Places that stole my heart.

3 Sparrows of Deauville

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Sunday in Paris: Vincennes Woods

Spring is almost here. You can feel it all around you, the birds are here, the children are feeding the ducks, the waters are less icy and the paper boats are a plenty, the grass is growing again and the trees about to send us their gifts. Sundays in Paris are becoming lovelier by the week. Today we went to Bois de Vincennes. (bois = woods). The ambience was lovely. I met some of my favourite friends. The seagulls and the ducks :) It's a strange sight to hear the cry of seagulls in the middle of Paris. It makes me nostalgic of the Normandy coast where I lived last year and the cry of the seagulls was a constant.

Conifer cones :) I remember the first time I saw them and decided I would use them in my pot pourri vase. I need to get around to that!

 Pretty leaves on vines.

 You look at the trees and can't wait for more yellow to brighten the park.

 You're happy to see the ducks after a long while. 

You look at the Saint Mandé lake and wonder if that's a weeping willow in the distance. And indeed it is! :)

 Je suis un canard :)

 Cloudy day reflections mingle with the ripples, ducks paddle around hoping for crumbs.

 In the woods, poetry is everywhere. 

 Every move can be transformed into verse..

 I thought of these words when I saw this cute guy gazing away. When was the last time you spent a quiet moment just doing nothing - just sitting and looking at the sea, or watching the wind blowing the tree limbs, or waves rippling on a pond, a flickering candle or children playing in the park?

Sara from Sicily

I was twenty-two and decided to take up the adventure of backpacking alone across Europe. I had never been on my own anywhere, I was scared at times in certain places and the only thing that kept me from turning back was an unknown proverb "Who lives sees much. Who travels sees more." The experience was finally nothing but marvellous and I can't wait to do it again!

The bluest of blue skies can only be found in Tuscany. It was my second day in Florence. The free walking tour organized by my hotel was brilliant and the city impressed me, purely for it's capacity to make the best mascarpone ice cream :) I decided to rest my feet and enjoy my two scoops of divinity in the courtyard of the Medici palace. There was a slight drizzle but that didn't stop the hordes of tourists and artists from going about their business. I took out my beloved travel companion, my tattered journal and decided to note down all the exciting stories our guide had just told us about beautiful Firenze. I was busy writing in my journal when I noticed someone peering into my work. A woman was sitting right next to me, I didn't know for how long, she seemed to be crying and I didn't know for how long either. I thought she was in her late 70s and she could look pretty if she didn't frown so much. I smiled and she immediately began speaking to me in Italian. I was unable to reply and thankfully she knew French and voilà the start of an interesting conversation. She was Sara from Sicily and she asked me in a bold casual manner what I was writing about. I told her I was chronicling my entire trip across Europe and this surprised her. She asked me if I was afraid travelling alone. I told her life was too short to be afraid. We block our dreams when we allow fear to grow stronger than our convictions. For the first time in my life I actually believed what I was saying. Travelling had dispersed so many of my fears.

Sara told me she was fifty years old and she had never left Italy in her life. In fact this was the first time she stepped out of Sicily to discover Firenze and that too because her friends had forced her. I couldn't understand why she looked so haggard and old for her age. I asked her why she was sobbing and this provoked an even bigger melt-down and I realized I need to shut up sometimes and just listen. She explained her heart has been broken over four years ago by her fiancée who left her for the cleaning lady! She met her ex-fiancée when she was twenty and they remained engaged for nearly 30 years! Yet it was so easy for him to betray her and throw it all away. In her words "une roumaine a séduit mon chéri"... I could relate to her story perfectly especially after the tumultuous (now considered as rubbish) relationship my ex had just ended with me. To comfort our two aching hearts, I took again to my journal and this time to read aloud some of the proverbs I had jotted down at various junctures in my life. Sara seemed to like the one which read "better to travel alone than with a bad companion". She asked me if travelling really liberates the self and makes one happy. I told she will have to find the answer herself. Here Sara smiled. We sat there for a long time talking about her life in Sicily, joking about her being a mafiosi, her broken heart, her impressions about India, maybe visiting someday..

