7 and 1/2 reasons why you should volunteer

Interact. Rotaract. Victoria and Albert Museum. The Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Centre for Performing Arts, University of Westminster. What do these organisations share in common? - Me volunteering with them!

Over the past ten years I have volunteered with these associations and I cannot stress enough on how important it is to take up volunteering from time to time. 

Reason no. 1 - They need you! You are their ray of hope! Their oxygen! Volunteering can turn your dream of turning into a superhuman true! Every cause you support and contribute to will make a huge impact in changing the lives of so many people.

Reason no. 2 - You need them. The experience leaves you enlightened and enriched. It teaches you things no classroom can. Your life needs a break from the hustle and bustle of your hectic life. And volunteering can give you just that! And even better you make a big positive difference in the bargain.

Reason no. 3 - You become Santa Claus overnight. The most precious and pure gift that one can give another is the gift of time. Taking a small chunk out of your quota of life and contributing it to make someone else's life better is a gift unmatched by anything else in this world. 

Reason no. 4 - Karma never bitches behind you. You do good things, good things come to you. You start a good deed and pay it forward, and it geometrically progresses creating ripples of happiness in the air we all breathe. What goes around comes around, you will instantly notice more good things coming your way.

Reason no. 5 - You expand your circle. You meet new people. You learn about their lives. In turn you learn so much about yourself. You meet individuals you would have never otherwise met. You do great things you would have not otherwise done.  

Reason no. 6 - You make the best use of your free time, utilising it for something productive and worthwhile, sometimes even without great effort. It adds on to your experiences. Your CV. Your story. Self-realisation happens. Selflessness sprouts in your heart. Definitely better than faffing away time doing something irrelevant. 

Reason no. 7 - You get to travel the world, and even better most of the times for free. Demand for volunteering is global, join the supply and take off!

Reason no. 7 and 1/2 - Its the closest you'll get to doing magic if you're a Muggle!

So waste no time. Think what your are passionate about. Look out for a cause that matches your passion. Do anything and everything you can to make a difference!

Ywhacky Art

Series of quirky quotes supported by watercolour sketches.

Dangerous Acquaintances

Pond flowers

This one is titled - The mystery of the British taps

Checklist for moving abroad

Let's start with the fine print shall we?

1. This is an exhaustive but not an all-inclusive list. You might have things not mentioned in here that you might want to take along.

2. This is a reference list. You do not have to take all of this with you. It is a good way to check your list of things against this list to make sure you don’t forget to take anything that you wanted to. I repeat, you don’t have to take all these things.

3. You will be able to buy most of these things at most places where you might end up going.

4. The decision on whether to buy the things in the destination country or take it along depends on a number of factors. When in doubt on whether or not to take something along, do this Ideal Packing Test©

  a.How important is it to my daily life?
  b.What is the price-difference in my country and destination country?
  c.What are the essential things I will need in the first few weeks?
  d.Is it a necessity?
  e.Is it small & light or bulky & heavy?
  
5.There is a big list of what you can take and what you can’t through customs and across borders. Please check these requirements for your home and destination country and airline before taking anything along.

6. Always pack keeping in mind the available luggage allowance your airline offers and also remember that your suitcase also has weight (approx.3kgs/check-in suitcase, 1kg/cabin luggage) !

7. Also, while packing it is important to decide what goes into the cabin luggage and what in the check-in luggage.

8. I have tried to keep both the sexes in mind while compiling this list, but I know it can never cover everything that a girl might want to pack in her suitcase so I leave it to the fairer sex to suit themselves and add on to this list

So here we go…

Things to do:
1. Learn driving
2. Get local/international driving license
3. Learn cooking
4. Check which immunization/vaccinations you might need to take before going to a particular country
5. Full body-check up
6. Dental check-up
7. Eye check-up

Vanity and first-aid kit:

o    Balm
o    Bandage
o    Cotton
o    Crocin
o    Basic medicines for cold, cough, diarrhea, ear ache (during take-off and landing)
o    Glucose powder
o    Soframycin
o    Dettol
o    Mirror
o    Soap case
o    Tissue papers
o    Ear buds
o    Tooth brush
o    Tooth paste
o    Nail cutter
o    Scissors
o    Soap
o    Body wash
o    Combs
o    Hair brush
o    Spare buttons
o    Black and white spool of thread
o    Needle
o    Perfume
o    Duster
o    Scrub
o    Sponge
o    Hair dryer
o    Shaving gel
o    Razor
o    Spare blades
o    After shave
o    Electronic shaver
o    Hair straightener
o    Make-up kit

Food:
o    Tea (or Girnar instant chai packets are brilliant)
o    Turmeric (haldi)
o    Coriander powder (dhania)
o    Red chilly powder (mirch masala)
o    Mustard seeds (sarso/rai)
o    Tamarind (paste or whole, imli)
o    Different dals and rice in small quantity for initial use
o    Coffee
o    Cardamom (elaichi)
o    Clove (lavang)
o    Cinnamon (dalchini)
o    Tea masala
o    Garam masala
o    Sambhar masala
o    Pav bhaji masala
o    Pickle (but very messy to carry, 99.9% it will leak and spoil all your clothes in your check-in luggage)
o    Dried curry leaves (kadee pata)
o    Cumin seeds (whole and grounded, jeera)
o    Asafoetida (hing powder)
o    Snack packets (like Bombay mix, chiwdas)
o    Instant food packets – upma, noodles, rice
o    Ready to eat masala packets (paneer makhani, black dal)

Music & Movies:
o    External hard disk with your favourite songs and movies.

