Victoria and Abdul

Reading the book - Victoria and Abdul. The book titles as "The True Story of the Queen's closest confidant."

Gives a very romantic flair, at least that was my initial impression and it did indeed grow when i learnt that the said Abdul, was taken to Britain to wait at Queen Victoria's tables and soon rose to a unique position of the Queen's Munshi. He taught her hindustani and urdu, indian customs and in later years, he became first Personal Indian Clerk to the Queen, and later her Indian Secretary. However, on reading the book, the story unfolds of a Queen with a motherly regard for her Munshi. Something which is not lost on the royal family and which soon becomes a reason for dispute and anger.

The plot thickens with accusations of espionage from Abdul, the Queen's staff threatening to resign rather than work with Abdul but Queen Victoria would have none of it. She continued to shower favors upon Abdul Karim. She helped him bring his family to Britain at the royal expense and had them lodged in the grounds of royal palaces.

Well this one has so far proven and promises to continue to be an interesting read.

FRIENDS-----I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU

I have watched the show repeatedly, still continue to watch it repeatedly and yet I just don’t tire of it. I know it’s not just me, millions of people round the world share my sentiments. FRIENDS – rock!!

 

Started in 1994 and ended being aired in 2004, it’s still got that current relevant feel to it. A bundle of laughs, a great way to wind down with no cheap shots, it’s awesome. This is one series that I am addicted to; I don’t suppose I will ever get over my addiction either. Did you know there are talks of a movie on FRIENDS? Well on record everyone seems to be dismissing these talks as just rumor’s but I just cant help wishing that it wasn’t a rumor. Logically, I know the series was pure fiction but then at times I do catch myself wondering how Joey is? Did Monica and Chandler finally start living in the suburbs? Are Ross and Racheal together or did they fight and break up….again? Is Phoebe still with Mark?

Well I did a net search on the guys and found out how they were doing in real life and turns out it wasn’t such a happy ending after all. Here is the link to what happened with Friends actors - http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/jennifer-aniston-matt-leblanc-friends-cast-now/story?id=9648807

 

Check it out, meanwhile check out their pics which I took from that site.

 

I still loved reading up tidbits on them, like how Monica was initially asked to play Racheal’s role but she declined and instead chose to play Monica. Like how Perry was the initial choice for Chandler’s role but he didn’t have dates so the producers tried to find someone else but none seemed quite right for the role and as fate would have it Perry suddenly got out of one show and had dates after all. Am so glad on that one, coz Chandler is my all time favorite character on this series.

Mindbuster trivia of all – “NBC agreed to pay $10 million to Warner Bros. for the production of each tenth season episode, the highest price in television history for a 30-minute series.”…….and……… “Until 2005, Friends had earned $4 million per episode in cash license fees, for a total of $944 million”

So that made me wonder how much did the cast of Friends actually make and well here is the answer – (Source – wikianswers.com)

In their original contracts for the first season, each cast member was paid $22,500 per episode. The cast members received different salaries in the second season, beginning from the $20,000 range to $40,000 per episode. Prior to their salary negotiations for the third season, the cast decided to enter collective negotiations, despite Warner Bros. preference for individual deals. The actors were given the salary of the least paid cast member, meaning Aniston and Schwimmer had their salaries reduced. The stars were paid, per episode, $75,000 in the third season, $85,000 in the fourth, $100,000 in the fifth, and $125,000 in the sixth season. The cast members received salaries of $750,000 per episode in the seventh and eight seasons, and $1 million per episode in the ninth and tenth. The cast also received syndication royalties beginning with the fifth season

 

Well guess that isn’t too shabby now is it?

Time

Talk about pressure!! Why is it that these days time is measured by the events that take place and not in the standard way of minutes, days, weeks….etc etc. It’s only been a week since I landed and yet I feel as if it’s been so long a time, I haven’t yet gotten an apartment to move into and I don’t have a job to join!!

