Ganges to Thames – a slice of memory - My travel experiences : Varanasi and London

This is a long pending post, I’ve been procrastinating it for a while. I was compelled to write this while I was in the flight back from London to India. Thanks to Emirates, they asked me to travel in a flight which was ahead of the flight I am supposed to travel. It was December in London, delay of flights is pretty much expected, temperature drops drastically and might rain too. I thought I would miss my connecting flight from Dubai to India if I take a chance. Travelling with the option they gave me appealed to be the right decision. I on-boarded the flight and got bored with same Bollywood movie collection they have, tried reading for some time, did not work. There was a thought which was bothering me from the moment I landed in London. I shall tell you what it was later.

Let me come back to why I named this post as “Ganges to Thames”, well just to denote the places I travelled in a span of a year – Varanasi and London and my emotions, experiences. I should thank my job for giving me an opportunity to travel and see places for real.

It was campus recruitment season and in my current company we only go to IIT campuses to recruit fresher’s, so I’ve asked my team to choose what campus they would like to visit, indirectly hinting that I would like to travel to BHU, they understood an left BHU for me I think. But they would have thought I wanted to go to Varanasi to pray Lord shiva where as my interest was to see Ganges in Varanasi and stay there. River Ganga has a great place in my heart like for most Indians, the moment I think of gages I can’t stop imaging the roaring milky white water, jumping from the sky. Completely influenced by what my grandmother used to tell me when I was a child.

Along with other 2 colleagues of mine, went to Varanasi through Delhi. The moment I entered the hotel, there was only one thing circling in my mind, let me see Ganga first rest all next. Took bath, bullied my colleagues and requested them to get ready fast so that we can go to the river bank. Arranged a cab from the hotel, as we travel through the roads I could see the old (pre-1998 India I should say) buildings, not really well maintained roads, orange color stains everywhere. Not a great visual for someone who got used to so called hi-tech city, Hyderabad roads (There are the same in the rainy season though), one surprise was foreigners everywhere, I expected them but not in the number I was seeing, they are there everywhere. The more we got close to the river the more excited I became. The moment car was stopped I jumped out of the car and started walking briskly. Let me tell you, I was disappointed at the first sight itself; it was muddy, green water, I could not feel the flow of water with my eyes, felt like someone punched in my face…. I may not come to Varanasi again because I am not religious at all and now all the way I come here to see Ganges in this state. We took a ride I the river my colleagues took a holy dip, I could not do that , not because I am hygiene conscious but because of the pain of disappointment  I was carrying think I could be the only mad person who did not take a dip in Ganges after going to Varanasi. When I went to the college I asked one of the professors on why Varanasi is like this, I could not find even a slight resemblance of the development our governments talk about, the security at the temple also looked quite not sufficient for the historical and religious importance it has. Professor looked uncomfortable and deviate the topic to how Varanasi was the only city which had best drainage system in the world few hundred years back. The only relief was visiting Saranath, it was a beautiful experience. I still feel the photographs I clicked at Saranath are the most precious ones I ever had.

After few months, I had to travel to London. It was my first overseas travel. My colleagues and one of my friends who lives in London scared me of the winter there. So I had to shop specially for winter wear which suits less than 10 degrees temperature. Was a long journey. The moment I stepped out of the   Airport the only thing I could feel was that someone put a piece of ice on my jaw. Quickly opened the jacket and wore it, I could not feel comfortable till I lit a cigarette.

Got in to a cab (They call it Black cab there, which is expensive) and asked him how much it would be to go to St.pauls. He said approximately 80 pounds, I thought of screaming and saying “are you insane”? 8000 rupees for a cab? In a moment realized I can’t convert those into rupees and compare. Checked into the hotel. I thought of eating something which is spicy along with rice, could not find anything in the hotel menu, had to force myself to eat a sandwich and sleep.

At St.Paul's

Next morning I had to go the office, requested the receptionist to guide me to ONE new change, he said it is 2 minutes’ walk from there, the moment I step out of the hotel, I could feel the coldness on my fingers even while gloves on. I really enjoyed the walk along the churchyard of St.Pauls every day. Roads are clean, most of the people respect traffic rules, even there was no traffic people patiently wait the green signal, I was surprised to see people jogging in thin T-shirts and shorts. Even school going kids does not have any extra protection like gloves, but that is nature, it empowers human beings.

My boss took me out for lunch twice, along with wine and nice sandwiches. I was scared of eating beef or pork – though I consider myself to be a more materialist, the kind of brainwash happens during childhood – you just can’t erase it at all. My boss was a good looking, tall (for Indian standard), white man. I used to enjoy the way he treats waiters in the restaurant and the way he strikes rapport with them. Shopping for kids, good food, wine and taking a tour of London, especially the museum, London bridge, Shakespeare’s globe were amazing wanted to go to London school of Economics, but could not go due to time constraint on Saturday.

But the moment I saw some jewellery of Moghuls, and Kohinoor diamond in the museum, I started feeling disturbed. The feeling that “I am in the same country which not long ago caused suffering for my country”. Took away most precious things from my motherland, killed thousands of my countrymen. Don’t all these beautiful looking structures have the stains of Bhagat Singh’s blood? How about the murders they have done across the world? These monuments, do they ever carry a small piece of writing in their history about what their rulers had done to the world? It was long deeply disturbing thought. 

  

The consolation was cab drivers, hotel staff talking about India with a sense of respect. While I was on my way back to the Heathrow’s airport, the cab driver after knowing I am from India said “ You are ruling the IT world mate, we have lot of Indians here in London who are doing well and really rich”. I said thanks – did not know how to respond. I thought; well let his comment come true more and more, let India rule the world, not in the way Germany or Britain did.