Stuttgart

Just as I was about to enter the Fernsehturm, the 217-metre tall TV tower, standing atop Baden Wurttemberg’s capital, Frank quietly said to me "A lot of people are afraid to climb to the top of the tower. It moves when the wind blows.’’ I wasn’t sure if he was joking, but I went inside anyway.

Standing tall on a beautiful site on the southern edge of Stuttgart, the TV tower was something I had been looking forward to. While driving up and down the hilly terrain, I had often noticed this tall, majestic building that raised its head through the trees each time: sometimes lit up at night, sometimes boasting of its glory in the afternoon sun. It reminded me of our famous 300 metre tall television tower in Worli, which can be seen from most parts of South Mumbai. But we don’t think about it with as much pride as do the Swabians.

When I finally reached the top after an elevator ride of about 15 seconds, the view was breathtaking. The entire city opened up to me: Little houses with red roofs. Blossom flowers serving them as a shade from the hot sun.Narrow roads curving up and down the undulating region. Looking down at the lushly beautiful valley with its thriving city, it is hard to imagine it as the war torn landscape it once was.

Somehow, the same image comes to me no matter where I stand. Sometimes I find myself looking up at the city from the lower points of the valley, at others, I am sizing it up by looking down from a height. It all looks the same from different angles. Whether I take a tram to Degerloch or stand sipping chai at the Tea Haus, the big clock standing atop the Rathaus building keeps ticking. The famous three-spoked circle of the Mercedes-Benz building can also be seen shining from wherever I go. The image of the houses with the red roofs, huddled together, holding their own amid other relatively new buildings refuses to leave me.

With its shiny new buildings, Stuttgart looks very much the quintessential modern city. And then I’m told that though the city was ravaged during the Second World War and most of its buildings destroyed or damaged, the foundations of most structures were in good shape. So when they built the city afresh, the new buildings were raised on these age-old foundations. I realize that the image I have of Stuttgart as a city that cherishes its history even as it embraces the present and future, has a very concrete basis! Aware of the fact that most of the beautiful city is a reconstruction of the image that was once Stuttgart, my hair stands on end at the mere thought of what it must have been before 1945.

The hilly region of Stuttgart was something that I was anxious about in the beginning and also made me queasy, but over the weeks, these slopes and zigzag roads have started growing on me. A bicycle tour around parts of the city on a Sunday afternoon gave me a first-hand experience of how many slopes there are. On our journey from Hoppenlaufriedhof to the Stadtstrand, the artificial beach overlooking the Neckar, I was accused of having slowed down the speed by half. Even as I puffed and panted while riding up the gigantic slopes of the Schlossgarten, my companions laughed at my lack of stamina.

What strikes me most is the interconnectivity of all the major gardens in the city. It is astonishing that one can move from one garden to another across the city without actually having to step out of the garden onto the road. On the bicycle tour I was taken by surprise when I came across ice bears similar to those I had seen just the day before at the Wilhelma zoo. It took a while for me to realize that one garden had led to another and had brought me to the boundary of the zoo. Indeed, they were the same ice-bears I had seen the day before.

Passing by the vast expanse of vineyards and driving past the Neckar have not only become a habit but have also made me more aware of the beauties of nature and appreciate what we have back home. Coming from a city built on seven islands, I am used to seeing the sea as I whiz past it everyday. But since it is such an intrinsic part of my daily life, I admit that I don't give it as much attention as it deserves.

It was at the famous DerGalateabrunnen Fountain that my answer to a simple question was answered. Why are there so many stairs in the city? I wonder. Anja gives a simple answer: "There are over 400 "Stäffele" or flights of steps in Stuttgart. Anyone wishing to climb them all will have to tackle a total of 20 kilometres of steps. There are staffele tours as well.” I read later that many of them date back to the times when vineyard owners planted their vines on the slopes of the Nesenbach valley, so that they document a part of the city's history.

It is this very nature in Stuttgart that continues to bear testimony to the time that passes today, and to the history that is going to be created tomorrow. The Rathaus clock continues ticking peacefully. The Staatsgalerie hosts its War Time exhibition. Inside the building, numerous visitors stop and linger in front of a painting by Kathe Kollwitz titled "Never Again War".