First impressions

Greetings everyone from a hot and sunny Paris! After 8 hours of traveling on a flight to get here, I reached safely on the 11th afternoon. Thanks for all your emails and messages, I’m doing very well.
So , my dear friends, this is a relation of my adventures so far…

I arrived at the Mumbai airport at 4am with all of my 60 kilos in check-in luggage. (Learning number 1: However many times officials confirm your weight allowance- don’t believe it unless its written down!!) So, unfortunately, I had to leave behind 14 kilos comprising certain essentials (?!) for my Paris existence- viz: a pressure cooker, hair dryer, books etc. Travelling light is an art that I am still to learn!

On the flight, it turned out that my dad knew a pilot who knew the commander of the aircraft and I was upgraded to First Class on Air India :) So I spent 8 hours on the flight sipping on my wine and having caviar! To my pleasant surprise, my neighbor on the sofa behind me in first class was none other than the famous Indian lyricist and script writer- Gulzar! Poor guy, Im sure he wanted to have a nap on the flight but was too distracted by my gasps as we flew across the Mediterranean sea and the Balkans. Nevertheless, I think I made the flight a little more interesting for him too.

When I arrived, I was ushered to my new (temporary) home at the India house in the Cite Universitaire campus in Paris and whisked around to get the basics to set up a life in this city. The Notre Dam, the Metro, the Champs Elysees- its amazing how much you can squeeze into 24 hours!



The first weekend that I arrived was the 14th of July- the French Independence day! The day started off with a parade on the Champs Elysees followed by a concert sponsored by Sarkozy under the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower. About 600, 000 people turned up to groove to the beats of Nelly Futardo, Bob Sinclair and an old favourite French singer- Polnareff. Post this, there were fireworks to the tune of music just behind the Eiffel tower! I even begin to describe how spectacular the sight was.. Please check the pictures on my flickr badge alongside- however, even the pictures don’t do justice!

After a brilliant start to my life in Paris, I began work at Alcatel Lucent. As an incredibly huge office, with departments and sub-departments , the atmosphere is completely different to what I am used to. So far, so good- friendly people, a challenging assignment and an interesting time to be in the company with the newly formed merger.

To say the very least, my first week in Paris has been exhilarating and everything that I expected it to be. I hope my chain of good luck continues!
This blog will now have a second life- and I intend to post soon. For pictures and comments, please check my flickr badge alongside. Mail me!