Grande

Whereas, Grande in English, means something impressive and magnificent, it simply means Big in French. Hence, while a small Coke, is mois Coke, its opposite - a Large Coke, is Grand Coke. Simple enough.
But the French have it in them , for being flashy and classy. As a result, when they decide to do something Big, its Grand nonetheless.
Yesterday, was July 14 - the day, when the French Revolution began - way back in 1774, by storming the then prision - Bastille . Til today, 14^th is remembered and celebrated as Bastille Day. The morning has the usual Army Parade. Well, I would have called it, the French equivalent of 15th August Parade, but it has actual Army Jets flying about & not being carried atop army tanks, as a exhibiion. As I hear, these, Jets actually fly at near ground level, along the Champs Elysees. I don't think, we ever do that.
Similarly, later in the evening, there is a fireworks show at Eiffel Tower and its, well, Grand! I haven't seen - 4^th of July fireworks, but I don't think, they can get much bigger than 40 minutes of a colour splattered sky. I haven't seen so many people on the streets either. It was actually crowded and I was loving it. With less than a week to go, I couldn't a better last Saturday. There was a proper feast on the streets of Paris. People were in readiness of the fireworks. Locals, were more relaxed - had beers and wines handy, packed their picnic dinners, comfortable and portable chairs out. There can't be a more romantic dinner, than by the Seine on lush greens, as fireworks celebrate overhead. No one minds, the milling crowds at such times, anyway.
On similar lines, Paris has other Grand landmarks. The Grande Arch at La Defense, seems to be created for no particular purpose - Just for Fun!. But once, they set at doing it - they made it so Grande - that I am sure that the whole of English couldn't come up with a better suited word for it, than well, Grand. Its in the middle off nowhere - but has the view of over 3 kms. from La Defense to Etoile to the Concorde - all along the Champs Elysees. For trivia, the road from Grande Arch to Etoile - is named Rue de Grand Army.

Avez-vous su? - 10 St. Sulpice Church

Another 'Da Vinci' Myth-Buster:

The meridien line materialised by a brass inlay in the pavement of this church is a part of a scientific instrument built here in 18^th century. This was done in full agreement with the church authorities by the astronomers in charge of the newly established Paris observatory. They used it for detailing various parameters of earth's orbit.

Contrary to fanciful allegations in a recent best-selling novel, this is not a vestige of a pagan temple. No such temple ever existed in tits place. It was never called Rose-Line. It doesn't conincide with the meridien traced through the middle of Paris Observatory which serves as reference for maps where longitude are measured in degrees east or west of Paris.

Please note that the letters P and S in the small round windows at both ends of the transcept refer to Peter and Sulpice, the patron saints of the church and not to the Priory of Sion.

The inlay exists, it leads upto the marble construction with a globe at the top.
More interestingly, patches of the marble inscription have been, chiseled to erase out what they said.

I live on Caffeine

From those, who have seen me strut around in them in Jr. College, to those who have seen me slog a tennis game in IIT, to quite a few others, all have seen me wear one of the many 'I live on Caffeine' T-Shirts I have.
Well, I love my Coffee. I like it both Cold and Hot. Its energetic, anti-dozing, its got a zing, its youthful & generally, makes we wanna drink a few cups more :P.

Also, I never realised, how much blood flowed in my Coffee Stream (I know the lines not mine, but like Coffee - its catchy), & how much sweat it caused to my pocket until I read this article in NYTimes, about things, graduates don't want to hear, about saving. Most of the things, like taxes, television costs, retirement plans, pensions etc. weren't really applicable, but the bottomline, literally, was :

¶And, I’m sorry, I’m really serious about this last one: make your own coffee.

(The nested article, is an earlier one on similar lines).

I quick check on myself, and I realised that I spent as much as 10€, a week on Coffee which amounts to a decent fraction of my salary. While most of 10€, are devoured by the coffee vending machine at INRIA, at 30 cents, it is thankfully, among the cheapest Coffee, one can buy here. The Foyer, where I stay gulps down a few more at 50 cents, while at 1€ a piece, Selecta is the maximum Rip-Off I can afford.
Its tropical, steamy, hot and sinful to buy Coffee, anywhere else in Paris.

Knock, Knock!

