I lost my father on 13th August....this post is dedicated to him.......

Dad I will miss you...............

When someone will ring the bell at 6pm.........
When I will see a new north Indian eatery.........
When a new movie will hit the screen..............
When I will sit in any negotiations............
Whenever I will call up my boss directly rather than chickening out........
Whenever I decide to stay honest rather than misusing company things...........

I know you were not the best, but you were the best possible......................
...............................
...............................
...thanks for everything..............

He ruled the house but was not an autocrat. Rather we had a rare dining table democracy where everyone had a chance to speak and discuss issues from mundane to serious.

In the past few years I grew closer as we did many things together from shopping for household items to discovering new resturants.

Ok ok, thats the training batch ID to which I belonged T34. No there were not 34 of us from whichever end or middle you might count. I was off to the other end of India for the training and thats why missing from Mouthshut. The company has blocked mouthshut and the executive hostel where we stayed had no wi-fi so after a long break of 19 days am back to civilisation.

From initial furtive steps to Charlie's Angels, Chomu and Douglas (more on it later), it was a joyride. All 47 of us strangers gelled together in a way no one expected, least of all us!

The company drilled its structure right into our brains. The incessant lectures caused enough pain that most of us would have preferred a drilling machine!

One of the major aims of the company is an attempt to get non-linear growth
Sumeet, Amber, Ashwini and me are talking over dinner

Amber: The company is planning for non-linear growth
Sumeet: Yeah and Swati and Ashwini are living it......she eats little and expands a lot, he eats a lot and expands very little!

Our training was directed by a balding 40 something man, Mahesh Chadha. He had more enthusiasm for our training than all 40 of us combined! He would thrust the mike into our faces to force us to ask questions. And even then if we didnt oblige, he would hinself ask questions! The standard qauestions were:

How is the world on that side? (especially to those based in UK and US)
How many people work with you? How many Indians? How many foreigners??

Such deep and analytical questions left us in splits....

There were many video conferences and telephone conferences. By the end of first week itself we were thoroughly bored. During one such session with Richard Stryker,
the entire lot was bored to the extent that even Chomu was on the brink of yawning. As Chomu enthused us to ask questions, Gautum got up from the corner of the room and with all seriousness he could muster leaned on the desk and spoke into the phone to Richard Stryker .."Hello Douglas.." (!!!).

The uncrowned PJ king from one the colleges Suchet was in full form on the last night of our stay. Some of the gems from his collection:

Why is it that all the saints are able to resist so many things? Why do they have such high resistance?
Answer: What is the unit of resistance?? O(h)m!!

Suchet: Ropan Bhattacharya is my guru from the time I met him
We: why?
Suchet: In Mahabharat all the gurus were known as Dronacharya, Kripacharya...Ropan is already Bhattacharya!!

The Gujjar agitation has effectively held the NCR region to ransom on May 29th. After agonising for days i have decided to stir the hornet's nest. Feel free to condem, criricise, support, an opinion of any shade and size is welcome.

1. Gujjar community already has benefit of reservations under the Other Backward Class category reserving 27% of the seats
2. They feel slighted because Jats were recently granted the OBC status and have cornered most of the 27% reserved seats.
3. Gujjar's neighbors Meenas of Rajasthan have reservation benefits under the Schedule Tribe category. Though a paltry 7.5% seats are reserved for this category, there is very little competition for it, in fact most of the seats go empty. The result has been that there are villages in Rajasthan where every house boasts of a Class I officer.
4. Gujjars were promised a part of the ST pie by the BJP at the time of last elections.
5. Fulfilling such a promise by moving a community into ST after such a long time and with little or no 'tribal' features would be constitutionally as well as politically tough. There will be ample no of communities demanding a simialr status. The cetnre already is grappling with many such issues of its own and if ST status is granted to Gujjars such demands will multiply.
6. Same agitation took place last year as well, but was contained by the reaction of the Meenas. Meenas has become a powerful lobby after years of reservations both at the central as well as state level. Gujjar villages were thereateningly surrounded by Meenas wherever they were in majority and the Gujjar agitation was called off.

