If I have cribbed about life being boring and me being totally jobless... then I sure was in for some surprise... it took a couple of days of my Christmas vacation to bring back the bubbly me on to track... at least to a certain extent...
It all started of with a usual gloomy evening with me sitting in front of the comp and randomly searching for songs on the internet... and then the message tone in my cell went off... was expecting another forward message from someone.. but this was from sammy and it took me by surprise.. she was asking me to check a mail she had sent and said it was about shopping and sight seeing.. I immediately logged on to see what it was all about... Sammy along with Karl & Dani had planned on driving down to Manchester the next day (Thursday) for some sight seeing and shopping and wanted to know if I would be interested in joining them... At first I was a little hesitant coz' then dips' would be all alone the whole day.. I anyways logged on to skype to talk to sammy about it... I told her I would love to join them but I might not be able to coz' of dips.. she asked me if abhi would be interested in coming along... got a green signal from him.. I asked dips and she said she wouldnt mind if I went.. and so it was all planned... Karl & Sammy were gonna pick us up from campus in the morning and the 5 of us were all set to rock! ;)
It was a 45 min journey with Karl at the wheel.. parked the car in some arcade's parking lot.. We first took a walk around the city and then went on to pick up a map from the tourist information centre.. Karl wanted to have coffee and immediately found a starbucks coffee shop.. Having served ourselves some hot coffee we set out towards the town hall.. This place was impressive although we had limited access.. Kinda reminded me of hogwarts!!! nice christmas decorations.. and they had put some jewels for sale... made me regret not getting enough costume jewelery from commercial street... I could have run a business here!!!
From there we went towards the cathedral.. on our way we even saw the manchester wheel.. just like the london eye.. looked good.. but obviously we didnt go in that... there was a huge shopping mall opp to it.. called manchester arnage..This mall had glass windows and the reflection of the wheel on them looked awesome!!! We then moved on to the cathedral.. had half an hour of peace and serenity.. found the experience quite soothing!! :)
After that we decided to enter one of the shopping malls and start the shopping spree... we entered manchester arnage.. awesome decorations as usual inside too!! started entering all the shops.. loads of choices and good discounts also.. shops for electronic gadgets, clothes, shoes, perfumes n so on.. sammy, & dani were the main shoppers :p we entered one shop called westone.. he had an awesome collection of tops and skirts.. I liked all their collections... It was here that I liked one pink & grey colored mix tube top a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I tried the top and it fit me well.. everyone said it was looking very good and insisted that I buy it... I was very tempted but I didnt.. sammy and dani tried convincing me.. but I didnt give in.. finally danni bought the same top in a different color!! We continued the shopping.. had lunch in the mall.. again walked around the shops a little more and then decided to get out of the shopping mall and enjoi an evening walk on the streets. it was getting dark and with the decorations the lanes were looking very good.. We continued looking around.. we saw a store called primark and got in of course.. this shop had some good stuff as well... abhi bought a skirt for his girl friend, sammy bought another trouser and I bought a top as well.. we got out of primark and we decided to watch a movie in imax.. we went to the theater and checked out the movie timings... but neither could we find anything suitable nor were we able to collectively decide on a movie... so we decided to head back..
We planned to have dinner and watch a movie at karl's place.. had another round of discussion as to which movie to watch and zeroed in on Lord of the Rings III. Karl & Sammy dropped abhi, dani and me at the uni and went home to prepare dinner. We dropped what ever stuff we had/bought at home, changed into our night wear and went to sammy's place in Dani's car. We had spaghetti for dinner, watched LOTR III and came back home at 4:00 in the morning.. slept around 4:30.
The day was a whole lot of fun.. I liked manchester.. In comparison to lancs, it is a bigger city with quite some shopping malls and places on interest!! :) what enthralled me the most was the christmas decorations... the city looked absolutely fantastic with all the lightings and colorful hangings!!
Friday morning I woke up at 12:30... had my bath. prepared and had lunch.. then around evening dani, dipti and I went to sammy's place to bake cookies. The initial plan was actually dipti n me going earlier to watch the harry potter movies.. but all of us were tired.. so that didnt work out.. we went over only in the evening for the cookie baking session which was a whole lot of fun... it took us close to 7 hours to finish baking several batches of 5 different varieties of cookies.. but it was worthwhile since the cookies tasted absolutely *yummy*!! We got back home at 2:00 in the morning... dipti and I had maggie noodles for dinner and then popped off to sleep!!!!!
Saturday, I didnt do much.. got up late.. got ready.. studied a bit.. watched some movie on the net.. I think it was vivah.. typical melodramatic rajshri movie!!!
