Monday Blues!

End of very exhausting working weekend, well! Working will not be that exhausting but end of weeks of work if you find yourself in square one, it is very depressing! And when you are depressed the stupid mind trys to recall all the incidents since your childhood which made you cry and cry for all the people you have lost in the life, yesterday night I was exactly doing that! Paris is the 15th city that I am living since I was born, on an average I have not lived more than 2 to 3 years in a town. So I cried for almost all the people I lost from the past towns and cities I lived. I started adapting my language to communicate with the people I am interacting with me now, so me and my lost people have grown apart so much that we may not be even speaking the same language anymore and my new language don’t have enough vocabulary to describe my lost cities and people to my new city and people!

petit monsieur

I recently read an article about travelling and they say that the worlds best travellers are the Japanese. Yesterday, after hearing two generation of the travelling stories from my Japanese friend Toru , I should say indeed they are the best travellers. More than 32 years back (before Toru was born) Toru's grandfather Mr.Yamasaki, a retired high school art teacher, also fondly called as 'petit monsieur', started travelling around the world with is painting kit and frozen the colours of Europe,Asia and America in his canvas. After 32 years his grandson carrying his grandfather's paintings and photographs is trying to rediscover the places, the people who modeled for the paintings and even some of his grandfathers paintings hanging in in cafes and galleries. It was amazing to see the photos and painting collection of Paris in 70s, believe me nothing changed in Paris for more than 30 years, the streets, the terrace cafe and even the chairs of the garden are just the same. The most impressive part was his grandfather's devotion towards art, when he was 60 he met with an accident and lost the ability to paint with his right hand and so the next 15 years he learned and painted using his left hand it seems! Yesterday evening during our French class farewell drink, Toru showed us two painting books, one with paintings painted using right and the other using the left hand. We had a nice evening talking in french with our french teacher and her friend, who was even able to spot her current appartment in one of 70's paintings!

In the above photo is Mr. Yamasaki painting with his left hand in canal saint-martin, taken in 1976 (photo taken from : http://www.petit-monsieur.com/gallery/index.htm)

Below are some photos from yesterday evening with my french class students and the teacher in the 'intellectual's square' (Place de la Sorbonne ).

Rhythm of life!

Yesterday went to one of the best concert ever! Zakir Hussain played with sarangi and a sitar player ! He show how can we get the rhythm even out of the most chaotic Indian traffic! I am sure we can find a rhythm and a melody even in the most chaotic thing. The melodious rhythm I have in my chaotic, random life are my friends!

Decision Making

I hate cross roads in life, the only place in life where I have to think and make some decisions. I am approaching the next big cross road in life, I have to soon make a decision about what I want to do after my PhD, where I would like to go etc. The very thought of this decision making makes me panic and put me back into those sleepless nights. I started falling in love with Paris, specially because of my friends and a very understanding boss I have here, but still don't have courage to dream about settling down in Paris. I would rather prefer to settle down in a smaller town where people have 'more' time for each other and more closer to nature. The feminine side of me is still looking for the unconditional love and a secured future but the wanderlust in me is tempting me to explore the unknown land, culture and people, which means more cultural confrontations and more struggle. Can we make some logical decisions for our own future? I see my life as a big chaos, how much of thinking and decision making can bring some order in this chaotic life? Well! If I go back little in the past, I never had freedom to take decisions in my life, the society, the culture, my lusts and the people I loved added more and more chaos in my life. Now can I get rid of this factors and make a decision in life?

Sainte Chapelle

I am still enjoying the benefits of my french class, my french teacher organize a beautiful evening in one of the most beautiful chapel I have ever visited. Thanks to her, me and friends got a affordable deal to a classical music (Vivaldi four seasons) concert by 'Les Solistes Français' in this gorgeous venue, Sainte Chapelle. The place and the concert was just breathtaking!