The IIT-Madras Campus

I have spent the first 9 years of my life in Kerala, a southern state in India. After moving to Delhi in 2000, I always cherished to go back to the south. I still feel like home when I am in south India. The traditions and culture are completely different from what you'd see in the north of the country. People here are more religious and simple compared to the north. Though I would say that there are many exceptions to this and that it also depends on which part of south India one is talking about. North India seems like more of dhotis, pants and shirts while south India is more of lungis. In north India you can manage mostly with hindi but south India is the home of 4 different languages. 

Yes. There are a lot of differences and I was able to experience these differences since I have lived in both parts of the country. After doing my under-graduation in Delhi, I moved to Chennai for the master program in physics in one of the premier institutions of the country - Indian Institute of Technology - Madras. More than studying physics and engineering, I learned a new way of life here. A life where we learn how to live with various kinds of animals. A life with people from all parts of the country. A life where you live away from your family and discover your potentials. IIT- Madras is not just an institution. It is a way of life.

This post is not about the academics of the institution. I will leave that for later. Rather I want to describe the campus itself. On the day of admission I took a car ride from my uncle's house to the campus. He took a long detour so in the way he could show me the beach and various landmarks of Chennai. The beach! No matter how long I see it, I never get tired. I just love to see the waves wash across the shore endlessly. That was one of the reasons I chose to live here, in spite of frequent warnings by people that Chennai is probably the most hot and humid city in India.

Marina Beach in Chennai

After wading through the morning traffic, we finally arrived in the campus. The campus was lively with thousands of new students who had come for admissions like me. The academic section is nearly 2 km from the main entrance and in between the road passes through a lush green tree cover. The campus is nothing like the city itself which is full of traffic honking at each other. There was no traffic. The roads are properly constructed with well defined pedestrian ways and appropriate sign boards which is very rare in India. There is a dedicated bus service every 15 minutes from the main entrance to the boys hostel which is about 3.5 km away.

The roads of IIT-Madras campus

Monkeys outside our rooms in IIT-Madras

We finished with the basic admission procedures in the next hour and I was then supposed to go to my hostel - Brahmaputra. Yes, the hostels here are named after the rivers of India. There was a time when the buses were also named after mountains hence the campus was called- "The land of moving mountains and still rivers". But the buses do not have names anymore. I dropped my luggage at my room and bid farewell to my uncle. My life in this campus finally began. 

I took a walk around the hostel and it was just sufficient for the needs of a student. The building was open in the middle and there was a nice green cover around it. There were about 5 mango trees outside my room. During summers, we literally had to fight with the monkeys to demonstrate our right on the fruits. Well, the monkeys always got their share when we were off to our classrooms. 

The best thing about my room was the morning sunrise. Its great to have an awesome start to a day and what better than an awesome view as soon as you wake up. This and evenings are the best times to take a walk around the campus. During the last few days in the campus, I think I did not miss even a single day taking a walk. Me and my friend used to walk all the way to the shopping center from our hostel which used to be about 2 km away just to get an ice cream. 

Morning Sunrise view from our room

The campus also has a beautiful lake. Too bad you are not allowed to swim in it. But the soft sound of water just adds to the calm and serene environment in the campus. When I was new to the campus, I once wandered around the lake and a couple of security guards caught me and suggested that I should make a girlfriend soon and bring her here, it is a very romantic spot. Even now people tell me to get a girlfriend. 

Lake inside IIT-Madras campus

 As I said before, this campus teaches you to live with animals. I gave you an example of how we used to "share" the mangoes with monkeys. But the monkeys were much bigger problem than that. It used to rain a lot in Chennai and for monkeys, our hostel corridors used to be the place of shelter. The next morning after a rainy night, our corridor used to be full of monkey poop and sometimes as many as 50 monkeys used to occupy the corridor. It was hard for some people to get out of their rooms especially during their morning calls. 

Well the campus is of course full of monkeys, but it also has some beautiful creatures. Spotted deers and black bucks are some of them and if you're lucky you might even spot Asian paradise Flycatcher and many other beautiful birds. 