Now:
1. I do not know why Meenas are silent this time?
2. The level of organization of Gujjars is ominous. It signals to communtities that your strength would be measured by your organization and the amount of disruption you can cause.

Is this what India's democracy will come to? Will it be ransomed to the rowdiest?? Are we slipping from 'civilised' ways?? What will be the end of this casteist spiral?? Will merit disappear from our elite institutions??

PS: an incident that I witnessed: One of the Meena civil services aspirant boatsed to a general category student : So you had 135 marks in one paper in GS (135/300) Cool I got a call with 110 in both papers
gen category: You got 220/600??
Meena guy: Nopes 110/600, you see we have reservations. I think I would get 200/600 this time and should get at least IFS this time.

Location: Bournemouth, a famous beach south of London
Characters: Me
Divya, Saurabh and CP: friends from London
Manish and Akansha: husband and wife staying at Bournemouth due to Akansha's official work. Manish is CP's friend for the past 10 years, they were together in engineering.

We all were sitting on the beach surrounded by women and bikinis in various shapes and sizes. Manish was clicking our photos.

Akansha: Manish are you sure clicking our photos?
Manish: What do you mean?
Akansha: I mean are we featuring in the photos or is it the people around us (meaning the bikini babes)
Manish:  What do u mean! When have I ever done that??
Akansha: You remember our honeymoon in Mauritius?? While everyone was looking where instructor was telling us that Dolphins would appear you were missing. And where did I find you- the other side of the boat clicking photographs of two firangs in bikini in water!
Manish: You know it wasnt the bikini I was interested in. They were Scuba Diving with the mask and the pipe, its very interesting..
Akansha: Yeah you thought they were Dolphins!!
Manish: Of course! remember the instructor said Dolphins could come out of anywhere...so I thought why not try my luck here??
Akansha: Sure!!
Manish: Dont make faces you said it was the best photograph of the trip! In fact everyone said so.....
Akansha: Ah ha, so who all you sent it to??
Manish: All my friends, you see I take photographs for my friends, I am married so I cant really enjoy all this, and they are not here so I help them.
Akansha: Seriously?? (to CP) So CP what do you think of his photographs??
CP: What photographs?? He hasnt sent any!!

The Royal Botanic Gardens are generally referred to as Kew Gardens. The Kew gardens are situated at the western edge of London. Last saturday forecast was bright and sunny and so we decided to visit Kew. The group ( after a lot of ditchings) consisted of me, Divya and Chandra Prakash, hereafter CP.

Kew is well connected to the main city through trains as well as buses. The national rail station at Richmond is 2 minutes by train. Both London Overground as well as District Line goes directly to the Kew station. We decided to meet at Stratford and then switched to Miles End and took the District Line. The overall journey took more than an hour and a half.

A 10 minute walk from the station brought us to Victoria Gate. This gate has a cafe to the extreme right from the ticket counter. The tickets cost 13 GBP and group discounts are available. We availed 2 for one offer. So 26GBP for 3 persons. The ticket for Kew Palace is 5 GBP per person and that for the Kew Explorer is 4GBP. We chose the Palace over the train and that was a mistake. The palace is a WASTE (more on that later).

The staff near the counter checked out tickets and were providing maps. As the area is huge, maps are very handy. They help to choose where and how to go. A few metres from the gate a beautiful lake greets you. The view is quite photogenic and we spent 15- 20 minutes clicking photos. The Glass House with Palm and Aquatic display is right next to the lake. The thick vegetation and tall trees resulted in high heat and humidity and we were sweating within minutes. We ran down to the aquatic display to escape from the heat. Types of Algae dominated the display, it was not as colorful as one would like.

A few minutes to the left is the Lily dispaly. There is large pond at the centre with water lilies and some lotuses (we thought). The place makes for really beautiful photographs. On the way to Alpine Glasshouse there are manicured lawns, beautiful roundabouts and rows of tulips making for excellent pictures. There were some rose family trees in full bloom, totally covered with flowers.

