Let's get out

Broken I am, as such of your promise,
I had no desires, only hope,
I wanted happiness for you,
this pain is not what i wanted,
may have to like it though.
It is you who has given me this,
How could i refuse anything from you?

Did you ever look into my eyes,
This is what truth looks like,
still my eyes are thirsty,
can't drink the tears,
They have your image.

Ballads, those which i wrote for you ,
I have brought them to market
The very same poems on which you put your love hopes,
Will be sold for silver, not gold,
alongside my thoughts, ideals and love I am told.

Alas , How can i forget?
That is already been done away with,
Money for me and comfort for you.

You just give me your pain,
your troubles and your fears,
Nothing wrong in that as,
I am good for nothing in the eyes of your nears.

Now I may tumble through spaces
Seeking a fairy ‘silverine’
Now may some petal cheeked fairy
Holding me in heart
Come to me, smart.
I turned her back to the grove,
"Gave away my manhood,
on the alter of love."

Heard Kishore croon,
Voices from past
"Main tere pyar main pagal
Jaise Khud ko dhondta hoon.."


"ahal-e-dil aur bhii hai.n,
ahal-e-vafaa aur bhii hai.n
ek ham hii nahii.n,
duniyaa se Khafaa aur bhii hai.n"

India, the wounded land & people

Once I reached Amsterdam, I wanted to continue writing my observations about the western society and the everyday business of life they conduct in a globalised and increasingly integrated world. Howvever, something happened on the day Ilanded in Amsterdam. Mind it , it was not the first time I had come to Europe but this time was a difference. I decided to get out of the Hotel and move to a home stay arrangement in the area of Waalstraat from my hotel at Rambrandt square. In the end it turned ot to be a good decision as it allowed me to witness first hand how an elderly lady conducts her day to day life in a global city.

I must tell you that Dutch really take care of their citizens. At her age of 65, she is bubbling with a ideas and looking to start her own business. This is not to supplement her income but to keep herself busy. Dutch are smart people and they do understand the number game or the money game. The city is extremely travel friendly and full of cycles. We in India will find these cycles very ugly but the emphasis in Holland is not the beauty of cycles but the service of cheap transport and keeps them healthy too. In whole of Amsterdam, I did not see anyone with a big paunch. Women are slim and extremely beautiful and men too look fit and slim unlike the Americans.

The city has dedicated cycle corridors all across and they do have a good public transport system as well, Trams and buses €2.7 for anywhere. I was staying very close to the Amstel riverand there is a huge, in fact a grand park just behind the house of lady. This park was built by the government to keep the citizens employed during the great recession and has continued to extend it. The river banks are cemented with lot of small restaurants on the banks and very vibrant business district too. My old organisation has an office here too. The big bosses sit here. Dutch have a very vibrant sailing culture and on the weekends one can see people sailing up and down the river with friends/ Family. One Can rent a boat for €25 - 50 a day, depending on size. Crime is virtually zero & Cops are courteous.

State supports citizens by way of subsiding education with no special privilege groups. Idea  is for the citizens to become productive assets for the country. The Dutch family I stayed with said ,” We know that we don’t have much of natural resources or warrior culture to sustain arms industry. We are traders historically so we must educate ourselves and state ensures that part.” This thin stayed on my mind.

Depression:

On my way back to the Airport, the sentence kept on ringing in my head with the key words, which the lady used as a matter of fact, ‘Historically’, ‘culturally’. As the general tendency for us a humans to start comparing , I too fell in the trap and started looking for  what defines India or rather what is that key word that can help me understand what we are a race of people and what is the DNA of Indic people.

As a knee jerk reaction, the first image that my mind conjured up emphasizing the word, ‘History’ was of a wealthy nation and largely peaceful people, who never ventured out to conquer, maim or kill. Mother nature was generous in its bounties. I started feeling happy thinking about it and actually made a mental justification of our wealthy civilization..

1.

Biggest arable land area

2.

Extremely developed commercial systems – System of lending (Marwaris)

3.

Pursuit of Knowledge (We virtually rever the educated) – Brahmins drove their superiority thanks to the education

4.

Moral value that have stood the test of time

Just then the train stopped at Schiphol airport and broke my chain of thoughts. Suddenly I realized that we as a nation were still dirt poor. What is wrong with us? How come the people with such elevated rationality and wealth of understanding the most absolute of subjects, mathematics lag behind in wealth generation?