Stationery:
o    Course books (contact your course leader and try sourcing them for cheaper from home country)
o    A4 white paper
o    Pencils
o    Erasers
o    Blade
o    Sharpner
o    Stapler
o    Staple pins
o    Pens
o    Scribbling pad
o    Glue stick
o    Pencil case
o    Ruler
o    Stick on pad
o    Spellotape
o    Safety pins
o    U-pins
o    Clips
o    Envelopes
o    Blank CD’s
o    Blank DVD’s
o    Pen drive
o    Headphone with mic
o    Webcam
o    Files
o    Folders
o    Sleeves
o    Sketch pens
o    Markers
o    Note book
o    Highlighters
o    Removers
o    Executive diary
o    Punching machine
o    Rubber bands
o    Soft board pins
o    Photos of near and dear one’s (to make a filmy softboard or wall in your room)
o    Calculator

Utensils:
o    Big plates
o    Small plates
o    Glasses (any material, one steel)
o    Cups
o    Mugs
o    Bowls
o    Forks
o    Serving spoons
o    Pressure cooker
o    Cooker containers (spares, rings and valves)
o    Non-stick frying pan with turner
o    Tongs
o    Knives
o    Cutting board for vegetables
o    Cooking pans (kadai)
o    Utensils holder
o    Non stick tava
o    Laddle
o    Spatula
o    Peeler
o    Rolling pin (belan)
o    Tooth picks

Clothes:
o    Jeans
o    Shorts
o    T-shirts
o    Shirts
o    Night clothes
o    Formal suit
o    Undergarments
o    Socks
o    Sweaters
o    Cardigans
o    Jumpers
o    Sweatshirts
o    Pullovers
o    Muffler
o    Winter jacket
o    Summer jacket
o    Rain jacket
o    Autumn jacket
o    National costume
o    Windcheater
o    Trousers
o    Skirts
o    Blouses
o    Tights
o    Shrugs
o    Ponchos

Footwear:
o    Sport shoes
o    Formal shoes
o    Sandals/ floaters
o    House slippers

Accessories:
o    Hangers
o    Small napkins
o    Blanket
o    Back pack
o    Sling bag
o    Key chains
o    Card holder
o    Torch
o    Alarm clock
o    Camera
o    Camera charger
o    Mobile phone
o    Mobile phone charger
o    Converted plugs/pins
o    Wallet
o    Gloves
o    Laundry bag
o    Small lock and keys
o    Towels
o    Bed sheets
o    Pillow
o    Sunglasses
o    Caps
o    Umbrella
o    Ties
o    Handkerchiefs
o    Belts
o    Clothespins
o    Iron
o    Laptop
o    Tablet
o    Music pod

Documents:
o    10th Std. mark sheet
o    10th Std. pass certificate
o    12th Std. mark sheet
o    12th Std. pass certificate
o    Bachelor’s degree mark sheet
o    Bachelor’s degree pass certificate
o    Any other documents of other degrees
o    Convocation certificates
o    Recommendation letters
o    Resume
o    Covering letter
o    Visa
o    Passport
o    Offer letter
o    Any other important letter from university
o    Tailoring measurements
o    Basic prescription from doctor for common allergies / medical conditions you may have
o    1 photocopy of of the above
o    Soft scanned copies of the above (save them securely)
o    Passport/stamp size photographs

Checklist for hand luggage:
o    Medicines for air sickness (No liquids)
o    Novel
o    Sweater
o    Offer letter from university
o    Passport
o    Ticket
o    Boarding pass
o    Landing card (will be given in-flight)
o    Visa
o    Photocopies of tickets, VISA, offer letter
o    Sufficient cash in currency of destination country
o    Address book with important contacts at home and destination country (2 copies, one at home one with you)
o    Phone book with important contacts at home and destination country (2 copies, one at home one with you)
o    You photos
o    Keys to locks attached to check-in luggage

Let me know if you have any comments on things I might have missed out on or on allotting the items under a different category.

Happy packing!

P.S. - Big thank you to a Mr. Madanlal Jain who passed on this list to a friend. I have in essence edited that mega list to write this blog post.

Copacabana, costumes and flexing those vocal chords once more!

Hi,

Hope you are well and praying hard for Spring to arrive! Till that happens, I've got some news to share from my end.

Copcabana and costumes
I've donned the hat of a costume designer/manager for the first ever musical production of the University of Westminster (UoW) to commerate it's 175th anniversary. We are staging Barry Manilow's Copacabana and if you fancy some 1940's musical magic click here for more information and bookings.

Tickets are priced at only £8, £10 and £12.

Wake up the Spring Gods!
After the grand success of our Christmas concert the UoW's Choral society is back with their end of term Spring concert. The choir will perform a range of songs from a variety of genres, and with the added bonus of some seasonal poetry as well.

Please try and be there at 309, The Old Cinema, Regents Street for the choir's largest performance to date.

Performances start at 7:30pm, no tickets required; FREE entry.

For more information visit us on Facebook.

That's it for now! Hope to see you around soon.

Let the magic begin...

Exploring depth through doorways

Sketch exploring depth drawn at the Drop and Drawing session held on Fridays at the National Portrait Gallery, London. 

London Tube Tip Number One

A celebration of Christmas

Singing Christmas carols has been one of my most favourite past times. I've sung them anytime-anywhere and will do the same in the future.

On previous occasions I've gone into one of my singing fits while travelling in school buses, during camp fires, when crossing dry river beds in villages in Rajasthan, travelling in the tube in London and on Christmas eve at home with my sister.

My love for singing and Christmas songs, carols and hymns reached a new high when I joined the University of Westminster's Choral Society last year.

I particularly love the design team at the University of Westminster as you can see on your right with this amazing invite they made for our show.

The practice sessions were remarkable in the sense that amateurs and stalwarts all practiced together and our team-work clearly showed on the day with the audience members complimenting us; 'You sounded like angels from heaven' one of them told one of our choristers.

This year I was promoted to singing a solo for a medieval Spanish villancico called Riu Riu Chiu and according our Choir conductor, Robbie, this will be the next big thing when it comes to Christmas songs in the near future. Well, you know where you heard it first!

Thanks to Chunny Wai Lo who made it for the performance and took this picture. You are a great friend and seeing your face there made this so much more special.

Another friend came to the rescue of fellow chorister, Sueli, who thrust upon a video camera in her friends' hands with seconds to spare before the performance started with the orders 'Record!'. Sueli, please pass on our gratitude and wishes.

to you dear friend.

For all those who couldn't make it, presenting to you - A celebration of Christmas! Please click on the links below to listen to the carols/hymns.

Once in royal David’s city

Riu riu - Salem Ajmi singing the second paragraph and yours truly singing the first and third one.

