LONDON - STREETS PAVED WITH GOLD??

As children we used to play a game, where one girl would be the den and used to spell "L-O-N-D-O-N ---London", and the rest of us used to run up to her from behind. As soon as she said LONDON, she would turn around and we runners would become "statue". I don't know what was the reason to spell London instead of counting in numbers as is usual in such games. However, my fascination for London started then. Later, it was the story of Dick Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London, who made me wonder if actually the streets of London were paved in gold. (as the story went.)

London was the place where in 1945, my father went to study for his Engineering degree from Battersea Polytechnic. London therefore was the place I most desired to see. My opportunity for wish fulfilment came in 1973, when I visited London for the first time, when my husband was sent by HAL on a training programme to UK. After a long gap, I went back in the year 2000, followed by 2004, and after that it became my favourite jaunt, for innumerable visits (it became easy because my daughter Chaitali lives there with her family).

London, is a city of houses, each one having a little open space in the front as well as at the back. They may be handkerchief sized, yet every house has a patch of green. The gardens in the houses are simply b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l. Almost all have roses. As a saying goes "An English man's home is his castle". Besides houses, this city is replete with huge green gardens or parks which are called "Common"- very apt, as these are common grounds for all to enjoy the space, the fresh air, to run around, cycle, play games and feel free.

Freedom is what London is all about. Freedom for India, Hong Kong, South Africa, America, Burma, and any number of African countries including Kenya and Uganda. This was the empire where the sun never set! Britain ruled far and wide. UK is such a small place on the map of the world and yet, look how big their foot prints are on the surface of the earth. Their language, their form of government, their architecture, their system of education, their transport system, their sense of justice, has had a far reaching effect the world over.

Although a monarchy, their Magna Carta, is the mother of all Constitutions.

London was the home of Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Johnson, Sir Charles Chaplin, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Lamb, Jerome k. Jerome, Beatrix Potter, George Orwell and now our own Salman Rushdie. Swaraj Paul, and Laxmi Mittal have earned their wealth here. Raja Ram Mohan Roy lived here for a long time. Jawaharlal Nehru did his schooling here. M. K. Gandhi, Dr. B R Ambedkar, did their Bar-at-Law here.

Coming back to London, my favourite spot is Oxford Circus. That crossing, the road, the tube station, the number of buses plying the road at any given time is amazing. It is a place which is always so very busy. People just walking and going on with a purpose. There is so much of movement there. A plethora of people all going about their own business. I love to sit on one of the benches put out thoughtfully on the pavements, and watch the world go by.

The buildings in Oxford Street are exquisite. Selfridges, that distinguished shop with its very beautiful facade has window displays to beat any other window display. They are always different and distinct. It's a treat to watch the windows. John Lewis, always seems very welcoming, with its prices and motto,"never knowingly undersold." I love to walk in, browse through the shop, walk through its seven floors and get a nice feeling. I don't have to necessarily shop. My shopping instincts get satisfied with walking through.

The next best place is Sloane Square. Yes indeed there is a small square there. The King's Road is the ultimate in branded shopping, all the designer shops are located here. It is a delight to walk here with its wide pavements which are so inviting for walking and simply standing. Buying once in a blue moon, but then window shopping and looking at the labels is feast for the eyes. Harrods-a huge departmental shop located in Knightsbridge, is more than a shop - it's the ultimate in shopping. It is owned by Al Fayed an Egyptian by birth, and the father of Dodi who died in the car accident with Diana- Princess of Wales. Harrods is always lit up at night like a Christmas tree. It's different floors and departments give a feeling of being in the most exquisite place selling goods. Anything that you may desire to buy is available here. The prices may be prohibitive but the shop is very inviting. The sales people are very polite and friendly. They will always ask you if you need any directions or help. Indeed, you do need guidance and a map to get you through the different floors. In the Egyptian stairway one finds lovely singers singing classical songs on the balcony, at any given time. It is really an out of this world experience to visit Harrods.

