The river Isère gives a region around the Rhône-Alpes its name. Left to my own devices for a long time, I wandered around, exploring Grenoble and the region around it.Grenoble's Bastille was deliciously confusing. I had wonderful, detailed ideas about the history of the Bastille and the storming of the Bastille and all of that, accompanied by utter cluelessness of the geography of France and where these stirring events really occurred. When I got to Grenoble, everyone was talking about 'climbing the Bastille' and 'going to the Bastille'. There was even a ropeway up to the Bastille for those who could not go up on foot. Later discovered that the ropeway is almost more famous than the Bastille itself. Grenoble's Bastille is an old fortress with a spectacular view, but without the history I had superimposed on it.To phrase it like that it to put it down, though. The climb up to the … [Read more...]
Seshan/XB
Nisha had a 'Carte 12-25', which entitled her to ridiculously cheap tickets on trains in France. When she went to buy tickets from Paris to Grenoble, she produced her card and booked a ticket for her sister and herself. Instead of asking for my name (bound to be a complicated Indian name, of course), the gentleman decided to call me XB. I feel like the distant cousin of a pencil. We reached Grenoble and began to practise for one of the many performances we did in France. We were to perform in a place called Gap, a name that I did not quite associate with France.When we met the person who organised the performance, I realised something that continues to haunt me even now. As long as I'm eavesdropping on someone else's conversation, as long as I am not the only person being addressed, as long as I'm part of a group, I understand what's going on. The moment someone addresses me … [Read more...]
Straight to the Louvre
The conversation I overheard while I was at CDG airport convinced me that I simply had to make the most of my youth and of being young in France.I landed in Paris on the 4th of June, 2006, a Sunday. It was the first Sunday of the month, and I was in Paris. That meant only one thing for us - free entry to the Louvre! So, luggage and all, we went straight to the Louvre.France has always been like that for me. Pack as much as possible, as much as possible, into each minute there. So what if I had spent hours awake, terrified of falling asleep on my co-passenger? So what if I had preferred the beautiful mountains below to the sleep I needed? We went to the Louvre. When would I get the chance again?Later that evening, when I was exhausted and my head was swimming, I thought I had been hallucinating, but it was true. Out of the blue, I met a classmate of mine in the Louvre. To meet … [Read more...]
Flying Alone
"Window or aisle?" "Aisle, please."I took my boarding pass and boarded the flight. No sister with me this time. No one to hold my hand. No one to exchange sparkling glances of excitement with. Sure, I was going to meet her, but on this journey in 2006, I was alone.The journey to Milan from Mumbai was a long one, but I sat straight, willing myself not to fall asleep. What if my head dropped and I leaned against the man sitting next to me? Mortifying! Better to be sleep-deprived. I was travelling alone, I reminded myself, and I had no comfortable shoulder to rest on.Chewing the inside of my cheek, I kept myself awake. I could not bring myself to eat dinner at 2 in the morning, so I drank a glass of water and stared out of the window. The world I was flying over looked like a topo map. I loved topo maps. I found myself marking settlements in my head with red dots, matching the red … [Read more...]
Backpacking through Europe
That year, we went from Salzburg to Munich. We spent a few hours at Munich and then went to Berlin. And from Berlin, northward to Amsterdam.Our night in Amsterdam was another night out, but after so many journeys and so many crazy backpacking experiences, we'd figured out a few things. We had Eurail passes that we kept gushing about - we could use them.We spent the night on trains. Took a train to Utrecht, then another to Rotterdam, and then one back to Amsterdam. That's how we spent the night. We didn't see tulips or windmills. We did see Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank's house.But honestly, we were exhausted. For a long time, we just sat by a canal and did nothing. We were depressed because we thought we'd lost some money, and we were filled up with all kinds of thoughts and emotions.Fifteen days of glorious backpacking. After Salzburg, I did not write any more; I was too tired. But … [Read more...]
