Tour Dë Force

Tour dë Force ​

DHARINI Superintendent of Detective Police writes in her diary:

Stray dogs were rummaging the garbage mounts in the open dumping yard adjacent to the main road. Few crows were hovering over them and one was bold enough to perch on one of the stray dogs and this dog was holding tightly between its jaws a travel bag and jumped out of the site to the main road.

It was just around that time, my patrol van was passing by the side of this dog. Having noticed a brand new stylish travel bag near the compound wall of the dumb yard being torn by a dog, I ordered the driver to halt the vehicle at the spot. The vehicle pulled in reverse and halted somewhat closer to the dog. Driver and I came out from the van. Seeing me in police uniform and the driver approaching, the dog sprinted away leaving the bag at the spot.

I stooped and picked up the flexi travel bag, got back into the car and ordered the driver to proceed to R-9 police station.

The names of various European cities in luminous print on the exterior of the bag in various fonts and shapes in random directions, triggered in my mind of my professional college Europe tour and a man I met with identical travel bag at the exit point of museum in Bonn/Hamburg in unified Germany, a few years back. The sight of this bag triggered magical moments that I had and enjoyed replaying in my mind often and anon.

It was more enjoyable when I flew back to Mumbai-India by Lufthansa flight that took off from Helsinki.

Initially, when I met him face to face in the late evening, I was enamoured of his charm and developed a crush on him.

It was on the famous “locks of love” Paris Bridge that spans the louvre museum - the picturesque Pont des Arts. It was around Christmas holidays and therefore thousands of colorfully, richly attired young and old, lovers and celebrities from across the globe, thronged over here and were sealing their love and of their mutual affection by attaching a padlock to the 2 ½ meters railings of a 155 meters long foot bridge and threw the key into the only river Seine flowing across France. It was here that man extended a lending hand and saved me in good time from slipping off the bridge into the river Seine.

With his right forehand underneath across my stomach and waist and his left hand gripping my rear left arm he held me for a while. A kind of pleasure wave rippling through my whole being. When I straightened myself, some tourists around clapped & hailed him as hero and commented that we were cute looking lovers. In that picturesque background with those comments, I lost myself to him. I did thank him by closing my eyelids softly.

After mutual introduction, we chatted on matters of home, academics, management and business line. I marveled at his unction diction and erudition. He seemed to be a voracious reader of various arts, science besides esoteric science of occultism, Carnatic music and a connoisseur of food books. His best companion appears to be paperbacks for he was spotted absorbed always with a book in hand. He claimed to have attended German language learning at Max Muller Bhawan Chennai. By virtue of his schooling in Maharashtra, he was heard speaking fluent Hindi.

Though we were from same management college in India, yet we were destined to meet at a different geography here and since we were in different tour groups, our sojourn separated. His and my tour bus went one behind the other sight seeing Munich, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt all three known for zero pollution and had great schools and public service but not a single moment we could be together.

At last, we met at closer proximity in along a bridge over river Spree in central Berlin when huge fans from all walks of life were waiting with Boris Becker to cheer Steffi Graf tennis celebrity of Germany. Here was a forecaster- an octopus -named “Pal” who could tell as to which nation’s team would emerge triumphant in world cup football extravaganza.

From my hotel, large members thronged the venue where “Pal” was predicting world cup 2010 winner was going to be Spain. I too decided to go and watch Pal.

Hey presto! Here too I saw him -my heart throb. Wriggled through the onlookers, I managed to reach behind him and nudged. “Hello” was the sweet word, I heard him say with brightened face and my heart fluttered and my hand reached for his proffered palm. I liked the way he held my palm. It was a firm grip and he was holding it for considerable time.

The crowd divided into two, making path for a group of boys and girls in fancy-dress waving colourful bunch of flowers & pennants or their national flag parading to occupy centre stage to cheer the celebrities. They were dressed like aged relativity scientist Albert Einstein, “deaf wonder” and popular ‘symphony-sonata’ creator Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann Sebastian Bach, Peace Nobel Albert Schweitzer and other great achievers of international acclaim and laureates.

The cynosure among the kids dressed imitating their role model was a stocky girl whose parents were of Indian origin. She was dressed like south Indian orthodox woman of Iyengar clan, in a mini silk saree, worn in imitating style of “Avvai shanmugi” – a middle aged woman character role played in a south Indian movie by star Kamal Hasan.

I learnt later that this kid’s parents were related to my heart throb. Also, I came to know that the box office hit Tamil movie titled “Avvai shanmugi” was adaptation of successful German film “Mrs.Doubt Fire”.

Upon seeing him amidst serene verdant background in the misty midmorning alongside a placid river, my heart leapt with joy and yearned to be cuddled by him and felt a kind of ebullience rushing up in my blood stream.

In a nearby fruit stall we enjoyed drinking cocktail and he paid for it in Euro. By and by, we found that the other is having almost same views, likes and dislikes on life, food and friends circle. Alas, this meet could last only for less than twenty minutes. Our hands joined through our elbow.

A German with his girl in a tandem bicycle came toward us and helloed him “Kart” and said to us to enjoy rest of the tour. My man introduced me to his German friend. I said the bicycle and his girl friend were nice. Kart – yes that was my hero’s name. He got the cue from me and asked me if he borrow the bicycle, would I accompany in tandem. I said I am sport for it. For few minutes, kart and I together on a ride in tandem cycle in the breezy weather. It was quite fun and a glorious day.

After this leg of tour, the itinerary was nearing completed. We went back to hotel for rest and stay before we emplane for India via Helsinki. We arrived in different flights to Helsinki but fortunately for kart group and my group, the stay was arranged in the same hotel. In a row of rooms on opposite sides we were all accommodated. It was a splendid coincidence when I found him in the room 545, just opposite mine.

I was fidgety - could not get into sleep.
........

This hotel situated in Helsinki which is somewhat closed to Antarctic and this being winter season, outdoor temperature at this hour said to be hovering around minus 3°c to minus 7°c. The rooms in this hotel fixed with three layers of special type of glass ‘wall to wall’ windows and centrally heated was comfortably warm at around 19°c........

.......When we opened our eyes, we were terribly lucky. The vast expanse of sky was illuminated with glow, intermittently colorful and no trace of clouds. We witnessed through the glass window on the northern side of the room, the picturesque northern lights known as Aurora Borealis which occurred often in Northern Finland and when winter is sufficiently cold, it does appear in Helsinki.

He said he had voracious appetite. He ordered ‘Karelian Pie’ (Karajan piirakka) a favorite Finnish dish made with Rye crust, filled with rice pudding and mashed potatoes, and baked. We had alternate bites of it.


(The above excerpts from unpublished untitled book)