On sunday, abhi, jalpa, ayush, davin, dani and I went to sammy & karl's place for the christmas dinner.. that was good fun.. listened to christmas carols, had a nice dinner. We had to get gifts for one another.. all of us had wrapped a gift and put it in a bag and then each person got to pick one gift from the bag.. That was an interesting experience.. something totally new!!! and then we sat and played cards.. This was not one of those usual card games we play back at home.. this one was called flux and it had some weird rules!! however, after two rounds everyone got a grip of it and then on there was no stopping us!!! after four five rounds of the game, we took a break.. we were just chatting casually.. then suddenly sammy announced that they have another surprise gift for one of the guests... and then she gave me another parcel all neatly gift wrapped.. no points for guessing what it was!! sammy had got me the tube top I had liked a lot, as a christmas gift... and I think that was awesomely sweet of her to do so!! :) after that.. we resumed another round of the game, chit chatted for a while and got back home.. that was again at 3:00 in the morning.. and I went to bed at 4:00.
On Monday, I got up as usual at 11:00.. got ready.. prepared and had lunch.. studied a bit... then chatted with friends.. evening went over to another friend - vivek's flat.. sat there and chatted for a while about what each of us had done over the past few days and then I got back home. and suddenly plans of going to preston were made for boxing day (26th Dec). On boxing day, all the shops put up huge discounts on all their stuff as a part of the christmas and new year festivities!! Ayush, dipti, poonam, kanti, abhi, davin and I were supposed to go.. we made plans to leave at 9:00 in the morning.. Preston is about 15-20 mins drive from our place..
I got up at 8:00 on tuesday.. got ready as quickly as possible and was all set to go only to realize that abhi & davin were not making it.. but the rest of us went ahead.. we had booked a taxi to go to preston.. the taxi guy was an indian too. his name was younis n he was from ahamedabad. he dropped us off in front of primark, one of the popular malls around the place. I purchased a denim jacket, a tee-shirt [both for my bro], a small top for a little girl in b'lore - anjali, who is very very very close to me. I have known her since the day she was born and I am very attached to her.. then I got myself a black skirt and pullover. Dipti, ayush, poonam and kanti did some shopping too.. then we went to another store debbinhams.. awesome collection of clothes and accessories... but very expensive.. looked around all the shops in the street.. then in a shop called bossy boots in st.george's arcade, I bought a much wanted pair of boots... couldn't find anything else appropriate for anybody else in the family.. hoping do their shopping in summer.. We didnt get to see much of preston as the whole day went into shopping.. but the one thing I noticed was this place had a lot of Asians!!!
Got back home in the evening around 6:00.. dipti and me tried out all the dresses we bought (including my tube top) and clicked snaps :d sent them all home.. :) In the night, abhi, dani, karl, ayush, davin and I got together to have some german cake and cookies from dani's home for christmas.. played another 4-5 rounds of the same card game.. got back home at 1:15 or something.. wrote mom n dad a biggg mail.. then went to sleep...
The next two - three days were sullen... life got back to be boring & monotonic... but I was hoping that the new year would rejuvenate all of us!! :) I wanted to have a party and have fun on new year's eve!! Along with a few other friends, it was decided to spend new year's eve at my place.. we had dinner together.. listened to loud music... cut a cake at 12:00 to welcome 2007 and continued partying until 1:00 !! Vivek, Virat, Dipti, Jaya, Rushba, Nimit, Chandrma, Arsalan, Gopi, Amit, Ashish, Anupma and I were the ones celebrating together and I enjoyed a lot :)
And after all this fun, it dawned that exams were fast approaching and we had assignments to complete as well.. so the next two weeks until Jan 15th went into preparations, assignment completions, a little bit of masti now and then!!!
Saturday, 10 February 2007
Monday, 18 December 2006
A Home Away From Home
As I look out of my room window and see the sun fading behind the horizon, I pause to look at the time.. The clock has just struck 4:00 p.m. and already the city is enveloped with darkness. Shops are closing up and people are on their way back home.. I am compelled to think of the days in bangalore when even at 4:00 in the evening it seemed like as if the day had just begun.. people thronging the streets, vendors hawking their products, kids out to play, elderly people setting out for an evening walk.. I wonder at how all these moments have evaporated from my life.. It has been almost 3 months since my arrival in the UK.. and yet.. there is that feeling of homesickness.. there is that wanting to run back home.. the longing for indian food.. the desperateness to eternally speak to loved ones... And then.. the chilling wind brings me back to reality.. the bare life that I am existing in right now..
