The Long Way Up

The chase between May Day and James Bond in A View to a Kill. Lois Lane hiding under the elevator in Superman II. The premiere target of the nanobots in the first G.I. Joe movie. All these transpired in one of France's best-known landmarks: the Eiffel Tower. Over the years, the motion picture industry has utilized this iconic structure in various ways and in different genres, yielding distinct results. There's just something about this tower that brings filmmakers back to its beauty and grandeur. Having said that -- and having seen Gustave Eiffel's masterpiece in person -- I can conclusively say that there is an awe-inspiring, enticing and captivating quality to this Parisian landmark that even the most artful depictions could never convey. As I made my way down the stairs of the Palais de Chaillot and onto the greens of the Trocadéro Gardens, the physical and figurative enormity of the Eiffel Tower became more and more obvious. All the years of wishing, hoping...

Expectancy was escalating as I was nearing the Eiffel Tower (the Holy Grail of this crusade). It may have been the years of seeing this world-famous landmark on the silver screen that fueled it; or it could quite possibly have been the factual and fictional stories that were perpendicularly, adjacently or tangentially related to this architectural and engineering wonder; or perhaps it might have been the months-long preparation for this Europe trip; or the combination of all these that raised my adrenalin levels to the maximum. It was supremely phenomenal. After leaving the convenience store, I headed further up Avenue Poincaré and landed on the six-way roundabout of Place du Trocadéro, where my first sighting of the Tour Eiffel occurred. I had to stop for a few minutes to take some pictures (of course) and to just take in the view and the 'dream-come-true' moment of seeing the landmark with my own eyes. Everything from then on became a series of one breathtaking expe...

On my way up to the main tour stop on this dream trip, I got momentarily caught under a light, mid-winter rain. It didn't dampen the whole experience, though. In fact, it enhanced the mood of my tour: "a rainy Monday afternoon in Paris" sounds like an idyllic and romantic turn of phrase that you might read in a Nicholas Sparks book; the experience of it, however, is something not even my four-decade worth of vocabulary can succinctly describe. So, as I stood under the canopy of the bus stop on the corner of Avenue Raymond Poincaré and Avenue Poch, waiting for the drizzle to die down, I took a moment to absorb the reality of me finally being in Paris: walking its streets, seeing its sights, and showered by its rains. I felt a mixture of incredulity and gratitude flooding my senses. I remember a bus stopping to pick up a local girl. I remember looking up at the sky to see patches of grey clouds floating against the blue Parisian sky. I remember  thankfully and ...

There's not that many moments in my life that I can categorize as " dream-come-true " moments. It's not that I haven't experienced great things in my life; it's just that I've only ever wished for a few great things to happen to me... and not all of them ever came to pass... except this one! On February 8 of 2016, I got to experience the lengthiest walking tour I've ever been on in my entire life in the city that I have always wanted to see since I was a teenager: PARIS ! Lengthy because I've spent most of my stay in Paris on foot: a total of seven and a half hours of walking around to see the major landmarks that I wanted to see. (Now I'm regretting why I didn't decide to spend a night or two there when I had the time and the money to do so... 2020?) Anyway, this short tour of the City of Lights and Love was one of the most anticipated stops in my European trip, which lasted three months. Right from the moment I boarded the ...

I have been really out of it for quite a while: writing! Another slump I guess. There seems to be no inspiration these days. Even when I sit in front of my computer and try to concoct something, nothing is expressed. Some great ideas do flutter by but I seem to have a hard time getting them to coalesce. However, I do have a thought I'd like to freely pour out here: waiting for something that you know is going to happen is really a challenge. Especially if it's something that you have been eagerly anticipating for years; something that you have been longing to embrace as a fresh start or a new leaf or another chapter; something that has been promised to you that will come to pass. Add to that the helpless feeling of being uncertain about timings and movement. I mean, sometimes I get the sense that things are accelerating toward fulfillment and completion. Other times I get the sense that things have come to a screeching halt or a complete stop (which is basically the ...