Whats in a name ?

Yet another travelogue from Paris - but trust me, there is something about this city that makes one think like a philosopher. Or, maybe it just reminds me, that I am supposed to be a philosopher (!).
Was waiting for Metro at the Bir Hakeim ( Ligne 6 ) stop, on my way back from work. Of course, all of you who have been to Paris, definitely know this train station- because this is where you would get down, when you pay that "statutory/customary" visit to the Eiffel Tower. This is definitely one of the busiest train stations in Paris - probably in entire Europe...for the sheer number of people visiting the Eiffel tower every single day of the year. However, today was special - its Bastille Day ( national day of France). Hence, its a national holiday, and the influx for Eiffel tower was much higher than it is usually. I almost swam through a sea of people ( much like India, and so missing it badly! ), on my way to the platform. Luckily, I was traveling in the direction opposite to all the tourist hot spots, and so the platform was not that crowded on my side.
As I was waiting for the train, trying to intentionally ignore the tourists and feeling proud about not being one myself, I noticed that almost everyone around me was suddenly amused about something. It was a shared reaction - irrespective of the age , and even I was curious to know what everyone was looking at. As I turned right, where all eyes were focused, I noticed two pigeons fluttering just above the train tracks, moving on either side of the platform. There was a kid standing next to me, and he shouted with a burst of excitement - "See that Dove!"
Everyone around enjoyed the orchestrated flight of the dove, as they moved everywhere- though there was nothing unusual about the dove or the flight in itself. However, the excitement they brought to everyone around was amazing for me to notice. Its not that I have never seen a dove before, its just that back in India, we call them pigeons, and they are available in plenty. Whats in a name - call it Dove or a pigeon , its the same thing - Right ? Well, maybe not. A few months back, when I was in India, the only connotation I could attach to a " pigeon" was dirt - the poop that it drops everywhere around on buildings, and how it is seen as a hassle by the housekeeping staff. Suddenly, as I shifted a few thousand miles away, the same pigeon seems to be reborn as a Dove - and as it changes the name, its entire existence becomes poetic. Its being seen as a representative of love, of innocence, of bringing liveliness to an otherwise mechanical railway station. Biologically, nothing has changed - its the same pigeon , I guess !
But, what has changed probably is the perspective- to be able to appreciate subtle beauty that is omnipresent around us. Why is that we need to be disconnected from our reality and put in a nascent environment ( 5000 km away in my case), and its only then that we appreciate life. There is so much of beauty around us, and beauty not just in nature, but even in its beings, and in every little moment - so much of life in our everyday life !
Maybe in a haste to 'live' ...we often ignore 'life' .........

Summer in Europe

One can only describe the beauty of summers in Europe - and for a quick glimpse, this is what I see in my balcony when I wake up to this lazy Saturday morning !

Sent from my mobile device

A Kuznets Curve of Memories (?)

All of you must be aware about the Kuznets curve, which gave a new dimension to the discussion on how environmental priorities of an economy changes with the progress in level of incomes. I was revisiting the curve a few days back, and was amazed to see how I could see myself undergoing a similar transition - in a different context altogether. Its almost been six months since I have been out of India- and somehow, I feel that my memories of India is trading a similar curve uphill.

As we ( Nidhi & myself) landed in Paris /Europe early this year, we were really excited to be here....again ! The weather was just perfect, appropriately cold but no snow, and my days of studentship had just ended. We loved escaping from the hub nub of India - that honking of horns in Delhi's mad traffic, smog filled air of Indian cities, and extremely suffocating population density per meter square. Paris was a different world - probably a world that an Indian like us can not even imagine in dreams. A city where the pedestrian is king, where the roads and boulevards beckon you with their serenity and charm, where the open places motivate you to spend some (lot) more time outside the buildings, and a city where one can survive almost entirely without a car.

However as time progressed, there are many so far unseen/unfelt dimensions of our country that started haunting us in our day to day life. When the chilling winds of Paris never seemed to calm down, what we missed most was that bright and sunny November in New Delhi. When the endless strolls in search of vegetarian food on the streets of Paris never ended, what me missed most was the unending options for good vegetarian cuisine in India - a selection often made by way of rejection. When our heart soared every Friday after receiving movie updates from www.bookmyshow.com, and not being able to watch any of them here - what we missed most was the Large Movie+Popcorn combo and that comfortable couch of BigCinemas. And the list is unending.....

Now, what remains to be seen is if we will transcend the curve as has been highlighted above - whether the longing for India will fade with time, as we get settled to this new way of a Parisian lifestyle. Will we start enjoying the beautiful Parisian boulevards which look all the more heavenly as they are brightly lit up during winters; do we increase the frequency of our visits to the Indian district ( Gare Du Nord) in Paris and cherish the excellent south Indian food there, and get addicted to the illimite carte from UGC Movies France (unlimited movies for 15 Euros/month ! ). These are our Darwinian survival instincts coming back very strongly on the nostalgia, and helping us descend that curve to a zone of comfortably feeling being Parisian. And I am curious to see , who wins ? Maybe we will be successful in getting over with this feeling, and start accepting the new way of life as our own - before we finally head back to India.

Thats life I guess - a big adjustment in itself !