A combo gift

It was a long day and just as I entered my house I found this beautiful set of flowers waiting for me. Now, there is a better reason to remember this day...

:)

Meow Meow

This video is for all cat lovers.

:)

UK mein pehli pehli baar

I wrote this one on Word document on 15th November i.e. on the completion of my first month in UK but was waiting for few other things to happen. One of the most important thing has happened today. I have internet connection a home now, which means I can work, chat and blog from home.

So here is a list of first few things, as demanded by an old friend :)

First friend in UK - Harish, he happens to be my classmate too

First buy - Liquid detergent, after a long search for the cheapest one like a house wife

First Gift - Arthurium Plant, its beautiful



First Indian food - arhad dal and rice at Harish’s place. They reminded me of home :)

First grocery shopping - ASDA, it is a big supermarket

First Chocolate - Cadbury dairy milk with whole nuts,yummmmmmmmmmmmy

First cooking – pasta in tomato sauce, but want to remember making rice in microwave.

First picnic- Warwick castle with friends. This was arranged by Students union.


First shopping- Wind cutting jacket with funny hood from Primark. My friends call me Eskimo now. I am glad I bought this.

First Diwali- It was quite painful to be away from home but managed quite well, went to temple and then for fireworks.

First proper dinner- went to an Indian restaurant on Diwali. The food was quite sad.

First outing- went with two friends to Bradford for a weekend. This was also a visit to first Indian family in UK. A perfect example of a nuclear family of three- Husband, wife and a dog.


First Film- Om Shanti Om, it deserves a separate post but that will come some other day. But it was quite a regret.

:)

Friends forever...

All my best relationships have started with fights.

Vidhi, my sister happens to be my first best friend. What is it that we have not done for and against each other in our childhood. But as we grew up I found my best friend in her. As a child I used to fight with her and because of similar age group there used to be comparisons too. We used to even fight over space between our mattresses :). I remember very clearly the first time I missed her was when I went to Kullu Manali trip arranged by school. I was not used to living without her. Sometime in middle school we came friends to discuss our latest crush, shopping, friends, proposals etc. And now we are not used to living without each other. I am away from home and both of us hate this separation.

Then came my second best friend Tarsheen. This was too in middle school. We were in the same section from Junior school but happened to meet on Kullu Manali trip. We did not know anybody on the that trip except for each other. I don't understand why I went since none of my friends did, but I am glad I was their to meet my second best friend. We fought very well on the trip and the fights continued till many years. The best were the ones we used to have at each others house during a stay. In fact I used to be much comfortable fighting in my house as she had five dogs and my movement used to be completely restricted because of the fights. I remember there were days and weeks we did not talk or sit with each other in school. At the same time I used to get worried to know about her higher education plans in UK. We have come a long way since then. Now, I am not there, the meetings have reduced, distance has increased but the feeling of her presence in my life gives me a sense of comfort.

I found a best friend in my sister and sister in my best friend.

Day one in UK

I landed at Heathrow at 7 am on 15th October'07. There was a long que at the immigration and it took about 40 minutes. Had to meet a Jet official which was arranged by my father and my Daddy arranged a meeting with his friend. All if this was to make sure that me ,the sweet little is not lost at the world’s busiest airport.

So, I met Indrajeet from Jet first. As the name suggests, Indrajeet is an Indian Sikh lady. Her presence right on the exit gave me a feeling of great comfort. By the way, at Heathrow one may not realise that it’s not India. About 5 out of 10 people are Indians. Be it support staff or cleaner or passengers. Indrajeet was kind enough to take me to the National Express ticket booth. She took care of my 5 not very big but very very heavy bags. I bought a ticket for £ 32.50 .Yes that's a lot of Indian money for a bus ticket but had no choice.

Then was a meeting with a person I had heard of once or twice but not with much interest. This was through a common friend. This person was friendly and cold (professional) person, he met me at the common meeting area where I was sitting with my baggage. It was quite funny with him. He did not sit. I did not sit coz he was standing. So he asked me about what I do and why UK for MBA and all that stuff. And within few minutes I was comfortable listening to his conversations. I will call him an open guy. He told me about his parents, his work, his attitude at work, his Sweden vacation plan with girl friend. And above all the cost of living in UK specially with a GF. At the same time he did not forget to mention about future uncertainties with the same girl. I am glad he talked about things I agreed upon and so this long and more or less one sided convo was interesting. I also managed to ask his zodiac sign out of curiosity. Then he had to leave for work and thankfully my wait time for the bus was reduced to only 15-20 minutes.

In all this while my papa and my Daddy called and sms’d few times of course. My bus ride started at 9.20 am. The driver helped me keeping my bags in the bus. The bus journey only and only reminded me of Yash Chopra’s films. English country side is extremely beautiful. Its green, empty and fresh. Well managed traffic, no honking and zero pollution.

After 3 hours I reached my destination, Leicester. The tension began to start here when all my bags were dropped out with me from the bus. I was not capable of picking up one bag forget about four. And that made me think, if I cant pick them up who will think of running away with them. I left the bags on bus stop and went across the road to catch a Taxi. The taxi man was old and helped me with my luggage.

He dropped me at the University but every destination looked like the final one. A lady helped me taking my bags to Students Services. After this I went to meet the faculty as well as other students of the program.

I decided to move in temporary accommodation for which my bags were transferred to a taxi, of course with a lady’s help again. The driver kept everything outside the main door of the building. So every time I reached a new place there was a sense of comfort. Then came David. David is also a student but I am not sure about his university. I don't know if I can recognize him today but he picked up all my bags one by one and transferred them to my flat.
Reaching inside the flat with all the stuff was a different feeling after international travelling, studying and meeting new people. Then I received few very important calls from a friend's friends in UK. All of them made me feel very much at home in an unknown country.

This post is dedicated to everyone who made my first day in UK a pleasant one. Thanks :).