Spotted deer

Blackbuck

The campus is lively with events almost every week. There are various activities a student can do during his/her time here. There are tennis, volleyball, basketball, hockey, football, cricket, squash, table tennis, athletics, gymnasium, swimming pool and many other facilities at very affordable costs. There is a film club which shows new movies every Saturday in an  open air theater. Though I would also say that the food I had here in the mess was just to fill my stomach. Some days it used to be very awful but there is a cafeteria nearby where you get some decent food, just that you will have to spend extra money for that.

So to sum up, being in IIT-Madras campus was a pleasure. It is not just the academics which makes this institution unique but it is also the campus itself which takes your breath away. I will always remember the time I used to spend in this campus. I had an amazing time with my friends here and rarely in your life you get to spend such a time when you are living in a forest for this long. Well, this is not entirely true academically. But as far as the student life goes, the campus is pretty good. 

The temples of Kanchipuram, India

India has been known for many years now for its diversity in religion, culture and tradition. Travelling in different parts of this country is like travelling in different countries. There are 29 states here, each of which has its unique identity. 

I was in the southern city of Chennai for the past 2 years which gave me an opportunity to learn about the traditions and customs of people living in the state of Tamil Nadu. As the name suggests, people in this state speak Tamil. Hindi is hardly spoken here so people from other parts of the country as well as the world speak English with the locals. I knew another south Indian language- Malayalam which has some similarities with Tamil which turns out to be quite helpful in villages like Kanchipuram.

Kanchipuram: One of the holy places for hindus in South India. This village has numerous hindu temples dedicated to lord Shiva, Vishnu  etc.. and a few of them are over 1000 years old. I left with a friend of mine from the main bus station in Chennai (Koyambedu) from where Kanchipuram is a 2 hour long ride. Some stretch of the roads are not comfortable where there are huge traffic jams but the beautiful landscape makes it even. The bus entered a crowded bus station at Kanchipuram from where most of the temples are at a walking distance except one or two.

We made our first stop at Kamakshi Amman temple, a temple dedicated to Kamakshi, one of the forms of goddess Parvati. We had plans to see the main idol in each temple, however the queue at Kamakshi temple itself took us about an hour to finish and it was in our bests interests to see the temples from outside if we want to cover more ground. Besides taking a photograph in the inside of the temple is prohibited and is considered rude. People of religion other than hindu are not allowed to enter the area of the main idol.

Kamakshi Amman temple, Kanchipuram, India

Honestly, the whole village was not maintained properly and is not a welcome sign for any tourist who wishes to spend his or her time here. There are open drainage channels and the streets are also dirty. But once inside the temple, the scent of the incense and seeing the devotion of people makes one forget these things about the village. 

Shiva lingas at Ekambareshwarar temple, Kanchipuram, India

A few minutes from Kamakshi temple is the Ekambareshwarar temple dedicated to Shiva. This is apparent from the numerous shiva lingas inside the temple. We got a delicious prasadam (an offering made to the diety) from this temple. It is a tradition in almost every place in India to offer edible food to God as we consider them as living beings. In many places, people offer milk to shiva by pouring milk on the lingas. This is considered very sacred and for the same reasons, people apply a drop of the poured milk on their forehead or just touch it. At Ekambareshwarar temple, people even worshiped a mango tree.

Ekambareshwarar temple, Kanchipuram, India

Kailasanathar temple stands as the oldest temple in this village and was built around 700 AD by the Pallavas. This structure has been recognized as an archaeological monument by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). We were not able to visit the main temple but the outer structure has been preserved to a great extend and all the walls are carved with idols of lions, deities and other sculptures. It was indeed one of the most impressive temples in the village and is a must see for those who visit this place.

One of the corridors at Kailasanathar temple, Kanchipuram, India

It was already noon by the time we came out of Kailasanathar temple and we searched for some good restaurants. We took our chance at a local tamilian restaurant which served biryanis, noodles and some parathas with chutney. Everything they served was fresh and hot, so it was safe to have it and it was probably the best meal I had in many days. It was expected that the food will be spicy as the local tamilian or Andhra food is generally full of hot spices. 

