UK trip (3): Leicester flashback

The second city that my husband and I chose to visit for a day was Leicester. The decision was not based from the point of view of sightseeing. Quite a few years back in 2004 my husband had made his first sojourn to UK for doing a Masters of Science in Embedded Systems from University of Leicester. Our being together in UK thereby provided an opportunity to take a trip down memory lane.

24 March saw us finding our way to the New Street station, Birmingham. We had booked our tickets in advance. The train was on time and in less than an hour's ride we were at Leicester. When we came out of the station the sun was greeting us. The weather was glorious and it made our walking expedition enjoyable.

From the Leicester station the University of Leicester was not too far. Opposite to it was the De Montfort University. Along the way we passed by the Victoria Park. Instead of turning inside we went straight ahead to the Main Building. From there we went past the Library to the Engineering Department. We explored the building and we went to see the lab where my husband had spent considerable time for his Masters' project work. Sadly, his supervisor wasn't around and we could not meet him.


Next we had another walk to the Freemen's Common, the university accommodation where my husband had stayed during 2004-2005. We returned to the main campus via the Queen Elisabeth College which is also a part of the university. We followed this by a walk through the Victoria Park to go back towards the station for having lunch. It was nearing 1.20 pm and I was informed that in Leicester restaurants close by 2 pm. I only believed it when I actually saw the scene. Luckily we managed to find one open but were told to hurry up. An instant order of mutton biryani was made which turned out to be such a tasty choice that it was reordered.


Feeling a lot better after eating good food we made our way to the city center. We rested from time to time taking in the scene and talking about my husband's old days in Leicester. We roamed around a lot in a nearby mall. We made a stop over at one place to have coffee. Evening was approaching and we had a train to catch. So again we got onto our feet.

We were quietly walking when suddenly we heard a loud cheering noise coming from a bar. A big screen was showing the last moments of the World Cup Cricket's quarterfinal match between India and Australia. It was touted as a tough one to crack for India and many had predicted an end to our journey ahead. Watching Yuvraj Singh play the last winning shot thrilled us and we joined in the celebrations for some minutes.

There was still enough time remaining for our train's arrival and it was decided to put to use by... walking. I would have complained but I spotted the famous plain red telephone booths associated with UK. I had been looking for them in London but always found them with ads printed. So immediately husband was asked to take my photos with the booth.

That done we went inside the station. Soon we boarded the train and headed back to camp.

UK trip (2): Art work

In the first post in this series I had described my husband's and mine one day trip to London, One of the sights that I thought was very picturesque was the London Tower Bridge which after a long time inspired me to sharpen a pencil and dig out my art book. As a result this is how my day progressed...

(1) I struggled in the morning to even get a decent rough outline. By noon all I had on paper was:

(2) After a good lunch and a chat with my father, I felt energized to begin adding details. I tackled the left side first. By 5 pm this is what I got:

(3) I then treated myself to a much deserved snack and shifted my focus to the right side of the outline. By 6.30 pm I could see some improvement:

(4) I nearly thought of leaving the rest for Sunday but listening to some peppy music changed my mood. Feeling uplifted I again picked up my pencil. By the time I was done it was 8.40 pm.

(5) At the end of the day this is how my sketch compared with the photo on I based it:

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PS: How did you find it? Is there a good resemblance? Did I do well?

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Occasionally I like to “ego surf” on Google. In the process today I came across this link on my school website. It brought back memories when I was in Class IX. One morning it was announced in the assembly that a school production would be staged. It was going to be a Hindi adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Grishm ki madhya ratri ka swapn).

The play was to be helmed by Mr. Alok Chatterjee, belonging to the well-known National School of Drama (NSD). Though I was quite shy in those days I tagged along with friends for the audition. The process for selection was new to me and it felt exciting.

In the first round all the students were asked to form small groups. Then each group had to improvise a skit on a theme allotted to it. At the end of the day students who managed to impress were called for a second round. Each of these students was then asked by the Director to read out from the script the dialogue of a character. Based on this performance a student was selected for a particular role.

I wish I could tell you that I got a plum role. Sadly I can’t. I possibly got what was the smallest of them all. I was to be one of the fairies who come along with the character Puck, the elf. I was upset and all the initial excitement disappeared. I think it was my sister who encouraged me to continue and it turned out wonderfully. No, my role didn’t become any bigger. I did get one whole dialogue assigned later. But like they say sometimes it is about the experience.

The general routine was that every day after school hours all the participants would collect in the school hall. There we would be first served hot lunch. Then practice would start and go on until 4 pm after which special school buses would drop us home.

On the first day we began from the first page of the script. This session and the few to follow were bad. The students had not learnt dialogues since it was all new. As a result the feelings wouldn’t come when you are concentrating on just reading.

I remember the whole atmosphere changed with the arrival of our second hero Demetrius. The student acting out this character came thoroughly prepared. Even though it was going to be his first time practicing he had memorized his dialogues. He brought in a vigor and professionalism. He became the benchmark from there on.

