Steps!

Beirut is the hilliest city I have ever been to. Well, San Francisco comes closer to this one, but my friends thought that the Lebanese water had affected my brains too as I even dared to compare SF to Beirut! Oh well! Though Beirut is not aesthetically the best city you could come across, it has its own charm. The skyscrapers with their special window drapes, war-shaken, bullet-proof(ed) and completely destroyed buildings amidst these multi-story buildings, indescribable long traffic jams, cars/buses stopping randomly at the highways to drop-kick up passengers, the continuous honking, the extremely sloped highways and incredibly long staircases give Beirut its own style. For some reason, I am fascinated with these steps! With a pinch of exaggeration, I can say that you are always either climbing up or down in this city!

The steps that join the upper and lower streets of the city are quite unique in their appearance! They are long, colorful, irregular and even uneven! They represent the street art and generally are accompanied by very interesting graphite.  While you are reaching the top, if you turn around you can see the beautiful calm Mediterranean sea gazing at you. It's a very peaceful sight and makes you forget about all the traffic congestion, pollution, and the hustle-bustle that goes on on the streets below (or up!!). Usually, these giant staircases are adorned by very cute small beautiful houses with usually the hanging gardens where you can  expect to see small lemon trees with at least 10-12 lemons in the artistic balconies. I don't want to into the logic behind it, but generally, these steps are in very tranquil areas of Beirut and you can enjoy the much-needed disconnection from the city!

I think writing anything more about this steps won't help and will just be redundant! Plus you might wonder why a whole post for something as ordinary as staircases?! So here I present you some of the pics of these steps and you'll get an idea of what I am talking about! Every city has its characteristics and I think these steps give Beirut its unique mood.

Take a look and you will understand why! 

Relativity...

Yesterday my morning started on a bad note. Oh the usual first-world problems, nothing particular. I thought, 'and there goes my day! why dear God, why it's always me?'. Typical no! So I came to the office in a foul mood and even the smooth taxi ride didn't cheer me up. I didn't want to be grumpy the whole day, but was difficult! And then it was time for the field visit for office work. 

It took us almost an hour to cover a distance of mere 5 km. I was sulking in the back seat of the car with some sad songs playing in my ear (haha!), cribbing in my mind about the horrible traffic, the cold and wasn't even able to enjoy the sea that was spread all along the road. Finally, we reached the destination. We were in a hospital where I was supposed to take  photos of a young Palestinian boy who recently had a liver transplant. The photos were necessary to show to the donor who had paid for half of the operation fees which amounted to some thousands of dollars. The moment I entered the hospital, all my so called chagrins disappeared. Not because I was happy to see a hospital but because I could see with my open eyes people who actually had problems. Some couldn't walk, didn't have enough clothes to protect themselves from the nasty cold winds and some were begging on the street... It was an eye-opener, a slap in my face. It was a signal to see the bigger picture and think bigger.  I was sad about something that wasn't even a real problem!  And here were these people with a smile on their faces even though they were suffering from the worst diseases possible. When I entered the room to see the patient with another colleague from office, I saw an extremely thin guy lying in the bed with his mom sitting at his head and watching TV. That sight shouted at me saying "see, even this guy who fought with death is smiling and what is wrong with you!". I pulled myself back, took the routine pictures and went back to the office with much needed positive vibes in my heart! 

Since I am here in Beirut working for the Palestinian refugees, my attitude towards life is getting more  realistic and I am more appreciative of the things around. I can't say that it's reassuring that there are people with worse problems than mine, but it gives me the energy to forget my petty worries. This power of relating is my new tool! At times, I write in the cover letters that 'coming from India I know the problems of a developing country and this can be an added asset' and (crap) things like that. Now come to think of it, I didn't quite know about that problem. When we visit the camps, schools and get to see some social life of these Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon, I understand that what I claimed I knew was just theory and the reality is way different and frightening. Comparing my problems like no electricity for three hours or no matching shoes etc. with the problems of Refugees must the most stupid comparison in the world, but it definitely gives me the will to continue and eventually a motivation to do something concrete for all these people so that one day will see a real bright day.