Initially, the prospect of pursuing my masters in a premier institution in the UK sounded very inviting and exciting. A break from work.. the joy of getting back to college days.. to earning to learn something new to improve my skill set.. all this seemed promising enough.. It took quite a bit of convincing for my parents and brother to finally agree to me doing my MS in IT & Management from the Lancaster University. I had never been out alone before.. This was my first and it was challenging.. Thursday, September 28th 2006 was the 'D' day.. Applications, work formalities, visa, shopping, meeting up with friends, spending time with family, last minute packings and phone calls.. in all this hustle and bustle time just flew.. and before I knew I was all set to fly.. to move from being a protected daughter to a confident and independent individual. I was traveling with Dipti, a school friend of mine, who was also doing her masters from the same university. My family was there to see me off... I was through with the emigration check without and hindrances and had an hour's time before I could board the flight.. Surprisingly, I shed no tears. As the flight took off I felt equally nervous and excited. The journey was uneventful. I spent the 11 hours sleeping, bearing to eat the food served and watching some movies on the television. We landed in London, Heathrow airport all safe and went through the required formalities. Dipti's cousin, Balaji was there at the airport to pick us up. We intended to stay over at his place for 2 days before we moved on to Lancaster, our final destination. The taxi drive in a Mercedes, to his place was ideal for me to collect some of my thoughts. As I admired the scenic beauty, I tried to mentally adjust myself to the new life I was going to start. It hadnt totally sunk into me that I was going to be away from home for at least a period of 2 years. I was unable to stop the juggling of my thoughts. I had this weird feeling of being on a vacation. As soon as we arrived at Balaji's place, I could hear the jingles of the phone. It was my parents calling up to confirm that I had arrived safely. The minute I heard my mother's voice over the phone, reality sunk in. I tried my level best to keep my voice steady and sound normal. I told myself that I would surely survive through this ordeal.
On the day we landed in London, i.e. the 28th of September 2006, we did not do much. We just relaxed a bit to get used to our new surroundings. We found it surprisingly easy to get adjusted to the time difference within the first day. Day 2 was eventful. We decided to tour london. We set off early in the morning with maps in our hand and clear instructions from Balaji. We opted to travel via the tube trains. I was totally facinated by them and thoroughly enjoyed traveling in them. Our first stop was to the Wax Musuem - Madam Tussads which was opposite to the University of Westminster. We were faced by a long queue and eventually we made it to the ticket counter. The minute we entered we were totally transformed into a world of surreal reality. There were figurines of famous personalities from actors to sport stars to politicians to freedom fighters and the seemed to close to be plastic. The 2 two tours was hoards of fun and we were clicking away snaps in a variety of poses with all the models. End of tour brought us to the real world. We proceeded towards our next place of interest - The Big Ben. The tower tall clock looked magnificent though, we did not spend much of our time there. We then went on to look at the London bridge. We had a nice view of the england fort and had a walk over the tower bridge too. Further plans of visiting the London Eye was canceled by the arrival of twilight joined by short spells of rain. We reached back home all excited and tired out at the same time. It had proved to be an eventful day.
However, the enthusiasm did not last long.. the very next day a morose atmosphere swarmed us and the feeling of homesickness crept in.. I desperately wanted to get back home.. So, the third day in london was spent in cribbing about being away from home and in consoling each that we would soon get adjusted to the new place. Day 4, Oct 1st, Sunday, was time to get moving to Lancaster. We were traveling via the National Express Stage Coach ans hence had to sit through six and half hours of travel. Once again, we spent time cribbing, consoling each other, taking turns reading a novel and sleeping. We arrived directly at the university's underpass at 6:00 in the evening and to our dismay it started raining. Along with dipti and me there were two more people from India, Ayush and Himanshu, who had taken the same bus along with us. We had with us heavy luggages to trudge along and we had no idea on where we had to go!! We waited for a while knowing not what to do. We were mentally strained and physically tired out. After a while, Ayush and I set out to see if we could catch hold of someone who could help us out. Luckily we were able to locate the student union in Alexandra Square where we were able to explain our predicament to the volunteers who promised to send across porters to help us out. 20 mins of shivering in the cold saw the arrival of the student volunteers who helped us carry our luggages in trolleys unto our accommodation. It was a 15 min walk from the underpass to the graduate college, our home for the year to come. We were dropped off at the porter's lodge where we had to register ourselves and collect our house keys. Dips and me were destined to stay in House 18 - Scales. I was allocated room 14 and she 17. Eventually, with another student's help, we made it to our house. Luckily, our rooms were on the ground floor and we did not have to go through the pain of lugging up our suitcases across the floors. We were too tired to unpack or cook a nice dinner. We had carried with us a lot a ready made mtr stuff and maggie noodles to help us survive the first week until we got used to the new place. After a quick dinner and another round of assurances off to sleep we went.
