To London from Paris
By J.V. Yakhmi*
On her first ever trip abroad, Upasana travelled from Mumbai to Paris to spend two months there with her husband (the author), who was working then at a CNRS lab, while on a fellowship. She was thrilled to see a number of monuments and museums during sight-seeing in Paris, but could not get visa to accompany her husband on a two-day trip to Zurich and Munich. No wonder, a chance to travel to London came to her like a windfall.
Upasana arrived in Paris to spend February and March 1988, with her husband, Dr. Jatinder Yakhmi, who was on a six months Rouge Fellowship working as Directeur du Recherche at Laboratoire de Physique des Solides (CNRS) at Orsay in Paris. The host lab had hired a two-bedroom flat for him in Massy area, for the duration of his stay until March-end.
For the convenience of sight-seeing in Paris they had bought monthly tickets to travel to any of the five zones of Paris using any of the public bus or train facilities, viz. Métro, RER, RATP, etc. Among the places they visited Eiffel Tower, Jardin du Luxemburg, Opera, Pompidou Centre, La Defense, and the Louvre Museum, specially to see Mona Lisa painting. They walked the two-km long Avenue des Champs-Élysées connecting Place de la Concorde with Arc de Triomphe, twice. Upasana could even see a fashion show at Gallery Lafayette, facilitated by Mme Annie Touchant, the secretary to Prof. Campbell, her husband’s host at his lab.
Upasana had learnt to shop at Prisunik, a Department Store for groceries, located at a walking distance from their residence. Twice she went to shop at the shopping mall Carrefour with Mrs. Tinh Nguen, their land-lady. The ‘Gemey’ beauty products, particularly lipsticks became her choicest shopping, though at times she would purchase some goodies for her two school-going children, whom she had left with their grandmother, back home in Mumbai.
In early March 1988, an attempt to get her visa for a 2-day trip to Munich and Zurich did not materialise, so her husband had to go alone on that official trip. She was truly upset at this. Therefore, it came as a windfall for her when she got an invitation to visit London during March 21–24, 1988, alongwith with her husband. The invitation was from Prof. Bryan R. Coles, the Pro-Rector of Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. Prof. Coles, sent return air-tickets to London from Paris and back, for both of them. There was no problem getting visas to London. The host lab had booked a room for them at a hotel, which was located conveniently at a walking distance from Imperial College as well as from the local underground train station.
They reached Gatwick airport in the forenoon of March 21, 1988, took a local train to a train station closest to Imperial College, and walked to it. Her husband gave a talk at Imperial College on the same day, so that they were both free to go for sight-seeing the next full day, on March 22.
She was thrilled to see Hyde Park, Royal Albert Hall, the Big Ben; and play with pigeons at the Trafalgar Square. She could also make a short visit to the famed Harrods Store, which was on a walking distance from Imperial College.
The memories of this 1988 London visit stayed with Upasana for a lifetime. Sadly, she died in 2022.
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*Email: ya_kmi@yahoo.com
