The French Nightmare!!
Ye kisse kisi ko bataya mat kar – Nahin to teri Shaadi nahin hogi. (Don’t Disclose these incidents to others, else you will have problems getting your marriage fixed)
My colleague advised me thus in good faith.
Kyon? Why on earth? I asked..
“These incidences expose you as a weakling and a looser”- was his chaste remark. I did not want to be considered as a weakling and off-course it does leave a scar on an MCP’s psyche to be robbed time and again.
But to hide it is an even bigger sign of weakness coz it exposes others to the same risks that I was exposed to.
The fact that such experience happened with me at a ripe age of 29 at which people tend to become opinionated about themselves and my 6 footer frame had somehow only protected me for experiencing the same till now in my own country.
Till March 2009, My only other experience of being out of India was a four day visit to London. The whirwind trip went off quite well, other than me being bereft of my complete baggage and with only a boat neck T protecting me from London’s Grey and Grime. The Emirates were kind enough to retrieve the baggage the next day and my faith in Humanity was partly restored then!!!
It seems finally the law of averages caught up with me. If you travel twice a year you might have one or two problems once in 50 years.... But if you travel 50 times per year, u might end up having a problem or two sooner then later.
March 10th 2009 – Woke up at a Dharamshaala in Delhi, half in fever delirious after the alarm failed to go off and only 2 hours left for flight to depart. The good-old Ambassador zipped through deserted roads to reach the airport in half an hour and the next time I woke up from my daze identically when I was about to land at Brussels. The temperature Shock (it was less than 5 degrees outside) was too much to handle even for a Himalaya returned person like me and only made matters worse with the fever that was in its 5th day. (medications on the same day were taking their own time). I land up at a hotel that was in a business park called Berkenlaan just behind the Deloitte office. A complete representative of the mechanized west, this place was godforsaken for commuters with not-even a full fledged station to boast of and being completely outside the city meant that one had to think twice before returning to it from the city.
March 11, 2009 – Brussels South Railways Station
I ventured out of my hotel to visit the EU’s office and after managing to exchange the programme and presentations, planned to have a close look at the Bruxelles city. The city is replete with churches and museums. Brussels as a city is quite beautiful though the tourist attractions are scattered. The very heavy ACER Laptop that I was lugging around was not helping with my Spondylosis resurfacing. But taking it back to the hotel outside the city would have meant loss of 2-3 hours as it was already 4 pm when I finished my lunch.
The Bienvue Museum, Garden of Sculptures and the Central Place (that looked rather like a temple straight out of the Angkor Vat) were enough to tire me out.
Being 7 pm in the evening, I thought it better to purchase some juices lest I go hungry the whole night. Sipping the juice and trying to get back to the railway station, A lapse of judgement of direction also meant that I walked for one hour extra further in the dreadful cold to figure out the correct railways station.
I had actually unknowingly ventured towards the dreaded South Station. I felt a strange feeling when I entered the railway station. A small crowd was gathered and an old man was lying on the floor with his face swollen. A lady was sitting on the bench some distance away. She looked really cross and the police were scampering near them indicating this to be a crime scene.
Having obtained my ticket for the day and for my paris visit to my cousin, I decided to sit and wait for the train. Unfortunately the next train was one hour and was to arrive on the top most platform and when I reached it was deserted at 8.15 pm.
With nothing to do, I decided to peer through the City Maps and Guidebooks in the waiting room complete unaware of the handful of people observing me.
At 8.45 pm I was still waiting for my train to come and 5 min before the scheduled arrival, a man approaches me with a question
“Excuse me how long will this train take to reach diegem?”
It struck me as quite strange in two regards – A person speaking fluent English in a French country and approaching an even stranger looking person like me wearing a felt hat (that was wearing to avoid the fever getting worse, Sneezing and coughing with fever in 5 degree temperature).
I move towards him to hear him properly but only to find him running away laughing. I look back and find my Laptop gone. (also gone are other personal belonging like Ipod, Modem, Memory stick etc.).
It took me 2 minutes while I frantically searched the waiting room and the one adjoining it to realize why this person laughed. Apparently they were following me and had seen me enquiring at two-three places. Was never able to see his accomplice but as soon as I came out of the waiting room again, I saw him looking at me and boarding the train standing on the opposite platform.
He swiftly moved inside it to come out of the other end and quickly disappeared. My immediate hunch was to run after him but in a new country and new settings, I felt suddenly helpless.
I ran downstairs to the place where I had seen the police people but none were to be seen.
I ran to the enquiry counter and they pointed towards a police booth. (it was closed). I returned the second time and this time was pointed towards a police station across the street. (that was closed too). I returned to the counter the third time to hear that my only chance of getting any help was at the central station. I boarded the train after purchasing another ticket only to return after half an hour with the information that all the Police Stations close at 9.oo pm.
When I confronted the enquiry person about this the reply was a terse “ I don’t know, “je ne sais pas”.
I returned to the hotel with a heavy heart and admixture of thoughts of remorse, anger, disappointment, fear of ridicule and self deprecation.
When I woke up next morning ,I couldn’t figure out if I was still dreaming. I was still in fever and the lack of sleep the whole night and the severe cold had made my head go dizzy now.
