Here I was barnacled to my 18 x 31 inches space, 41,000 ft up in the air , flipping through the crisp ,glazed pages of my Lonely Planet Parisian Guide trying to create a vivid mental image of the 'City of lights',visualizing the stupendous architectural fossil ground hosting everything from the classics to the contemporary , imagining picturesque cafes on almost every nook and corner,conjuring cobbled streets that screamed Picasso, Van Gogh , Hemingway and countless others,envisioning markets bustling with watercolors, portrait sketchers and caricaturists,dreaming countless bridges crossing the Seine begging for twilight strolls and stolen glances,fantasizing dashing young men in lively conversations over expressos,fancying couples caressing each other on the grass with the Eiffel tower in their background.Aaahh !! The sheer thought of Paris had started to cast its magical spell on me.I knew it then that I was going to fall down rightly, precipitously, perpendicularly, steeply in love with her and so I did ...
My newly found 'silly school girl' self ,who was all set to be swept by the Parisian charm, could no longer sit still .Between drumming my fingers and fiddling with the pen , doodling my travel guide with stars and lines and folding the corners of its crisp pages, chewing the back of my pen and tapping my foot , I realized that it was time to distract my mind with some Bollywood Masala unaware of what lay ahead of me :) There I was skimming through the International Cinema section , fatefully designed to pick 'Yeh Jawani hai Deewani ' and for those who have seen the movie , you know the answer :) Ranbir Kapoor's first few international travel escapades take him to..... Yes, you got it ! Oh ! you so have it ! They take him to .... to.... to .... PARIS !!! Ah !! Why did I not see this coming !?! The song 'Ilahi' from the movie casting Ranbir is shot with Paris in the backdrop. It opens up with a panoramic view of the city highlighting the Eiffel Tower , taking us to pyramids of Louvre and then to the steps of Sacre Couer.Lost in the bass and drums that get introduced to the song ,one gets swept to backstreets of Paris where Ranbir , the avid traveler is shown stroddling with his camera greeting musicians on the cello , street sketchers and caricaturists.He wanders on the banks of Seine and saunters down Champs Elysees . As the days turn into nights , the city changes colors .Illuminated and neon-ed ,the city divulges itself in a completely different panorama .The song had it all ! Gastronomical adventures with french chefs and bakers, fine wine and dining , sunset cruise on the Seine,the famous love lock bridge by Notre dame , the neon lit streets of Montparnasse.It was enough it keep the drama in my head going.By now ,I had had it.The more I saw , the more I fell in love .The more I imagined , the more I wanted to stay in love.The more I resisted , the more I wanted to latch on.There was no running away from it now. I had to accept it in its entirety .I had to acknowledge it .I had to embrace it and so, coyly and sheepishly, I did ...
From making my weeks worth of sightseeing plans to endless playing 'up n down' with the airplane window shades to watching 'Yeh Jawani hai Deewani' to getting lost in my 'La La' land to snoozing off to the ritualistic dropping of my spoon on the floor while eating , to striding up and down like a bumble bee , to having 10 minutes mirror conversations in the crabbed flight restroom to more doodling to solving Sudoku , time flew and what seemed to be ten tormentous hours away was just 20 minutes from my reach .
I was here for her. She was here for me.My romance for Paris began 'Up in the Air' ....
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