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 13 February 2003
Liebe Freunde, ('Dear friends' in German!) Wishing you all a lovely Valentine's day! Another day in your lovely life to express that you truly love your valentine. Columbia Shuttle - A tragedy on space! Seven passion-driven great souls disappeared in thin air. Occasion like this tells us that advancements made in the fields of space technology notwithstanding, still man is at the nature's mercy. As the movie '2001 - A space Odyssey!' puts it: "Despite achievements in space, man is still like fish out of water in space; No air to breath; Floating in space like a baby". Both India & US are happy & proud that Kalpana Chawla was among (us) them. In fact, she was a Global.. no Universal Citizen. When she was up there in space, she was able to see the whole world in a size of a ball, there are no way to tell where the boundaries are between the countries. Just a huge ball in the space among millions of such balls like stars, planets etc. May
her (& others) soul rest in peace!!
Initial Hiccups! Paris - Most famous & beautiful city in the world. Paris was my top destination ever since I landed here. So, along with my parents & friends, I started to plan for the Paris trip.
Initially, I mailed a Bus Travel Agency for the 4-day trip to Paris three weeks before the long holiday, asking for reservation. You can confirm the booking by paying for their account in ur bank. (app. 900 Euros) Meanwhile, train looked a better & cheap option, so we booked in a special offer & paid for it. Fours days before the travel, it occurred to me that I should cancel the bus reservation. Well, I informed them through mail and subsequently called them up. Travel Agency : "We got ur mail
to cancel the reservation. Fine, you can cancel it. But pl. send the cheque
for 80% (around 600 Euros!)"
First hand experience of German way of working. After discussing with friends, decided to take the bus trip instead of Train. I went to Railway station to cancel the train tickets. Railway Station:
Till we start, we couldn't find any one to buy any of the tickets. Decided to take the Bus with train tickets being the backup. It was a 8-hour journey from Stuttgart to Paris. It's very much like our Private Interstate bus services. Get in at 8 PM in the evening from Stuttgart, Jump out at 6 AM in Vienna or Paris or Venice. (I told you Europe is like India, size wise) Paris- Finally!
 Entering into Paris, we found the whole city jammed with Traffic, thanks to strike by a group of dissatisfied employees. Hey, I have seen such traffic congestion back in India.("Paris streets and traffic is no different from our cities" - My mother) To add to woes, we were asked to walk to our hotel due to traffic problems. (around 20 min walk) To top it all, our hotel was situated in the area resembling a downtown in US. Handful of African friends with Hey-I-am-going-to-grab-your-bag-and-run look, it wasn't a great first impression of Paris, the most beautiful City of the world. (Supposedly!) Later that evening, we went to a walking
tour. It included the Music school where Leonardo Da Vinci had worked,
Moulin Rouge (Nicole Kidman -starred), a Cafe featured prominently in the
French movie "Amelie" (that was pitted against Lagaan in last year Oscars!)
etc.
Is this Paris? What about all the books, poets who were full of praise & hype for this city? Am I wrongly informed? May be I have not seen much of Paris yet? or NOT?
to be continued...
My most brilliant achievement
was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.
To keep your marriage brimming,
with love in the wedding cup, whenever you're wrong, admit it; whenever
you're right, shut up.
I was nauseous and tingly all
over. I was either in love or I had smallpox.
You don't love a woman because
she is beautiful, but she is beautiful because you love her.
********************************************** That's all folks!! ciao! Your Friend,
Check the response for the
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Cut&Pasteright Euro Times 2002