Gabriel’s message

As with gladness men of old

Coventry carol

While shepherds watched their flocks by night

O little town of Bethlehem

We three King’s of Orient are

O come, all ye faithful

And now, please join us for some vegan mince pies and non-alcoholic mulled wine! :P

London Christmas decorations at night - Fom Nike to Zara

Every year during Christmas in Mumbai, a ritual practiced by one of my dear friends Ainee was to collect all her friends in one car and drive around Mumbai city to those spots which boasted of some of the best Christmas decorations in the city. From Marine Plaza and Taj in south Mumbai to Damian's three floored furniture showroom in the suburbs (okay, Bandra is not exactly a suburb but I wanted to give an idea of the length and breadth we covered!)

It has been two years since I came to London and my promise to Ainee to send her pictures of the decorations on display in the city of cities - London, is yet to be fulfilled. So this year I am planning to go on a evening walk down Oxford Street, Regents Street, Carnaby Street, China Town, Marylebone High Street and any other street which has decorations gallore. 

If you wish to join in and take in the delights that Selfridges, Harrods, Hamleys, Liberty, Covent Garden and Southbank have to offer, please click here and confirm here.

The walk will begin from University of Westminster's Regents Street campus at 8pm on 11th December 2012.

Don't forget to carry only your camera, with spare batteries as we will be doing a lot of walking and you don't want to get bogged with the weight of any unnecessary possessions on you. Do layer up in warm clothes and wear good walk-able shoes. Strictly no heels allowed.

Korea - Midsummer Night's Dream

Take off

This was my first Globe To Globe play. And also my first experience of being a groundling. During my hour-long wait which included standing in a queue, sitting on a bench and then standing at 'my spot' in the Globe's yard in front of the stage, I learnt a few rules about being a groundling.

Groundling Rules

- If you ever buy a groundling ticket to watch a play at the Globe come prepared to bear nature in all its glory and fury!

- Do report one hour in advance to ensure you get a good spot from where you can get the best view of the stage and the actors - 'my spot' was in the second row of groundlings in the centre.

- Do not carry heavy baggage as you would not want to trudge along the night with a baby elephant on your back!

- The baggage rules are a bit inconsistent. The staff may request for a bag-check or ask you to keep your bag in the cloak room depending on their...let's say mood! So if you do end up coming in advance to reserve a spot, you may end up being very cross if you were asked to get out of line for a bag check or were sent to the cloak room to drop of your bag. By the time you return there will be ten more people between you and your initial pole position. But it may not be like this if the person behind you is an old kind lady who offers to take the effort to walk through the queue to find you and reinstate you at your original place - just like she did for me! God bless her!

- The groundling tickets are the cheapest - £5 (exactly the same price they were 500 years ago in Elizabethan times - 1 pence x inflation index)

- Socialise with your fellow groundlings. You will be surprised how like-minded our lot is. By the end of the 11 plays I could recognise regular faces who came to see every show or most shows (like me). I had my own small Globe-to-Globe peer group which included a Professor and a Ph.D pursuant.

First impressions

I had been to the Globe once before on a complimentary show of the Twelfth Night performed by some students of Rutgers University something from U.S.A. somewhere. It was a memorable experience as it saw my school-hood-dream come true. But it was a rather rushed evening for me and my friend because as usual I was late and she had to wait for me at the gate! Once inside we swapped between standing and sitting and tried to get accustomed to this new style of theatre-watching.

The second time was just a few days before this performance when I came for a press visit for the Globe's exhibition and theatre tour. The 20-minute theatre tour gave me a sneak peek of a pre-performance rehearsal of Richard III in Mandarin! The lead actor was stellar, we had prime centre seats on the top-deck and were lucky to see the cast rehearse the coronation scene.

But this time I was alone, excited and on time! Sigh...

Standing there with a blank space in my head I was not sure what to expect. I was there to see a play in a language I did not understand. My colleagues at work thought I had gone a bit overboard by spending my money on 11 tickets to plays in languages as alien to me as chalk is to cheese. I geared up all my sensory organs to enable me to grasp as much as I could from the kinesthetics taking place on stage. Retrospectively, having seen 11 plays I realized each country had it's own style. It's own flavour, music, interaction, use of space, dramatization techniques, story telling characteristics, and costumes. The only common strand was Shakespeare.

Korea  landing

The side-screens lit-up and the announcement flickered across the screen in neon red - 'Welcome to the Globe. Please switch off your mobile phones and cameras'. These side screens acted like translators with the synopsis of each scene flashing throughout the play to help non-speakers and non-Shakespearers understand the act better.

And then the magic started.

It was in the middle of summer (almost) and the night was setting in. The dream had begun! The forest fairies entered and from that moment till the moment they left stage I was captivated by their charm.

Korean Style

The play was high on dramatisation and expressions.  Jute bags or gunny bags were slit open to make jackets for the fairies. The make-up accentuated every facial feature of the actors - a white wash with bright pink and blue rouge and fine designs in inky black helped magnify their every cringe and smile. Their hair was tied in a messy nest bun with strands of jute.

On the other hand the four main leads had bright solid coloured kimonos - yellow, blue, green and red

The music was set at the back of the stage and had almost all characters take charge at some point or the other. An array of exquisite musical instruments were on show - one of them recreated the sound of falling water (Rain-stick) while another was an ensemble of dangling metal rods of different sizes and emanated a twinkling chime when they were struck in one motion.

The play and its movements were extremely fluid-like. Just like a rapid going downstream. The ride had it's slow zones during the love infused acts, meandering it's way into our hearts and the next moment suddenly gaining pace again with its eclectic mix of song and dance. All the song and dance elements took the story forward.

Some stellar captivating scenes included the entry of the Doruki, the lost-in-the-jungle scene, the scenes where the magical potions are lifted and where the timid herb-collector is the target of the Doruki's mischeif. All beautifully portrayed by classic use of stage-space and action.

The audience interaction added that heart-warming feel to the play - we got house keeping instructions by a comical mime at the start of the show, received neon bands before the interval as freebies and a member of the audience even got tricked to come on stage and take one (after it was licked and handled in the most dégoutant ways); it was comical nonetheless.

It was evident that each person on stage was a superlative actor and dancer. They mostly moved on stage in a peculiar fashion - turning their feet in towards their bodies then turning them out again. Doing this quickly to slide across the stage.

The theatrics of colour, expressions and native music was also accompanied by the sound of recorded bird-songs and artificial smoke which almost left me hallucinating. The music still rings in my ears when I go to dream at night.