Things had been going well for some days when the bomb exploded. An extra practice session had been arranged on a Saturday following a Parents-Teacher meeting. All but one of the girls playing the lead character of Hermia did not arrive on time. An angry Mr. Alok Chatterjee on the spur of the moment asked someone else, who turned out to be my very good friend Kamakshi, to take over. Half an hour later the student in question reached the hall and was left aghast finding herself replaced. Lots of hot words and tears later peace was restored. But by then the damage had been done. Kamakshi had done splendidly and was there to stay.

The play started taking a better shape after we had a short school break. It seemed all the actors had taken advantage of the holiday to learn their dialogues. So the focus shifted on the movement on stage and adding actions. Simultaneously other departments were doing their jobs. Props were being arranged. Costumes were getting stitched. When there would be nothing to do, we girls would make use of the empty school and play antakshri (singing medley of Hindi film songs) and some would dance all the Madhuri Dixit moves.

Before we knew the dates of the actual performances came knocking. We were going to do four shows in two days – 24th and 25th October, 1994. The first day was to be an evening show. The next day would be a roller-coaster with us staging the play thrice. We all arrived well in advance at the Kamani Auditorium, Delhi. Seeing the big stage and the huge seating capacity sent chills. To top it there were going to be no microphones and we would have to rely on our vocal chords. Everybody was given a chance to test the loudness of their voice. We had people stand in different corners of the theatre to tell us if they could hear us or not. For the first time I was happy that I had only one line to recite. The best thing was that unlike movies the size of the role did not determine the treatment. We were very well taken care of by our school staff.

On 24th October eve among the audience were going to be the participating students’ family members making it all the more important for no mess ups. When the first time people clapped for a scene during the performance it brought smiles to our faces. There was a relief that the play was connecting with the audience. Overall that night I don’t think any mistakes were made. After the whole act was over, all the parents came backstage including mine. I could see their happiness writ over their faces. Mummy was all glowing even for that little part I did and I felt myself swelling with pride.

Our Director however brought us down to earth reminding of what lay ahead the next day. It was to be a real test as the audience was going to consist of school students from classes VI to XII. We knew that there would be no special reprieve in case we faltered. There were a few scary moments. Once one of the characters improvised a dialogue he had forgotten. Only we realized what had happened. I myself suddenly had my throat drying while speaking or was it screeching which Mr. Alok Chatterjee pointed out to me after the performance. But instead of feeling upset I actually felt good hearing that as it made me realize he didn’t consider my part insignificant.

Finally the last bow was taken on the night of 25th October. We were all happy that we sailed through. All those ups and downs had been worth it. Our eyes were dancing with joy, until we were hit by the fact that from now on it would be back to normal life with nothing beyond classes to look forward to.

The sudden pang of emptiness in my stomach made me realize that I had managed to accumulate for myself some priceless memories through this little journey.

(Source of photos: Delhi Public School, Mathura Road. The photos above are pages of the brochure that was printed for the play to be distributed to the audience.)

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PS: Does anyone remember this? Would you like to share any of your such experiences?

UK trip (1): A London Day

A couple of weeks back I returned from a short UK Trip. Base camp was Birmingham where my husband is doing his MBA. Having come all the way from Uppsala, we decided to spend one full day in London. In an ideal situation I would have loved to explore London leisurely. But considering the fact that my vacation was only for eight days and we had other plans as well, dedicating 24 hours to London seemed good in proportion for the moment.

We began the day early by taking a Megabus from Birmingham to London where we were dropped at the Victoria Coach Station. The bus ride took longer than its stipulated time and we reached nearly at 10.00 am. On arriving we walked from the coach station to the nearby London Victoria train station.

Just outside the Tourist Information Center exit stood a Big Bus Tours' City Sightseeing bus, where we bought our Hop On-Hop Off tickets. Interestingly along with that they also sell you fast track entrance tickets for some key attractions like Madame Tussaud's Museum, London Eye, London Sea Aquarium, etc. The advantage for you as a tourist is a direct entrance without having to stand in a long queue for buying the tickets at these places and long queues there are on account of their popularity. This Hop on-Hop off tour covers every sight you can possibly think of. At every stop there were the Big Bus Tours' guides to help. You could buy your fast track tickets with them too.

The first stop where we got off was Madame Tussaud's Museum. When you step out of the lift you are given the red carpet treatment with cameras flashing at you and you feel like a star yourself. Inside there are hundreds of wax works of all possible celebrities.



Among actors the ones I remember were of Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Johny Depp, Daniel Radcliffe, the latest heart throb James Patterson (of the Twilight series), Marylin Monroe, Nicole Kidman, Bruce Willis, Jim Carrey, Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Morgan Freeman and Arnold Schwarzenegger and many more.




There was also a section of Indian film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan.




