Summer....

I used to wonder earlier on, why people in this country crave for sunshine, why does every conversation begin and end with weather. Why people go crazy when the sun is out. Why people hang around outside the pubs in summer? Why do the news channels talk about weather every hour or every half hour? Why does everyone start to wear fewer clothes with the slightest sight of sun or rise in temperature?

But, I know realise the importance of sunshine in life. I had taken the sunlight for granted back home; infact most times avoided the sunlight and craved for the monsoon season or post monsoon season. Post monsoon (Sept-Jan) is my all time favourite back in Bangalore.

Having been in London for about 6 years now has made me realise the importance of daylight. I feel there is much more to a day and lot of time after work. It makes a lot of difference to my thinking and behaviour. It’s really a pleasure to come home after work and look out of my kitchen window and actually being able to see my garden without switching on lights. Leave all the curtains open to get some natural light into my home and not fearing that it’s going to get cold if curtains are left open.

Simple pleasures of life that make a difference, that we often take you for granted.

Bangalore Auto saga....

Couple of months ago, I went to Bangalore after 2 years. I had heard that the auto situation in Bangalore is a complete joke, and I experienced it big time.
Firstly, when you call for an auto, some don't look, if they do, they don't stop, if they stop, they don't want to ride you to the destination you need them to.. ! And above all, they demand crazy money if they decide to come to your destination.

One of my experiences this time around.. I wanted to go to Sadashivnagar from NandiDurga Road- Its probably about 5-6 km or even less. It was about 9.00 AM. I go to the main road with a hope of getting an auto. About 10 autos later, one guy stops for me.
He speaks in Hindi,

Me: Sadashivnagar
He: Who kahan hai, mujhe rasta pata nahi?
Me: Mekhri Circle se jaana padega, aapko mekhri cirle ka rasta pata to hoga na?
He: Nahi madam, pata nahin
Me: Chalo, mein bata doongi.. aap chalo..
He: Ok madam, aap ko Rs 80 dena padega..
Me(Shocked & angry) : Aapko ye pata nahin, ki Sadashivnagar kahan hai, aur aap mujhe bolte hai Rs 80 dho... Aapko kaise pata kitna door hai?
He: Smiles...
Me: Walk away to find another auto.. !

This guy annoyed me like crazy, first of all has no clue where Sadashivnagar is, forget that, does not even know where Mekhri circle is, cannot speak Kannada(local language) and then wants me to pay Rs 80(normally would have costed Rs40 or so) and tell him the route of how to get there.. If he could have, he probably would have asked me to ride his auto and he would have sat behind ! He has no clue how far away this place is or anything like that, for all he knows, I could have said Basavangudi!

Its a real frustration when you don't have a bike or a car that you can travel from one place to the other. The auto situation in Bangalore, made me helpless many times.. and I realised pretty quickly, that's its not a very pleasant state to be in,,,

Limousine Ride..

One of our good friends(lets call them Y&S) are leaving the UK for good and moving back to Bangalore.. and a few of us wanted to do something special for them, that they could remember for ever… So we decided, as a complete surprise, we shall take them to dinner to a restaurant in Central London in a white stretch Limousine.

As always, I was given the task of organising the event. I went away and contacted a number of limo provides for quotes. First we wanted to get a Hummer Stretch Limo, but figured that its too expensive and also too big for 8 people. So, we finally settled for a normal white stretch limo.

There was a bit of confusion as to how we actually invite the couple without letting them know what we plan to do. As they have kids, they need advance notice unlike us, who can get ready in a jiffy. In the end, we managed it somehow and they were ready at 6.45 PM. They were pleasantly surprised, when they say a stretch limo outside their door, ready to take them for a ride.
The interiors of the limo was fantastic. They had wine and champagne glasses everywhere. There were dim inset sparkly lights inside, nice steel interiors and leather seats. We were 8 adults and 2 kids and not once before this we had been together in one vehicle. We normally need 2 or sometimes 3 cars to comfortably fit all of us. It was a great experience, all of us in one car, drinking and chatting away..

It was a great evening out that all of us will remember..

New office... New team

I have been taken out of my original role and been deputed to a new project. The project office is based in a new location and I am really excited to be a part of both the team and the office. London is a very old city and therefore there are very less sky scrapers. A number of buildings are listed and therefore cannot be destroyed or externally modified.

