Certified crazy

Calvin: This piece of pie is awfully darn small!

Calvin’s Mom: Life could be a lot worse, Calvin.

Calvin: Life could be a lot better too! … But worse is more likely.

There’s Treasure Everywhere p121

Source: Wikiquote

Eu não existo longe de você
E a solidão, é o meu pior castigo
Eu conto as horas pra poder te ver
Mas o relógio tá de mal comigo…

Por quê? Por quê?

Paris – check
Eiffel Tower – check
Arc de Triomphe – check
Champes Elysees – check
Musee d’Orsay – uncheck
Musee de Louvre – uncheck
Hagen Das triple scoop ice cream – check
Gare du Nord – check
Onion Uttappam in Paris – check
Rosgullas from Paris – check
Sunday morning mass at Notre Dame – check (in French though)
Brunch at a French Patisserie – check

Paris is Grand! And charmingly beautiful in its own way. It is very much like Mumbai though – people are always in a hurry, well most of the times.

It was an early winter in Paris – too cold, but I ain’t complaining. Maple leaves everywhere. With less than 30 hours on hand, I tried to feel Paris. A lot more to be seen, a lot more to be heard. May be, some other time, some other season.

Did I mention that most of the tourist places checked above were done on a cold, windy evening, without a proper overcoat, in a saree?

Crazy.

Last friday we decided to beat the boredom of not having anything to do, with a trip to nearby Antibes. It was fun learning the bus routes (the wrong way )

Antibes is a quaint little town and we thoroughly enjoyed passing around, smelling good food, posing with BMW motorbikes, running down races and practicing some horrible, horrible French. All in all, a fun weekend Some pictures are here.

Now, off to Paris tomorrow morning. Hopefully, some good touristy pictures coming soon

I left home yesterday night to get a Masters degree at Eurecom, Sophia-Antipolis, near Nice, France. The first flight to London was good (and yeah, I did not require a transit visa – Thanks guys!) The one from London to Nice was even better.

First impressions of Nice – Wow! (The shoreline is beautiful!) It looked as though the pilot is going to land on water! (Thankfully, he didn’t) It is very quiet here – its taking time to adjust to silence.

Now, we await the shifting from the hotel to the residence in a few days’ time. Pictures will be up soon. For the moment, I’m on an insanely expensive wi-fi connection.

In other news, I’m off to Paris next weekend. In another news, I have openSuse on my laptop now – Thanks to Mrugesh!

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

- William Blake

Its a wonderful feeling, when, in a random city, at a random place, a random stranger sings out loud one of your most loved songs, to the whole restaurant. And that too, beautifully.

Amazing, what such small things in Life can do to you.

A quick update on what I have been up to:

• Took a train with Aanjhan to Pune last Friday, to meet Runa, Sankarshan and Ramkrsna. Train route was amazing. Need to take the train next time.
• Talking to random people in a train and passing time is simply awesome. Like one of them said, 77 INR, not bad at all!
• Went to Raigad and Mulshi lake. Both are awesome places to be in. Check flickr streams here, here and here.
• Runa treated us to some awesome home cooked bengali meal.
• Ramki treated us to some more of his uncle jokes.
• Sankarshan threated me and ramki with “Don’t move a muscle” while the 5 of us travelled up the mountain in a 4 seater ropeway car

A much needed vacation well spent.

http://xkcd.com/433/