The Induction program was supposed to start from the 2nd of Oct. Dips and me set of together early in the morning to check out our schedules. It was our first walk around the campus. We went to the Info Lab department to check up with dipti's program. She was lucky enough to not have much on her schedule. I was next and our destination was the management school. I had a busy line up starting from wednesday, the 4th of oct unto the weekend. I had orientation programs the whole day which included meeting up with lecturers, getting to know our subjects, our options, our learning groups, the mode of studying and so on. My class strength was 55 which constituted 16 indians. There were 4 bangloreans including me.The first week also included ITMOC social events in the evenings which I didnt enjoy much because it seemed to involve only people getting together and drinking. Ours was an enthusiastic batch and I made friends quickly. During the intro week we also had special Indian meets along with other meetings, arranged by some of the senior students and the GSA which is a part of the graduate college. This gave us the chance to meet the other graudate students. The orientation week kept me busy and once classes began a mechanical routine set it. It was home to class and class to home. Weekends we used to goto the city to do our grocery shopping from Sainsburys. During the first weekend however, along with Vivek, Shruthy, Ayushman, Sourav and Ankur we went to ASDA in Horwich Parkway to do our grocery shopping. We took the train via Preston. We also got to see the football stadium. The day was tiring and on our way back 7 of us had a total of around 22 bags to carry.
Only two months have elapsed and yet it seems that its been ages since we have come over. Studies, assignments & presentations kept my mind occupied. Though, everyday, on my walk to the management school and back home my thoughts always wanders towards my room. This place has come to be my home for the year to come. Life seems to be constricted within the usual routine. I have begun to look forward to every morning since it brings me closer to the day I wish to depart from this place. Life has become monotonous.. I'd rather say.. life has come to a stand still.. Every time I am asked by someone from back home as to what I have done over the weekend.. All I have to say is that "Oh! its been boring. I have just been in my room". I seem to have nothing else to say. The incessant rains and the chilling weather has made the surrounding depressing. The vacations have made the place all the more desolate..
As I look out towards the sky, I see an aeroplane pass by.. and I console myself with the thought that the day I would be in one of them flying back is not far away...
Initially, the prospect of pursuing my masters in a premier institution in the UK sounded very inviting and exciting. A break from work.. the joy of getting back to college days.. to earning to learn something new to improve my skill set.. all this seemed promising enough.. It took quite a bit of convincing for my parents and brother to finally agree to me doing my MS in IT & Management from the Lancaster University. I had never been out alone before.. This was my first and it was challenging.. Thursday, September 28th 2006 was the 'D' day.. Applications, work formalities, visa, shopping, meeting up with friends, spending time with family, last minute packings and phone calls.. in all this hustle and bustle time just flew.. and before I knew I was all set to fly.. to move from being a protected daughter to a confident and independent individual. I was traveling with Dipti, a school friend of mine, who was also doing her masters from the same university. My family was there to see me off... I was through with the emigration check without and hindrances and had an hour's time before I could board the flight.. Surprisingly, I shed no tears. As the flight took off I felt equally nervous and excited. The journey was uneventful. I spent the 11 hours sleeping, bearing to eat the food served and watching some movies on the television. We landed in London, Heathrow airport all safe and went through the required formalities. Dipti's cousin, Balaji was there at the airport to pick us up. We intended to stay over at his place for 2 days before we moved on to Lancaster, our final destination. The taxi drive in a Mercedes, to his place was ideal for me to collect some of my thoughts. As I admired the scenic beauty, I tried to mentally adjust myself to the new life I was going to start. It hadnt totally sunk into me that I was going to be away from home for at least a period of 2 years. I was unable to stop the juggling of my thoughts. I had this weird feeling of being on a vacation. As soon as we arrived at Balaji's place, I could hear the jingles of the phone. It was my parents calling up to confirm that I had arrived safely. The minute I heard my mother's voice over the phone, reality sunk in. I tried my level best to keep my voice steady and sound normal. I told myself that I would surely survive through this ordeal.
