Glimpses of London
Yesterday was my first day in London. I am so happy to be here. It is a welcome change. I am a big city boy. (Mumbaiites stop giving that sarcastic smile. Pune is a big city too when you compare it with European cities) Mumbai and Pune are much, much bigger cities than Oslo. Where the 18 millions of Mumbai and barely a million and a half of Oslo. Of course the town is pretty, it is a first world city with the highest standard of living in the world, no pollution, no congestion etc. However, the big city life is different any way!
So here I arrive in the big city London for 2 weeks on official work. To start with the traffic direction is what I am used to. I am more confident on the streets. People speak English! You do not miss Mumbai a bit here. First of all there are lots and lots of Indians everywhere. Until now whatever shop I have visited in Central London is either owned by an Indian or a Pakistani. On the streets, in the buses, on the tubes, at the underground stations you see Indian families, boys, girls, men, women, office goers, working class people and so on. Of course many amongst them are Pakistanis as well. Indians make the largest ethnic minority group in London. Then of course the famed double decker buses which is something common between Mumbai and London. I was little disappointed to see the modern version of the same with automatic doors and Volvoish look etc. Gone are the good old double deckers. Then the tubes here overflow with people, well, not literally, that the fact is they have automatic doors but they are crowded. In Oslo even at the peak hour you can easily secure a seat on a bus, tram or the underground. Last but not the least the architecture. You feel as if you are in south Mumbai which we can not forget was built by the British.
On the streets you see faces of all races, Asians, Africans, Latin, Hispanic, Nordic it is clearly the melting pot of cultures. As a result you have multi cuisine restaurants all over promoting their own food.
A few things that caught my attention:
- An Udipi restaurant complete with Balaji, the Samai, the Agarbattis and the garland and the lingering aroma of Sambar.
- Boys standing on the either side of roads facing the traffic, holding banners and hoardings announcing something or the other. I used to think this happens only on Marine Drive or Pedder Road since human labour is cheap but no it happens in London as well.
- Fair, blue eyed, blond beggars beg in polished and polite British English like the one at Piccadilly Circus Station saying, “Sir, may I ask you for a Penny or perhaps you have an extra cigarette on you.”
- Most phone booths have small obscene posters announcing their ‘sex talk’ services.
A sex shop! - I saw a club called Gentleman’s Club where the handsome doormen were wearing expensive suits and I though it is a kind of club where dogs and Indians are not allowed, as they used to humiliate us in our own country. Later, when I saw the brochure at the hotel I realised that it actually is a notorious club famous for its American Style Table Dancing…whatever that meant!
- You all know that the civil partnership amongst the same sex is now accepted by the law in the UK. As a result marathit sangaycha tar homosexuality akshrshaha boklali ahe. But there are interesting hoardings at places. Some targeting the gay consumer who have enough money at disposal and lead fashionable life style and some more educative like the one I saw in the tube which was about acceptability at work place and ended with something like ‘…discrimination is so over.’
- Unlike Oslo and like Mumbai pedestrians do not bother about traffic lights and they just look here and there and cross the road.
- Theatres and museums and long, long ques to enter them. Announcements of the famous English Musicals, Operas and other theatre productions.
- The underground tube is so fucking deep in the ground that it is scary. You escalate (what is the word to escalate down..hehe kuthetari mala English daga detach) down atleast equivalent to 5-6 floors. The only openings are the escalators. I can imagine the panic the bomb blasts must have created . Even the thought was scary.
We stay at the heart of the city a stone’s throw from the Oxford Street.
Finally, it is really so funny to see all the places like Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Street etc that we had once bought while playing the Monopoly!
24 July 2006