Wait, the bad part is that the images that my mind conjured up thinking of history are not what the government of India teaches us. Worst it they have found one convenient excuse for the decline, British rule. How about the rule of Muslim emperors before that? What impact they had on India? Right from the day King Dahir was defeated by Qasim (Thanks to the superstitions & inability to understand the new kind of war), Killed and Sind looted and taken to the governor of Hajjaj, we have witnessed a culture that was and is alien to us.

The government is silent on this? What impact could a decision by King Ashoka have on the Psyche of a civilization? Mind it we were a warrior civilization. What stops GOI to do a meaningful research on the subjects that have impacted us? I have never herd any GOI book talking about us a race of people or a people with distinct values.

Our contact with Islamic hegemony lasted for almost 4-5 Centuries. Did it change the social moorings, education system or the creation of wealth?  What are the factors that can be responsible for our continued poor show even after 65 years of Independence? Remember, South Korea & China gained Independence around the same time and look at the progress they have made.

I started analyzing one by one, Quest turned into desperation and ultimately depression as I  was confronted with the realities of the modern republic of India.  How did the things come to this? I tried to analyse at 3 basic levels of freedom and the role played by the state in shaping, moulding society..

1.

Political freedom

2.

Economic freedom

3.

Social freedom

Amsterdam (Sin city) here I come

I started off a bit early from Robespierre to Gre du Nord. Had booked on the train. The timing of the train was 12.45 but I made it to the station by 11.20. Considering I am a little nervous while travelling in alien lands, i try and make it earlier.

The train station was crowded and the display board was high up, visible with trains clearly mentioned as per numbers and platforms. I was on 9339 to Amsterdam central. Started at the right time. The coach attendant saw the ticket and let me in. Seat number 72 , on the window side. Very comfortable seats and the coaches had free wi-fi.  There was a Chinese lady besides me, busy of her IPhone plaing some game.

The tran started and rushed though the European countryside. One thing very disappointing is that the entire European countryside looks exactly the same. Same small villages, large fields and some electric station along with some and turbine for electricity. Saw corn crop and barley too. On the route, we crossed, Brussels, Antwerp and rotterdam . In some 2.10 hrs we were in Amsterdam after crossing one country in between. God knows the speed of train.

Amsterdam , on first look was cold, dull and full of tourists. I struggled to see signages leading to tourist information centre. Finally I caught hold of someone at a counter and she guided me outside the station. There  lady advised me to take a number 51 from metro station. I looked at the route and hopped in Tram number 4 going to Rai.

To my surprise, I saw an Indian origin, blue eyed conductor giving tickets - €2.7 fixed from anywhere to anywhere. We chatted and he was proud of his Hindu heritage, I invited him over for coffee post his shift . I reached my accommodation in just about 10 mins, the tram haltd every 30 secs. It was then I realised how small a city Amsterdam is. I checked in and it was already 4.00 PM. Freshened up and took a walk around. Came back to get some yogurt etc.

Had a meal, slept for few hours and went out around 11.00 PM again. Roamed endlessly for a few hrs . First impression , beautiful women, in shape, lots of canals, Dutch people like to work things with hands and proud of it. Off course the obsession with bicycles is well known and much advertised. I did not see a single Dutch with a pot belly. Women rarely do full time jobs, they are family oriented

Paris Diaries - Day 5 (Gluttony)

The ride back from La defence was good. Reached Robespierre and then got a call from a friend to come and join him for a night out . I agreed, wanted to see the night life of Paris. Well guys , sorry to disappoint but we went to a place full of artists and musicians. I ordered orange juice and my friend and another lady who accompanied us ordered some fruit punch. Came back around 1.30 and spoke about the importance of religion in the immigrant community on the way.

Next day was reserved for savouring the French food. Took the train again and changed at Repunblique, or into RER(A) and gt down at Bastille . Coming out of the station Is a beautiful pillar with figure of an angel sitting atop.I was joined by my host for the first day and We walked across the road and towards the Garden of Some kings and it's called Vogt or something like that.

