I think flat-hunting is one of those jobs that is most tedious, yet most adventurous, when done alone.After one year in Calcutta, armed with my knowledge of Bangla (largely restricted to daily words like clothes, dishes, wash, pillow, etc.), I decided to hunt for a flat. Approaching brokers made me realise that my vocabulary got me nowhere in the world outside my home, and I took to saying that I did not speak Bangla at all.One enthusiastic broker was excited at this rare opportunity to show off his Hindi, which bordered so much on Bangla that I was able to understand it despite his thick accent. He engaged me in long conversations and was delighted that I loved his Calcutta and the people of his land. Growing steadily more excited, he said, "You want an appointment, no?""Sorry?"He smiled knowledgeably at me. "Students like appointments, correct?"Bewildered, I made a … [Read more...]
Torre Pendente
We had just a few hours at Pisa, but we could not travel all over Italy and not visit the famous leaning tower. So we asked a lady on a train what to do, and she wrote for us the name of the bus stop to which we needed to go to see the leaning tower.We showed a bus driver the stop, written in my diary, and he seemed confused. He asked us a question in Italian. We did not understand. We shook our heads regretfully. "Leaning tower?" we asked.He shrugged. "Torre pendente?" he asked.We shrugged. "Leaning tower of Pisa?" we asked, leaning slightly, to convey what we wanted."Piazza del Duomo?" he asked."No, no, no duomo!" we said. We knew that word. 'Duomo' meant cathedral. "Leaning tower!" we cried. "Seven wonders of the world! Leaning tower of Pisa!" It's strange how the subconscious believes that volume can surmount the language barrier."Pisa," nodded the bus driver, and … [Read more...]
Cut
My sister and I often got invited to the same parties. Once, when I was about seven, both of us received birthday invitations that had a fancy RSVP slip that had to be cut along the dotted line. Below the dotted line, it said:I can/ cannot attend your birthday party. (Please cut one)I took my scissors and painstakingly cut out 'cannot'. My gaping hole became a bit too gaping though and I went sadly to my father. Both 'can' and 'cannot' had fallen victim to my scissors. My father laughed out loud, I remember, and explained that 'cut along the dotted line' was with scissors, but 'cut one' was with a pen. Now, how was a seven-year-old to know that? I remember how self-righteously upset I was!My father being my father, though, sat with blade and pen and altered my sister's RSVP slip, making it 'We can/ cannot attend your birthday party.' Then we had the joy of signing both our names … [Read more...]
Ramayan in French
My association with France began with a French exchange programme in 2004. I was vegetarian, I barely spoke French, I had never heard the French accent, I was to live with a French family for three weeks and I was to attend French school in that time. And because I was 17, I was not scared, I was excited.I remember the first day vividly. I remember all the attempts everyone made at making conversation. We talked about the world wars. We talked about food. We talked about India. We talked about France. I understood about five per cent of the conversation.And then, one thing led to another, and my sister and I started talking about the Ramayana. In English, it's a beautiful, complex story that I enjoy telling. In French especially back then, I was comfortable only with present tense. That's all very well for regular story-telling, but if you forget that one little episode, you're … [Read more...]
A Night in Florence
"Is the station open all night?" In Florence with no hostel to stay at and frightfully expensive hotel options, we had no choice but to stay at the station."Yes," replied the lady and walked away. I wonder if she even understood the question.We made ourselves comfortable in the waiting-room, as comfortable as we could get. There were other people, thankfully, so we didn't feel destitute. Sitting in the waiting-room somehow bordered on the normal, even though we had not done it before. We lounged on chairs, hugging our luggage, trying to get the seats not to poke us too much. And then, at midnight, they chased us out of the waiting room. "Station-strike," they said.We groaned, picked up our luggage and went out. We were three teenagers outside a station in a foreign country in the middle of the night. Yes, there were others, but they spoke a language we didn't know, they were all … [Read more...]
Learning to Communicate
"Do you speak English?" we asked three police-people standing at a signal in Milan.The policewoman shook her head and turned to the men. "Just a leetle," said one.Then began our attempt to tell them we were lost and looking for our hostel. The hostel had given us a map, but we had walked clean off the map and had no idea how to get back. The word 'hostel' brought no reaction, so we showed them the map and said 'ostello'. We had no idea how to ask 'where', 'how', nothing! But 'ostello' was enough. They brought out another, more detailed map of Milan and had an animated discussion while we watched. They argued with one another about how we could go, one would start explaining to us slowly, another would interrupt...Then the policewoman tried. She said something like 'douce'. We shrugged. She asked again, "Douce, douce?" We had no idea what she was trying to say.Then, one of the … [Read more...]
Burggarten, bitte
A lovely lady on the train to Vienna told us we must go see the Burggarten, a rose garden.In our attempt to put to use our practically non-existent German, we greeted an old gentleman on the road and asked him sweetly, "Burggarten, bitte?"He launched into a long speech in German. We listened, nodded appropriately and made polite noises. Once he had finished explaining, we said our 'Danke' and followed him across the road. That much, we had understood.We stood around noting various 'interesting' things around, letting him go ahead. We then discreetly asked someone else.To this day, we wonder what the gentleman explained to us in such great detail. The rose garden was straight ahead. … [Read more...]