Sunday, June 8, 2008

Eiffel (2)

On the night of 31st May, we (approximately, 30 students of Indian Institutes of Technology, mainly of IIT Bombay, interning at various locations in Europe) decided to have a nightout below the Eiffel, the purpose being the enjoyment, adventure & saving money!
It being the la Ville Lumière (the city of light, Paris), I had expected that the wonderful lighting of the Eiffel to last throughout the night. But, to our dismay, after a glorious show of lights at 1 a.m. the Eiffel shut down its lights.
Me & some others suggested that we should spend night in Jardins du Trocadero, garden on the opposite side of Seine than that of Eiffel, which was illuminated enough. But, "when we say that we had a nightout below Eiffel, we should be at least on the same side of the river as that of Eiffel" was the motto of the herd!!!
The dark, bushy garden below Eiffel was in a real mess by the night. People, mostly young tourists, were drinking, smoking, fighting, yelling, throwing up & doin' "it" !!! It was an insecure place. We chose a comparatively well lit spot & made a circle. I, luckily was not on the periphery! Some of us, who could not sleep, kept guard. And there were our dear Indians, selling cheap liquor to the public. Those among us who bought, bargained in Hindi! They were Indians, or that is what they told us. I mean, they could have been Pakistanis or Bangladeshis instead. There was a group of 3-4 guys and 2 gals at a distance from us. One of the guys noticed us, crouched as a huge lump of 30 guys trying to sleep. He was heavily drunk & couldn't speak English. He was very excited to see all of us, took our photos & wanted to jump over us & join us along with his girlfriend (thats what he addressed her). We tried hard to drive him away, but he would go away & return a few minutes later only with new vigor (& may be with new shot of his drink!). At about 3 a.m. we had to leave the place as the nuisance of him & his friends grew worse. But, one thing was certain, that they were surely no thugs. The maximum damage they could pose was by throwing up on one of us.
As we were pacing for a safer place that I & others had suggested at the beginning of the night, we were stopped by a girl. The girl being beautiful, some people stopped to listen to her. She was stammering, could barely speak / think... she just said, "Guys, could you help me??... Could you help me, F**K those f**king guys??", when some of her companions came, consoled her & took her away.
The part of night from 4 a.m. to 5-30 a.m. was quiet... nothing special happened & most of us slept except those 5-6 worried souls. We were awakened in the morning by the growing chills & the stares of Parisians passing by...
The gardens & surroundings which were clean & most happening 12 hours ago had turned into a mess, with garbage, bottles & crap all around, amidst a cover of thin fog. Eiffel did not want to look down... at all. He had the fog cover wrapped around to distance himself from all those things. Suddenly, I realized why he had shut the lights in the first place...

2 comments:

Amod said...

philosophical freshie!

Lilla said...

At least the pic looks great. :) (congratulations to the photographer!)