I had Pasta and no food for the host (Ramadan) . Well the pasta you get here is different than the one in India and far far more expensive -€15. We came out and then walked around towards the Bastille. Enroute we saw the REX theatre and I was reminded of namesake in Mumbai & Delhi. They have a theatre tour and charge €15 to show th whole process, including movie making and running. We wound up early and I headed back to the room.

Evening I went out with the hst for dinner and one of the famous cafes near Nation. We talked about life in general, political leanings and meaning of God to religion, even discussed the Quran and it's contents openly.

Came back and slept. Next day I was to leave for Amsterdam.i kept on thinking what was my understanding of French people? One thing I must say , they understand that rule of law is paramount and they are have not come to terms with harmony thus seeking homogeneity in populace. Won't work in the long run. mmigrants continue to grow in population but the silver lining for hauls is that the new couples have all babies.

So what is driving the Gauls to have more babies?  may be worsening economic conditions and jobs becoming scarce. The first casualty of such situations are women in jobs thus leading them to stay home. May be marry and have babies. sure this will have an impact on life style of families but the babies are to be seen. Youngish, 3-4 years old and all couple seems to have 2 of them. French are also cutting down on dole for large families. Immigrants will be affected. French though seems to have an aversion of menial jobs,which are done by blacks, browns & yellow races.

Paris diaries - Day 4 ( La defence)

Coming back the earlier day was disheartening as I mentioned . On the way, I sat down in a park and thought over the fate of our Indic civilisation. The apathy and the disdain for our heritage that our young generation carries is shameful to the least. The superiority of arms had been confused as superiority of culture long back by our so called elite, first with the Muslim kings and then when they got banged up the British, English culture became the thing. Sadly Marathas had too little time to consolidate.

Next day , I set off to see the La defence ( pronounced La de faan) to see the defence arch and take a walk down the Champ élysées . I took the train from Robespierre to nation(line 9) and then changed to RER ( A) at nation to La defence. The station opens up into a very large mall and there are many stores. Sales season had just finished anyway. I climbed two floors and came out of the building to see the 'Defence arches' . Beautiful it is, may be 30-35 stories tall and it has a kind of shade just under it.

At the back of it is a beautiful boulevard and in the front is a beautiful laid out open space dotted with buildings housing defence establishment, Total group, BNP paribas and some nice water bodies. I took my shoes off and dipped them in the cold water. Sat there quietly, looking at the Champ élysées in the distance. This road lead to the th emits famous of the French icons - élysées or what they call 'Arche de triumphe ' . I must say that French have figured out how to live life, except may be how to pay for it.

I decided to take the plunge and walk towards the Champ élysées and started the walk. Came down the la defence area and on towards the highways and on the sides, I started walking. On route, there are many boutique and shops, a beautiful movie theatre and more importantly there are the showrooms of Harley , Triumph, Kawasaki & Honda. Also VW , Citren etc. one thing I realised that this was pre dominantly a Gaul neighbourhood . There were coloured people but less number than I saw anywhere. May be this is what the French call the 'Bougeiours' (Rich old money) area. French women are neat, clean, slim and by well read unlike their counterparts in America or Britain. Drinking as a culture is prevalent but not the 'Binge drinking' propagated by the Brits.

The walk is around 5+ km one way and on the way I met an Indian family who looked suspiciously at me & moved away. I smiled and said 'Dhanyawad' , men answered me back in half French and half English , we live in France, daughter answered with 'Aap Kahan se aaye hain'. We spoke for a few minutes and then I turned back and saw the old man scolding the daughter.

On the way I saw a beautiful sculpture of Prometheus pushing the rock . Felt pity for him as he would  never be able to take the rock to top, it's a fruitless exercise, something similar to what our government continues to do with manufacturing history to hide the crimes of Mughals/Muslim kings and their Sufi cohorts.

Truth has a strange way of coming out and it will. I walked back to the water body, the sun was going  strong as it was only 8.00 PM. I sat sat down, feet in the water, looking at the reflection of the buildings and Champ élysées in the front and Arche la defence on the back. Someday, my nation will rise upto claim it's manifest destiny. Someday, we will have a life which we lost, children putting themselves in the pursuit of knowledge , leisure and take the universal quest of 'Creator' or the myth of it forward. It can't happen till we are a secure & strong nation. What better setting to think of it surrounded by the might of French defence establishment, less than 1% of world population and 4% of the resources.

