On this snowy day I am going for a bollywood movie with a proper britisher....how weird is that... that I come to London and go for a bollywood movie with a britisher instead of an Indian...

but then things in London have taken unexpected turns - much beyond my expectations.....

500 posts completed!!!! yay....

Also today it is snowing in London.... apparently a very unusual weather phenomenon in London at this time of the year.... I am thrilled to bits with that... I am seeing snow after 7 years I think... so I am really excited about it ... and I wanted to click some pictures but didnt have the guts to carry a camera around in this cold... maybe tomorrow....

London - you surprise me!

Do we Indians have a sub concious obsession with white skin? do we think we are better people if we are friends with white people? do we think we have arrived in life if we can count at least some white people in our list of friends???

I remember long back having a discussion with a friend about marriage outside the community... my friend was quite clear - she wanted to marry someone outside India... I am not entirely sure about her reasons - something about how there is nothing interestintg left to learn about Indians.....

hmmmmm

Tube Strike

Alright... I know I come from a developing country and have no right to crib.... but today there was a tube strike in London for a day... now given my experience on the first day I landed up here I should have been expecting the chaos... ofcourse I didnt... what was my reasoning? well its a developed country.... so their chaos would anyday be better than the normal in India... was the flawed reasoning I used....

anyways I walked out of the house to go to the bus stop... one bus came and it didnt stop since it was full... no worries.. this is London... things have to work... second bus came.... again it didnt stop.... and then another one.... oh god....in desperation I asked a traffic policemen how to get to my office fastest... and his response was - walking! thankyou..but can we get serious please.... so he told me to walk till the beginning of the bus route (akin to the bus depot) and catch a bus from there..... welll that is what I did... I was ecstatic when I got the bus and also got a seat... ahh.. I will have uninterrupted ride to my office....yaya.... I slowly positioned my muffler to act like a cushion against which I could rest my head and catch a little nap... my quiet was rudely brought to a halt by the brakes of the bus at regent street.... the lady announced 'this bus will terminate here'... and I was like "what????????" how can this happen.... but happen it did... so in the biting cold I picked up my belongings and stood outside waiting for the next busy to come..... and by the time the bus came I was frost bitten... and ready to cut my toes..... I finally reached the office 2 hours later as a ice popsicle.....

is there anything good out of all this?? well a better appreciation for my car and my driver back home.... and also for the warm temperature... and ofcourse the opportunity to scan the fabulous clothes at the shops at regent street.....

so no one can blame me for not looking at the silver lining in any situation........

Ahh weekends....

So this weekend was as usual packed from top to bottom.... Sat I watched a English Premier League match... while I had wanted to watch the top clubs like Man U or Arsenal I was able to get tickets only for West Hampstead.... and boy was it worth it!!!! first of all the entire stadium is filled with West Ham fans.... and one corner of the stadium has the 'guest' crowd which were the supporters of Wigan Athletic..... and they were sufficiently protected by the police since West Ham is known for its riotous unruly behaviour and at the end of the match they are quickly hearded off onto a bus and driven off.... and the crowd erupted everytime West Ham scored... infact Wigan Athletic scored one goal too but the stadium was so quiet that I thought the referee had not allowed it.... that was how strong the crowd was.... and I watched this all in -1 degrees... I tried jumping and doing on the spot running to increase my body heat.... but all to no avail... England is going through an unprecedented winter in Nov and I got caught in the middle of it....

That done Sunday was again a visit to the Winter Wonderland with friends.... and this time I had two cups of chocolate ... mixed with Baileys ofcourse... and then met a friend for dinner and was caucght up in the conversation till 11... and then tried walking back home... and got into the bus only when a speck of snow fell on my nose..... I am still not prepared for that kind of cold yet people....

I feel like repeating my statement about London again... but I shall refrain... I sense Mumbai fuming....

You need not always have to have amazing people to write an amazing story.... you can just write an amazing story about ordinary people.....

Which is so true.... sometimes amazing stories are about ordinary people who go through their ordinary lives.... and I truly believe that every person faces innumerable obstacles in their life and how they overcome each of these obstacles would itself constitute a story in itself.....