Apartments…..i frankly don’t understand why we are taking so long to decide on which apartment to move into since every one of them looks the same. They all have brown exteriors, they all have entry secure phone systems, they all have street parking, they all have more or less the same square feet too…its only the locality and the rent that differs. And yet when I enter a possible place, some of the flats give me yes this home feeling as opposed to some that don’t.

What’s painful though is the hotel food, especially the breakfast; it’s the same stale croissants, stack of brown and white breads, cereals and fruits. Nothing wrong with the spread in itself but the fact that it’s not HOT and nothing is cooked, it’s all ready made.

Patience truly is a virtue! :(

My job hunt however has started only from today since I didn’t have an address to quote on my CV so far and now thanks to Shaiwal’s colleague I do have one. The jobs listed on the sites don’t give me an iota of confidence that I will be able to bag one, everything is in the banking and insurance domain since Edinburgh is the hub of insurance and banking companies. Miseries of misery, I haven’t done a project in that domain, except for a small one with Metlife insurance. Anyways, I am no domain expert I am on the product side, right? So are there any openings there….well truthfully, no. :(

Seriously, time these days are marked by events, if something happens its always – oh so soon….and if nothing happens then its like – my god how long its been!!

Crowds and Strategy

Scotland versus England – RUGBY Match!! Yep it’s a big deal and it happened today in the stadium that’s right down the lane! Ask me, coz when I went out a while ago and I was headed towards the market, I chose absolutely THE wrong moment to do so and THE wrong direction coz the public was headed towards the stadium which is in the opposite side!! It was like walking against a tide of people. Usually you get to walk down the street here with an odd passer-by passing by you every ten minutes or so and suddenly today it felt as if the entire population of Scotland and a good portion of the population from England had stepped onto the streets and everyone was headed towards the stadium.

People were milling in from every side street, as if there was a pied piper playing at the stadium. There were people in traditional attire of the Scottish kilt, people in good cheer screaming on top of their lungs in support of one of the teams, people with families, friends, children, elders…….reminded me of India a lot. The spirit was so infectious that it soon had me in a good mood. It’s so nice to see so many people all in good spirits looking forward to something :)

By the way, came across this nice article on Starbucks coffee, which talks of its history and how a plastic salesman was behind the vision of selling coffee as an experience!!

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Starbucks-Made-Coffee-History&id=613405 – check it out.

Reading this article had me wondering when is Starbucks coming to India ? As per media accounts, its already tried twice and gotten irked, by our “lack of transparency in rules governing FDI in retail.” Hmmm…it would be interesting to figure out IF starbucks were to make an entry into India and if it did so with a JV with Kishore Biyani of Future group as it tried to do so earlier, then what would be their strategy here? Would it be positioned as a premium brand or would it be coffee on the go brand as abroad? I guess time will tell, although my money would be on the premium brand positioning strategy. :)

New experiences

Most of the times I get to hear how our (read as ASIAN) manners are not quite accepted here and how the English get offended, disgusted, disturbed or all of the aforementioned due to them!! Coughing aloud in office is not done, littering is not done, black leather jackets are soooooo not on, nails with dirt underneath, shirts with creases, no funny noises, no loud conversations…..etc etc…..For the large part of the list its all good manners and nothing to do with English or Asian. What sort of irritates me is the fervour to adopt these good manners while in the company of white skin and not on the whole in your day to day life.

The fervour springs from the need to be accepted and be smiled upon and talked with. Hmm….sometimes we are so into a moment that we tend to forget what is important. Impressing the client is vital and trying to fit in a good strategy, however being all too aware of what is ON and what is NOT is sometimes a little to the extreme!!

Anyways before I get too preachy, shall we move on? I went to Boots yesterday, a famous pharmacy chain in the Europe, to get cough syrup for Shaiwal and inadvertently also stumbled on some meal deals. A sandwich, a drink and a packet of chips all for 2 pounds. One thing that’s lovely here is the number of deals that keep running and that these deals are truly value for money. An interesting tidbit on Boots – started way back in 1846 in UK, it was sold off to an American company sometime in the 1920’s and then history saw it being sold back to UK hands in 1933 presumably an aftermath of the great depression.

