non sequitur

Louvre Lite

A glimpse of the three most famous objects in the Louvre Museum in Paris is referred to as the "Louvre Lite". Here I present the Louvre Lite through my lens:

Mona Lisa

Venus De Milo

Winged Victory

Bonjour Paris

When in France, ask for fries, not French fries.

    Paris is wonderful. I find it so much like Bangalore. I say that because I think Paris like Bangalore, invites your relative stranger, and also the stranger who is not your relative, with open arms and makes him feel at home instantly. Another thing is the weather with its bright sunlight now and cloudy the next minute and then rainy a while later and again sunny in a short while which is a trademark of Bangalore. Well... I am not referring to the weather since the last 4 days over there in Bangalore. I heard the place is marooned with heavy rains. Two weeks I am not around and see what happens!! Coming back to Paris, the metro rail of Paris is something to be experienced to be believed. I also walked a great deal in Paris. Saw all that I always wanted to see. In fact I was surprised at my own comfort level with the city. Wherever I wanted to go, I instinctively found my way there. I was at the Louvre for 7 hours and at the end of it was still asking for more. The Denon wing of the Louvre is just mind blowing. Another section of the museum that houses the Apartments of Napoleon III has a grand banquet hall which is a great sight and the chandlers in the rooms dazzle the eyes. In yet another section, there is this huge diamond and a crown, the crown of Louis XV which is studded with Rubies, Diamonds, Sapphires and what not on earth looking at which the jaws refuse to come together.

    I stealthily managed to click a picture of Mona Lisa. A lady who observed it smiled and said "I have one from 1985. Back then there was no glass protection. I am going to try and take a picture again now". I could only imagine Mona Lisa bound in iron chains with an army of gun trotting security personnel guarding it, the year 2025, and I a 54 year old bald headed man telling a young man starting out in life trying desperately to take a snap of the lady with the enigmatic smile "I have one from 2005. Back then..." The long and short of it is that it was an amazing experience for me, standing in front of Mona Lisa. I stood there awe stuck, looking at the picture and in utter disbelief that I am really standing in from of Mona Lisa. I was so overwhelmed with joy that without my knowledge and permission tears started rolling down my cheeks and the next thing I knew I was sobbing inconsolably. A middle aged Indian couple who were passing by asked me "what happened?" or something to that effect and I assured them that everything is under control. In fact, the Denon wing of Louvre has so many wonderful paintings and I really spent a lot of time trying to understand appreciate the masterpieces. (I had taken an audio guide along and it was a good thing I did - it was Ajit, Nisha and LN who suggested this to me - thanks guys.) I was happy to recognize so many paintings and sculptures. It was as though they were all waiting for me all the while to come and pay a visit to them.

    I guess I should not delve on the Louvre for so long and take my reader to the edge. Smiles. The Eiffel tower is another experience in itself. In three days, I went it see it thrice. I was at the top of Eiffel tower at night and the city looks really beautiful from there too. I was so enamored by the sight of Eiffel tower that my camera refused to stop clicking. I hope that at least a few of the pictures have come out well. On the top of the Eiffel tower, a common sight to see is couples kissing, or to use the right word, smooching. On closer inspection, there is also a loo on the top. The guy who was with me and I agreed that it was a very thoughtful thing to do on the part of the authorities, to forward the noble thought "those who cannot kiss, please feel free to piss". I pissed. The cruse of the river Seine in a ferry is another happy experience. Vikas - the guy who joined me for the trip - had a friend of his, a girl, who joined us on the cruse in the river. I couldn't stop myself from observing that the nearest one can get to 'three men in a boat' is 'two men and a woman in a boat' and the nearest one can get geographically to Thames is the Seine.

    I am surprised at the amount of shopping I did in Paris. I have so many souvenirs now. I happened to visit a flea market on one of the days. This flea market is open on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. Get down at the Clignancourt station and take a stroll on the road away from the Mac Donald's and there you have the flea market. I walked so much in Paris and I roamed around so much in Paris metro and I think I can give directions from any place to any place in the city. But then, right from the minute I set my foot in the city I felt so much at home. It was like Rishi Kapoor in Karz. In the hostel I stayed, I shared a room with two other girls from Holland. Do not ask me what I saw over there. Anyway, you have to take my word for it when I say that I maintained a this-and-all-is-common-to-me sort of composure. Okay, moving on, the palace of Versailles is another sight to behold. Specially the gardens behind the palace, they extend as far as eye can see and make a breath-taking sight. I have taken a picture of it and can share it.