Tired of walking a lot in the hot weather, we decided to take a shared cab to Varadharaja Perumal Temple, dedicated to lord Vishnu. This temple is away from most of the temples in Kanchipuram which are otherwise clustered in one area. Built about a thousand years back by the Cholas, it stands as largest Vishnu temple in Kanchipuram. We did not go inside the main courtyard of the temple as there were too many people who lined up for the darshan of the main idol. So we took a stroll around the temple where we came across a beautiful pond which belonged to the temple. The entire temple consisted of sculptured pillars of various deities. 

Temple pond, Varadharaja Perumal Temple, Kanchipuram, India

Apart from being a village full of these hindu temples, Kanchipuram is also famous for its silk sarees. That is for some other time. On our way back, we traveled by sitting on the floor of the bus near the door (It was very kind of the bus conductor to let us do that.). The cool air felt great after a day exploring these temples in such hot temperatures. These temples depict a way of life about 1500 years back and such a mark left by the rulers at that time still touches the heart of many people who come here to worship. 

Neuschwanstein: A Fairytale Castle

King Ludwig II of Bavaria has built some of the most beautiful castles in the world during his lifetime. In one of my previous posts, I wrote about Linderhof castle which was the only one Kind Ludwig II lived to see completed. Though the castle is not complete, Neushwanstein stands out as the best of all the castles the king made. 

Neuschwanstein Castle

Clearly it looks as though it is taken from a fairy tale. In fact, the Disneyland's sleeping beauty castle is a result of this inspirational structure. I went here during the summer of 2013 and was probably the best time to visit. Surrounded by German and Austrian Alps with Alpsee and Schwansee in the backdrop, you would give a second thought to even blinking your eyes for it will steal the momentary view. 

I went with a group called International-Friends Munich which was a group of about 2,000 people (now 15,000) from all different countries around the world. We started off from Munich central station at about 9 in the morning and before noon we reached the town of Fussen from where Neuschwanstein is just 3 km away. The train ride is beautiful but crowded at the time and we had to stand inside the second class coach during the entire journey. There is a dedicated bus service from Fussen every 15-20 minutes which is enough to explore a bit around this town which has amazing pizzas and ice cream shops. Till that time I was still a vegetarian person and not an admirer of Bavarian food which was mostly meat. 

The bus drops you at the foothill of the alps in a village called Hohenschwangau from where you have to climb uphill either by foot or there are horse wagons. Hohenschwangau castle is the primary attraction of this village which used to be the childhood residence of the King. 

Hohenschwangau castle as viewed from Neuschwanstein Castle with Alpsee in the backdrop.

The way by foot is hardly exhausting, in fact it is pleasant to walk around the lush green trees. Once you reach near the castle, beer gardens, souvenir shops and gelato ice cream shops welcome you. The castle does not look beautiful from up close here. There is a bridge behind this castle where you can view the castle and believe me, I would have preferred not to enter the bridge looking at the number of people who occupied it. It is not one of those steel bridges which you see in cities but a weaker one and every inch of it was occupied by humans who were hungry for extended view of the castle and the landscape around it. Even I became that hungry being who refused to leave the bridge easily because it is a rare opportunity to be able to see something this pleasing to your eyes.

View of Schwansee from Neushwanstein Castle

View of Alpsee from the bridge

From the other end of the bridge, one can hike to the top of the mountain from where you can come down using a cable car. Given that we did not come with a purpose to hike, we chose to take the easier way to go back. I was not interested to see the inside of the castle during this trip. So I have left that for sometime in future when I visit here again. 

Alpsee

After coming down from the Neuschwanstein hill, we went to relax at Alpsee where some people did swimming, others played with frisbee disc and people like us relaxed in the warm sun talking to each other about various things. Apart from this castle, this small village serves as an ideal spot to hike around in the nearby hills or do paragliding. 

Neuschwanstein is a must go for people who visit Bavaria. It is hardly 2 hours from Munich and one of the best weekend getaways for people living nearby.