But eventually it's all about relativity and we can't forget that everybody's problems have their own place and importance!

I asked myself, "come on!! you have seen poor people in India, you never felt this intensely about the whole situation then?" Maybe I was too young to really understand the gravity of the problem and now that I am away from home, in a foreign land my observational skills are at their best. Maybe after living for three years in France, I have certain expectations from a 'foreign country' and Beirut terribly fails on those, that now I am seeing the same problems with a better and matured insight. However, there is a tinge of sadness in my heart that to understand the gravity of such problems I had to come so far away and couldn't really do much for my fellow citizens. But oh well like they say, it's better late than never!

And so, inshallah I'll be back in India soon! 

Short and sweet?

Let me reiterate a general belief: Living abroad for work or for studies has its pros, and cons too. The  fact of being in a foreign land doesn't sound all that appealing especially when you understand the difference between just visiting a new country and actually living there. Though my friends and I, we consider that I am one of the luckiest persons (hah!) in the world to get to travel so much at such a young age, I would like to confess that at times it's a malediction... 

First of all, you have to be away from your beloved home and family and friends. Though with time I have trained myself to be strong and not get involved beyond a certain extent, at times it is just not possible! There are moments where you need your best friend next to you; not by the phone or on the other side of the screen. You get angry at the engineers for not yet having developed the technology where we could cross the computer screens whenever needed. There are one of those days when you are so sick of your own cooking and crave for even the simplest dish from your mom's kitchen. Plus obviously no Starbucks nor Costa nor any other fancy coffee shop can ever replace one 'coffee in glass' of Roopali and chats around that coffee... You feel like having your bike right there when you are waiting for a bus for hours or stuck in a horrible traffic jam or just tired of walking those last two minutes from the bus stop to your house. You do get bored of 'discovering the new city' and playing your Japanese. You just want to sit at home in front of the TV zapping channels with a bowl of Maggi. But oh wait, there's no TV neither Maggi! You see photos of your friends on Facebook having awesome get-togethers at farm houses or them getting married and what not... You do miss out on a hell lot of things and it is not always possible to deal with this pang of sorrow alone... 

This is when you start questioning your decision of coming so far away to enrich your CV!! But in these low times, if you are lucky like me, you have your newly-formed-age-old-friendships to cheer you up and boost your spirits! Because these are the people who know exactly how you feel as they have 'been there and done that'! They are the ones who can take you out from that momentary frustration and give you hope that things will eventually be just fine! The evening walks, the world-cuisine dinners, the bar hoppings, the general gossiping about the known and unknown people, the giggling on stupid things, the cribbing about how inefficient a city can be and what not give you an assurance that finally you are not really alone in your adventures. They inspire you by their journeys so far and it gives you moral to continue! They sympathize with you in your 'poverty' because they are not any different! 'Let's be poor together' is the best motto! Believe me, it's one of its kind of experience to be the 'first world poor'!! Not really funny but at time amusing and can teach you a great deal about life! However the problem of such friendships is that even if you wanted to, cannot last forever. Well, of course, you do keep in touch through emails and other social networking sites, you promise to visit each other in any corner of the world, but that's not the same, right? 

This is the only part of this whole new-city-new-people adventure I don't quite like. Every time you are on the move, you have to start afresh. You have to find your comfort zones, get used to the different rhythm of life, fight the jet lag, and what not! The only metaphor I can use here is a table from IKEA; You bring the pieces and built it so that it can stand on its feet and serve you. That's exactly what you have to do you every time you are in a new city, new country and are surrounded by unknown people. You have to build yourself with moral, confidence, money, open mind and optimistic attitude so that you can be out there and help yourself survive. But when these things start to get on your nerves and you kind of start losing the balance, it's these new friendships help you to get on with things and in extreme cases prevent your break-down!!

The 'short and sweet' so does suit these wonderful relations.

I really wish there was a world metro which would take you to desired city in 5 mins to make a 'short and sweet' visit to your global friends...

The Bollywood Connection!