Indians in France
(Part IV of The Crazy Travelogue)My sister, our French correspondent and I were sitting on a bench outside a bookshop, when two young men walked past. After a few moments, they turned around and walked back. Ignoring our French companion, they turned to the two of us brown-skinned people."Excuse me," asked one in French, "could we ask you two questions? Just two questions?" My sister and I exchanged glances. "Erm ... Okay ..." "Are you Indian?" "Yes ...?" "From the north of India?" "No, from the south." (Technically, our two questions ended there, but they did not seem to realise.) "From Madras?" We shrugged. Madras, unfortunately, is usually very loosely defined. "Do you speak Tamil?" (Question number four, please note.) "Yes."That sealed it. Switching to Tamil with a stronger accent than I can ever hope to even imitate, they grinned and said in Tamil, "Then why on earth are we … [Read more...]
The Crazy Travelogue: All About Food
This is part three of the crazy travelogue about the French exchange programme. Much of our day, especially in the beginning, seems to have revolved around food, if my diary is anything to go by.On the 22nd of May, 2004, I've written about melon (not exactly a unique experience) and a tart ('not sweet') with spinach and goat cheese. That's when I remember that we had not yet started being adventurous with meat. We were vegetarian then, clearly so.On the 23rd of May, we have hot chocolate and McDonald's as our highlights. (To be fair, we did not want to go to McDonald's, but got pulled with the tide.) For dinner, artichokes. I've told that story already.The highlight of the 24th of May is hot chocolate in a bowl. The problem with a foreign language is that after a while, you don't feel like going on asking, "Sorry? I did not understand." Sometimes, you just agree to something, … [Read more...]
The Crazy Travelogue: French Exchange Programme – II
'I don't think anyone cried,' I've noted in my diary. What? I read it again. I don't think anyone cried.I frown as I read it. It is a singularly strange thing to have noted down. We were going on the French exchange programme - a four-week programme. I have no idea why seventeen-year-old me wanted someone to cry.Evidently, though, I wasn't the only one who found things incomplete. Many of us wanted something more dramatic, something beyond the 'cycling-shorts drama' I wrote about yesterday."I want something to happen," G said. "Something should happen."It was just a while before G's wish was fulfilled. Two hours into our journey to Mumbai, we found out that the Air India ground staff were on strike. Thanks to that, all AI flights were delayed by a few hours. "Is this 'something' enough?" we asked G, who was duly penitent. It was her fault, of course, that the staff were on … [Read more...]
The Crazy Travelogue: French Exchange Programme – I
When you are seventeen and off on Fergusson College's famous French exchange programme, everything seems special. There is nothing that is not worth noting down.Now, I chuckle in delight. There is so much to remember.We begin with what I call the 'cycling-shorts drama' in my excited record of each detail.We had been told to carry cycling shorts because we were going to have a lesson at the circus school in Chambéry. We were fifteen teenagers, bouncing with joy.We whispered to one another. "Did you carry a pair?" "Oh no! I forgot!" "I didn't either!" "Nor I." "Oh my God." "Now what?"Not having a pair of cycling shorts was a Big Deal. We Had Been Told To Carry Them And None Of Us Had Any. The world would come to an end.We called friends, cousins, everyone. At less than half an hour's notice, we had a cousin and a friend coming all the way to college to give us cycling … [Read more...]
Not the Mona Lisa
Entry to the Louvre is free on the first Sunday of each month, and I landed in Paris on the first Sunday of June. Jet lag is a luxury that people who have time and money to spend in a foreign country can afford. I couldn’t.Whatever debate may surround the aesthetics of the pyramid of the Louvre, within, you have everything to choose from. For a few seconds, we stood there, letting history and culture seep into our blood.“So, where do you want to go?” My sister smiled at me.“Not the Egyptian zone, that’s for sure.”I could not decide, so we walked along, slowly getting the kind of head-rush that I have begun to associate with museums. As our heads filled to saturation-point, we began to wander a little aimlessly, continuing to look at things around us. We saw the crowd around the Mona Lisa.“Do you want to go?” my sister asked, a little doubtfully.I shook my head. “She looks … [Read more...]