The Enthu Cutlets on a London Trail - Day 6

Day 6 - Back to the School

Looks like I had soaked up London within me or rather the spirit of London was running in my veins. This proved from the fact that I woke up early morning having realised that I had dreamt of London. The dream was about the similar trail we had been taking for the last few days. It brought an early morning grin to my face. The Jr. Cutlet though was still in deep sleep probably dreaming London just like me. With ginger tea in one hand and the London eveninger in the other , I lived that moment before the Jr. Cutlet could wake up and with her the distinctive chatter. Also followed was a ritual telephone call back home to check on everyone. Today the Jr. Cutlet had to be woken up several times. However once up , she is always the first one to be ready.

Today we were to set on another adventure , out of our comfort zone , all the way to Oxford. Nimish and I had browsed through several tours back in India that offered a package to the Oxford University and few other places around. The tour involved bus transport to and fro from London. However Nimish insisted that we didnt take that tour as he felt that those tours didnt do justice to the place at all. I trusted his experience and decided to take a call once I came to London. My freind Hardik reiterated the fact and recommended that we took a train to Oxford from London and look for tours when we reach there. So here we were today all set to go to The Oxford Univeristy via National Rail. When we boarded the train , I realised that this was also one of my bucket list items. To be honest , a lot of us have a secret desire to study in any of the prestigious universities. While that didnt happen , a visit to one of them always played on my mind. And here I was, on my way to get those items ticked. The feeling is something I won't be able to pen it down. Also I truly wished that my Jr. Cutlet got to see and experience this entire different world (although as a tourist) where students are completely independent , confident and determined.

Oxford is a typical University town with a mix of ancient as well as modern structure and culture. Talk about buildings, attractions, libraries , all of them depict the 11th century as well as the 21st century. It seems that various colleges came in first at Oxford and then the University was formed to govern these colleges and bring about a uniformity in the curriculum. Therefore the University Council has representative from each college. We were told that the town information centre conducts various tours like walking tours, hop in hop off bus tours , however all of them cover only the exterior of museums , buildings and libraries. And I was absolutely sure that I wanted to visit some of the places from inside. Therefore I purchased the city map, geared up our google maps, switched on the wikipedia and started our personal tour of the one of the oldest University towns. There was one thing left to do, incentivise the Jr. Cutlet  so that she doesn't give up midway. Hence I treated her to one of her favourite Italian meals of Lasagne. Now we got set to go. I was never so proud of my decision to go on this personal tour. This way we got to spend time at places we liked more and pass the others which were of lesser interest. We visted a lot of places , however the best of them are National Science Museum , The Bodleian Library and The Christ Church . The Bodleian library was built in the 13th century , they started with 30 books and now have close to 20 million books with them. It is a no lending library (only open to the Oxford students) , which means the students have to come to the library during the given hours, read the books there itself . This way they have been able to preserve the books that are almost 400 years old. There is a separate guided tour at the Library itself that we took , they took us around the library and few other historic places. The Jr. Cutlet was mighty impressed with the entire student culture at the town. I feel that every student if possible should get one first hand experience of staying away from home to study and learn / unlearn things his/her way . After a long yet enriching trail , both the cutlets decided to call it a day. Fortunately , it was time to board our train. The next one hour train journey was done in a jiffy as we both dozed off not realising that we were back in London.

Back at the hotel , after a quick bite , the Jr. Cutlet is in deep slumber and here I am recollecting my experiences with you. Also realising that it is necessary that we as parents ought to be responsible and ambitious to provide good quality education to our children because "An Investment in Knowledge and Education Pays the Best Interests". I leave you with that thought and sign off for a brighter tomorrow.

The Enthu Cutlets on a London Trail - Day 5

Day 5 - Hard Work Beats Talent when Talent does not Work Hard

I read the above quote somewhere today , when I was taken far away into the mystical, Magical land of Hogwarts. The Jr. Cutlet woke up early morning, earlier than me , infact she woke me up almost as if it was time to leave. It was then I realised that today was her day of guaranteed fun . Not that she enjoyed the The Lords and Wimbeldon tours, however The Warner Bros tour was one place she had planned right at the time we decided to travel to London. That included surfing , reading and collecting a lot of information about the Studios . Therefore I was given a stern warning as soon as I woke that I needed to get ready as soon as possible and leave early even if it meant reaching the meeting point much before time. I didnt not resist any of her instructions today and handed her over the reins.

