Travels through the English Countryside - Part 3

There's a big smile on my face as I write this, because my exam scheduled on Wednesday has just been postponed. In fact, it took quite a number of 'mediated conference calls' with the weather gods for them to make climate in Brighton chilly enough for the University to reschedule exams. They were worried we- the procrastinators - would freeze to death in the under-heated exam hall and more importantly, many of the earlier stated category who waited for the last possible day to return from their breaks, are still stranded in airports across the world..Wonder when Britain will gear up for the snow? So with these thoughts let me take you on the last leg of my journey through the English countryside. So where were we? Yeah, on the way to Dewsbury near Leeds..on Xmas eve...the landscape was totally frozen and the National Express Bus I boarded from Leicester St.Margaret's Station filled with many brown faces...By now, I'm used to this Asianisation of England...So there I was back to the book - each leg of travel was as eagerly awaited as the arrival at the destination... Now Dewsbury is a quaint little town nestled some half hour away from Leeds...So if you are taking a train, Leeds is the easiest point for you. Another Asian dominated hub, with the Yorkshire twang so pronounced that for a week after my return, i was 'u'ing my o's...hmmm..how do I explain that? Think Geoffrey Boycott...yeah, that's a good example of Yorkshire in action!! And another round of graciously overwhelming Indian hosting ensued...This time, by a hardcore career woman turned housewife, who had taken the task to be Super Mom very very seriously...So there she was juggling roles of SuperMooom with being Gracious Host and holding all the balls in the air without dropping it even once!! So on Xmas Day, she entertained 'three' kids - 2 little girls and one kid-at-heart, thoroughly as the British take closing everything down completely - very very seriously...Nothing moves anywhere in the UK - perhaps they preparing for the massive outpouring of mankind into every possible shop and outlet the next day...26th, the Boxing Day...for the SALE...everything that can be tagged is normally on SALE...and I think many wait for Boxing Day to shop for the year ahead...Or so I heard...But my interest in Boxing Day was less for the sale and more for the chance to head to York.... All we could do was a drive through this really really ancient town...but what the heck...when you have the British History concisely reduced to about 600 pages in your hand - even old York shutting down its museums and the York Minster for the holidays, can't dampen the spirits... The first mention of York in the book is about 495 AD when the Saxons came pillaging...'and the sheer weight of numbers of these pagan warriors overwhelmed the indigenous Britons'. Walking around York looking at stones, that have seen centuries of history - bloodshed - there's a chronicling of killing of Jewish moneylenders by English kings, and further uprisings in the book....English kings were such sadists, cruel and debauched..and then there is the meddling of religion in governance... And if the Archbishop of Canterbury is the biggest Christian voice for the Anglicans, then Archbishop of York is as big a person....Maybe a shade his junior, like the CEO and COO of Anglican England, I think....Well, the latest one, apparently is a huge personality, literally too...And that's where he lives...The Bishopthorpe castle. These Anglican head priests, I tell you - being the God's messengers come with some pretty good perks, dont you agree? Well, like my book tells me, the 'thorpe' in the Bishopthorpe suggests a Viking influence...and that means that predates the Normans and the Saxons also... Someday, I'd like to go back and get acquainted with each building personally. That will be good fun, perhaps in the summer this time. The euphoria of seeing a white white countryside is slowly fading as I see Britain come to a complete standstill in the worst winter it has experienced in decades. Let me leave the York tale incomplete for now....and move on...to another quaint little blip on the English Map....from Dewsbury to Uttoxeter...that falls just outside Derby - in Staffordshire. By far, the prettiest countryside to drive through. They say, anywhere you drive through in England, the countryside is alluring. But the drive to Derby or even Birmingham..the nearest big cities will ensure that by the time you reach there, you have a beautiful smile on your face. I guess, the wattage of mine was increased by the spotting of a rainbow, that stretched teasingly before me. I would have liked going to hunt for the pot of gold at the end of it...but we had a movie date in Birmingham...Can you see one end of the rainbow in this picture? Look hard and to the mid portion of the photograph and you should be able to spot it too!!! Ooh, just the last thing...snippet, trivia - whatchumaycallit....Watching a Hindi movie in a multiplex in Birmingham is like being transported to a theatre in Punjab - the ambience, the smells, even the conversations are so authentically 'recreated', I had to pinch myself a couple of times to remind myself that this was England and not India.. I think I shall leave this travellogue unfinished here....Somewhere, this chapter feels half baked...But like a painting that was kept out to dry for too long, somehow it feels like the meat dried up with the juices..Someday, I might dust out some other memories of this trip and let it surface somewhere else...For now, apologies for an incomplete blog...and keep reading!!!

