A longish weekend in London

While I visited London almost every other weekend and each visit being different, unique and enjoyable, I am still in awe of the one weekend which I spent with Vardan. It was a short 3-day layover trip for him, as he was headed to Mexico for his training the following week. He was landing at Heathrow, early morning on 2nd Oct, Friday.

The morning he was set to arrive I had planned to receive him at the airport. But as luck would have it, I missed my bus from Bristol to the Heathrow airport and history has proof that when it comes to Vardan, I am always late. Barely making it into the next one, I was already an hour behind my schedule. I was saved due to the late arrival of the flight and the long queues at immigration. Finally, after some communication issues later we met!!!! It was a dream come true to see him in London. Each time I had visited London, I would think and wish to do those things with him and this time I would.

My roommate had suggested to pre-book a cab from Heathrow to London as it would be economical but when I had checked online about pre-booked cabs I had found them to be not very cheap at 60 pounds and due to uncertainty of  flight arrival I had not made the booking, thinking it would cost as much in taking one from the airport. Well I learnt a lesson after paying 100 pounds for a drop till Leicester square and the driver expected a tip. Britishers!!! I would advise anyone arriving at Heathrow to take the tube or the bus, unless somebody else is paying for it.

We checked into our hostel, where he slept all jet lagged and I sat planning the weekend ahead. I couldn’t think straight for some reason, and I realized I was hungry and so I came out to grab a sandwich leaving my planning behind. God makes the best plans you see! So, I get back to see a still pretty jet lagged Vardan, but I can’t have him sitting indoors when it is bright and sunny outside.

Like I said London surprises me each time and there is always something new that I uncover. This time it was the wonderful market ahead of the London eye. I had only ever seen the London eye from the other side of the river, so as we walked from Leicester square towards Trafalgar square (I could totally visualize these on the monopoly map), past 10 downing street, we finally see the Big Ben and the glorious London eye.

My roommate, god bless her, had suggested a few eateries just ahead of the London eye. Now hungry as we were, I still more hungry after the sandwich, trudged along the river leaving London eye behind us. It was quite a walk from Leicester square to London eye and ahead.

Finally, we settled for a good Mexican lunch with our shades on while enjoying the sun. I told Vardan of my visit to the Shakespeare globe theatre which wasn’t far off from where we were. While catching a play was on our radar, we just couldn't decide when we could go for it, as the evening was planned for dinner with a friend, the next day was a Chelsea game and the day after had to be an early night because of the early morning flight next day and all the plays were inevitably in the evening.

We boarded the London bus, typical red double decker bus. I had purchased an extra oyster card (travel card for metro/bus) and were still contemplating on when to catch a play, when we received a cancellation from our friend and had ourselves the evening. We quickly surfed the plays showing that evening and zeroed in on the Mousetrap. I booked it online on my phone and we were set for the evening.

We got off the bus at Regent Street and thought we'd do ourselves some shopping as we had ample time because Leicester being the hub of stage plays meant our destination wasn't five minutes from our hostel. Shopping is a pain especially when you don’t like anything after visiting at least 10 stores. That’s what happened to us. We ultimately gave up, came back and rested our backs a bit and got ready to witness the Mousetrap.

I have seen only one other play; therefore, I cannot say if each play in London has the same - top-quality production, brilliant stage lighting and beautiful stage set-up, but for me this play had excellently mastered each of the above. Oh, I could write a whole story on my experience of that play. But let me just say that I was so engrossed in the world of Ralston's that I forgot about the world outside and where I was. We later found out that this is the longest running play in the history of stage drama and we had witnessed the 26208th performance of it.

So, after coming out we were all pumped and excited about having witnessed something so amazing by chance that we decided we should make this night more epic and go clubbing. London has a very good clubbing scene, as well as many speakeasy bars. In our search for a nice club we came across a bunch of people sloganeering 'Dstrkt Dstrkt racist club", whoa and there were people in huge numbers and there were police. That kind of ran down our enthusiasm for clubbing and we ended up at a quiet dinner near our hostel still ending it on a good note.

I really needed some good sleep. We woke up fresh and early and I already had in mind what we could do to use our morning, head to the Borough’s market!  A lot of people had suggested this place to me, but I never quite made it, so I was glad that I was finally going there with Vardan. 

