In Bengali, the words "bilet" (meaning England or Great Britain) and America come together in common conversation. "Bilet-America" would mean the western world and in most cases it is used like this - "In Bilet-America, no one would let you throw trash on the streets" or "in Bilet-America, people cannot afford to keep domestic helps". As the words go together while growing up, we had the notion that the places are similar. Later, when I knew that the places are NOT similar, there grew a fascination to compare them. I couldn't help it...
Here are my findings...
The city
Very crowded...too many people going about the city all the time, in the underground, on buses, there is never a dearth of people. Looking at parts of Oxford Street from the double decker I had a hard time convincing myself that it was NOT Calcutta.
The streets are old and narrow and quite unclean at places, especially near the tube stations. There are a lot of "rubbish" on the stairs of the underground.
The houses are quite small compared to here. The buildings look massive but they are separated into things like town houses that share common walls. And mind it, those are old. It's not that the city now doesn't have much space, this concept came from the nineteenth century.
The city is seeped in history. Almost every corner would remind you of that. They have preserved this history beautifully. They don't let you forget that they have a rich history. And they always keep uplifting the Royal stuff. I don't know if it should come under the city or the people, probably both. The Times has half a page of news everyday about the Royal family, where the Queen went, whom she met with. Where Prince of Wales was, what he inaugurated the day before, whom did the Princess Royal give a "Royal Charter" to, etc. etc. etc. And they are very happy about it. The city is decorated with banners for the Queen's Jubilee and they are all eagerly awaiting William and Kate's baby!
What I personally liked about the city, other than the history is the transportation system. If you have a map and basic common sense, you can go anywhere you want to. The underground network is simply amazing. So are the red buses. I have used the underground a lot in Calcutta, but the one in London, with twelve lines and the lines under the river just bowled me over! I am extremely impressed by it. Changing lines is also very simple, you just follow directions...
The people
The people didn't impress me at all. I had to switch my mind to the Calcutta mode while going about the city... Unlike in the US, where everyone you see on the street smiles at you, the server at the restaurant welcomes you happily and everyone calls you by your first name, in London no one really cares! Everyone is very busy and when they talk to you, they call you sir or madam. They greet you with a curt "good morning" and no one would bother to smile at you or engage in small talk on your train ride.
Also, things are very formal. Men wear suit to work, they would carry briefcases and read newspaper in the underground. In the evening, they would religiously read the evening newspaper! Women are extremely well dressed and they don't wear jeans and tennis shoes to work. They wear very pretty dresses, formal ones to work and nice summer dresses else where with very pretty shoes and they all wear heavy makeup. I don't know if this is true for everyone in and around London or is a characteristic of the subset I saw.. but this bewildered me. Especially because I often wear destructed denim and flip flops to work.
Another thing I didn't like is the way they treat "the rest of the World". It is a common human belief that Americans don't know that the rest of the World exists, but I'd say the British are way worse. The guide who took us on the Lord's Cricket Ground tour was talking about the Australians as the "colonials"!!! Quite a few people I met also said derogatory things about Americans and there were two articles that I read on the weekend supplement magazines that came with The Times that said really bad stuff about American fashion and some celebrities. It's not that I personally think Paris Hilton to be a great person, but I wouldn't write an article and call her "the dumb blonde" when she hasn't done anything bad to me.
One thing though... there are a LOT of Blackberry users :D This I liked!
Here are my findings...
The city
Very crowded...too many people going about the city all the time, in the underground, on buses, there is never a dearth of people. Looking at parts of Oxford Street from the double decker I had a hard time convincing myself that it was NOT Calcutta.
 |
| House of H. G. Wells |
The city is seeped in history. Almost every corner would remind you of that. They have preserved this history beautifully. They don't let you forget that they have a rich history. And they always keep uplifting the Royal stuff. I don't know if it should come under the city or the people, probably both. The Times has half a page of news everyday about the Royal family, where the Queen went, whom she met with. Where Prince of Wales was, what he inaugurated the day before, whom did the Princess Royal give a "Royal Charter" to, etc. etc. etc. And they are very happy about it. The city is decorated with banners for the Queen's Jubilee and they are all eagerly awaiting William and Kate's baby!
What I personally liked about the city, other than the history is the transportation system. If you have a map and basic common sense, you can go anywhere you want to. The underground network is simply amazing. So are the red buses. I have used the underground a lot in Calcutta, but the one in London, with twelve lines and the lines under the river just bowled me over! I am extremely impressed by it. Changing lines is also very simple, you just follow directions...
The people
The people didn't impress me at all. I had to switch my mind to the Calcutta mode while going about the city... Unlike in the US, where everyone you see on the street smiles at you, the server at the restaurant welcomes you happily and everyone calls you by your first name, in London no one really cares! Everyone is very busy and when they talk to you, they call you sir or madam. They greet you with a curt "good morning" and no one would bother to smile at you or engage in small talk on your train ride. |
| BlackBerry Q10 |
Another thing I didn't like is the way they treat "the rest of the World". It is a common human belief that Americans don't know that the rest of the World exists, but I'd say the British are way worse. The guide who took us on the Lord's Cricket Ground tour was talking about the Australians as the "colonials"!!! Quite a few people I met also said derogatory things about Americans and there were two articles that I read on the weekend supplement magazines that came with The Times that said really bad stuff about American fashion and some celebrities. It's not that I personally think Paris Hilton to be a great person, but I wouldn't write an article and call her "the dumb blonde" when she hasn't done anything bad to me.
One thing though... there are a LOT of Blackberry users :D This I liked!
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