The world is not enough

Well it seems like the world is going from wierd to really really wierd now it all started with Voixand her barbie and then that car ... of that poor car ... and i thought that Mumbai was the only place struck with the insanity of vanity. 

 

Then however along came Huh who had his own two bits of clothing disaster with what he called the most wanabe shirt ever and I really wouldn’t argue with him on that, and he witnessed this piece of fashion calamity in Delhi.

 

I give you straight from what lots of people consider a city where people know how to dress and trust me they do, Barcelona, the BIKE 

Star studded in Pink this once Macho sports bike just seems to take the cake and oh lord why ? why ? why ?

I know big back log on the Stay in France but this one just took precedence the rest coming up very soon watch this space

Nostalgic Sunday (Stay In France part III)

Hopefully you have read all the previous posts in this series but in case you haven’t this is where it all started with a flip

Now last Sunday since I was staying in Bordeaux only I decided I would go do some thing totally Sunday like. Now on Friday when I was getting back from work I saw this big board about some international fair in Bordeaux so I googled it and it seemed interesting so I thought it would be a good place to spend a Sunday afternoon, plus the fair ticket came with a all day pass to travel by bus and tram, so even if I did get bored at the fair I could roam around the rest of town. Now in France there is an interesting thing about cigarettes, it can be very annoying at times but everyone smokes, so there are naturally a lot of cigarette shops which the administration has conveniently turned into retail outlets of tickets and passes basically like the mother dairy in Delhi. So I walk to the nearest cigarette shop and buy a ticket for the fair along with which I get a day pass for travel so I board the next bus I see and head to the fair.

If anyone has been to the India international trade fair this one was just like that, only it was a Bordeaux International Trade fair, so they had this one hall that had stalls from all over the world and a few other halls that had French companies with their stalls. I was roaming around the stalls from Africa and was very impressed by some of the wares of the Chinese stall. They had on display all various sorts of knives and daggers including the Samurai Katana which is an extremely interesting weapon. Lingering there for a while I went on to some of the other stalls when I heard some music in the back ground that had me cock my ears and listen with joy.

The music seemed to familiar to be true, and I could not believe that they were actually playing Aaja Nach le, being drawn by the Hindi words I went towards the source of the music to find a stage held by four sari clad girls dancing to the song. The first thing that reminded me of course was Sindhu, and then I thought about it and it had been over a week since I had heard a Hindi song, or spoken to anyone in person in Hindi, and I felt nostalgic about the language. 

Almost as though there was someone listening to my thoughts this voice came from behind me saying ‘aur bhai saab kahan ghum rahe ho?’ a guy from Delhi had also come there to put up a stall. So I waited and chatted with him in Hindi for a while asked him how things were and he told me that business was bad and that no one in this city buys anything, they are all here just to roam around, and when I looked around he was right hardly any one was carrying any bag or evidence that they had been buying something, they were all just roaming around, just like me enjoying a Sunday afternoon. Then I continued to roam around in the vicinity hoping to run into some more people that spoke the language that I did, the dance got over and that was followed by some Egyptian dance. Time and again after that the troop that had done the first dance on the Hindi song kept coming back and dancing on different Hindi numbers, the dance was good for someone dancing on bollywood numbers in France but I was much happier just listening to the Hindi words. While still roaming around I ran into the girls that were the Hindi Dance troop and I just felt like going and speaking to them because they obviously had something to do with India, so I went and congratulated them said the dance was very nice, asked them where they were from, had random small talk for about 45 seconds and then they needed to get back on the stage for another dance so I went on roaming around. Soon the Hindi songs stopped and I shifted to other halls saw some very interesting gadgets that I just could not imagine using back home. After a few hours of roaming through different halls including one that had farm animals apparently in their natural environment, nothing in comparison to what we are used to seeing on Delhi Roads…. Farm animals in the natural environment.

Having spent a few hours walking I decided to get out of the fair and roam a little on the other side of the river. The only glitch with that plan was that I had no idea what was on the other side of the river, none the less, armed with my full day travel pass I got into the tram that was going on the other side of the river, traveled a few stations in until I felt really hungry and spotted a Quick just at the tram station. I got off and entered the burger joint, stared at the menu for a few moments asked the lady at the counter if she could speak English, receiving a negative response I proceeded to point out on the menu what I wanted and within a few moments was served and seated.

Fed and ice creamed I decided to call it a day and head back home. Once I got into the tram I felt this sudden nostalgia for bollywood and Hindi songs in general and then it hit me that I had my phone and handsfree and some songs on it. So I quickly setup the apparatus and was swinging to the tunes of Bollywood.