Yet the most important thing in life is to be a superstar in your own story..... and not be a side character in your story.... and anybody who enters your life and treats you like a side story is not important enough to have ....you should just finish off the character....

Alright.... I have to say that sitting in London it was not the first thing that came to my mind..... but as soon as opened up the Indian news websites I was reminded of the day two years when it seemed like the city I loved was under seige.... I still remember the car ride back home.... when the RJ on the radio asked people not to go to leopolds as there is 'some gang fight' happening.... as a typical Indian I changed the channels not really worried about such 'mundane' things..... by the time I reached home, Taj had been stormed and police officers had started running around like headless chickens.... and then the news flash that sent shivers down my spine was the death of Karkare.... as the red bold letters flashed on the screen I just could not help but feel scared and vulnerable.... i called up everyone I knew in mumbai.... and one of my friends who actually works close to Oberoi was so busy working that he was alerted to all the things happening because I called him up.... and then my sister called me frantically to check where I am..... and sounded relieved that I had come home instead of as she put it 'wandering somewhere'..... I could not bear to stay alone at home and hence I went over to a friends place to spend the night... it turned into 2 nights.... the friend and her parents and me wept on many occassions watching the happenings on tv.... for us it was an emotional time to see mumbai being attacked like this..... somewhere the pain went really deep.....

2 years on and I am not sure whether the pain is any less..... all I know is that Mumbai is now a city that really does not sleep.... who knows which guest comes with what across the seas....

I have been invited to go ice skating this weekend....

maybe this can be the something new for this year.... falling on ice on my ass that is....

So Baby George's friend in Tanzania is called Anand.... and he fell down by the tree today....

every get the feeling that someone is looking over you? I just did after my mom pointed a certain little fact in my life... I had not viewed it that way at all..... and had even not credited anything more to it that a happy coincidence...

well....thankgod for that... cos God knows I suck big time in organising my life.....

Austrian speaking in Marathi, winterwonderland, etc...

Whew! What a weekend.... meeting an Austrian musician who speaks fluent Marathi..... fusion music which is a mix of violin, 'the han' and drums.... conversations with friends over oily chinese food at 1 in the morning.... and then morning piano classes which end up unexpectedly in a meal at McDonalds discussing love and its various hues in life... I believe my conversation included advice about how loving something is more important that gaining that person.... that love makes you feel alive..... and then a visit to the recently opened Winter Wonderland (pictures above).... where I had the best spiked coffee in the world.... magic land... and I missed my nephews instantly... they would have loved it so much....

All I can say - this happens only in London!!! I feel very disloyal to Mumbai given that I am falling more in love with London everyday.... sorry Mumbai... permit me this love affair....

weekend is as always packed.... loving this city... and its people..... amazingly find the british very very friendly... I sometimes forget that I am away from home in london.... London just feels so comfortable this time round...... except for the cold that ....

anyways more later.... hopefully I will put up some pictures from this weekend.....

apparently Baby George woke up from his sleep one day and started looking around the house for me thinking it was still Mumbai!!

Baby George.... there is only a tiny little thing called the Arabian Sea seperating us.... so feel free to jet ski across and come and visit me any time:)

Ok I have found a radio channel on the internet that plays just bollywood songs..... I enjoy it a lot....

I am just disappointed that I still have not moved beyond the music that I am most comfortable with....

What a shame... we have an economist Prime Minister and coalition politics just wont let him do the job... now the latest scam is the 2G scam (although it is not new)... and the CAG report says that the Telecom Minister purposely violated the directives given by the PM.....

Though I have to say ... if the PM of India cannot control corruption - then who can???

Remembrance Day

This Sunday was Remembrance Day in UK - the day when all the solidiers are honoured.... as on Britisher put it 'every 20 years we send men and women to war which is stupid.. and then we keep aside a day to tell them that we remember that".... well it was a sombre ceremony.... the veterans came out in huge numbers... and there were a lot of red poppies around... and I believe the queen came out to lay the wreath... ofcourse I didnt see her and she didnt see me (what a loss to her!)..... but I managed to walk around St. James Park... and capture the mood... it was a rainy day so the grey is all pervading in the photos.... the picture of the duck was one I never expected to take since I dont particularly fancy animal photos.... but this duck was very friendly... and came very close to me... and started posing... almost asking 'comeon, take me in this pose'... and I obliged.... and the duck seemed totally upset when I walked off.... I did walk off but after saying a very heartfelt 'Thankyou'.... and the one with the police officer was taken after I sought his permission.... I had heard that they dont allow people to take any photos of the police force anymore so I was pleased to be given permission... and he strikes a good resemblance to Hugh Grant I think.....

all in all a tiring day...... and totally cold....