After the bus ride it was time to give Vardan a taste of the infamous London tube. Why infamous you ask? Well it has a smell, but like any other underground, you would expect to get these and the second reason for it being infamous is because it is always jam packed, sometimes you have to wait it out, but it is also famous for being the first underground metro in the world. Here is nice video if you are interested to see the history of the underground metro. 

Fifteen mins later we were hopping off at the nearest station to Borough’s market. It is one of the oldest markets for wholesale and local produce, it is closed on Sundays and to truly relish it you must come here on a Saturday. There were food stalls serving a variety of food. I being a big foodie was over the moon seeing so much deliciousness in one place, it was beyond me. If I had my way I would have wanted to try each and everything in that place. But I settled to dig my teeth into a hot dog while sipping a nice coffee and just enjoyed the whole vibe of the place.

We were in London, in the month of October, roaming around in thin tops and shirts like it was the middle of summer. We were definitely not dressed for the weather and so out of need we finally shopped ourselves some nice jackets and warm fuzzies. Thank god the shopping stars aligned, and we found ourselves what we needed in the first store we entered.

With that we reached our hotel, okay the hostel earlier was lie, I was being shy and stupid to share. We were staying at the Radisson Blu Hampshire, it was very characteristic of late 1800’s and one of the more spacious hotels I have stayed at in London. Once we reached our room we got changed into our Chelsea jerseys and made our way to Stamford bridge. It was such a big moment for Vardan as he is such a diehard fan. We grabbed a quick bite at the restaurant in the arena and made our way to the seats which were a bit in the top corner of the stadium but Vardan was least worried, he was just so happy. I loved it. The game was with South Hampton, which is not a great team, but still had a good chance against our team which was not in great form that season. I had my new Sony camera, which I was majorly zooming into the field and capturing all our favorites- Terry, Mourihno, Oscar, Luiz!!

The game was exciting and the atmosphere electrifying to begin with, but as the game proceeded it got quieter as South Hampton clearly showed the upper hand and scored a goal. After halftime, Chelsea equalized the goal, with Willian taking an epic penalty, but within minutes South Hampton scored another. Once the game ended the whole stadium emptied in a civilized way, but just outside we saw some angry Chelsea fans telling a reporter how the Chelsea fan base was full of plastic supporters. I was so clueless on this term that when I asked Vardan on what it meant he found it very cute and innocent and as we made our exit, he explained to me that plastic fans are supporters who don’t cheer for the team even if they are losing, as was the case today. Vardan really goes down in energy after such games, so it was a miracle he cheered up by the time we reached back, and we went out again strolling through Trafalgar square and Piccadilly circus.

While strolling around an alley way in Leicester square we caught Nicole Kidman rushing through the back door of a building, she was in town performing a play. We were so awed at having seen her in real life, it just made our night. We had a nice dinner at cozy greek restaurant.

The next day was our last day in London and there were many competing plans to execute running a wild in my head. We could spend the day in London and cover the remaining London sights like - Madame Tussaud, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Westminster Abbey, Thames River Cruise, St. Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge and Tower Castle. All these things we could do in a day and I had done exactly these when I had come to London for the first time. The second plan was to go to Bath, Stonehenge and Windsor Castle, which was a day tour from London. I had not visited Bath in the 10 months I lived in Bristol. So, we decided to do the day tour, which started at 7 AM.

We got up early, got packed and were ready to leave when Vardan can't find his specs. We absolutely panicked, looking about the room we still couldn't find them, and we also start running late for the tour, thankfully we had kept sometime for breakfast which we would now be skipping. We think about cancelling our day trip as he wouldn't be able to enjoy without seeing properly and I am dejected to come this close to visiting Bath and having it slip away yet again, while I did have a backup plan for the day I was really excited for this day trip. I decide to do one last search before calling it quits and I end up finding his specs slyly hidden away in the nook between the mattress and the bed, on Vardan's bedside.

We rushed out of the hotel, quickly completing our checkout and we made a run with our luggage to another hotel, from where we were getting picked up by the tours. High-heeled boots, cobbled streets, luggage and panic for time are not a good recipe for getting anywhere on time. But we just about managed to make it into the bus.

Once inside the bus and a beautiful dawn just breaking in front of us, we took a deep sigh of breath and let our day roll. We picked the seats on top of the bus which gave us a nice vantage point of the English Countryside. We were headed to Windsor Castle our first stop - the home of queen Elizabeth.

