Window Seat / Mrinal
Chatterjee/ 14.7.19
Madrid
Diary
Madrid, the capital city of
Spain is an amazing city. Many royal palaces, castles and museums. The public
transport is reasonably priced and very convenient. People are friendly.
Weather now is nice. Not too hot, not cold.
I am here at Madrid to attend
IAMCR conference. This is for the first time that I attended this conference.
And Boy, it is huge. About 1700 participants, multiple sessions, multiple events
including the inauguration at a Palace foyer. Media Educators from many
countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and China have
participated. The next IAMCR conference will be held in Beijing, China.
City
of Palaces and Museums
Madrid is a city of Palaces and
Museums. We went to visit Royal Palace called Palacio Real De
Madrid.
This huge palace, the largest in
Europe, stands on the site of the former Alcazer Palace of the Spanish
Habsburgs, which was destroyed by a fire on Christmas Eve in 1734. Philip V,
the first Bourban king of Spain, commissioned the building of a new Palace. It
was completeed in 1764. Now it continues to be the official residence of King
Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain. This Palace is used for state ceremonies.
Sign
Language
As I do not know Spanish
and most of the people in Madrid do not understand English, communication
remains a huge problem. Google translator helped in some places. But in most
places, it was only through sign language that I communicated. And believe me
it worked. There were some glitches too. My friend Prof Uma Shankar Pandey, who
is a vegetarian finds it very hard to make the waitress understand the fact.
The other day I tried to tell through signs that I wanted water. The athlete
looking waiter first brought me a can of beer, then a can of coke and at the
end another brand of beer. I did not want to infuriate the stern looking man.
Drank the can of beer and said to myself: save water, drink beer.
Indian
Restaurants in Madrid
Food in Madrid tasted bland to
our India tongue, habituated in masalas. So we tried to find out Indian
restaurants. We found one known as Curry Masala . The full name was Curry
Masala restaurant Hindu. It had Indian cultural motif in its interior. We asked
why this suffix Hindu? Answer: So that people will know we don't serve beef. It
turned out that the was tears are from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Cook s from
Pakistan. We did not ask about the owner.
The second day we found out
another known as Taj near Banco de Espania. It had the picture of Tajmahal
prominently displayed. Here also the waiters and cooks turned out to be from
Bangladesh, from Shilet district to be more specific.
It seems, the dream of Ahand Bharat has been realised at least
gastronomically in foreign countries.
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