Dog Poop

I went out for a walk today in the evening. Outside one house right on the street was some dog poop, probably a day old. Next to it, the owner of the house had pasted this huge A4 size white paper on which was written

“ Not only is it disgusting but it is a criminal offence to leave your pets poop on the street. Come back and clean it.”

Haah!

The importance of speaking nicely!

Of late I have realized how important it is to speak nicely to people around you. Specially if they are important in your life. You might do all the right things but by speaking in an incorrect manner that might be too harsh, too aggressive you just take it all away.

I wonder why the way you speak makes all the diffrence in the world. I cannot find an answer. Maybe it is just me -I have been raised that way. I remember being scolded if I ever spoke rudely to anyone. I have realized through my interaction with others that I am not alone. No one likes to be spoken rudely but unfortunately people don’t think twice before being rude.

When you say/ do something bad to a person, he or she will take a long time to forget it. Really long time. Maybe he or she will never forget it. As they say, it is easier to forget something nice someone has done to you than it is to forget something bad said / done.

My mum speaks to me with too much of love in her voice. She showers love on me and sometimes, now specialy when I think of how nicely she ALWAYS speaks to me I just feel such a huge lump in my throat. I never realized that all people are not that way. I miss mum terribly. And I miss her solely because of how much she used to love me. It does not, at times, makes sense to me to be so far away from her.
I miss the last one year at home. I had a great job that was paying me really well for little or no work. I had great friends at office who were absolutely wonderful and I had mum and dad. I guess it is just one of those days…I cant stop thinking about my Mum. I would give anything to be with her right now. …………..

Best Friends

I don’t know if any of the readers from when I first started to blog 5 years ago are around. But if you are, you might remember my best friend N, I used to talk about.
N and I have known each other since we were in class 1 and have been best friends since class 5. We were together till class 12 after which I went to do an engg degree and she went to get a degree in fashion. However, I was still at home so whenever she would come back to meet her folks I would be right there. After that she left the country and moved to a place called Preston in the UK.

I then moved out of my city to do an MBA, however we still kept meeting as she would come home for diwali holi types when I would also be home.
Now I am in London and guess where N has been for the last 3 years???

LONDON!!!

And what is like super cool is that she lives twenty minutes from house by the tube!
So after 8 long years my best friend and I are together in the same city! And what a blessing that has been.

I absolutely do not know what I would have done here without N around. She is free on Mondays and Tuesdays which is when S is busy with office, so they have become ‘our’ days.

Mondays:
She comes home. I cook lunch for us. We talk for like 3-4 hours.

Tuesdays:
We meet at some station. And she takes me to some place she thinks I would like to see.

So the first Tuesday N & I went to Oxford street to do some all important shopping. Today N took me to a place called Covent Garden and Neal street. And, Oh my gawd!

That place is just so pretty. The cobbled streets and the tiny little shops that have so much of heart! I saw joke shops with the silliest stupidest things for sale. I saw shops with low white ceilings that looked like attics. There were shops where everything was pink and silver. There were people performing on the streets. There was an eating joint where entire meals were desserts. I checked out big stores and small little shops. I saw junk stores. It was just such a nice pleasant evening.
We walked for like 4-5 hours. We just kept on walking and talking. It is so funny with old friends. You might have spent the last decade on different continents but when you meet you meet like you were together yesterday.

We then walked to Trafalgar square. Clicked some mad pics. Walked some more. Lunched together. Laughed hysterically at crazy things. Did not know how time passed.
And as I sat on my bus home (was doing this on my own for the first time )I realized one very important thing. It is wonderful to spend time with your husband. Mine is a lot of fun to be around and pampers me with all the shopping and the eating out. That’s great but what is equally great and I must say equally important is girl time. You need to have girl friends you can hang out with. Laugh like crazy with. Spend hours with without yawing.

I don’t have a job right now. There are some interviews lined up for next week. I am more than grateful to have that opportunity given the situation in the UK right now.

But I am so glad I can spend time like this right now. I do not remember when I felt so free last.

My Mum says N is one of the very very very few people who make me genuinely happy.
I have known N for 19 years. I am 25 years old. Enough said.

To best friends.

R

River Thames.

Rives Thames flows right next to my house. In the last one week I have been in London, the one thing I have absolutely totally and completely fallen in love with is the Thames.

Our drawing room has wall sized windows looking into the river and I have started spending a lot of my time when S is not at home right next to the them.
The weather of London is as fickle as a loose minded girl. It changes in like a split second and trust me I am not exxageerating at all! Sitting by the window, in the comfort of my bright yellow razai, with the room heating on, I enjoy looking at whatever the weather has to offer. Rain. Snow. Winds. bright sunshine. Weak sun.

I can see a row of houses on the other side of the river lined a safe distance from it. If I crane my neck a little bit I can also see the big huge office buildings on the other end. Most importantly, however, I keep seeing people running on the banks.

I love that. I do not feel lonely, I keep doing my work and when ever I feel a little bored of what I am doing I peep out to see what the joggers are upto. They are quite a mad lot. You will see joggers/ runners in shorts when the temperature is a good -2 degrees and its snowing!

Some times young mothers get their kids in strollers and walk by the river. That’s a pleasant sight. At times giggly girls walk hand in hand. Sometime there is an artist who sits by the river with his canvas captivated by the river and the beauty that it offers.

