A beautiful country

Last month I had the good fortune to visit Switzerland and parts of the south of France and Austria. It was a pleasure trip for twelve days and came about purely because my brother, who is a visiting professor in an institute in Geneva had an apartment and send me an impulsive invite. So armed with a Swiss rail pass that gave us unlimited travel on trains, buses and trams we landed in Switzerland. Since childhood I had this picture of the snowy Alps and beautiful green hills and dales in my bedroom. Honestly, Switzerland was all that and much more. I relished the train rides and actually wished they would never end. It's been decades since I last enjoyed train travel and felt comfortable just looking at the countryside whizzing past the window. The towns all had exquisite houses with carefully manicured gardens, farms, groves of trees. Lakes abound in the country and most of the towns have sprung up around these. Church spires, red roofs and brown spotted cows with bells were everywhere. I kept comparing our hideous cities and drab countryside with theirs. No wonder western journalists always use the term 'the slums of Delhi or Mumbai'. I dont blame them. We have so much natural beauty in our country but our sense of architectural beauty is non-existent. Hence, wherever we build- we destroy (beauty. Sheila Dixit wants Delhites to paint their houses before the games. But no-one wants to spend for a lick of paint. They want the govt to pay! What more evidence do we want that we never think of the city as ours!