Now as such that’s all that happened, I listened to music on my way back, but the feeling was very different, and so was the effect. Now till a point I can take a tram or a bus but beyond that I need to walk and that is roughly 5 and a half kilometers from where I stay, so I was walking in the direction of the place of residence snapping my fingers to ‘kisi ki muskurahaton pe ho nisar’ when I thought….if I started singing loudly no one would understand what I’m saying so it really wouldn’t matter, and that’s what I did, I started singing on the top of my voice that song and the next until my phone decided that it was time to take it to the next level. It played ‘masakali’ now we all know that its impossible to not sway to Rehman’s tunes when ‘masakali’ plays. So I was not only singing on the top of my voice I was also swaying to the tunes on the road while cars are passing by at all sorts of speeds. The most interesting was this car had stopped at a signal and I needed to cross that road, now I was a little far away from the crossing and pedestrian signal turned red so I stopped still swaying with a tune on my lips and earphones in my ears and the lady in the car signaled me to keep going even though she had the right of way, I think it was because I was practically dancing while standing there but it could be she was just good natured and normally lets people cross, either way I’d like to believe it was the former. I got back listened to some more Hindi songs for a while changed the songs on my phone and now when I’m walking I’m singing. 

Living an Experience (Stay in France Part IV)

Now technically im supposed to first sit and write about the  Sunday after that Saturday I spoke about which btw was also very interesting and I will tell you about it later but today I had one of those days which you remember in detail for the rest of your life, those days when you live an experience so I’m going to tell you about it right now while I can still feel it and tell you about that Sunday in the next one.

Today being Friday was a holiday for no reason I can think of, ya the French do that, and the company I’m working for they like doing such things, Thursday was a holiday because the French people don’t work on this day of the year so my company decided to make it a long weekend and give Friday off as well. Now there is this gentle man by the name of Mr. Laurent who is a friend of my fathers and works for the same company stays in Bordeaux has a wife a little child, now his wife’s company was not as benevolent. So long story short he was free on Friday and decided that he could spend it with me show me around. So a couple days back we were sitting in office discussing the weekend, and after a long drawn discussion I decided that on Saturday and Sunday I’ll go to this French town by the name of Tours and Thursday I’ll do something near by and on Friday he’ll take me some place. 

So today afternoon he came and picked me up in his nice Audi A3 and off we headed to Biscarrosse Plage which is a little further than Arcachaon which is near the Dune.

This place had a park called Aventure Parc where they had these adventure games. The unique and interesting thing about this park was they had built on the trees a whole maze of paths consisting of different arboreal tasks like climbing over a cable using the support of another or walking over suspended logs of wood that would swing with every step or using a pulley to slide down a cable or swing on a rope like tarzan and crash into a mesh of rope that you catch hold of and then move on. Basically lots of fun… good physical activity for the afternoon something new never done before.

 

The expected reaction to the afore said is probably along the lines of yeah that sounds interesting might like to try it sometime but what is the bug deal. But that’s not all Aventure parc has.

 

You know there are these certain things that change a person turn the person from one who has not done it into a person who has, things that differentiate the have dones and haven’t dones, things that you do once changes something un explicable inside you, the things they say that have a virginity. Today I did one of those things, and it was amazing. I jumped off a tower by the support of nothing but a very strong rubber band. Yes. I bungee jumped.

 

I after the arboreal exercise I decided ‘lets jump’ so I went to the tower they had built for the purpose where one of the instructors strapped me into this funny harness and then put some more belts on my feet and then asked me to climb a ladder up the tower. It was supposed to be just 20 meters and I thought that a jump that low may not actually be that great and for the last few days I was actually thinking if it was worth it or not, but that ladder cleared all my doubts it was high, for those who know it was higher than the bungee swing in Singapore, so I kept climbing up the ladder and it just dint seem to get over then I understood why they had even harnessed me to a cable on my way up the ladder. Finally I got to the top and it was high. There was this instructor who was a French guy who spoke English but the typical French English so he checked my harness checked the belt on my feet and said it was ok. Then he told me how I was supposed to look at the trees look at the houses and jump, how if I jumped quickly it’d be easier. How I should hold my arms wide open because that would be better. I listened intently and then I asked him if I could retie my shoe laces cos they felt a little loose, and he looked at me amused and said that I could but it wouldn’t affect the jump. Then he attached the big rubber band to me one piece to my harness and another thing to the belt on my feet, and I was all set, harness in place shoes tied rubber band attached. I was standing there on top of the tower and I could hear his voice at the back asking me to look at the trees, all I could see in front of me was a blur of green maybe because I wasn’t wearing my glasses maybe it was just the moment, I looked down once saw it was far away thought to my self that if I look for too long I might start thinking and before I could realize it I jumped, arms wide open I just jumped into the abyss I could swear it must have been a couple of seconds and I realized that I was falling right down and then there was this HUGE pull on my feet and I was flying upwards the earth and trees spinning around me my head towards the ground my heart was beating so fast I could practically hear it. And then I remembered to shout, and while I was swinging from one side to the other I went WEEEE HAAWWWWW. A few moments later I was just hanging there suspended from a stretched rubber band between the tower and the ground. The instructor on the ground said something but I couldn’t understand he asked me to do something with the rope and from what I understood me meant release the rope and I yelled back “NO”, and then the guy at the top shouted something along the same lines and I was thinking I’m not releasing anything slowly they brought me down and later explained that what they meant was they wanted me to catch hold of the rope so that I would be in an upright position while descending but I think I liked my way more.