Linderhof Castle: A paradise in Bavaria

Summers in Europe are one of a kind. Especially when you are in Bavaria. The lush green fields and mountains take your breath away. The pleasant air on your skin and the beautiful landscape gives an impression of being in a paradise.

Village Ettal on the way to Linderhof

A very special thing about Bavaria is its Castles made by King Ludwig II. He built three of them: Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee and Linderhof. I have been able to visit two of them till now Neuschwanstein and Linderhof. A first glance at these castles will bewitch your mind as these are probably one of the most beautiful castles I have ever seen.

During one of the weekends on my exchange program to the Technical University of Munich, I had an opportunity to travel to Linderhof castle with a service packet tutor program which is mainly meant for international students to help them see nearby places. The group consisted of roughly 12 people. We met at the central station around morning and took off on a train towards Mittenwald. The weather was perfect and the spring was at its best in Bavaria. There could have been no better time to be outside in this place which otherwise had been gloomy and rainy during the initial part of the summer. Huge amounts of rain caused landslides at various places along the railway and we had to change to a bus and a train again. So the journey which generally takes about 2 hours took nearly 4 hours. Since the weather was good, we did not mind that.

Spring in Bavaria

Ettal Abbey on the way to Linderhof in the village Ettal

Besides due to these changing schedules, we stopped at various beautiful locations such as the village Ettal. This small village has a wonderful monastery and an amazing landscape. People pass through this village as a part of bike rides and hikes, the trails of which one can see from the main street. So this place is ideal for weekend bike rides and hiking. 

No doubt, the bus ride from Ettal to Linderhof has a great view. Linderhof palace was the center of attraction in the area. Various tourist shops sold souvenirs, ice creams and there was  a beer garden as well (which is probably quite common in Germany: anywhere you go, there will be a beer garden.) The palace is surrounded by mountains on all sides and its white color stands out between the green landscape. 

Linderhof Castle

Kind Ludwig II made this palace sort of as his weekend getaway. This is one of his three castles and the only one to be complete. He used to come here for couple of days in a week or two and spent his time all alone in the midst of the pleasant atmosphere. The inside of the palace is beautifully decorated and he has, in modern terminologies, a music room, bed room, dining room, audience room: almost everything here. He preferred not to see his servants during his stay there. And yet, he had to have food which had to be served by them. A solution to this: He dined in the first level and his servants used to serve him from the ground floor. The dining table was kept on a platform which could be shifted from the ground to the first level using ropes. There are loads of mirrors and paintings in this small castle. In short, King Ludwig II must have had an awesome time here. He constructed an artificial cave as well where he used to have his "party" by inviting female dancers over (at least that is what the guide explained.)

Swans in an lake in the palace garden

The fountain in front of Linderhof Palace

A beautiful garden surrounds the palace and provides a natural recreation for everyone here. It is not just the palace that takes the credit for its splendid construction, but the location that the king chose makes all the difference. This is quite the feature of King Ludwig's castles: Neuschwanstein and Linderhof. If you are anywhere near Bavaria any summer, do squeeze your time to visit this castle.

The Holy city of Haridwar, India

North India has been under the attack of an intense heat wave in the past few days. In such a weather, a person living in the capital city of Delhi would run away due to power cuts and unpleasant nights as well. With these things around, me and my family decided to have a short trip to the holy city of Haridwar.

Millions of people visit this city everyday where the magnificent river Ganges flows from the Himalayas. Haridwar, a gate to this river for the great northern plains of India. The city is located at the foothills of Himalayas and provides a serene atmosphere, much to the satisfaction of people like me who come from the hustle and bustle of a metropolitan city like Delhi.