On the day we landed in London, i.e. the 28th of September 2006, we did not do much. We just relaxed a bit to get used to our new surroundings. We found it surprisingly easy to get adjusted to the time difference within the first day. Day 2 was eventful. We decided to tour london. We set off early in the morning with maps in our hand and clear instructions from Balaji. We opted to travel via the tube trains. I was totally facinated by them and thoroughly enjoyed traveling in them. Our first stop was to the Wax Musuem - Madam Tussads which was opposite to the University of Westminster. We were faced by a long queue and eventually we made it to the ticket counter. The minute we entered we were totally transformed into a world of surreal reality. There were figurines of famous personalities from actors to sport stars to politicians to freedom fighters and the seemed to close to be plastic. The 2 two tours was hoards of fun and we were clicking away snaps in a variety of poses with all the models. End of tour brought us to the real world. We proceeded towards our next place of interest - The Big Ben. The tower tall clock looked magnificent though, we did not spend much of our time there. We then went on to look at the London bridge. We had a nice view of the england fort and had a walk over the tower bridge too. Further plans of visiting the London Eye was canceled by the arrival of twilight joined by short spells of rain. We reached back home all excited and tired out at the same time. It had proved to be an eventful day.
However, the enthusiasm did not last long.. the very next day a morose atmosphere swarmed us and the feeling of homesickness crept in.. I desperately wanted to get back home.. So, the third day in london was spent in cribbing about being away from home and in consoling each that we would soon get adjusted to the new place. Day 4, Oct 1st, Sunday, was time to get moving to Lancaster. We were traveling via the National Express Stage Coach ans hence had to sit through six and half hours of travel. Once again, we spent time cribbing, consoling each other, taking turns reading a novel and sleeping. We arrived directly at the university's underpass at 6:00 in the evening and to our dismay it started raining. Along with dipti and me there were two more people from India, Ayush and Himanshu, who had taken the same bus along with us. We had with us heavy luggages to trudge along and we had no idea on where we had to go!! We waited for a while knowing not what to do. We were mentally strained and physically tired out. After a while, Ayush and I set out to see if we could catch hold of someone who could help us out. Luckily we were able to locate the student union in Alexandra Square where we were able to explain our predicament to the volunteers who promised to send across porters to help us out. 20 mins of shivering in the cold saw the arrival of the student volunteers who helped us carry our luggages in trolleys unto our accommodation. It was a 15 min walk from the underpass to the graduate college, our home for the year to come. We were dropped off at the porter's lodge where we had to register ourselves and collect our house keys. Dips and me were destined to stay in House 18 - Scales. I was allocated room 14 and she 17. Eventually, with another student's help, we made it to our house. Luckily, our rooms were on the ground floor and we did not have to go through the pain of lugging up our suitcases across the floors. We were too tired to unpack or cook a nice dinner. We had carried with us a lot a ready made mtr stuff and maggie noodles to help us survive the first week until we got used to the new place. After a quick dinner and another round of assurances off to sleep we went.
The Induction program was supposed to start from the 2nd of Oct. Dips and me set of together early in the morning to check out our schedules. It was our first walk around the campus. We went to the Info Lab department to check up with dipti's program. She was lucky enough to not have much on her schedule. I was next and our destination was the management school. I had a busy line up starting from wednesday, the 4th of oct unto the weekend. I had orientation programs the whole day which included meeting up with lecturers, getting to know our subjects, our options, our learning groups, the mode of studying and so on. My class strength was 55 which constituted 16 indians. There were 4 bangloreans including me.The first week also included ITMOC social events in the evenings which I didnt enjoy much because it seemed to involve only people getting together and drinking. Ours was an enthusiastic batch and I made friends quickly. During the intro week we also had special Indian meets along with other meetings, arranged by some of the senior students and the GSA which is a part of the graduate college. This gave us the chance to meet the other graudate students. The orientation week kept me busy and once classes began a mechanical routine set it. It was home to class and class to home. Weekends we used to goto the city to do our grocery shopping from Sainsburys. During the first weekend however, along with Vivek, Shruthy, Ayushman, Sourav and Ankur we went to ASDA in Horwich Parkway to do our grocery shopping. We took the train via Preston. We also got to see the football stadium. The day was tiring and on our way back 7 of us had a total of around 22 bags to carry.
Only two months have elapsed and yet it seems that its been ages since we have come over. Studies, assignments & presentations kept my mind occupied. Though, everyday, on my walk to the management school and back home my thoughts always wanders towards my room. This place has come to be my home for the year to come. Life seems to be constricted within the usual routine. I have begun to look forward to every morning since it brings me closer to the day I wish to depart from this place. Life has become monotonous.. I'd rather say.. life has come to a stand still.. Every time I am asked by someone from back home as to what I have done over the weekend.. All I have to say is that "Oh! its been boring. I have just been in my room". I seem to have nothing else to say. The incessant rains and the chilling weather has made the surrounding depressing. The vacations have made the place all the more desolate..
As I look out towards the sky, I see an aeroplane pass by.. and I console myself with the thought that the day I would be in one of them flying back is not far away...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)