Was reminded of the poem by the Rabndra babu, "where the head is held high..... "

Paris diaries- Day 3 (Versailles & the Mughals)

Coming back in the evening from Louvre, I was thinking about the magnificent palaces that we had in India. A nation or rather a civilisation state with a continuous recorded history of more than 10000 years and we are so apathetic to our own legacy. Or are we not? May be the blame lies on the current GOI that  never allowed the sentiments of cultural nationalism to proper of take birth. For the CONgress party was a confused lot immediately after partition. They never had the guts to accept that Islam was at fault for the partition and British became a poor excuse to blame. They never had the foresight to see that if not contained the situation will again come when the land will be parcelled out. Only Baba Saheb Ambedkar had that foresight and insisted on complete transfer of populations . Nehru with his mediocre academics & intelligence was one Fabian idiot. Our heritage has a confusion wherein we call the Mughals as Indians who treated our pans nothing more than an occupied land to convert and loot.
Hindus with only India as their revered land became a strange mix of self loathing & west/Muslim culture loving populace. Rest were goaded into a strange kind of secularism and mind it only Hindus have to prove that they are secularist n order to be good Indians. Muslims can be good muslims and same with X'tians.
Why I am writing this ? Well because next day I took the trip to Varsaillas palace. It's out of Paris and used to be the seat of French kings. They moved the courts here in 1600's and stayed here. The transformation from a hunting lodge to a full fledged palace took some 200 years. It's a sight to behold as I got down from the RER((C) and walked towards the palace. I was stunned at the beauty of it. Splendid as a word can't describe the opulence. Beautiful courtyards and gardens , flowers blooming . I moved inside, stood in the que, paid €15 , all the while mesmerised with the beauty. The good things about the commune is that e Wi-Fi is free , courtesy Orange. ASI please note.
I walked into one room after another, everything has been preserved the way it was. The whole history of the palace cn be seen on celluloid in various rooms. There are beautiful paintings and the every room had a purpose. The paintings on the roof in Hercules room and scores of other rooms are so colourful that it depresses you to think of what we have done back home. There is awar room with a beautiful black heart hanging from the ceiling t the north side and at the Fag end there is a peace room too, with a beautiful red heart hanging. In between the most notable is the battle honours room with history and aintings traced o from 1000AD.
Every regent and every mayor of Paris is provided a place and there is a beautiful Roal Chapel too and the row of French kings are all lined up in sculptures along the way. My respect for the French as nationalists and patrons of arts and culture went up many fold. Also in my heart I was very sad to accept that, we , Indians were the richest nation on this face of earth till 1850 . When this palace was being built by Louis XIV (1650's) we had had idiotic Mughals busy killing looting and proselytising Hindus. Adding injury to the insult, GOI calls them great emperor and also shamelessly calls Maharana Pratap as great who was fighting these marauders.
With deep sense of sorrow at the lost history, I took the RER(C) back to Pasteur and then changed Asian to nation and then to Robespierre . French I envy you for the hard work you are doing. Despite being avowed secularists as state, you have preserved the cultural heritage & X'tian past with pride and continue to do so. Our government on the other hand doesn't allow us to even repair the temples  lest the beards get angry. Off course we are secular, I though would call Sickular.
Will the new generation of French citizens( Majority immigrants) value this heritage , preserve it for posterity? French have answered this by strict adherence to rule of law but they are headed for trouble as the scourge of enbloc voting by the ROPers reared it's ugly head in France as well to defeat Sarkozy. Europeis at cross roads and so is India.

Paris Diaries -Day 2 (English are truly petty Shopkeepers)

Come to the end of First day, I reached my host's place and was offered some nice Morrocan food. Over coffee later, we chatted on many things including religion. Some people in India and Pakistan will get a heart attack hearing this (Specially the secular & Pious Muslim types) that we discussed why is the host Muslims and why I have no respect for religious Memes. In this we also agreed that since we are born in a particular religious group, we tend to go along with so that we don't have to loose our family.
Come next day and I decided to go and visit the famous Latin quarters. I again set out from Ronespierre station, got down at Nation and took the RER (A) to Chatelet and changed again to RER(B) and gt down at Luxemborg. As I came out of station, I saw a tourist office and asked for help on directions to Sarbonne university. I was guided straight and 5 mins of walking I was in the Latin quarters or officially written as "Coluny le Sarbonne" . This is a unique bazaar of old style with small alleys full of eating places.