We arrived early in the morning taking an overnight train. The train station is like one of the country ones. The air was much cleaner and pleasant compared to Delhi which has been ranked as the most polluted city in the world. No doubt! We took a room in one of the hotels in Gujarati streets where we had amazing jalebis and fafadas for breakfast. My parents had decided to take a dip in the holy river Ganga while I took a bath in my hotel itself because it is impossible for me to bath in a place where people wash away the ashes of their late ones or where people throw milk, oil and various other food products in a river which has alarming levels of pollution. And besides, the water in the hotel room was coming from the holy river itself so I was bathing in the river anyway. I actually would not mind taking a dip in those waters because it is very clean in general. It is just the people who perform rituals or puke in the water (Yes! I saw a few in 2 days where people puke right in front of you in the water.). But yes, since it is flowing water at very high speeds, it is self cleaned at that spot though polluted as it goes along. My mother told me a story that it is said that river Ganga takes one child per year. I was quite surprised at the estimated number to be just one. The way people bath, river Ganga could easily take quite a few lives in a month itself. It was not until recently that protection measures have been taken for the safety of people bathing in the ghat. 

People bathing in the Ganges

Har ki Podi, the place to take the holy dip

The day was quite hot crossing 40 degree Celsius. So we took a shelter in our room after looking through the market which is full of traditional hindu clothes, sweaters for people going high up to the hills, diyas for rituals and many other things.

One of the shops in Haridwar market selling rosary beads, bangles and other religious ornaments.

When you go to Haridwar, one of the most beautiful things is the evening procession or the Ganga aarti. Thousands of people gather on the banks of the river to worship and to thank goddess Ganga for providing livelihood to so many people, providing water and recreation in this beautiful land. Few pandits dressed in white dhotis perform the initial ceremony which  consists of chanting shlokas and performing rituals such as providing milk, flowers etc.. to goddess Ganga . Towards the end of this procession, one of the pandits requests everyone near the banks to keep their feet away from the river waters so they could begin the aarti which otherwise is considered disrespectful (though I saw so many people still bathing in the river in-spite of this request). It was ironic that the pandit requested everyone in the crowd to not pollute the river and the procession he just performed with others involved throwing milk etc in this holy water. I have nothing against this ritual as I have been growing up between these rituals and I feel they not just give a psychological satisfaction but represents that we are providing food to the river. The river is considered to have life. It flows throughout the day for god know how many years and has been a lifeline of millions of Indians who live beside these waters. But I also feel that the same milk or the food that people throw away in the name of rituals could be provided to poor people who don't even have the money to have one decent meal in a day. 

Pandits performing holy ritual on the banks of river Ganga.

As soon as these pandits are done with their initial procession, the main aarti begins and it is one of the most spectacular events I have ever seen. Big diyas from almost every temple lit up and everyone is engaged in praying (well many of them clicking photos and taking videos) before the holy river. One forgets about anything negative about this place and the mind is lost in the sounds of bells, the pleasant air, the light from the diyas reflecting from the flowing waters of Ganga. It is a perfect place for meditation and minds are healed as it does not think about anything else. You forget about all your stress and the mind is lost in a very serene place in the world.

Ganga aarti

In between these proceedings, the security staff near the river collect donations from people in the name of this aarti which they claim goes into running a free hospital in Haridwar for poor people. I do not know how much of the money is actually spent on it but it is indeed a very good deed if this claim turns out to be true. Yet near the ghat, one can see number of beggars asking for food or money. What I did not like about this group of beggars is the way they behaved with an old women around the morning when I was passing through that area. The beggars themselves mocked her, tried to shoo her away. The woman was screaming to let her pass through and how mean he was, but these group of pandits and beggars laughed at her. Why would I ever give money or food to such a group of hooligans and uncivilized men?

There are many flaws in the religious system of India. But at the same time, this religion provides livelihood to so many people across this country. Also, all these things are unique to this world, to this culture and to this nation. It is very rare in the world to worship the river or a mountain or a sea. But this is done in India. No science can still explain how these things came into existence or how we came into existence. But we should be thankful to these natural resources which make our lives. To keep them safe is our duty as a citizen of this world. Let us all take a pledge to protect what is in our hands and to respect what nature has given us.

Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) Observatory in India

It was a chilly November morning in Pune where I arrived last night from Chennai. I had just finished my end semester examinations and was in a "vacation" mood then. Alas! I had to start my project that day itself. After a smooth ride from Pashan, I reached the University of Pune campus where we started searching for National Center for Radio Astrophysics. The campus is quite huge and beautiful and my institute lies at one end of the lush green area. After an introduction with my supervisors, I sat on the bus and started my journey towards the GMRT observatory in Khodad village- an array of 30 radio antennas about 100 km from the city of Pune. One of the best 2 months of my life had just begun.