Pictures

2010.... hold on.... not so fast....

Yesterday I met with some old law school friends..... one of them I was meeting after almost 13 years! gosh I feel old....but there is something about law school and the bonding.... we just picked up like we had never left law school... so stories were swapped and lot of laughs had....and in the course of the discussion we all related how we all are doing things that we thought we would never end up doing.....

It also brought back memories of my life in the law school girls hostel..... I think I had two amazing room mates.... both of them completely opposite of each other and me... well I was able to mould myself to suit both personalities I suppose.... and to give credit to my room mates they were really patient with me in law school... I used to be quite a terrible room mate many times.... many times my exhausted room mate would come back from class (which ofcourse I was bunking) and find me sprawled across her bed ... and no amuont of kicking, cursing or sweet talk would get me out of bed... finally my room mate would be forced to go and sleep on my bed (which was never that great anyways)..... and especially during exam days i used to sleep like I was dead ..... and my ever studious room mate would take time off from her studious ways and ask me to at least read something before the exams.... and it is quite frankly a testimony to their patience that they didnt petition to remove me from the room for 5 long years!!! Infact the 3 of us were the only people in my batch to have been room mates for that long.... and truth be told, no matter what happens, I will always be attached to them emotionally..... both these women have been such an integral part of my growth that I can never disconnect from them..... it would be like cutting off some part of my body.....

so thanks roomies! I sure had a swell time with you guys (even if you guys wanted to murder me many times)....

A while back I had a discussion with a client enroute to a meeting.... we were in a foreign country and my client was greatly appreciative of the country's roads.... and then almost predictably said 'why cant we have all this infrastructure in India. Sometimes I wish the British had stayed on and we would have a better life'.... and almost immediately I shook my head and said 'no no no.... I am glad we have control over our own country'.... my client argued back.... why? Indians are useless at managing anything on their own... look at the mess we have created in the country (mind you this was an Indian arguing back)......My response was not unusual but something that I have been exposed to ...'look around us... look what years of colonialism has done to our confidence... our physche.... we still wish we were white skinned... we still believe that our products will not be as good as the product made by a white man... we still cant believe we are capable of innovation... its almost like 300 years of colonial rule just made us forget the great strides made by Indian 5000 years ago when the greatest thing the British had ever built was the stonehenge...' and then concluded emphatically 'I dont ever want to feel that I am not good enough compared to a white man/woman'.....

more recently at a dinner thrown by Britishers, I was complimenting the British for having helped develop India's legal system and education system..... and uncharacterstically my British friends said 'we must have done terrible things to your country as well'... and I repeated what I had told my client in a very toned down manner 'it just affected our confidence as a nation'...

While some may disagreed with my analysis I distinctly feel that the people of India still view India as being a land where incompetent people live.... I mean in this country we headline successes made by American Indians abroad to feel good about ourselves... and for that split second every Indian child who reads that report feels 'ok, I can also do it even though I am from India'.... We Indians feel that somehow we are not destined for greatness - that whatever success we have achieved is on account of luck rather than our own talent for innovation......

I am myself guilty of feeilng apologetic of where I come from... and making derogatory comments about India in part to preempt any form of derogatory comments from the listening party....

I would like to believe that I am no longer apologetic... and now when asked where I come from I proudly declare 'I am from Mumbai'... no apologies, no pretensions. just fact.

do I feel better? Hell ya!

Obama in India: OMG. Superawed. So down to earth.

fireworks on Guy Fawkes

So I was invited to view the Guy Fawkes fireworks at my friends parents place .... it was on the roof top which overlooks the Thames..... suffice to say that I have never been introduced to that part of British life.... the fireworks were grand.... and London was cold... and at the end of it we also burnt some sparklers....