People in Lebanon are a big fan of our dear Bollywood.  They know all the actors, films, and songs! Bollywood connects me to these people. Every time we meet, they ask me how is Amitabh Bachchan doing. I secretly wish that I knew him that well to know how he was doing! I feel like I am the 'focal point' between the Bollywood actors and these lovely people! I should really thank the Indian filmmakers for all the good-bad films they have made as they bring me a bit closer to my new friends; which otherwise was a bit difficult considering that I still am struggling to speak their language! 

Recently, I got to know an adorable Lebanese family. When I visited their place, their mother was really happy to meet someone from 'India'. The initial formalness disappeared when we discussed Bollywood and her favourite actors such as Shammi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan etc.! She told me that when she was young, around 30-35 years ago, she and her sisters were allowed to watch only Indian films and not the Hollywood hits, let alone their own Arabic films. I was very surprised at this revelation and when asked why, she said, "the reason was simple! Only Indian films showed the love for family, it had spectacular sets and beautiful songs and dances! My parents disapproved of all that intimacy shown in the Hollywood films and violence in Arabic Films. So, I love the Hindi films since then!" Wallah!

Apparently, in Lebanon, they stream Zee TV where the Bollywood aficionados can watch all old-new Bollywood Masala films! When we turned on the Zee TV that evening, to my most wonderful surprise, the evergreen "Andaz Apna Apna" was playing and the "Crime Master Gogo" was in full swing and that too, in Arabic! The icing on the cake was when she sang "Chahe mujhe koi jungli kahe" and "ayayyo sukku sukku"!! I couldn't believe my ears that I was listening to these songs from an old sweet Lebanese lady in her house in Beirut, miles and miles away from home! Talk about randomness!

Last week I visited one of the schools in Lebanon's largest Palestinian Refugee camps for work. After the usual introductions, the school principal got to know that I was from India. He told me immediately that he was in love with Bollywood and he especially adores Aamir Khan and Anil Kapoor! Apparently, the film 'Disco Dancer' affected him so much in his adolescence that it changed his perspectives about life!! (Jeez! 'Life-changing' Disco Dancer? I should really check that film out!) He was very happy to retrieve that film after a long search for it and now apparently he has it on his laptop and listens to the songs all the time! He even offered me to bring some films on USB if I wanted! I politely refused his offer considering the general awkwardness in the room and joined my boss for the presentation.

The school which we visited yesterday was in one of the most orthodox areas. On such visits my main work is to take pics of students talking, participating in the discussions and of the general ambience of the school along while helping my boss for the presentation. All girls yesterday wore 'hijab' and were very shy. They would turn their face the moment they saw my camera in action. I was a bit disappointed as I couldn't take many pictures and was waiting at the entrance of the hall after the presentation. To my surprise, a group of few girls approached me and asked me if I was really from India. They had asked my boss about it and wanted to confirm! When they got the expected answer, I could see the thrill on their faces! Probably I was the first Indian they were ever meeting! They shook hands with me, asked me if I had Facebook. Of course, Bollywood had made this contact possible. To my own surprise, this time, it was "Shahid Kapoor" who was in demand. I was awestruck! Never expected this! One of the girls sang some song which I remembered faintly and asked me to sing along! Talking to these girls made me forget my disappointment and I was very happy that they were opening up and trying their best to talk in English! It was far more rewarding. Shukran Bollywood!

There have been many such incidences but these three were unforgettable! However, I must mention that our Indianness is limited to only our films and the other aspects of our culture, except spices, have failed to reach Lebanon! 

But I am looking forward to more such encounters hoping and counting on the Bollywood connection, till I learn some Arabic! This way I can open them the other doors of our culture!!

Getting around!

"Where are you from?"

"India"

"Wallah!! Speak good English?"

"Yes."

"(something in Arabic)"

Le me speechless!

This is how my mornings usually start here in Beirut, where I am compelled to take a "service"; a.k.a taxi in simple terms; to go to the office. I had kind of liked the use of word "service" in this context as you "take a service" from the taxi drivers and pay back for their wonderful (?) door-to-door service! However, this whole business of "taking a service" isn't that simple and can be a source of (unwanted) adventures that one could possibly ask for at 6.45 in the morning!