Departure

When the break took place. I was left awe-struck by what I had seen. By the time the play ended, an even stronger sense of surprise an awe lurked in the air as it was magnified by how everyone present there felt. They had a grand exit, wading through us groundlings and out into the foyer to incessant noise from the clapping, hooting and cheering. It felt ecstatic...The performance enthused me with such energy that even after an eight hour day at work and three hours of standing on my feet I was not feeling tired at all. To infuse this energy is a magical quality that the act possessed. They actually created positive energy and passed it onto us with their act; that in itself speaks volumes about the quality of their skill. In the end, like a star-struck fan I requested on of the actors for a group photo in the foyer where they were kindly obliging chirpy home-bound viewers. As I walked over the Millenium bridge to my tube station I was smiling inside my head - at how happy I felt. I felt like a different person.

For a change I saw a dream with my eyes open, and I can confirm that it was one of the best dreams I have had

You can now see the play yourself thanks to the Arts Council of England. To incept yourself with performances from the Globe to Globe festival click here.

Globe to Globe Festival - Theatre through my eyes

Being a culture leech, I suck (or at least try to) every bit of information I possibly can about any hapennings around me related to the arts - painting, drama, music et al. No surprises there, that I know about the Globe to Globe (G2G) Festival taking place at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre near London's Bankside this British summer. G2G is a precursor to the heavyweight arriving in July-August-September called London2012 (the codeword for all things Olympic and Paralympic this year). It constitutes an important piece in the myriad kaleidoscopic Cultural Olympiad put together to raise our cheer quotient (C.Q.) before London2012 arrives in UK. Interestingly, the orignial Olympic games started as a series of art related contests; sport was added much later to the event schedule. Happy to know that the legacy continues and that we still take this festival to be a boiling caudron (melting pot is just so passé in our Potter-age) of culture. 

Having attended 11 shows (1 show in-spirit) I can confirm that G2G is a befitting cultural celebration from end April to the beginning of June. It deserves not five stars but many constellations (is there a collective noun for this collective noun?) for its sheer scale and titanic (FYI - Titanic celebrated it's sinking-centenary this year) proportion!

I was under the impression that the festival had many shows for each play. Luckily, on a press tour for Indian Compass in April I struck gold when I realized that only 2 to 3 shows of each production were scheduled (haw!). Having missed out on the Hindi production of the Twelfth Night due to my passiveness I was not at all ready to bear the pain of missing out on any upcoming shows that I wanted to see.

G2G is staging all 37 of Shakespeare's plays in 37 different languages - a great tagline to market the festival. But the obsessive geek that I also am I want to set the record straight. That count is discounting the fact that the festival started of with Isango Ensemble singing Venus and Adonis in IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, SoSotho, Setswana, Afrikaans and South African English; if you take that into ac'count', the total goes up to 38 plays in 44 languages/dialects (counting Hip Hop and Music as distinct languages).

I devised a strategy to hand-pick shows which would tickle my senses and leave me greedy for more excellent theatre. This was done due to two main reasons - lack of funding to see all 38 plays and lack of time. Tickets ranged from £5 to £35 and there were afternoon and evening shows. 

My budget permitted only £5 groundling (standing and watching the show in the yard) tickets and most evening shows thanks to my full-time day job (yes, it clearly doesn't pay well enough to buy me £35 tickets nor does it allow 3 hour lunch breaks for me to watch afternoon shows!)

I visited the website and read through every play and glanced through every picture. From this content analysis I matched those plays which met all or at least two of my criteria -

1. Is there some element of folk music (including musical instruments)?

2. Are there immaculate costumes and accessories (masks, make-up and the works)?

3. Is it in a language that I can speak or could easily grasp (anything related to Marwari, Gujarati, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Assamese, Maori, Persian, English, Marathi, Bangla, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish)?

4. Do I already know the play?

This generated a list of 11 plays from the 38 on offer. I do feel a bit-blah that this mini-research was done after 7 plays were already over. Thus, it was more like selecting 11 from the remaning 31 shows. Add to this the fact that during my selection-process some shows were already fully-booked so even though the Chinese and Hip-Hop play passed my scrutiny-test, I could not make it for the shows due to lack of yard-space! More blah-ness to me...

But on the happy-ness, this was my G2G selection:

1. Midsummer Night's Dream in Korean

2. Julius Caesar in Italian

3. Cymbeline in Juba Arabic 

4. The Tempest in Bangla

5. Henry VI Part III in Macedonian

6. As You Like It in Georgian

7. Romeo and Juliet in Brazilian Portuguese

8. All's Well That Ends Well in Gujarati

9. Taming Of The Shrew in Urdu

10. Henry VIII in Castillian Spanish

11. Comedy of Errors in Dari Persian

A lot has been already spoken about about G2G and there are reviews gallore, and I hope to add onto that volume of words with my experience and observations of the festival.

This was the start to me teleporting this summer. With the tickets in place and passion for theatre filling my heart I set out to see the world from one end to the other, one stage to another - from Globe To Globe! Buckle up...

Culture-leechingly,

Yash

P.S. - Next blogbuster coming soon - Front row standing (re)view of Midsummer Night's Dream

London on a student budget

How much will living in London cost as a Student?

This is a basic Go-To-Guide when trying to account for the cost of living in London as a student. It all depends on how cost conscious or frivolous you are. It would be ideal to budget keeping in mind the following costs. The figures are not complete and this should be used as a guide and not a definitive table to calculate costs.

As you will see below:

- depending on where you decide to stay the rent cost will differ

- if you decide to stay as a PG your food cost will also be lesser than £450 a month

- as a rule, the further away from Zone 1 you stay the higher the travel cost

- also as a rule, the further away from Zone 1 you stay the lower the rent

Make sure you do not double count rent and food when estimating your costs.

