Cutting Chai

From Munich, we moved onto Austria. Vienna was our first stop. We reached there at 6 in the morning and were soon out on the streets, walking towards the City Center as usual.

The streets were so pretty. Early morning, no crowds, beautifully arranged shop windows and yellow-flower-strewn roads. Perfection. We ambled along, breathing in the fragrance, breathing deeply and stopping every few minutes to peer into a particularly eye-catching display.

I would like to say at this juncture that my long-standing disdain for Aishwarya Rai thawed a bit. I have always maintained that she gets more than is her due - as an actress, because she is ethereally beautiful. Well, all over Europe, she ended up being the only Indian actor/celebrity who had her mug on hoardings and advertisements, that being rare too, but nevertheless, there. I concede that yes, she does command a certain respect in the International arena and inspite of my aversion to that feeling of collective patriotism and pride that all us Indians have the copyright to, it felt nice to see her.

So anyway, it was a fruitful morning; we crammed in a few palaces and gardens, encountered a bus-load of tourists from Italy and took several ‘aesthetic’ photographs (courtesy Rajgaria and Bobby J). Around noon it struck us that Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, was just a half hour away from Vienna.

Now, every Eurotripper worth his backpack has seen the movie – The Eurotrip – where a bunch of kids from the States go to Europe and fall into all sorts of interesting situations. A part of the movie depicts them stumble into Bratislava, where they realize that the streets may be dirty, but there is no limit to what a dollar can buy.

We people decided to follow in their footsteps. Off we went to Bratislava. It was interesting - the currency was much more peaceful than the Euro and the city was decrepit. A mere half hour from Vienna in all its classic European glory; Bratislava had the quintessential Eastern European look – beggars, filth, cabs-drivers out to take you for a ride. We got into a bus, went to the city center and decided to spend our few hours at one of these swanky new malls. We walked around, downed a few drinks and also shopped at the supermarket – we stocked up on stuff we figured we would need – chocolates, water but mostly booze.

Many days later, while having a conversation with a Slovak exchange student from our class and from reading a bit, I gathered that Slovakia, and perhaps, the entire of Eastern Europe is kinda like a hot-bed for development and new business; hence it displays the kind of diversity that we find here in India too – a creak-a-minute public transport system alongside super-fast highways leading you to the Meccas of capitalism – the malls. The country’s political ideology is changing and it is in a state of constant flux.

So, here’s wishing all the emerging economies of the world - all the labor, enterprise and capital that they can dole up – May every Bhelpuri wala in Bambai dream of double-storied plush interiors, head-waiters and Crores that are crisper than cutting-chai.