After two weeks in Beirut, I think I have got the hang of the place and I am getting accustomed to this different mode de la vie, except for the interesting modes of transport!

Beirut is a city of cars par excellence. If one day all cars disappear from the streets of Beirut, I am sure the city will come to a stand-still and the roads will breathe a sigh of relief! Initially, the huge four-lane roads, flyovers, fancy cars, spectacular highways etc. might impress you a lot. The moment I landed here, I was in awe of this awesome, very-first-worldish infrastructure. However, now as I am roaming the streets with my observant glasses, I can see that that first impression was indeed not the last one.

Though Beirut may resemble a high-fi-modern city, getting around here is not easy. Pedestrians are invisible to the rash drivers and there are hardly any proper crossings. The footpaths are in good condition, however, are occupied by cars (yes, cars!) leaving very little space for walking. They beat us dear Punekars in their amazing skills of double, and at times triple parking!!

The 'public transport' mostly exists on paper! There are some buses, but their appearance is so discrete and gels so well with hundreds of other vehicles on the road, that it's just impossible to identify them! At times, there are these mini-vans which trot around the city collecting and dropping passengers. But again they are not the easiest to identify. They can be blue at times, red at times and sometimes even white! The only way to recognize them is their more or less similar size, the red nameplate, and the honking. They honk at you the moment they see you walking on the streets. It's their way of asking you whether you want to their service!! Same applies to the taxis also. They are omnipresent. But I have been advised that the mini-vans are more reliable than the taxis and now I know why!

Two days ago, after finishing my first leg of two-tour-journey-to-office I was waiting for the next 'service'. Three-four comfortable looking taxis went by. I should mention here that every time I am on the road, I brace myself for all the unimagined challenges that may pop-up at any moment and anywhere. I was doing the same when I hauled for the next taxi coming my way. An outdated model of a car, with paint peeling off from everywhere and with seats giving away their age thanks to the yellow foam coming out from every corner, stopped in front of me. Its old master, who himself resembled his car, with only 2-3 teeth with a perfect shade of "ombre", a torn bonnet and an equally torn brown sweater asked me, "wein? (where?)". 'Ganapati Bappa Morya', I said in my mind and got into the taxi. The ritual of introduction started and his second question threw me off!

"Working as a maid"?

"What?! No! I work at the UN"! (I couldn't digest that 'offense' and insisted on that last sentence with much pride!)

"Oh, good education?!"

"Yes."

Actually, it wasn't his fault that he thought that I might be a maid as almost all Indian-Bangladeshi-Philippino women here usually work as maids. He demonstrated his love for India and flaunted his 'Hindi'. I must say I was impressed that he could speak such good Hindi. Good for him!

We reached a junction where we were supposed to go straight, but he turned right... Unknown city, unknown language, unknown roads and no 3G - I was alarmed immediately. When asked why he turned right, he threw an angry look at me from the rear mirror and yelled at me saying he was the driver and I shouldn't be telling him which road to take!! Now, you can imagine how freaked out I must have been after hearing that. Was he going to take me to the destination where he thought was appropriate for me?

My skin prickled with some unpleasant emotion. I had the immediate urge to get out of the taxi but it was obviously not possible. This man, whose aunt was apparently in a very high position in UNRWA and who knew I wanted to go there as we were discussing UNRWA and its work for the past ten minutes, suddenly started blaming me that it was my fault that I hadn't mentioned where exactly I wanted to go. I was so freaked out and angry that I literally yelled back at him. But the threatening look and a streak of madness in his eyes silenced me and I let him blabber about how it was my fault till we reached a familiar locality. He eventually dropped me a few blocks away from my office. And of course, he charged me extra!

It took me good ten minutes to recover from this ride and I was grateful that nothing had happened. Yet, I was shocked to the core just by thinking what could have gone wrong, especially in the background of the recent Delhi rape case.

It was by far one of the most disturbing mornings I have ever had! I am hoping that somehow I will be spared from these taxing taxi rides!

Inshallah!

Field Experience...

