Stabbed

Morning smile, my Pretty child,
Rising sea, lonely heart,
Wolf pack, beach walk
Hand in hand.
"Careful with that Stab,
Gentle on darkness,
It still loves me"

Painful dawdling cessation of anger

Today , I remembered my father. It's not that I don't think about him other days but today was a little different. I have always had a Torrid relationship with him. I was forever angry with him for sending me to a boarding school, that anger multiplied whenever someone I loved would complaint 'lack of emotions' in me. I would always blame him as boarding made me independent very soon, made me learn that nothing lasts forever. Best of friends are the ones I made at school,who fought odds with me at an age of 4yrs thus giving me healthy skepticism for overt and loud display of love. There was a part of me that would always stay personal. Crying in front of anyone was strict no no. As a result many a relationship broke away, they wanted men who would emote and I could not. I blamed my father for this. 

Today after what I see all around me or the pain I have undergone with loss of friends, family members,  relationships & his own death, if I am still sane and alive, it is because of  what I learnt during school. Aloneness does not mean loneliness. Sometimes it's the only right choice. I am one with myself.

I have so many moments of anger in my memory. He threw me out of house with Rs100 in pocket. I landed in Delhi, found a job and sent him back his Rs100 with interest along with my salary slip. He kept that salary slip for 9 long years, so proud he was. I do realise today that I was so much in awe of  him, so afraid and so much wanted to live up to his expectations that despite all the anger I would do anything to get his approval, even if it meant I gave up my bachelorhood in a second. The crowd of people around him, always few thousands. Once embarrassed the Governer Motilal Vora so much when people saw my father they deserted the Governer and Chief minister. 

He would walk kilometres every day with people, eating at poor villager homes, drinking unhygienic water. I would fight with him worried over his health. He would laugh and say ,"The destiny of ice is to melt and mix with water. I am born here and would die on this land." Loss of my elder brother, sister or his own younger brother never broke him down. He was true believer of Bhagvat Geeta. I once fought with him saying that he loved none except his own self. He never uttered a word. Today, when I hear same things about myself, I understand why it's difficult to display emotions. We grew up in a land surrounded by guns and people ready to kill at sign of weakness, it is death. 

I remember being afraid of the dark; I liked my father's attempt to cure me of this fear. He took me on a nighttime tour of our house, armed with a flashlight, which he used to light up the far corners of every single closet, every single dark storage place—showing me that there was nothing frightening hiding in the darkness. Once he rode me to the fields on Horse back, asked me to get down, handed over a torch and asked me to find my way home. I was 9, met him after 4 years. Afraid, crying, tripping, I made my way back in the middle of the night. Yes I was chased by village dogs too. Fought with a torch in hand.

It was long later that he told me that he was watching me over every step, narrated things that I did on way. I never feared anything after that, even death. 

 अशरीरं भाव संतम न प्रिय अप्रिय स्प्रशातः        - Aatma is not body. This is what he told me .

A second cluster of scenes comes from my adolescent years, when I was sixteen and seventeen. In 1993, after not seeing my father for 2 years, I renewed contact with an idealist socialist father who both intimidated and fascinated me. I especially remember the summer of 1994 which I spent in his house with my grandfather & mother . By this time, I had lost the child's unthinking adoration of the parent. With the critical spirit typical of my age, I perceived his faults, perhaps the most obvious being what was also responsible for his great intellectual productivity—his self-absorption regarding his work. In this act of my memories, the motor cycle rides give way to Horse rides, as I rode besides him feeling the wind on my face and, on one occasion, listen to him explain the difference between the established wealthy and the nouveaux riches. Sometimes he becomes almost my peer, once showing me the wonders of his Bullet by squeezing the accelarator and then capsizing the bike, fortunately with no harmful consequence other than a small cut on his ankle. But it is not examples of his love of throbbing Enfield or mass of farmers that most appear on my mind-stage. The image that most impressed me then and that rises before me now is that of a muscular figure of energy and determination, overflowing with ambitious plans for the future, envisioning roads, schools, industries  that would cut through official distortions to produce uncompromising versions of the truth as his logical mind perceived it. 

Out of all this came the search for, the demand for, absolute autonomy as far as I am concerned. That has been mostly seen as uncaring. The great energies the search has demanded and created, the burdens of loneliness that often accompanied it, and the difficulties of achieving any durable and really deep "human relations" have thus arisen out of quite specific social and cultural contexts. Intellectually I saw with Gudiya or kalyan "I see but one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles.".Thus intellectually and culturally I am as "self-made" as it is possible to be. As a friend of mine used to say, "a mushroom." The fact that I seized these academic standards and internalized them deeply meant, in turn, a further cutting off of self from my family background and the social setting at large as well. By the time I went to college, I think no one I had previously known, including family members, really counted for me as a point of reference. I was cut off and alone, and I felt it at the time.

Today, I am back where it all began, Sometimes I feel I am home, alone may be not lonely though. I do understand the contribution of The Man, my father in making me what I am beyond my Looks. This is my cross to bear & mine alone. People seeking dependents & suckers find me abhorring. So be it..  

Neti Neti

When asked about existence of God, our wise men said , "Neti Neti" and most of the people feel they are denying the existence of GOD. Well, this is partially correct not fully. We must look at the context in which the word is used.

Upanishads use the word Neti Neti to mean that God is beyond imagination, thought, form, finite or infinite. We can not describe him as we can not imagine anything like that. we can not imagine anything like him because we have not seen anything like him/her. Imagination is limited to the understanding of mind.