The journey from Pune to Khodad village is amazing with breathtaking views of the Deccan plateau at regular intervals. The highway is quite small and consists of just 2 lanes. But since the traffic is quite less, this is not much of a trouble. After about 1 hour, the bus takes a detour to a small village road and I knew I was now near the antennas. A 20 minute ride in the village road leads to a group of one storey buildings with the name Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope at the entrance. It was nine in the morning and I was already very hungry, so I took off for breakfast at the canteen where I had some informal discussions with my supervisors. The entire day thereafter was spent on understanding what the project was about, the technical things that I would have to know, theories I have to read and I was given an analysis code which I would be using for the entire duration of my stay. So to be short- I was testing the new Broadband feeds there using pulsars- highly magnetized rotating neutron stars. Neutron stars? - they are remnants of a supernova explosion. Supernova explosion? Ah! forget it! Just google "pulsars" and you'll get to know everything if you're interested. 

One of the antennas of GMRT

So, for the next 2 months, I kept wandering around the campus during my free time and once even I got a guided tour of the campus where we were taken inside the antenna. The electronics are kept at low temperatures to reduce thermal noise. The landscape around the campus was breathtaking a each day I was pleased with myself to have chosen to do a project here. There were some downsides to this "vacation" as I was not allowed to go home and I terribly missed my family and friends sometimes. But everything was worth it when you wake up to a very clean village air every morning with no noise of buses or cars to annoy you. There were sugarcane fields all over the place and at least once I wanted to have the sugarcane beside the crop fields during my stay there. We got strawberries at very cheap rates from a person working at GMRT who had a farm nearby. The sunrise at GMRT were one of the most beautiful scenes from the entire day and one would be short of words to describe the serenity and calmness in the landscape. 

Sunrise at GMRT

The nearest busy area you'll get is about 14 kms from the campus at a place called Narayangaon. The GMRT jeeps run every hour to this place for people to do shopping etc. I used to go there almost everyday to use my cellphone as inside the GMRT campus you are strictly not allowed to use cellphones as they might interfere with the radio data. That was one of the challenging things at GMRT as living without a phone these days seem next to impossible. I am glad that I maintained that rule for nearly 2 months of my stay and in fact learned to live without phone after this experience. Couple of food items I like at Narayangaon are misal pav - a very very spicy dish and the ladoos there for Rs 5. The fruits you get here are quite sweet as well. The main landmark in Narayangaon is the bus station where you can get buses to Shirdi, Nashik, Pune and quite a few more places. As the highway is quite small, the junction of this village is always crowded and full of traffic. If you are unlucky, you can get stuck in traffic for hours sometimes. But that is rare. 

The moment you leave the highway and enter the road for Khodad village, one can see couple of hills, one of them pretty huge - Narayangad. I always wanted to trek there and got the chance twice with some friends I made during my stay there. Both the times, I went to a different part of the hill and got a different view of the whole village. 

The antenna array as seen from Narayangad during my first trek.

During my first trek, it was quite foggy but it gave a nice appearance to the antennas as they seemed to be in a bed of clouds. It was early in the morning on a Sunday and there could be nothing better than climbing at the top of a hill and for what its worth- it was one of the best views I have had during my travel there. We were back soon as we did not find an appropriate track to go further up. But we found the correct way during our second trek. This time the group was bigger and it took us nearly 2 hours to get to the top where there is a temple. And I got my wish! I ate sugarcane beside the crop field after we came down from the hill. The farmer had kept open the water for irrigation. To my surprise, this water was safe enough to drink and I never thought that water could be this tasty. 