My friend in Mumbai lost her parent just after Diwali.....for me this is the second death in a span of 4 months - so many changes to fathom...

And being away from home at these times is really difficult.... and more so with friends.... a certain unwanted distance comes in when one is not in the same city.... so with friends unless the friend reaches out to you most often you are not aware of what exactly the friend is feeling... and because the family has just gone through the tragedy you also do not want to bother the friend and her family with your phone calls from UK..... yes, it would have been different if I was in India - I would have been able to just go over to their place and just be in the background... there is something so impersonal about phonecalls in the time of tragedy..... I dont know... ofcourse it is worse if you dont call at all... but everytime I call I always wonder whether I am intruding and inconveniencing them..... and somewhere you think that the friend has a husband and family around so you are probably not missed anyways...

I might be wrong in my thinking... and probably not acted in the best way in the past on account of these thoughts.....I dont know....

I was in the 7th standard in the Indian School in Salalah, Oman when the teacher first introduced debating in our class.... it was so new.... and little did I know that I would ultimately choose a career that would be entirely based on debates......

anyways the topic of debat was 'man v. woman'.... i have no recollection of who or why this topic was chosen... suffice to say that the entire class was divided and two speakers were allotted... both of them girls! no, I was not chosen - guess I was not as argumentative at that time.....

as the debate progressed, the girl who was arguing about men being better than women, had a fantastic line of arguments.... her arguments included that men are the bread winners, they are strong, they perform so well everywhere etc... the girl who was arguing for women came up and put on a spirted argument saying that women are mothers and that who can compete with that? Can you put a prize on the work done by the mother? and now this is the point I remember the most - the girl arguing for the men got up and asked 'if women are so good, then why is it that men are the bottle washers in all the places and they control the work place'....

at that tender age I doubt whether any of us knew the answer to that question.... so the debate fizzled out with a triumphant victory for the men! All of them did a monkey dance as well.....

ofcourse needless to say, if that argument is put forth to me today, I would have a thing or two to say now....but I guess nobody debates such stupid things anymore - its established that women are wayyyyyyy better than men....

my boss just told me that my english is way too formal!! hahahahahhahah..... to be told that in UK????? that is even more funny......

I like my boss here....

So Obama's democractic party took a beating in the mid term polls.... I fundamentally feel that Obama is a good guy... but while I was living in the US I could sense a growing consternation amongst the public.... 'why are things not moving forward?'... 'where is the change that he promised?' Like my boss in US told me Obama is under such scrutiny that even if he goes to the bathroom people will say 'why did he do that?'..... and with the BP crisis he was criticised for being too hard on BP for demanding 20 billion deposit as security for payments....all in all it seemed as if Obama was just not getting the pulse of the people....

But what I cant understand is that people actually think that republican party gets the pulse?? the party that sat in power for 8 years, in the span of which they initiated 2 disastrous wars which is still continuing and the biggessstttttt financial mess since the depression.... in terms of not getting the pulse of the people I would think the republican party would be the first in line for execution....

I have not yet figured out how the American public votes... is it emotional? is it intelligent? if latter, then why vote for the same party that caused their economic problems?

I liked Obama's response at the press conference 'It feels bad' he said..that is so human.......I like him... I hope people recognise that he is a good person with good intentions.... and I genuinely feel bad for him right now....

Dont worry Obama, go to India and have a good time - celebrate it with the festival of lights!

so one of the biggest things that perplex me in life is the whole name changing thing that women go through after marriage....most certainly it is custom around the world with even Hillary Clinton having had to change her name .... to me it sounds crazy that I could have one identity half of my life and then completely change it once I get married..... and some of the newly married women argue 'whats in a name? you are replacing one man's name with another man's name'... Ahem... dont these ladies see the subtle distinction between a father and a husband? I mean every human being takes the fathers name (that is a totally different issue which I shall discuss in another post) so there is not much discrimination there.... but when women take the husbands name it is almost signifying that now I have gone over to the protective custody of a new man... so whats in a name they ask... well if you ask that then whats there in the right to vote? afterall why bother since all of them are criminals? or whats there in the right to practice religion? after all God is one even though called by different names.....and while we are at it why dont we women agree to marry 5 men at one go a la Drupadi style, after all men are all the same so what does it matter if you have to be married to 5 of them?

people are free to choose... but please do not give any spiel by saying that there is nothing significant about changing ones name cos of marriage... it is a huge step....

