Pleasantville
As always, today too, I reached office, kept my bag, switched on my PC and went to grab a cup of Espresso. It was at the coffee machine when I heard that Mahesh is going back to India after his stint at client location. It was his first trip outside India. Suddenly, it brought back memories of my first trip to Brussels.
It was my first insight to the world outside India and the experience was memorable.
I boarded my flight from Chennai International Airport with Jet airways and reached Mumbai from where I took the connecting flight to Zurich and finally landed in Brussels. My travel was quite comfortable with Swiss Air and having travelled many times since then with various airlines, I would definitely recommend Swiss Air. The comfort, the food and the hospitality was admirable. This was also my first encounter with croissant (butter laden French pastry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croissant), which had since been inseparable from my breakfast!
While the plane was descending, I got my first view of a European city. It was like someone had arranged the Lego blocks in an orderly fashioned to create a city. It was very picturesque. It was a bit unbelievable because in India, we are not used to such beauty – we are too busy to worry for aesthetics when we have to fight for lunch almost daily. The Brussels airport was a revelation. I could not have imagined such an airport in my dreams. Indian airports do not stand anywhere in front of Brussels airport. The Brussels airport is so big that they have placed travellators for passengers. I had never seen (or imagined) travellators before. A travellator is a slow conveyor belt that transports people horizontally or on an incline in a similar manner to an escalator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalators). Imagine if all roads were replaced by travellators; we don’t need to walk! Technology can make us lethargic, can’t it?
When I came out of the airport, I was just awed! I was not used to so many white men around me. I was not used to see Mercedes being used a Taxi! I was not used to see the drivers wearing a 3-piece suit waiting to carry my luggage. I was not used to see a lady taxi driver! I was not…phew….
On the way to my hotel, the driver engaged me in the conversation. She asked me if I was from India and then correctly predicted that I must have to do something with IT :). She didn’t forget to mention that Brussels was considered as the capital of Europe, it was the NATO headquarters and a very peaceful city. It is indeed peaceful; I didn’t hear a single car honking during my entire stay! After entering the hotel, I didn’t find any reception but a panel with various switches and an intercom. It felt like a cock-pit to me. I pressed a button indicating “reception” and after being established that I am the one they had been expecting, the door was opened from 2nd floor. The reception was located at the 2nd floor.
The next 1 month was like an Industrial revolution to me. I used to stop on the road to admire the garage and shop doors that open quite smoothly without any mechanical help, the machine at the parking lodge to give tickets, digital cameras(believe me, I had not seen them before), the trams, the underground Metro, state of the art busses. There was no dirt on the pavements, no pollution at all.
It took me almost a month to get used to this change and by that time I had to go back. I was not sad but eager to tell everyone, back home, about this other world. I was aspired to work hard to reach that level of lifestyle and that happened only because I knew that it had already been achieved here and is not merely a dream – it is indeed a Pleasantville.
*Lego: remember the game; we all used to play in childhood with different blocks making cranes, buildings etc
It was my first insight to the world outside India and the experience was memorable.
I boarded my flight from Chennai International Airport with Jet airways and reached Mumbai from where I took the connecting flight to Zurich and finally landed in Brussels. My travel was quite comfortable with Swiss Air and having travelled many times since then with various airlines, I would definitely recommend Swiss Air. The comfort, the food and the hospitality was admirable. This was also my first encounter with croissant (butter laden French pastry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croissant), which had since been inseparable from my breakfast!
While the plane was descending, I got my first view of a European city. It was like someone had arranged the Lego blocks in an orderly fashioned to create a city. It was very picturesque. It was a bit unbelievable because in India, we are not used to such beauty – we are too busy to worry for aesthetics when we have to fight for lunch almost daily. The Brussels airport was a revelation. I could not have imagined such an airport in my dreams. Indian airports do not stand anywhere in front of Brussels airport. The Brussels airport is so big that they have placed travellators for passengers. I had never seen (or imagined) travellators before. A travellator is a slow conveyor belt that transports people horizontally or on an incline in a similar manner to an escalator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalators). Imagine if all roads were replaced by travellators; we don’t need to walk! Technology can make us lethargic, can’t it?
When I came out of the airport, I was just awed! I was not used to so many white men around me. I was not used to see Mercedes being used a Taxi! I was not used to see the drivers wearing a 3-piece suit waiting to carry my luggage. I was not used to see a lady taxi driver! I was not…phew….
On the way to my hotel, the driver engaged me in the conversation. She asked me if I was from India and then correctly predicted that I must have to do something with IT :). She didn’t forget to mention that Brussels was considered as the capital of Europe, it was the NATO headquarters and a very peaceful city. It is indeed peaceful; I didn’t hear a single car honking during my entire stay! After entering the hotel, I didn’t find any reception but a panel with various switches and an intercom. It felt like a cock-pit to me. I pressed a button indicating “reception” and after being established that I am the one they had been expecting, the door was opened from 2nd floor. The reception was located at the 2nd floor.
The next 1 month was like an Industrial revolution to me. I used to stop on the road to admire the garage and shop doors that open quite smoothly without any mechanical help, the machine at the parking lodge to give tickets, digital cameras(believe me, I had not seen them before), the trams, the underground Metro, state of the art busses. There was no dirt on the pavements, no pollution at all.
It took me almost a month to get used to this change and by that time I had to go back. I was not sad but eager to tell everyone, back home, about this other world. I was aspired to work hard to reach that level of lifestyle and that happened only because I knew that it had already been achieved here and is not merely a dream – it is indeed a Pleasantville.
*Lego: remember the game; we all used to play in childhood with different blocks making cranes, buildings etc
posted by Rajal at 11:16 PM
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