Thursday. Paris.
And France finally goes on strike. We've been here since the beginning of September 2008 and this has been the first major strike since our arrival. Today, the 29th of January 2009, teachers, postal workers, railway and airport workers figured among the millions participating in a "manifestation" or demonstration going all the way from the Bastille, down the Grands Boulevards via République, to St. Augustin in the 9th arrondissement. These workers are protesting the general economic climate and several reforms made by the government, which were supposedly made without their consultation. The protest march marks the beginning of a much longer strike in some areas, the universities especially.
Thanks to the grève, I'm sitting at home. My professors at the Sorbonne are both on strike, and I don't know how long this will last. Perhaps two to three weeks, perhaps a month or two. I sincerely hope, however, that it gets over soon. Strikes, in my opinion, are not the best way of protesting something. The reason being the inconvenience caused to everyone else — selfish as this may sound, me included. A protest march like the one today is quite the manner of expressing one's opinion, but a strike over an elongated period of time? Not really.
Bidonvilles, Bombay and Back to Blogging.
Thursday. Paris.
I've just come back from watching Slumdog Millionaire, and felt that I should finally get out of my blogging hibernation and make my first post for 2009.
You've probably been wondering where I've disappeared to since our return from Italy. I was indeed in Paris for a week, playing host and tour guide to my friends Paige (from USC, about to start her semester abroad in Galway, Ireland) and Courtney (from USC as well, just wrapping up her semester in Athens). And then I returned home to Bombay for two weeks. There you go. I also haven't had a chance to write on Bombay post-26/11 (the terrorist attacks), especially after having returned there earlier this month. So here we go.
Going back home after the attacks, I thought it would feel strange, but it really wasn't. It did however feel a bit odd when I walked into the Taj's lobby (one of the hotels under seige during the attacks) to go to one of its restaurants for dinner. It was eerily quiet, and I couldn't help but feel but for a moment that "there could be another terrorist attack tonight." That fleeting thought aside, it seemed as if everything was back to normal. The spectre of the attacks still remains, however, though not so blatantly. Building gates are permanent closed, the security around hotels is akin to that of government buildings, if not tighter.
As for Slumdog Millionaire — I did indeed thoroughly enjoy the movie. It does show the underbelly of Bombay, the part of Bombay which I don't come from and I'm probably ashamed to say that this is as close as I've gotten to these parts of the city as any of you reading it right now. Some critics argue that this portrays the city in a bad light, but I disagree. This is all very much a part of Bombay and an integral facet without which the city cannot exist. This is similar to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in Cidade de Deus. I do agree at the same time that is very much a crowd-pleaser, so I am a tad surprised it's bagged 10 Oscar nominations. Not that it doesn't deserve a single one either.
It was certainly interesting watching a movie about Bombay in Paris among 50 or so other viewers who have probably neither ever been to the city, nor understand a lot of the language used in the film ("Bambaiya" to be precise – a mélange of Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and English and a little bit of other languages thrown in; our own version of Parisian argot if you could call it that ). I felt a little closer to the the content of the movie than any of my fellow viewers, even though I'm far removed from said content in reality. It did, however, remind me that no matter where in the world I may be, I will always have this special connection with the city I love, cheesy as that may sound.
Abhinay's blogging resolve: try to be more regular this semester round.
I've just come back from watching Slumdog Millionaire, and felt that I should finally get out of my blogging hibernation and make my first post for 2009.
You've probably been wondering where I've disappeared to since our return from Italy. I was indeed in Paris for a week, playing host and tour guide to my friends Paige (from USC, about to start her semester abroad in Galway, Ireland) and Courtney (from USC as well, just wrapping up her semester in Athens). And then I returned home to Bombay for two weeks. There you go. I also haven't had a chance to write on Bombay post-26/11 (the terrorist attacks), especially after having returned there earlier this month. So here we go.
Going back home after the attacks, I thought it would feel strange, but it really wasn't. It did however feel a bit odd when I walked into the Taj's lobby (one of the hotels under seige during the attacks) to go to one of its restaurants for dinner. It was eerily quiet, and I couldn't help but feel but for a moment that "there could be another terrorist attack tonight." That fleeting thought aside, it seemed as if everything was back to normal. The spectre of the attacks still remains, however, though not so blatantly. Building gates are permanent closed, the security around hotels is akin to that of government buildings, if not tighter.
As for Slumdog Millionaire — I did indeed thoroughly enjoy the movie. It does show the underbelly of Bombay, the part of Bombay which I don't come from and I'm probably ashamed to say that this is as close as I've gotten to these parts of the city as any of you reading it right now. Some critics argue that this portrays the city in a bad light, but I disagree. This is all very much a part of Bombay and an integral facet without which the city cannot exist. This is similar to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in Cidade de Deus. I do agree at the same time that is very much a crowd-pleaser, so I am a tad surprised it's bagged 10 Oscar nominations. Not that it doesn't deserve a single one either.
It was certainly interesting watching a movie about Bombay in Paris among 50 or so other viewers who have probably neither ever been to the city, nor understand a lot of the language used in the film ("Bambaiya" to be precise – a mélange of Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and English and a little bit of other languages thrown in; our own version of Parisian argot if you could call it that ). I felt a little closer to the the content of the movie than any of my fellow viewers, even though I'm far removed from said content in reality. It did, however, remind me that no matter where in the world I may be, I will always have this special connection with the city I love, cheesy as that may sound.
Abhinay's blogging resolve: try to be more regular this semester round.
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22 January, 2009
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