Then there are the cyclists! In bright green or oarange. London is sparsely populated. Coming from the country I come from where there are more people than there is space, the river bank and the people that keep coming to run/ jog/ stroll make me miss the hustle and bustle of home a lot less.

The PhD application process

Okay, so I have applied for PhD in marketing. I submitted the application on 8th of January early morning, 3-4 hours before I was to leave home for the airport to catch my flight to London.

I had been working on the application almost ever since I left B-school which was March last year. I studied for and gave GMAT & TOEFl. Got a 740/800 and 115/120 in respectively. I only know how I managed to do all that along with a new job, the wedding preparations and the actual wedding. So with the exams done, the next step was to attack the application essays.

There were two. One was a ‘why PhD’ essay and the other was a thesis proposal. I spent a lot of time I had free in office to do research work for the latter. I would discuss the same with other Management trainees as well.

I was done with the first essay long back. However though I felt it was okay, there was indeed something missing. So, on 8th ( the last day of submission when I was staying with my in laws) I found a friend’s friend who was very good at reviewing essays and had offered to help me. He totally did not like my first essay but was thankfully happy with my second (which was more crucial as coming up with a new topic for PhD thesis in a couple of hours would have been next to impossible).

That day was quite mad. S was coming back from a 4 day official trip, we had to go pick him up and then do a lot of last minute packing, submit my essays and then get on the flight to London!

To start with it took us some 5 hours to go pick up S from the airport. A flat tyre on the fly over, and hyper congested roads were two big reasons why this happened. I came back to work on my essay. However, thankfully, I had to replace the whole thing and did not need to rewrite anything per se.

By 1 or maybe one thirty, I was done with my essay. I sent it to my friend who reviewed the whole thing and then we mailed it.

It has been a long process just applying for the PhD. I have just applied for one school. It is the best that can be offered here. I do not know if I am any good compared to the rest of the junta from round the globe who will also apply but I know I have worked hard on this.

More importantly this was one thing that kept me sane and quite and peaceful during the last 8-9 months when so much was happening in my life. Wish me luck , people. Getting an interview call alone would be big enough for me.

I will not know anything before March so for the time being it is all quiet and I am enjoying the ups and downs of domestic life.

Love

RP

London Fashion

The problem is that if you are new to London, no matter how (Sensibly) fashion conscious you have been in india, you WILL look out of place. Anyone with the littlest of brains can have one look at you and figure out that you are new to this place. Its ok to stand out if are looking ten times better than the rest of the junta, but not the coolest to stand out because you look like a misfit.

However, as I realized yesterday, just a little bit of sensible shopping can help you out here. That was the main reason why I went shopping yesterday. I got myself a pair of boots. That is like absolutely essential. Even grandmothers wear boots. The babes were I guess born in them, carrying a couple more in their baby hands!

Another essential item is a pair of woolen tights. That is like super essesntial here for the dresses and all. It is surprising how just a little bit of shopping can help you fit in so easily.

Everything is 50% off right now. I don’t think shop owners have an option- its so bad. Iike bathroom fittings are 50% off, clothes are 50% off and hand cream is 50% off. I find most items expensive at 50% rates, so I don’t really know how I will feel about shopping once the sale is off and all the stuff is back to the normal super expensive rates. Sigh!

Okay, women in London are very well dressed. By very I mean like VERY. Most of them are so perfectly turned out that if it weren’t rude I would just stare at them. May be it is the shadi effect but I just realized that I have not really paid any attention to how good/ bad the men look! Anyways, so the women and the girls have perfect make up, the dresses are absolutely drop dead gorgeous….

And most of them are just so so so tall! Trust me I saw a girl a few days back who was atleat 7 feet! She just would not end! And she looked just like those women they show on high fashion TV!

Anyways, I guess I have a lot to learn in terms of everything…..sometimes I feel glad I don’t have work right now. There is just so much to take in.

Love
RP

Realization

So it almost brought me to tears yesterday. In all the enthusiasm of being at home alone for the first time I had made a huge list of things to including emptying 2 suitcases, settling my cupboard, cleaning the entire house, cooking lunch for a friend who was coming over and cooking dinner for S’s friend.

I had been on my feet for some 12 hours straight when I first got a chance to sit down. I was just so absolutely dead tired. I took a breather and as I sat down with some dirty utensils in my hand, my thoughts went back to ma and how so many times she had done so many things for us without even letting us know how tired she must have been. And how no one realises it.

So, though I will never muster up I don’t know what to go upto her and tell her this, I would like her to know that now I can understand how much work she has been doing for us over the years. And, though it is quite late, I want to thank her in my head.

Thank you Ma.

RP

Day One in London

Okay, so after working for one month post my wedding and spending one very nice week with my in laws, I reached London on the 8th of January, 2009. Highlights

1.I got an upgrade to Business (Delhi to Dubai) and I hated taking it up as S did not get one.

2.We went walking yesterday when it was snowing like crazy. S showed me all the places I would know of from our phone conversations.

3.We lost our marriage certificate!

4.Hopefully some mahaan atma will find it and post it or something.

5.I made daal yesterday!

6.It is so so so so so cold.

7.I am now the proud owner of an oyster card!!!!

8.We did some grocery shopping yesterday, walked for like 2-3 hours and crashed dead at 8!

9.London is just so pretty and S tells me it looks prettier in the summers. Cant wait for March then!

Till THEN.

RP