The highlight of the new office space is that it has about 33 floors.. And although we are on the 12th floor we have some great views. This is the first time I am actually working in such massive building. I get cheap thrills like that J

The best part of this office is that we don’t have many phones yet, which means no one can contact me easily. I am left all by myself to do some work without disturbance, which is fantastic. I am a big fan of natural light and clear glass windows, and the office has a lot of both. It’s also closer to home than my old office; it’s a 20 minute train journey which is a luxury by London standards.

All in all, the choice of moving from my original role to the new role, worked out really well from all aspects so far.

A picture... I wil remember..

A break.. from the norm…

This was on my list of places to visit from a long time. Isle of Wight, a beautiful island famous for its natural beauty and sandy beaches. It’s apparently the largest island of England. In about 2-3 hours, one could drive around the island.

View from the ferry

I was the organiser of the trip (nothing new there), since it’s an island, we need to get to a port first, after which we can get on a ferry that will take us across to the island. Portsmouth was our port of exit from mainland England which is about 2 hours away from where we live. We (I) decided that it would be nice to leave early, get to the destination in good time, drive around the coast for a few hours and then relax in our rooms for the rest of day.

We headed out at 7.00 AM, for there about 9.00 AM for our 9.30 ferry. It was a new experience for some of them being in ferry with the car. We had breakfast in the ferry which was a new experience. Reached a place called Fishbourne near a town called Ryde and decided that we would carry on driving along the coast and would stop if we found anything exciting. We stopped at a vineyard for some wine tasting, had some really nice fresh apple juice and tasty liqueurs. I loved the Elderberry liqueur and we got some home with us too. We also stopped at a place called waltzing waters and watched a spectacular musical fountain, it’s the best we have seen so far.

On the way - English countryside

After a few hours of driving, everyone decided that we ought to stop for a bite. On consensus, we ended up in an English pub that served with some delicious veggie food to our surprise. After a nice meal, we headed to our sea-front rooms, checked in, changed and got ready to head down to the beach of Ventnor. The beach was not as good as we expected, had a quick stroll, wet our feet, realised that the water was too cold and therefore went into a amusement arena and played some games instead :)
By this stage, all of us were a little tired and wanted to hit the bed, but ended up playing cards, having dinner and chatting until about 1 in the morning.

Beautiful city of Ventnor

Day 2: After a heavy breakfast, we headed to Alum Bay where the world famous ‘Needles’ are situated. On the way, we got the witness the beautiful English country which has something different to offer all the time. It’s just beautiful. I love the lush green meadows, yellow mustard fields, colourful shrubs and flowers spread all across. Isle of Wight reminded me of Scotland. We also got to see the white cliffs of Isle of Wight on our way to Alum bay.

Alum Bay had a glass making factory and there we witnessed glass making process. It was amazing to see colourful glasses being made. I bought a nice vase from there just for memory. It was indeed a wonderful experience.

On the whole, was an exciting trip and wonderful memories and quality time spent with some of our closest friends who mean a lot to us, and it’s a pity that one of them are leaving us and heading back to our homeland for good. We will miss you :(

White cliffs of Isle of Wight

Stuff I like doing......

There are lots of things on my 'to do' or 'to learn' list and one such things was swimming. I have been thinking about learning swimming once again and this time properly since a long time now. Earlier, I had classes to go to, exams to write and had to study in the evening.. so I decided that once I finish majority of my exams.. the first thing that I would do is find a swim school and join them.

Last August, after I had passed most of the exams and had just one more to go in December, I joined swimming classes. I did not have fear for water as my Dad used to take me to swimming pool when I was 6-7 years old. He used to buy us floating tubes and we used to go at 5AM to Sadashivnagar swimming pool. This way, I never feared water, or did not have any reservations about swimming.

When I was in school, I pestered my Mom to send me to summer swimming classes. It was a 15 day crash course, which I absolutely loved. My Mom was not very happy after the 15 day class, as I had a very bad tan! Moreover, I was colourful, parts of my body was lighter, so if I had my ears covered with swimming hat, the ears were lighter and my face was darker.. Mom was worried, so she decided that swimming was not a good idea.. ! That is one downside of outdoor swimming pools, and not knowing that one should use sun screen lotions does not help either.. !

But, here its awesome, since its a indoor pool (swimming pool would freeze, if it were outdoor), and moreover my swimming tutor is excellent. I have managed to learn, front crawl(commonly known as freestyle), back stroke and now I am learning breast stroke.

Its also an excellent exercise as every part of the body is used, I feel really nice after an hour of swimming. Swimming not only uses the legs and hands, but also is a good exercise for the lungs, as breathing while swimming is not easy..

I thoroughly enjoy swimming and hope to continue to practise it atleast once a week..