Look – ‘London’ from our eyes! by Siddharth Paramhans

15, Dec 2015, Tuesday, London, 3^rd Day

Time to explore! It was our first visit to London, so instead of touching all tourist spots, we decided to visit a few but see them differently.

Buckingham palace 

London was fairly cold in December (around Christmas), occasional drizzles of rain added to the winter chill. One closely observes local people and sees how they are well dressed for the winter seasons with proper woollen clothing, jackets, long coats and gears like mufflers, caps, umbrella etc. It’s not the weather which impacts your experience, its inadequate clothing or personal gear that may impact it. So being well prepared for the weather is a good strategy.

At Canary Wharf

We left home early in the morning to catch the DLR line to Canary Wharf Estate.  Canary Wharf is one of the most prominent business hubs in London & is also the financial power house at London. You can easily spend hours shopping around the business centre, spending time near eating joints and walking around the huge glass and concrete buildings housing financial powerhouses, and gaping at their architecture and scale.

At Canary Wharf

Our next spot was BIGBEN. Bigben stands near the Westminster Bridge, on the banks of river Thames. Thames river flows though the centre of London and is a key attraction for tourists. The water does not seem very clean, however, it’s a well managed river with concrete structure banks on both side. Thames is used as a channel for public transportation and high speed motor boats or ferries are common sight. You can see one of the oldest structures of London, the Big Ben on other side of river. 

The Bigben is not open for tourists so the marvel of its structure can only be witnessed from the outside, and heard through a loud knell ringing from a bell at the beginning of every hour. Such an intricate structure, and beautifully maintained – one can’t help pondering about London’s rich cultural legacy.

BigBen

British Parliament Entrance

From BigBen we moved to UK’s Parliament, which is physically adjacent to it. We were cordially guided by the Parliament guards and felt lucky to get entry into the ‘House of Commons’. Here, we were sat in the visitor’s gallery, overseeing a debate in progress live in House of Commons where senior leaders engaged in a very lively yet respectful discussion on environment issues and initiatives to reduce Carbon footprints in England. It was a unique experience to be in London and see how the parliament functioned – the leaders of the government sat on green benches on one side facing the opposition benches on the other. Secretary of food and environment, Elizabeth Truss was presenting government side in a very cordial environment. Indeed we have a lot to learn from them. 

Sarang with Gandhiji statue

10-Downing Street

Just outside park there are large bronze statues of great leaders like Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela. From here we walked through to ‘10-Downing Street’ which is the residence of British prime minister David Cameron. His residential campus was heavily guarded but was cool few minutes away was the old entrance of Buckingham palace where there are very well dressed British Guards and their horses

 

Little distance ahead was Trafalgar Square a lovely sight we four of us spent some cool time chilling in cool weather. Locals believe that here you can wish, through a coin and your wish will be met.

Trafalgar Square

Our next destination was London Tower Bridge, since it was at distance we took a Red Colour double decker bus to London Bridge. Surprisingly, we were the only Four of us in the bus as entire bus was empty, this was a privilege we felt. Bus conductor David was so gentle, he continuously kept us briefing about the history of these busses in London and details of the places that we were passing through.

With David in Lodon's Red Heritage Bus

He mentioned that this bus is a among the 4 heritage buses left in city, now a days beautiful glass plated busses are plying which are more efficient. We moved through the old narrow markets and crowded Strand-street a busy commercial street.  Bus was very slowly moving in crowd, little while David informed arriving to our destination ‘Tower of London’. We wanted to see Kohinoor Diamond, but were disappointed as  we were late and could not go inside forte, so roamed around and decided for next time...

The Shard in Night

London Taxi's

 

View at the night of The Shard was marvellous, this is the tallest building in London with most premium restaurants on the TOP. After roaming for some time around we had our dinner at Waga mama, Japanese restaurant and then returned to our apartment by traditional London black taxi cab.

