There was a clock in our house which was broken. It has been there from the early 1940s and from when I can remember, I knew that it didn't work. When I was in high school, I tried to find out why it didn't work and started poking around. As the clock was anyway sitting on a pile of junk, no one really told me not to disturb it. I could do whatever. That clock was gifted to my great grandfather by the company he worked at when he retired. When I opened and tore apart the back, I found it is supposed to play two chimes - one was Westminster and the other Whittington. I had no clue what they were. I don't remember if I already started Googling at that time or I read about it somewhere but I knew that the Westminster chime was that of Big Ben. Also, my dad said they knew it from listening to BBC radio, that chimed played every half hour (as GMT lags IST by five and half hours). That is the reason I am so familiar with the Westminster chime, the quarter, half, three quarter and full hour with the gongs! I have turned the keys and watched the automation in my clock hundreds of times, I could never be wrong in recognizing it!
When we heard Big Ben chiming from the bus, Arnab said - we must be very close to the river and should just walk there. So we got off the bus and he was right, the river was within 5 minutes of walk. We walked past by some grand buildings, one I remember was Sommerset House and came to see the Thames.
The first glimpse of the river was beautiful. That stream was not just of water, but of history. The skyline seemed to be seeped in history. That one river has seen everything from before the Tudors to this day...generations of rulers, politics, fights for power, expansion of the Empire, World Wars, till the 2012 Olympics! Isn't that fascinating? And all through time, St. Stephen's Clock Tower kept on chiming every quarter...
As we walked across Waterloo Bridge, we could see Westminster Abbey's spiky towers poking from behind the Parliament.
We came back to South Kensington via underground and I had jacket potatoes for the first time. Now I understand why the kids in Enid Blyton's stories would go crazy for it! Oh man, that was heavenly with chicken filling!
When we heard Big Ben chiming from the bus, Arnab said - we must be very close to the river and should just walk there. So we got off the bus and he was right, the river was within 5 minutes of walk. We walked past by some grand buildings, one I remember was Sommerset House and came to see the Thames.
The first glimpse of the river was beautiful. That stream was not just of water, but of history. The skyline seemed to be seeped in history. That one river has seen everything from before the Tudors to this day...generations of rulers, politics, fights for power, expansion of the Empire, World Wars, till the 2012 Olympics! Isn't that fascinating? And all through time, St. Stephen's Clock Tower kept on chiming every quarter...
As we walked across Waterloo Bridge, we could see Westminster Abbey's spiky towers poking from behind the Parliament.
We came back to South Kensington via underground and I had jacket potatoes for the first time. Now I understand why the kids in Enid Blyton's stories would go crazy for it! Oh man, that was heavenly with chicken filling!
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