She asked me what advice I had for her before we parted ways. This was amusing since there was a quarter-century age difference between the two of us! All I told her is that life is too short to dwell on the past, all we have is NOW! We need to be present in every moment. I spoke to her as if she were my child. I remember saying go, live, rejoice and just be happy! Sara smiled, put on her lovely read coat, kissed me on my forehead and she was gone.

I wonder if she took my advice seriously. I like to think she did :)

Travelling, according to me is a reward and the meetings with different people along the way, are more than just plain encounters. These are cultural and personal achievements. So go ahead and reward yourself today with the help of Expedia! Wander away...

My Pablo Picasso- Françoise Gilot

I'm not the biggest fan of Pablo Picasso but there is one sketch of his that I absolutely adore and this is the second time I've tried it and feel satisfied with the results. Of all his mistresses muses, I think Françoise Gilot was the most gorgeous. She was 21 and he was 61 when they first met. 

There is something so féérique and bohemian about her, I can imagine why Picasso would want to make her a piece of art. 

Let's go into the forest..

Unending love

    Unending Love

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times...
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.

Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, it's age old pain,
It's ancient tale of being apart or together.
As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,
Clad in the light of a pole-star, piercing the darkness of time.
You become an image of what is remembered forever.

You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.
At the heart of time, love of one for another.
We have played along side millions of lovers,
Shared in the same shy sweetness of meeting,
the distressful tears of farewell,
Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.

Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you
The love of all man's days both past and forever:
Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life.
The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours -
And the songs of every poet past and forever.

~Rabindranath Tagore

Diagnosis of a Sex Offender

Situation: Rush hour, pfff, groan. Creased attire. Hurting ankles, why did you wear heels? Yet you manage to squeeze into a jam-packed train. Sweaty bodies, a swerve to the left and a sea of human contact; swerve to the right and the same. A 'man' lets you hold on to the bar to get a grip. You thank him and heave a sigh of relief simply because you won't collapse onto the sea of humanity when the train swerves again. You're thinking of how well the day went, of the hot cup of Darjeeling you'll make as soon as you kick these darned shoes off, your TV shows to download and watch over the weekend. And that's when you feel it! That uninvited human touch, creepy and and forced. You've felt it before so many times, on your thigh crawling up. You look around you, it's the 'man' you thanked for some bar space, you stare furiously to ward off the creep. It stops for a few seconds. Sigh of relief tinged with humiliation. A new stop for the train, few commuters get off and more storm in. He didn't get off. He's right behind you now. Will it happen again? Minutes go by. It does. This time he aims higher and you feel that prickly touch on you bottom. You turn around, angered and yell. But what comes out of your mouth is a simple "Are you trying to grope me!". A few people notice and the 'man' slithers away unapologetically. Sounds like the everyday story of a woman commuter in Bombay right? Yes. But surprise! this happened in Paris. To me.

Post-situation : On reaching home, angry at myself

a)   for allowing a stranger humiliate me again.

b)   for not having done anything to change how I felt, e.g France being a country controlled fervently by strict rules, I know I could have had justice if I took the ‘man’ down to the gendarmerie.

c)   for having let down all the other voiceless women that this man will abuse in the near future.

At home I told Monsieur S. about the incident and his first response was « maybe it was an accident, people fumble in crowds you know ». Flashback to when I told my mum a few years ago about a similar encounter. « Maybe it was just an accident, forget about it. You can’t do anything about this menace. » ha ! That’s when I realized, I have been wired to accept a treatment like this. I am conditioned to be victimized and the people around me find excuses to overlook it. Me and millions of another women across the planet face this plight. I took to the internet to diagnose the mind of a groper and his victims. I wasn’t surprised to find hundreds of fetish videos and a meager number of victims talking about this. What I failed to see is action being taken against the offenders.

