Paris: My Personal Renaissance

Sitting in Bhopal, the heart of India, approximately 7000kms away from Paris, a woman dreams of her Parisian life on the anvil. Her tickets are booked, and she is to take her flight (literally and metaphorically) soon. Excitement dances within her, yet the fear of leaving the familiar for the unfamiliar lurks. She's lived away from family for eleven years, but the daunting prospect of a foreign land with little support looms large.

Standing at the crossroads, weighing her options and considering the choice she made, she stumbles upon a Netflix series, ‘Emily in Paris’, which, despite being overburdened with cliches and exaggerated feats, makes her dream of ‘the movable feast’ with fondness. The unrealistic Paris sprinkled liberally throughout the series helps her do away with the doubts and quandaries and prepares her to plunge from the ‘City of Lakes’ to the ‘City of Lights’.

In the first season, when they show Emily jogging against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower, prancing in picturesque old streets in high heels and vibrant berets, attending shoots on regal bridges and scintillating light workshops, the woman can only recognize the Eiffel Tower of the myriad locations and yet feel the city’s infectious energy despite being thousands of kilometres away.

A year passes and she is a few months old in Paris when the second season premieres. And while Emily’s Paris may be bright and beautiful and summery always, hers isn’t. She’s already witnessed a winter, a spring, a summer and an autumn here. She’s completed her education and is pursuing a job which will help her realize her dream of living in a charming Haussmannian building.

She's more discerning this time around, spotting the clichés and cultural appropriation. She knows a Chambre de Bonne is not as roomy as Emily’s apartment, and she knows chances of sustaining a job without the basic knowledge of French is a far-fetched dream in France let alone thriving in it, she knows for a junior marketing executive, it is highly unlikely to be able to survive in Paris with frequent taxi rides and not setting a foot in the metros and RERs, she knows it all and now she can also spot the buildings and monuments shown in the show. She knows she’s travelled past many of them when she had to take night buses in the wee hours while returning from her part-time job as an ‘inventoriste’.

When season 3 premieres, she’s almost found her footing in ‘La Ville des Amours’. She’s been living the nearly Parisian life for almost 2 years now and has seen a lot in between. She’s had an opportunity to work in Europe’s largest startup incubation centre and one of the world’s largest prestige beauty companies. She’s made new friends and lost most of her old ones back home.

She’s more confident walking on the cobbled streets of one of the prettiest European cities and not scared of losing her way in labyrinthine train stations and look-alike streets. Today she not only identifies the locations shown in the season but also knows most of them; Le Jules Verne, a Michelin-star restaurant on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower, the Sacré Coeur de Montmartre, Le mur des je t'aime (The Wall of Love), Musée de la Vie Romantique, Musée d’Orsay, Rue de Barres, Place de Vosges, Jardins de Tuileries, Restaurant Chez Julien among others.

It’s been 4 years for her and the 4th season for Emily in Paris. She watches it and beams with a sense of pride thinking how far she’s travelled along with the show. When Gabriel takes Emily to the Pont Neuf and talks about how ironically the name translates to ‘the new bridge’, despite being the oldest in Paris, she jumps with joy because she can now tell the entire history of the construction of the bridge, its measurement and dimension, and its role in making Paris the enigmatic allure. She can recount the history of the city's oldest street, the oldest house, the oldest clock, the oldest restaurant, the oldest boulangerie, and so much more.

When she moved to Paris, she dreamt of a plush corporate job. But today, she works as a teacher and takes people on tours of the magnificent city of Paris. Life in Paris didn’t pan out the way she had conjured but she is content because the city has changed her in ways she had never imagined and made her fall in love not just with itself but also with herself, teaching her to embrace her flaws the way Paris embraces everybody who sets foot here.

Last week, when she finally visited Emily’s apartment at Place de l'Estrapade, it felt like life had come full circle for her. Like Emily’s, Shayali’s story has also grown in Paris in the past few years.

However, while Emily’s story is fictional, Shayali in Paris isn’t. It is my story, perforated with trials, tribulations, trepidations and triumph in its way. It is a story I love to share, and take pride in.