	Student living cost in London
Sr. No.		Monthly (£)
1	Local Travel (Travel pass)	200	This is for Zones 1 to 5. Visit http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14416.aspx
2	Food (3 meals a day @ £5)	450	If living in Uni. Halls
3	Food (1 meal a day @ £5)	150	If living as a PG
4	Rent (£100/week)	400	Inclusive of food at a family as PG
5	Rent (Uni. Halls @200/week)	800
6	Books	£10
7	Entertainment	£50	Movies, restaurants, events, concerts, day trips…
8	Phone calls to India (1pence/min)	£10	100pence = £1
9	BBM + mobile internet	£5	Unlimited BBM + Internet
10	Phone calls within UK	£25	Make your own plan on a billing plan
	NOTE:
	Students get 30% travel discount on travel within London
	With a valid NUS or university card you can get discounts at almost every place ALWAYS REMEMBER TO ASK FOR STUDENT DISCOUNT BEFORE PAYING

ProloBLOGue

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The Millennium Wheel is a world renowned merry-go-round presenting to you a leisurely glimpse of one of World’s greatest cities, London, from cloud nine!  More commonly called as the LONDON EYE, it lets you soak in the length and breadth of the city, but what you make of London from that view is solely based on your own viewpoint and perspective. This blog will show you that very same city, inch-by-inch, as we rise in this ascent, but what’s going to be different is that this London will be a different London, a more magical London, it will be the LONDONThruMyEYE!

Almost a year ago in September 2009, I applied to the University of Westminster hoping to come to London for one life-changing year. All the forms, applications, statements of purpose, letters of support, recommendations, transcripts, deferment of admission, scholarship applications, change of course and one whole year later I finally reached where I had intended to be – The City of London!

{For those wanting to know a detailed account on ‘A Classic Guide to Apply for a University Abroad’, mail me}

As the days of departure came closer, the hustle and bustle of getting everything in place did not really permit me any time to digest the fact that within a few weeks I would have to cope up with the absence of all those things that I was so obsessed with, and that list of things is a really long one! A joke by an Idiot(Yes, Dedhia^Ref.1 that is you) ended up activating my Caller Tunes to some god-forsaken Hindi film song, which I then changed to a befitting ‘I’m leaving on a Jet Plane’ by John Denver, and this was the only way by which I could truly express what I had felt then.

During the packing, V.I.S.A.^Ref.2,  incessant shopping, V.I.S.A., meeting full family, V.I.S.A., meeting every friend and did I mention V.I.S.A., I knew it at the back of my mind that with every smiling-hugging good-bye came the after-bye which always left my eyes moist. But I kept reminding myself that it was just going to be for a year. Time flies and we all know that and the more I thought about cutting off, the more it would bother me. The answer was simple; it wasn’t really a big deal. The deal is as big as we make it out to be. Of course I was feeling all aww-ish about leaving but that was something I knew from the day I had applied for the course. I knew that going away was a part and parcel of the decision, and that slowly but subconsciously I had prepared myself to deal with it. The BBM-FB-Internet-Era has also made connecting with everyone so much easier, and that reassured me that I won’t be that Mumbai-sick very soon.

{For those wanting to know a detailed account on ‘Pre-Departure Preparations’, mail me}

A deep of sense of gratitude radiates from the depth of my being to everyone who called, messaged, emailed, met-up and wall-scrapped to send in all there good wishes all through the last week.

For friends, this blog will help us keep in touch and will give you an exhaustive account of my stay here in London.  For prospective Londoners, it will be a guide to everything you wanted to know about this city and for the rest it will be just another forgettable Blog!

Blah-Dee-Dahl,

Yauschrahj!

Ref.1 - Dedhia, short for Pranav Dedhia, brother from a different mother, dear friend and Idiot!

Ref.2 – V.I.S.A., abbreviation for Visitor Intention to Stay Abroad! (Surprised to know that it has a full form? =P)

Week LondONE

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Flight of the Hippogriff

The last time I sat in a plane was at such a stage of my life where my memory cells had not yet fully developed. That is the exact reason why I do not have any recollection of how it felt to get my own set of wings for the first time! Since then I got lucky and chanced upon flying in an airplane when I had won a return ticket to Goa for topping my Certificate Travel Exams, but another lucky chance of being R.C.H.R. President^Ref.3 the following year ensured that the effect of being lucky twice got nullified. That made this nine and a half hour journey of wafting over half the world to reach my destination, my fist ever encounter with the laws of thrust and lift. No idea of all the airport jargon and stages to cross before I finally got my seat in the Jet Airways flight, I reached the airport with family, and was delightfully surprise by friends (Dorrs^Ref.4 included. You were as good as there for me in person, so what if you couldn’t ‘apparate’ on time).

I passed successfully through the airport drill – Baggage, Boarding Pass Receipt, Immigration, Waiting-For-An-Hour, Duty-Free-Window-Shopping, Last-Final-Calls and Entering-Flight! Getting a middle seat wasn’t really a boon but a seat in the second row was. I had some lime juice and popped in a pain killer to avoid the oh-so-nerve-bursting pain in the back of the ears (my dentist had also told me to be prepared for some pain in the teeth – Aerodontalgia (now called Barodontalgia)). The first half an hour was spent looking outside the window on my right, which gave the passenger sitting near the window an impression that I was continuously staring at him, so post-take-off he rudely shut the window slide down. Hmpf!

After the few ignorant initial moments of just whiling away time, thanks to the observe-others-and-learn-technique I finally operated the Personal Entertainment Portal. Good vegetarian Paneer Makhanwala for lunch and Ragda Pattice for snacks was very well appreciated by the butterflies in my stomach and the great list of songs and movies (The Last Airbender deserves a mention, amazing effects, magical movie) were a much needed catalyst to hasten the travel time.

The first time when it finally struck me about how lonely it might get in London, was when the first meal arrived on board, I could not digest the fact I had to eat alone! It felt really depressing. (Navin^Ref.5, you were so right about this feeling!) Following a really long nap, I woke up over the United Kingdom and with every update about how far the destination was (and also a range of other things like air pressure outside (some exorbitantly large number), temperature outside (-90^oC), speed of the plane ( thousands of miles per hour), altitude (some hundreds of metres above Mt.Everest) etcetera) my heart skipped a beat as I could finally see the manicured gardens below, the Thames, the ‘Wisteria-Lanes’ through the ‘Simpson’ clouds, I could finally see ‘LONDONThruMyEye’.

As the flight landed I remembered Mustu’s^Ref.6 wise words about making it to the Immigration Terminal as soon as I could. So I clubbed my hand luggage and went on a no-two-feet-on-the-ground-at-the-same-time sprint walk to the Immigration Terminal. Once I reached there I realised why Mustu had told me so, as there were serpentine queues lined up to get the Immigration Stamp on the passport from U.K.B.A.^Ref.7 (I wonder if India has something like this?). Luckily for first-time International Students the queue was just q (so to say it was really short). By far the worst part of the first-flying experience was at the Baggage Collection Area! Hordes of suitcases of hordes of passengers from hordes of different flights, all at one big collection site with hordes of suitcase regurgitators (I know this is not a word, but it describes it best), vomiting suitcase after suitcase of all different sizes, shapes and types. It took me three quarters of an hour until I finally lay my hands upon three big purple-ribbon-tied suitcases. Sigh!

