Paris Days

Paris. Romantic looking bridges from where you can see boats plying up and down the Seine. Cosmopolitan energy manifesting itself through a variety of skin shades. Faces in all configurations. Small eyes, big eyes, flat and sharp noses, mouths of varying shapes and sizes. Japanese, African, Indian, Bulgarian, Russian, South American, British, and even a few native Frenchmen thrown in for good measure.

Bablu, Ayse and I took the metro from Corentin Carieu in the north east of Paris to Pont Marie in central Paris and walked over to the famous Notre Dame. Ayse couldn`t get over the fact that the thing that first caught our interest, Bablu`s and mine, was a souvenir shop into which we promptly ducked and came out with a variety of knick knacks. At least Bablu did - keychains and lighters and stuff while I bought post cards and ... hold your breath... yet another small bag with the Paris (Eifel Tower) Emblem on it.

As we crossed the garden at the back of the cathedral Bablu asked after the Hunchback. We told him the hunchback existed only in Victor Hugo`s novels but Bablu said, “Come on, there must be a statue of him or something.” We tried to persuade him otherwise but he was loathe to give up on it. Then a small man in a black cloak and a rather rounded back scurried past us and through a side door in the building and Bablu said, “Oh there`s the hunchback!” with an air of great satisfaction, after which we could drop the subject.

We admired the Notre Dame from all sides and I took a picture of Bablu and Ayse in front of the cathedral, with my new digital camera which took me a real long time to figure out. They both grumbled that I had put them into a corner of the frame while the cathedral loomed large in the pic, while I tried to make them understand it was "like that" in works of art.

Bablu`s main agenda throughout was actually food - “So when is lunch?” -a question he would pose every twenty minutes or so as we sauntered around. (If he sees this he is going to deny it of course and is going to try and kill me). The second day we paid an arm and a leg to go on one of those around Paris bus tours starting from the Opera. We had just passed the Place de Concord where the heads of state were beheaded during the French Revolution and a river of blood had flowed for days. Soon thereafter and barely forty five minutes after we had boarded the bus Bablu goes, “So what about lunch?” Ayse had very cleverly brought a packet of those crisp rye bread wafers studded with all kinds of seeds, which she handed over to Bablu with a motherly air. He took it reluctantly and ate it with an air of great disappointment.

The metros are notoriously full and disembarking is quite a challenge as people don’t move out of your way. On one occasion I managed to finally push two people aside and to nimbly hop out, stick and all, even as the doors closed in. (Bablu, already out on the platform, was transfixed - he thought I would be caught in the door!) and Ayse was left behind and as the doors closed and the train pulled out we stared at each other soulfully and hopelessly. We had to wait till she took the train back and joined us!

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We stayed with Suhail and Shasha in their terrific apartment in the 19th arrondisement. It is actually an old printing press converted into an aparment block. The flats have high ceilings, allowing for a mezanine, and Su and Sha have converted theirs into an office and a home theater.

There are potted plants all over and there is a central pillar with a lovely creeper climbing up all the way, with heart shaped leaves. The apartment is just one big room with no doors (only the bathroom has a door and there is the main door of course). The bedrooms have curtains serving as partitions.

We had a riotous time, eating, drinking and making merry (listening a lot to Indian music!) and currently Suhail is with me in Cologne at Ayse`s place and we have been talking and talking …. About the Goa workshop, about relationships, about life and everything. So, yes... at this point everything is in order.

Hope your life is too!