London - Day 5

Day 5 (Wednesday 25th Aug 04’):
Woke up early at 7 am; (the drill-work on the roof and the smell of tar did it for me). After our regular morning routine, D, A & myself left for Harrod’s. Since it was my last day with them, D & A decided to spend half a day, sight seeing with me. We took the bus and reached Harrod’s to explore London’s most famous retail outlet and the most-visited one by the who’s-who of the world. Checked out the Egyptian Hall’s of the store and realized it had a unique cultural feel to itself, quite much like London City itself. On reaching the food level of the store, lost all sense of a 26 yr old when I saw Samosa’s and Wada’s for sale. Did’nt however buy them as they were cold. A & D told me that the Samosa was Britain’s national snack, to be found everywhere you go, not just exclusive to Indian stores/ restaurants and Chicken Tandoori was the official favourite dish.
Food for thought? I fell a little more in love with Britain. Note: It wasn’t the samosa or the tandoori chicken alone, it was the idea of such enormous acceptance of another culture, so unique and different from theirs, into their culture which killed me. “Food-for-thought” to be continued in the conclusions part of this travelogue.
We had lunch at a Thai restaurant, over more talks and exchange of our life-stories for over two hours. After lunch, thank-you’s, a hug and a handshake later, I wandered off to find the V & A (The Victoria and Albert) Museum and D & A went off to work. I was leaving for Basingstoke that evening, to spend the rest of my time in England with my cousin and his family. This lunch had officially marked the end of my stay with D & A.
The V&A is another one of those famous London museums I would recommend to any visitors to the city. Not only does the museum take you to see Britain and Europe’s glorious past but also delves into the history of Materials to a very detailed extent. I spent most of my time fascinated by some of the most intricate embroidery, metal work, glass work, sculpture and jewellery. The museum also displays textiles and clothes from various parts of the world as also a pavilion for Asia (mostly those nations which Britain colonized in the early 20th century). The fascination for India, I realized does not run in this land as a recent trend, it is more of an ingrained and inherent part of the English, as they refer to India as one of the most favourite colonies of Britain. Another exhilarating film was the making of the great Crystal Palace in the Hyde Park, a well spent and very informative 10 mins in the museum for me.
After venturing into the V & A store for a while, I decided to get back to D & A’s place to pick up my luggage to go to Basingstoke. As I left the museum, the London rain appeared as usual, as it had done all of that week, at High Tea time as I called it. A quick tea later I was sitting in the d-d mapping my route back home on my bus map. In trying to connect to another bus which would take me right across from D & A’s place, I ventured off in the wrong direction again, but realized it soon and was on my way again. By this time, I was getting a good grip on the transport system all by myself, which for me is a great high..(my friend’s who tease me about walking and traveling in the subways’ in NYC, will vouch for this insane high of mine). Got back home, took my luggage and another formal “American” kind of a thank-you note for D & A ( something they could’nt stop teasing me about for long after) later, I set off to Waterloo to catch the train to Basingstoke.
After 2 hrs, I found myself lugging my bags up the stairs to Waterloo Station, with a little help from a sweet English couple. An act of kindness common to NYC and London: strangers helping you up/ down the stairs with your luggage. Nice!
An expensive one-way ticket to Basingstoke (ironically the ticket was called a cheap one-day fare), a train time-table and some phone calls later, I was on the National Rail to B’toke. Could’nt help but notice the plush interiors once again, analogized the experience to being in the Metro North; which connects NYC to CT and other Northern parts of the tri-state area. Reached B’toke, found SD (my cousin who lives there with his family) waiting for me, over a smoke and left to go to his place, my place of stay for the second chapter of my stay in the UK.
Met Ichhita, his wife, Yash his 6 yr old British son, loved his accent and decided to learn it as much as I can and after dinner and plans to explore B’toke ( actually the town has just one mall and a town center which we were going to see the next day) called it a night! Dreamt of London City and the past four days I had spent there, all night. As D had aptly pointed out in a telephone conversation earlier that evening; "London sure is missable!"
I was in love, again! Sigh!!!