“Let me just restrict to one or will get late”
thought me as I iron-pressed the shirt and readied in the morning to catch the
8:27 am train to office. As I was leaving, Roshni gave me a bag of garbage to
be thrown into the communal garbage-bin downstairs my building… With the
garbage now disposed off, I commence my office journey, a 7-8 minutes walk to
the station followed by a 35 min tube ride and then a 8-10 min walk to Office,
all-in time of about a 50-55 mins.. My daily newspaper is available free of
cost at the train station, which I digest in the 35-min train ride.. Later in
the evening, as I leave office, Roshni calls up “get some milk, bread, tomatoes,etc etc..” on your way back.. So I
go down to the local Tesco (shop ala
Big Bazaar / More etc) to pick up the grocery list and head back to home
All the while,
during the day, life at home has been more hectic… Roshni, after seeing-me off,
had completed the day’s cooking, dish-washing, house cleaning, laundry apart
from taking care of Arnav’s requirements.. She has also managed to take him to
an activity centre so that he can play around with other kids… phew..all in a
day!!
The above two
paragraphs, while giving a brief account of the daily activities, goes on to
prove “Bye Bye istri-walah, kaamwali bai,
phone-a-supermarket, kachrawala, paperwala etc”… we are on our own. About a
month ago, all these activities were outsourced
So one month in
London, some might ask what’s the benefit in moving into a new city and
increasing your burdens. Is it money? Maybe, but then thinking about the real
money we would be saving, taking into account the high taxes, rentals and
higher cost of living, it would not be materially higher than what was left
back in Mumbai. So I don’t think if the journey was only for money, then
definitely it is not really worth the chase
Then why? The Mumbaikar in me would like to answer
“Now I am free from driving on the potholed roads,
waiting after never-ending traffic, spending about 2-3 hours on burning petrol
and time daily... I can see greenery all around, with lots of parks and
gardens… hopefully I am going experience snow, a first in my lifetime … healthcare
is free… education is free, so no worry about getting Arnav into a good school
without donation and exorbitant school fees
What I have
loved about London is its cosmopolitan nature. Never you feel you are in an
alien country. I have seen other countries but you always feel like an
outsider.. but somehow, in London, you
feel a lot closer to India.. On a funnier side, it is said that, as you arrive
at Heathrow airport, you may have a feeling that you have accidently landed at
Amritsar with the amount of Sikhs at the airport … a visit to Southall and
Wembley would take you to Punjab and Gujarat respectively
This is the
first time I am settling outside India - Mumbai
to be more precise. Most of the trips made so far where for maximum of a
one month stay where you stay in as a tourist. Now in London, the entire way of
looking at things change. More than sight-seeing and tick-off from the standard
to-do places, now we are feeling the life of the city - moving along with the
crowds (well, what I mean by crowd is as
per London standards which would be one/hundredth of Mumbai !!), opening bank
accounts, registering at Municipal council, registering at health care center
etc etc. Too many seemingly mundane, but very essential things
More blogs to
follow on London and the life that it is….
Cheers
