Namaste London

First weekend in the city. Glorious day; bright, warm, sunny. Will go and check out the various summer sales going on in the city. Only hitch - short on cash before the first stipend payment. But hey, window shopping doesn't cost a penny! And since I've got the monthly travel card made, travel is also free. So, wait there London city, me cometh.

***

First day in office, day filled with form-filling and other stuff. The highlight of the day was the walking tour we had around the office with an official walking tour guide. As the gentleman said - "Every stone has some history in London." Starting with the Roman era, to the great fire of 1666, to the Victorian times - the city is filled with relics and monuments. Of course, we Indians do have lot deeper historical roots, but one has to appreciate the way the Western World preserves its past. Makes me sad to think about all the history spread all over India, ruining & dying slow death.

By the way, death does have some part to play in the history of London. All big monuments are either churches, with big grave yards (tombstones are still there, though all the bodies were exhumed and taken out of the city sometime in 1800's) or have someone important murdered there, after elaborate torture, of course. We saw a square where William Wallace, aka Braveheart, was executed.

[..]On 22 August 1305, following the trial, Wallace was taken from the hall, stripped naked and dragged through the city at the heels of a horse to Smithfield Market. He was hanged, drawn and quartered — strangled by hanging but released while still alive, emasculated, eviscerated and his bowels burnt before him, beheaded, then cut into four parts — at the Elms in Smithfield. His preserved head was placed on a pike atop London Bridge. It was later joined by the heads of his brother, John, and Simon Fraser. His limbs were displayed, separately, in Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling, and Aberdeen.

Who the hell used to come up with all that. Yikes! And yeah, the guide told us the executions there were still carried out even after London got the tube in 1860s. So you could actually come using the tube to see an execution. Beat that!

***

First day at the desk - mostly easy. Some stuff to be read and understood. Met almost the entire team. Had lunch at Subway with the two analysts from IIT Delhi. Left early. My manager was not in. London accounts for almost 50% of credit derivatives volume in the world and the volume runs in billion $; sitting on the floor where millions are made and lost was some thrill. Still don't understand many things, but surely this stuff ain't no rocket science!

Eventually got to meet my manager on the next day. Pretty busy and pretty aggressive guy. Heard he joined here after working in Chicago for quite some time. No wonder he is all full of the typical american aggression. Check out the meeting we had recently (all in good humor, mind you. Not really menacing)

Manager: We seriously are f**king around here. What happened to the slide I asked you to do?
Subordinate: Oh yeah. I know I was supposed to do it, but I guess it got lost in the process.
Manager: Yeah. In your world its "lost in process", in my world its called "f**king around!" See basically you f**k around because I am basically a nice guy.

Only if I could get a penny everytime he says f**k, my cash crunch will be solved for a very long time. Almost the entire desk works pretty hard and leaving before 7-8 is kind of stuff hallucinations are made of. Around me, I keep hearing lots of different languages, seeing lots of different colored people. The office is quite cosmopolitan and location wise its in the downtown London, sitting pretty just opposite the London Stock Exchange.

***

The place we (six of us: 3 from IIMC, 2 from A and 1 from B) are staying in is pretty cool too! Full of interesting restaurants (Indian, Chinese, Lebanese, Malaysian, blah blah) and shops, its considered among the better residential areas in London. We of course are staying in the company provided service apartments. The room, although a bit on the smaller side, is sufficient and quite comfortable. Usually I take a 15 minute ride in the tube to reach the office. The morning rush is nothing compared to the rush in Mumbai locals or even Kolkata metro.

So there, the routine is almost set and life is good.

Lasting impressions

My wing at IITB - The Outlaws. The name painted on the wall and the Name-room no.s on left are no longer there.
L-to-R: Me, Dasa, Jha saab, Mamu, Rizvi & Saras

This year it'll be four years since I graduated from IIT Bombay. Time flies. I realized this when I visited the campus back, couple of days back when I was visiting Mumbai to board the flight to London. It was great to have old friends, Nandu & DRS, with me. Torrents of memories rushed back, overwhelming me. Things have changed there, but not much, thankfully.

Bikes are obviously banned inside the campus now and I'm sure people aren't missing them much. I spent my entire 4 years without a bike (I once bought an old bicycle from an auction, but I used that very sparsly during her brief stay of about 2 months in my company) and if anything, it makes you enjoy the long walks. My department's (Comp. Sc & Engg.) old building is now abandoned, due to bad design. It was definitely "different", it boasted of design such that no two walls in the entire building were parallel. I'm sure not what exactly was the problem, but even during our times it had developed couple of cracks. Anyway, the department has now moved to the soulless KReSIT building. They have improved the tennis court; new ones look very sleek and posh, quite an improvement over the old ones. I saw some new shops in the Gulmohar building too.

What made me most happy was the visit to my old room. Hostel 9, room 224. I spent about two and a half years in that room. And it hadn't changed much.

H9-224. Home.
The murals are still preserved by the current resident

The hostel was almost the same too, barring the mess which was Hafeez-Contractor-ized after renovation; but I'm sure even Hafeez can't do much about the "mess" they serve in there! There was a swanky billboard outside the hostel, welcoming people to "Hostel Nine - Pluto." Neat.

Coming back to room, I gathered my guts and knocked the door. The room now belongs to a PhD candidate; I was shocked when he commented - "Oh! So you came to check out the old room. May be the old graffiti." And there it was! My wall. THE wall. Amazing sight! During my days in the room, I had made couple of figures on the wall. I was totally touched watching them still there. The same Popeye & Flintstone smiling back. The present resident told me that he loved them there and made sure that when they paint the walls they don't paint over them. Thank you my friend! Though they painted over the wing's name (Outlaws), but atleast the room still has my impressions.