Remembering London

As fanatical as I may be about Russia; as homesick as I may be for India; I will always say that there's no place like London! My only problem with the capital of the Old Empire was it's weather but clearly, that won't be an issue anymore. There is always something worse in life! Today, for instance, St. Pete was at -2 with 'heavy' snow. (Well, it definitely felt heavy for Spring!)

I went to London for the first time way back in 1997. This was the first time my 11 year old feet stepped on foreign soil and I was smitten by the idea of London. My Dad was studying at the LSE back then; and Mom, Arpita (my sis) and I had gone to spend a few months with him.

Arpita and I both enrolled into schools. Those were some of the best days of my life. I loved how school began at 9:30 and not at 8:00 like in India. Every morning, I walked her to school and read her a children's book in her school's library. I still remember, 'A Mother for Choco'(1) about a orphan chick who is looking for his mother and finally gets adopted by Mrs. Bear - that was our favourite book and I read it to her at least a dozen times.

I would then head to my own school - Sheringham Junior, where the day would start off with a casual chat with my class-teacher, Mr Robinson, a remarkable person. I loved how he made an effort to get to know everyone and how encouraging he was, which was such a contrast to how most teachers behaved in India. (Needless to say, those who didn't behave like this became very dear!)

Classes were always fun. In India, we read books, underlined all the points depending on which questions were posed at the end of the chapter and we went home, where we neatly wrote these answers out. London was so much more dynamic - we didn't just read the books but we watched videos and went to museums, we debated these questions and we went home, where we made colourful projects about what we had learnt - and this "what we had learnt" could have been anything we wanted. Moreover, as a geeky Indian, I loved being able to answer questions like 11 times 13 in 2 seconds, while the other students would still be staring at their notebooks. I bet they hated me for this! And they also made fun of me because they could never understand why I would always stand up to answer the questions. But nevertheless, they played with me and they were my friends. Those differences were never taken personally even if they were annoying. My classmates in India were never so kind...

Fast-forward to 27th September 2004: I landed at London Heathrow and this time because I was going to the LSE...

First time away from home is both exciting and scary to say the least. There were things that weren't so much fun - this was the first time I had to do my laundry - but there were things that made me feel like an adult instantly. This was the first time I could do things on my own terms. I could oversleep without Mom and Dad giving me a hard time for the rest of the week. I could go out whenever I wanted with whoever I wanted (Mom and Dad are still a bit strict though with time they too have grown up!) The London Underground completely eliminated by dependence on the need to be picked up and dropped off. Plus unlike New Delhi, London is very safe for women and I didn't ever have to worry about getting r*ped and murdered(2). And most importantly, this was the first time I had a debit card with my name on it. Being in control of my own £inances - even if that money came from a ridiculous 12.5% student loan that had to be paid back - was a big step for me! So in London, having dropped my chains, I was taking cautious steps and big leaps all at once...

The first cut is the deepest. And London is so dear because it is so many first cuts - first time abroad, first university, first love, first job, first apartment...

That’s probably why nostalgia is so unbearably powerful when it’s for London. The craving is so real that I can...

...see the traffic at the High Holborn crossing where I waited for 38 to go back to my hostel on Rosebery Avenue;
...smell the midnight hot-dogs and pizzas at Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road;
...hear “The next stop is Canary Wharf” on the Jubilee Line;
...taste pineapple coolers at Ping Pong, the peri-peri sauce at Nandos, the strawberry cheesecake ice-cream at Haagen-Dazs;
...and feel the wind in my hair while crossing the Thames to get to the Lehman building on Bank Street

Coming to Russia made me realise how ‘Indian’ London really is. London has a huge Indian community so no one stared at me when I was out in the street. There are a gazillion Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi restaurants for the Brits love “curry” as much as we do. Diwali and Holi are celebrated with the same fervour as in India though not on the same scale. And I used to get invitations to Bollywood parties all the time. Therefore, Russia sometimes is twice as hard because not only do I miss London, I miss India more than I ever have!

Sometimes I wonder if it would have been better to settle for dominion status with our former colonisers so we could have been one big happy family! In any case, we Indians still think of England as our second Motherland and love her to death! Perhaps, a more accurate slogan during our Independence Struggle would have been, "Angrezon, Bharat chhodo...taki hum tumhare peeche aa sakein!" (“British, quit India...so we can follow you home!”)

PS - This post is dedicated to Medha, Dheer, Divya, Dhiren, Varun, Kanishk, Ali, Pallavi, Manyu, Herschel, Farhad, Neha, Ankit, Khushbu, Sasha, Sonia, Peter, Valerie, Sharmin, Chris and Kate. Without you, London wouldn't have been the same!

Notes:
1. A Mother for Choco: http://www.amazon.com/Mother-Choco-Paperstar-Keiko-Kasza/dp/0698113640#
2. This safety issue made me realise what kind of civil liberties I was missing at home and till date this is one of the biggest reasons against moving back to Delhi.