EuroTrip - Day 71

Happy Birthday Creamiii

Now you might want to question what kind of name Creamiii is! I let you take the freedom. I can just tell you that it is outcome of a limited creativity on part of a bunch of drunk tuchchas. I thank god that they were sane enough to give me as decent a name as Boondiii. Talking about Creamiii, this guy 'Ankur' was the first soul I met in IIMA. He had been allotted D3-R22 and he had settled there by the time I reached my room D3-R23. Impressive arrangement in the room, I must say. He was to be my neighbor for next two years. In next couple of weeks, I realized that I was surrounded by some of the best souls in this campus. In next couple of months GMBC.inc was born in the D3 dungeon and we all became part of it. GMBC has spent crazy times together as one gang. And I know we will continue to do it for a long time.

Today there is one branch of it open in Paris with Ankit, Ankur and Me as its members. GMBC.eu lets call it. We had some really amazing moments during the Barcelona trip and now it was time to celebrate a very special moment. It was Ankur's birthday yesterday and we just could not miss a chance to do the ritualistic birthday bumps. And then there is always a birthday treat. Aur phir birthday treat ke liye to ham kuch bhi kar sakte hai. :D

So we met. For a lavish lunch and then for a trip to the city of Paris (for Ankur, who lives in a village/subrub, Paris is actually a different city). We employed our best cooks (read me) and made a grand lunch - HotTiii's Tadka Daal, chawal and PJ's special Aloo sabji. Son papadi to end the lunch on a sweeter note (it's very difficult to find eggless cakes you know!). And we ate like kings. I hope Ankur liked the food coz I know others (read my roommates) are too indifferent of my cooking skills.

Our tourist day was going to guided by a shopping list that had arrived from India. Start with Arce de Triomphe, then a walk through Avenue des Champs-Élysées followed by some peaceful moment at Grande Arche, back to some (window) shopping at Galeries Lafayette and then end of the day at Eiffel Tower enjoying the light show - that was the plan.

Now If I can take the freedom, let me talk about two new entities that got mentioned in this list. This is just for the sack of completeness.

Arce de Triomphe - it is a replica of India Gate (or was it the other way?? Whatever!!). A huge gate and a small amar jawan jyoti in the mid. Unlike India Gate, you can get close to the gate and actually can go up too. There will be hundreds of tourists on either side, you being one amongst them.

Avenue des Champs-Élysées: It's the luxury street of the Paris. The who-s-who of retail brands have their outlets here to make their presence felt. Louis Vuitton has one of its biggest showroom on this street. There is Lido and a couple of theaters. And there are various galleries that are actually big malls in themselves. The best place to window shop coz everybody knows that they just can not afford to buy anything (unless of course if you are a Japanese tourist or a winner from 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'.). Still there are shops where you enter and there are shops where you don't even dare to enter. This is the beauty of the human psychology behind retail. I remember one of the post I wrote about a quote from Maximum City. Read the post here.

Amidst those shops selling dreams, we spotted a Starbucks Coffee. It was time to fulfil one of our dreams. To have a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Such an insignificant dream na? I don't deny that. Read the title of my blog and you will know I am a man who cherishes 'little moments of joy'. Starbucks is at the forefront of retailers who are selling experience and after hearing so much about it in all those classes of marketing and strategy, I had to feel it first hand. Luckily, other two guys felt the same way and we were right there in the queue ordering our first cup of Startbucks Coffee. Anything great? Not love at first sight, I can tell for sure. For anything beyond that, I will have to have more such dates. I had my fun at Starbucks and that is more than enough. Sometimes the people around you make a lot of difference. A great company can make it a memorable day. I am on my way to another such day, I am pretty sure.

An untimely rain almost spoilt our plan to walk till Grande Arche and we had to detour and take train to Galeries Lafayette but not before having a good look at the festive events and exhibition shops. It's Xmas time, every nook and corner of this street seems to say you. Ho ho ho.. Santa can come anytime.

To our bad luck, Galeries Lafayette remains closed on a Sunday. Unbelievable but true. Here they still respect work life balance and shops do get closed on atleast one day in the week. It was still a good place to be nonetheless. There were amazingly beautiful decoration done on the facade as well as on the displays along the wall. And street artists had captured the space to entertain the tourists like us. A couple of magical moments and work of art captured and collected for memories and we proceeded on our way to Gare Du Nord. A nice south Indian dinner was waiting for us in some restaurant. Masala Dosa and Sambhar Vada are delicacies that we have been missing for over two months now. Today it was the occasion to treat ourselves. The treat was on Ankur afterall. :D I can tell you the Dosa was as good as you will get in most part of India. Thin and Crisp. You could not ask for more.

PooCh and me were reached Eiffel just in time for the 8pm special light and sound show. Sadly Ankur had to leave for his village (or subrub whatever it is) and could not come to Eiffel. This was the second time I was coming to Eiffel and was third time I was to form an opinion for his beauty. It looks simply stunning in those dancing lights. No monument can beat its beauty at that very moment. An engineering marvel from last century meets the latest technology from today to create a marvelous experience. These light and sound performances are being done every night to commemorate something. Do try to make it to Eiffel by 8pm if you can. You will never forget what you get to see.

From Paris

Paris is turning out to be a real fun city. There are so many things that you can explore and visit only if you plan to spend plenty of time in this city. For once, I am really happy that I chose a college that is situated right in the mid of this city. I wouldn't have got a chance to see all these places and get these experience if I had been to any other place. I am really happy we decided to spend today like this. It was a day worth every moment. I hope we made it special for Ankur too. It was his belated birthday you know!

ps:Experience makes a man perfect. See today how safely I described Eiffel's beauty without mixing it up in any comparison to my fiancee. :)

ps2: The ritual birthday bumps are still pending. We did not know if it was safe enough to beat a living person like the way we do it in campus. You never know the laws in a foreign land. The wooden floor does not help in such matter too. pata nahi kab toot jaaye.... So the rituals will be completed in India with celebrations with a formal invitational ppt and cakes.