Travelogue 9 – Urban Decay – Hounslow Style

I had been advised that Post Office is the best option, both by friends and by American Express. In fact, the Amex lady even said, sir, why do you want to pay a charge of about 5% and exchange rate for Traveler’s Checks is usually lower at the airport. Post office is your best bet. God bless her heart! The Lampton post office did not do currency conversion. So, I had to find another post office. I was told of the main post office in Hounslow. Hounslow does not exactly qualify as mini-India, mini-Punjab, mini-Pakistan or anything like that. But it is not uncommon to see Punjabi-dress or saree clad women and to hear an occasional Punjabi sentence with British accent. There also seems to be a lot of urban decay in that area. My walk to the Hounslow Main Post office took me through the neighborhood and back! Shops usurping on the roadway, houses of poor quality, a crowd that would be closer to the south side of Chicago and lots of graffiti on walls. The streets were narrow and footpaths narrower. There was trash on the footpath and many people just loitering around in streets, half-naked and smoking on London’s hottest day this season. Many cars full of teenagers were driving around with blaring music. The post office itself was dirty – waste papers, discarded receipts and dirt adding to the ambience of official ness created by the announcement of “Cashier number n please…,” repeating frequently whenever a cashier was available. I felt a little vulnerable carrying the cash back but that was a necessary conversion.

Travelogue 8 – Her Majesty’s Customs and Sweltering heat in London

After breezing through the immigration at London Heathrow, T4, I picked up my bag and walked through the green channel. Can you step aside sir? Sure. And you are aware that this is the green channel? Yes. I had nothing to hide. But for a sealed packet of microwaveable popcorn. It had some butter and it appears import of Dairy products is prohibited in EU. So that packet was confiscated. As per the rules, I was served a notice and I have one month’s time to appeal against the seizure. Good lord you really have to have my luck to go through something like this!

The day I landed, London was hot. That was the hottest day of the season thus far. 32 C without AC in a wooden building is a lot. The fan did help, but only little bit. As I learnt afterwards, AC (Aey con as they call it) is not a norm in the UK. Fans are more common. They do not need the AC as much and I came to know why the next day. It rained and the temperature dropped to 16 C the next day. Everything cooled down making the need for a fan redundant. That also explained why the terry wool clothing is so common…

Travelogue 7 – On the way back

Waiting at the hotel lobby, a soft-spoken gentleman began talking with me – the normal small talk, where you going and isn’t it cold! It turns out that he is a writer and researching a book on WWII in Moscow. That’s where he was headed. He and a co-author are going to research on the red army and the people in Russia. Two cigarettes later (not me!) I had learnt that his technique was different. He would interview just the common people and learn from them. Unlike a lot of British authors, who rely on archives and gazettes, he found this more suitable. I couldn’t agree more! It appears, he has written a book on some Indian tribe that lived in the Michigan-Ontario area and the oral-history is significantly different from what was known earlier. He was also well-read and was aware of the burgeoning middle-class of India – how the dynamics and economics were changing.

As the luck may have it, our seats were just beside each other, but both of us were trying to catch-up on sleep and couldn’t talk more. I asked for some book recommendations and he did make a list for me! Now, only I have to motivate myself enough to actually read them!

My question about good books resulted in a very long winded answer. At last, he confessed – when you ask a question to an Irish man (his origin), you have to be prepared for a long answer. His father spent time in Burma and China during WWII in the International Red Cross and it was a similar sense of adventure that was now driving him to research this book. He was more interested in the social history of the common man, a sticky point with the publisher, since the publisher wanted him to concentrate only on the red army!

Travelogue 6 – Slow Life in Upper Midwest

Nothing much has changed in the Midwest – the traffic problems, the highway constructions – pretty much the same. Yeah? Yeah betchyaa! Although, I wished I had spent a little more time in Minneapolis downtown and walked in the historic district along the Mississippi.

A trip to the Mall of America

It was mandatory! Only the previous day people said how boring it was to go to the mall. I was told of a new trend; apparently, tourist operators bring people from Paris and London to shop in the Mall of America. People arrive in the afternoon on a Saturday, shop the evening, stay at a hotel that night, shop some more on the Sunday, and return back to work on Monday! Not my idea of fun. And it wasn’t for many people. I was told – don’t even go there, it is just a mall, only imagine a whole lot of it. I should have taken that advice! But, I went their nevertheless and walked around a bit and wondered why did I waste my time? I was so bored over there that I did not even take pictures…

Minnesota in June

I thought since it was almost the end of spring, the weather would be nice. It was for one day. However, the sun soon gave way to clouds and wind. It was so windy that even the blades of grass would sway. The temperature dropped to a cold 57 F and with the wind chill, it felt like 50. I realized what mistake it was to wear shorts and T-Shirt while going to the M of A. I do not want to imagine being caught there in the middle of the winter.

