Your Bharat Mahaan Interactions with Europe's intelligentsia revealed that India is one of their favourite countries. Most of them keep track of developments in the subcontinent, and are fascinated by India's rich cultural and social diversity, and its heritage and sheer size. The usual impressions of India as a poverty-ridden landmass full of beggars, disease-stricken people, pollution, filth, snake-charmers have not completely disappeared. There are people such as Professor Enrico Fasana of Universita Degli Studi Di Trieste, Prof Umberto Ferrini, past director of the laboratory of biophysics at the Regina Elena Cancer Institute in Rome and Swamini Hamsananda Giri of Gitananda Ashram, a yoga sadhana Kendra at Altare (Savona) in Italy, who seem to know India inside out. Prof Fasana, who can speak in several Indian languages, could easily win any quiz on India's current affairs, history and general knowledge. Prof Ferrini's zeal to visit and research India has not dimmed with age. His nth visit to India in September will take him to Aurangabad in Maharashtra. The saffron-clad swamini, a European woman who renounced materialistic world at age 12 to embrace the spiritual, is full of praise for India's value systems and social mores. The tall and attractive wife of a European diplomat turned up at the Rome reception sporting a bindi and clad in a magenta-coloured saree and a matching blouse. She was the cynosure of all eyes as long as the couple flitted across the hall. Vignettes of Rome Rome is eagerly waiting for the drama that would unfold when gays from all over the world will converge here in the first week of July to denounce the religious heads and general discrimination against homosexuals. The city of priests is likely to erupt in controversy. Already, the disclosures by the Vatican about the truth behind the assassination attempt on the Pope a few years back, has caused a stir in Rome. More controversy may unleash excitement overload in Rome. The city seems weighed down by its overwhelming heritage of history. The ubiquitous ancient Roman structures, the narrow lanes and roads, the magnificent buildings and the dome of the St. Peter's Cathedral of the Vatican that oversee the city, remind visitors constantly that they are in a place with a historical background. The absence of skyrises and ultra-modern business districts adds to the feeling. BACK     NEXT: Namaste Pradhan Mantri-ji; Asians Ahoy!; Life and style in Rome; Vajpayee da Gama; Dining with a VVIP's daughter-in-law; Spotlight on Portugal; The old and the beautiful Portuguese; Youth on their toes; TV is cool; Lisbon is a party in June; Air-India to remain Air-India; How India will get UN Security Council seat; New Millennium, old communication methods; Modern Maharajas have the cake and eat it too; A joyous nation dives to depths of sorrow. Tell us what you think of this diary
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