Sunday Posts

I just read about Galerianki , the Polish documentary on the phenomenon of mall girls, on today's International Herald Tribune . For the uninitiated, the mall girls are those teenagers, often in school, who hang around in shopping malls and try to spot wealthy individuals, draw their attention and perform sex acts in return to gifts, often in the form of expensive branded clothing, mobile phones and other accessories. Deviod of parental attention, as their parents struggle to keep pace with the demands of post-socialist Poland, these girls do not think they are prostitutes, and call their clients 'sponsors' or 'boyfriends', and sometimes 'frajer' ['loser]. This story attracts my interest because of a coincidence. I spotted the story on IHT only after having a discussion with someone in the Philippines about those girls in Philippines, young and full of girlie charm, who perform sex acts for money to pay for their exams. Yes, it is as...

Krakow: Where History Envelops Everything The Market Square & St Mary's: Where the trumpet stops halfway Gates to the old, walled city The Palace of the Polish Kings in Krakow The Market Streets The River Vistula from the Palace: Where the dragon lives

Warsaw: Where History Was Wiped Out and Was Built Brick by Brick Stanislas Poniatowski: The Last King of Poland University of Warsaw The Old Warsaw: Not The Concrete Jungle like the Rest The Polish Academy of Sciences

Wootz: Where History is best forgotten Ul. Piotrkowska - Lifeline for Lodz, and Europe's Longest Street As obvious, a Gas Station without Gas And, a ghostly side street The New Lodz, Infosys and all that

I am in Krakow now, and just having a free morning. This is the last day of a quite demanding visit, but a thoroughly illuminating one. It was also quite a bit of travelling - flew in Krakow [pronounced Krakuv], took a train to Lodz [pronounced Wootz] and then on to Warsaw [pronounced Varsava] - all by train and with a lot of walking around. That always helps, as I am getting a hang of Polish sounds, and for example, understood that the place I am supposed to go to next time, Worclaw, is to be pronounced Vorcwava. Yes, W is like V, L with a sign is like W, and a few other things. I am now getting used to Zloty at 4.5:1 with English Pound, and 3:1 with US Dollar. Suddenly, the world has started making more sense. There are other things which are becoming a little more clear. The three cities I visited could not be any more different. I shall put up the photos sometime, but here is a description. Lodz is an industrial town, mainly developed after the war, and was left to rot after the co...

I am currently in the Polish town of Lodz, pronounced Wootz, if this could be pronounced at all in English. It is a 200 mile, 4 hour train ride from Krakow, which I found every bit as lovely as I imagined it to be. I was pretty scared of the train ride though, given that I speak no Polish and I was told I may have to fight for a seat, conjuring up memories of fighting for a seat in India, particularly Bihar. So, I bought myself a first class ticket and the first class turned out to be every bit as royal as expected [though not very different from Second class and as empty]. One can't buy food at the train, which I was warned about, but a friendly vendor did pop in somewhat around the middle of the journey with some cold beer [which I had to refuse, because I was travelling with a colleague and she said before she did not like drinking]. But, despite the adorable journey, I find the town somewhat strange. A sort of Ghost town, except for one very lit up, very posh street. Somewhat l...