March 12 – Police Station, Brussels
I call up the office and recount the incident so that they could resend me the power-point (for which I had got the laptop issued). I reach the first police counter at this station again first up and the extremely beautiful police lady took my passport and disappeared for 15 minutes. I doubt if a girl so good looking would ever get into such a dirty business as the police in India.
Then she reappeared and gave me a very patient audience about my whole experience the day before and registered the FIR and handed a copy in duplicate.
She asked at the end - What is your designation?
Programme Coordinator, I answered.
Programmeur, She wrote.
“How many such incidences occur like this? I dejectedly asked.
At least 5-6 per day here..
“And how many in the whole city”
At least 15-20 on an average !!!
Just then a disheveled person entered the station and said, I am from America - My laptop has been stolen just now!!!
Had it been India, I would have shaken his hand. I was after all not the only Idiot in this world.
I was feeling quite better now. This past half an hour left me with a restored belief in myself.
I ring up my cousin in france and after recounting the incident ask him..
Has anything like this happened to you??
Not yet in last two years I am here. You should have been more careful!!
To add insult to injury the conference where I went was quite unsuccessful as per the organisers due to poor response from bilateral donors like the French AID, DFID (out of 50 confirmed donors, only about 10 turned up while 100 odd project participants like me were present )etc. Though my presentation and project was highly appreciated. After the conference I called up the insurance people from the hotel room :). “we r not responsible for thefts only transit losses” was the indifferent reply ......
Pumped up after meeting the police constable and armed with the crime statistics of Brussels, I saw the whole city during the next day there only in company of other tourists in a guided tour.
March 14, – Holidays Inn, Brussels
During checkout they handed me a fon bill of Euro 170 (more than the net present value of the laptop etc.) charging me at the rate of 11 euros/min. But I had no choices given the unique position of my hotel. When I told the reception lady, the reason for the phone calls, she empathized.
Even U, my god not again, well just 2 days ago one German gentleman lost his laptop, passport, money etc :) He went completely berserk and crazy.
My self-confidence was getting restored now.
March 14, - Paris Railway Station
I reach Paris to meet my cousin. He is expected to be there to receive me but is not seen anywhere. Comes after 15 min. Why man why r u late?? I ask??
My bag (that I wanted you to take to India) got stolen outside my hotel !!!
“How on earth” – I ask..
Well I was helping an Iranian guest of mine, here to attend a conference on nuclear physics into the hotel room. Since there were 3-4 pieces of luggage so while I was shifting two of them, the third one vanished from outside the door !!!
My confidence was now getting boosted like never before.
March 15, Shopping outside the “Louvre” Museum,–
We stumble into a Bulgarian lady and barely manage to escape the “gold finger ring fraud”. The lady came to us and offered a gold finger ring which she found on the road as she could not speak English. Pointing at the 18 carat embossing, she wanted us to take care of it. Only a threat to report her to the police deterred her from duping us. My brother later once called me to tell that these gypsies are always on the look out for idiotic looking tourists who can be singled out from the crowd and are a gullible lot!!
I wish, had gone to french India rather than france. There are lot of people from Pondicherry in France. I met a person at the airport, He was from Mauritius and was a French-tamilian. When I recounted my incident he said “Indians are treated as vulnerable community here by the immigrants from Belgian Congo and Algeria etc” After 10 pm at night, even the security at Airport cannot vouch for us and we have to take care of ourselves. Most of the French colonies are in very bad shape economically and the immigrants from there comprise a big chunk of unemployed youth here in France.
From all this incidents I had two major learnings till I returned to India....
Events happen when you become complacent or start taking things for granted....
Secondly Indian society is the biggest support and one must learn to value it come what may……
One more person in the flight to turkey lost his mobile after talking to me!
May be he was affected by the ill luck/ omen I was carrying around that time.....
March 18 – Delhi
I reach delhi and the workshop am attending ends unceremoniously as the funder starts bleeding from the year and collapses on the road. I go to my sister’s place to give my nerves a break..
March 19 – Delhi
Additional collector calls and I tell him my predicament… “Vivek you should have asked me before going. I also lost 300 Euros in the train in paris during my last visit!! I literally went into a depression after that”.
Now my confidence was sky high. The same collector sb had rapped a few soldiers on their knuckles for not knowing how to do proper security checks during my earlier visit to the North-East. When I came back, It was again my turn as my symbian operating system crashed for the second time this year :(
I also loose all phone numbers whom I wanted to share this story with.
April 7 – I buy my new cell, Nokia Express Music.
July 17 – Hyderabad
I am called downstairs at reception to shift room at 9.30 pm. I get a call from home at 9.45 and I move out of the hotel to listen clearly. After 15 min two youth come on a motorcycle and snatch the fon from my hands!!! I run after them and a person gives me lift to catch them. We end up loosing their track in 2 minutes. Later I read similar stories published in newspapers in Indore and Udaipur with great interest !!!!
Morale of the story—Such things though have nothing in common could have been prevented if a person knows what is to be expected at various places. Almost everybody to whom I tell these things tell me similar experiences of dishonesty that have been inflicted on them or people they know!! It is important that we don’t keep mum as a society and tell our coming generations for the kind of world that awaits them when they travel or deal with unknown cultures.
By the way my suggestions also stems from a suggestion for generating royalty out of such writings to make up for the losses ….
