Idle ramblings

Covent Garden

Nelson's Trafalgar

I don't like to travel with big groups of people. I have seen that from my very little travel experience so far, that if you travel with a group of non-like minded people you end up sacrificing your wishes. If you go to a book fair with someone who hates books and just want to be at the fair to eat popcorn then the sooner you part ways, the better. Same for the London trip, if Arnab hated Sherlock Holmes or wanted to go to nightclubs then it would have been very difficult for both of us. Luckily for us, our tastes are very similar when it comes to travelling (and most other things too, excepting movies and some hobbies). During this tour, as we were just two adults travelling together, we had a lot of flexibility. If we wanted to go somewhere particular, we'd look it up on the map and go. If not, we'd just walk around. One of my friends, who has almost become a globe trotter now emphasized on the benefits of walking around in London. "You'd see many interesting things which are never mentioned in the guide books", he told me.

Charing Cross Station

From the British Museum, we boarded a red double decker (#13 to Aldwych) to go to Covent Gardens where in front of the Royal Opera House Eliza Doolittle first met Prof. Henry Higgins. It was, as I had already imagined, exactly like our dear old New Market. Just a tad cleaner. We wandered about and saw a couple street performers there. One performer was mimicking Charlie Chaplin to which I thought one day Charlie Chaplin roamed about in this city as a penniless boy, and after so many decades someone is earning his bread by Chaplin's imitation in the very same city!

Of the idle ramblings, here is another one I should add. The visit to East

You should recognize the coat of arms if you are from Bengal

India Company's store. All the other things we saw are historical with technically no real connection to my physical being, but this shop bridged the gap between time and place. From "the mid day halt" of Job Charnock to Arnab and I buying tea and chocolates, the thread that runs through is East India Company. We can choose to dislike them from conquering our country, but we cannot disregard them from history and from building Calcutta, the city I have always loved. And like I told Arnab, they haven't changed. They came to Emperor Jahangir as merchants, they were selling us chocolate covered raspberries exactly as the same merchant!

While riding on a bus through Oxford Street and Trafalgar Square we got a great view of the city and suddenly could hear the very famous and very recognizable Westminster Chime. It was so unexpected and amazing at the same time. But before I talk about Big Ben, I will have to write a few lines about "my clock".

Waterloo Bridge