The Alpine display is beautiful in its own right. Flowers are few but the variety of vegetation more than makes up for it. There are various areas depending on the heights and vegetation type. The authorities have made arrangements such that even people on wheelchairs can easily move about. The pagoda is close to Alpne and is worth a visit. You can climb to the top and the view is nice.

On the way to Kew Palace you encounter a small bridge, a small display and a big cafe. It provides food at exorbitant rates. But this is a nice place to rest if you are tired. Map is helpful in finding the way. The palace is a large buiding of ornagish brown color. The person at the gate takes your tickets and hands a pamphlet elaborating the various 'attractions' of the palace. There arent many. The palace is no bigger than a manor and was being renovated at the time of our visit. Some of the paintings are good and are the only saving grace. The Queen's bed is barely three feet wide. Divya and I were debating as to how many times she would fall while sleeping. One of the rooms houses a library. The view of the Queens' Garden is tempting enough to make us visit.The last stop was Rose Garden which we could not locate beause it was dug up for renovation.

In three hours we barely covered third of the garden. Our mistake was not to take the Explorer (train) which would have taken us around the Gardens leaving us more time and less tired. It was later that I came to know that there are free guided walks everyday from the Victoria Gate at 11am and 2pm. Go for these. I resolved to check the website before going anywhere!

Its been a few days since I have written about London. The two week Easter holidays are over and schools have reopened. It almost sounded like the two week Dusshera break we get. The  break had left my nephew totally bored and  me and  bhabhi were looking forward to the school reopening. The school is 5 minutes walk from the house. The walk is never lonely, as most of the other kids are also from the neighbourhood, you see someone or the other walking by. Unlike India neighbours dont want warm up so easily and there is no small talk.

This is a public school (government run). It has a primary school and a nursey. Three years plus kids are preschoolers (like my nephew) and go to school only for two hours. Parents and kids wait in the porch and one of the teachers opens the gate and takes in a student at a time verbally noting the person accompanying the kid. I had to tell her that I am Gantavya's aunt and would come to pick him up as well. She greets every kid by name.
Inside the all kids draw out the slip of their name and put it in the tumbler. this is their attendance.

The area is bright and looks like any upmarket Delhi playschool. Most of the learning is through activities. Yesterday my nephew made a British flag. They have outdoor activities and kids are allowed to play with various toys. My nephew has wanted the motorbike for eons now, just like most other boys in the nursery, but refuses to run to get to it. We refuse to intervene to make him learn that sometimes you have to run after what you want. Mummy daddy or bua wont be there to give it to you on a platter.

A friend of bhabhi laments that British schooling provides 13 weeks of holidays and that cannot be adjsuted with any kind of job! (India must have at least 15!). Her daughter goes to a private school. She feels that if I can afford it (she's an architect), why not the best for my daughter? She's on a guilt trip that she is not providing enough time to her daughter. Adding to her misery is an acquaintance who has been told by the same school to withdraw her daughter as she cannot cope.

Luckily for her, her daughter's KeyStage I is just around the corner. KSI is like our board exams, only that there is one board across UK ( we have ICSE, CBSE etc) and given by kids in class 2. There is a KS2 later that decides the direction of studies for the kids.

Meanwhile April 24 was a mass strike by teachers across UK demanding higher wages. this is their  biggest strike since 1987. Maybe they heard of the  Seventh pay commission!!

A friend of mine has been enjoying an 'enforced holiday' due to a broken leg. She had been working 12-14 hours, sometimes 6 days a week. I felt it was fishy ;). It reminded of this joke:

Two software engineers desperatley need a few days off but the manager keeps refusing. So one day one of them knocks the bulb out of socket and sticks his feet into it hanging upside down just when the managet passes by.

manager: mr x what are you doing? why are you hanging upside down?
engg 1: upside down? no i am standing! after all i am the lightbulb.
manager: get down and take two days off! you need a vacation

with a sad face engg 1 starts walking away. Suddenly engg 2 also starts walking.

manager: mr y now why are you walking?
engg 2: sir i cant work in the dark!

Proverbial London weather can change in the space of weekend shopping. The closest supermarket here is Asda. Its a few minutes away so we (me, bro and nephew) decided to walk. The pavements have a gradient, it dips close to driveways but the curve is such that it makes for smooth walking.

