Page 40 - ENGLISH 10

Memoirs of my Visit to France
This morning the city of Paris looks slightly fuming; the sky is overcast, and
it is drizzling too. But it does no harm to me. I have decided to go out for a
visit or an observation tour. I had asked Nirmal bhaai for a list of museums in
the vicinity of Paris yesterday. He brought me some brochures with the names
and addresses, and street maps of Paris Museums in the evening. Paris has
more museums than temples and gods in Kathmandu, he says. I am new to
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Paris, staying here for only one week. Hope these maps and brochures will
show me Paris metro zones and guide me to some museums today. Last week
Nirmal bhaai showed me Pompidou Centre, ‘a complex building of high-tech
structure’. This visit has emboldened me to explore further.
I guess I can cover a maximum of two museums today. It means just giving a
cursory glance. This is my plan. They say Cézanne is quite far away, Paul Cézanne,
the post-impressionist painter, may be in the outskirts. I cannot visit him all alone,
and cannot cover two museums in a day. So I chose to visit a museum nearby in
the heart of the city. Likewise, Braque is far, Du Champ is farther away. So I have
decided as per Nirmal’s suggestion to start with Rodin’s. Maybe I will go to
Monet’s next.
People know I am never a painter, nor a sculptor, nor a connoisseur of art, or
CDC
a professional, but then, the world knows that my interest in the lives of great
artists and their lasting works is growing deeper. So wherever I go, I prefer to
visit art museums ¿ rst of all. In Russia, in Greece, in England, in America—I
did so. I move merely a dilettante, however, with a deep sense of awe and rev-
erence. I have no words to express how I felt upon seeing Mona Lisa in Louvre
yesterday. I must say why my interest in this is growing gradually in this way.
Two decades ago, I was entrusted an Academy project titled Introduction to the
Literary Trends and Movements in which I had to present a glimpse of literary
trends and movements of the world. Most literary movements developed from
the western movements of art and philosophy. They are entrenched ¿ rmly.

Therefore, I studied and wrote brieÀy on new trends of art such as Impressionism,
Expressionism, Symbolism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism and their relationship
with literature. I had used secondary sources to write about them. Later on I visited
the Modern Tate of London to write on postmodernism.
Most new thoughts originated in France. Most of them came to literature
through art; they went to other literatures from France. Later on when I studied
the great works of Lainsingh Bangdel, his memoirs and travels and journals,
I was moved, everybody will be moved to read him, his Muluk Bahira Ma, a
magnum opus. Have you read this or his Spenko Samjhana? Or, his Romko
Kanda Ra Pyarisko Phool? ... He spent 12 years in Paris and studied Fine
Arts in those dif¿cult days. He had to spend 42 days travelling by ship from

Calcutta to London. Every young heart will be moved to read those great love
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