While accompanying Dr Challier to his residence in his car, I was pleasantly shocked to witness how French Traffic Police are acting so swiftly and promptly to enforce the traffic laws
While travelling to the outskirts of Paris to enjoy the "French Lunch" in house of my thesis supervisor, Dr Challier I was dreaming of the wonderful food items that I will have chance to ingest for the first time as guest of a French family!
MY Joy knew no bounds when the 3 Invited Experts & Judges to evaluate the Quality of my Doctorate Thesis Judged my Research Thesis Work as First Grade with Honours in June 1979 and that was the culmination of my Dream of getting Honoured as a Scientist from one of the Topmost Institutions of the World too
The visit to a keralite family was in many ways an educational "sortie" and revealed many unknown facts of French Life not visible to the outside world!
Though the family of Mr Vijayaraghvan had all the material benefits of French Life , he appeared to be craving badly for Kerala or Indian style social life in this adopted land!
The welcome to the house of Mr Vijayraghavan, a Keralite Teacher whom I had the fortune of meeting at Indian Hostel or Maison de Linde was delightful and evoked intense nostalgia too
French market was flooded with newspapers and periodicals& Fashion Magazines& there appeared to have no dearth of periodicals specializing on sex related issues including homosexuality too
The conversation with Alain during the Lunch Sessions really helped me to have a glimpse of French way of Life that I had not imagined had existed!
I was startled & amused to hear from a French Co-worker that Work Environment of France has its share of "casteism " too though with a different label?
I was glad to see the wonderful employer-employee harmony while working as a Biologist at St Vincent de Paul Hospital and felt perhaps Indian workers & employers must imitate the French Model for having a smooth working environment and to take the country to greater heights too
The visit to Hyde Park and listening to fearless speeches in Speakers Corner or Free Speech Haven, without fear of rulers or police or vested interests was a memorable take away souvenir of London Visit indeed
London Tower history and history of Kohinoor Diamond were explained in detail by the personal guide & but for his services, visit of London Tower would have been incomplete too
Sight of middle portion of Tower Bridge pulling apart to allow passage of ships etc & the two halves rejoining seconds later to allow passage of cars etc on the bridge was spectacular!
After visiting the Wax Museum, I felt that I should not have dished our a huge entrance fee for this venture, But the visit of Science Museum was rewarding and compensated for the disappointment of was museum adventure!
The leisurely promenade covering Egyptian, Middle East & Asian sectons of Brtish Museum gave me a feeling of Educational Time Travel through various countries& continents
The section on British & European history in the Museum was an eye opener and educated me that religion indeed played a decisive role in england & perhaps europe as a whole for the past 2000 Years!
The vastness of British Museum Complex located in Bloomsbury area of London dazzled me and I silently applauded the efforts of the thousands of planners who had conceived such a centre for dissemination of knowledge including arts and culture and history too
I had never dreamt that I can have such a delightful south indian vegetarian feast in a London Restaurant on a banana leaf and had never imagined that an unheard of Indian in England can be so forthright and incisive in analyzing india's ills & hurdles of progress and suggesting solutions for the journey ahead to make India a poverty-free super power too
It was sheer luck that I was able to meet a second generation indian in an electronic shop London and his demeanour and hospitality were exemplary! But it was the conversation that we had in an indian eatery near Trafalgar Square that revealed how traumatic a life thousands and thousands of indian youth would have experienced in the land of colonizers for past 100 Years!
After relocating to a 3 star hotel near Trafalgar square, my mind was more focused on identifying the main items of tourist interest in a hurry and abundance of Indians among the pedestrians made me feel whether I was really roaming around in Colaba or Malabar Hill in Bombay Instead!
Though I was looking forward to visiting Big Ben, Westminster Palace and Westminster Abbey considered as show pieces of London Metropolis in high priority , I had not bargained for the unexpected mental baggage of pain and misery and looting suffered by millions and millions of indian slaves during the 300 years of british colonial rule at all
Having had the primary mission of delivering a Scientific Lecture & pleasing my boss Professor Panigel with a creditable job, i was really thrilled to kick-start the London Discovery Mission more like a school boy being led by the school teachers to see the First-Ever Black& white Television Broadcast !
Using my lecture and using appropriate slides, I was able to convince the Research Core Team of Professor Sandler's department of the novelty and relevance of the technique of human placental perfusion mimicking an artificial uterus in laboratory conditions and how this joint project can generate valuable research data for service of humanity as a whole!
Little did I realize that some britishers were harboring the thought that India was their colony and that indians are their slaves and robots and two more unpleasant incidents did indeed alert me up to some harsh wake-up calls on the ground!
London gave an impression of a poor man's metropolis compared to the posh or rich man's look of Paris Metropolis though both had the Colonizing Power Baggage as the Blot on their outward Polished Face!
It was prompt and powerful intervention by Professor Panigel that prevented the possibility of being sent back to Paris by British Border Patrol agents at Calais Port terminal & nearly dashed my dream of my much anticipated lecture at Queen Charlotte Hospital in London too
Professor Panigel revealed the intricacies of long standing friction between England and France and how international media and vested interests controlling media and loud-speakers can mislead millions and millions of world citizens to believe that a lie repeated hundred times can become truth of Fake History!
Professor Panigel proved himself to be an expert and even adventurous driver despite being in his late fifties and his wit and persistent queries relating to ills of India kept me on tenterhooks most of the time as a co-traveller too!
I had been dreaming for many years that I should check what traits englishmen may have that made millions and millions of indians felt mesmerized and subjugated for over 200 Years & surrendered meekly and allowed the loot of trillions& trillions of dollars of our wealth& sacrificing lives of millions without even semblance of a struggle or fight?
We concluded the visit to Amsterdam by paying a visit to Windmill village and returned from Amsterdam trip with the conviction that for saving humanity from extinction due to environmental pollution ill-effects, use of fossil fuels like petroleum products must be reduced to a minimum or stopped forever!
