They call it a Dune (welcome to France Part III)

Having spent a good portion of the last three years in Jodhpur, a desert one would think I’d know what a sand dune is… either I don’t or the French people have an extremely warped sense of definitions.

Day two of my stay in Bordeaux, I go to work along with dad, he goes for his meetings and I go to my office. I’m given some work that I am doing, some time in the middle the boss comes along to see how I’m doing, she sits for a while and then goes back expecting me to finish the work by evening. While leaving she says that my dad’s colleague has invited me for lunch and I should be at the gate at 1330. It’s good, why say no to a free lunch. Come 1330 I go with them for lunch to this typical road corner French restaurant that are very expensive (I know they are on the road, they are in fact on every street corner in the country and they are all expensive, at least for me) and there we sit to have lunch. The menu is in French, I can read a few key words here and there but the majority of it was like Greek or Arabic or for all you know French to me. As for starters I just followed my dads que asked for some salad which was a huge plate of leaves with some tomatoes and some ham thrown in and topped of with a half fried egg. Different, interesting, edible and to an extent tasty also, the main course however I thought copying that would be a little too much, so I decided to use my French reading ability and looked for the most recognizable thing on the menu and I found the word ‘poisson’ which I knew meant fish and along with that there was the word ‘riz’ which is rice. So I knida put two and two together and thought this must be some fish and rice preparation which is usually safe. What came was fish… and rice…., but as far from a fish and rice preparation you can ever get. There were six different varieties of fried or dry cooked sea food and a small bowl of bolied rice, which would also be quite fine since they had prawns and shrimps and other fish that I have eaten and are quite edible only if I was someplace else like India or even Singapore for that matter. The trouble with the French is that they insist on eating everything with a fork and knife, now I could not for the life of me imagine how one can eat a king prawn with its shell on with a fork and knife or how can you eat a fish that is full of thorns with a fork and knife. So helplessly I ate what could be eaten, ate all of the little bowl of rice that was there and the shrimp and left the rest.

Then came back to the office finished the work I was given mailed it to the boss and then left with dad to back. On the way we decided to go sight seeing so we then turned around to go change since both of us were in suits, it would be a little funny roaming on the beach in suits. So we went back changes and then headed around 65Km away towards this place called ‘Dune du pyla’. From what I know of dunes they are humps of sand that have a tendency to shift normally found in a desert and are very misleading as far as direction is concerned.

Headed there we were driving down this road that seemed like a mountain road, lush green trees on both sides, clear blue sky some fir cones lying around on the side of the road and the GPS takes us through all of this and then to a parking lot where we stop get off and walk another 30-40 meters to see what they call a dune. It is a massive mountain of sand around 100 meters high and extending till as far as I could see. On this ‘dune’ they had built a permanent staircase for people to climb it. We went up and the scenery only got more beautiful because on one side of this dubious mountain of sand was thick dense forest and on the other was the wide open sea with the sun setting in the horizon. Then taking inspiration from a high spirited golden Labrador and a seemingly high owner we decided that the appropriate way to go down the dune was not by taking the stairs, so we half ran half walked half tumbled down the 100 meters of sand… it was fun :D 

   

Then we went to this small beach town called Arcachon which is a small peaceful strip of beach with a cool sea breeze. We walks along the beach for a while admired the scene and then decided to head back home.

On the way back we remembered that there are no clothe hangers in the room so we should stop by at some place to get some and we would have to do it on the way because it was already 2030 and most of these shops close at 2130 or 2200hrs. I changed the destination on the GPS to a hyper market that was on the way back (you have such a setting called points of interest en route) if found a hyper market called Auchan a familiar name so I keyed it in and we were on our way. Somewhere 25Km from Bordeaux it asked us to exit the motorway, we complied and then it took us to some town that I doubt will even be there on the map, through streets that seemed to have been formed by the last car that passed being. Without option we complied, and one second we are moving between what seems like two warehouses and the next moment out of the blue a huge outlet of Auchan right in front of us just like that, impressed with the system we went got hangers and some other stuff and it was straight back to the room after a quick bite at McDs.     

That's all for today... more later

Enter the office (welcome to France Part II)

Thales, a very large firm that does a lot of high tech things, is what I would have described the firm as a few days back, but after the few minutes of reading on the Delhi airport, I’d describe Thales as one of the largest defense equipment manufacturers in the world having a presence in a lot of countries with a very large and highly developed legal cell. So 2pm on the 11^th of May I was standing at the gate of Thales, Bordeaux. Along came a young French lady by the name of Crystel who escorted me to inside the premises and into a building, while telling me that this is the first and last time I shall be permitted to enter this building, adding apologetically that it was no fault of mine but being a non-French I could not be allowed to enter the building un escorted. She then took me to what she called the security wing of the company. There a kind gentleman asked me to sit on a stool and switched on some lights here and there with an umbrella positioned someplace he asked me to perform my best smile, yes they had a fully functional photo studio in that place. Then while some machine was doing something in the background I was explained the do’s and don’ts of the place.

Rule number one: you may not come to office before 0720 hrs also you may not stay after 1930hrs.

