I am going to tell you this interesting story of... well, hold on for a minute. I'll come back to it in a while. Let's start from this beautiful town of Goettingen of Germany. I went there to visit a friend, Vinodh on my Germany trip. Vinodh is a PhD candidate in the University of Goettingen.
Goettingen is a calm town with very little buzz. And this was more striking for me as I was coming there from Berlin, a very vibrant city. It is called a university town because of the number of higher education institutes there, Max Planck institute being the major one. Architecturally, it looks more like a British town than a German one which, as Vinodh told me, is due to British occupation of the town sometime in its history.
Vinodh picked me up at the railway station from where we took a bus to reach his place. The first thing I noticed about the town was, there was a sizable population of college going students and old age people. The former could be attributed to the number of universities in the town. But I was puzzled by the later. Vinodh explained me that Goettingen is also a preferred destination for retired old people. It's a peaceful town where they come post-retirement to stay away from city's constant buzz. This also answered a question I had in mind since my visit to Berlin on the absence of old people there.
I was enjoying the view of the town during our bus ride when suddenly Vinodh signaled me to get down. He wanted to show me these amazing Cherry blossoms in a campus of Max Planck institute. Wow, so I was at the right time in the town. I saw that some of the trees had artificial bands put across their branches. Sounds familiar to an Indian tradition, doesn't it? Actually, ladies of a particular community believe that putting such bands during the blossom brings a good luck.
Later in the day, we went to the central area of town where there are important places like market and town hall. Since it was the week of the Easter, the markets were full of Easter eggs and Easter bunny toys. It was a festive atmosphere and everyone was looking happy.
At a main square there, I saw this beautiful scripture depicting a happy family where the husband, the wife and their child are seen dancing together.
In the same square, there was this special tile which shows you four churches without going anywhere. You just have to stand on the tile such that any of the four arrows inscribed on it is positioned between your feet and you are looking in the direction of arrow head. That's it. You will see a church at some distance. As simple as that!
So now ladies and gentlemen, I come back to the main point of this post -- the story of Gaenseliesel, (arguably) the most kissed girl of the world. Gaenseliesel is a German word which translates to 'Goose girl'. In front of the town hall of Goettingen, you will notice a fountain, in which stands a statue of a girl holding a goose. So it's just a statue! But why would you kiss a statue? It's because of a weird tradition of the town. Every graduate student on the day of his doctorate has to climb on the fountain and kiss this girl. I don't know how it all started but it's followed till date despite there being a law in place banning this. Phew! And as Vinodh told me, it's a great motivation for all PhD candidates to get their doctorate. Such is graduate life!
Finally, here is the lucky girl :
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