I could just smell food and food every where, saw families roaming around , eating and walking a little ahead I saw a magnificient river with beautifully cemented shores and properly navigational. Lesson for us to make a water grid. Saw an Indian family where the father was trying some interesting love positions for pictures, trying to hold wife in different  ways and asking daughter to click . Wife was feeling a little awkward and then the family asked me to click a picture of them, spoke to me in English while I spoke to them in pure Hindi. After crossing the river I sat down at one of the cafes and had my lunch. It's nothing to say as the choices for vegetarians are limited to salads and sandwich only and the bread is long shaped and cold.

While eating I saw long line of people trooping along the river going somewhere. Once I finished , I decided to be part of  the line. Walking around a mile I was face to face with the Louvre museum. On my right . On the left the river was all in its glory flowing and ferrying people in open top boats and with lots of people sitting on the cemented banks holding books or just sitting still. Lovers , star crossed and alone. I crossed the road and entered the complex.

For a moment I was stunned at the huge expanse of the compound. It's a series of palaces housing different artefacts and have different names too as 'Richeu Pavilion' etc. on the right were the famous glass pyramid. In the middle is the big one and 2 small one on both of the sides of large one. Just in front of the Large Pyramid there is a statue of King Louis XIV mounted n his horse looking like a Greek God. Ther are these stone stools on which one can stand and extend hand in a way that it looks as of  you are holding the pyramid.

I entered the museum walking through the line into the large pyramid. There are escalators to go down. Onion inside the the sky through the glass pyramid looks a different beast. It was beautiful feeling. Once inside you can take a ticket for €10 and get into the museum. The museum is so huge that it will look like a conspiracy to somehow get you inside by calling it a museum. You can't see anything in 1 day. The amount of artefacts that this museum holds needs few weeks to see them all.

Mona Lisa was a big dampner and the crowd of photo seekers immortalising their resumes by having a picture in front of Mina Lisa was so huge that I quickly moved away. In 2-3 hrs I gave up and came out of the museum and also through the stairs out in the open in front of glass pyramid . Right opposite the pyramid , across the road is a victory arch(built by Napolean) and I walked towards it. Looked magnificient and then there are these grass lawns with some of the most beautiful sculptures of full bodied voluptuous women. Amazingly beautiful and women looked so beautiful specially the voluptuous ones and I am forced to concede that meat on bones look wonderful on women. 

Lot of young people were resting in the park, sun was on the head and I was wondering about the time and it was just 7.30PM. I walked into the lawns and took off my shoes to rest for a while. Just then saw a group of 3 young boys in a rush and then saw the reason for that, police were chasing them. Cops called them out and searched them in the park, made them take off their pants too. I was looking the cops curiously just then the lady cop told me that they were pick pockets and I am lucky if I have everything  of mine with me.
I could make out the buys were clearly n it Gauls, may be gypsies or some Algerian or morroco descent. Police made them run away and I tried to think again.  Took another look at series of palaces that this museum now occupies, it's opulence and the pride with French treasure this heritage can  be 
understood from the prime place Louis XIV gets. 

Compared to my experiences of visiting British museums and the loot of nations they colonised, I must say that French have far more cultural wealth of their own. They patronised arts, music, culture, sculptures and respect them. They do have a taste of things autistic. English in that respect come out very poor from my perspective . I was reminded if what Napolean called them,"A nation of shopkeepers"

I walked back from the Louvre to the same place along the river. Thought of buying some stuff which Sonal, my friend and a friend's wife had asked me to buy but forgot in my state. Lot of young beautiful people in Paris and a river. Alas, romance needs the other.

Still thinking about those two things , one was the wealth of treasure that French have and are creating now also and the 3 young boys . Will they have a sense of belonging or attachment to the treasures and history? Will they call it their own.

French need to answer.

Paris diaries - day 1 (Part deux)

I reached the place at around 11.00 and rested for a while. Freshend up and headed to see the city. I kept th advise given to me by that attendant in mind, " Go local transport to experience.." . I got back to the station, looked around for information and found a young lady behind the counter.

