[Photo Essay] A love letter to Vienna
The first date - 2018
The year was 2017. I was a student of HCI/Interaction Design at IDC School of Design. I was exploring my interest in research on physical interfaces. My guide suggested that my work on foot-based input devices could be interesting for a serious gaming conference called IEEE SeGAH. I was (am) a n00b and the idea of presenting my work in an 'academic' conference seemed exciting. So, I started documenting my work and wrote a paper. After a gazillion iterations of the paper, it was finally submitted. And later accepted.
This was not the first time, I was travelling abroad. But this was the first time I was going to Europe - supposedly the birthplace of culture. So many European jokes come to my mind now that I have been living here for more than 5 years now. Back then, it was quite a thing. Little did I know that working hard on the paper is one thing, but getting the Visa would be harder. There, I started my great tussle with the Austrian bureaucracy that continued for 5 more years. To apply we went to my favourite city in India, Pune, as the local Mumbai centre was not accepting applications. Then, we paid a huge amount of money, submitted our passports, ate some misal pao and left for Mumbai (where I was based). We had already planned our itinerary and were planning to meet many academics in HCI across Northern Europe and France. We had contacted them, made reservations, we very planned, very European.
Then about 15 days later, we got an email that the Austrian high commission had rejected our visa. We were flying out of France and they had a problem with that and asked us to apply for a visa again with the French. I was heartbroken, but was also on anticonvulsants so it did not affect me much. I rebutted their rejection. The argument was that we applied for a professional visa and our professional activity is in Austria. Hence, the Austrian state has to provide us with a visa. After CCing, a few high-profile emails (who probably never read the email), they were very kind to give us our passports stamped. The English did teach us a fair bit of bureaucracy.
who pays the bill?
....little did we know, that we had missed another crucial point. We had booked our tickets from Turkish Airways as it was the cheapest and we had to save money from our stipends. The Turkish Airlines had a transfer which involved us setting foot on Turkish soil. In most cases, that would be ok. But in our case, the EU visa only becomes active Two hours after we land in Turkey. That makes our travel illegal. We were denied boarding at the Delhi airport and had to return home.
I was agitated. It was like the world did not want us to present that paper. But, we had to find ways. We quickly moved some money around and got a new tickets to Vienna via Doha. No complications. The Turkish airlines refunded us half our fare, which is not fair.
Upon reaching Vienna, 6 years ago, I clicked this picture.
The conference went well. My paper was well received and I was asked nice questions. We did a bit of sightseeing. I am the least educated person in the picture below. It is like being Howard Wolowitz from The Big Bang Theory.
Herr Rohit, Dr Malay, and Dr Sandeep.
Dorky us in sweatshirts in the Wiener Staatsoper.
Our first opera sitting on standing seats where we were just talking about the HCI aspects of the live translator interface.
In the end, Vienna was amazing. The city presents itself simply. Viennese people are calm and welcoming, but cold and distant. Some oddballs are fun and the concentration of geeks is high due to the university.
It was great to just stroll around. Many cities present themselves with this overwhelming compulsion to engage with it through cultural activities that one has to keep running behind, avoiding FoMo. Vienna is different. It is a place to live. After our first date, I was quite interested, but things never caught up. But little did I know. There was more.
Second Date - 2019: No Show
It was almost Christmas. I remember shopping for Turron de Pistachio in Madrid. I finished my internship in Madrid and was now working in a design consultancy making prototypes for big names. I was in a transition from being a student to a taxpayer. The paperwork was in process. I was still living like Harry Potter in a small semi-legal room. My cousin decided to travel to Vienna and asked me to visit her on her honeymoon. I planned the travel. Booked the same hostel as last time. Booked tickets with Wizz and went to the airport 3 hours before my flight. I even got a paper from the foreign office saying that I am legal and all.
I still remember that morning. I did not shave that day and was wearing this discount blue jacket with a yellow lining. My friends often joked that I looked like a terrorist, which is them being racist but since I am brown, that is not racism. Anyways, at the time of boarding, the flight attendant looks at me and my papers and denies me to board.
I was heartbroken, but this time I was not on anticonvulsants and so it affected me so much that I started crying. The police had to escort me out of the airport. Now legally the airline reserves the right to deny me entry. The reason I was given was they were not satisfied with my paperwork. Now, satisfied is a funny way of saying it.
Anyway, I ate the Turron I bought my sister dipped in my tears.
Third Date -2023: Come but do not stay
Three years later, while teaching at ESNE, an interesting opportunity came up. Prof. Anab at University of Applied Arts, Vienna was hiring a visiting artist to teach students some making and energy-related things for her course of Design Investigations. I applied and somehow got through. I was very excited to meet Anab (which never happened) and work with students at Die angewante (which was awesome).
But apparently, I had to get a visa to teach there as I was not an EU citizen and my work permit was limited only to Spain and I had to get another 179-day work permit given to interns. Being in Austria, things were not easy. I had to find an Austrian high commission which gives this kind of Visa. Then fly there and get my visa and then go to Vienna. I was worried that I might lose the opportunity. The embassy in Spain did not have the printer to print that visa so I had to go to Bratislava for a weekend and get the visa on Monday. The fact that I had a previous visa from Austria confused the Bratislava consulate and they had to clarify some things. Eventually, they gave me the Visa.
In the meantime, I made maps of Bratislava and visited the city while I waited for my visa to be processed.
Kept coming
As a part of the course, I had to help students explore ideas tangibly and work on their final concepts. I would assist them with any prototyping-related work that comes their way. I chose my visits such that I stay for days in different parts of the city on every trip. The time in Vienna was a bit stressful for me but I kept going.
At the end of it all, I had this beautiful map.
The flights I would take to Vienna would be routed via Mallorca. I had a 3-4 hour layover which I used to sneak around and click pictures.
The airport became a fascinating place too. I had to spend my half-slept, half-dreamt hours looking for patterns in people and places.
This picture below can be an alternative cover for my theatrical adaptation of "Love Actually".
Something that drew my attention was that things were well-aligned in public spaces. The directness of people was reflected in the architecture as well.
My students were amazing! Quite hardworking individuals who were always up to learn new things.
...and Peter helped me a lot to get a hang of things. He was very supportive and gave me very good tips on how to teach electronics to design students. We shared a common love for Festool 💔
After the classes, I would go to walk or bike around. The public bike system is amazing and Vienna is largely flat in most parts.
... the coffee culture in Vienna is worth admiring. For me, it is not the coffee that is great, but it is the things that happen around coffee like conversations with others and yourself. Sometimes, a good portion of Sachertortem, Kaiserschmarren or Apfelstrudel.
But in the end, my time here (this time) finished, and I went to the airport with a stick of Manner and waited for my flight
... and then I left for a few months.
Most recent date -2024: Vienna waits for you!
Until I heard the song by Billy Joel, Vienna Waits for You... nah, just kidding. I was meeting Sundar in Mallorca for Christmas and another friend, Nikhil, from Poland, wanted to visit Prague around Christmas. So, serendipitously we met in Vienna and stayed there for 3-4 days.
Christmas Vienna is way lively with Christmas markets and ice skating rings for people to enjoy. We even visited the Schönbrunn Palace this time. Hence, completing the loop I started 6 years ago.
See you soon, Vienna.
Call me maybe? We can have some Latella.