England was called "a nation of shopkeepers"-and that it indeed is. You have huge grocery shops-Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda which are also great experiences to go to.

The sights to see are so many. London is replete with history. The Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Wesminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Marble Arch, Buckingham Palace, the drive through Regent Street, Shaftsbury Avenue, Hay Market, Covent Garden, Picadilly, Leicester Square, London School of Economics, the different Inns of Law, City Hall, Globe theatre, St. Paul's Cathedral and so much more. My list will never end as there are so many places to see. River Thames pronounced Tems-(oh yes English is a strange language!!!) has lovely bridges across it, which are all lit up at night and present a magnificent picture.

The "Square mile" is the old London where the road names are very practical. You have the Milk street, Pudding Lane, Poultry, Cheapside, Threadneedle street, Fleet street, Bread street, Shoe lane and many other descriptive names. The names are simple and self explanatory. London is so old and yet so modern. There are regular walks where tourists can join for a fee of £6 and see the different places, of their choice, in a couple of hours. The guide takes you through lanes and by lanes and gives you the history of the place in great detail. The streets and lanes are exactly as they were a couple of hundred years ago, so visualising is easy. I love to be in London, where every small culvert or by lane too has a name. One cannot get lost in London.

There is a dearth of parking space almost every where in London and yet there is no rush for running to a parking spot. People are so very polite, and patient. If one is trying to park, everyone down the road will wait until you park the car to your satisfaction-there is no impatient honking, or random abuses, or show of road rage. The people wait-although they are busy and on the move. It is definitely a good gesture to wait, as it results in less chaos and confusion. People seem to understand and believe that the person ahead has the best of intentions to park and is not slow in parking simply to harass the person driving behind.

The transport system is too good to be true. One can travel at a reasonable cost and "day passes" are available where one can take the bus, tube or overground train too. Maps are detailed. Every bus stop gives the time and frequency of all the buses passing through that bus stop. Great thought is given to creating more conveniences for the general public. It is also very user friendly for people with disabilities.

People are taught to respect every culture and religion. There is a lot of tolerance in this country. There is a lot of politeness and patience. One can learn a lot only by observing the people of this magnificent nation which conquered the whole world with its right strategy, planning, and determination.

The streets of London, I learnt were not paved with gold, however anyone who comes to this goldmine of business, education, history, culture, perseverance, patience and architecture can be sure to pick up a lot of gold for oneself.

MYTH OR MITHYA

When civilisation began and human beings started grouping together to form communities, people having similar interests and living in close proximity began to define codes for carrying out their day to day life. These were simple rules so that each could pursue life without causing harm or discomfort to another. As the number of people following these set of rules grew, an administrator to teach the rules and also punish the one who broke the rules got introduced. Soon this person would take on the role of being superior by virtue of his authority. The rules got codified and punishments became stringent. The all powerful authority could terrorise the others in the community as they had the power to punish.
Different communities in different areas all got their own leaders. Soon these Administrators became omnipotent and then the pathway to one person being the Superior and all others becoming his subjects was open. To perpetrate their power these people had to instill fear in the minds of the subjects or else there was the possibility of the subjects becoming a critical mass and over turning the rule of the Superior. Fear of the unknown, or a power beyond common comprehension was introduced. This higher superior power could do anything. Bring a plague, cure the sick, punish an infidel, and so on and so forth. That was the word spread-what actually happened is best left to one's imagination, because imagination is all that was required. Fear of the unknown is only because of our own imagination. Our fertile minds go to any extant to visualise what could happen-therefore the fear. The best way to avoid reaching the culmination of our own imagination is to keep far away from that which could incur wrath of that omnipotent authority-which actually was only a figment of our imagination.
When a child does not listen to his mother, the mother always says,"wait till papa gets home, he will deal with you" This is enough to make the child obey as he simply imagines that his papa will surely find a way of punishing him. In actual fact it is common knowledge that mothers are usually more effective in dealing with their children, and are also more strict and do not really need any external factor to help her discipline her children. All that she does is try to instill a fear in the mind of her children. Fear is the factor which helps her. Fear is what makes her more powerful. Fear gets results.
That is the power of fear, which has been used unscrupulously by those who could make others scared of them. They became the religious leaders, they preached religion. They created a superior power who was given unimaginable power. The myth of creation, the myth of being omnipresent and the myth of granting a wish was given to this mythological character. No one tries to analyse why all these religious stories are called mythology. Myth in English and "mithya "in Hindi means one and the same thing!!
Think, please think, and analyse. Why do we have to simply follow whatever is preached to us? Can we not pause to ponder and then keep an open mind? Is it not fear of the unknown which makes us follow religious rituals? We human beings who have the most intelligent brains, who have the power of reasoning and thinking-why have we relegated our thinking faculties when it comes to the thought of God?