Yoyo championship

The rotunda in the M of A was full of people. And people from the second level were careening over the railing and looking down. Curiosity took over and I also careened over to see what was going on. A bunch of people was sitting on makeshift chairs; a stage was set up and at the other end of the stage a bunch of teenagers waiting for their turn on the stage. The teenager on the stage was swaying a yoyo to the music. My first impression – what a waste! I watched for a few minutes though and realized that only a master can do that. Now if you consider playing a yoyo as waste of time, think again. It was really difficult to do what the teenagers on the stage were doing – making the yoyo dance to the tune of music! You need training to achieve that adroitness! I did not wait to find out who won the competition but it was good entertainment for some time.

Swami Saranam Ayyappa?

With a good percentage of Kerala population in our neighborhood, you often see the Ayyappa-devotees – black lungi, bhasma smeared foreheads, bearded, no shoes and grown hair. The devotees follow some sort of lent in which they worship Ayyappa and follow some rules like daily sermons (bhajan), diet control and celibacy. The lent culminates in a pilgrimage to Sabarimala.

My father had read about this and also about the bountiful nature and freshness of the Sabarimala mountains. Over the years, we befriended the Kerala-Marathi family that lived across the street from ours. In his great Hindi, my father had told the appa once – tumhara ayyappa ko ek baar humko aneka hain (I want to visit Ayyappa once). Appa (as we still fondly call him!) had replied in his equally great Hindi – aao naa, tum ayega to achha hoga (yes, please do come along, it will do you good).

When I came to know about this, I almost had a panic attack. What’s dad been smoking – I remember asking my mother over the phone. But dad did not pay any attention. To see the natural beauty of Sabarimala, he was ready to fast, wear black lungi, smear bhasma and go to bhajans. My mother tells me, it was quite a site. An atheist to the core who has difficulty clapping properly to the tune of aratis was taking part in all this!

Ultimately, my father did complete the trip (I hesitate to use the word pilgrimage here) and enjoyed it too. It intrigued all our Marathi neighbors – who is this Ayyappa? As it turns out, Ayyappa is a progeny of pyromaniac Shankar and transvestite Vishnu. He also turned out to be misogynist. I mean, it is difficult for a child to understand why one has two fathers but for a child it is even more difficult to understand why one of the fathers wears a gaudy make-up and behaves like a mother, when he is not and the other goes setting fires.

And now, you blame Jaymala, a young or rather menstruating woman, for defiling the temple? If Hindu philosphy can accept the existence of Ayyappa, what bad can a lesser mortal like Jaymala do? Really - someone answer that question please.

Travelogue 5 – Lost in Manhattan

Since work has rudely interrupted in the blogging activity, it took me this long to update the Blog. I am still in New York - according to the blog that is - and hope to update more frequently on the remaining travel days. But here it is - how I was lost in Manhattan and still made it back! BTW, it is not uncommon for people to push you aside in Manhattan - a typical Mumbai style dhakka if you are walking slowly!

While coming back from 86th street, I did a trip in two goes – walk down the Central Park up to 70th and Columbia Ave, then take the metro up to Canal Street. From here, I had to walk to the WTC PATH. But the moment I got out at Canal Street, I was confused. There were many different streets going in as many directions – Canal, W Broadway, 6th Avenue and such. It was a confusing maze of streets. Which way to Church Street? I had picked up a cheap map without all the street names (the one that was available for free at the hotel). This did not show all the streets and that added to confusion. I started walking intuitively. When most of the streets crisscross north-south and east-west, finding directions is easy except for Broadway and 6th Avenue which do not conform to this rule. As I start walking, I realize this might not be the right direction. It was confirmed when I saw signs for Holland tunnel…okay, opposite direction. But the streets names are not familiar. Neither were they on map. I still keep walking – Wooster, Greene…I should see Church St by now. But no Church St yet. Okay, turn and change the direction – Laight St, Beach St, but still no Church St. Then all of a sudden, W Broadway and Beach St intersect. The map never said that! Well, do I believe what I see or what was on the map? Ultimately, I gave up and asked at a toy shop and I was led in the right direction. Only later, I realized that W Broadway and Beach Street did intersect but they were not shown on the map because W Broadway and Broadway were two different streets! And all the time I was walking on W Broadway, assuming it was Broadway. Never pick up a free map!