Diagnosis : Sitting at my desk now, brooding over my fifth cup of Darjeeling tea, I’m trying to come to terms with what happened. With me and the ‘man’.  Note that I have used quotation marks for the word ‘man’, to indicate the irony of this word. Man is defined as a human being, a person, in the dictionary. A person is distinguished from an animal and his behavioural patterns are conditioned by society. Sex offenders look to humiliate, anger and endanger their victims. There is no society that aspires such hazards for its members. Hence the sex offender is present in society but devoid of behavioural patterns. He is nothing but an animal. Like any animal, he is looking for a prey.

How did I become easy kill ?

Primary reason is that society failed to lock up this dangerous animal in it’s cage. Think about it, how many sex offenders are roaming the streets right now. On trains, buses, school grounds, waiting to molest, rape, grope your sister, your brother, your daughter, you ? Are our laws strict enough ? The rate at which this incidents take place, has assured us that they aren’t.

The second reason is me, the victim. I knew exactly what was happening to me and I knew I didn’t like it. Yet I kept mum. After giving this deep thought, I realized that courage is a cultural issue. In India we have a twisted belief that a woman has to respect the ‘man’. We are definitely outgrowing these beliefs but are we developing courage ? I, like millions of strong (I’d like to belive) Indian women, readily gave up these outdated and untrue customs. But I forgot to insert candour and courage as a replacement. Thus I was able to clearly identify the problem, understand that it was unwelcome, know what to do about it but not how to act.

The final reason for being victimized is the lack of communication. How many women speak about this ? I'm not talking about spur of the moment emotions, screaming at the ‘man’ and slapping him. I mean talking about how you’ve felt about these incidents, days, months or even years after they’ve happend to you. How many of us let these animals strip us of our dignity for a moment, for years, for life and then do nothing about it ? Why do we continue to think that it’s okay to keep quite and ashamed about this ? That like our boyfriends and mothers, force ourselves to believe that these were accidents. Some dare say that they we were the reason this happened e.g "you shouldn’t have worn a skirt", "you shouldn’t have laughed so loud on the bus", "you shouldn’t have been walking so late at night", you shouldn’t have.. lived your life ?

This stops NOW ! Simone de Beauvoir said « One is not born a woman, one becomes one ». Noone should tell you how you have to be ! You know or will decide that for yourself. What you wear and what you do in YOUR life should not be a reason to discriminate or humiliate you. We need to realize that these animals are playing out a fantasy in their head. A simple sex offense is infact a means to an end. It will lead to rape, torture and ofcourse murder if that the fantasy is not played out in it’s full lusty glory. The groper is never apologetic, and your furious reaction will only stop him for a while or excite him even more. In my case, the ‘man’ tried to molest me twice and if I hadn’t said a thing the second time who knows what he could have done. I genuinely regret not having taken advantage of France’s justice system. I could have saved a few other women from a similar traumatizing experience. My advice to all women is speak up. Act. React.

Carrying candour around is not easy but I know I will try along with the rest of humanity. What you do, directly affects those around you. Hence in the future, I will try to stand up for myself, even if it means making a scene. I read this quote in the book Hope against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam and I think we need to apply it to our lives. « I decided it is better to scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity ». 

Scream. 

You have the right to!

Blois + Reims + the New Year

Happy New Year and sorry people! I haven't been able to update my blog because I've been snowed in with work, exams, stress, depression, home sickness etc. Life has thrown a lot of challenges my way lately. Let's retrace our steps to the very beginning.

Paris showcased the most pathetic of decorations this season. The City of Lights clearly didn't care to make an effort, and after watching the shabby decorations on television, I didn't even bother making a trip to the Champs-Elysées to voir les illuminations.

Christmas was strange, far away from home. My tree was up in the beginning of November to create a festive mood. It did help having a beautiful tree and I love how sweet Monsieur S. was, to buy matching blue and silver ornaments, including candles and lights, to match with the tree.

This is the first time in my life I spent xmas without any of my family. Monsieur S's family invited me to Blois to spend Christmas day with the grandparents. 