Narayangad hill

Me (left) with the farmer

One of the best thing in GMRT is the staff here is very friendly and helpful. Due to a delay during the second trek, they saved some food for us and served it even after the lunch hours. the rooms were very clean and comfortable lodging facilities were in place. The hostel here had many games to play and there was even a cricket tournament while I was there. Staying at the observatory itself is a very hard job as it gets lonely sometimes, but I have seen a different sort of life here. The observatory provides a very healthy environment to do fruitful research and I have no doubt that some day I would like to come back here and make my own observations. I remember a meteor shower that was supposed to take place during mid-December and some of us stayed awake the whole night to catch a glimpse of the event. My friend at managed to capture one of the shooting stars in his camera. The sky here is clear like a crystal. There are countless number of stars and one would really wish for a romantic night with his/her partner :D

I used to go away for weekends to the city of Pune and traveled to Lavasa, Mumbai, Shirdi etc and I would say it was a pleasure working in GMRT. I have not talked much about my work in this post so it might seem like I just had a vacation. But I did all the fun only during the weekends and free time of the day. I am very grateful to every staff and professor at the observatory who made my stay very comfortable and I would really suggest people to visit this place and if you chose a career in the field of astrophysics, GMRT would be a very good choice to do a PhD or research or even internships. 

A day in Paris

Paris! The fashion capital of the world and one of the best destinations in the world for a vacation. After a tiring day at Strasbourg, I took an overnight bus to Paris. It is quite surprising that my bus was late by an hour at Strasbourg and I reached Paris an hour early! Either the bus driver was an awesome one or I had the wrong time table ;) Strasbourg is a small and a beautiful city and I would like to go there again when I am back to Europe. 

I arrived in Paris at 6 am in the morning and had exactly 12 hours in hand to explore as much as I can. If you ask me, 12 hours is a lot less to learn "Paris". I took the subway train from Gallieni station towards Trocadéro - my first destination in this romantic french city. This is the first thing that comes to a person's mind when he thinks about Paris - The Eiffel Tower. It was useless to buy a day ticket for the metro as I traveled only twice and  the rest of the time, I explored a part of the city on foot. It is best to walk around rather than taking transportation if you are near Champ de Mars. The metro is not something anyone would be impressed with. The trains are quite small in dimensions. It was not easy to get a seat even at this morning hour. Paris wakes up early it seemed. People kept reading newspapers or sipping their morning coffee on their way to work. The sweet voice of a couple of women speaking in French was a good getaway from the German language I am used to hear in U-Bahn in Munich, which I believe is certainly not the sweetest language in the world. It looked like I was the only tourist at this time heading towards Champ de Mars.

So here I was, getting off at Trocadéro my first sight in Paris - The Eiffel Tower, an engineering marvel and I could not think of a better time to see this magnificent structure. It was almost sunrise and the first rays of light made a fantastic view of Champ de Mars. An Asian couple in their wedding dress were getting their photos clicked in Palais de Challiot overlooking the Eiffel Tower. The warm sun ray, the morning breeze and this magnificent view took off all the stress and my mind was completely blank for those few moments.

Eiffel Tower as seen from Palais de Challiot

Firstly, it was hard to believe I was there. A few years back, I would not have imagined myself to travel around in Europe alone as a backpacker. And here I was, having my breakfast right beside the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It was nearly a dream come true, but not quite there because I wanted to spend my whole day here which was not possible as I just had 11 more hours in hand with so much to see. So I could not go up the tower to see the restaurants in the first and the second floor and Gustave Eiffel's residence at the top of the structure, the engineer after which this tower is named. I am glad that the City of Paris did not bring this tower down in the early 1900s after Gustave Eiffel's ownership had expired as it proved to be valuable  for communication purposes etc. The tower is still used for TV broadcasting and radio communications and is the tallest standing structure in the city of Paris. The price to go up was nominal and people had already queued up for the tickets. I took a walk down the Champ de Mars towards École Militaire occasionally stopping in between to take pictures. The locals came here for morning walks and exercises. I sort of envied them for living in such a beautiful place and having the chance to come here everyday. Nevertheless, though it was not even an hour since I came here, I had decided to come back to Paris one day and spend a part of my life in this city. God knows if this comes true. 

