Rome... The Beautiful City

We reached Rome on a sultry hot afternoon... As bad as the Mumbai weather! We were received by our Taxi Driver, who promptly arranged our Apartment keys. Language is an issue. Traffic is a sophisticated version of the Pune Traffic. People will suddenly turn their cars around and the traffic police watch completely disinterested and the tourists bemused and frightened.

We met our guide next morning. My briefing to her was clear. I am not on a whirl wind tour of Rome. Show me something in detail. I know I cannot see Rome in 5 days. So show me a few things, but I am interested in the history and the culture of this great civilisation.

What we went through, was back breaking, walking in heat, sweating but well worth every minute. The few places that interested me the most were the Pantheon, the Colosseum and the Vatican.

Small things like the Greek God who eats your hand from the movie "Roman Holiday”, brought back memories of my first crush... Audrey Hepburn! I was so besotted by her eyes that I could barely sleep for the next 7 days as a 15 year old!

And the Chariot Race from the movie Ben Hur was a sight to see. But at the end of all the beautiful buildings, architecture, stories and culture, I have a few observations...

The Romans thrived on two things, war and slavery. Everybody was a soldier, who wanted land and expand the kingdom so that he could make slaves out of those whose lands he captured.  This ecosystem of war and slavery lasted for about 700 years! I cannot imagine any other civilisation lasting this long on a system of sheer violence and subjugation... How can one be proud of great buildings built on the sheer violence, slavery, subjugation and sheer helplessness of human existence?

At the same time, in India, we had the clear demarcation of the Bramhin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. A system that had many pitfalls but at least did not rely too much on violence. The tension between Religion and the Monarchy has existed in both the systems, but the tension did not give rise to the kind of violence this civilisation has seen... there is loot and plundering all over. Roman temples converted into Churches... The beautiful frescos transferred from one temple to another church...everything seems to have been used and reused to make the current King or Pope look more powerful than ever... I wonder how civilisations have evolved so much intellectually... they were then, perhaps much better as Artists, Artisans, Philosophers and Strategists...but as human beings, I would hate to be born at that time.

The second thing that struck me about the Romans is that they are almost defensively proud of who they are...they don’t know whether they are Romans, then Roman Catholics or Italians now. Each identity is deeper than the other. The conflicting identities seem to make them an angry lot.  But the pride of their cities Architecture and buildings masks their own guilt and anger of people being subjugated by the powerful. The fear of the Global meltdown seems to have scared them. The Guide told me her husband has received no raise in the last 3 years. Just about 10Euros a month. Conversion of the Lira to Euro has doubled their cost of living and halved their incomes owing to a severe drop in traffic from USA and Japan. Most of their tourists are from France and Spain. That would be food for thought for the Economists! The Guide also said, the French used to come for 7 days , now they come for 4 days...the Americans have disappeared and the Japanese don’t come anymore...I asked her, what is the largest group she has handled and she said 92 and I asked which country... Apna India of course!

Finally, the walk down the corridors of the place where Caesar was murdered by Brutus and the story of Mark Anthony and the King Augustus is interesting. I could almost hear the echo of the words "Brutus et tu?" The Roman Empire began as a city, went on to become a republic and finally an empire. I think Christianity began to take roots once Nero plundered and blundered...

As a final observation, I think civilisations are like a fountain and ripples. At the centre of the civilisation is the fountainhead of its Art, Culture and Architecture. The Buildings are at their best at its centre. It is also the physically the lowest point. As the civilisation spreads, its buildings at the periphery are less grand and at a lesser depth...

Leonardo hated painting, but the Vatican ordered him to paint , and his work is almost like paintings that look like sculptures... 

The ripple effect is that the culture and art at its height produce the most beautiful ripples, like the renaissance period did.. But its impact at the last wave is low and it has to wait until the next ripple happens...takes maybe 400 to 500 years...wonder where we are at this point in our civilisation...

Off to Florence tomorrow...

Visiting Salzburg

We flew down from Mumbai to Munich, thinking that we are visiting the city of Sound of Music. When I went on the net, I thought I am going to see a city which is at the edge of a paradise. I also was deeply interested in knowing about the city in which Mozart was born. To me the deep connection between history, culture and identity of individuals always plays an important role.

The Lufthansa staff lived up to its expectations. Cold, curt and inhospitable. As usual I lost my glasses and requested the stewardess to help. She tells me "I am sure we didn't take it!" sometimes I wonder whether we see hostility in others as a society that has been subjugated too long or are we really treated like this ? Or is this really about Indians? Would A Indian treat another white man the same way? I don’t know. Most Airlines have Hindi announcements, the Business class is mostly occupied by Indians and the Economy class is mostly occupied by whites. Does that make them dislike us even more? I really have no clue. But I do sense a mixture of hostility, fear and awe for Indians. Most of it is media created I think.

Moving on, we were in a beautiful lane in Salzburg. In fact the oldest in Salzburg. As old as the city is. Very narrow...which meant we had to carry our bags to our Apartment. Hafez, our Pakistani Taxi driver would not let me touch the bags; he took mercy on a poor fat Indian!

Typically Medieval and tight with paved stones and a climb. We were comfortable in a little apartment in the heart of Salzburg. We decided to stay in an Apartment because I was taught the virtues of being in an apartment by my dear friend Eugene and Kathleen. You almost become a citizen of the place once you start living in an apartment. You begin to understand the nuances of their lifestyles... like the electrical connections...the grocery shopping...the food habits...the floors and the walls, the colours of the walls everything starts making sense to you and slowly the culture of that place starts becoming a part of you , yet you have the travellers objectivity to look at things...

We went to a musical show called the "Sound of Salzburg"... it had live songs from "The Sound of Music", local folk songs...it was a unique theatre. You had to reach there at 7.30 if you wanted dinner. We didn’t, for obvious vegetarian reasons! And if you don’t eat, you reach there at 8 and they start the show at 8.30. The audience was a group of about 150 people. People from almost every continent. Asians, Americans, Australians, and Africans and of course Europeans... The show had so much love and life and joy and celebrations... we seem to only enjoy in our private occasions in India. A marriage or a birthday... but how many of us can actually go to a show, enjoy the local folk music, dance and sing with the singers?

My business instincts tell me, that if someone picked up this idea, about doing a theatrical show with a of say "Bahina Bai”, a great folk poetess who wrote poetry as she would grind her grains, it would be fabulous... maybe Prasad should consider doing this as an incubation project at FLAME?

And then Mozart. Everyone knows everything about Mozart. But there was one striking thing about the Guide and the people we spoke to about Mozart. They did not go overboard in glorifying him. In fact they seemed a little understated about his genius, but every little detail of his life, every letter , every symphony , his notes, his love, his house, even his shoes and potty are all kept like a national treasure! And I just heard we lost Gandhijis spectacles!

.... More later... too much to say...

I am here on a journey of self-discovery. The journey of self-discovery, I realize needs 3 major components... complete anonymity, not a soul should recognize you...second it needs solitude , a space and a time for reflection, finally a sense of hamrony with who you are. The first 2 are quite easy on a forgeign land.. but the 3rd one tkaes a bit of time... I hope I find it soon!