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

guess the alphabets?

London and its colours

Sedition case against Arundati?

hmm... that is a new one I have heard of.... so it seems Ms.Roy proclaimed that Kashmir is not a part of India and India is an occupying force.... and the sedition laws of India, which are a carry forward from our British raj days, prescribes that ms. Roy can be prosecuted since she might have fostered violence against the country....

leaving aside the legal nuansances of the sedition law, would I, as a citizen, get offended by what Ms. Roy said? come to think of it I would think she went a tad too far... I am all for human rights and that includes the ability to criticise the government but I think Ms.Roy went too far when she claimed that Kashmir was not a part of India... just because she is an Indian citizen and will always stay in India does not make that statement any less.... wouldnt we get offended if a Pakistani says the same thing? yes, we get crazy when Pakistan goes on and on about it... so for Ms. Roy to appear to break up our country and say that Kashmir is not a part of India is quite offensive...

having said that, I think the best way for the government is to ignore her... she is quite irrelevant in the Kashmir issue... nobody listens to her... and she is not going to influence pubilc opinion significantly.... the government should just give her a strict warning and let her off... like a bad child who just stole money from the principal.....

I just spoke to Baby George in Africa! That is something I never thot i would say ...

He was at home since he had fever.... and so he came promptly to the phone and told me that he had fever, that his brother was troubling him and that the road next to his house was called halesannasy road (or something similar).... ahhh baby George has not changed much....

I was even more happy to hear that they will be coming back to India in April/May and will be in Mumbai for 10 days!! Wowow.... God that means I have to find a house that can weather Christy and Baby George for so many days!!! I better do some searching.....

resolutions for this weekend.

A. Pack my camera and capture changing colours of autumn
B. Visit at least one of the famous markets in London - Camden preferably
C. Piano classes.

the office here has a small cafeteria which is more like a little alley in the middle of the office.... this is where people go to get some coffee or other refreshments... usually that is a place that I dont frequent except to grab a glass of water....

nowadays courtesy certain high profile meetings, some left over snacks have been placed in this cafeteria... instantly transforming this unassuming cafeteria into a den of complete gastronomical delight....and as I pass by this place, the succulent danish pastry calls out to me in the most inviting of its aromas....and then there is the heart melting (also melts in your mouth) blueberry muffin which seems to be calling out to me saying 'please take me home'....

and in the most british and Macbethian way I feel like crying out 'out you damned muffin.. out of my thoughts!'.... have I succeeded?

I shall never eat and tell....

so yday my friend and I took a walk down westminister ... I love the westminister anytime of the day and particularly at night .... the presence of the gold coloured buildings in the middle of London against the Thames is always such a beautiful awe insprising sight.....

ofcourse while I was there I could not help being the armchair activist that I am - so I went in front of the westminister and shouted 'give us our kohinoor back!!!'... with the full conviction that a berieved Indian would have..... the only problem was that the night time shouting attracted the attention of the policemen.... and my friend had to literally pull me away from my useless activism to avoid being caught....

Hmmm... I dont know why I even screamed that out... I really do not want the kohinoor back.... it is not even that great looking.... and it is said that the empire that has the kohinoor always fails... and they say that is why the British Empire lost all its colonies (ofcourse not to take away credit from the little minions like Gandhi and others who chucked them out)....

People I really need to channelise my activism somewhere.....

Today the weatherman said that the temperature in London would be around 16 - I almost clapped my hands in glee thinking 'ohhh it will be such a lovely day!!!'.... then I stopped to think... I am actually getting excited about the temperature being 16 degrees?

I remember 6 years ago when I had visited Washington from London my friend had checked the temperature for me and had informed me that the temperature is around 25 degrees... and i remember retorting 'ohh my God, that is hot!!'...

and to think I claim loyalty to Mumbai where the minimum temperature is 15 and the highest is.. well... it can be anything....

My friend who lives in the UK during one of my many conversations mentioned that life in the UK for an Indian can be very lonely.....

That observation shocked me a bit since I feel absolutely at home in London..... I get everything I need over here (including sambar from Waitrose) and there are so many Indians over here that you feel at home..... then my friend clarified - you feel isolated because there is no one you can take liberties with ... like you can when you are in India....

And I thought to myself - that is so true.... one of my many cultural learnings here in the UK is that you never impose beyond a certain point... nobody is that welcoming into their homes here... and they would invite you only if they know you that well... though I have been very lucky to be called by several english people to their homes I could understand what my friend was saying.... there is something secure in knowing that something is yours....your country, your people, your relatives....you naturally take liberties with it....