Weekends round the corner and I have the task of figuring out what we can do!!! Not that I volunteered for the task, but my better half is stuck in office with no computer or net connectivity and a whole lot of negative energy bundled in him for his plight! :)

Before I sign off – if anyone goes to Starbucks coffee, then beware before putting nutmeg topping into your coffee, it is spicy and sort of kills the taste for those of us who have a sweet tooth, the rest of us black mean coffee drinkers please go right ahead. My vanilla latte was so completely ruined in my enthusiasm to discover new things!!! :(

Scotland it is....

Went to the market side yesterday, I guess I shouldn’t say market coz that conjures up a very different image than what is reality. By market, people here tend to refer to streets lined up with stores of not vegetables, fish or any such but of Marks and Spencers, Debenhams, Boots, BHS and the like. To the one side of the street were stores that ran on and on, however, what interested me more was the opposite side of the street. There at the other side were old structures built atop a small hill and try as I might I was unable to capture the entire beauty or the length in my camera.

It was lovely to say the very least. Again I wanted to desperately just go in and see but then everything closes down by 6 pm here and it was already 5:30pm. We went to a bus office to get monthly passes done, while Shaiwal was busy with the mundane I started picking up from the hoards of leaflets available on where to go and what to see. People here are talking about the easter break that’s coming up (April 2nd to 5th) and I gather that they have been planning trips from just after Christmas. Translated that means that if Shaiwal and I were to do sightseeing during those days then we should restrict it to the local ones since accommodations are all out elsewhere. :)

Before I digress further, remember I said shops all close off by 6pm, well slight correction, not all, the ones run by Asians remain open till 9pm and more often than not, these shops are small supermarkets with eatables, mobile recharge coupons, magazines, etc. Asians in origin but perhaps more UK since they talk and look as if they were born and bought up here. I guess despite being bred here, we Asians still carry the thirst for money, maybe to send back home or maybe in reminiscence of the underprivileged deprived days that we have seen.

While I see foreigners looking at me on the street as I pass and nodding to say hi or giving me a slight smile, I notice that Asians tend to look down, up sideways, i.e, anywhere else other than at me or any other unknown Asian so that they can avoid greeting or acknowledging. I wonder if this phenomenon is just Asian to Asian or is it Asian to Europe as well.

Yesterday a middle aged Asian came to clean the room and he wasn’t able to understand English so I tried in Hindi and he was well relieved. Seems he thought I was a Sri Lankan and normally Sri Lankan’s do not know Hindi and he was scared if I would complain. Well he is from Bangladesh, been here for 3 years now, came here to make enough money to wed his daughter off and set his son up in business. Unfortunately hasn’t been able to learn English so far. Gets by doing all cleaning jobs but gets scared when he has to take interviews for visa and the like.

Yesterday we also did some house hunting, saw two flats, one was outright rejected and the other is under consideration. Have circled on 4 more flats and if we get appointments to see them today then we are done with our house hunting exercise hopefully and move on to house finalization a.k.a house moving in exercise. :) All flats here seem to be handed over to property dealers and people like us call up and fix appointments to see the property with these dealers. At the appointed time one of their salesman comes up opens the place up, gives us a tour, hands over some forms and instructs us to get in touch with the office for further procedures!!! What a cool job is that. You wear a suit, drive to different places, take 10 minutes time to show a place and then you are done. I guess it might not pay too well, but hey no stress and total division of labour. This guy doesn’t do any smooth sales talk, his job is to just show you the place which he does!!!

Kinda liked that process, not like a business analyst who doubles up as a project leader, project manager, test lead, testing manager, onsite coordinator……..lets face it almost everything other than the sweeper….well fear not the days not far for that to happen!