Rule number two: this is a military grade security building you may not enter it, your office is a little far away.

Rule number three four and five: in case of emergency call this number in case of fire call this number, and in case you see someone spoiling the environment call this number.

Then I was asked to sign some papers which basically said that if I invent something, its theirs as long as hey give me some credit for it. (I am so not inventing anything).

And finally I was given my ID card; yes all that jazz and all. It’s a proper card complete with a magnetic strip that opens doors and has a very stupid looking picture of me on it nicely placed in a protective holder with that small clip thing that you attach your clothes.

Rule 0: Oh BTW this card must be visible at all times when you’re in the premises.

Signing a few more documents they had for me I was taken to the office.

A few minutes walk from the gate through a lush green forest like area revealed a line of small cabins just next to the restaurant or the mess. Walking along the cabins we reached the last one. She asked me to swipe my card there and I did, the door opened. The door actually opened because I swiped my card there :D . Behind the door I enter a room that’s almost double the size of my hostel room, a couple of tables a few chairs a computer lying in the middle. She says this is your office, I hope its ok? The only thing I can say its it’s lovely. Later when I’m alone in the room I sit on the chair, it rotates and moves around, and then I examined the computer, beautiful 21 inch LCD with a decent processor and all, only trouble is that the OS was in French not that I could not work it but then they allowed me to bring my laptop so why not.

And thus I was introduced to ‘my office’. :D

Flip (welcome to france part I)

Hey, how can one tell when the vacations at NLU begin? The city of Jodhpur becomes peaceful, the net quantity of content in the world goes up by leaps and bounds and Adhirath starts blogging again. Now I’m not sure if he has started his internship yet and has got enough bored to blog but my internships started and its actually not boring at all, in fact this time my internship promises to be an experience of a life time, and therefore I’m blogging about it as it happens.

9^th of May 2009, 11:45 am…. I am sitting in an exam hall writing an exam on RTI which is the most useless subject known to law student kind. It was basically write what you can about what you know for three hours and we will mark you for that.

9^th of May 2009, 1200 pm…. I am a free bird cruising across the skies of freedom headed to the mess for the last mess meal of the semester; I got a call from Subhash, the 5^th year who is going to pass out very soon, he said he needed me in his room urgently. I obliged to find him sitting in the middle of what was once a place that looked, felt and seemed like Subhash. He was packing away at break neck speed and had a whole pile of books that he thought I might need sometime in the next two years. Along with that came a horde of other things that altogether made a huge carton full or articles that were to stay on campus until further notice.

Having finally finished packing his room I had to come back to pack mine. Relatively I took no time to pack my suitcase and a half and was ready to leave the sun bathed Jodhpur for greener pastures.

An auto ride and train journey later I was back in Delhi where I was welcomed by home and the loving arms of family, and the divine taste of good food, add to that the fact that I had the company of very good friends and that was something I really could get used to but this time I just dint have that much time.

I packed the bags I had unpacked and at around 2130 hrs I left home to go to the Airport, I was headed to France. Went through all the usual boring flight stuff got in the plane, not a great seat but that was trouble for the guy sitting on the isle seat. A few hours into the flight I felt like I wanted to drink something, a coke or my current favorite apple juice with sprite. I called for the hostess a couple of times to no avail, mildly annoyed with Air France I gave up on my drink, decided to go have a stroll. After troubling the gentleman on my right I went up to the back of the plane I found the hostess and I asked her for my drink. Her response will make a lot of my friends very very jealous, she pointed me in the direction of what I gathered was an open bar, a drinks counter with all the drinks you normally get on a plane complete with a stack of thin lemon slices. A few glasses of apple juice and sprite later I was back on my seat sleeping through the rest of the flight.

I had to take a connecting flight from Paris to Bordeaux and I thought I had enough time to make it from one terminal to the other, turns out the first flight got a little delayed and there was a huge queue at the security check where while I was standing with the tray in my hand my phone decided to ring (it was an alarm) making me drop some of the change I was carrying into the tray (thankfully) and at that very moment the security check person called me forward so I somehow stabilized the tray on the x-ray machine switched off the alarm and went in for security check, a few questions later I was out of the security area and was running to gate 55 only to find that the flight had left without me.

So I went to the people that change your flight and asked them to put me on the next flight to Bordeaux which they nicely did, also gave me a food coupon, so I had a nice croissant and some tea while waiting right outside the gate this new flight was to go from.

Finally reached Bordeaux and was received at the airport by the warm secure face known to me as dad, who was driving this huge shiny blue Citroen C4 Picasso. We went back to this place that’s going to be hostel for a month, more about that later. A shower and shave later I’m on my way to work, Thales.

This post is getting very very long and will get boring so more about the rest later.       

 

Ummm.... lets see

I was once told that the reason for blogging is to express your thoughts the speak your mind. The question is what if you wish to speak your mind but there are no words ? what if the stream of thought that your mind is is actually not a stream but more like a whole bunch of droplets that are so small and so scattered that getting them together would not only be futile but would wet the whole place? enjoy the dew.