Travelogue - Jaspal, and all other things English. Part 1

Well, here’s another travelogue. This one is special in many ways, one because I went back after more than a decade to London, a place extremely precious and close to my heart. My home away from home. The second reason is that it’s the first travelogue for my new blog, and I’m glad I’m writing about London.

Had to go there for 2 nights, 2 days for a meeting. We were booked to be at the Guoman hotel, or fondly referred to as ‘The Tower’ simply coz it’s next door to the Tower bridge. It’s a lovely place, in the east end of London and behind us was the marina with beautiful apartments, a great pub and of course a whole lot of tourist. Within close proximity in the Bank Of England, not far away is St. Pauls and not forgetting bang next door the Tower Of London – all things med evil and all.

So London was emotional, really. Something I feel only when I land in India, but London got to me harder than I anticipated. I wept when I was landing looking at the beautiful fields of England. Even though I was back after such a long time, the moment I landed, I was embraced and made to feel like I had never left. Anyways, out of the airport and unexpectedly I saw my name there – spelt correctly too!! I walked up to the guy and told him that I was the one and that I wasn’t expecting to be met at the airport. A nice elderly man, of clearly Indian origin and a beer belly that qualified him to be 100% English now, said ‘Ah, I don’t know mate. You see I was asked to come and pick hop (yes he means ‘up) a Mr. Dom-ie-nick Al-Maida (that gave it away. He’s Indian all right. Screw the A-l-m-e-i-d-a, it’s Al m-a-i-d-a, like as in the stuff that makes his rotis. In’ it?)”. Anyways, he looked at me and questioned ‘is that you mate or not?’ Yes, yes that’s me – thank you. (Gulp). He picked his mobile phone and pressed a few keys, while waiting for his call to be answered he gave me a look, toe to head. Hhhmm I seemed to be ok I guess. Did he have a daughter / niece / cousin / neighbour that I could potentially suit? Luckily someone answered the phone, my man coughed ‘Kithe ho? Pes-in-jair is arrived, you better get hop here quickly (pause). Your in the parking? Haan bhai, so you come here quickly, I cannot bring the customer to the blooming car park now can I? Ok ok, jaldi come here’. He disconnected the call with a simple forceful push on the phone. I guess he wanted to tell me that he was the boss, I got it, I got it, I got it sir – I thought. He took a step forward and then looked at me ‘Come follow me sir, my man will be here in a few minutes’. Sure I answered. After all, I did want to make a good impression – Don’t even ask me why. We must have waited for just a few minutes, but since this man didn’t want to talk much, it seemed like ages. Finally a young man rushed towards us, my older dude gave him a look, not a word said, but a look. Now I guess the look to the young man was ‘Somebody gonna get hurt real bad. You want me to bring customer to the parking lot? Have you lost it? Salla, bhain-&*)&’. The younger man smiled at me ‘Good evening’, and he offered to take my very small trolley luggage. I looked at the older man ‘thank you’, he got the scoff of his face and just nodded at me. That’s it. I AM NOT WORTHY!! I AM NOT WORTHY!! – eh in my mind only, I assure you I did not do the entire Wayne and Garth maneuver. I followed the young man to the parking lot, he placed my trolley bag in the back and opened the back seat for me. I said ‘ thank you. Eh, is it ok if I sit in the front?’. He closed the back door and smiled very pleasantly – ‘sure, you are the boss, no problem’. I smiled and said ‘thank you’ I put forth my hand and continued ‘Sat sri akal ji, my name is Tagore’. He put forth his hand to shake my hand and beaming he said ‘Hey. Sat sri akal ji. I am Jaspal’. This sardar, continued to shake my hand genuinely – I was back to my second home, I was back in England.

The drive was just fantastic, simply because I was able to do two things at the same time. One was have a good conversation with my man ‘Jaspal’ and secondly I was observing everything that was around me and yes tears were just filling my eyes. Jaspal spoke about how many ‘ponds’ (he meant pounds as in the currency) he paid for this and how much it cost to go back to Delhi every year. We spoke about the ‘Bhangra’ scene, about ‘Desis’ (people from the sub-continent) in the UK, good food, good booze, how he misses India, and of course the cost of living in India these days. Blood-iiee, expensive in’it? Those fellas (in India) have the four-king (keeping it clean on the blog folks) money though eh?’ I thoroughly enjoyed the drive with Jaspal. He represented a lot of the UK I lived in. On the other hand, London really hadn’t changed, still the English rose, she stands there, cool, beautiful and elegant. I was heart broken to see a few ‘glass’ buildings along side the Thames. We got to the hotel, I was greeted by a perhaps eastern European lady at the reception. Checking in was simple and then I went into the lift. Floor 10, wow!! It fell under the ‘deluxe rooms floors’. Nice one I said to myself. I came to my room door, used the electronic card and stepped in, and then… and then..

And then, that was it. I was in. I mean the room was the smallest room I have ever lived in, inclusive of the days when I was a student living in the UK. There was a single bed, against the wall. A small round table with a small chair next to it. There was a LCD screen in one corner – thank God. I looked around to see if I was missing another room. I wasn’t!! Well there was the attached bathroom which was ok sized, build in wardrobes which were nothing special. Is this really a Deluxe room, I wondered. Sigh, I said never mind, as it was late and I was tired. I got my shoes off and before reaching for the remote, curiosity got the better of me, and I wanted to open the curtains. So I did. Oh, My God!!!!!

My room opened out to the river Thames. Right in front of my room was this gigantic structure sticking out in pride as she glowed – the London Tower Bridge. I could count the cars on her. Opposite me, on the other side of the river was ‘the butcher’s wharf’. In between were all the tourist boats on the Thames. Red buses on the roads, flickering sounds and flashbulbs of cameras. The site, the sounds, the cold window panes – yeah this is what I was paying for. Paying to live in the heart of the financial hub of London. Four-king expensive in’ it? As my mate Jaspal would say.

I hit the bed with the TV on timer. The sun light coming into my room and with her, the reflection of the lights on Tower Bridge. Just before I could doze off, something crossed my mind. When I was a student here, I used to frequent this part of London so often and always used to see these people coming into London and staying at these posh hotels, while I used to travel back to the suburbs at night. What sort of people could live here, and what would it must have felt like. That moment, half asleep, I knew the answer to both the questions. Thank you. Amen.

Coming up in Part II – Day 1, includes a trip back to Tooting, then Central London and finally a med evil dinner, while the big footie was on that night. Man U and Chelsea. Yeah Chelsea as in across the bridge from where I am Chelsea.