Then you have the Royal Family. Sadly there was no Princess Diana replica. There were also various political leaders known through history: Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, and John F. Kennedy. A wax work people seemed to enjoy was that of Hitler. Some hailed him and most bashed him. In one part they had modeled the President's Office in the White House with Obama standing. The fun part was me sitting in his chair. My husband's favorite was posing with his idol Michael Jackson. Call it peas in a pod, my best photo came out with Einstein. We were both equally happy to stand next to our master blaster Sachin Tendulkar.



The last leg of the tour was a horror section where you had scary live people, no wax works, come at you. I was totally scared and clutching my husband's arm tightly who in contrast was totally cool. In the end we sat in a London Taxi model toy train and journeyed through London's history and came out smiling.


In all Madame Tussaud's Museum was fun. Only thing is, it was too crowded with everyone wanting to hog stars as if they were real. Despite that I wouldn't mind going there again. It is a place which could cheer anybody up. Even if you don't pose seeing others around you doing all kinds of crazy things can make you smile.

By the time we were done with all the clicking it was nearing 1 pm. But the next bus was standing at the stop and so we got to into it. Since we were in a hurry we gave the close by Sherlok Holmes' Museum, which is located on 221 B Baker Street, the address where the fictional legend lived according to Sir Arthur Conal Doyale, a miss.

Our next stop was Leicester Square. This is one of those places my husband had been to in his first UK experience in 2005. So it was an incredible feeling for us to be there together. Another major attraction that we didn’t enter for lack of time on hands was the National Gallery. I told myself “next trip.” Since it was lunch time our stomachs were rumbling we went to the Chinatown area and ate to our hearts’ content.


We returned back to our stop to Hop On again. This time the route took us past the Big Ben and Westminster Abbey to the London Eye. The London Eye for those who don’t know is a massive Giant Wheel which moves in slow motion. Instead of box seats you have glass cabins which can take in 8-10 people. Its location and height let you have a bird’s eye view of the city.




The only other similar attraction is found in Singapore. It is called the Singapore Flyer. When I had visited Singapore in 2008 for a conference, I had wanted to take a ride on it. But since I was alone and worried about getting sick after stepping into it and not being able to get off I did not attempt to go anywhere near the Singapore Flyer. I was then happy to see it from a distance. But for the London Eye I had no such fears. Having my husband next to me, all I felt was plain excitement.



Anyway the ride is so slow that at no point do you feel giddy. Within 30 min you complete a full circle and its over before you know it. The scenes you get to see are beautiful, particular that of the full stretch of the Thames River with Westminster Abbey and Big Ben.



Right at the London Eye is a pier from where you can take a river cruise. We got a free river cruise ride with our Big Bus Tour ticket which we were allowed to board or disembark at the Westminster Pier, Tower Pier or Waterloo Pier. As we wanted to next head to the Tower Bridge we decided to cruise our way to it. The boat ride was about 20 min. We passed many sights on the way, which were pointed to us by the guide. I was disappointed by the London Bridge. For all its fame thanks to the nursery rhyme it was nothing to boast about.



I thought the London Tower Bridge was quite pretty. It is not a modern bridge and so not all steel. But for me it was still a pleasing sight. If the Tower Bridge was a person I would describe him/her as cute and sweet or cutely sweet or sweetly cute. We spent some time in its vicinity when we recalled that the bus driver had told us that the last sightseeing Big Bus would depart at 5 o’ clock. It took us some minutes to figure out where the stop was, so by the time we discovered it the clock hands had moved beyond five. There were some other tourists standing as well which was a comforting sight. We were just beginning to have some misgivings when soon enough we found one bus coming.

Once again the guide in the bus was very friendly. He asked everybody where they would prefer to be dropped off as this was the last bus because from there on the tourists would be on their own. I got excited in between when he announced that one of the stops was Buckingham Palace. I thought I will be able to see it while still on board. But sadly the rule doesn’t allow vehicles to go in front on the Palace. Anyone wanting to see it would have to get off a distance away and then walk towards it. So another sight was marked to be seen on the next occasion whenever “next” would be.

We reached London Victoria train station around 6 pm from where we made our way to the Coach Station Departures. We still had a lot of time to kill as our return bus was at 9 pm only. So we relaxed there for a bit, then went on a stroll outside and ended with a Fish and Chips dinner.

On our journey back to Birmingham I thought that the reason we could accomplish the many things we wanted to was because of the Big Bus Tours’ efficiency. I would definitely recommend them for those wanting to do sightseeing in London especially for the manner in which they took care of the tourists riding with them. They were courteous and ready to give directions.

Personally I would want to visit some of these sights again in evening time. I am sure the London Eye, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben would look more grand when all lit up. If I had a lighter schedule I would have liked to walk over the Tower Bridge, spend hours at the National Gallery, see the Changing of the Guard Ceremony and take the Harry Potter Film Locations Walk revealing the seven London locations which have featured in the Harry Potter Films. The latter two are provided free with the Big Bus Tour ticket.

Even with a few things left undone, I will still say that in all it was a great London Day.