Heart still beating fast adrenalin rushing through my veins I came back to the ground having done something new and absolutely, totally, and most awesomely breathtaking.

 

Next one about that Sunday btw I’m headed to Tours tomorrow and I wont be carrying my computer so I wont check my mail until I get back until then ciao. 

They should have a class for this (Stay in France Part II)

One of the very nice things about doing an internship in a country like France is that they have very interesting work laws. There is a 6 week compulsory paid vacation; people are not permitted to work for more than 35 hours a week, which can obviously be covered in the first five days keeping the weekends nice and long. I decided to make the most of the weekend and explore the city and behave like a proper tourist after all I am one. So this is what I did, Saturday morning I woke up had a quick bite and left to go to the city of Bordeaux. I was relying on this map the receptionist at the place where I’m staying had given me. So I somehow located the nearest bus stop, but I was confused about the direction I headed and therefore the side of the road that I was supposed to wait on. I tried asking one person but he couldn’t understand a word of English and I couldn’t explain to him in French what I was looking for. Then a bus came to that stop I got on it, asked the driver for a ticket but he refused to give me one, I couldn’t understand why. Two stops later the bus halted and everyone got off, I then opened my map in front of the driver and pointed out this bus stop in the city called Gambeta and I asked him for a ticket. Answering the later first he said that he dint have any and it was ok as for my destination not only was I standing on the wrong side of the road I also got onto the wrong bus. Thankfully at that stop the other bus also stopped so the driver told me wait here the bus No. 50 will come take that. I understood that part, so now I was on the right side of the road and knew which bus to take but still had no idea where I could get a ticket because their website (in French only) mentioned something about some tobacco shop. While I was waiting this elder lady was passing by with her 2 kids or grand kids, so I asked her. At first she dint quite understand what I was trying to say but then I tried some more tried speaking in the limited French I know instead of a mixture of English and dumbcharads. So I managed to tell her that I wanted a ticket. Then at a complete loss of translation I took out the English to French Dictionary I was carrying with me and found the French word for ‘go’ (aller) and then I told her “J’alle au gambeta. Ou (then I checked the word for buy) achete moi le ticket (I know its billet)” and she got it. Then for the next seven and a half minutes she explained to me how I could buy the ticket from the driver who is also the conductor and that I would cost me one euro forty cents and then something I did not figure. Then she went on to tell me how as such a ticket doesn’t cost so much because you can get a ten tickets together which will cost you 10 euro 10 cents but this single ticket will cost you one euro forty cents. Now either she gave me a lot more information that I just could not catch or she knew that I could not catch a lot of the things she was saying so just kept repeating what she said, either way I knew that I’d get the ticket on the bus. The bus came I gave the driver 1 euro 40 cents, I told him I wanted to go to Gambeta, he understood I was new to the system and started explaining to me how it works but again I could not make head or tail of it he mentioned some three and some hour and some other things but I just couldn’t understand. A long bus ride later I got to Gambetta. There I started walking in the direction that seemed the most interesting since I hadn’t seen any part of the city so I could see any part of it. Its either a law student thing or just my luck the first significant place I found my self at was the National Academy for law or their National Law University. 

A very interesting place, on the side walk near the entrance they have embossed their constitution on 30 steel plates (ya they only have 30 sections) and stuck them on the pavement, and a big one for the preamble. Then I went to visit this place called the grand theatre very old very cultural kind of a place. There I remembered that all sorts of bus and tram tickets were sold at the tram stations, so I went to the near by tram station and checked out this automatic ticket machine. Thankfully it had an English mode. I browsed through the entire system and now understood what the lady and the bus driver were telling me, they have an interesting system; a single voyage is considered as any number travels in any bus or tram for one hour. I took this day pass for the trams and busses, which basically meant that I could travel in any bus or tram all day long. I then roamed around that part of town seeing all these really old buildings and stuff very old world and picturesque got tones of pictures. 

Then I was walking along the bank of the Garone River where they have built a modern monument called the water mirror. It’s a large expanse of foot path which is depressed 2-3 inches and there are these openings in the tiles that sprout out water. So there is basically a large space which has 2 inches of water in it. In the evenings there a lot of people go there to hang out, couples strolling through the water wetting their feet children somehow managing to wet them selves in totality, nice place. There I was just walking along taking some pictures when I heard it. I hadn’t heard anything like that in a while so I was excited. Someone was speaking in English, I turned around and saw these two girls talking in reasonably fluent English, so I went up to them and spoke to them asked them what was nice to see in Bordeaux chatted for a min complimented their English and then moved on. By this time I was already quite tiered had been walking for a long time in spite of the bus and tram. So I decided to head back to the room.

More Coming soon...