Ritzy Zurich!

4.5 hours to go before we wake up to do a quick check of packed baggage and put in last minute items like toothbrush, make-up, etc.

We got back from Zurich late Friday night, so things have been slightly hectic. Zurich was hot and not-so-exciting! I am on no. 4 in my Tiffany-spotting (inspired by breakfast at Tiffany's)also for the first time I saw Louis Vuitton bags carried by regular people, 3 on the same day.

The city is a strange mix of German, French and Italian cultures. They are as curt as the Germans, as lavish as the French and as crooked as the Italians! They say 'guten tag' when you walk in, 'Merci' when you pay the bill and 'Ciao' when you leave! Now I shall decode these greetings to you- the first being 'whatever', second one is 'thanks for spending all that shit load of money on crap' and the third one means 'you're such a fool you don't even realize you have been ripped off'

Looking at how expensive the city is I wonder how much money Yash Chopra spends while shooting in these Locations!!!

Now, don't get me wrong, it's not that I hated the city. It's safe and hip and a very convenient city. On a clear day you can see snow-capped Alps against the blue-blue sky and pretty white swans in the sea. The parks are lush and green and streets are a beautiful mix of German and Italian architecture. The sloping back lanes with colourful Italian style buildings and tiny little restaurants with chairs laid out into the streets took me back to Venice and Florence. A couple of Museums (Rietberg and Kunsthaus), although tiny compared to MoMA/Louvre/MET, had some great collections and were very comfortable to be in because they were devoid of any crowd!

The vibrant hum of conversation and smooth-flowing wines was very different from where we live. The mix of cultures here have given way to a sort of fusion cuisine. The food was awesome albeit poverty causing.

Anyway, one probably has to say to themselves in a very DDLJ like manner ' ise bade bade deshon mein aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hai'

And now I only have 3.5 hrs left to wake up which means I have to sleep! Over and out.

Comments

Kuntala said…
Beautiful picture Raka. iis, ki sundor desh dekhchho, hingse hochhe :(
May 31, 2010 at 3:17 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And when white moths were on the wing

The best thing about good movies are that no matter how many times you watch them there's always something new that you had not noticed the previous times. It's like peeling an onion only much more pleasant. This time it's The Bridges of Madison County : Robert and Francesca discuss Yates and a while later Francesca goes and pastes a note on the side of the bridge, I could never read what was written on the note because it fades away to quickly. This time I paused to read it, it had a quote from The Song of Wandering Aengus. Aengus is an Irish Mythic character and "probably a god of love, youth and poetic inspiration" and Robert Kincaid is of Irish descent. I think there was a connection made with that poetry and the story of Kincaid. He is an old man and finally found the woman he has dreamt of all his life, tired of all the wandering a being a "citizen of the world" he wants to settle down with this woman but he can't have her. It's a beautif
Read more

Benimadhab Benimadhab

Never in my worst nightmares have I ever imagined writing anything titled "Benimadhab Benimadhab". Bengalis who listen to modern bengali music must have already guessed what this could be about but I have a story to share. Didibhai used to listen to a lot of music, especially the radio back in the late 1990s. So naturally I had to listen to a lot of music she liked. She was the one to introduce me to all kinds of music that I associate my memories with. I never quite liked the bengali songs she would listen to. Anjan Dutta and Suman and Nachiketa, the cult music of the time. I was too young to appreciate it, I never understood what they were singing about. Today I can appreciate them even if they aren't my preferred choice of music and I believe not my didibhai's either. It has been more than a decade since Lopamudra's famous song Benimadhab aired for the first time on FM. Didibhai bought the cassette but I failed to understand why such a funny old-fashioned name
Read more

Dhobi ka Kutta!

Image
Many of us who live outside our motherlands study at universities abroad, mainly the USA and UK, and Germany is also a popular destination for engineers and Mathematicians. Very often than not we need a certificate of knowledge of English Language in the forms of TOEFL or IELTS to pursue education in these countries. I have never given much thought to this procedure as I understand that English is after all the 1st language in US and UK and it is their mother tongue. But recently while searching for programs in German Universities I realized that most courses are taught in German, therefore to study them you need certificate of knowledge of German Language and for the courses taught in English you need a TOEFL or IELTS certification; it suddenly struck me that we (especially Indians)do such injustice to ourselves India is one of the very few countries that has a very strong background of English language knowledge in spite of it not being OUR mother tongue. Some of us actually speak be
Read more