I think I have finally understood why the International Organizations insist on having the so-called “Field Experience” when they hire people. Just three days in Beirut and oh man it has been such an eye-opener! The difference between “saying and actually doing it” had never been so clearer!

Never in my life, I have seen such rains, never. Beirut easily beats Cherapunji! The monstrous and roaring winds do not hesitate to show that they can go anywhere, whenever they want and that whole world belongs to them. God! They do it so powerfully as if they are angry with someone and retaliating… And rain that follows seems to be weeping continuously, hard, at such an audacious act of the winds. This parley between the wind and the rain freaks the life out of you. It reminds you of the bickering between a short-tempered brother and his mellow sister. Especially at night, like the domineering brother, the wind gets nastier and the rain cries harder!

It has been raining relentlessly for the past three days. Not so normal even by the Lebanese standards! This must be really a lesson of “adaptation to the environment”. Well though rain cannot be considered as an extreme condition, such rains certainly do. In an unknown city, where you barely speak the language (yes, I can’t speak Arabic, as yet!), where you don’t know the roads and have just the address, where you have to manage to not to get soaked in the evil rains and not to get blown away by the foul wind and also reach the office on time to sit there the whole day with your wet feet, is an experience you don’t get in your hometown! Such familiarity with these situations is what they must be expecting from us, the International Civil Servants. These incidences enrich your life to an extent that nothing else would ever compare to it. The rains have been so unpredictably strong that they made our Internet LAN wire carry the water on my table as if it was a water pipe, of course wrecking our Internet connection!

Apart from just the environmental conditions, I think even the cultural adaptation is a part of the “field experience”. Hearing the gunshots at night is apparently a very common phenomenon here. Playing with the guns and handguns is done to express joy too! For example, there could be guys bursting handguns or small bombs (?) on the occasion of marriage, birth, birthdays etc. Quite a cultural shock huh! When I discussed my astonishment with a friend, she assured me that if there was something really wrong and the “real” gunshots, we’ll be getting a message from the UN to avert us.

Of course, I am fully aware that only three days of stay isn’t sufficient to conclude anything and yet a lot more is to come. But it has already given me so much to think about that I can’t wait to welcome the next weeks with a grin on my face but a small knot in my heart!

Out of the world "Check-in" !

Well, as almost all of you asked me what was the deal about the "check-in" and "uncheck-in" maybe I should explain it a bit more in detail!! :)

So this is what happened: all excited and prepared me reached the check-in counter of the Gulf Air. With mixed emotions sprinting through my mind, I gave my bag, the female at the counter weighed it and even put the tag without questioning the over-weight!! I was so happy that this time also, that extra kilo had passed! Oh well, who knew that such feelings of happiness don't last! The female took my ticket, paper visa, and my passport. After doing her stuff on the computer, she got up, gave me a look, discussed something with her colleague and went to discuss further with her senior officer. Here she comes now... "You will have to wait for some time." Me: "wait? for what"? The female: "actually your PNR doesn't show that you are allowed to enter Lebanon". I, devastated: "what? How come? I have the visa!!!" The female, coldly, ignoring completely my plea: "Sharad, take mam inside in our office. Sir would like to talk her." Hmmm! This didn't really sound normal to me! And while I was thinking about what the hell was exactly going on, she took out the tag from my bag, tore my boarding pass and said: "I am unchecking u."

Le speechless me!!

Never ever in my life had I heard about such a thing!! "Uncheck me in"?!! I don't even know if that literally means something, but oh in real life apparently it does! So, I took my 31kg bag and other belongings and followed "Sharad" to their office to talk to their boss. Apparently as I had received the entry visa (something similar to "On arrival") from Beirut, it wasn't stamped on my passport. According to their Boss, they had not received an "Ok to Board" signal from the Gulf Air Beirut office which hadn't received it from my boss! Well, of course, they hadn't received it! Only if the new and stringent rules were made public! They had to confirm that I had actually been granted the visa and hadn't just fashioned an official visa from somewhere! No confirmation was ever going to come on that day as everybody in Beirut was fast asleep, oblivious to the whole chaos! Optimistic me waited till the gates closed, yet there was no "Ok" from Beirut. And so eventually, it was time to go home, again. Whatever happened was so damn unexpected that I was quite numb for some time. I was so lost that I think the officers at the desk must have thought that I was mad to ask same questions three to four times! Well, even if they did think that they didn't show and they were very kind :) Meeting such nice people is always like a "silver lining to the dark cloud".