DILLI-MERI JAAN.- my view

My wanderlust is taking me far and wide. I love to travel, and places fascinate me. Buildings, roads, the culture of the people, their heritage, their history and how their culture and language has evolved, keeps me occupied for hours at a stretch. In my journey I have observed a few things which speak a bit about the place, its history and development. The food, the basic culture and the people who lived there. I wish to share a few tid bits, starting with Delhi.

The lanes and bylanes of Delhi keep me engrossed for hours, and no amount of people, or crowd can deter me from visiting Chandni Chowk once in a while. I love to walk in those bylanes and see the huge havelis with gigantic doors. I imagine the days of yore when this place was full of history and a lot of events were happening. The havelis and the people living there, the pardanashins and the cultural life, the music, the food, keep me fascinated. I love the sight of those doors and my imagination goes wild thinking about the people who inhabit those houses and also about their ancestors who must have been part of history. Visiting Jama Masjid area near the Karim's restaurant is another interesting journey, as just a little away from that place is Matia Mahal where Shah Jehan stayed for some time when the Red Fort was being built. I can visualise the Badshah with all his finery going in procession down the Chandni Chowk. The State Bank of India building in Chandni Chowk is a heritage building. It is located very close to Begum Samru's palace, which is now where Bhagirath palace or the "Electric goods" wholesale market is located. Begum Samru was the Indian wife of a mercenary soldier of French descent. She ruled over the principality of Sardhana near Meerut.

Chandni Chowk has an amazing variety of food to offer. There is the famous Parathewali gali which offers different types of stuffed parathas. The one which interests me most is the one stuffed with papad!! There is a person selling kheer right opposite the paratha wala shops. quite a treat!! There is a famous Jalebi wala at the corner of Dariba-the jewellery market. The jalebis there are the slightly thicker variety oozing with sugar syrup, and not the crisp thin ones now offerred in New Delhi. The dahi bhallas at the corner of the Central Bank building also cannot be missed. Ghantewala halwai too is located here. It was in existence since before the 1857 War of Independence. Meghraj halwai famous for Karachi halwa is located near Fatehpuri Mosque at the other end of Chandni Chowk. The chaat of Sitaram Bazaar is another great food joint. Kamala Kaul who married Jawaharlal Nehru, our first Prime Minister was from Sitaram bazaar and this was the place where the wedding took place.

Kinari Bazaar in Chandni Chowk as the name suggests is a market selling all kinds of borders, and laces and embelishments for traditional Indian clothes. Chawdi bazaar, as the name explains was a broad road, on which are located all the shops which are famous for printing all kinds of cards, the most popular one being Wedding Invitation cards. The Mahajano ki gali is the lane where gold and silver ingots are stored and traded everyday.

One interesting feature of Chandni Chowk is that there is a Jain charitable hospital for birds located next to a temple of Gauri Shankar, and close by is the Gurudwara Shishganj. At the end of the road is the famous Fatehpuri Mosque. The famous Kotwali, where Nadir Shah sat in 1739, and watched the destruction of Delhi is also close to the Gurudwara. Nadir Shah had come from Persia (Iran) and took away The Mughal Emperors famous Peacock throne. The tomb of Razia Sultan, the first woman ruler of Delhi, and the daughter of Iltutmush, who built the Qutab Minar in the 10th century, is also close by.