Madame / Monsieur blah-crappy-blah bonjour
(your ears perk at the sound of a familiar word) some-french-crap Station-name (another familiar word, gives you a rude awakening) something S'il Vous Plaît (now yawning..) blah-blah Merci!
(.. and you are left fuming since the only other known french word, that you rightfully expect is missing, Desole!)

... is a typical announcement on SNCF Trains.

To take it to the Streets ...

All those who know me, know that I am no good at art.
Other than a stray painting featuring in the school exhibition or being a part of an overcrowded school chorus group or failed attempts at dancing right from Jr.Kg - well I am mostly been a non-performer - more Fart than Art...
but Jokes apart, I have never been half as decent at it.

I tried beating around the tabla, blowing into the flute and I think, something to do with the harmonium as well, but didn't even last long to call myself - Jack of xyz trade.
IIT changed a few things. Music & Dance scene in IITB is truly wonderful and as a result of it, people engaging in it are looked up to and showered with graceful appreciation. But the image of grumpy teachers who taught me music in school, always lingered over. Whether it was Damle Sir in SES, or Kulkarni Sir at Tabla or some unpleasant BandMaster in school (whose name I never remember, for the same reasons - he is being mentioned here), these teachers unfortunately failed to inspire me. [Again, my lofty self-visualisations are primarily to be blamed, since quite a few good players learnt much, under the same teachers.] Other than a youthful, Table playing Gadre Sir, in school, I never could imagine, myself doing anything these teachers did, at a later point in my life. I gradually took my grudges on other places of Music. Concerts (or televised shows) of Music and exhibitions of art, were never really looked forward too. I hated the whole concept, of liking music because the whole concept, of it being a tapasya, something for which one had to slog hard for, was repulsive.
No one around me, in day-to-day life, was too fascinated by it either. My mom paints real well, but unfortunately, she hasnt had much time to do so, since I took up a lot of it by doing things that I wasn't supposed to be doing or otherwise :P.


Paris, has changed my outlook towards art significantly. Not that I am going to start harping around all of a sudden.
Here, art is for the audience, art is for the street. I was first awestruck, when I heard sweet tunes coming from a metro station, where I found out that a person was playing the accordion ... and well, begging. It is probably, wrong to term it as begging, but essentially, it was same. I was so zapped that I stayed rooted at the spot, for a good 5 minutes, gave him some change & promised to return to hear him play again. I didn't need to.
There are quite a few artists, all over the place, who played as well or better and made their living thus. Not that they would have taken anything less than a decade to master their instrument, not that they weren't well off & not that they appeared remotely disturbed by what they were doing. Artist, come in all shapes and instruments, and each was regarded honourably. I have no idea, how much a person playing on the metro lines makes, but I estimate it to be around 50 euros a day. Similarly, people who sell paintings on the streets of Paris, make real masterpieces. But then, Louvre stocks so many of those anyway, that the lesser known, spill onto the streets :D. Every Friday evening, as the museum opens up for people under 26, numerous kids with sketch books, sit around a exhibit they like and immune to everything else, practice / learn and obv. enjoy!
Similarly, the Fete de la Musique, allowed players to regale others with their art and at the same time get a good stage to perform as well. For some reason, the best of concerts I had seen, never were as inspiring, as these road-side shows. In line, with the more capitalist thumb-rules of customer-satisfaction, these artist first ensure that you completely enjoy their act, appreciate good art and then contribute as it suits you.
On the whole, the package is motivating.

I could rant on and on, but then paris has more art, than I can possibly dream of putting in words and I have more work than the orkut-blog-gmail-y!-buxfer decimated time, I have.

Sing On!

Today is Summer Solstice, which means that it is the longest day at every place north of the Equator. While I shall not dwell into 6^th standard Geography, it also means that it starts setting early from tomorrow :D
And while, the sun shall go its extra bit today, the world (which means about 340 cities from 110 countries, yet heartwrenchingly excluding India), shall pitch in its extra beats.
Today, as India sleeps, the World shall awake to Life and Music. Grrr.... !
Paris, most of France and many other countries in EU and otherwise, celebrate Fête de la Musique. I am obviously planning on seeing, it and I hope it turns out to be as grand as I imagine it to be. Till then, Google for it and read this. The official french government website is here.