Blois

That was really sweet of them but it didn't help me get over the homesickness. I'd choose a noisy-chaotic-over the top-hot-humid-beachy-Goan Christmas anytime over a subdued-freezing-classy-spiceless-French Christmas. I did like Blois though. It's in the centre of France, in the Loire valley. We were there just two days and managed to see almost everything in the city. The Castle is a must-visit, it doesn't hold a candle to the other castles in Paris but it has an interesting history and a guided tour is included in the price of your ticket.

In addition, there are interesting exhibits in the castle, eg. the display of eerily life-like gargoyles. 

But you can see some beautiful motifs and a variety of architectural styles nestled under a single roof!

The river Loire runs through the city and the view from the banks are spectacular especially at dusk.

Reims

I'm so happy that Monsieur S. and me are one year old together :) Still feels so good and so new. He took me to Reims, the capital city of the Champagne region. We visited a bit and then he treated me to a fabulous French lunch at the Brasserie Flo in the city center. I must say, after this meal, I began reconsidering how I felt about French cuisine!! :)

Reims is a tiny city and the most beautiful thing to see here is the Cathedral. It's 800 years old and still so marvellous!! The kings of France were once crowned here. 

Look how lovely these window panes are. Some of these patterns were created by Marc Chagall himself! 

Over to the homefront now. I'm so thrilled that the Jaipur Literary Festival is finally  being given such great importance. And Oprah Winfrey in here to give it the boost it needs! I'm so proud of India for having organized the biggest literary platform in Asia-Pacific. Kudos! This is a huge step for the nation and I'm bursting with pride :)

Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year folks!! Time for fresh new beginnings and new adventures! Haven't had the time to update. There's so much happening right now. oh! I've bought myself a great new bicycle, this year I'm going to be environment friendly and lose some weight while I'm at it! :) I have exams coming up but I will update as soon as I have some free time on my hands. Much love! Happy New Year again!

I love when I'm indoors and it rains.

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning how to dance in the rain. :)

Via

Etsy

Words we all relate to.

Via

Etsy

Caturdays are lovely

If you know me, you know I LOVE cats. If I'm trapped on an island and the only animal company I will choose is that of a cat. So when the International Salon for Cats was being organized this weekend, I decided I'd rather drop dead than miss. It was a beautiful Saturday Caturday in Paris when I met these beauties!

Got the Winter Blues :'(

Via

Etsy

Retrospect: Magical Madrid

I haven't uploaded my Spain pictures because a) there are too many of them and b) the quality isn't too great since I didn't have my DSLR camera when I was prancing around Madrid :'( However I know you are kind and will overlook the quality of my photos and rather search for the story behind them (while keeping your fingers crossed that I will go back to Espana and make better ones) :)

Madrid has a lot of charm. I went there during the summer with my mum and the city was almost deserted because the temperature drives people indoors or to other cooler parts of Spain. We however, braved the 45°+ temperatures and discovered the beautiful sights in the capital city.

Madrid is an architectural delight and for lovers of different renaissance-baroque styles, like me, should definitely put Madrid on their agenda!

There are beautiful streets and parks and restaurants to wander into.

The Plaza Mayor is a must visit. You can sit there for hours and watch the hundreds of tourists, lunching, buy postcards, artists selling their masterpieces, children creating life-size ephemeral bubbles, your mum and you taking pictures and sitting down to enjoy some delicious Spanish fruit.

Churches are not few in Madrid and their intricate decorations on ceilings, walls and statues are  to lust after. The interiors of the churches provide a well appreciated respite from the scorching July heat.

The most breathtaking monument according to me. The Royal Palace. Sadly you're not allowed to photograph indoors. I recommend it for all people who love chandeliers, wallpaper with royal motifs, luxurious furniture and décor.

There are 2 colours that greet you everywhere in Madrid: Yellow :)

and a bright cherry Red :)

Besides the above sights, Madrid has many things to offer, including world class museums, parks, restaurants and cultural activities. I wasn't too happy with the admission system at the museums. I felt that there was a bias towards European students who had the same age as foreign (non-EU) students. I think art should be made free to admire. In spite of this little problem, my trip to Spain brings back nothing but great memories. I can't wait to go back and discover some other colourful regions :)