We reached here well before 9 AM and had to queue outside the gates. Vardan never one to get bored standing, started playing a game with me without my knowledge. Gently but cautiously he’d come close to me and blow some air through my hair and then quickly go back before I turned. When I turned around he’d be looking everywhere and saying – ‘did you also feel that wind?’ Such a kid, but made me laugh nonetheless.

While the queue outside got moving, we found ourselves in another queue to buy the ticket and enter the castle. After a good hour of waiting our castle tour finally began, only for us to find out that we cannot take pictures inside. So not a whole lot of pictures of this place and therefore not a whole lot of memories, but it was a good tour and I had found it interesting. For instance, there is a tower on which if there is flag present then it meant the queen was in the castle and amongst us. I was so hopeful she’d be there, just to feel precious amongst royalty.

We grabbed a quick breakfast and headed from here at around 11 am to go to the city of Bath. Now like I had mentioned I lived in Bristol which was 15 mins away from this iconic city and yet I had not visited in all my time there. I guess somethings are meant to be. I was destined to visit this beautiful romantic town with Vardan.

We got dropped off at the Bath Abbey compound area from where most tourist attractions are at walking distance. The chapel square was blooming with flowers, which was quite surprising for October and there were so many happy faces around basking in the sun, nice music all around. I felt I got a skip in my step just by settling foot there. Due to time constraints (the main drawback of tours) and our primary aim being the Roman baths, we skipped the Abbey, getting a view of it from outside and headed straight to Roman baths. The place is picture perfect and the pool at the center of the structure makes you want to dive right into it, but once you see that there is very little else to see in there as most of it is ruins and then some rebuilding of the ruins. 

Once out, we were hungry for a bite. Our tour guide had given us a lunch recommendation to try out the Cornish pasty at the Cornish bakery. We headed straight to the shop to try out the famous Cornish pasty. We got a vegetarian and a chicken pasty with coffee to go and walked out to a park with the view of the Avon river. The sun was shining and warm, the Cornish pasties were yum and the view perfect and calm, it was a perfect afternoon.

Soon after our bus came around and we headed to our last destination for the day - Stonehenge. This was another item on my checklist to visit while I was still in UK and I was glad to be going there today. I had very little idea on the importance of this monument, I just knew that it was world heritage site again

Flight capture!!

The funniest and the scariest journey of my life, funny in my head, scary in my heart. I am traveling from Whitefield  area to the Bangalore airport which is approximately 50 kms and which should take me no more than one hour thirty minutes to reach and so I choose to take the bus at 5 pm from Whitefield. Now here is my blow by blow account of the journey. Flight time 19:40

Time 17:42  We have been stuck at a traffic signal at HAL for half an hour now and in that much time we must have moved barely a kilometer. 50 meters away from crossing the signal. My guess we'll clear it in two lights. Okay one has come to pass but for the second one there is no sign. In fact at least till now it was showing a red sign now even that is no where to be seen.

Time 17:53 Suddenly I'm concerned. I look up from my tablet and ask "bhaiya der kyun lag rahi hai" he says some minister is coming because of whom they have stopped the traffic. I am doomed my heart says and strangely my mind which was acting funny consents.

Time 17:55 I panic. I need to find another mode of transport if I have to get to the airport. I get off the bus and go look into an empty auto,as the people were on the road getting sick of being stuck. I ask a person whom I assume to be the autowala whether he would take me to the airport. He said he couldn't go beyond some bridge. I knew it would be a roadblock for me to get off a bridge and find another convince to the airport just then the bus conductor who I had been looking for to take my change of 500, turned up and he warned me not to take the auto. I gave him a look of askance "what the hell am I supposed to do then" he guides me to a cabwala. Both make promises that I will be able to reach airport by the cab. Poor me what choice do I have.

Time 18:10 Although the traffic cleared by then I knew I wouldn't make it in the bus. Had I taken that guy at the bus stand's offer to go with him in the cab one hour ago I could well be making my way into the airport by now. That time I was weighing Rs.400 versus Rs.200 for the bus. Alas a little bit of my kanjoosi caused me double the harm at triple the daam. I asked the taxi guy how much would it cost. The taxi guy said the charge would be 1150 but guaranteed delivery to airport " madam I know small gullys, little traffic, definitely you'll reach." I couldn't believe him. I said almost tearfully "bhaiya I just paid the bus full 200 and now you expect me to give you that much. Take me in 800 bucks, I have only that much." taxi guy " ok medam ap jao. Hum itne mein nai jaeyga." now do I have any choice?