So what does the word mean? Here is a perspective

When you are balanced, you are a sage. When the balance is lost, you are lost, you have become a sinner. Sin is not something that you do, sin is something that happens within you when the balance is lost. It is not an act, it is an inner balance. It is what Mahavira has called samyaktva – inner balance; neither this nor that, what the Upanishads have called neti, neti –not this, not that. Just in between – neither moving to this, nor moving to that, because if you move, even a slight movement which nobody can detect except you… 

Remember this: nobody can detect your inner balance. Only you can detect it, it is so subtle! But even a slight movement and you are no longer at peace, you are no longer at home, you have lost the divine. Because what does a slight leaning mean? It means you have chosen. It means a distinction is made. It means you have said “This is good, that is bad.” It means expectation has come in. It means desire has sprouted. It means now you are motivated and will not hesitate to exploit emotions, thought, Body or presence. 

India-The wounded land & People (Political freedom)

Political freedom:

This is hailed as a great success story of Modern Indian republic and we are never tired of calling ourselves the ‘Biggest democracy in the world’. We as citizens are free to choose our representatives and send them to parliament to discuss things that are important for us as a society. Now the questions I asked were…

1.     Do we actually have a choice?

2.     Is it easy for a common man to enter the political arena

3.     Is there any scope of presenting an alternative landscape

Post the analysis or my conclusions on all these three parameters, I was confounded with a bigger issue, Are we actually free? There is a difference between what you call ‘Independence’ and Freedom .

1.     Do we really have a choice?

No, We don’t have a choice. The whole system have become the proverbial ‘VIKI’ from Will Smith Movie ‘iROBOT’. It is self-sustaining. The Politics of this country is the most lucrative business that one can indulge into. The returns are virtually infinite as the investment is nothing except the soul & willingness to lie, which there are dime a dozen. In such a lucrative business, its natural that entry barriers are very strong. We simply have no choice as the constitution has become some kind of Holy grail that is out of reach of common men but he is expected to do certain things without knowing, Why? Because the constitution says so.

2.     Is it easy for the common men to enter politics?

Nope, In the lucrative business of politics, its impossible for a common men to enter. The entire cost associated with fighting an election is so high that only the rich candidates can participate or put up a meaningful fight. The hordes of followers are to be paid to come and campaign, run vehicles & prop up dummy candidates to cut rival votes.

An average cost of fighting elections in India :

a.     Member of parliament (Lok sabha) – Rs15 Cr or $3.00 Mln approx.

b.     Member of Legislative assembly (State) – Rs8-10 Cr 0r $1.8-2.00 Mln

c.     Corporation/Block – Rs 2-3Cr

This is an addition to the money one has to pay  to senior party leaders or in the party fund which can be close to Rs5.00 Cr for member of parliament.

3.     Is there any scope of presenting an alternative landscape?

None at all! The current Politico-Business Mafia nexus is so entrenched that they would not stop at anything to preserve the system of privileges & loot. That would include  raining police of sleeping protestors of Baba Ramdev to silently look at other way or nudge their entrenched vote banks to create riots in order to divert attention from their brazen way to protect system.

The Role of Media Houses is all to in the open. They too shamelessly have joined in the this preservation of system. Industrial houses aligned to the permanent establishment own almost all major publication or MSM.

Any attempt by the common men to seek change in his life and condition by questioning the failure of the system is dubbed as anti-national or against the institutions. Such people who question the system largely have no alternate delivery model to present and that too is a reality. However, this brazen loot and suppression of dissent is driving lot of right minded individual to the jungle and picking gun. As a result they commit the most heinous of the crimes and kill citizens. After the state was the first to teach them the benefits of violence.

Let me be very clear , there is no alternative to democracy in India. Culturally Hindus have be extremely open & tolerant society. Naxalites are nothing but thugs & goons terrorizing people in order to create a new system wherein they will sit at the top and enjoy, Common people be damned.

The way Media houses are used to firther vested interests by business houses entrenched in the system is worth noting. For instance..

“Parliament is supreme and any criticism of parliament is tantamount to questioning the will of people”

Morons, Will of the people is supreme not some building or the occupants called parliament and parliamentarians. Parliamentary democracy is just a service delivery system elected to serve not rule. It can be and must be brought down if the system has failed.

“Constitution is sacrosanct … “

Yes and you have changed it more than 100 times in past 60 years. Most of the amendments have had no debate and just pushed through on the strength of numbers and goons elected to sit in parliament for intimidating. There have been no public debates on most of the amendments and various political parties do them to protect turfs.

Political freedom is just a chimera as there are no real alternatives. The fight to corner resources or high entry barriers has made it impossible for choices to emerge. We are in moral degeneration phase. The civilisation that gave birth to people like Chanakya who told 'Chandragupta' , "This nation is given to you O Emperor in order to serve & Protect & preserve 'The Dharma'. You will be a paid employee of the state, seek nothing more and nothing less. You are not the owner but a public servant." This was when Emperor Chandragupta complained that  he had got no comfort even while he is the Emperor.

This Great Disciple (Emperor Chandragupta) of great Teacher (Kautilya/Chanakya) learnt this lesson so well during his last days he went without food for 40 days.  

Do you know the reason? That year his empire suffered a crop failure and population did not have much to eat.

"Dhareyte Iti Dharma" meaning : The one that sustains is Dharma.

  

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.