Travel Travails

After 8 years I am touching the country I grew up in, it feels familiar and yet vague. The UAE, more specifically the Dubai Airport, I can’t go out since I am in transit for UK. Every moment there is an announcement, my ears perk up in attention only to find that the announcement is made first in Arabic and then in English. Reminds me a lot of my childhood days, especially when I saw at Duty Free Patchi Chocolate collection, the very same chocolates that my dad used to get me for my birthday and which I would carry to school every year for my friends and teachers. God, how things have changed? Growing up in UAE, latter part of my school and college education at Kerala, final touch of my education at Chennai and then so many more years there itself for my career, married into a family who is settled in Pune and now travelling to Scotland UK.

Its 2:15 am here now, India time 3:45 am and Shaiwal is sleeping away, I feel disoriented and perhaps even a little disturbed, I would love to go out of the airport right now and slip into the city. Not knock on the doors of either relatives or friends staying here, but just roam around and see how far the city has changed, go to familiar spots and just silently say hi……maybe someday I will.

The next leg of my journey begins in 4 hours and I suppose we have another 6 hours of travelling to go before we reach Glasgow and from there an hour by road to reach Edinburgh. It will be only 12:30 noon UK time when we finally reach but it would be almost 24 hours of journey for us. Need to reach and make sure we don’t sleep till at least 9pm so that we can reduce the effects of jet lag as much as possible.

Anxious moments – I started shivering from the cold in the flight from Chennai to Dubai itself and that’s just a/c, wonder how Mother Nature will greet me there in UK? I heard it just stopped snowing a few days back. Even with the tonnes of warm clothes I am carrying and wearing I still somehow get the feeling that It’s all going to be inadequate. The bright side however is that I might be able to burn calories trying to withstand the cold. :)

Tuesday – 9th March

I am in Scotland now, reached yesterday afternoon. Its definitely cold here but its bearable if you have tonnes of layers of clothing on and gloves and woollen caps and muffler…..oh hell when you have your entire wardrobe on you are okay? :) I saw snow peaked mountains for the first time and they reminded me of the Himalayas. Luckily for me the snow has mostly melted off so the temperature has picked up. However I did see traces of snow on the way from Glasgow to Edinburgh.

Our hotel which is called the Original Raj hotel is Indian in its décor and UK in its management, its even got pictures of Gayatri Devi hung up in the sitting room. Inside our room we have a heater which allows me to come out of my clothes cocoon for a little while. A healthy ten minutes walk leads us to the nearby shops. I enjoyed the walking part, made me feel alive, although I must admit that the cold wind cuts right through my clothes and makes my skin feel as if it had been in cold storage. I saw a post office nearby and a church, two things which made me happy.

Got our food from Greggs, which I gather is a famous chain for sandwiches, bread and baked products. It prints on its food stuff the calories in it, like for example a chicken salad sandwich we bought has 380 calories in it. The speciality of this place is that it sells bread items which are made freshly on that day itself, no old stuff. The sandwiches are lovely albeit with no salt and no spice, but still very yummy. I am hoping to keep a count of my calorie intake and try not to balloon up out here.

The fruits look amazing especially the green apples, I got a particular kick while picking them up since we rarely get them in India, if at all we do. There is a small castle near the hotel and I am just itching to get inside, Shaiwal however assures me that I would get prosecuted the minute I did. There are a lot of Keep out signs hung all around the small castle, well you win some and you loose some, right?

Once I get more used to the weather here I plan to go for long walks, right now I almost had my ears frozen off after just a half hour walk today morning. I hope we find a decent place to stay at soon, not that the hotel is any bad but because it’s so inconvenient to live out of your suitcases, I keep thinking I have to pack all this back when we have to move out.

Oh yeah i almost forgot i had this lovely moment today where the hotel receptionist called up around noon and enquired whether i would require any room service. I declined since i had already stocked up some sandwiches. Later however, i discovered that what i had declined was not food but an enquiry as to whether i wanted my room cleaned out or not!!!! Boy - o - boy, what a mess!! :D

Signing off
Exuberant Traveller