    All in all, to summarize the places I visited, we have in the list the Arc De Triomphe, Champs Elysses, Concorde, Eglise de la Madeleine(it is a chapel), Norte Dame, Shakespeare and Company(that is one of the oldest and most famous bookstalls in Paris), Palace of Versailles and its gardens, Moulin Rouge, took a stroll at night in the famous red light area near Moulin Rouge, Louvre, Eiffel Tower, took a long walk besides the river from Louvre to Tour Eiffel, a ferry ride on the river Seine in the night, Luxemburg Gardens, Assembly Nationale, the flea market. I miss not seeing 'the Thinker' at the museum of Rodin and the Picasso museum. May be next time. All in all I had one of the most yearned and pleasurable trips of my life. Calling it the finest three days of my life would really be an exaggeration, for I know that there have been many memorable days and moments in these 29 long years, but for the present it definitely feels like that. I love Paris. It is my favorite city in the world. Smiles. Err… London. And the finish to the Paris trip was what these writer chappies would call a cliffhanger finish. We had to make it to the bus station by train and negotiate 15 stations on the way and we had 20 minutes. The bus was supposed to start from Paris at 9pm and we were there at the bus station at 9.01pm. Anyway, to everyone's relief, we did finally make it. Even when we went to Goa in 2004 January, the finish was something in these lines. That is another great trip and it needs to be addressed in a different mail digging out memories from the folds of the mind.

    If you have successfully reached here, let me thank you for reading this rant with patience and interest.

Merci, Au revoir.

-Arvind

PS: Next week I am going to Italy. I plan to cover Rome, Florence, Pisa and Venice. I hope to enjoy myself there too. I am specially looking forward to taking a trip in the Gondolas in Venice, looking at the ceiling painted by Michelangelo at the Sistine chapel and the statue of David by Michelangelo at Florence.

Virgin Voyage

    The first thoughts that crossed my mind when I set foot outside the airport at Frankfurt were exactly those that this chap Jahangir uttered when he saw Kashmir. Whereas Jahangir chose the Persian language, I settled for the more sober sounding English translation that I read as a child "If there is a heaven on Earth; it's here, it's here, it's here". The weather here is amazing - the sun shines bright but a chill wind hits the face, the freshness is something that I never experienced before. I wonder what I would say when I see Kashmir. Probably shall learn the Persian lines by heart by then.

    The journey to my final halt, the hotel in Waldorf was not without its share of adventure. This nut, a colleague of mine who got down at the hotel in Mannheim dislodged my bag at his place and one can imagine my plight when I landed at my hotel to see one of my bags missing. Not the best thing to happen on one's first trip outside the country. I mean, something as dramatic as loosing one's bags on the day one lands in a new place is something that one hears about in anecdotes of other’s trips but does not experience oneself, but here I was with my bag missing. All my foreign exchange was in the bag and I was quite upset about loosing it though I didn’t really panic and all. Anyway, all is well that ends well and all that sort of rot, but not before me needing to go in trains, buses and on foot from one town to another alone in a strange land where people don’t speak your tongue. Anyway, people here seem to be quite friendly and helped me liberally in giving directions and helping me get to my destination. It was a very good experience over all.

I

    I went to Heidelberg castle on Sunday. Wow… Europe is beautiful. The view of the surroundings from atop the castle is just awesome.

    I am mostly surviving on beer over here. I have stacked the fridge with some bottles of beer, chocolates, and ice-cream and well, I am thriving on short-eats like salted pistas, walnuts, cashew and almonds. I’m loving it. Of course, I am terribly missing my friends back in Bangalore. You have to take my word for it if I say that I dreamt of all my friends on Saturday night. I think it would have been more fun had I been in these beautiful places with those I like to hang around.

    The breakfast at Ambiente (the hotel where I am put up) is an experience in itself. I have just now finished my lunch at office the cafeteria and calling it wholesome would be an understatement of sorts. I had fresh vegetable salad,  strawberry pudding, Snickers, Mars... I am greedy as a pig.

    Much earlier, the flight journey was something of a setting that the Gods seemed to have taken pains to whip-up specially for me. It was an almost full moon night outside and I had a window seat. The full moon, the huge wing of the aeroplane and the sea of clouds below me, a glass of red wine in my hands. I was on my Virgin Voyage on my 29th Birthday. I think it will be one of the happiest memories of my life. I cried.

- Arvind

Notes to self: I sorely miss the mug.