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16, Dec 2015, Wednesday, London, 4^th Day

London is just amazing! Deeper you explore more you find this. It’s one of the most disciplined, cultured and very well organized city that I come across. On road you find everything in order, traffic is very disciplined, no one violates traffic rules, cars run keeping adequate distance, and rarely traffic jams on road what a great governance. There are Camera’s put on road all around and everyone is under scanner, our taxi driver was sharing that there is very high cost if you dare to violate any rules with hefty fine, thus no one dare to violate rules on road.

Miles End Bus Stop

We took bus no. 205 from Miles End to reach Madame Tussads wax museum, in order to explore city, we decided to take the front seat on the upper deck of the bus to have good visibility since it was one-hour drive and opportunity to see London in detail. Saw how London is well organized and how the city care for it’s people. Like any other urban city there were construction on road was happening – they will first encircle effectively every part, would put diversion signals and repair the patch meticulously as one does at their own house. They were looking that there is no inconvenience of public. if London is so organised, it’s because they have evolved very good processes, systems and control which they never violate them.

You will find cycle stand after every two km for convenience of general public, cycle tracks are created on road to encourage cycle uses. We could see many streets, commercial buildings, Indian restaurants of different countries including India.

London Civic Amenities

After an eventful journey and photo-op we reached to Madame Tussad wax museum, this was created by Madame Tussads who was a great socialite, artist and sculpturist. It was interesting to see that at the entrance only we have wax statues of Amitabh Bacchan, Shahrukh, Salman, Madhuri, Ashwarya and Katrina. I observed that though they (was statues) represent the Bollywood yet they are not as good as other English & Hollywood actors like Tom Cruise, Benadich, Bradpitt, Julia Roberts. The museum is well organised where you find artists, scientists like Grahemwell, IsacNewton, Stephen Hawkins, Einstein etc. There were famous sports personalities like Sachin, Lara, Beckham etc. Politicians like Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Nelson Mandela, Cameron, Obama and others.

Madame Tussads Museum 

Most beautiful statue that I saw was of Lady Diana and all other members of Royal family along with queen Elizabeth. It was a wonderful experience and opportunity to have photographs with them together with our family, we will cherish these memories in life, we were also invited for a 4D show, a star war, something very different, which had good 3D images, really thrilling but also throwing some water and splash, that was something I saw first time.

With Royals at Madame Tussads

After having great experience at Madame Tussads it was the time for Lunch, and could find a restaurant with Indian name, however it was owned by a Bangladeshi gentleman who took good care while organizing our food and personally serviced us.

We then moved to Buckingham palace where Queen of England stays. It was a walk of 15 minutes to reach Buckingham Palace. Through the sidelines of palace wall, very well organized roads again, pavement all around, when we reached the palace, the flag there was symbolizing that the queen was inside. British Nationals have very high respect for royal family, they have special place in Britain, palace was very beautiful with large gates, the guards as usual were on their duty, people are not allowed to enter once the queen is inside the Palace, so we also saw it from outside and had few photographs around it.

Buckingham palace

It was evening around 6 PM and we were to go another major land mark London Eye, we booked tickets for a ride over there. It was at short distance from Buckingham palace however we were tired walking long distances on foot so decided take Uber to reach London Eye. Very soon we reached in one of their capsule to take ride on on of the marvelous and largest wheel of the world. It was just magnificent; one should not miss this opportunity in London. When you go on top and see 360degree London at night around the city, London glitters with so many colorful lights, high rise buildings, bridges, river, ships and boats, all look very amazing. It was really a Wow feeling! One of the highest building SHARD in London is so beautifully done with upper 10-15 floors only of glass and that keeps changing colours like green, blue, red, purple. One can see these lights changing one after another and giving you very pleasant feeling that you would like to see SHARD continuously for longer time with different colours.

London Eye

So finally we were done for the day and time to go back. Uber was our key source of travel in London. Almost every day we some big cars including Mercedes BMW etc.

