Meeting Neighbours in Paris...

One just can see the whole world in a metro in Paris. One can see all kinds of skin colours and all kinds of hair colours sometimes even blue and green hair here. So it is not hard to find people of my brown color here. And as it has happened to me at various foreign locations in the World they would keep looking at you till both of you cross each other. In Paris also the experience was repeated many times till one young lad came up to me at the Grande lignes of Gare du Nord and said "Aap India se ho na (You are from India, right?)". Hesitantly I said "Umm. Yes". He continued "How can I make a phone call here, I am not able to find one and no one speaks English, I am from Nepal" One more important thing there was a super pretty girl with hazel eyes with him, which has nothing to do either with this post or what happened later. He said they are coming from Finland and they live in Finland. My immediate reaction "he should be a cook or similar thing in Finland". I helped him make a call and he thanked me and we had a small chat and he left with his pretty wife.

Few days back I had a real urge to go to a temple ( you know when things are not going that well you start remembering God a lot) and I found out the way to Radha Krishna temple in Paris. Well we can't say it is in Paris coz it is very far from Paris and is situated in a 'commune' which is rural. I enjoyed the kirtan there and when returned I met a thin guy. He asked me from which country I was. I replied him "India" in manner that don't you recognise. He said "I am from Bangladesh". Immediately I thought a Bangladeshi in a temple, must be a few of minute number of Hindus still present in Bangladesh. And no offense to anybody but I thought of the large number of Bangladesh "Kaam wali bai (maids)" who are there in Delhi saying that they are from West Bengal. I came to know that he had come to France by boat and had applied from political asylum from the Government of France and was currently living illegally. He asked me to pray for him that he gets the political asylum.
It was a Friday evening (sorry at 6:00 pm it is same as midday here in summers) I was in a busy metro with two of my Italian friends from Biblitheque François Mitterand to Paris Saint Lazare. We were clinging on to the poles in near the entrance and chatting in French coz my friends didn't speak a lot english. One of my friends got down at Gare du Lyon. After a while a rough sounding voice in a rural Punjabi accent caught my attention "Aap Iindyaa se ho? Main Pakistan se hoon". I looked to my left a guy with no so great looks was there. I had a lot of hesitance in speaking to him and finally I said yes. he tried to have a conversation with me but all I was thinking was of terorists and bombs.

A Shelf of unread Books

I woke up in the morning, sleep still in my eyes,
Saw my old book shelf and began to realize;
The books that brought have piled on.
Looking at their face, I had so much desire,
A spark of fire in my heart to read all, to grasp all.
But they kept on piling in my Big shelf.
Do I have enough time now to read all?
Can I know the knowledge of all?
I wash my face and go to my table,
and start reading nibble by nibble.

Difference between a Boy and a Girl...

I once asked a guy and a girl what is the difference between Champagne and White wine? Why is Champagne so superior to wine and of course costs more?
Boy: It is fermented twice and aged more...the special kind of fermentation makes it smoother and tastier...And the process of separating the yeast sediment is also difficult in case of champagne. It made sense and that is why it is costlier and better.
Girl: Well...Champagne has Bubblesss...and wine doesn't...
Ladies and gentlemen that is how boys and girls think differently...
Men and women do think differently and the combination is almost necessary to have a good team. It gives you a very diverse thought...NASA deliberately adds at least one female astronaut to its space mission.

To be continued...