Ahh... now I am not feeling so stupid about wanting to go back to Mumbai/India still... it is mine - with all its problems, craziness, dirt and absolute chaos.... mine to adopt, destroy, adapt, change, accept, modify, cleanse.. whatever my mind wants....

In the UK there is a very interesting concept called the shadow cabinet... that dominated the news the first time I landed up here... the Labour party was selecting the shadow cabinet... at first I wondered why would the labour party need a cabinet at all? shadow or otherwise....but the word shadow did suggest that there was more to it....

so shadow cabinet dear readers is the cabinet that the opposition party creates to counter the actual cabinet of the ruling party... so for every chancellor of the exchequer there was shadow chancellor of the exchequer.... so on and so forth...

Very interesting concept... though I doubt that adds more value to reasoned political behaviour....

What does it mean to be gracious? There are people you meet in life and you wonder how they are able to maitain their poise and grace in times of adversity... particularly I find grace in elders...

what does grace signify to me.... To me grace signifies the ability of the person to look beyond the present and at the big picture .... grace means you still keep your cool when you are being attacked... grace means you are the first one to complement an adversary on their success... grace means acknowledging a peer's superior success.... grace also means you are humble about your success... grace means you are secure in your own skin...grace means helping a friend through a crisis even if you are badly beaten down in life or even when you are really doing well in life without making the friend concious about it....

needless to say being gracious is a tough art... and I have observed more closely the lack of grace in mine and other peoples behaviour....so there are law schoolites who bitch about their peers - some of the bitching couched in very kind words 'yeah, for him to reach that level, it is superb'... or 'I have not heard anything great about this person'.... or 'well, you never know how much of all this is true'.....and as always there is the AMSS bashing which is a definite sign of lack of grace in a person (ofcourse I never tire pointing it out on this blog).....so I have heard laments like 'That is something that would never happen in my firm'... or 'well at least we have a fair chance in our firms'.... or the worst 'you dont need to know the law to be a partner in India'.... all of these ofcourse make me go through a range of emotions such as laughter, to anger to non-chalance....and I try to be very gracious in my approach (I said try - doesnt mean that I am always).... and when they talk badly about my firm I in turn talk highly about their organisation.... hoping to neutralise the insecurity that is driving the diatribe .... but most often such grace is wasted on really insecure people and hence they wind back to the same point....

at least you were gracious is what my friends tell me... and I sometimes wonder whether it is better to plummel the enemy to the ground with my bare acidic tongue or sit on a cloud perched high above ground with a halo around my head feeling very angelic and close to God....

Hmm... tough choice people....

So this weekend was as usual busy.... first off was the Chocolate making class.... which was conducted by the Cadbury institute... and in a span of 3 hours I was rolling, beating, whipping chocolate truffles into perfection... and by the end of it I had about 8 packets full of truffles... and one of my friends who ate it actually said it was really good..... .. my friend from India has also asked me to keep aside a bag of chocolates .... alternate career??? nah... chocolate making is really not my life style.... but if ever asked the irritating question of 'do you cook?' I could perhaps say 'yes, I can make chocolates with a teacher around!'... I am sure I will appeal to the arranged marriage market more with that answer....

And then it was meeting up friends... and watching a bollywood movie... surprisingly no Indians in the crowd and all of them were even more appreciative of our cinema... I was soooo happy to explain the various cultural aspects of the movie (I might have developed a few new Indian cultural aspects)........ followed by great dinner and conversations... its surprising how many people at the table were staunch christians... all of them the same generation as me... but all of them were staunch christians .... they also attend church on a regular basis... wowo.... I did feel like a really useless christian there...

as I said falling in love with london this time seems so easy....but when somebody in the crowd asked me 'do you want to go back to India?' I immediately replied 'yes, ofcourse!'....guess I still love mumbai - that crazy, dirty, always in a tizzy city.... what is wrong with me????

So many things to write about..... meeting with an old law school friend where we shared a lot of laughs, meeting with a new friend, making plans with an newish but old friend, call from another law school classmate who I have not spoken to in 10 years almost and discussing politics with my American neighbour....

Wow.... seems like a lot to do but that is how busy I have been.... I have also made plans for the weekend which definitely include classes, soho, church and bollywood.... I am not sure how much I wil get to do all these things but I am going to try... I have been so busy with all these things that I have not yet had the time to go out and take some pics of London....

