EuroTrip - Day 65

Back To Reality

Back to Paris. To our abode for these three months of EuroTrip. Back to the world where we have a 'home' to go back to at the end of the day. Where we go to college and attend some lectures. Where we need to bother about assignments and attendance. And about the stock of grocery at home and cleaning up of trash from the bins.

This world is not as bad as it might seem from my words. It's just a different world.

It's a world where we bother, just for a moment though, that we have been wearing the same jacket for last two months. And that the jacket is not black in color (Black is 'the color' in Paris). Our appearances do matter here. Even if we don't bother much about it.

It's a world where we bother that if not us, there is someone else in our group who really cares for his/her grades in the course. And we need to work hard that grade.

It's a world that reminds us that life in Europe is more stressful than it appears on the faces of fellow travelers in the places we have been. Tourism has taken a toll on the face of this world. The real self is somewhere hidden behind the mask that a tourism friendly city portrays. One need to stay longer and interact at a deeper level to get to know the real nature of a city.

It's a world where you don't find a single smiling face in the metro train unless that person is on phone chatting with his/her family or loved one. The higher you go on comfort, the lesser you see a friendly face around. It's the same back there in India too. A journey in AC compartment is the most boring of them. I think a traveler loves to share only if there is pain around. Comfort makes him a loner.

Here people are more willing to kiss in public than throw a broad smile on their faces. Take my word - smiles are really rare. It might contradict my earlier observation about this city. However I have to accept that I was wrong to a certain extent.

Here we are so glued to our laptops that we forget that there are other souls around us. The virtual world overshadows the reality.

We are back to a world that is more closer to that back home. The loose threads of email and phone calls are pulling us back to those old days. Days, when we had to bother about our resumes. About the job and the salary it entitled. Bidding points, CGPA, CV Points appear more frequently in our conversations than 2 months ago. We are no more in our dorms but the conversations are same.

We don't know which destination we will go tomorrow. We don't bother about it anymore. May be it's really what they call backpacking. Good or Bad? I don't want to judge. It's just the way it is. And it happened on its own.

We are getting back in form. We are getting back to reality.