RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE AND ACCEPTANCE IN COCHIN, KERALA, INDIA. MADE ME CELEBRATE ONAM IN PARIS

 My day had begun in Paris, and I was slowly wandering around the Left Bank of Paris when I received a short video from a very devoted Catholic friend of mine from Cochin in Kerala, India.

He was wishing me a Happy Onam. I wrote to another friend in Kerala for an explanation of Onam and was reminded that it is a Kerala specific festival of flowers and food and while Hindu in origin, well celebrated by others.

My last visit to Cochin was to bring in the year 2020 at the delightful Bristow Bungalow Lighthouse Hotel in the company of some good friends (old and new). I have not had a chance to taste Kerala or for that matter South Indian Cuisine since then.

I suddenly remembered the neighbourhood around Rue Chapelle and Gare du Nord in Paris where there is a concentration of Sri Lankaise and Tamoul expatriates and refugees with multitudes of Tamoul restaurants..

Bus no 58 meandered along giving me a vista of the changing demography as the bus moved north.. around Gare du Lyon, there were such a melange of colourful costumes from Africa and soon one could feel the sensation of Incense floating around.

I was in the Tamoul Neighbourhood of Paris.

It was nice to see old and new migrants from Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and also refugees from the war in Sri Lanka as well as some people from Mauritius or Reunion who looked more integrated (in dress, behaviour and comportment).. I enjoyed walking around the main street with signs in Tamoul and the smell of Brickfields in Kuala Lumpur of which this was a poor copy.

I had come here in search of a Dosai and celebrate ONAM knowing that Tamouls do not celebrate Onam. 

During that day faithful friends from Kerala, christian and Hindou were sending Onam greetings.. 

Tamoul area of Paris..

Regular haircuts in Paris are more expensive than this, but these barbershops which resembled barbershops in Kuala Lumpur and Tamil Nadou had character..

I ordered a Sri Lankan Dosai, which was a mistake, these were much like thick pancakes. I wanted a Masala Dosai or Ravi or Ghee Dosai.  ah well..  Next Dosai in Cochin, Kerala..

THE ARTISTS AND PHILOSOPHERS OF BOULEVARD SAN GERMAINE : JEAN PAUL SARTRE, SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR... AND IN 2021 YASEEN KHAN OF INDIA AND PARIS

 I have had a lifelong fascination with the relationship of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, who I thought influenced my relationships with her boldness and courage and innovation and devotion and intensity. I am forever grateful for my friend from University days in Melbourne, LSF, for introducing me to Simone de Beauvoir and I remember receiving the book The Prime of Life as a gift.

In this part of Paris, one finds two famous cafés associated with these legendary lovers.  I think this one was their favourite .

i had preferred the quieter Cafe de FLore and this time, i was able to procure a corner table in absolute privacy for one, and enjoyed the coffee. With Paris open only to Europeans and North Americans, the selfie seeking crowds were absent and the line was not long to get in.

Wonderful place to observe people and it was like a movie in which I was the spectator.  I enjoyed my sojourn there..

I was feeling especially good, it was somewhere near here, on my visit here during my Anthropology student days that I bought a book on Medical Anthropology by the Psychiatrist, Tobie Nathan?

The church on the left felt familiar but there were some art work hung on the grill of the walls. I walked close and peered and my joy was bounding.. quotes from writers that have brought great joy in my life.  Exupery, Pessoa ...

In between the words of better known writers, there were some originals of the artist himself. This particular one reminded me of an admonishment I received from the Cardiologist Dr Pinkus in Melbourne where I was a Junior Actor.. If you stand out like a sore thumb, you disturb other peoples peace..

I looked around for the creator of such simple pleasures and i did not to look far. By the road side, cocooned in his own shyness was the artist.. a long term resident of Paris but originally from India, Monsieur Yaseen Khan.. I expressed my thanks to him but did not engage in any conversation and moved along propelled by the buoyancy of this wonderful feeling..

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BOUSHRA ALMUTAWAKEL, YEMENITE PHOTOGRAPHER ON IDENTITY AND SYMBOLISM OF THE HIJAB.. I ASK WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO OUR SISTERS IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAN ?

 On the day Kabul in Afghanistan succumbed to the Taliban forces, there was a collective groan of agonized voices around the world.. What will happen to our Afghan sisters? It also highlighted what is happening to our Muslim sisters elsewhere.. for me, the question that haunts me, what is happening to our Iranian sisters? Educated, Elegant and Expendable as per the Mullahs 

Someone sent me a photo of Mother Daughter Doll in Hijab and it was very powerful .. I thought the photographer might be Irani because of the deep sensibilities that portrait depicted but it was the work of Yemeni photographer, Boushra who now lives in Paris with her husband and four daughters.

Born in Yemen in 1969, Boushra Almutawakel found that she possessed a passion for art, expression and dialogue in her youth. After studying abroad during her college years in the United States, Boushra returned to Yemen in 1994 and has become an internationally hailed photographer and visionary who is helping bridge discourse between Western and Middle Eastern cultures through art.

Even though her photographs had been exhibited in the west for years, I had not come across the Mother Daughter Doll in hijabs or the Hijab series... Congratulations, proud daughter of Yemen!

(the haze divides the road that leads to Yemen, I was on the road from Salalah in Oman to the Yemeni border, but was not allowed to proceed beyond this)

The Question now is ?

