The carp learns to grow!

Since Assaf stopped in Paris on his way to Israel from New York for his wedding, we are having lots of outings and picnics, as I wrote in my earlier blog; he always has a special way to get people closer and builds bridges between people. Today we had lab’s day (evening out) next to the river seeing beautiful sunset with some food, drinks and with some serious food for thought. As I was explaining him how my days went after he left Paris, I realized that I have stopped dreaming, and trying to protect myself from disappointments and that made me think a lot about dreams, and it’s a mere coincidence that I read this following story by Paulo Coelho, just few minutes back as my bed time story and above are the photos, that I clicked today evening. Now…here comes the inspiring story…” The carp learns to grow!

The Japanese carp or koi has the natural ability to grow according to the size of its environment. Thus, in a small tank, it usually grows to no more than five to seven centimeters, but if placed in a lake; it can grow to three times that size.

In the same way, people tend to grow according to their environment, although we are not talking here about physical characteristics, but about emotional, spiritual and intellectual development.

While the carp is obliged, for its own well-being, to accept the limits of its world, we are free to set the boundaries of out own dreams. If we are a bigger fish than the tank in which we were bred, instead of adapting to it, we should go in search of the ocean, even if the initial adaptation period proves uncomfortable and painful

Pétanque fever

The world is suffering from the Foot ball fever, and the temperature of this fever had a sharp rise in France as one of match today was played by France which qualified them to enter the second round. But we guys in the lab had the Friday Pétanque fever; Pétanque is a French game, which also now days played in some more countries in Europe. In summer Friday evenings, we have a small lab get together to play this Pétanque, Its played with small metal balls, and its more fun in our lab as every one is from different countries, we have some real international competition . Today the Israel-Spain team won the match and India-USA team was the runner up. French team just won in the foot ball match but lost to us in the Pétanque. The place where we play the match add more interest to the match, of course each stone in Paris have a history to share, we play Pétanque in a Roman Arena close the lab called Arènes de Lutèce, which was built by Romans in Paris in the 1 AD. It’s a really cool place. These are some of the photos taken, while we were playing today and check out these wikipedia links about Pétanque and the Roman Arena.

Fête de la Musique

Today June 21st is the longest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere, here in France, the French celebrate this day as “Fête de la Musique” (Music festival). Musicians of all level and type, perform in streets of Paris, next to the river and in the monuments, even the Indian Meetup association of Paris arranged for some Bollywood music in the foot of Eiffel tower. After work, I went for a walk next to the river and got to listen to nice lively music, it was nice to see people singing and dancing in the streets. My favorite was an Arabic concert in Monde de Arab. Here are some photos taken tonight in the streets of Paris.

Micha hits Century!

In my flickr, within 10 days Micha’s this picture is been viewed 100 times, I know there are many photos in the flickr which are viewed 100s of times, but this is my first century, only this one has been viewed so many times in my complete collection. But I am not sure if it’s My Photography or for canon or for Micha, may be for all three... Right?

I took that in Versailles without his knowledge; he thought I went to buy some gelato ice cream. In connection to my previous blog, this is the lake which is behind the Palace of Versailles where Louis XIV, XV, XVI and Marie-Antoinette lived. You see a very beautiful lake and horizon from this place. I guess this the same favorite place of Marie-Antoinette, where she used to sit and watch the sun rise.

Marie-Antoinette ...

I saw this movie today; It was a virtual vist to French Royal Family! It’s on the queen of France Marie-Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI. It was during their rule the French revolution happened. And both this queen and the king were guillotined in Paris. I was touched by few aspects of the movie, the movie beautifully shows the ‘Rich French Culture’ and the beautiful palace of Versailles. Versailles which is a suburb of Paris, which still attracts thousands of tourists every year, has a very rich/sad story behind it. My recent visit to Versailles made me appreciate this movie more. Later as an after-shock, I was reading a lot about the king, queen and the French revolution, I was bit shocked to read that my favorite square in Paris, Place de la Concorde is the place where they had the guillotine installed during the revolution and many royal people were including this king and queen were guillotined. I was Shocked to know that these two lovely places, Versailles and Place de la Concorde have some royal blood strains on them. That’s the place of Versailles and the place de la Concorde picture taken by Priya. Check out the more Versailles photo in the flickr. I guess this movie is yet to be released in US and India, Check it out! Ullas and Priya, dont miss it! I am sure you guys will appricate it more as a after impact of your Versailles and Paris Visit!

Canon SLR!

Guys! I got a new (old) Canon SLR (Film) camera from e-bay for a very cheap deal. I played around with it during my last two weekend trips in Belgium and Versailles. Its not as economical as digital, but I learnt a ‘cheap’ trick from my photography guru Arjun, to scan the negatives using the scanner, so I just develop the Film and scan it to the computer without printing it. But it took almost a week to learn it, here are some scanned to my flickr...Click..Click.. and that’s an ugly self portrait using my SLR.

Weather update!

Paris is getting absolutely wonderful, slightly touching 20 degrees, with long days..sun light till 10 in the night, people are just crowding next to the river after the work with bottle of wine and beer and friends to get some chill air from the river, yeah! I took those pictures during my previous picnics last week. More over I can keep the huge window of my 6^th floor apartment open, nice to sleep next to this tiny balcony in the moon light counting stars. Paris spring... short and sweet !

Thirukural Lady!

Thirukural is one of the oldest works in Tamil literature . Its composed of 1330 verses written Thiruvalluvar, I like the one which talks about helping others, the best way to help someone is by comprehend the need of the person, and help them even before the person asks for it and helping without expecting anything in return nor using this deed (helping) to feed your ego. It’s very very rare to see such things happening, in this fast world, if we ever wait to analyze a person, it may to find faults with the him/her. We hardly have time to look into the needs of the person. But in Bruges, I met such a nice lady, living upto Thriukural, the Dutch Lady I met in the ferry from Bruges to Damme, working in the bar in the lower deck of the ferry, treating the people with a genuine smile and coffee and snacks. I had almost an hour chat with her, got to know how much she put her heart and soul into the work, and giving all possible tips about the region to the tourist, to make the best out of place they are visiting.

Beautiful Belgium!

This weekend, I was roaming around in the Belgium. It’s my first Solo trip, It was not that difficult as I was imagining. I started on Saturday morning from Brussels, I was walking around the classical center of the city, visited the comic strip museum, Belgium the birthplace of Tintin and many other comic characters, the museum beautifully shows the history of comics and cartoon. Late in the afternoon I took the train to go to the most beautiful place I have ever seen, Bruges. I was not able to believe if such a beautiful place can ever exist. Canals crossing all over the small town, the buildings built in a classical theme. This several thousand old town had many small interesting stories to tell. The next day morning came took a small ferry to go to the country side a small village called Damme. Hiered a bike and went on biking, I was just asking for directions to explore the beautiful country side, they said if I just follow the canal for 30 min, I will reach Netherlands.(Well this is called cross country biking. ;-) The most impressing part of this country side is the wind mill, which is still functional, grinds Kgs and Kgs of wheat everyday it seems. Check out the photos in online Album! – Beautiful Belgium!

Crazy Weather!

Check this today's Weather forecast in Google! Last few days the weather is completely messy and crazy in Paris, Its June but still the weather refusing to touch two digits! Still with winter dress and heaters on!...Its just Crazy!