Sweating!

Its sweltering in here, and these people never thought of putting any fans in place!
I have a huge heater, in my room & I am sweating just at the sight of it!

Avez-vous su? - 7

Rafael Nadal turned 21, on Sunday.
While he has won, the last 2 French Opens, he hasn't won a Quarter Final match, at any of the other Grand Slams ever!!

This year, he hasn't dropped a single Set and as a write, has broken Carlos Moya's serve, to lead in the 1^st set of his, QuarterFinal match.

Federer, on the other hand - has lost 1 set.

Love you, Roger - but the grass shall be greener on the other side of the Channel!
Till then,
Go Rafa!

--
Edit :-
Within minutes, Moya broke Nadal's serve to level 3-3. Seems like some match!
--
Edit :-
Another break, by Nadal - to regain lead 4-3.
--
Edit :-
Rape, Set, Match - 6-4 6-3 6-0 Rafa into the semis!

--
Edit :- Later
Have a look at Nadal's Homepage! It screams of arrogance & self-confidence.

The Hitchhiker's [short] Guide to Paris.

Lesson 1 :-
Scope - Max!

Epilogue - If you succeed, come and finish this book!
--
Edit dated:- 31.05.2007
Got offered a lift, out of nowhere today :D.
Someone was leaving INRIA, late at night, quite like me. Pitied me walking all the way back. Dropped me off half a kilometer. Cheers!

Avez-vous su? - 6

80 yrs. ago, to the day - Charles Lindberg became the 1^st person to fly a solo, non-stop flight from New York to Paris in the Spirit of St. Louis.
He flew from Roosevelt Airfield (in Garden City, New York) to Le Bourget, Paris in 33.5 hours. He left NY on 20^th May 1927, and arrived the next day.
In his words,

I first saw the lights of Paris a little before 10 P.M., or 5 P.M., New York time, and a few minutes later I was circling the Eiffel Tower at an attitude of about four thousand feet.

Although he was a decorated hero, later in life - he was accused of AntiSemitism and of being being a Nazi sympathiser.

His grandson Erik Lindbergh repeated this trip 75 years later in 2002 in 17 hours 17 minutes.

Aeroport

Am having the most amazing time of my life. Aai-Baba had come to Paris, for a short vacation, and left on a guided tour of Europe for the next 9 days. In the 3 days, they were here - there were quite a few incidents :P.

1. Airports and ME !
Apparently, I have an uncanny knack of landing up on the wrong side of Runways. While the Bombay CS Airport incident, where we on the wrong side of the wall, law, airport, runway and the 'line' (of the 'line not to be crossed' fame), all at the same time, might be known to some of you, I continue the same in Firang Land, as well.
Aai Baba were landing on 16th, so I was to pick them at the airport. CDG handles more traffic than BOM, atleast a few times over, but over-confident that I am, I make a lot of mistakes, very frequently. They were landing at 08h10. I woke before the alarm, bathed, dressed, and was out of the hostel at sharp 6am. 06h25 reached Chantiers.
Now I was in a queer situation. Having a Zone 1-4 Pass enabled me to get to the last station before CDG, but not the terminals itself.
Smart that I am, I deduced that it would be a waste buying an additional ticket, and a morning walk from the last station in Zone 4 to the terminal, would help hide the extra cheese calories, so that I appear in shape to Meet my Parents :P
Google Maps, helped me estimate that, I had to walk about 5 kms. So far so good, said the smart me.
07h20 - Parc des Expositions, on time.
Now a short walk was all that was left.
I hit the road. Now since, anyway who wanted to take the train route to CDG, wudnt get down here (except ME, of course, Smart that I am). Anyone, driving to CDG wudn't come to a RER arret. So the road, had no English directions to the aeroport. I trusted my instincts and started walking. With a little help, I was at the walls of CDG at 7:45. Out of the host of french signboards, I figured out that the one saying Fret Terminal. Since, there were only big trucks going that way, there was no one to confirm directions. Doesn't matter. I was at the Aeroport wall, how far could the terminal be.
I walked, but there was no let-up from the walls of the airports. At 08h20, I finally located a Gas Station attendant, and after a lot of 'Je ne comprends pas.', understood that I was walking towards the Freight Terminal [Hasn't someone warned against, Half Knowledge!].
Never being the one to give-up, I re-traced my steps, until I realised where I had taken the wrong turn, in life. Others wouldn't have any more confidence in their smartness, but I persisted with the head of mine, and steadfastly refused to alight a bus, that would take me. The bus stops, said only 4 stops, how far could it be?
Now Roissy, the suburb that houses CDG, is so bloody far, that the distance between stops, that is about 300m in Paris City, goes up to 1 Km here.
Another long walk later, I reached the terminal, just about 100mins late.
For my parents, their 1st time on foreign soil, was spent in anxious wait for their unreachable Son to turn up. [My phone didn't ring - I Say ... With iPod in my ears, I didn't hear it - My mom contests]. With people from 3 continents, trying to contact me, I had 9 voice messages, with instructions in Francais to retrive them, meaning they were complete, consistent and useless for me.
So here's what the situation actually was -
The walk from the Parc des Exhibitions to CDG, wasn't any less than 11 Kms. I missed a turn, meaning that I walked a 2 Kms - in a direction, and as much back. I landed up on the wrong side, of the runway again!

