Ashwin in Paris - 1

Paris is about 300km from Brussels. There are two preffered modes of transport to Paris from Brussels. One is the train and the other one is bus. There is a very famous train called Thalys that runs betweenParis and Brussels. It is very expensive if you book your tickets very close to the date of travel. The journey takes around 1.75 hours. The rate of ticket just two days before our journey was 58 euros (one way) per head. The other mode is bus. There are several travel agencies that run their busses between Paris and Brussels. It is relatively less expensive, rather very cheap. We booked our tickets just one day before our journey date and it costed us 51 euros (to and fro) per head. We used eurolines. The bus journey takes about 3.5 hrs.

We left Brussels by bus at around 1930 hrs on December 1. We reached Paris (rather the outskirst of Paris) at about 2245. This is a place called Galeni. People at south India can compare it to CMBT and people at north India can compare it to ISBT...

So finaly we reached Paris..........
What next?...............Keep checking this space......Till then good bye.........:-)

Ashwin in Paris

I went to Paris on December 1, 2006. I thought that I would share my experience in Paris with my near and dear ones. So I started this series called "Ashwin in Paris" through mails about 2 years ago. Though I started this with much enthusiasm, I could not keep alive my interest to write for a long time. I stopped the series very soon and thus I could not share the experience of whole trip. This post in anyway, is not going to complete that series but it is just an attempt to keep this blog alive. I am posting the contents of those mails here and I hope that by the time I share with you, all the mails regarding my trip to Paris, I will be ready with something new.

For those who have already read my series "Ashwin in Paris", it will be like a refresher, for others it will be an interesting read (at least I hope so).

Keep watching this space for more...

Plague

This is the first poem that I wrote in my life, way back on October 11, 1994. Though the title is in English, the poem is a Hindi poem.
Plague को हव्वा मत बनाईये,
न डरिये और न दूसरों को डरायिये।
दवाईयों का stock घर में मत बढाईये
ज़रुरतमंदों को मत तडपायिये।
चूहों को मार कर सड़क पर मत छोड़ जाईये,
उसपर flint छिड़ककर उसे जलाईये।
आसपास गन्दगी मत फैलाईये,
वातावरण को स्वच्छ बनाईये।
बस इन सावधानियों पर अमल फरमाईये,
अपने घर, वातावरण, शहर को सुखी पाईये।
Plague का भी इलाज है जनाब,
इसे लाइलाज मान कर मत घबराईये आप।

अब बिलकुल अकेला है....

चलते चलते एक दिन, यूँ ही उन से टकरा गए।
मुलाकातें बढ़ी, बातें बढ़ी, न हुई ख़बर अनजाने ही, कब उनके करीब आ गए।

जब भी हो मुलाकात, यह दिल धड़कता था।
न मिल पाये किसी दिन उनसे, यह दिल तड़पता था।

न सोचा था होगी हमको भी किसी से मोहब्बत।
इस कदर खींचेगी हमको भी किसी की चाहत।

प्रेम के पंछी ने अपना पंख जो फैलाया।
इस दिल की उड़ान में, आखिर एक हमसफ़र पाया।

यह सोच कर, अक्सर नहीं होता है यह प्यार,
बिना समय गवाए हमने भी कर दिया इश्क का इज़हार।

पर कमज़ोर था यह इश्क, जो नहीं हुई कुबूल।
अब समझाना था मुश्किल दिल को, जिसने की थी यह भूल।

हमने तो चाहा था दिल ही से, पर हमें यह मोहब्बत रास न आई।
जितना चाहा, वोह करीब हों, उतनी ही हमने दूरी पायी।

अब वोह सपना ही लगता है, यादें भी हुई धुंदली।
दिमाग ही नहीं, दिल भी करता है विश्वास, कोई मुझसे नहीं थी मिली।

यह चाहत, क्या सागर है या कोई मेला है?
मेरा दिल जो निकला था बेफिक्री में, अब बिकुल अकेला है, अब बिलकुल अकेला है....

PS: It took me more than a year to finish this, though bulk of it was written even before I started blogging. I was not able to give it a meaningful ending. Though I still feel that the ending could be better, but I thought, it was stupid to keep it incomplete for such a long time. So I sat for almost 2 hours today and finally finished it.
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