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Zurich (“Zu-reich” in German means too rich), the business and cultural capital of Switzerland, lies at the north end of Zurich Lake, in the valley formed by the ridges of Uetliberg on the west and Zurichberg on the east. Extending along both sides of the River Limmat, with hills and mountains rising up around it in all directions, Zurich is set in a spectacularly scenic, almost alpine location.

Zurich
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I came to know about the Baha’i faith just by chance.

In the early seventies, immediately after my initial training at Grindlays Bank (Now Standard Chartered), I was asked to man the foreign exchange desk. Those days the foreign exchange business could only be transacted at banks and hence the desk was mostly busy. On that day, a young boy, probably in a hurry, was trying to jump the queue. He told me that he had to attend his class and had no money for bus travel. I told him to get the consent of the girl standing next to her, which she very graciously gave.

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On the way to Geneva to visit our daughter who was doing a project there, we planned to include a three day sojourn at London.

After visiting the usual tourist places - Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, “London Eye”, Harrods and Selfridges, on September 30th, the penultimate day of our visit, we started early morning for Canterbury, one of England’s most beautiful cathedral cities. Surprisingly, this small town with a population of around 45,000 is country’s second most visited town (over 2 M tourists visit every year). The cathedral is the focal point of a compact town centre, which is enclosed on three sides by medieval walls.

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My wife seems to have been smitten by some religious bug. Though I am myself a reasonably religious person (except for after 7 on some days, when the “spirits” of United Breweries, Seagram and Johnnie Walkers of the world, keep on hovering around me and I along with some of my friends or office colleagues drag ourselves to the nearby bars), probably to cover my shortcomings my wife has been making some extra effort as some kind of an “insurance”.

On one of these bouts last weekend, she asked me to plan a visit to Vrindavan. I have lived with her under the same roof for over three decades and have every intention to be there till I live and hence told my driver to be on the wheels by 6 in the morning. That’s how our jaunt to Mathura – Vrindavan started.
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