Mirza Ghalib the famous poet was a resident of Ballimaran of this area. Zauq was another great poet who lived here. Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor was also a poet, and he patronised Urdu shayari.

The old world charm and culture is fast disappearing, yet there are these pockets where one can go and delve into the past. "Khandahar bata rahein hai ki imaarat buland thi" (From the ruins one can make out that the building was once exquisite).

New Delhi is another story, another century, another world. Built by Lutyens and Baker on Raisina hills, it was constructed by the British empire. It's bungalows, it's wide tree lined roads, it's broad vistas, greenery and lawns speak of open culture. Very different from the closed doors and high walls and narrow lanes of Old Delhi. The different roads of New Delhi are lined with different trees. The Ashok Road is lined with jamun trees. As legend goes, Jawaharlal Nehru our 1st Prime Minister was very fond of children. For this reason he was fondly called Chacha Nehru and his birthday,14th November, is celebrated as 'Children's Day". While travelling from his home in Teen Murti Marg to Parliament House he would watch children play on the wide pavements of the road. One day he observed that there were no children there. On enquiry he was told that the jamun trees had been sub- contracted for picking and selling the fruit and the contractors didn't allow any intruders. Nehru was quick in ordering that the trees were never to be given on contract, and anyone could eat the fruit and play in the area. This rule applies to this day.

One moves out of the older portion of New Delhi to areas which were inhabited and built to give place to all the refugees or displaced persons who came to India from Pakistan after partition in 1947. Incidentally, my grandfather Rai Sahab G T Meshram was the Estate Officer of Delhi, Shimla, Calcutta and Bombay at that time. The Kingsway Camp was built to give shelter to these displaced people. Then the new colonies of Lajpat Nagar, Model Town, Tilak Nagar, Malviya Nagar, came up. People were given small plots of land to start afresh. The Punjabi culture thus entered Delhi. The laid back, slow paced, cultural life of Old Delhi changed to the fast paced life of people who had to be on the move to earn a living and had no time to simply stand and stare at the world go by. There was cut throat competition for survival.

New Delhi being the capital of the country, all the offices of the Government, the ministries and all the paraphernalia associated with it is located here. The city is inhabited by multitudes of office goers commonly called "babu". This in turn gave rise to the term "babugiri" and also to the babu culture. Office goers in Delhi are almost all government servants, whose jobs are permanent. There is neither incentive for a job done well, nor stringent punishment for a job not done. One can continue forever, without taking any decision in life. One can simply keep pushing files from one desk to another. Pushing up files also sometimes needs some incentive, which is called "pahiya"-or the wheel to make the movement faster. Here enters the world of under the table gratification. All the tehzeeb, adab, and culture of Delhi of yore vanished. What one can see in Delhi now, is a multitude of people, each one trying to go ahead of the other. The only breathing place now is the Raj Path, which has managed to remain a splendid reminder of wide roads, greenery on the sides, an open sky from where one cannot see the stars as the entire surrounding area is now filled with lights.

Delhi was once a garden city, and the greenery was amazing. It was made up of nearly 300 villages. One can still find a few nice traffic islands in the New Delhi area, which are maintained by some Corporate Houses or Banks which allow a semblance of beauty and colourful flower bedecked islands, in this metropolis, fast turning into a concrete jungle. The roads all have pavements and there is a feeling of space in this area.

Delhi they say is the heart of India. "Dilwalon ki Dilli".

It's a lovely place, therefore so many different rulers ruled from Delhi. Prithvi Raj Chauhan, The Slave dynasty, Allaudin Khilji, The Lodi's, The Tughlaq's, the Sayyids, The Mughals, The British all found it the best place to rule from.

I love my Delhi, therefore began this journey,both of my life and of this travelogue from here.