So yday I was invited to dinner with a upper middle class traditional English family.....and ofcourse as always I started having palpitations and immediately ducked under an imaginary desk aiming to avoid being sighted.... my friend literally had to pull me out from under my imaginary desk and coax me into going...'why the hell are you so reluctant to go??' my friend screamed.... ' What? How can you ask me that question - what if they dont talk to me and think I am like a bull in a china shop?'... My friend retored 'yes, they are going to invite you for dinner and then not talk you? are you mental? and you are not a bull and their house is not a china shop - so please relax'..... I decided to go... but truth be told I was intimidated by the thought of dining in a typical upper middle english household.... for all the classes I have had on the forks and knives I never quite remember what is for what... and I never quite understood what wine should be had with what... and I never quite understood what the boundaries were... can I ask questions to a typical stiff upper lip englishman??...

so clutching the carefully chosen wine bottle I strutted off to the household - palpitating all along hoping that I would be less of me today.....

but when the doors opened all my fears were laid to rest.... they were the warmest family I had ever met... they greeted me as if I was their family friend from yore.... and soon took me to the kitchen and gave me an introduction to their English kitchen... and I learned the difference between supper and dinner....I was offered a glass of wine... and had a fabulous dinner overlooking the thames... while all the while engaging in interesting conversations about Britain under Thatcher and post world war.... and I was amazed at how polite the English are.... so in one of my self depracating moments, I said India has not yet developed enough to take care of all the individual citizens... and they immediately came to defend India saying 'but look at how wonderfully you have improved over the years - there is still so much time'... I felt good.... they were so respectful of my culture and my differences..... and then we finished the dinner with a traditional cup of english tea....

I came away feeling stupid for having thought that the English would in anyway treat me differently than an Indian would..... and walked away feeling a little more happy that I had finally got to see an aspect of Britain that I had not ever got to see when I was a student.... I was thankful....

and my friend was right - I was not a bull and their house was not a china shop....

Baby George and me connected across the continents once again... and in his parting line he asked 'you coming to see me?'...

Now tell me how can anyone refuse that invitation??

In other news, there is a tube strike in London today ... again I must add....and as always the whole city went into traffic jam mode.....I decided to walk since the weather was just sooo nice....not too cold, not too hot .. just right.... I just missed the camera this time...

So this weekend is diwali and Guy Fawkes day ... about Guy Fawkes...the other day on the train I was asking my English friend why people celebrate Guy Fawkes day in the total misunderstanding that Guy Fawkes was actually being venerated.... for the ignorant, Guy Fawkes is the guy who tried to blow up the English parliament and was caught just in the nick of time and burnt alive..... and my questions to my English friend were like 'so why do you guys have fireworks in honor of a guy who tried to blow up your parliament ?'.... turns out my understanding was totally wrong.... so this weekend I shall be going over to the Thames to watch the fireworks....

In other news, I dabbled in some window shopping in London... now things are so expensive in London compared to America that I only do window shopping here ... and occassionally go inside as well.... and mostly I like getting attention from the sales persons who try to sell you stuff... and all of them flatter you so much that you feel so good about yourself... one of the salesmen actually told me that 'those shoes look like they were made for you'.. and I feel like saying 'buddy, at 250 quid it was most certainly was not made for me'... and once a lady in America, after I came out of the changing room in a new dress, told me 'you know,that looks so good on you you should consider modelling that for our catalogue'... and I thought to myself - so there is no limit to how much people can lie to get you to sell a product... others are ofcourse more straightforward... a very helpful girl in a shop once came back to help because she said she figured out that I 'knew nothing' about clothes and needed help.... well i did end up buying some stuff from the shop ofcourse....

Ok now I shall get back to figuring how to meet Baby George ...

In England there is a concept called 'free range' chicken... so recently when I went to a friends house I commented on how delicious the chicken sausages were.. and the friend said 'yeah, its free range'... what does that mean? I asked...'oh it just means that the chickens were allowed to roam around freely and hence had a happy existence'...

while chomping down the sausages I was having difficulty imagining smiley, happy chickens running around only to meet a butcher and finally find its way into my stomach....

free range or no range - if the end result is the same why would the meat taste any different? or maybe it has something to do with the fact that happiness makes you a better person - or in this case a better chicken!