And as they say the best is left for the last. Dragging my trolley I reached the end of the walkway which presented a perfect scene from apney Hindi Pikchars, sons waiting to fetch parents, drivers waiting to fetch business honchos, family of twenty waiting to fetch one and one really cherished Friend – Mustu, waiting to fetch another –Me! Seeing Mustu’s face was the best feeling in the world after all the insecurities that hounded me for over a year, about how I will manage without the people I loved the most in Mumbai! Well, an answer to that was the sight of Mustu’s smiling face!

London’s Heathrow has its overload of the Colour Purple and that was a welcoming gift for me! I had my first tryst with how tech-savvy the city was when I saw Mustu pay for the car parking fees at the airport. A drive through the spectacularly neat and tidy roads of London (in a dark green Accent), a couple of detours here and there and the Oh-My-God-I’m-Finally-Here feeling was what made up my drive to No.80 Elmstead Avenue – Mustu’s House!

The Reunion

Meeting Mustu after almost 2 years was reason enough for a big smile, but more smiles awaited me as I met Farhaji^Ref.8 a few hours later (how I missed her warm hugs and her ‘Yashumati’ shouts). Farhaji came over that night and got along some ready-to-eat Pav Bhaji packets, to the delight of one of Mustu’s housemates, Iqbal^Ref.9, as he had never before tasted Pav Bhaji.  It instantly felt like Home, all thanks to Mustu being who he is best at being, himself!

Cuddled in bed as I readied myself to dream I thought of how as kids we read books and see pictures of traffic signals, trees, row houses, stone building, roofs, chimneys and cobbled pavements, all drawn and painted to perfection, and we tell ourselves that it’s only perfect because it is a picture in a story book. But, in London it all looks exactly like it looked in those books. The city is simply pretty!

Nature’s Call

Next morning I woke up to the sounds of nature. The chirping of rather exotic birds from the branches of apple trees, the nibbling of squirrels on ripening pears, the fluttering of parrots and the pitter-patter of water. To my astonishment Mustu’s house had a garden in its backyard, a step away from the huge glass doors that separated the room from it. I also realised there was this it’ll-creak-if-you-move tendency in most houses in London.  With every shift, step, walk, sit, close-door, open-drawer, start-heater, stop-microwave there was a sound wave that emanated and passed by the whole house informing everyone present of what everyone was up to!

We-Tube

Post all the refreshing routine that governs every morning, I departed for my first ever Tube-Ride. Ah! Now where do I begin to talk about the tubes? It’s completely technologically managed. The stations are so well marked, you can never get lost. The Tube Map is complicated and I love that! There are thirteen different tube lines with different routes and colours allotted to them (Mustu’s house is on the Metropolitan Line, and its designated colour is Purple, seriously no exaggerations here!) The security is strict. The updates on the stations can be clearly heard. The travel rules are all-encompassing and most importantly are followed by everyone! The tubes are almost never late. Though there are tube strikes on occasions (I experienced one of those in the following days). The doors are automatic and so are some tube trains (DLR Line has no Train Driver!). The advertisements all over are witty and their presentation is impeccable. The Tube system is just a dot away from perfection. So meticulously planned and managed that even if they have any blockages they call it ‘Planned Disruption’. Oyster manages a bulk of their ticketing, C.B.S. manages all advertisements. The Tube service is a part of a bigger superset called T.F.L. (Travel for London) which includes Buses, Trams, Cycles (taken up by Barclays), Boats, Rails, Taxis, Minicabs, Coaches and Walking!

{For complete details of all lines, mail me}

UoW

Before I delve further, I shall illustrate to you all about the University of Westminster (henceforth referred to as UoW). In the global rankings by Webometrics, UoW stands at 854 and was started as The Royal Polytechnic Institution by Quintin Hogg^Ref.10 in 1838. It has runs its seven schools at four campuses with over 22,000 students (including 5,000 international students). My one-year postgraduate course of MA / Msc Applied Market and Social Research comes under the School of Social Sciences and Humanities which is based at its Regent Street Campus (which by the way is the UoW’s Headquarters).

A Road Less Travelled...

On my first day as a vagabond, I walked up and down the City of Westminster – Baker Street, Great Portland Street, Regents Street to name a few. London as a city is a circle divided into different districts and each district is divided into boroughs. I met my Course Leader Derrick Wright^Ref.11 and visited the School Registry Office at Wells Street. Within a fraction of seconds my enrolment was processed and a brand new photo identity bar-coded swipe card furnished to me for access to all resources at the UoW. Talk about technology!

The streets of Westminster are lined with only stone buildings. Each one surpassing the other in terms of grandeur, design and history. There are some sky scrapers as well, but mostly in the main city. The administration and the local governments have brilliantly packaged this city. Each and every street at each and every corner is named; every building has its number imprinted on it. The zebra crossings are automatically managed. As and when pedestrians need to cross they press the green button on the signal and the signals turn to red signalling the cars to stop. All the bill boards and hoardings for the shops, malls, restaurants (there are a million restaurants to say the least) are aesthetically done to seamlessly merge in with the other surroundings. Historic round plaques mark important spots describing the details of which famous personalities from history lived there. Fountains, statues and expansive gardens are very easy to find and relax at. The street lights are artistically crafted, with round bouquets of ferns and flowers hanging down from them. There are maps galore at every junction and inside every building. There are designated lanes for buses, taxis and cycles. The window displays are larger than life and the malls which showcase them are even larger. Exhibition galleries, theatres and museums are dispersed throughout the city. The city could well be a Karan Johar film set sans the people in them! The best way to see the city is on foot, just walk your way on a road less travelled and discover the city through your eyes!

