The journer so far

I can barely stay awake, fighting hard to not fall asleep. And the music I am playing does not seem to help either, Sonu is yelling in the 'Jaane nahin denge' from '3 Idiots'. Nearly 26 hours after I entered the BIAL, I reached London. 26 freaking hours.

From the past 1 month my getting to London was an uncertainity. First it was the client approval, then the VISA which took close to 3 weeks and when everything was settled and I walked in to BIAL I realized the Emirates flight was delayed by 4 hours. Missed my connecting flight as well. The next flight from Dubai to London was 7 hours after I landed in Dubai. My initial tensions gave way to a sense of happiness, the delay meant that Emirates would provide me with hotel accomodation and a transit VISA to stay in Dubai. Though I did not get to roam around Dubai, I did a few firsts in my life. Like for instance taking a relaxed bath in a hot tub, it was so soothing to my bruised body and soul. And a few more firsts I cannot mention in the blog. Checked-out of the hotel 4 hours in advance and went all round the Dubai Duty Free and finally boarded the flight to London - hoping for an uneventful flight, the final leg of my journey to London.

The short stay in Dubai made me decide one thing - that I wanted to work in Dubai at some point in my life. The damn place was literally a melting point of cultures. I probably saw people from all races and countries and ages and religions. I read somewhere that people from over 100 countries stay at Dubai. Never before had I seen such a mix of people, and all this in just the airport. Everybody seemed to know every language (except for the white robed dubai natives of course). And at every turn I could hear the all familiar Malayalam :) The airport and its environs looked so beautiul at night. In spite of the delays I experienced, I will take the Emirates again just so that I can go via Dubai again.

Todat at 7:30 AM GMT I stepped out into chilly London. My cab driver Eduardo, an Italian was already waiting in a Mercedes Benz. This was again a first, getting a ride in a Benz. Eduardo was non-stop, we covered quite a range of topics - from IT in India to his sick pet dog and how bad his health insurance was. The first thing I noticed as the cab went past residential areas was that every house looked the same. Every single house. In fact it reminded me of the Privet Drive from the Harry Potter movies. I even noticed a few houses with the world famous Mangaluru Hanchu.

After settling in the hotel, I decided to go out and explore Harrow a little bit, just so that I don't fall asleep in the room. I took the world-famous London Underground and man was it a let-down. After having travelled in the spanking new Delhi metro last year the London Underground looked so antique. As I stood for my train, a girl in pink tights and pink shoes and Orange nail polish came over to me and asked for directions, she also had a pink bag I believe. As I looked around I saw that a lot of girls were in pink, I rather expected the entire town to be dressed in black and grey. The first thing one would notice in Harrow is the Indian community. 50% of the population was Indian. From Gujju hotels, to punjabi hotels to Mughalai to even a Saravana bhavan on Rayners lane.
I also experienced the famous, unpredictable London rain. One moment it was raining and the next it was gone and then again it appeared outta nowhere.

My first day in London has been quite exciting till now, looking forward to work tomorrow. Time to tuck myself in and have a good nights sleep, its been close to 40 hours now since I had proper sleep..YAWN!!!!!!!