``I don't find any opportunity to listen to good music performances or just a lecture which would be meaningful. I spend my day doing chores like gardening, bread baking and of course, learning Hindi. I am learning Hindi for survival. The vendors try selling me bananas for Rs 50 a dozen. I've to often tell them, mere pati Hindustani hai.''Walk down the corridors of her residence at Amritsar Cantonment and there you realise another facet of her personality which is more Indian than anyone born and brought up in this land. Paintings by Meera Mukharjee and Banno Prasanna grace her lobby walls and a tiger skin presented by Maharaja of Kooch, in the early sixties provides reminiscence to aesthetically decorated wooden Indian furniture. Even the replicas of Nandi and Ganesha are among her treasured possessions.

``The attitude of Indians towards foreigners has been changing. Earlier they were inquisitive about them. However, they are not very polite to them anymore'', she observes. Born in Poland, Irmengard witnessed tyrant destiny. Like Kosovo refugees she had migrated to West Germany from East Germany in January 1945 riding a horse carriage leaving behind 3200 acres of agricultural land and a palatial house. She had to even live in a Russian prisoner camp for six months.

A student at Cambridge, she married Swaranjit Singh, a Sikh studying economics and law in Cambridge in 1956. ``We had met at a dance and Swaranjit invited me for his lecture on India. But tying the knot was not easy. Severe resistance from both the families preceded our marriage. But now we have really worked it out wonderfully'', she says.

She came to India in 1958 and joined the Max Muller Bhawan in Calcutta in 1961 as an administrative director. In 1979, she was transferred to Delhi and her career also included an assignment to Greece. In 1996, after her retirement the couple came to Amritsar to settle down in their ancestral house. ``Amritsar is a good place. India is my home and I feel at home here. But what irritates me are personal habits of Ambarsaris. They will spit, blow their nose and even urinate on the roads. But what impresses me about this land is that human values still exist here'', says Imrengard.

Referring to the Indian political scenario she says that she appreciates Sonia Gandhi's courage but feels sorry for her for as her Italian background is being dragged into dirty politics unnecessarily. ``She cannot help her origin. If they do not trust her, then why was she conferred the Indian nationality?'', she poses a question.

Imrengard believes that Amritsar is basically a male chauvinist city, but neverthless she would like to work for the people here. ``Had I met like minded people here, I would have taken up social work. Garbage management, water management and popularising solar energy are the fields that interest me the most. I have an experience in these fields and can give a lot of input''. Any takers?