Muggles-Bubbles

London is a collection of diverse races, ethnicities and cultures. Tourists, migrants, international students and citizens work together in tandem to keep the wheels of this city rolling. Every fifth face is an Asian and there are times when you will find more Non-Britishers than Britishers around you. Everyday language is rather formal and polite. Work here happens rather slowly. Each one is contained within them and mind’s their own business. When in a tube, no one will even raise an eye here or there. Everyone just does their own thing, living their own magical life. It does give them a rather self-centred semblance but when called upon, each and everyone is ready to lend a helping hand forward. It is as if each one is living in their own bubble, oblivious and nonchalant about everyone else until you prod them for anything, and once they know you have poked them, they will come forward and connect, and if you would not have made the first move do not be surprised if they’d live in their bubble forever.

Left-Right-Left

My first lecture at the UoW was supposed to be held on the 28^th of September 2010, but it got cancelled! This gave me another day to simply faff (I will soon apply to the authorities managing the English Dictionary to designate this as a legitimate English word) around the place. I visited all the buildings of the UoW in Central London. In doing so I passed by some jaw-dropping places - the Apple Store, Madame Tussauds Museum, Regents Park, Hamleys and the likes. Getting acquainted with the city rules was quite an interesting learning process. Every time I questioned myself about something, someone around me would do something that would answer that something question of mine! Like when walking on the footpaths if I wondered when and how was I supposed to cross here, because the driving rules are very strict, I noticed how people would wait at the signals and press those yellow buttons which would make the signal turn red. On another occasion while travelling in the tubes I wondered if I could use my-walking-laws on the escalators rather than waiting for it to take me up and down at its own sluggish pace. And while I wondered, a stream of people at jet speed would get onto the escalator and walk all over it, but they stuck to the left side of the escalator. Thus, it dawned upon me that the slow coaches can wait on the right while the rapids could sprint away from the left, instead of doing what I was doing - waiting on the left like a slow coach!

The Sorcerer’s Stone

It was my third day in London and how could I stay any longer without meeting the third person from the ‘Super-Trio’ that made up Farha, Mustu and Paras^Ref.12. Meeting Paras taught me another important London-Lesson – places in London always sound the same but are actually not the same! I was supposed to meet him at West Hampstead station but I successfully fell into the Random-Nomenclature-Trap and got muddled up between Hampstead (Northern Line, black), West Hampstead (Metropolitan Line, purple), Hampstead Heath (London Overground, double orange) and West Ham (District Line, dark green and Hammersmith and City Line, pink (Yes, there are major tube stations which are converging points for more than one tube line)) Yet again, the Tube Map came to my rescue and I finally went all smiles once again as this bought my Harry-Potter-Book-One-Fantasy to life. I finally lay my hands on the elixir of life. I met Paras – The Sorcerer’s Stone!

UoW has its Student Accommodation Services running at five different buildings. The one for postgraduate students is called by the name of Wigram House (closest tube station – Victoria on the Victoria Line,blue). Prachi^Ref.13, Rishitu^Ref.14 and Divesh^Ref.15 had each got themselves a Small Room here to stay. The building completely made in red stone was in an area called Ashley^Ref.16 Gardens (but as expected there were no gardens around). Paras brought me here to try and get me a room as well. The waiting room on the ground floor became an H.R. College Common Room. Prachi, Divesh, Rishitu, Paras, Dhruv^Ref.17 and myself all packed into the cuddly sofas, pool table by the side enjoyed the evening updating each other on our lives. After crunching under the weight of the baby elephant on my back (read: my bag) I ended the day at Wembley Park (where Paras and Farha stay with their housemate Emily^Ref.18) with some lip smacking ready-to-cook Indian dinner.

A Wednesday

Finally came the middle of the week, the longest day (if you go by spelling) – ‘(A) Wednesday’! I woke up to a different London, a weeping London. Yes, it was pouring! Within three days of being in this city I realised that the weather Gods here were terminally demented and would unleash upon Londoners a variety of climatic conditions and weather patterns in a short span of time. Umbrella in hand I left for the UoW’s New Cavendish Street Campus. I had to make a couple of inquiries and finish some paperwork with regards to my Scholarship.

There is this peculiarity about change. When change happens and you are adapting to a new way of life there is this eagerness and excitement. This is because with every grain of sand that trickles down in an hour glass in a dungeon deep beneath the Pyramids, life brings you closer to one of those numerous ‘oh-this-is-going-to-my-first-time’ moments. And this long day made me experience that same excitement as I entered for my first lecture at the University of Westminster (I know I mentioned before that henceforth I shall refer to it as UoW, but this is a huge moment and writing it out in full brings across the magnitude of the situation, I was really really excited)!

Lecturer – Prof. Malcom Hogg^Ref.17

Time – 18:00 to 21:00

Location – Regent Street Room No. 154

Module – 1MSR7A1 Applied Social and Market Research in Context

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I reached the University early (stop giving me that shocked look!). Yes, I reached early and rushed up to the room. From the peep-in window I saw unlikely candidates for students. Individuals dressed in tie-coats, long jackets, bags by their chairs, office files resting on their desks; thus, thinking it’s the wrong class I rushed back down to the foyer to inquire with the receptionist if he was aware of a change of room. He retorted, ordering me to look it up properly as there were no change of rooms. I re-rushed to that same room and read the sign on its door above the peep-in window, it read Room No. 154. Knowing at the back of my mind that this is still the wrong room and knowing that I will be inviting uncalled embarrassment for barging into a random lecture, I unlocked the door knob and stepped inside. Some faces turned, one smiling one (Malcolm’s) and the back of my mind wrapped in embarrassment was pulverized into nothingness; it was indeed my class, it was the correct room.

We kicked-off with a brief introduction on all of us, followed by a PPT presentation and some class activities related to the topic for the day. It was a refreshing change from the classrooms in which we study back in India. The methods applied, the teaching tools, the format of the course, the syllabus, the student-mix and the professors.

THfreshURSDAY - The World is Flat ...Or is it?

The fourth day of the week arrived (for everyone whose wondering, India adopted the Indian Standard IS 7900:2001 which states that Monday is the first day of the week and not Sunday as it was considered in ancient India!).  The day started off with bus-rides all across central London, and I landed up at Edgware Road (once again the nomenclature played truant; Edgware and Edgware Road are two different places). I was on a hunt to find the best bank in London, which would give me the best services for a basic student account. Opening a bank account here is as easy as popping peanuts into your mouth! If you follow all the steps you should have everything in place within a week. The procedure is full proof and it is strict. Banks apparently have a centralised system which track credit defaulters (as a measure to reduce risk) back to years and years in the past on the basis of their client’s addresses. So in case someone who stayed at a place before you, had a tainted track record with handling money, he/she would leave a bit of their taint on you, if you happened to have moved into a defaulting a place of stay with a defaulting history. This is another parameter people judge while renting/purchasing property – what is its credit history.

