Paris - Week 2

Week 2 in Paris

Day 8: Tragic news...and an Italian dinner

This is to pay homage to Anand Prakash, a dear friend from RV who passed away on Friday evening in a road accident. He was my lab partner in RV and together we have shared some very memorable times...May your soul rest in peace buddy and I pray for strength and courage to your near and dear ones.

Had a royal case of Monday morning blues...the rain outside didn't help. Anyways, left for office by around 9.30...didn’t have much work in the morning since my workload for the week is decided in a meeting that happens post lunch..so Monday morning in general is when I complete work I could not finish last week or like today, update my blogs and do some general time pass. Lunch today was just awful!!!! They had put meat in all of the salads...who on earth eats coleslaw with raw beef pieces! All I could salvage was a plate full of raw cucumber and a dessert (thankfully, that was sans meat!). JP gave me his portion of fries so in all I managed to fill myself. Post lunch, had my weekly status meeting and then did a lil more work. Spoke to an old friend, Bindu for a while. I was quite shaken by the news abt Anand, so speaking to Bindu helped me feel better. Thanks di! JP had some last minute shopping to do so we headed to Champs Elysses (where else!)...and went to Sephora and bought all the requisites. Reached home by around 10.

Had promised the lads an Italian dinner so started working on my promise. In the meanwhile, JP started packing my stuff. JP is leaving tomorrow (boo hoo!) so I was moving into his room. This exercise was for many reasons. Firstly, his room is bigger since it doesn’t have a balcony. I have spent a total of 15mins in the balcony in the past 1 week so it’s a waste of space for me. Secondly, my room is on the topmost floor of the hotel so it gets heated up quickly. Thirdly, Sachin lives across the hall from my new room so it’s safer as well. And most importantly, this room has double the closet space of my existing room. For those of you who are familiar with my clothes fetish, you can well imagine what a relief this was for me. Anyways, 2 hours later, we had an Italian feast of Penne in Arabiata sauce and Alfredo sauce with garlic bread on the side. It looked totally scrumptious and tasted quite good, if I say so myself. Post dinner, washed all the vessels, moved most of my luggage to Sachin's room and slept at 3.

Finito Day 8

Day 9: In mourning

This week seems to have a ghastly ring about it! But today's mourning was coz JP was leaving. He was brilliant company for a week and now he is going away (waaaaaaaaaaah!). Got up early so that I could chat with him and all the time, he was like Amu, don’t get into trouble. I think he managed to convey the same message in 8 different ways! (at least it seemed that way). So, another new entry into the ever growing list of people who believe, that wherever Amu goes, trouble follows. Why? Why? Why?

Anyways, moved all my stuff into Sachin's room and left for the office. Was super tired coz of all the moving around and late nights. Reached home early and again unpacked all my stuff. Sachin made a yummy potato sambhar and rice so ate that and then we decided to go for a walk and explore the area near our hotel. Our findings included a KFC, MacD and Pizza Hut along with loads of local fast food joints offering every possible cuisine from Italian to Chinese to Japanese and even Turkish! We returned by around 1 and tachi...

Day 10: We like to carry our world with us..

Sachin and I are planning a trip up north to the Brittany coast this weekend. We needed a car for this purpose so we took an extended lunch break and decided to go to Clichy in the north of Paris. We had the joy of travelling in an RER which is a double decker train. I could barely contain my childish joy..but it moves real slowly so it took us an hour to reach Clichy...Walked around till we found the address we were looking for and it turns out you need an international license to drive in France which neither Sachin nor I possessed. So that! Totally sucks..puts a spoke in many wheels...anyways headed back to the office. I was already exhausted but managed to get some work done nonetheless...

In case you're wondering abt the title of this day, here it comes. One of my colleagues is returning to India today so he wanted to distribute his extra groceries. Very sweet thought. And Sachin and I got the lion's share since we are staying so long. OMG!!! this guy had literally brought India to Paris..every little essential you might need including saumph, varieties of sambhar/rasam powder....and some powders of questionable origin!!! Im pretty im done with grocery shopping for the rest of my trip here...but nice gesture so I thank this dear colleague if mine as well...But it is true that we Indians literally carry our world with us wherever we go...the maggi and the MTR powders form an essential part of our luggage..Guess its coz the vegetarians like me would starve otherwise...

Anyways, arranged everything in my lil kitchen and my home for the next 3 months is set!

End if Day 10

Day 11: You and I.....in this beautiful world...

Got a SIM card today...so feel like humming the Hutch song..I am connected again ppl..shall mail across the number soon enough...did nothing else today..work was a disaster!!!!nothing seems to be working...I have 50% of this week's work target to achieve...am just waiting for that wave of panic to set in...which results in frenzied activity and then everything gets done...I cant work without pressure..maybe I am a mutant...maybe I'm human...