And it has been eons since I logged into blogger and certainly a lot of things have changed since then. Firstly I was welcomed by an unknown blogger.com interface when I suddenly realised that the default language of my blogger account had suddenly changed into French by some voodoo magic all of a sudden. While till the last time I posted in this blog it welcomed me with a happy "New Post" link, it now decided to welcome me with a "Nouveau Message" link. And this was one of the last things that could have changed because suddenly everything beside me has happily decided to change itself into French. And apart from the popup which says "Now Blogger saves your drafts automatically!" and the things that I have scribbled over here everything near me is horribly French, even the Diet Coke bottle that I am using as a water bottle these days has every information written in French. The worst is the keyboard which I am using presently, its one of those French keyboards wherein the @ button is where the " button should be and vice versa and suddenly learning French seems to be the priority of the minute because I have somehow landed up in France.
Its been long since I applied for the French work permit thanks to a project that I was working on for a French client. And finally I got a stamped visa, the very first one on the passport that took me some 5 months to get thanks to the capriciousness of the passport issuing authorities. So here I am in the land of fashion, the Eiffel tower, the Louvre, the Roland Garros and Fashion TV trying to adjust to 17 hours of sunligt and a sun that does not want to set till 10:30 at night. So after a irritating wait for more than 5 months to procure the work permit that seemed to take the Fench authorities as much time to process as an Atal Behari speech I landed up here after seeing most of India ( considering my visa interview was in Mumbai and my work place is Bangalore and my home is at Kolkata and my flight was from Delhi) I landed here last Sunday in an Air France that seemed to be so huge as to fit in an entire playground of people with temperatures that were 10-11 degrees centigrade.
I got my reservations done at the Indian hostel in the Cite Universitaire area of Paris and straight out of the airport I had to wait for some 2 hours before I finally could find someone to open the door for me for the hostel. Finally an old lady, a doctor by profession who had some very strong views about corruption in India and who was very usure if opening up the gate for me could land her up in serious trouble decided to chit chat with me finally giving me an entry to the hostel. The best part was the chance of being driven in a Mercedes at 120 kmps/hr from the airport to the hostel and loving every bit of the journey which cost a whooping 53 euros (close to INR 3500). And since then life has been about discovering the Paris way of life. It is about reading maps and getting used to the zone system of the local trains called RER. It is about sharing kitchens with a bunch of Indians and cooking together (includeds 3 more bengalis). It is about discovering different Indian things in the shops of a place called Gare du Nord. It is about paying 2.5 euros for a cup of tea and fretting about it. It is about being mesmerized by the serendipitous feeling of discovering a park with a big lake in it just next to the hostel. It is about getting complimentary newspapers in French and trying to solve the Sudoku on the way to office trying to avoid being crushed in the RER crowd. And it is also about being mesmerized working in La Defense area of Paris among high rises and the Grande Arche. And finally before I push off here are some pics of the place that I am working at....more to come...