The breakfast was also planned by Jr. Cutlet next to the meeting point just to be on a safer side. We boarded the bus for The Warner Bros. studio tour from the Victoria Coach station. It was almost an hour drive from London to the Studio. They played a Harry Porter movie immediately as the bus started to build the tempo of the tour. Surprsingly against my expectations , there were a lot of adults and couples in the tour than just families with children. Since I have watched almost all Harry Porter movies , I started discussing characters and stories of the movie with the Jr. Cutlet. I could almost sense the enthusiasm and curiosity in her voice. This was probably the first time she was watching Behind the scenes of a movie and books that she had been reading since the last 2-3 years. As soon as we reached the studios we were given digital guides and maps to start our tour. As the tour progressed and the characters , sets and visual effects were explained from the conception stage to behind the scenes of the movies, we started falling in love with the stories and the characters all over again. Some of the moments were like a deja vu and some of them gave us goosebumps. Each movie required 8 months of filming and an equal amount of pre-production and post production work. There were almost 200 children that were shooting for one film at a time. What I liked about the rules was that since these children were very young and also shooting for a considerable amount of time away from their homes; the crew ensured they didnt miss the education. There were tutors and exams provided for all children on the sets. The children would shoort  for only 4 hours everyday , then they used to study for 4 hours and the rest of the time was play and rest. This way they scheduled the education and shooting for 200 children in such a way that while one batch studied , the other shot and vive versa. The dedication , hard work and the habit of paying attention to the minutest details was full proof. A massive amount of the work was carried out by technicians like the set designers, custume designers, art designers, story writer and so many such people. It will be very difficult to write and capture the magnitude of this Legend in one single blog or one single picture. One thing I was happy about was that the Jr. Cutlet had a lot of memories to carry back and lot of information to ponder about and infact she even confessed that it is not as glamorous as we watch them on screen.

We finished by evening and decided to visit the Trafalgar Square for a short evening stroll. There the Jr. Cutlet planned a fun meeting with her bestie from India who was also here for holidays. The rest of the evening the Jr. Cutlet was at her happiest best jumping around, playing around with her bestie. We decided to have dinner together, where they were inseparable again. Finally , with no choice left we decided to go back to our respective hotels. While the walking app shows me 8 kms and 10000 steps , my body is giving me different signals. 

There was one thought that I managed to read on one of the walls of the Studio . It was written by J.K Rowling and will apply to each one of us in some of our phases of life , " Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times , if only one remembers to turn on the light." I will leave you with that thought . Signing off for a brighter tomorrow.

The Enthu Cutlets on a London Trail - Day 4

Day 4 - Bucket List - Does it exist????

Both the Cutlets were finally getting tuned to the English time zone and able to sleep without any jet lag. Excpet for once in the midnight , I woke up feeling bewildered about my whereabouts for sometime and made a quick call back home to ensure if everything was fine. After an assurance , I slept back until early morning. Surprisingly the Jr. Cutlet does not require any wake up calls and has been waking up all on her own and with it follows the indefinite chatter.I am so used to this that I wonder if I can switch back to our routine in India when we get busy in our daily lives. I am beginning to love these morning sessions with the Jr. Cutlet as she wakes up early ; we have a lot of time at hand to chit chat before we start getting ready for the day.

Our morning was completely planned with a tour at The Lords that was pre-booked. After a quick breakfast ; we got ready and stepped out to reach the place that I was waiting to go since the time I landed in London. Cricket is considered  to be a religion in India and I do not disagree with that at all. While I have grown up watching my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles follow the sport so passionately , my husband and my extended family post marriage are absolute fanatics about the game too. And I was extremely pleased to see the legacy being carried on when I saw the Jr. Cutlet almost galloping away to the cricket ground from the tube station. She was twice as excited as I was. As soon as we reached Lords , both of us secretly wished if we could watch the Indian team practicing in the nets ( there was no reason for them to be there technically) and that was the first question we asked our tour guide. "Are you aware if the Indian team has arrived for the World Cup". He realised our curiosity and said "No dear". The tour guide Joseph was a very fine Englishman with an equal passion for the game.  The Lords tour is a Must for every person who enjoys the game. It's a 100 minutes tour where they take you to the Pavillion, Media centre, Stands, Dressing Rooms and ofcourse the ground. Every place out there has stories to tell that are quite interesting. One such dressing room story is that not just India but most of the players across countries are extremely superstitous about where they sit in the dressing room and they never swap that place with anybody else on a match day . This tour was much above my expectations and we left the ground with a fulfilling experience.

