my uk visit.

how it all started: ashwini alias laxman's wife shagun had been in uk since september 2007. ashwini followed her around november 2007. both had short term deputations. both had a desire that before their term ended, we (i and laxmi) should visit uk. however, i always said that our visit was not essential. on january 4, 2008 swati came to india from usa along with her new born son romir. she spent her time with us in lucknow in two tranches, first on arrival for about three weeks and later for a week before her sister-in-law shilpi's marriage. it was during her second stay that she got ashwini to book the journey tickets and at the same time made us not to say no to the programme. on 10th april ashwini got the visa interview dates fixed for 15th april, bought to and fro rail tickets for travel to delhi and also sent all necessary documents by airmail to reach me well in time. on 18th april we got our passports pasted with visa delivered at lucknow. on or about 22nd april to and fro air tickets were purchased by him and electronic copies delivered to me instantly.

preparations preceding the journey: immediately afterwards i started preparing ourselves for visiting the uk. clearing the monthly bills and managing payment of the forthcoming bills relating to telephone, internet, electricity, building society's dues, insurance, house tax, water tax,etc were ensured. consulting the physician before departure was also a necessity. getting bank passbooks updated and reconciled besides ensuring sufficient balance in accounts was also a task. consultation with friends who had visited uk earlier was also there. ashwini also kept us advised over phone and through e mails. overseas travel policy covering medical insurance had also to be arranged. since this needed pathalogical tests and a report by a general physician with doctor of medicine qualifications, it took almost two working days to get the policy.

my pre-occupations with the family temple, kesarwani vaish sabha and the building society: i used to visit my family temple in lucknow every saturday. so i paid a visit on 3rd may and briefed the pujari to take due care during my stay abroad. as i shall be returning only a few days before the next janmashtami, he had to be briefed about timely washing and cleaning of the premises.

i was secretary of kesarwani vaish sabha, lucknow, for 2006-08 and the next executive committee formation was only partially completed, i had to complete the rest of the process. for this purpose an urgent meeting could be called only on 4th may. on 5th the minutes were written and papers handed over to the president sri ghanshyam kesarwani.

i was deeply involved with the management of the affairs of the golf link apartment owners' association. i was treasurer during 2004-06 and later elected as secretary for 2006-08. here also the general body meeting had been scheduled for 18th may and the audit of the accounts for 2007-08 had to be completed. i insisted the auditors to complete the audit by 1st may, which he did by the 3rd may. i had to call an emergent meeting of the executive committe on 5th may to make alternative arrangements during my absence. i informed the members that i had given a reasonable amount of money as advance to the society's electrician jawahar for day to day expenses and the audit work was over. i assured that there should not be any difficulty to any office bearer in managing the affairs during my absence. however, the members simply decided to postpone the general body meeting and designated the vice president to guide the electrician in case any need arose.

as usual all meetings have to be preceded by efforts to fix the date and circulate the agenda, and followed by writing of the minutes and circulating the same. it consumes one's lot of time and energy.

visiting close relatives: i felt it our social obligation to visit our very close relatives before leaving india. so i visited our elder daughter, her parents-in-law, my elder sister, my daughter-in-law's parents, younger siblings of my wife laxmi, etc. i also informed gyan, bindu, rinki, poonam, ved and pravesh about our visit as i did not have enough time to pay a visit to them. i also informed my friends from whom i used to get occasional calls over telephone.

luggage for journey abroad: my airline allowed 28 kgs of check-in baggage and 7 kgs of cabin baggage per ticket. like other parents, we also wanted to carry sweets, namkeens, achars and other groceries generally consumed by indians for our children. each hard suit case weigned around 8 kgs, cabin soft suit case around 4 kgs, our clothes - cotton and woollen - around 12 kgs. so we together could carry about 22 kgs of other items. documents sent by ashwini and the e tickets had to be kept handy in the cabin baggage. passports had to be kept in personal pockets. mr and mrs khare sent a packet of pistachio as small gift as they were also due to follow us to uk on 18th may. laxmi and shibboji of delhi wanted to send several items but i could accept only a small pack of indian tea.

a warm send off on 6th may: we had to travel from lucknow to delhi by night train. i never wanted that anyone should trouble himself to come to railway station at late hours. however, a warm send off was given by mr and mrs khare, mr and mrs ved, mr and mrs ravi. my elder daughter anuradha, son-in-law shirish and grand daughters shreya and tanya were at the station before we reached. we really had a very warm send off.

