German culture of time management and precision

This would be my first serious post on a topic. Its on my second favourite country after India... Deutschland...aka Germany.

As many might not be aware, German language has its roots to Sanskrit and that makes it even more special for me. When I came up on this information in 2002 the first thing I did was go to German language class. I tried my best to learn but due to time constraints I could not do it fully. I can speak in bits and pieces and I feel I have the foundation to master it. Will do it in the coming years.

It is a country which has very little Indian population...Thats not special though.

I am very proud to say I am associated with this country because I like the way things function here. I like the language because it sounds so powerful when you speak. I like the way people think here and more importantly the precision.

We have heard a lot on german precision. I want to just give a brief examples about this which I personally encountered.

This was when I arrived here in Saarbrucken. The previous day when I left India I had told my team mate that I would arrive in Frankfurt airport around 8 AM, then take a train which leave's at 9.24 AM and reach Saarbruken main station at 11.54 AM. This, mind you I had to change a train at some station, which I forgot now at around 10 am.The connecting train from that particular station was after 4 min!!!

I did all this and was in Saarbrucken station around 11.56. I waited until 12 and then I thought

'Shit Aravind you should at least sent him an sms that you would reach ontime after catching the connecting train, stupid of you, now wait!!'

Then I thought I should call him, so went to a booth nearby, picked up the phone, shoved some coins in, and rang. Thomas picked up.

I said ' Thomas Aravind here, will you be late?'
'I'm there in 2 seconds R-vin'
Hung up the phone and saw Thomas there.

Got into the car, looked in my watch...12.03.

3 minutes late..Ah!! thats ok man, India ho tha to, bloke would surely be at least 15 mins late and the whole journey he would try to cover it up by saying how much traffic he had go through, almost making you feel guilty of giving him all the trouble.

But wait the story does not end here.

The watch on Thomas' dash board said 12.01!! What!! 12.01?? Then I remembered I always keep my watch about 2 to 3 min fast!!! German precision for you.

Thank you.