Monday, May 30, 2005

traveling through Heathrow

i hate flying out through heathrow... there is something viscerally difficult about the entire experience..

maybe i am genet'ically gifted to be clumsy, or maybe i am plain intimidated, but my ability to navigate myself through a complex e-ticket, to get myself into a plane and onto parts beyond seems to be a superhuman task...

the problem starts while booking- i tend to book myself onto a flight at say 1830, and that is the start of my nightmares...

come the day of travel, and i know i should ahve carried that damn bag to work and then taken off from work to the airport, but i have forgotten, henc ehave to go back to home, pack, panic, repack, and see that i have just 1 1/2 hrs for the flight to take off, and i am still at home...

then comes the panic part- i cannot make it by train, or by taxi, because the only way i can be in time for the flight is if i fly myself to heathrow (atleast until means of "teleportation" or whatever flash gordon used to call it is invented)

so, with my heart pounding away at 120, and my blood filled more with adrenaline than corpuscles, i reach the desk about 15 mintues before the flight leaves...

the lady smiles very politely and tells me the gate is closed- it does not matter that i have flown with them zillions of times, and i am being exceedingly polite and saying that it is all my fault...

and then, there was this one time when i woke up really early, got to heathrow well on time for the flight, and then found that i was sitting outside the wrong gate, and apparently missed all their "last and final call for Mr...." summons..
you absolutely have to hear about this one- i landed up for the flight at 10 30 in the night, but found that the flight had left , obviously, without me, at 10 30 in the morning...
the sum and total of all this is, i hate traveling to heathrow and out of heathrow...

an indian in england

hmm, my first blog attempt...

this blog is intended to be a spot for indians to muse about their experiences of britain... please point me in the direction of anything that resembles what i am looking for, and of course, it is your blog, please comment on it as well...

have started rather ambitiously- adopting the title of "an indian in london"- not sure if i have the credentials, but here goes...

what would be the tracks i would take, if i wanted to muse about my experiences?

weather, i suppose would be a favourite, afterall, it is to most londoners.. (the most seen/heard program that gets it wrong almost all the time i)

The one thing i have learnt to appreciate is the value of the sun, i suppose- having come from country where one is used to continually overdosing on the sun, to be in a country where the sun is really hidden, and hidden very well most of the time- starting from really dismal january and february- where the one continual impression is darkness and more darkness, to summers that are "heatwaves" at 25 Celsius, and the most popular car on the road is a convertible, and one's idea of "cool" is to be driving around in really cold air with the hood of your M3 down... ( ever felt the air rush past you at 15 celsius? it can be very cold) with a pair of dark glasses that are not really required...

i guess i have become more british that way, i have started to crave for the sun now... ( i hear that the happiness of peoples is more a function of the amount of sun they can soak in, not the economic wealth they own- hey now i refuse to believe that- why am i here then???)

so that concludes my rant#1 on weather....

let me talk about something else- English....

i think the biggest thing England has going for it is English- imagine, you have invented the means of communication the world uses... and believe me, the british are past masters at using and managing english- from the subtle nuances where you dont even realise that you are being chastisised but you very clearly are, to the "oh so polite" but very clearly evident ticking offs, to the satire and the sarcasm- i marvel in the english's use of english. Every day, it is a delight to read the papers, be it the broad sheets, or the phenomenal titles in the sun, be it the left media or the right media, be it the comments on the FT or the rants on the "news of the world"...

the other thing i am increasingly learning to appreciate is the way the language can be used to achieve what you want.. if there is one thing i want to take away from britain, it would be an ability to use the language the way the english use them.,.

well, that was a start, wasnt it? now, i am waiting to find if there are more of you folks out there that want to comment on this...