The Cold Saints

& what modern Science still can't explain!
Anyway, over the past few days, weather in Paris has been terribly windy and cold, and for a person like me, it leads to snoozing!
While, the day we landed, 1^st May, was bright and sunny, the weather has turned sour over the last weekend. It rains every evening, and is generally cloudy and boring during the whole day.
Talking casually to a Ph.D. here, (again, the only one who manages Anglais), he mentioned something about "Cold Saints". Googling told me that this was the period where days of St.Mamertius, St. Pancras (or St. Pancratius) and St. Gervais, were celebrated and they together (along with a certain Cold Sophie) are known as the Ice Saints. This brief, weather inversion, is particularly well-known in German, Austrian and Swiss folklore. The days from 12^th to 15^th May, are known to bring in cold-weather across Northern Europe (in Julian Calendar). Germans refer to it as Eisheiligen.

And if this wasn't cold enough, apparently, in Gregorian Calendar, the Ice Saints are celebrated from 19-22 May, and the onset is thus still 4 days away.Brrr ...
No scientific explanation known.

Ref:
1. The ever reliable Wiki
2. Ski-ers Blog Entry 1 and Entry 2
3. McUniverse

Paris sur le mai 5 et 6

Selected Pics. of last weekend up on Picasa.

Smokin'

Flabergasted by the number of people who smoke here - googled some statistics:
Avg. French person consumes 2,058 cigs. a year, thats abt 6 a day :o
Its worse for Swizterland and Spain, where the number exceeds 2,500 anually per person.

India fares way better in comparision, with only 129 cigs. annually per person - though there is a catch, since about 7 Bidis are sold, behind every cigarette sold in India.

Ref:
1. WHO Stats.
2. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_tob_cig_con-health-tobacco-cigarette-consumption
--
Edit :- dated 23.5.2007
England Quits Smoking. Keeping fingers crossed.
--
Edit :- dated 01.6.2007
Disturbing US stats from NY Times say that

• 4.4 Crores Adults smoke
• 4 out of 5, are addicted and can't quite
• 4.4 lakhs smokers die every year
• taking another 50,000 passive smokers.

Camera and Tons of Action.

We had been to Louvre yesterday. It being the first sunday of the month, the entry to the museum is free for all - as a result of which, there was a lot of rush.
In between seeing artifacts and reading the French description - PK and Prakhar took some pics. Now, it was sometime between the Greek & Roman ages, that Prakhar lost his camera, but it was only after the Dark Ages had passed that we realised so.
:(
They went looking for it - tracing their path through the ages. Didn't find it. Its bad, because it was a functional camera and more so - because we had a handful of good pics in there. We reported to the authorities that they kindly let us know if such a camera was to be found. Things were compounded - since Prakhar didn't know the manufacturer or the brand of the camera. The only thing - that we could tell them, was that it was a roll camera (which lends it some rarity value, no doubt!). Hopefully, the Louvre ppl. don't think of it as an antiquity and keep it.

Avez-vous su? - 3

The Roseline or the Meridian made so famous by Dan Brown - as to being passing through the Inverted Pyramid in Louvre - doesnt actually pass through the Inverted Pyramid.