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17, Dec 2015, Thursday, London, 5^th Day

Having finished our four days of our London journey, which was very packed, it was time to leave London for Paris. We booked on Eurostar to travel from London to Paris. It was a relaxing day, kept it light, and read more about London. We boarded the Eurorail from King Cross railway station for onward journey. Two things that one can observe that their systems were too well managed in screening such a large crowd that they can handle efficiently and high security without much inconvenience to passenger. We passed through security, immigration and finally to Eurorail, settled fast in train, this was two hours journey, passed through the country side from Britain first than France. We also passed through long tunnel under sea, was also great experience. Across UK country side was less populated, roads along with railway line were clean, well lighted tunnels, farms were of very large size, all around green, it was an amazing sight seeing opportunity, we reached Paris at 6 PM  at railway station Gare du Nord.

......To be continued.. 

A JOURNEY OF THOUSANDS MILES! by Siddharth Paramhans

Our daughter Shagun Vashney (we call her Tanu), was stated to graduate with a Masters in Management degree from London School of Economics(LSE), London on 14^th December, 2015. She had long-desired that all of us (her family) be present when she’s honoured with her degree. And why not? She had worked very hard to achieve this goal. She is one among a few recipients of British Government’s scholarship and had also been an ambassador for LSE. The plan to attend the ceremony was finally made, and all four of us, my wife Meera, son Sarang, our daughter Shagun, and myself, planned our itinerary for travelling to Europe(London –Paris – Rome). We organised the visa for UK & Schengen, and with all necessary preparations done, time had come when we set on this journey of a thousand miles with family.

First Stop at London

13 Dec 2015, Sunday, 1st Day

 

Landed at famous and busy Heathrow airport at London on 13th Dec’15 in early morning. My daughter had left a day earlier so she could finish local preparations and come to receive us at airport. Heathrow is one of the most organized & busiest international airports. Efficiency and service level of almost all staff was worth admiring - we cleared immigration formalities in under 15 minutes and came out at Terminal-4 where we were greeted by Shagun. One can immediately sense good air quality, cozy weather and a real nice feeling of warmth after arriving in London. A cup of hot coffee at Costa refreshed us, and all the tiredness coming from a 10hr flight vanished in no time while relaxing at Café with family.

We were to reach at Devons road where we had booked an apartment for our stay at London through AirBnB.  Going by the London Tube was the best option – local trains are called as Tube in London, and provide the best connectivity and are the fastest mode for travel in London city. Heathrow is a little outside London but it connects well with the Tube. We took our first tube running on the Piccadilly line headed for Green Park station, and from there changed lines to reach Canary wharf. Here we changed tracks to get on DLR to reach Devons road - the place of our stay. DLR is a new transport system in London created for short distance connectivity.

The entire journey was quite exciting. One can see organized suburbs, tidy roads and well managed traffic all through the day. Canary Wharf is the global financial hub of London and has head offices of some of the largest finance and consulting companies including – JPMorgan, Charles Swab, HSBC, Accenture, Thomson Reuters etc. Think of a large company and you will find their name etched on a tall glass building around you. You start dreaming of having an office at one such place.

                          With my Sarang and Shagun

It was drizzling lightly, and after enough tube changes and a little walk we finally managed to reach to our apartment at Devons road. The apartment was very cozy, well equipped, and functional. Everything that one can think (however big or small) for good living was available in the apartment. A fully equipped kitchen, along with a local grocery store nearby gave us a feeling that we were at our own house.

We all were bit tired by now, so we rested for a couple of hours at home, only to leave in the evening for Oxford street. Oxford Street is London’s most famous commercial street, dazzling with top brands. The city was amazingly lit especially since it was near Christmas. Every road crossing was glittering, shops were decorated and a kind of happiness and celebration echoed all around. People around were calm, helping, and had high civic awareness so as to say were formal as well. One can see respect for others and respect for following civic rules – certainly these are very much required back at home in India. At Oxford Street, we visited a local cafe “La Pain’ and had a relaxing time, we had soup, coffee, local snacks - roasted potatoes, and some red wine. Later, we walked to an Indian restaurant named Kathi Role Co. near Oxford Street – this is made to look like a rusty Indian street but served great kathi rolls and is a popular Indian joint in London. It was quite late by the time we finished dinner, we were tired from a whole day’s travelling, and so my son suggested we get an Uber. In 5 minutes, a shiny black Mercedes Benz arrived and we were back at our apartment soon.