I asked her for directions to Eiffiel tower. She could speak only halting English but she made it up with her enthusiasm. He took out an English printed map of Paris and marked the station I was supposed to get down. Luckily for me eiffiel tower is also on line 9 thus no change of trains for me.

In the train I was subjected to some good music by two young boys who were raising money to visit 'aangla' for Olympics. There was chatter in japaneese as few college girls were on visit. During all this while, there was no sign of any policemen. In Britain you come face to face with police every 100 meters. I was impressed, even ough quality of the coaches need to be looked at. Money for which will be hard to come by in today's time and Holland will have to cut down.

One more interesting thing about Gauls is that they keep a book handy and read a lot during train travel. Coloured people were busy in Chit chat ( Africans, Chinese, Arabs) and whites busy reading . Cme to think of it, immigrants are more open & full of life. Some young punks walked. in but they were still far better behaved than their English or American counterpart.

I got down at Tracoder and came out of the station, turned left and I was staring at Eiffiel tower. There were lot of people, kids playing around , elders busy clicking pictures. I have noticed that Chinese by nature don't stop to admire the beauty of architectural wonder, they simply pull out camera and continue to shoot. Looks as if they want to build one Eiffeil tower in Shanghai.
Tower is one black thing that strides the pathways like a colossus and we petty men crawl under its legs in our cars.

I kept on looking at it and saw lot of French people coming from outside Paris to see the tower. Even more interesting for nme was to see a statue of general Fausch just outside the station and bang opposite the tower. One more thing to notice is the presence of X'tian imagery everywhere. There are statues of angels & kings dressed or represented as God kings.

What does it mean to Indian secularism? My understanding of this is that Individuals cannot be secular , State can beans must be. It does not mean that they simply bury the feelings of majority, it simply means they promote none.

Again the question that remains to be answered is , what it means to be a Frenchmen ? How much of  being French is French enough. Paris has the most mixed population of any European metro. It is here that question of immigration & Islamic radicalism will be answered.

Paris diaries - Day 1

Took the emirates flight from Chennai to Paris. The aircraft starting out was changed at Dubai after a halt over of around 3 hours and thankfully it was better and bigger Boeing 777-300 that took us to Paris
Asthe plane started circulated in the air over the city, lot of memories came rushing. How they made me wait for 4 hours for visa interview and how I made a promise that I will not come again to their country.
Anyway, we landed and I must say that it was be of the quickest immigration process that I have been subjected to , please note the usage of word 'Subjected' as I feel it is pure harassment with steely gaze looking at you as some alien coming over to their beautiful country, never to go back and covet their resources. Charles de Gaul airport immigration was breeze, 5 mins only.
As I gathered luggage, I headed towards the tourist information desk to check for the cabs to Robespierre, he you g attendant looked at me and said ,"If I was you on experiencing the city, I would go by public transport".

I took his advise and headed to the RER(B) line. RER stands for fast train. Got down at Gerd du nord and took another train to Republique and then line 9 to Robespierre,smooth as silk. Having seen some of the major metro networks of the world, I must commend DMRC for their wonderful upkeep of Delhi Metro, Paris was a little older & not squeaky clean like London but had far more character in the stations with graffiti is and artists.

One thing I noticed was large percentage of blacks, browns and yellow races. My guesstimate would be around 40% of Paris population would be non Gaul. I saw some African women with colourful headgear, like turbans tied in a different way, wearing their ethnic dresses. I cold hear almost 6-7 languages on that train to Robespierre I.e. Chinese, Janese, Punjabi, English, french and few Spanisheople too
How does a Frenchmen adjusts to this will determine the future of Europe as French have been at the forefront of shaping the ideas and destiny of Europe. As of now, young look more comfortable with the mixed population with middle age and older people scrowling in discontent quietly. The number of African origin residents is overwhelming to say the least and I got down at the station, walked out and was pleasantly surprised to see that it is a very mixed neighbourhood. My host that evening was a person of Morroccan descent. People were warm, gave directions willingly and non- threatening in demeanour. This is far better than my experience with Englishmen who are cold, hostile and ignore you sometime.

May be because this square has only immigrants and they are open, warm & friendly to the other souls coming down. The most important question in my mind is what it means to be a Frenchmen today.