Travels through the English Countryside - Part 1

I wanted to begin this serialised version yesterday, but you know how things are..one thing led to the other, and as usual on the New Year's Day...newly made resolutions got broken... So here I am on Day 2 of 2010, raring to tell you about the last two weeks of December that whizzzzed past...and Im not exaggerating... So where do I begin... Ok on the 22nd morning...after a night spent in restless anticipation of the day ahead, calculating what all can go wrong, how many things can I goof up.....I woke up to darkness, the sun was slumbering...the snow looked like the ugly mottled cousin of the pretty princess I eulogised in my previous posts...and I knew one step this way or that on the slippery ice, I'd be patting a very bruised ass for a long time.. So with a backpack and an overnighter ( I try to pack pretty light!) and my book for the journey in hand, I set out... My clumsiness is worth an entry into the annals of the Clunks...and soon enough I went skidding across the snow, but landed in a neat graceful kneel....And there began my adventure... Didn't want to get late to catch the train from Falmer to Brighton - I have already once witnessed my train leaving without me to Brighton as I dragged my bulk into the station..So I hurried and I reached there twenty minutes before the train...and just as I was feeling incredibly proud of myself came moment number 2 of my grand adventure... Out came my battered and bruised mobile out of my coat pocket, had a disagreement with my slippery glove and pop it went...out of my hand, on to the platform....one bounce, two bounce and then the third...right on to the tracks...With my mouth in a perfect O, I stood there for half a minute, unable to believe I just did that... In that thirty seconds, I had a swift debate in my head, whether to abandon my mobile there, for unlike in India where jumping on to the tracks is second nature for many...here, such foolhardiness isnt exactly applauded...but then all my contacts...the sobering thought that if i lose this phone, my student poverty could force me to go without one for a long time...But what clinched the deal was that it doubles as a good camera too... Thirty seconds later, a pip squeak emerged from my throat....Helppppppppp....At 7 in the morning, at a sleepy station like Falmer, trust me, there is not even the odd dog to look at you sympathetically...So abandoning bag and baggage, I rushed across the overbridge to the ticket window...and soon enough the English Samaritan followed me with a rubbish pick to help retrieve my battered phone...Now with me around, do you think adventure ends there? Just as we reached the doors of the station, I heard a train whizz through the tracks where my poor mobile had plopped itself..... I closed my eyes tight shut and hoped that I wouldnt see a mutilated handset...With a laugh at my theatrics, my Samaritan trudged forth..What did he care about seeing a mangled phone corpse? But by the time we crossed the overbridge, a little flutter of hope heaved in my heart..no fragments could be spotted on the track...we moved closer and there it was...my little companion of two years..fallen on its display screen belly in the snow collected on the tracks.. In another thirty seconds, it was back in my ungloved hands...I didnt want to take a chance now, did I? And in less than a minute after that, arrived my train for Brighton... Now you'd think that's all there was to the journey....My first leg of the journey was from Falmer to Brighton- London Victoria. Take the Underground to St.Pancras and then proceed to the Midlands Train departure and board a train for Leicester... Brighton - London Victoria journey : No Mishaps to report...but yes, the driver of my train could just not find parking space at the station...So we waited 15 minutes outside the station... Ahhhh...I know you are thinking so why is an Indian used to stretchable time cribbing? Well, because that 15 minutes cost me my connecting train to Leicester... There I was with steam literally coming out of my nostrils as I hurried through the Underground and across a very crowded King's Cross station to the St.Pancras departure area....only to see that my train promptly left on the time it had decided without waiting for me... The next train was to Nottingham and the ticket checker at the entry wanted me to give him one good reason why he should allow me to take that train and not have me buy a new ticket....I put my 'innocent little I dont know what to do look' on and said, 'Coz it wasnt my fault that there were no parking slots at Victoria station for my train from Brighton'..I don't think my reply pleased him much, but he told me he'd stamp my ticket if I gave him a cheery Christmas smile... The ticket punched and on board the Nottingham train to Leicester, I finally allowed myself a smile... And as the train went past a frozen English countryside, I figured, what's Life without a little adventure....With the smile still on my face, I touched my left ear...and the smile promptly vanished.....the lovely silver earring I had hooked into place there : missing!!! Checklist: Trains Missed: 1 Mobile Lost and Retrieved: 1 Wait for Part 2: In Leicester and onward to Dewsbury in Yorkshire..