The London connection

Of all the things I love most in my life - from books to movies, cricket and cars, most of them, quite surprisingly have a London-connection. For example, Sherlock Holmes. He is one of the most loved fictional character (if not the most loved) in my life. While reading his stories over and over again, I have walked with him and Dr. Watson through the alleys of London multiple times. Also, of all the things I read in English literature other than Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" and Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, I don't know if there is any other story from outside England that I love. Tennyson's and Wordsworth's poems, Conan Doyle's, Agatha Christie's, Jerome's and du Maurier's writings, Newton-Cavendish-Maxwell's theories and Nightingale and Livingstone's philanthropy have always made me go visit London.

There is another connection. That is of Calcutta.

The "other" Lansdowne Road

People from outside Calcutta may laugh at me when I say there are a lot of similarities between London and Calcutta. I wouldn't mind if you laugh, I don't blame you either. Looking at the state of Calcutta now, I understand that the crowded dirty streets by no means have any connection with London, but it had, once.

Long long back when the British established the foundation of Calcutta, they made it to mirror London. The same names of streets, the same structure of buildings are still present in Calcutta. I want to go see that too...It is difficult to explain how I feel in this regard, it makes me sad at times for my home city which has fallen from grace decades back...but we can't disregard the similarities...


Let's see what London has in store for us...