World Congress from 17th to 22nd August and imagine telling you are welcome but not invited. Every country has a different culture and a way of doing things even official and  it becomes very difficult to change this. I have realized this down the line.

Salzburg and the Sound of Music Connection

 Salzburg  is famous for two things, the house of Mozrat and the Julie Andrews film, Sound of Music,  the well  known  film of 1965  on the life of the Von Trapp singing family, Thousands of tourists visit this beautiful place surrounded by green valleys and snow covered mountains. The city is selling the Sound of Music in a big way and there are various tours organised to take you to places where the film is shot. Everyone tries to take a shot in the grden where Do re me was shot  or I am 16 going on 17 or these are a few of my beautiful things. The hotels also show the film Sound of Music and if one stays in Salzburg there are weekly tours organised in the outskirts where the  other scenes of the film were shot.  Some of the famous locations include, 

• Mirabell Gardens and Pegasus Fountain (dancing scene with Maria and the children) 

• Leopoldskron Palace ( The residence of the family in the film) 

• Hellbrunn Palace (I am 16 going on 17 song scenes) 

• Nonnberg Convent (where Maria lived as a young novice) 

• St. Gilgen / Wolfgangsee (opening scene in the movie) 

• Mondsee Church ( Julia’s wedding scene )