This free time also gave me the time to look back at my blog. Gosh, all so many serious entries that I feel like I have been working my a** off and changing the world for good. So here goes something other than work.
I finally get a chance to visit some of the blogs I have always wanted to frequent. Kanishka, is at his humorous best though it seems the HLL workload means infrequent posts. Thanks to my friend Sudha, I am now reading two other ones. Divya's blog makes interesting reading. No one topic in particular but kept me interested all through. The second one is about London, a dream city in my book. This one makes absolutely interesting reading for me because of my liking towards London.
Talking about London, I have been there for just one night. The easter weekend in 2001. but it was one unforgettable night. I had 16 hours in transit time on my way back from boston to chennai. Rather, I programed my flights that way to get the one night stay in London. I forgot it was going to be easter and was hoping to catch up with some London night life, albeit all alone. ;)
Having checked in my luggage all the way to chennai, I easily got the transit visa (pre 9/11 days :). I was badly craving for some Indian food for dinner, having got none in boston, that I asked the help desk, about where I could find some. Trafalgar square, I was told. So I catch the tube (the underground train), get there and get out of the station. I do not know what it is about London, may be the architecure or the old world look and charm of the buildings, but it captivated me no end. That combined with the narrow roads, the parks, trees, the bustling nightlife, the 3 deg chilly night breeze, and the london buses and taxis set up a picture I wont forget. I walked around pubs, discs, movie theaters and just soaked in the place, the people and the city in itself. I caught up with an Indian restaurant called "The Taj". Tasty butter naans, kashmiri pulav and dal makhni... After that wonderful satiating experience, I still had an hour to go before I could catch the last tube train back to Heathrow. I kept walking in circles trying to figure out where trafalgar square was. Walking around the St.Martin's church, I crossed the street and there it was.
The architecture of the place, the tall column guarded by the 4 lions and all the space around it, the St.Martin's church and the National Gallery, buildings of amazing stature and the other such around it create an ambience thats unbeatable. The only regret is that I did not have a good enough camera along with me to capture these moments. I sat around in awe for as long as I could before catching the tube back to heathrow.
If that was an amazing experience, what followed was unforgettable for other reasons. I had to go back to Heathrow terminal 4 for the BA flight. Terminal 4 is in the south side, removed from the other three terminals and the best way to get there is the tube. For some reason, being the easter weekend, and this being the last train, it was halted at terminal 3 and I was stranded there at 1 am and no way to get to terminal 4. being a holiday weekend, there wasnt a bus or taxi in sight. I had absolutely no clue what to do and it was freezing. So I walk upto the bus stand, hoping against hope and I find a few sardar's chatting. I thought I would have a way out but they too told me that being easter I had indeed run out of luck. The only way was to sleep in terminal three, on the floor or the waiting seats and get up early in the morning to catch the first tube back to terminal 4, that would be just in time for my flight.
This was the first time I was stranded and having to sleep in an airport terminal not knowing if it was safe or permitted or whatever. For the first time, I felt a bit scared, for I certainly did not want to be stranded on a transit visa in london. Thankfully, inside terminal three were a few other people sleeping on the seats and whatever infrastructure they could find. I hardly slept that night. Probably for the first time in my life I woke up at 5:30 in the morning without an alarm. I was there when they opened the station and was the first passenger into the heathrow express. I made it just in time to terminal 4, and into the flight. Relieved but one hell of an experience. All said, if there is one city I would want to visit again, it is London.
Almost every trip of mine abroad has had an incident that has made it scary, interesting and unforgettable. I have been caught over speeding and under speeding (is that what u call it?) on the same day, fined and almost jailed in the US, lost my colleagues in the Boston airport and have been stranded without the address of the hotel. I have lost my way in japan, where I walked around in the middle of the night, searching for a building that was hidden behind a few others. Only a miraclous coincidence, when my friend, dressed in a salwar, happened to come out to dispose the garbage at the same time when I walked past the front of that building, saved me.
If that is any trend, the adventurous me does look forward to the next trip abroad. Guess I have really trolled on this post. Enjoyed it though.