What will happen to our Afghan sisters?

Ask our Iranian sisters and for them Hijab had become a symbol of oppression by the Mullahs and their government and they cannot wait to shed it, unless to use it as a fashion scarf like many westerners do.

As a good friend of mine from Karaj, Iran said to me over an Iranian derived North Indian dinner at a restaurant called Hyderabad in Kuala Lumpur : I am glad they forced me to learn about Islam, now it is so easy to reject it.

Congratulations, France.. you have always given refugee to artists fleeing oppression, lack of liberty, and not to mention civil wars.

Many names come to my mind 

Oodles of Jewish intellectuals and artists who had to leave Algerie, Moroc and Tunisie

Enrico Macias, Claude Challe, Patrick Bruel...

Albert Memmi, whose books on his Tunisian childhood, I enjoyed very much 

Among Arabs fleeing their lands, and Muslims from Iran, Kurdistan and other places, the name of Amin Malouf stands out.. there are many Maghrebi French writers living in France..

WE WILL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS ..

A favourite cult film among students was the classic CASABLANCA.

and there is a line

We will always have Paris ..

Rick Blaine: Now, you've got to listen to me! You have any idea what you'd have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we'd both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn't that true, Louie?

Capt. Louis Renault: I'm afraid Major Strasser would insist.

Ilsa: You're saying this only to make me go.

Rick Blaine: I'm saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.

Ilsa: But what about us?

Rick Blaine: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.

Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you.

While living in London as a student, Paris might have been on another planet..soon it did arrive..

Long before it did,

Claude Levi-Strauss did. Michel Foucault did. Gilles de Leuze did. Jacques Derrida did.

It is a beautiful city, especially as the lights come out ..

City of Lights and Love ..

Recently I was able to spend a few days in Paris

all I can say is 

We will always have Paris..

as Alvaro Mutis would say of Maqroll, my alter ego

dressed as a travel agent, he would talk to her about love 

while crossing the Seine on Pont de Neuf.. and looking for a chance to steal a kiss..

I did buy a short sleeved shirt which makes me look like a Travel Agent..

On a recent evening, as the sun was going down I was waiting at the Pont Neuf

it felt so magical, lovers from many parts of Europe, staging an eternal moment, holding hands with looks etched into the future in their eyes..

We will always have Paris..

 

PROUD OF FRANCE AND PASS SANITAIRE.. WISH USA WOULD ADOPT SOMETHING SIMILAR ?

My Thalys train crawled into Gare du Nord in Paris and disgorged the eager populace from its belly. I stood in line at the exit and we were being checked by the Police for our Pass Sanitaire.

When I left New York for Brussels, no one asked for Pass Sanitaire or my Vaccination Certificate or a recent PCR test for Covid, but on arrival in France, this was a reminder of the stark difference which exists between the two countries: France takes this virus very seriously.

Should your mask slip a little from your nose, someone or other would remind you of it. You need to show your Pass Sanitaire to go into Cafe, Restaurants or anywhere there are people. In Paris, where restaurants line up the streets, someone comes with their sensor and demands, Pass Sanitaire, SVP? 

Every where you go including bus stops on the street, there are sanitizers and reminders to clean your hands. Never before during the pandemic my hands been this clean ..

Life seemed so normal, French are willing to have their Pass Sanitaire not only to PRESERVE their way of life and more importantly, to protect other FRENCH people. 

On a full moon light, hundreds of lovers on Pont Neuf, restaurants full to capacity , a glass of wine before going to the Seine.. 

but with masks on and also Pass Sanitaire handy..

To leave France, at Orly, you cant even enter the airport if you do not have Pass Sanitaire, then you are checked again for your spanish health papers.. Both countries are very strict about the Covid.. 

In Melbourne, a good friend introduced me to THE PRIME OF LIFE by Simone de Beauvoir.. Nice to enjoy a cup of coffee ..

In our Anthropology lectures, about the BODY, the embodiment of the body, the lecturer used to refer to this painting of Louis XIV who famously said. Le Etat, Ce'st Moi

he did not make any difference between the State and Himself.. Much like many of the 21 century people. Le Iphone, Ce'st Moi..

The iphone has become an Louis XIV extension of the body.. 

In Paris, I discovered Madagascar. A friend of mine and I were discussing about the strange immigration into Madagascar centuries ago.. from Indonesia .. and I began to see Malgache people in the streets of Paris, previously I would have thought of them as Malays or Indonesians or Filipinos..

Same time as the Prime of Life, I remember a movie Les Amants de Pont de Neuf and thus this bridge became part of my imagination.

A history of art PhD student told me the story of Pont Neuf.. the first bridge to be built avross the Seine

Henry IV who had to become a Catholic to rule France as Henry the Great...certainly the bridge is a testament.. with multiple masks lining the upper aspects above the water.. 

At sunset, hundreds of people gather to watch the glorious skies, many lovers, french and European mainly.. a lovely feeling

As French President Emmanuel Macron told the Anti-Vaxxers and Anti-masquers and anti-pass sanitaires.. You have the right to do what you wish, but you do not have the right to make me sick. If you do not wish to obey the public health measures put there for the good of ALL french people, it is you who have to hide and not us, good citizens who are obeying the law and the common sense.

Vive La France

Vive la Pass Sanitaire 

Hope Pass Sanitaire becomes universal

when would Americans open their eyes?