a brief halt at delhi: our train reached delhi at around 0720 hrs. i immediately hired two coolies to carry the luggage outside the station, then hired two manual rickshaws to take us to my younger sister's residence nearby. we had two and half hours at our disposal for taking bath and finishing breakfast. we enjoyed nagories and kachories of gali batasha. we left their residence at 1030 hrs, reached delhi station by 1100 hrs and took a taxi car for journey upto igi international airport. we reached there at 1145 hrs, i.e., behind schedule by 45 minutes. we got our luggage x-rayed, reported for check in, filled in immigration (truly speaking emigration) form, completed related formalities, moved for security check. it was around 1245 hrs by then. boarding started at 1300 hrs. we were inside the plane by 1310 hrs. just before boarding the plane we made a call to shibboji. we also had a call from santosh, lucknow. from inside the plane we talked to anuradha. the scheduled departure of the plane was 1400 hrs. the plane started moving just around this time. actual take off on the runway was at 1430 hrs.

touch down at london: as per airline authorities, the actual journey time is 8 hours. however, take off to touch down took only seven and half hours. it was 1730 hrs as per uk time when our plane landed at the heathrow airport. collecting luggage took around 20 minutes, immigration formalities arund 10 minutes, and soon we were looking for ashwini and shagun. both were not visible and i had no british currency in my pocket. in fact, i had just forgotten to exchange my indian currency at delhi airport. so i took help of a fellow lady passenger from rajkot. she had a uk sim card. immediately ashwini and shagun were traced. we accompanied them to travel from airport to their romford residence. it was a train journey and we had to change at two places. it took almost two hours. from romford station to their residence, it was about five to seven minute walk. strolley type luggage was very convenient.

romford: romford is a suburb of london. in the satelite picture on google's website we see large patches of greenery around this city. probably the green patches denote farms around the city. so we can say that romford is a modern village. our indian villages will be a great contrast to this village. the romford county has its own municipal council. it has a town hall for the councillors. it has several shopping malls. it has a very big hospital. there is a police station also.

life in a uk flat: in india even if you stay in a flat, you happen to enjoy a social life. every now and then some or the other keeps knocking your doors. it may be your milkman, washerman, housemaid or a vegetable vendor. here you don't have the luxury of a servant or street vendor. in case you are a lone parent visiting your children and your children have left for their offices, you will be strongly missing the life in india.

shopping malls: i happened to visit asda shopping mall, which is as busy and crowded as big bazaar of lucknow. hkowever, one noticeable difference was that here almost 90% visitors were spenders not the onlookers.

weekly haats: romford area has a vast open space marked for street vendors. make shift shops are set up in the open space on the designated days of a week. many people prefer to buy goods like vegetables, fruits, flowers, flower plants, awnings, curtains, petty items of daily use from this market. the vendors display the prices as well as some sell by shouting the prices. there are benches where people can sit. vendors have their own vans, some fitted with electricity generator sets.

smoking: smoking here is as a big problem as paan masala is in india. generally public places are not littered. however, the weekly market place was badly littered with cigarette buts. now the area will be cleaned only when the municipal machine visits the area for which the days are marked. in any case i never expected such littering of the area.

driving: i think the people are at their best when they are driving. they are very very civilised and respect the rules. a red light is red light even if there is nobody crossing the road. a vehicle coming from the sub-road - whether taking left or right turn - will wait till traffic from the right has fully passed through. if any pedestrian wants to cross the road at the junction and such junction does not have a street light, the vehicle will stop to give way to the pedestrian. normally where street lights are there, a machine is also placed which can be operated by the pedestrian to stop the traffc and seek his passage to cross the road.

litter boxes: there were well designed litter boxes placed on the footpaths after every hundred meters. it very much helped in abiding by the rule not to litter.

skin show: no one bothers himself about the skin show. girls enjoy wearing clothes of their choice. body beauty is well appreciated by the people. no one passes any remark. not too many women in bikinis could be seen enjoying sunshine in public places like parks. a few men and boys were strolling without their shirts in the shopping malls.

police station: a police station's outer look was very very different. no one coming in or out of the building. seemed just like another office building. no one in uniform standing outside the building to guard the place. police vehicles were parked inside the building duly barricaded.

beat policeman: not yet seen by me.

curd: curd with different flavours like pineapple, mango, apricot etc is available. it is really very tasty and relishable by the vegetarians. parag and amul should also produce such products.

10 may 2008.