Time 18:14 I sat crying tearfully at the backseat, while these two men sat in front grumbling. I couldn't believe myself. What was I thinking going alone and it was getting dark. I felt like the biggest loser. What on earth made me get into something like this. I had given up all hope. I let go. It didn't matter to me what happened anymore. I didn't even note down the cab's number. I sat listening to music. It calmed me down a bit. I thought to myself that I was incharge of my own life. I brought myself together and became more composed. Suddenly I saw in front of me a whole line of cars and buses.

Time 18:24 We were at mahadevpura! Not ten minutes away from the place I had been at two hours ago and now I'm the middle of a traffic jam. Damn! "didn't you tell me you knew all the gully's and the ways," I retorted angrily. He retorted back and I felt scared again as to what he may do, so I told him not to get worked up, I am just tensed, he mumbled something, I ignored.

Time 18:40 I ask him a rough estimate of how much more time it would take. He says roughly half an hour.  He suggests I call the flight and ask what levy can be provided. Thanks to Anil an office colleague, I had taken spice jet's number earlier that day. So the spice jet guy said quite sternly that the counter close 40 minutes before the flight, I made all kind of protests that I am stuck in a traffic jam because of some stupid VIP. He says something while cutting me off that maximum is 30 mins. I was like fine thank god the numbers are matching.

Time 18:48 I see we are stuck at another traffic light. Am I restless..hell yeah! Are they concerned..boo yeah! I wait silently. Now I have other things going on in my head. I remove my heels and wear my flats. I know I would have to run if I had to catch this plane, and it was not happening in the heels. I had very conveniently carried all my toiletries hoping to send it in baggage which looked remotely possible now. So I collected them in a packet. Now I was deciding what to do with them. Should I give it to these guys in exchange of the 250 bucks that I was short of, because getting of at an ATM and withdrawing money would consume my time. My favorite guess perfume and the wonderful body and craft lotion and body wash,and the new bottle of panteen shampoo I had purchased two hours ago,thrown all away at these bastards.

Time 18:57 I look at the speed of the car. Bloody 80km/hr. The road was empty. So I said "bhaiya 15 minutes mein pahuncha dogey kya? Kyunki bas utna hi time bacha hai." then he speed up to 100. He figured I wouldn't have time at the airport to withdraw money and give it to him. So he told me to do so at andhra bank ATM which was on the way. I was skeptic. I told him ya we'll see.

Time 19:00 Oh there is the ATM. Sure I have a lot of time to stand in a line and withdraw money. I told him I'd give him some of the stuff I had. He considered it and turned on the ignition and to my horror it wouldn't start, even after repeated tries. They acting cool said " it'll start in a minute you go withdraw money. I thought what other option do I have, so in the meantime I went and withdrew some money and when I returned they were stopping another cab and booking him for the rest of the journey. Could this get any better? My first taxi wala was rushing my bag out of his car and into the new one, I was running behind him. Haa it was funny.

Time 19:05 So the new cab was a lot better and a lot less creepy, the driver had a cool, helping attitude, there was some song playing on with beats, if anything I was more comfortable. I asked him how far is the airport he says 16 kms and I look at him aghast because the previous one had told me it's just 10 minutes away.

Time 19:10 The new taxi guy asks me what time is my flight I tell him 7:40 and he looks at me ridiculously but seeing sullen expressions in condolence he rings up the operator at the airport and asks if there is time for my flight, he makes me speak to the guy so that I could convince him better, but alas all I got was be there by 7:20. If anything by now all the fun that I was feeling had jumped out of the window and all I was feeling was stupid and sad that I might actually miss my convocation.

Time 19:15 We are pulling into the airport bridge. Should not take more than five minutes to reach. Now that I had saved my toiletries I still had to decide what to do them. I asked Junaid bhai, the cabbie, whether he would take my packet of stuff back to my home near kundalahalli gate. He said he would do it and told me to hurry on. He stopped the car right next to the gate. I gave home the packet along with some 100 -120 bucks.

