The Autorickshaw effect !

Alert readers would remember that a while back I had commented about how to get even with the infamous Madras Autorickshaws . Needing to get to a place where there was unfortunately no MRTS connection I decided that it was time to haggle. Now themadrasi of 3 years since that post is a little more mellow, portly stout chap who beats the heat typically in a cotton shirt and 3/4th of a pant left specifically in the old homestead for precisely the purpose of use in such hot weather. The auction for the contract was unspectacular . Going to Adyar signal - sir, 60 rupees - illai 50 rupees . ok let's go. Having conducted the business I needed to , I needed to find my mobile and then discovered that it was missing. Now losing a mobile phone is a bit of a pain especially as you don't know how many numbers you end up losing. There is ofcourse the spectacular crash in the brownie points index with the wife and the sheer pain of having to try and retrieve the phone number of every person you knew using other means of communication. No this ain't a smart phone that can sync contacts etc. !

Muttering curses to self for being so careless I decided to hunt this down in a systematic and organized manner. First established the fact that the missing mobile phone hadn't accidentally been left at home. Past performance has suggested such a behavior and it was time to nip this rumour in the bud. So, it wasn't at home and the mother based on descriptions of the autorickshaw driver named a name and it was time to go back and try and see if I could find Muthu at the auto stand near home. Thanks to Kutty the other auto-rickshaw driver at the stand, I managed to track down the elusive Muthu and I gratefully received the phone from him. This has been an eventful trip so far and not short of fun, but Muthu and Kutty today managed to restore some faith in the old creed of Autorickshaw drivers. We still agree to disagree on "meter"ing issues .

Themadrasi - 0 Autorickshaws - 10000

Stop Snowing ...

Watching the snow come down over the past 2 days in the UK has left me with conflicting emotions. It's been the maximum amount of snow in the last 18 years in London and the parts of the UK that I am now in . I thought originally that walking in the snow would be more fun than walking in the rain but have quickly concluded that atleast in the UK walking in the snow isn't that much fun.

The temperatures aren't too much below zero, hence snow keeps melting and refreezing as ice . The other thing is the high humidity and the threat of rain that makes things even worse by converting roads into cesspools of slush , grime covered by thin layers of ice.

Other than the climatic consideration above, the pain also seems to be inhaling snow flakes, having them fall into your eyes while walking. One does read about concepts of reflection of light and so on, but you can actually see how the place really gets lit up with the streetlights and the snow - The whole city seems alight and the light effects are quite awesome.

Of funny signposts.

So when John Wright in Indian Summers mentioned funny roadsigns along rural India , I was loath to believe some of them (or believed they were on their way out) until I saw a couple of them on the long winding East Coast Road from Madras to Pondicherry. The 2 signs that I was referring to above read something like

"Atoms for Prosperity" and "Fast Reactors for prosperity - Bharani" .

If a government organization can dish out such heavy stuff , private enterprise will (what's that word ?) better it in orders of magnitude and efficiency.

After a point I realized we had crossed Kalpakkam on the East Coast Road from Madras to Pondicherry and that's one of the towns that hosts nuclear powered plants in India. Not soon after I happened to see a sign post proclaiming Wooster Nagar in Pudupattinam (new town), (a new settlement on the East Coast Road ) , a testament to the spreading reach of Wodehouse in the south of India .

Airports and what not ...

So travelling from Leicester to Heathrow by cab was an interesting task. One got hold of a cab and then slept all the way in . The motorways here (see I am now blogging like a Brit ! ) are quite unlike the kinds back home. Lots of information about whats wrong with the junctions, tom-toms away lane systems and speed limits. I certainly don't think I'll be driving here very soon . Its going to be darned painful to follow the rules and unlearn all the Indianisms from one's driving habits which will be rather painful .

Thankfully the security lines at Terminal 3 were very peaceful - not too much to wait and just walked through without even a frisk though one had to remove his belt, shoes put his laptop through X ray machines and what not. However given all the hype about long lines today was rather peaceful and one got in ok. It was then time to pull out the credit card and put it to merry swiping use.

Cricket where art thou ?

In a cab from Queen Square to Welshback , I heard sound of bat on ball , a comment from David Gower and then realized that finally someone in this country was also following Englands progress in New Zealand. So, finally one gets to hear cricket in this country. Its amazing that everyone wants to know about how much cricket is followed back home in India and expects automatically that as an Indian I would be as fanatical about cricket. This certainly is the place for cricket and looks as though I shall come back sometime to play cricket in the English Summer.

Now thats something to look forward to ain't it.

A tour of Bristol

Its just a 2 week trip to attend a formality of an interview, which I've cleared now and figure out about housing in the UK and moving over to the UK. Its been a great trip over and jumping right from 30 deg. in Bombay to 3 deg in Bristol was like jumping from the oven into the freezer . As is the standard warning from everyone - cover yourself in layers, keep warm, eat good food, don't take any pangas and have fun !

So Monday came bright and shining at 7 deg C which was said to be brilliant weather and I was thinking hmmmm .. If this is the best, what can be the worst. The cold is fine and can be tolerated pretty much everything is heated and kept warm but then the wind chill kills you. I've been walking around a lot the last few days meeting up with my good ol' mate RVK as well as figuring out things about England. Its been good long walks and I must have walked more in this whole week than I would have done in India being the lazy bum that I am. So I wondered if today would be the same, nice sunny and maybe I can walk around and sit with my laptop on College Green off Park Lane and use the free wifi. Pretty much all of Park Street free wifi and I wanted to sit a bit in the sun. Alas, that was not to happen since it started coming down and down and down and down . A bit boring one might say but that didn't deter me from walking to Broadsmead (a big mall) and buying myself a thick jacket 3 books and some dvds of Yes Minister and Yes Prime minister. After that it was time to open up viks tomato chutney, put it on some bread and eat it enjoying re-runs of the dvds I'd bought.

More I think will be later since I am tiured.

My top 4 places to visit and reasons.

Well if I had the time these would a few of the places that I'd love to visit and spend time on the list.

1. The top one would be the Iguazu falls on the Iguazu river in Argentina and Brazil. Its amazing and apparently has 275 waterfalls in 2.7 km. Would be a photographer's delight.

2. Ladakh in the North of India . After seeing some shots in the movie Lakshya especially where they do a mountain climbing stunt this is one place that I shall visit sooner rather than later.

3. Darjeeling, Nathula, Gangtok, Kalimpong and the entire North East. For sheer virgin forests, breathtaking beauty (in the literal sense at Nathula) the wonderful Himalayas.
This is another place that has to be visited during my existence on planet earth.

4. Wrykyn (for Mike), Blandings Castle (for the Empress, Ms. Haliday and ) , Ickenham (for the Lord) , Brinkley Court (for Aunt Dahlia) , The Drones Club (Dover Street London), Market Snodsbury Grammar School (for Bertie and Fink-Nottle) , New York and the offices of Cosy Moments (for Psmith) .