However, nobody had a clue from where did this unusual rule come from! Not my boss in UN, not my travel agent and not me. We were told that due to the security purposes such a rule had been created and was being strictly implemented. (Maybe I was the first victim of such a rule!) So after millions of emails, phone calls to and from Cox and Kings and from UN Lebanon Field office and relentless work of my boss and Aashish, finally that "Ok to board" signal came and it looked like this!

Marhaba from Beirut!!

Finally, the wait of 4 months is over! This is me writing to you from my cozy apartment in Beirut. Feels great to finally have reached the destination after overcoming a series of hurdles such as bomb blasts, flight cancelations, visa issues etc. I have traveled abroad quite a lot in past three years but I can say that this visit to Beirut has turned out to be the most "happening" one! Right from getting an interview call from UN to yesterday morning where I had to go home from Mumbai airport because of some unknown new rule I didn't have the "ok to board" authorization from the Beirut Gulf Air office! So they had to "un-check" me!! Never ever had I imagined that such a thing would happen! But oh well, it's just an experience and I am taking it positively! Maybe such incidences are an unwritten description of my job!

Of course, it's been only a few hours that I am here, but still the city gives a positive vibe and people too seem to be nice! My house is pretty far from the airport, so on my way here I got to see a bit of Beirut and it's like any other international metropolitan city! There are nice, big, well-maintained buildings, super traffic (however being a Punekar, the traffic condition here didn't really surprise me! :p People were merrily going from no-entry, honking etc!), a lot of Arabic Banks which show the wealthiness... But I can't really comment on that now, as I haven't seen the other parts!

Well, this is all I can tell you after spending two hours in Beirut!

Before concluding this post I have to thank some important people! Aai-Baba for being soo cool and supportive! My travel agent Aashish who worked relentlessly to get things sorted and all my friends who have been such a great moral support in all these up-downs! (OK! Enough of filmstar-style-formal-thanking !! )

More later!

Till then, ciao!

A bit of new life!

Finally, today I have decided to take out some time and keep work away so as to be able to write. It's been a month that I am here and I haven't given my news. I have been meaning to write since always, but my crazy schedule didn't allow me that. Oh well, but today am here! me voilà!!

Days till today have flown so fast that I didn't even realize it! Already been a month?! It feels like I was still struggling with the packing, meeting everybody, dealing with the last minute problems! But all that is a past now and I am here in Paris, thanks to my parents and many other people! I am really thankful to those who supported my decision of coming here! I think I did a good job of coming here! The exposure I am getting here, the true "international student life", working with people from all over the world on particular topics, managing daily life once again, but this time without my own income, cooking and so much more.

The student-life here can't be defined by any other word than 'crazy'. I have a very wired timetable every day! On Mondays, I have classes "en continue" from 12.30pm till 9.15pm! With a break of 15 mins in each class, which isn't sufficient as those 15 mins are needed to change the buildings, as Sciences Po doesn't really have a "campus" as such. It's just 5 buildings in one very chic locality of Paris! And of course, the buildings are awesome! Then on Tuesdays, only one lecture that too in the evening, from 7.15 to 9.15! Wednesdays start at 8 am and end at 10 am! Thursdays are even crazier! Have lecture from 12.30 to 2.30, then have a break of 5 hours and the second lecture at 7.15 till 9.15! Fridays are equal but the days starts 2 hours earlier than Thursday and so ends 2 hours early as well! Thank god Saturday-Sundays are off!! As far as the classroom life is considered, at times, it gets extremely frustrating. People around me are busy taking notes, either on their latest macs or laptops or in their notebooks, using different colour pens even though the prof is talking at the speed of light. I just fail to take proper notes!! Here I am tempted to blame the educational system back home which doesn't train us at all for such things by providing us ready notes and gives the best ever spoon feeding. Hélas, I am training myself to take notes and I must say I am progressing though it will take time!