While it does pass through the Louvre, quoting Wikipedia:

Brown is also wrong to imply that the Paris Meridian (the "Rose Line" of his novel) passes directly over La Pyramide Inversée. In the Louvre area, the meridian line actually runs through the museum and the great courtyard at a spot considerably to the east of the Inverted Pyramid.

I looked all over the area surrounding the Inversee Pyramid, frantically searching for the smallest black circles, that I could find, disappointed until - Wikipedia enlightened me !

Louvre

Had been to Louvre today. Its huge !
Could manage to see only a few parts of the Devon Wing of the Museum.
That is like only 1/5^th of it in 4 hrs.
Had a great time.
Saw the Monalisa, but its really not that impressive to the novice eye.

More later - since the Louvre is free every First Sunday of the Month and every Friday after 18h00 to people under the age of 26.

Avez-vous su? - 2

You might have known that the switches are switched in this part of the world.
A switch that, if fitted properly, would be considered off in India, is considered to be ON in here.
Also, electric power is 110V than the 220V that we are used to in l'Inde :P

More strangely, power points (& I dont mean the Microsoft dumbos), have a single Male Pin earthing and 2 Female Pins that supply AC.

Hume to loot liya...

"Hume to loot liya... Mil ke husn waloon ne
Goore Goore Baloon ne ... Goore Goore galoon ne!"
Today, while we were waiting in queue to have some Crepes - that smelled delicious in an Champs Elysees store, two girls in front swung around and in broken English asked whether we spoke the language.
Elated at speaking to someone English, we (and in particular, yours truly) tried to help them out. We figured that they needed 30 cents change. Eagerly we scooped out all the coins we had.
It was only then, that we realised that they wanted 30 cents to lend and I, looking generous yet stupid, was forced to be chivalrous.

A keen eye & a keen I !

Here are a few observations that I made in my first few days :-
1. Paris has infinite cars, and most of them are parked.
2. Parisians are extremely bad drivers, but they are polite drivers. By bad I mean they will speed excessively, and what I think is unnecessarily. By polite, I mean they will stop for a pedestrian to cross the road - if they see you well in advance.
3. Cars here are moderately small, which works in the favour of any urban area.
4. Women here, carry themselves amazingly well. Even a 55 yr. old lady, will carry herself with great ease.
5. Women let their hair down, literally. I have hardly seen any girl / woman / old lady, tie her hair in any manner. If maintaining it is an issue, they just have cropped hair, but no 'bun'ning it, or plaits.
6. That they have great hair, obviously helps, since they have nothing to hide.
7. Paris , and more particularly, Versailles, seems like a family city (unlike the notoriously single NY). Couples are seen moving doing small chores and they are a number of them. Families have 1 or 2 kids, with a prammed infant and an occasional dog thrown in.
8. When a man and a woman, are driving together, empirical observations show that the guy will be in the driver's seat.
9. Ohh! almost forgot :- French women are damn beautiful.
10. French moms are just as beautiful.
11. The chores of parenting are majorly done by the mother - the French equivalent of Soccer Mom. I saw a handful, of ladies accompanying kids to / from school.
12. French are amazing engineers - atleast amazing civil engineers. Eiffel Tower is just one of the examples. The Paris rail system , is so meticulously planned and well executed - that grudging that I was to accept any system betters Bombay Suburban system - it must easily the best mass transit system. Subway trains, RER trains, local bus, Trams are well co-ordinated with each other as well as the vehicular traffic. They have atleast 4 terminals - of the scale of CST, perhaps not in terms of traffic handled - but surely in terms of area. That each of them is exquisitely designed goes without saying.
Various transports run on multiple levels. Viaducts run for considerable stretch along the turns of the Siene.
13. There are items of artistic interest at every turn and crossroad.
14. Versailles (and probably Paris as well) closes very early, making it an uneasy stay for an IITian :P
15. People say 'Bon Jour' and 'Bon Sour', even if there is a probablistic chance that they will see you again.
16. A simple 'Merci' makes them happy, especially if you are a foreigner who doesnt know French.
17. Segolene Royal is cute.
18. and to wrap up - a myth shattered - Eiffel Tower isn't visible from every place high enough in Paris !