Time 19:20 Finally I reach the gate and show my ticket to the guard and he didn't let me through saying that its way past the boarding time for my flight and I could not go in. I was like what the hell?? Let me through. Its my flight and I would like to speak the flight operators and not you. Whatever, seeing my attitude he told he won’t allow me back through the same gates when I come back having missed my flight. However I reached the counter and almost tearfully showed the flight operator my ticket. They shook their heads and said sorry ma’am can’t let you through. Oh my god!! Worst nightmare ever, was coming true. I couldn’t let this happen. I said look I don’t have any check-in baggage I just need a boarding ticket. He considered this and spoke something into his walkie-talkie. After much a do he gave me the  boarding pass, telling me that it was now my responsibility to board the plane. Wow so much for the girl who thought she wouldn’t catch her plane, well hell yeah I would get into that plane. I ran through the airport and breezed past security check which was thankfully not crowded. 

Time 19:35 I reach the gate and see a longggg boarding queue and I smiled at myself. The flight was delayed by 10 minutes.

Time 19:40 Someone up there knew I wouldn’t miss my flight but wanted me learn a lesson that I should not be late. So I am standing now in the queue to board my flight, feeling on top of the world.

Corrupt are we?

When I view the world of the people around me while travelling in a bus or a train or an auto, I am intrigued by the thoughts in their heads, the life they have faced to come to this point and the things that they have to do ahead.  Since I am so comfortable under a shelter, and have no book to be interested in, this becomes my leisurely act. The objects in my view become points of curiosity. Looking out of the window I have countless things in my view, countless stories to be told. If I have a seat in the bus, everybody I see standing becomes a point of my pity. Pity is inherent in our characters. Look, there goes a scooterist driving past in rain, oh I am comfortable, even if I am standing. Because we have a shelter on our head we are comfortable,we have a seat to rest our back and ease our burden we are comfortable, comfort can be found in the littlest of things. It is only in discomfort that we realize we need to change things around us.

The plea of everyone calling out to the youngsters or the GenNxt to take the struggle against corruption in our hands just as the youngsters of independence era did to win the country’s freedom, is falling on deaf ears and blind eyes. Since us youngsters have never been at the receiving end of corruption the whole struggle against corruption unfolds before us like a spectacle, pretty much like the viewing of passerby’s from our window. Even if we are involved, it is because of the mere fantasy of relieving the era of independence that has been glorified before us by our cinema. Our generation is a very aimless one. There is nothing much to achieve, India is on path of becoming a developed nation, thanks to the previous generation, and we are enjoying the success of it. There is no struggle left.It may be out of need to be a part of a phenomenon, to have a cause just for the heck of it, that some joined forces with team Anna.

The whole cycle of corruption is revolving in the middle generation, be it in parliament of that of our sorry politicians and the huge sums of unaccounted money in their foreign bank accounts or of government bureaucrats looking to fatten their pockets.

The reasons for this mid-life corruption could be many but the two that come to my mind are parents and technology.

Our generation has been spoon fed by our parents till the very age that we become adults and maybe even after. It is thus a parenting thing that everybody does at some point in their life. Our parents have provided us with the best of comforts and participated equally in our struggle to get to colleges etc. When it comes to being bribed or cheated they blindfold us and get us the lovely candy we want, while we on our behalf don't care how it reached us, as long as it did reach us.Our grandparents did so for our parents, and parents for us and we will for our kids. But when that time comes for us it will be like a late first menstruation, where one knows the pains of it from others and have only just come to realize it for oneself.

Secondly, with internet and other technologies the human interaction has decreased, making transactions more transparent and clear, with no scope left for "the approach" factor. We having been brought up in this day and age of technology and have played with the technical toys since childhood. As compared to us our parents still prefer the paperwork over these technologies because they either don't have time or are too afraid of technology. They are therefore, the ones at the receiving end of corruption.

It is evil I admit, but  to counter it we need to be put through the drain, for us to feel the need to clean.

A Start

Have you ever come across phrases and words which sound cool and just right for the situation but you never know if you are using it right? Its like the episode in F.R.I.E.N.D.S where Joey does not know how to use the gesture of hands meaning quote-unquote. I started this piece of writing by writing "Man do people BLOG" and then I got stuck at which punctuation mark to use. Its another one of the things I am intrigued about. I am particular about these things, I hate to be wrong about my language. Perhaps that's what happens when you study for seven years in a convent school. 

There is a need to be correct. Say I used it wrong, would anybody kill me for it? No. But if somebody used bad language on me I would certainly not be impressed. I mean there could be two ways to this, and these come out of the seriousness of use. When the focus is not on the use of but on describing a more important thing then its okay to excuse but if it is the only thing in focus then its wannabe-ish.Because it is quite obvious when someone is being fake and it is sick.