As I have such a long breaks between 2 lectures, I prefer staying in the college itself. On the ground floor of 2 buildings, there are tables and chairs for the student who want to stay there and study. And believe me, they actually study!! Why I prefer staying here is I also get motivated to study! Recently Sciences Po has opened the new, awesome library which has almost 100 Macs! Awesome interior, nice books, recent issues of international magazines, wifi and nice people at the reception! So, at least, am happy about the fact that the exorbitant fees they took from us are being used for something so good! Though everybody cribs about the Sciences Po administrative dept, in general, people are nice and I think it's very important! As I must have already told you that we have an ex-French Minister as a visiting faculty, all other profs are equally brilliant and toppers in their fields. What surprises me is that even these people are so well educated and lead the finest lives one could ever dream of, they are all down to earth, always ready to help their students! The subjects taught here are extremely interesting. I think it's really great that they link our knowledge to the current affairs! So we can apply our knowledge to analyze the current happenings and see if we have understood it or no! :) This 'reality' approach will help us all in our careers! Apart from the classroom lectures, there are a lot of lectures arranged on different issues bothering the world today. Till today, I have attended a lecture by LSE director and the second one was by the experts on Palestine State issues! Wow!

But but!! To excel all this excellent knowledge which we get, we have to work a lot, read a lot, discuss a lot and again work a lot! The educational system of which I was part the whole my life is completely different from this current one! So there's a burden and fear of adjustment... Thankfully language is not the problem. So half the hurdle is through! Each day comes with different challenges... Sometimes they seem unachievable but, in reality, are just next door and sometimes it's inverse as well!!

But am enjoying it! and liking it! :)

And I have decided to stay cool and stay connected!

The 15th day...

As the name suggests, here I am going to talk about a 15th day... but of what?! Well, it's the last 15th day of a month I'd be living in Bourges... Sounds a bit funny,huh?! Anyway, that day was really special...

My work contract is almost getting over. And now am really bored and longing to go back home. I am running out of the ideas about what I should be doing in the classes as all most everything is been taught and plus the students too aren't that motivated coz it's the end of the year! For them, the summer is calling and for me it's Pune calling! So as usual I was struggling in my mind about what I should be doing the class and also trying to find a reason if I could miss the class! :p Obviously that wasn't possible. Actually speaking for a change, my day was gonna be quite busy! Had the school in the afternoon and then I was going to a friend's place as it was the day where I was going to make "Repas Indien" (the Indian meal) for my French class friends.

Relcutantly I went to the school. As it's mansoon season (!!) in France, it's been raining like anything and at anytime. So I prefered going by bus. Which meant that I reached school 10 mins in advance! Normally I work after the lunch breaks at the schools. I really like to see children playing on the ground before they get into the class. The bell never rings at 1.30 sharp! So it was around 1.40 and the teacher told me that before the English class they had a practice for their "Sepectacle de l'Ecole qui chante" (A programs of singing schools). An interesting point to observe here is that the school gatherings are at the end of the academic year! One by one all the classes gather under the play-shed. By all the classes I mean ALL the students! From maternelle to CM2. They sang one song, by Michel Jakson, "In the world..." It was really nice to see all those French kids sing that English song with their cute accent! The 15 mins of practice turned into 30 minutes of different practice sessions and so only 15 mins of class!! The kids were obviously in the festive mood so I didn't stretch too much either.

In the evening, by 4.30 I returned to the school with my friend Mary. Her daughter, the little angle Lena goes to the same school. In French schools I observed this one thing there's always a small fun fair kind thing in say every 2 months where Children sell the cakes and pastries made by their moms! It's quite a la mode in this particular school! So after that fun fair children were going to sing.