Some of the gems I have learned about:

My piano teacher who told that I should always keep all my fingers on the keyboard.... because you never know what note might come up.... and I looked at him and said 'that is pretty much like life'... and he laughed in a way that only a shy syrian boy can saying 'you are probably right'.... and then we played away....

and another quote I heard today from my new Nigerian friend ... apparently said by a Ugandan dictator 'thank you for your hospitality, I shall retaliate'.... I laughed my head out.... surely he must have retaliated....

have I said that I love London a lot this time round?

I have been delaying giving my clothes for dry cleaning for a while now .... mainly because I want to get suggestions for a good dry cleaning place that is convenient for me to pick up from ... and since I spent most of my time in office I thot something close to the office would be the best..... and as luck would have it they have a dry cleaning service that comes and picks up clothes from the office itself!! and that just made life a bit more easier....I should try and recommend this to my boss back home...

In other news, I read on CNN that a paper in Uganda had published names and pictures of all gays and lesbians in the country.....with the caption - kill them or something similar.... and my colleague over here is Ugandan and I was teasing him about it...and then I turned to my British colleague and commented that the lowest (or somewhere close to the lowest) category of human being you can be in the world is a black, muslim, lesbian......in her typical stiff upper lip british way my colleague responded 'with one leg'.... I burst out laughing....

I love the British - I am beginning to understand their sense of humour now...

The topic of friendships seem to be occuping my thoughts these days.... recently a person I had not been in touch with for the past decade due to some misunderstanding or better understanding (one never knows) mentioned to another common friend that I had stopped talking to them!

and given all the angst that I have been facing with friendships lately it got me thinking about what does it take to preserve a relationship? When do you walk out of the relationship? What is the final straw that finally breaks your tolerance level and makes you want to get the person out of your life?

And finally, can a broken relationship be mended? Can you ever get back to what you had?

In my book, between friends if there is lack of respect or appreciation, then that is the last straw. And my threshold is quite high... so somebody has to demonstrate a lack of appreciation or respect consistently for me to break off....and lack of respect can be demonstrated in many ways - not making the time, not keeping in touch, not participating in the happy moments, not understanding what is important to your friend,not making the effort to be nice..... so if I am the one who is making all the effort to keep the friendship going then after sometime I switch off... so it comes as a surprise to me when people actually get surprised that I moved away - since they didnt think anything great about the effort I was making! or if I am constantly berated or pulled down then that is a sign that I should not associate with this person... I mean really what is the point if you really feel bad about yourself and your life when you are with this person....

Also these factors change with age... after a certain age you really do not want to make an effort.... you are too busy with your life and you just dont see the need to put up with rubbish...

can a relationship be mended? I have not been successful at that yet... maybe if the hurt is really minor and the person does make enough of an effort with me then probably....now I dont mean to say that I dont have fights with friends at all... I do... but even when I do my focus always remains on the larger picture....that this is a relationship that is worth investing in... and I expect that from the other person as well...so if both of you are mature then you are to move past that fight.... and if it doesnot happen then I really move on....

i really dont know... someone said that to have a good friend you need to be a good friend first....and that you are lucky if you have 2-3 good friends in your life....most of the people you consider friends fall by the wayside in the course of your meandering life.....

all I can say is - how true....

Today something special happened to me.... I started my piano classes at the Royal Academy of Music, London today.... my instructor is a young Syrian pianist.... and I started this morning at 7:30 a.m.

It was afetr a span of 22 years that I was touching a piano... in my hey days I used to read the notes and play quite well at church events.... I stopped my classes after i came back to India... mainly on account of a lack of enthusiasm on my part to do anything beneficial for myself....and then after that I did not look at a piano again....

Till today.... as the instructor took me through the lessons about the notes, reading the notes and playing them slowly all of that came back to me.... I was able to immediately recollect what I used to do with my piano..... and the instructor noticed this in me... within 20 mins he had moved me from the beginners level to slightly more senior (I dont know what that is).... and slowly him and me started playing the piano... very very tentative steps... and I throughly enjoyed the experience!! I kept wondering why it is that I didnt bother to learn this instrument when I was in Mumbai..... The instructor was only unhappy about the way I place my fingers... accordingly to him, it was important to relax and place the fingers lightly... and soon I saw the reason why all piants stay upright and have their fingers positioned in a particular way....

I have discovered one more thing that I can do when I move back to Mumbai....its strange... I never knew that I had all these interests in me when I was in India...and over here my interest range from photography, to painting, to piano to writing! and I am sure I will be no good at all of these but I think I enjoy having so many different things to do.... its also curious that I have picked up activities that are by its very nature very lonely activities to do.... be it painting, photography or even writing.... all of these activities are done without company...

Well to rectify that I have decided to enroll for a chocolate making class in London at the Cadbury centre....yummmm...