FREIBURGER ZEITGEISTLITERATURE (Satis Shroff)

When did you first start writing? I really started writing when I went to Kathmandu to do my BSc in Zoology and Botany. I used to write articles and stories in The Rising Nepal, an Engish daily. The day Satchmo died I had the urge to write something about this great trumpet player. After college I joined the newspaper and wrote a science column of my own (mostly conservation of wildlife in Nepal) and about cultural events, now and then about a yeti-expedition or about glaciers in the Himalayas. What’s the story behind your latest book? It’s a memoir about a young writer who goes west to study, meets interesting people, travels to fascinating countries, tries out different cuisine and gets to know about the Germanfolk as a student, as a lecturer, singer in a men’s choire. He also visits his former home-country and is interested in the literature of the two countries, as well as English literature. Nepal’s lingua franca is Nepali but since his parents sent him to an Irish...

Culture, Wine & Olives in Crispiano (Satis Shroff)   COME with me to Crispiano, a lovely town with fragrances and flowers from the vineyards and olive trees in the Masseria, where the sun smiles all day.  I never met such amiable people as the people in Crispiano and Taranto.  Dolche vita and amore mio, Crispiano. It lies in the region Ampulia in the province of Taranto in the Southern Italian Zone, and has a population of 13,809 . The people are called Crispianesi and the saint of the town is: Madonna della Neve. The flight from Zürich to Brindisi was pleasant, even though the jet was full. I had a window seat on the left side of the Finnish jet and the personnel spoke German with a distinctly Swiss accent. It was fascinating to see Lake Constance (Bodensee) and the Swiss lakes reveal themselves only to be hidden by clouds, akin to those I’d often seen on Tibetan thankas. Clouds of all shapes and sizes marked the journey and suddenly you noticed, as we l...