The UoW commences its academic year with an International Student’s Welcome Week and I had made it in time to attend the last event of that celebrated week – The Fresher’s Fair. The word ‘fresher’ here applies to all ‘first’ year students. No, not in that sense of the word ‘first’, in the other sense of the word ‘first’. ‘First’, implying all students who have entered the university for the first time ever, irrespective of the course they have applied to or year they are studying in. The Fresher’s Fair was charged with energy and stuffed with stalls put up by different student’s associations and societies. So much information bombarded about very interesting types of clubs and societies. The UoW Student’s Union is the main body under which exist around 100 societies. I took a fancy to the Chaplaincy Service (only because they were going to organise a Christmas Choir (Anglican alternative spelling for ‘choir’ is ‘quire’) and the UoW Hindu Society (they introduced themselves with ‘Pranam’). It felt like the world had arrived there. It was overwhelming to see the young blood of our international diversity pooled into one place. Bumping into every quarlternate (another invented-word awaiting its legitimacy, it means ‘every fourth’) person with that baby elephant on my back and two free-bags with palm full of freebies and flyers in either hand I trotted out of this globe onto the erstwhile flat earth up on the foyer.

With every consecutive wave washing the shores of the beaches in Hawaii, the day progressed further and it was time for another lecture (second at the UoW, first for that Module).

Lecturer – Prof. Mia Lorenz^Ref.18

Time – 17:30 to 20:30

Location – Regent Street Room No. 156

Module – 1MSR7A3 Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Topic – Introduction to the Module: Research Concepts & the

Research Process

The same set of classmates assembled (with one new entrant) but the lecture was a tangent from the one held on the previous day. We discussed, deliberated and adopted Class Rules and Regulations*, introduced ourselves once again discussed the module we would be learning over the course of the next twelve weeks. Winter was soon approaching but with every passing lecture the ice between all of us started to melt! No winter can block this form of social warmth.

Global Tutelage (erstwhile Village)

As I mentioned the basic dynamics of my University earlier (go back to the header UoW), I shall now introduce you to the format of how this course runs. The course has seven Modules.  Assessment for each module happens only through Coursework (that implies that there are no written examinations). Passing each module bestows you with Credits. The total credits acquired at the end of the year reveres you with Master’s Degree. Passing percentages for each module are varied depending on the coursework. The annual study year is divided into two semesters of twelve weeks each. Out of the twelve weeks, ten weeks are Teaching Weeks and two are Guided Independent Study (GIS) Weeks (basically self-study weeks). In the first semester there are three modules and in the second semester there are four modules. And finally above all of this, UoW offers this course in three formats – Full-Time (One Year-All 7 Modules), Part-Time (Two Years – 7 Modules spread across the two years) and Diploma (Select Modules for securing qualifications with the Market Research Society (MRS)).  Since I was a Full-Time student, out of the three modules I was studying in the first semester, two modules had the same set of people (the new Full-Time, Diploma and Part-Time students), one module had another set of students (the new Full-Time with last year’s Part-Time students). The course was an applied course, and this ensured that the curriculum was heavy on the practicality side rather than the theoretical side. It was meant to aid you to learn and understand the research industry peepli style – Live and in action!

Education here is a continuing concept. The notion we have on the other side of the world is of five years of graduation and then immediately completing a Master’s. Here people take up further education and do their Master’s at any time post graduation, in any subject they wish to and there is no limit on the number of Master’s you can do. Another advantage is that a Master’s degree here takes one year to complete rather than two years, which is prevalent in other parts of the world.

This justified the mix of individuals who I saw across the glass before my first lecture. At the end of that lecture, sitting on the other end of that glass amongst them, I realized why those people from all walks of life were a part of the course. Some who were fresh out of their graduation, others who were deep into their work-life and wanted to learn more about the industry they were working in (Research in this case), some who had branched out to diversify the knowledge they had and had taken up the course to learn a totally new subject while others who wished to get their membership with the MRS.

Metamorphosis

Bit by bit the four days hauled up the weight of the upcoming heavy weights – Friday, Saturday and Monday and finally the weekend arrived with a thud! Everyday heading back home to Mustu’s home I kept wondering how Mustu would have managed all alone, all by himself, with no ‘Mustu’ there to receive him at the airport and no No.80 Elmstead Avenue to call home for his initial days here in London. I felt happy, simple happy, at the fact that good old friends from good old septuagenarian Independent India where there all around. The butterfly in me hadn’t curiously ended up like Benjamin Button but had progressed to another level of Metamorphosis. The start of which was cracking the cocoon of the people from my past (who are remembered every time my (London) Eye blinks) and emerge to cross paths at the gates of future with those who were meant to at the hands of Destiny.

The first museum I visited in London was Ripley’s Believe it or Not!, (it’s not a grammatical error, the name of the museum has an exclamation mark after it, so the coma after it is justified, just clarifying!) accompanied by an old school friend, Pavan Daswani^Ref.19. Meeting him after three years was reason enough for Nostalgia to catwalk up on the ramp of my memory what followed were three hours of the best runway show I’ve seen, Nostalgia looked beautiful! From funny instances from the heydays to trying to give the names of the teachers a face as well, it was surprising what Nostalgia could do. He treated me to the largest portion of French fries that I have ever eaten, sprinkled liberally with the infamous Peri Peri masala whose origins are disputed by Portugal, Spain and South Africa. Nando’s (at Euston Square, Brunswick, mind you not Euston that is another place) specialises in these Peri Peri dishes and is quite a haven for the one’s craving a strong spicy dollop of taste on their tongues. The museum visit that followed the lunch was nothing out of the world, but reading about the artefacts, the biography of Robert Ripley (travelled to 200 countries, I suppose his passport was as thick as a novel by the end) and the Mirror Maze (the best I’ve been too) were the highlights.

In the coming weeks – The End of Week One (Meeting Aditi...Gandhi Jayanti in London...Westfield Shopping Mall & Dinner at Wembley Park)