With a map in one hand, camera in the other, a backpack, I strolled around to Musee des Plans-Reliefs, the museum of military models. Most of the cafes were closed at this moment but I can imagine the ambiance around this place in the evening. One gets the feeling of being in France, contrary to Strasbourg which still seemed quite similar to German cities probably because of its proximity to the country. The walk from the military museum to the Place de la Concorde is splendid. One passes numerous beautiful buildings, la Seane river and lush green gardens. Place de la Concorde, a major square in Paris was one of the busiest crossings I encountered. The distinguishing feature of this square was the central structure - an Egyptian Obelisk. 

Musee des Plans-Reliefs

The Obelisk at the center of Place de la Concorde

Originally located in the Luxor temple in Egypt، this structure was moved to the square in 1836. All around the sides of the Obelisk are symbols in ancient Egyptian language called heiroglyphs praising the reign of king Ramses II. The rest of the Obelisks are still at the Luxor temple. Making my way from the Square through Jardin des Tuileries، I had some crepes at the entrance of the garden -one of my favorite food in France. I sat on one of the benches kept at the center of the park beside a fountain، relaxing to the sound of sparrows and ducks preening in the warm summer afternoon.

The fountain at the center of  Jardin des Tuileries

After having lunch at one of the pizza places nearby، I went to see one of the largest and the best museum in the world - Musee du Louvre. 

Musee du Louvre

I have been crazy to see this place when I saw Da Vinci Code. And indeed, this place is enormous. I just had 3-4 hours to see it, but if you ask me, this museum itself will take about 2-3 days to see it completely. Losing your way in this place might be easy, so I had to end up walking a lot to find the exit gates, ending up at various new sections of the museum in the process. Of course, when I entered the museum, I had one main destination to find: Mona Lisa. You're not supposed to use flash cam anywhere in the museum but there were hell loads of tourists and it was impossible to stop anyone from using the flash. Mona Lisa has been kept in the center of Salle des États in a climate controlled enclosure behind a bullet proof glass and it was the most crowded place in the whole museum.

Mona Lisa

The museum was filled with what seemed like millions of art works by notable artists around the world, including the Egyptian antiquities, Roman and Islamic works and some of the sections even contained modern art work. I am certainly not gonna tell you about everything that I saw but the point is- the museum is huge and one gets tired after walking the entire thing.

I was glad to be out of the museum into the warm sun again. I took a short nap near the fountains outside the pyramid and was probably the best nap I have had in months. It wasn't awkward as it might seem because literally everyone was doing it, so even I did not mind. I gathered the strength to wake up and walk towards the Pont des arts bridge over La Seine river - a bridge where love gets locked forever.

Lovelock bridge over La Seine

One can see thousands of golden locks on this bridge with the name of a couple on each of them. Many tourist couples attach padlocks with their first names on it and throw away the key in the river as a gesture for their everlasting love. Locals sell souvenirs and arts works depicting various places in the city of Paris all along La Seine river and I was able to get a mini Eiffel Tower myself as a remembrance for this place. 

I have not mentioned yet but I was a vegetarian till then. So all I got in french shops was a cheese sandwich with nothing but cheese in it and pizza places were quite hard to find sometimes. Tired of having such small amounts of food every meal, I broke my vegetarianism and satisfied myself with a hot-dog. So Paris goes into my history as the place where I finally decided to be okay being a non-vegetarian. And this happened right beside Notre Dame de Paris, the famous Catholic Cathedral in the city. In Munich, I am used to see churches, but in France and Switzerland you see a lot of cathedrals with beautifully designed windows. And the best thing is, inside it is decorated with numerous candles which make a great ambiance around the hall.

Notre Dame de Paris

Cathedral window over the main entrance

Sitting in one of the benches, I closed my eyes to reflect on what all I saw for the past week. This has been one of the most eventful days of my life. Walking around continuously for the past 2 days in two of the beautiful cities in France، I was able to see a new culture which was apparent from the monuments I saw during this time. I was one of the few people who was alone and was having a great time just walking around and learn as much as I can about the place. My bus departed around 7 pm from Paris and my next destination was Berlin، the most historic place in Germany. But Berlin will be a subject of a different post. 12 hours was certainly not enough to live "Paris". But it is enough to make you fall in love with it :)