As we did not have a definite plan after that, I decided to go to Swaminarayan temple ; farther away from Central London. Reaching the place was quite an adventure for us , since the entire Wembly Park and Stadium area from where buses to the temple go, was crowded with MU game scheduled for today. People were swarming onto the streets from the tube stations to reach the game. Therefore most of buses got diverted and we landed into a wrong bus ; that took us to the Outskirts of London. With a lot of to and fro, changing different buses, when the Jr. Cutlet had almost lost her patience , we got the right bus and reached the temple. The effort was all worth it and I realised why it is the World's largest Swaminarayan temple. The evening was free therefore I decided to go to Piccadilly Circus area, where a local singer and musician kept us grounded there for an entire hour. The best part of summer in Europe is that you get to hear various such talented musicians and singers at the  happening streets and places in the town. This was a first time experience for the Jr. Cutlet and I saw that she was loving it. So I promised to get her back some other day again and left for home.

Fatigued , but happy we reached the hotel carrying a bag full of day's memories.One such memory I cannot forget is a mention about Sachin Tendulakar's dedication to the game , which ofcourse all of us can inculcate within and pass it on to our children. ' Greatness isn't just what you know but what you don't - and the effort you make to bridge that gap, Tendulakar mastered that art '
I will leave you and myself with this thought . And to answer my own question "bucket list , does it exist ? I say Yes, and you realise you had one list only , when you see your wish getting fulfilled. Signing off for a brighter day tomorrow.

The Enthu Cutlets on a London Trail - Day 3

Day 3 - Dream to Realise It

My day started early morning today as well. Seems like the jet lag was still hovering around in my system. Woke up early morning at 5 and tried my best to sleep again. Alas in vain. Finally made a quick call back home to check to chek on everyone. The best part or rather difference in international travel these days vis a vis a few years back is the connectivity that the telecommunication offers at the cheapest possible rates. I was in touch with my people in India , as if I had stepped out of home for a meeting or to run regular errands. I was pleasantly surprised and humbled to see an overwhelming response to my blogs on my Facebook page. By the time I finished surfing , the Jr. Cutlet woke up too . Seemed like the jet lag was out of her system and she was all set with her rounds of continuous chatter (what I call chapad chapad).

After a hearty breakfast , we decided to get ready. I had nothing specific scheduled for morning , therefore I called up the Wimbeldon office to re-schedule my tour to today morning. And to my pleasant surprise , they agreed and asked us to be there in 90 minutes. Since this place was very far from where we lived , we started hurrying up to get ready. In no time , we were out and all set to reach The place that I had been watching on the television every year since I was maybe 9 or 10 years old. As we travelled to Wimbeldon changing trains, I started remnisicing those days when the entire family and sometimes the extended family watched the Wimbeldon Championships (the only one back then) together. Steffi Graf, Martina , Boris Becker , Lendell had given us some unforgettable moments. The Jr. Cutlet not being a Lawn Tennis enthusiast look somewhat disinterested and wondered why we were travelling so much to watch some tennis courts. However once we reached there and The Wimbeldon Tour began , she started getting into the tempo of the entire process. They have a wonderful 90 minute guided tour of the entire premise including the players rooms, play offs courts , their dining areas, their media interaction rooms (they actually let us sit and take pics where probably Roger Federer must have sat umpteem number of times) and ofcourse The Centre court. Post the Wimbelon tour , we had to quickly rush and travel again a long distance to the Tower of London , as we had pre-booked a tour there. I have to be honest that this place was not as great as expected barring the Crown Jewels section. It was way past the lunch time and the Jr. Cutlet much to my surprise was completely co-operative in holding on the hunger till now . After a quick bite , we headed to the Tower Bridge, what we call The London Bridge where we indulged in a lot of social media favorites like the FB Live, Boomerangs and Slow-Mo videos. The Jr. Cutlet is slowly catching up with the Social Media wave. I'm not sure whether to feel happy or worried about it. Post the Tower Bridge , we reached the Westminister area to have a complete aerial view of London in The London Eye. I agree with Nimish that some of the attractions are glorified here , however required as a beginner in London.

After 9 hours of running about with one quick stop for lunch and one quick yet drooling stop at the Indian Chaat corner (Samosa Chaat and Masala Chai in 10 degrees celsius was God sent gift to us), my lower back and knees decided to call it a day. The chilly and gloomy weather was adding to the torture. The Jr. Cutlet was living up to her name of being enthusiatic and wanted to go somewhere else. For once , I thanked my stars since most of the attractions , even malls for that matter in Europe close by 6 pm. Therefore reluctantly she agreed to come back to the hotel with me. 10 kms and 16000 steps today gave me a good reason to crash in bed soon but not before I recalled my moments with you . Signing off for now as a bright new day awaits tomorrow.