Londoners use trolleys to cary home the shopping (if they dont have a car, or  not driving ..). The trolley  may have two wheels and a  bag vertically attached to it, looking like a twisted version of trolley suitcases we have in Delhi. Older people have bigger ones with four wheels, those are far easier to drag.

The greenery in suburbs is better than most areas in Delhi. There are few speeding cars so on the whole walking is safe and pleasureable. It somehow felt as if despite all the pollution, the air here is purer than back home. People are generally mannered. They follow teh traffic rules. Cars stopped on either side of the small driveway when my nephew almost ran to the road. We were scared and he got a scolding but I felt thankful for the traffic and human sense of Londoners.

The trolleys are chained to to each other in a row. You need to punch in a one pound coin to release it. There are families walking in and out for the weekend shopping. Many of them are Asians you can tell by the look, clothes and of course the language. The main area has a twisted lobby with food and electronics shops lining one side, a big display at the centre and the main supermarket to the right.

The layout is similar to the Spencers in Delhi with straight rows of display on the two sides and walking area in the middle. It is called Gondola, kind of U boats of Venice where both the straight legs of U have normal display and the curve has special display as it takes more area. It can have new items or as in the case of Asda discounted items.

As expected the range and variety of items is HUGE. The wonder is the number of miles many of the items have travelled to be on these shelves. The detailed labels note the country of origin from Brazil to Caribbean to of course China. Most of the workers around are of Asian origin.

The billing counters are positioned at the at the end of the rows, a format that Spencers also follows. The counters are long and rectangular with the billing clerk at the other end. You arrange your stuff at one end and the escalator takes it to the clerk. He hands out polythene bags to you to pack it the way you want. The card machine just out of the counter so you can swipe it youself while the clerk punches in the amount from the other side. The trolley can be returned to its row and the pound extracted back.

Phew! an odd feeling when I landed here but considering how hard i had to work for it, it fitted. I was refused visa long back because i was young, highly educated and single (all possible sins in their eyes). Once bitten twice shy, so i meticulously attached 50 pages of documents to prove that i am worthy and have no reason to hang on in the UK for long. By the way I am still young, even more educated and still single ;)

I was nearly jumping with joy when I saw my brother waiting for me outside the airport, happy that I am no longer a sinner. Maybe they listened to christ and started to hate teh sin instead of the sinner ;P

We took the train to paddington. The underground stations remind you of Delhi Metro. Here there are three classes of trains though: Tube: cheapest, slowest and ordinary seats
normal ones: costlier, faster and better seats and the best is express trains: costliest, fastest and best seats etc. The ticket checker was a woman of color (black), fat and I felt as if movies had come to life. Her name read Sharmila and my surprise had no end. London is truly cosmopolitan. Paddington reminded me of Agatha Christie and her novel '4 50 at Paddington'. Paddington is a big station where trains from most corners meet and you see a sea of humanity around.

From Paddington we landed at the Baker Street station and it had Sherlok Holmes on the walls. I felt i knew so much and was finally seeing it all. We got onto the Jubilee line.
Bro:this was constructed to mark the jubilee of coronation of the present queen.
Me: 50 th which just went by? doesnt look that good
Bro: nah this was for 25 th jubilee

We passed the Millenium dome now passed onto O2 for various events. The houses in every council look similar with only very cosmetic difference outside. In one word Boring.

PS: will update more, my nephew getting restless, wants to 'see' all the people i am talking to ;)

An artist in an attempt to cover memory lapses would ask everyone : so how are you doing? how is your father? Is he in the same line of business?

One day he came across a beautiful woman and asked: how are you? how is your father? Is he in the same line of business?

The woman replied: i am fine, so is my father, yes he is still the king of England :)


A man was once confessed to not remembering the name of his wife of 30 years: Why else do you think I have been calling her darling for the past 20 years??

PS: My bhabhi (sister-in-law)'s name is Arpana that of her younger sister Anupama. Even after five years of marriage my brother introduces her as Anupama off and on ;). In his invitation lettter for my Visa he wrote  '.......and my sister Arpana.....'