from Prague :-)

Thank u all for wishing me goodluck. This is my third day in Prague and I just had my breakfast. Its almost lunch time in India, yet I don’t feel that time difference thing coz even at home I wake up very late. So actually here I am prompt on time for breakfast 🙂
Yesterday there was a bit of snowfall here and the city looks beautiful today, partially clad with thin flakes of newly formed snow. When I look outside my window, I can see Vltava river in constant flow and there is a small ferry quite close to the window, protruding into the water, containing a few trees, neatly organized themselves like students in a school assembly. I can see all this so close coz I am staying in a boat!!!
I was not this pleasant day before yesterday when I landed here. It was 4 o clock, and the city looked dull!! By the time our matinee movies make half time there, its dark in here. I entered my botel [hotel in a boat] room and it was shockingly small!! The only contact I had in Prague, Mr. George Eassey was out of coverage!! For a moment, I thought I made a big mistake coming down here. Adding spice to my worries was the Czech language, which sounded greek and latin to me. So, that night, I did what I do the best. Eat and sleep!!
Yesterday morning when I woke up, I made a decision to explore the city. By that time I got accustomed to the room where I am staying right now. I had a travel guide which taught me some golden phrases in Czech, equivalent to “where to eat, where is the bus stop, where can I buy a sim card, which tram goes to the city”… and things like that. Before I set myself out to inflict my language abilities on poor Czech – ans [hey, I can actually call them chekkans!!!], Mr.George’ s phone call came. In a couple of hours, he came to my rescue and from then on, it had been just wonderful till the moment.
George uncle, as I call him is a man whom I met in Cochin airport last month. We just spoke for 5 mins and that’s all. I didn’t know what he did and who he was. That’s actually the beauty of it. Sometimes meeting perfect strangers is quite an experience. And in his case, it really was. He took me to the old town square, astronomical clock, a few restaurants and an interesting place called a tea room [this is my English translation, in Czech, it’s a little greek :-)]. This tea room is like an intellectual hub in here. When u make a reservation, if u r a poet or an artist, u get first preference. I really don’t know what I was doing there.
Conversations with george was actually quite informative. He is a pioneer in ashtaanga ayurveda and has written almost a dozen books on botany & related subjects. U name a famous personality and he has got direct connections with them. For example, I am a big fan of John Trovolta and Tom Cruise. Guess what!! George has treated John and has spoken to Tom Cruise when he was shooting MI 4 in Prague. His daughter has worked for Obama and during the conversation, he casually mentioned meeting Bill Gates once. I was wondering, what the hell is this man doing, talking to me!! 🙂
I told u guys that meeting perfect strangers is sometimes quite an experience. Yesterday night when I was having dinner with George, Yana [george’s student, she’s Czech], Michael [yana ‘s boyfriend, he’s half Portuguese] and Sathe [he ‘s from Haryana] I really felt this. In an Indian restaurant flooded with foreign nationals, we were talking about innumerable things. Indian music, Indian mythology, Czech movies, thalassery, samoothiri, places in Europe… everything under the sun was a topic of discussion. Sathe was entertaining us with his mind blowing “shaayarees[4 line poems].” It was wonderful to see that miles away from India, that man is still keeping his passion for language and literature.
From there, George took me to a jazz club. It had started to snow and I was shivering like anything. Once I reached the jazz club – U Satre Pani, I heard some extra ordinary musicians. It was like a cherry on top of the wonderful day I had. Don’t know what Prague has in store for me further. But so far, it has been more than beautiful!!!
Ahoj [that’s goodbye in Czech (I think) :-)]