The Enthu Cutlets on a London Trail - Day 2

Day 2 - Walk Till You Drop

Our day today started pretty early in the morning at 4.30 am in the morning due to the jet lag. Maybe this is the first time I was watching the Jr. Cutlet wake up so early. After lazing around for about an hour , we decided to unpack the bags and set the cupboard. Nimish and I had deliberately chosen to stay in a studio apartment in central Londin as against an hotel because we wanted the Jr.Cutlet to get a first hand experience of managing a small space on her own . Sometimes children get way too dependent and spoon fed back at home maybe also because we choose to do that for them. And the Jr. Cutlet was highly impressive on Day 2 itself. We decided to visit a local super market early morning to stuff our temporary London home.

London at 7.30 in the early morning did not dissapoint us at all. Again thanks to Nimish for choosing a beautiful location ; I soaked myself in this fresh air with birds chirping around , a full bloom and some sunlight. And ooops , I considered myslf lucky for a minute when I saw the locals rush to office and children walking the tiny steps to the school as it was like any other working weekday for them. The Jr. Cutlet was at her usual enthu at the supermarket picking up stuff to make and eat at home. So we picked up some eggs, bread, cheese, croissants, cinamon swirls and milk for the breakfast, purchased the oyster cards for tube travel and headed back home for a hearty breakfast. The Jr. Cutlet was scoring points at every junction where she loaded stuff into the cabinets and the refrigerator and helped me make the breakfast and do the dishes. We were all set to visit Madame Tussands as the very first attraction in London. I have to be honest that deciding the metro lines and tube stations to reach there was quite a struggle for me initially as I stood at the station scanning the Tube map over and over again. How would I travel for the next 8 days in London if I looked lost to begin with. However we mastered the travel very soon and started changing metro lines and tube stations like a pro. Madame Tussands was as expected an exciting experience for the Jr. Cutlet where she posed and took pictures with every celeb out there. After some good 2 1/2 to 3 hours there we took a quick lunch and headed to The Oxford street for all the buzzing. The street that has almost all the brands in the world from couture shopping to the economy , from food to fashion to kids stores to electronics. Once done we headed towards to Westminister Street and covered the Abby, Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Briefly soon after that I met up with a very good old friend from work Hardik who was also in London. Catching up on old times and getting some travel tips from a travel buff took away all my fatigue . The Jr. Cutlet by now was getting restless as she seemed pretty disinterested in our conversation. Therefore we decided to head home ; it was 15 minutes past 8 already when we reached home. Soon then I realised that we had walked for 14 kms in total mostly because we used to get lost finding places in the era of Google Maps .

No wonder we crashed the bed immediately skipping the dinner . And here I am documenting my first hand wonderful Day 2 in London at 1.30 am . My irregular sleeping patterns and the jet lag seem to be my friends for now. Till then signing off for now as I hit the bed again for few hours of slumber.

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.

I Love my Curve

Boy !!! I love my Curve and how!!!

I'm sure that this statement will certainly raise few eyebrows , bring some grins and some frowns too . Now before everyone throws me into the El James bucket , I wish to to clarify that my SMILE is the only crooked curvy asset that I desire to possess . For the rest of them all I can say that it always be WIP (work in progress). Having said that , have we all really counted the number of times we smile everyday? Do we really remember or rather cherish the good moments of our life or sulk thinking about those painful days ? Do we celebrate the tasks accomplished or brood about the unaccomplished ones.?

Statistics prove that humans always tend to incline towards the latter part . So how difficult or easier it is to switch to the former part. While they say it is Easier Said Than Done ,  it is always in our best interests to Say It and then Do It. The ability to remain Cheerful , Positive and Smile is not a Personality Trait but a Virtue, one can acquire. All you need to do is 'make that choice and be patient to develop it' . As always the New Year brings Resolutions and Goals Setting . It is important that we make Cheerfulness as our life goal. The rest of them will definetly follow.

Right from the time we are born , we have mascots who bring cheer in our life. Our parents, teachers , friends and family teach us and coach us to be cheerful .  However ,going forward , the only way to remain joyous and keep smiling is to be our own Cheer-Finder.  I have realized that kids are the best life coaches and one can derive a lot of life lessons from them. The most valuable of them is their ability to be cheerful and smile in their most adverse and painful moments. And when those 5 year olds and 10 year olds can do it so effortlessly , what stops us from being like them. Keeping the child within yourself alive should also mean being like them in the most difficult situations.

There's a lot to be cheerfurl about; everyone just needs to find their own reason. Everyone for once need to make that STRAIGHT LINE CROOKED . Or Curvy if I may have to insist ;)