From the Third Reich

My last trip in Germany was the trip to the Rugen Islands.I always wanted to end my European sojourn in the same way as Michael Palin did in the "New Europe"-standing on the shore of the Baltic Sea and looking nostalgically to the relentless sea.

It was a bright sunny day with the chalk cliffs of the Jasmund National Park glistening at a distance in the afternoon sun.Around me was an air of indolence.People were lazing around in the beach amidst the soporific effect of the warm breeze.Few were reading books others basking in the sun .A group of young adult were busy speaking German and driking beer,a frivolous child ran frenzily here and there apparently in an attempt to draw the attention of his parents who appeared unwilling to pay any attention.Couples were busy careassing and kissing each other.The sea laid silent throwing itself into periodic weak tides. The cold water swept under my feet occasionally leaving behind shells and flotsam as it receded back.I turned around and gazed incredulously at a huge building; mesmerized and awed by its sheer size.In front of me stood a clossal building complex,obscure and downtrodden amisdt the tall grasses around it.

I was in Prora in the north-eastern corner of Germany and the mammoth building infront of my eyes was the last existing monument constructed by the Third Reich.This Nazi building complex was built between 1936 and 1939 as a Kraft durch Freude ("Strength Through Joy") project. The buildings extend over a length of 4.5 km and are roughly 150 m from the beach.It consists of eight buildings which are identical.They were planned as a holiday locale but remained unused forever.The buildings were never occupied.Now, as it was then,no one knows what to do with it.The buildings stands defiantly unwilling to crumble.The daunting structure brings with itself ghastly memories of human sufferings associated with it.

I ventured inside one of these buildings but was soon overwhelmed by the stink of rotting wodden planks strewn all around. I returned back from Prora with heavy head thinking about "Hitler" and the era under the Third Reich.

A bygone Era

Ever fancied taking a stroll down an English countryside.Well, not far from here on the way from the IIT campus to Kharagpur Railway Station,we pass through the Waynne Avenue ,First ,Second and the Third Avenues.Today, neither the streets are known by their fanciful colonial names nor is a speck of the Britishness to be seen around.As usual the streets have now taken the names of some obscure local personalities and the landscape remains distinctly rustic typical to a downtrodden communist town of West Bengal.Above and below are some of the picture from an era lost into the sands of time.