My teacher in the creative writing class told us that a story is usually a reaction to an event ... it is the reaction of the character that one tries to capture in a book... reaction to normal simple events such as being late for your class, or a broken heart, or a nasty boss....

And I thought to myself - that means that every human being is capable of recording his or her story... everybody has some struggle or the other in their lives .... and how one reacts to it pretty much sums up the story of that person... and that reaction leads to the growth of that person in life as well.....

does this make sense?

some interesting ones....but not the first ones I would like.... the couple in the first picture are actually fighting.... they were first standing near the phone booth and I really wanted to capture that moment.... but they moved away .... I am thinking I will intrepret the haziness of the picture as depicting the stormy nature of their relationship....

oops I did it again

Yes I went out with my camera again... this time near my office which is at St. Pauls.... and these are the pics

Its amazing how many people from England are going to India for their holiday!! In my office alone there are people who have visited India about 3 times already.... and now they want to do the different parts of India... so they have covered North India and now are keen to do South India because they have heard that it is so different... and another person is going to Goa for whole 2 weeks....

and when they tell me this I am mostly surprised.... I almost unknowingly ask them - reallyyyyyy?? India??? so far????? when you have Europe next door???? and then it strikes me India is to them what Europe is to us... something different... away from their culture... the opportunity to be completely overwhelmed by freshness... and natural beauty....

And many of them ask me to describe India... I didnt realise how hard it was to describe India till I was asked this question... I mean how does one put some 500 languages, 500 communities, 20 different religions (perhaps more), 20 different states in a few sentences??? so mostly I start off with 'well, India is so difficult to describe (standard CYA language)... and then go on to divide the country into the north and the south.... and describe the north as being the 'big brother' type of entity... the entity that controls the whole of the country because delhi controls everything..... north is also the part of the country that has the less educated but more wealthier people..... I also throw in words like the 'cow belt' for good measure....and north Indians are generally more ostentacious and will always show their wealth around.....

and then I describe South India as being the more educated set of people..... and paint them as dignified people ..... they dont have much money (except for Narayan Murthy and the shareholders of Infosys) but their pride comes from their education.... South is also generally more progressive in terms of standard of living and basic rights... and in specific Kerala has one of the best social indices in the world (except for the fact that the women of kerala are good runners cos they are always running away from the horny men in the State)..... and I include Bengal in my definition of South as well for no reason other than the fact that I have the liberty to do so with a firang...

What? I sound biased to South India you say????? how can you say that ??? I am shocked.... India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and sisters ....

suffice to say Kerala and the South better thank me for increaing revenues on account of tourism....:)

I clutched a camera today and roamed the streets of London at night... wowo I sound like a crime reporter.... except instead of crime I was looking for perfect pictures..... and London did not disappoint me..... infact while taking the picture with the two bottles a group stood behind me while taking the picture... and when I turned to them thinking I was blocking their way, they commented 'no no, please continue. we love people making art!'.... ahem... I didnt want to correct them... so I let them think that I was actually a master photographer at work who shuns daylight in the fear that I will be discovered!

In other news, my piano classes have become like a balm to my frayed nerves.... it relaxes me so much to just hear me play... and the teachers keeps telling me that I am good which motivates me even furtehr to try harder.... and he commented about how easy it is to teach an adult.... he usually teaches kids so he is happy that the pick up time is much faster... I agreed with him... and today he had got another student.. and I asked him whether it was a young kid again he replied 'no no, very old - he is 35." I just kept playing - pretending to have not heard the age... I guess in piano years 35 is really old....

Also all these pictures I have taken are with a new camera... and the secret is to do everything manually... all these pictures were taken in the night with no tripod and no flash... all due to some good camera work which enables you to take the light from the object itself to take the photos... I love it ! I have always felt handicapped by the lack of any night photos in my life... and now I have it... the only prob is that this camera is so big that I have to carry it around in a separate suitcase... definitely not a pretty looking sight anywhere you go.... hmmm....

night time in London