The program started at 5.15. Children gatherd on the "stage". In their regular dresses (of course! I can't say uniforms as they don't have one!), no make-up, no fancy dresses, no decoration on the stage, no lights, just the mike and speaker and some chairs in front of the stage for children's parents. Simplicity at it's best I'd say! The first song was not accompanied by the music, so it wasn't that impressive. But as later the nursary school students joined the stage, the whole program took a different colour! The wonderful songs sung by those cute little kids, perfectly co-ordinated by their music teachers and the engery of the students brought a different atmosphere in the school! Everybody was just happy! Students were happy to perform in front of their parents and parents were feeling proud to see their children on the stage! What I loved the most about this program was no good or bad students were singled out. Everybody was considered equal and was given a fare chance. I am sure that none of the students went through that childhood's painful experience of not being selected for the group singing or dancing like many of us did. I think it was very thoughtful of the teachers to give everybody that chance to go on stage which I'm sure will help them a lot later in their life. Generally in France, the school activities involve all the students of the class. I don't remember seeing any one partitcular group of same students favoured by the teachers. And this is one of the many things that I admire about French schooling system.

After that wonderful program at the school, now it was a time for an Indian meal for our "multinational" group of French class. It was a long due Indial meal which I was going to make today... The menu was simple : Khidachi, Matar usal, Polya, Rava cake and kakadi koshimbir! It is so much more fun to make food for friends than for oneself! I love doing it! If nothing else, this France stay has certainly inspired a cook in me! :D Poland, Ireland, Germany, France and India gatherd together at the table that night for a lovely cultural meal which inculded a daily Indial meal, some snacks, a French dessert, a Polish soup and of course the French wine! And funnily, French was the "international language" here and not English!!

It's just incredible the speed at which time flies! It's already the 15th day of June and which means only 15 days to go back to PUNE!!!

But at this very moment am in such a mixture of emotions... Almost 9 months have passed since I left Pune to come to Bourges, France. The first month of feeling sad of having left behind all the near and dear ones thousands of miles away was soon over with the mesmirising discoveries of beautiful French cities, maginificent country side, cheeses and wines!! The first ever trip to Lyon with Preets gave me a fair idea of how my holidays were gonna be in France! I had only one motive in mind, use to the most this stay in France... discover new cities, countries and experience the thrill of doing everything on my own. I always had this on my mind that such an opportunity may never come along... And I am happy that decided to bear this attitude! It really helped me!

Just after starting the discoveries came the depressing yet fascinating winter! The winter in France and for that matter in all over Europe this year was very harsh. The most harsh winter in past 30 years... People were telling me that I had not chosen the best year to visit France!! It was that bad! Before coming to Bourges the lowest temperatures I had experienced was 6.20 degree celcius in Pune! Here on the normal winter day the temperature would be 1 degree celcius and on the worst day it would go down uptill -16!!! The initial sickness, toothaches and headaches made me hate that cold like anything and I cried and longed to go back to home!! But then slowly I got used to the cold, the darkness and the dullness that I even started liking it! France has been a place of a lot of "first times" for me!! The first ever snow fall, the charm of "white beauty", the first freezing experience of '-' temperatures, the first ever true Chirstmas celebrations, the first shopping at "Marche de Noël", the first participation in the kool and awesome French family reunions which are always followed by long meals and gifts proved my decision of not going back to India in December all the more correct! After the French fun it was time for some Puneri fun with Kedar and Aashish. Along with this the discovery of French citites continued!

Brest, one of the western most cities of France was deeply affected by the world wars. Unlike the other French cities which I had visited so far, Brest was totally different. It didn't have all those medevial churches and small, cute houses. It was quite modern. It's one of the important French ports. The nice parks, good bus system and a different and sauvage paysage really impressed me...Along with the usual siteseeing what we were more interested was in having fun together! It was after almost 2-3 years that the Friends from Pune were meeting, but in France!! This Brest trip gave the enough tonic to survive for the next cold months of Jan and Feb!

As the only importat step for my next years admission at one of the best universities in France and probaly in the world, I gave one real tough exam to taste my proficiency in French language... the DALF C1. This killer exam really took it's toll on my health! The stress, the tension, the expenses, the difficulty of the exam and all the going to Paris stuff was so exhausting that I fell sick! Oh well, of course the excitement of the most awesome trip so far got me back on track! Suisse, Italy and Greece were calling us!!

I shall upadte about the trip later in detail... :)