Now that I recall, I realize we would have walked close to 14km on our first day in London. I don’t know how this was possible as back in India a normal 3-4km walk in a day looks quite difficult.

Important Day for Shagun

14 Dec 2015, Monday, London, 2^nd Day 

Today was a big day for Shagun. She was very happy and excited for her graduation ceremony at LSE, London. She got a special robe for the occasion - a purple and black gown along with a ceremonial hat– which were specially designed by the royal tailor of Queen Elizabeth. Shagun was to receive the award from the LSE Dean in the presence of all her professors, fellow students and family members as well as distinguished people present. Special passes and seats were allocated for 3 of us in the Peacock theater, and we reached well in time for the event. The atmosphere at LSE was amplifying with high levels of energy & was fueled with passion and positivity from students and everyone alike. Shagun soon left us to prepare for the ceremony, and we walked to our seats.

                 

At LSE with Meera, Sarang & Shagun

In the crowd of students, teachers and parents it became difficult to find Shagun, our daughter. While we were searching for her we spotted her in the crowd, she was coming towards us. Wow! She looked very pretty in a ceremonial dress, and both me and Meera, my wife, could not help staring at her for long. These were exciting moments, thinking of her as how she had grown up from a small naughty girl to where she was today – getting her post graduate degree in management from the most prestigious school LSE. These were very proud moments. She showed us the way to the auditorium and then again disappeared with her other student friends. She was attending to, meeting with her colleagues and teachers. The students were seated separately in a large hall.

The Chairman opened up the session, and thereafter Director of LSE gave his opening speech and a short presentation on LSE activities and the stories of  LSE alums – It was great to learn that person like Sir David Attenborough, Director of BBC; Cherie Blair, the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Kaushik Basu, the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at the World Bank; American President John Fitzgerald Kennedy; Benazir Bhutto, ex-premier of Pakistan – all of them and many Nobel laureates had passed out from LSE. Students were called on stage, and were presented & greeted by the director of LSE.

                    

Glittering Ceremony at LSE

We were waiting for Shagun’s turn, as there was a long group of students who were receiving the awards. Finally, I could see her in the hall and she was waiting for her turn. Her name was announced and she walked on the stage to receive her award from the director of LSE. The hall cheered with deafening claps from the audience and her classmates. I noticed her high level of confidence and humility when she shook hands with the director. She waved her hand to the audience, to her friends, acknowledging her gratitude for the support they had given her, and thanking LSE for giving her the opportunity to reach at this level and achieving her goals. Life paused for some moments for us and filled us with overwhelming emotions.

                                   

Shagun at LSE

The award ceremony was over and everyone was invited for an evening of socializing with all present there. Shagun introduced us to her professors and course Dean, Dr. Britney Jones. She was very appreciating of Shagun and spent a good time with us talking about Shagun’s achievements and her forthcoming visit to India. Most of her teachers and classmates that we interacted with had very strong backgrounds and it was honour for us to talk and interact with them over a glass of champagne. We met many parents from different parts across the world, having very strong views of LSE. We were also introduced to Sandy Pepper, her course director, and he had a high level of respect for Shagun. One can see an entirely different atmosphere and is transported to one’s olden days when we were students.

         
                                                      Precious moments at LSE

                       

Shagun took us on a tour of the other administrative blocks, her class room, and the library. LSE has one the oldest and biggest libraries and the facility is open for 24 hours and is classic architecture in itself. Having spent reasonable time, we left LSE to have our dinner at famous Indian restaurant ‘Dishoom’ – which offers great authentic Indian food. I was told that Londoners also love this restaurant and it is difficult to get a table at the restaurant if not booked in advance. It was one hour of waiting for us but it felt worth spending for good Indian food in London. Having a very fulfilling day we returned back to our apartment and our key purpose of coming to London was happily met.

To be continued………