The Enthu Cutlets on a London Trail - Day 1

Day 1 - A whole new world

Just about a month and a half back , when Nimish suggested that the Jr. Cutlet and I visit London during the summer vacations (just the both of us; without any tours and travels) ; I laughed it off thinking it was one of those wild ideas of his that kept popping up every fortnight. However as the days progressed , he started getting rather persuasive and serious about it. The first thought that came to my mind was Impossible. Although I always secretly harboured a wish to do a solo international trip; when Nimish came to picking up dates and other stuff , I started developing cold feet. Nimsih was very confident that I could do it and made it sound like it was no big deal . Finally I gathered some courage and we sat down to plan.

After going to and fro from one schedule to the other, selecting deselecting the places to visit, planning unplaninng stuff, we came much closer to the D-day. I started realising that no planning of  a trip in an Indian family is complete with a few arguments, some friendly interference and lots of chaos. After coming to a consensus of places to visit in London between my Bollywood London and Nimish's London, we zeroed down on the final ones. At the Mumbai airport , The Jr. Cutlet was at her usual enthusiasm, right from insisting on handling the cabin luggage to holding the boarding passes to shopping everything that was Duty Free and Eating everything that was at the Food Court. Although I had decided to give her a free hand, every now and then I had to be the Cruella Mother (as she calls me ) to mellow her down. The enthusiam continued after being air borne as I distinctly remember when 10 years back on our trip to Netherlands, she had asked the hostess "Tai, lavkar khayla de" (give me food ASAP) much to my embarassement. This time I secretly hoped that age had caught up .

After salivating at the bag full of crunchy snacks carried by my most favorite gang of Mumbai localites at the Abu Dhabi airport, we finally managed to kill that transit time, sit through the long flight thanks to Oceans 8 and Friends on TV and land in London. Nimish was appreciated and missed thoroughly for his detailed and accurate instructions about everything till now. The drive from the airport to the hotel brought back memories of Ballard Pier, Flora Fountain , Dr. D.N Road of South Mumbai. The taxi driver was fortunately a talkative British local and suggested us places to visit that we had not even heard of. Which means more places to explore . The Jr. Cutlet has dozed off an hour back and the Sr. one plans to switch the sleep mode on. By the way , there is was so much silence and solitude here that I can almost hear my heart beating. Which also means toning the down our general talking decibel levels by 10 times atleast.

More to come and wish us all the luck.