My London Experience

 Last month I travelled to London for two weeks with family to attend a wedding in a destination Kew Gardens and to later spend some time with the family of my niece. The first week was in Rayners park Soutwest of Central London and the second in Carpenders park in Northwest of Central London. Both these areas are not directly connected to the famous old London Tube but were lovely livable areas with all the typical shops houses and streets that typify the old London. While I am not writing a travelogue just thought of penning down stray thoughts and observations about this trip. 

• British Airways for all the criticism and low expectation was a pleasant surprise. The crew were sensitive to my daughter Delna who is a young adult with Down's Syndrome. 
• London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 huge busy but seemed an old run down airport. The transit train was an unexpected experience but the rest parking lifts etc chaotic. 
• First impression as we drove to our destination to Raynes park is that London was definitely a mixed city with more coloured and migrant population than the white British population. However, a feeling of reverse colonisation was there as I saw non British folks who were migrants but who did seem misplaced in that landscape in terms of language, food habits or religion. 
• The wedding and the destination Kew Gardens lived up to its promise in terms of beauty ambience and ceremony. The boys side my nephew Darnesh son of my brother in law Hoshi from Australia originating from Cusrow Baug and the girls side Sherezad Sherry with her London parents with the Abu Dhabi base originally from Mumbai created an international flavour. A global diaspora representing American, European, Australia, Middle east, Canada, India, Pakistan and Hong Kong, Singapore etc made it a truly multi cultural event with Parsi overtones. 
• The stars of both the destination wedding and Parsi wedding were without a doubt Sherry's Granny and Grandpa both touching nearly 90 years but active and running around constantly interacting with the guests and the excitement and exuberance exhibited by them was very refreshing. 
• Parsi flavour with Sarees and Garas made the events spectacular with photo ops but the gowns ruled the roost too and the mix of British ceremony, Parsi panu and foreign guests made it a confused pot pourrie. 
• The Indian food and British cocktails with Bollywood dancing and Western music created fun, noise and some melody as the events unfolded to midnight. 
• I was an observor to the play of tradition and modernity, mimetic desires and other failings and foibles of the human intellect. But that is how the cookie crumbles these days and the youngsters set the agenda and oldies grin and bear it. 
• The Parsiness and the ceremonial traditions to be done as a side show are the consolation prize for the brief hour or so while they lasted. 
• The special highlight was the cake cutting pleasure accorded to my dear daughter a differerntly abled young adult 
• The monarchy remained objects of curiosity, part reverence but after the Queen certainly the apathy and indifference was slowly but steadily displacing the remaining respect. 
• The iconic sites remained and for Indians of my generation remain objects of general awe. However, they generate a deja vu feeling for all of us fed on Bollywood London homes. 

• Still the London I was impressed by and liked was the suburban localities which were green beautiful almost sylvan but with all modern amenities and reasonable connectivity. 
• Shopping in London was not of much consequence to me especially as I felt prices were a rip off and there was no outstanding quality or originality in the available fare. 
• I never got the feeling that there was much snobbishness or stiff upper lip behaviour which is the way the British were imagined by me. 

• Carpenders park the locality in which we spent our second week after the family wedding was more enchanting and beautiful with the neighbourhood showing more cohesiveness and friendly coexistence. St George Avenue and Watford shopping made our time happy. 
• The ugly face of resentment against immigration symbolised by right wing protests and display of nationalism with union jacks galore was rampant here compared to central London but I think that there was an overt or covert anti Islamic undertone to this protest. As usual the difference between the abstract and the concrete was stark. 

• The trip to Cambridge on a cold windy day was great in terms of sheer history and symbolism of the old colleges blending tradition, history and modernity with sylvan beauty where great minds flourished. The rivalry with Oxford and the jokes around King Charles made for some fun. The punting experience was great too. 

• A special mention for our hosts my niece and her hubby and little daughter who opened their hearts and homes to us. They were perhaps the most gracious hosts and went out of their way to make us comfortable. 
• Travel across London using the overlanders and tube was a highlight of the trip for us from Mumbai unaccustomed to hassle free public transport. 

• My catching with my classmate and friend Satya was a highlight initself of my London trip. A friend and classmate from school, a die hard indian hot headed Bengali nationalist. Post MS we lost touch and the answer to why he did not remain in India had always eluded me. I finally got the answer and realized that Satya loves India to this day but he remains a responsible citizen of London. He is almost the best example of the beneficiary of the liberal British culture which is truly broad minded. His anecdotes and story of his interactions with royalty and so many other things made for a truly memorable nostalgic afternoon meal. Thank you Satya. 
• We also had a lovely visit to the British Museum of Natural History, a magnificent building and repository of displayed knowledge with a blend of past present and future. The displays and the efforts to keep things contemporary and relevant is beyond my wildest imagination. Yet it remains a wonder to me that visitors are really interested in food shops and souvenir shops rather than the exhibits. 

So I end this blog, maybe not so coherant but just a ramble and a few observations which may or may not interest you. In a spirit of sharing and an old title of a talk show on old DD by AFST Talyerkhan "Take it or Leave It" I rest my case. Would love your comments on this rant. 

Vispi Jokhi