Contemplations and Ruminations

Videos of our 2017 trip... looking back at them now, I'm speechless and filled with wonder. Let's see how it all feels when I scroll through these pages when I'm sixty years old... gratitude filling every fibre of my being. From Pisa, to Rome to Florence... exploring Italy. Road trip to France... Our trip to Barcelona, Spain.. In Geneva... 

So after dropping Nam off at the airport in the previous post , me and Vinod stopped by this pretty church near the airport. To see a painting that  Fr. Gabriel   mentioned when we met him recently.  And here's the painting by the Swiss artist, Alexandre Cingria,... who is best known for his work on stained glass windows. Inside the very simple and charming church of Cointrin (the location)... A Hungarian mass was about to take place and the people were so kind, that me and my brother stayed for the Hungarian service. We stopped by migros on the way home and I picked up this apple strudel... my last pastry here before I leave the next day.  Then came home and made this huge savoury puff pastry for my brother to take to work the next day.  Spent the rest of the evening packing and weighing my luggage, then went to sleep.  Woke up the next day, made some breakfast for my brother and he went to work. Then I made this tortellini,...

After exploring Coppet , we took the train back to Geneva and then bus 8 to Old Town, and walked a bit to reach the Geneva Street Food Festival. My brother met us here, and we spent the evening strolling around trying out different kinds of food... Cute food trucks... One of my favourite foods here, crepes... A cheesy spinach crepe...  The pie truck... The Churros truck... Eating under the trees... Pizza... See, how they take care of their surroundings... nobody dares dirty the place. I wish we, in India, could cultivate a culture of cleanliness... in thought, word and deed. It was nice... just strolling around, watching friends and families having a great time. The goodlife indeed...  Some Japanese food... Which tasted pretty good... We picked up a Lobster roll here... My sister loves lobster and prawns... An Aperol , got a nice buzz with this... Always fond of seafood, my brother picked up this fish and chips... ...

The Last Girl (2017) by a Yezidi survivor, Nadia Murad, is filled with the bone-chilling sort of evil that the ISIS is synonymous with. Nadia poignantly captures the plight of her Yazidi village, Kocho, as the threat of ISIS looms large in the distance before becoming a reality. As with the Holocaust, no one really anticipates the amount or intensity of evil that could reside in the indoctrinated hearts of men. Otherwise, nobody would willingly stay back in their towns or villages waiting for the genocide of their race. One of Nadia’s brother’s, Hezni, did try to go Germany, by crossing the northern Iraqi border on foot into Turkey, from where they (the brother and a few others) made their way to Istanbul, then paid a smuggler to take them into Greece. But they were discovered and had to spend a horrible time in prison. So, the fact is people did try to leave, but like Nadia explains, it isn’t easy to leave the only place one has ever known. I still think that being forced to ...

After our previous day in Jaun , we slept in the next day. Woke up late and made rice and dal for lunch, and after that Vinod dropped us off in Bouchet on his way to work. We, me and Nam, took a train to Gare Cornavin, went to the tpg office and asked whether we could go to Coppet (a small little town on the outskirts of Geneva) with the Geneva day ticket. The tpg guy, very kindly changed our Geneva tickets which are about 11 swiss francs to 13.20 swiss francs so that we could travel to Coppet. Walked to the Castle We didn't go inside... Just walked around taking pictures The castle ground with uneven rocks...  The tree lined avenue opposite the castle The best part about the castle....  Paterns We loved walking under the shadows of this tree lined path The lake in the distance My sister... Me A peaceful place to rest under the trees The lake... The water jet of Geneva is seen in the distance We just walked aro...