No Surprises!!!

The people I have been able to meet are mostly Indian, and believe me there are lot of Indians here in Leeds or atleast in my office at 1 Sovereign Street. The main shopping district is the city centre, very close by from my office. The two very close buildings are the Queens Hotel and the Hilton Hotel. Park Royal Hotel is also near by around in the vicinity.

The place is like same everywhere, same type of architectural building either containing some modern shopping area or is converted into some entertainment centre. The places look indistinguishable from each other. They all look the same to me. And oh my god!! The place is so disgustingly clean.

The most effective and reliable mode of transport is the buses and believes me they are real cool…. You can take a weekly green zone pass in the buses itself on ‘First’ service, the other one which ply in Leeds is another private operator called the ‘Arriva’. I have never travelled on ‘Arriva’ till now. And my friends tell me here that I never will be. But I like the colour of ‘Arriva’ buses, they are turquoise. Our ‘First’ buses are pink and white.

The people here all speak English so no problem at all, but the only problem is that huuhh. They sometimes speak in such accented tones that it goes swoosshhh.. and the only thing you reply back is those stale faces, then you realise that you must smile back and then you do that.. i.e. smile back and may decided to blink in rapid pulsate motion for I don’t know why.. Hey buddy, you got to do something, right. They are expecting some reply. So you may ask sorry or try to explain what you have understood. But these English people are courteous enough to understand that may be since you haven’t understood to explain you again. And again and again and again… Ok, they won’t be that courteous. One word of caution, never try to understand what a Scottish person is speaking, don’t bother, even the English cannot understand their English. This is what English people I have interacted have told me, be it the HSBC Bank Executive or my deployment resource.

Well!! If I want to say no surprises, so be it..... Absolutely NO Surprises!!!

KL-603 For Amsterdam & KL-1545 To Leeds...

Dated: 20 Nov 2007, Start time 1:20 am IST, End time 9:50 GMT

In Mumbai, got my boading pass from some obscure ATM type gadget after the NW assistant helped me fill some details. Moved on to check in my baggage. And got my immigration done.

In the flight, got the last window seat ... But at night moved in the middle seat at the ends.. moved up the hand rests and slept peacefully... Did not watch of the inflight entertainment... But have to comment that the KLM airhostesses are real chatterboxes... They chatted and chatted and chatted among themselves... Had to comment that their service was`below average... Not good at all... My baggage was checked in for Leeds only so had nothing to bother about checking out and checking in again..

Got down at Amsterdam.. I was supposed to go to D6, asked atleast 10 people on my way to make sure I was on the right path.... I had enough time.. But got security checked in and sat there itself... Some Indian , probably Punjabi couple also sat beside me... Had to spend around 1 and half hours there...

Boarded the plane to leeds from there... no hassles at all ..... It was really cold outside, this I realised when I was about to board the plane to Leeds .... Asked the airhostess to assist me in keeping my bag in the overhead compartment... Made two ladies get up and give me way so that i could sit at my preferred window seat... Was served some chips which neither me neither the girl next to me could figure out how to open.. so she gave it back as is, I however kept it with me... Then we slept for a few long minutes....

I got down at Leeds airport.. Queued in to get my Visa stamped... After filling in my details.. The custom office asked me u arrived so late... I said... 'Ya!! it wasn't easy'.

Got a few hundred pound exchanged for my travellers cheque. Hey there was 5 pounds commision which I paid... then got out to a complete surprise.. there were no taxi drivers or con travel agents to greet me as is very well expected out in India.... But then this was UK....

Got in the taxi andgave him the address .. which he tried to find out in his GPS enabled cab.... he finally managed to there... charged me 20 pounds.. He was south-asian only... probably Pakistani.. By the way, all the cab driver in UK as south Asians only.. No Britishers..

But I sure was safely home... Let me write something about these english homes.... ours is a one storey ... single unit... 3 bedroom with hall.. they ar centrally heated.... ya.. you can't leave with some heating in this around 0 deg C english winters.. and remember winters are just setting in.... there is a hall with sofa, tv .. some dining space... a kitchen fully furnished with drawers, fridge, chimneys et al.. There is also some backyard garden or rather open spaces where families can relax when the sun comes up... and it has rarely done so recently.... And there are always these wooded shaped houses for their canines.. remember Mickey's dog... And there is some store room to keep their daily chores..

To reach the 1st floor bedrooms... you need to climb up the well carpeted stair-cases. There are 2/3 bedrooms well furnished, well carpeted and well heated.... And there's a bathroom again fully equiped with a bathtub and a full blown mirror wall...

It is cold now... but bearable.... The place called Hunslet where I will stay has all houses like the one I described and they all look the same...

Even people who laugh at us people who have some difficulty finding out the difference between left and right will get lost here... Yup!!! I challenge you nuts.... But I know you will love getting lost in a place like this as much as I will ...

And I will love using my accented english here without feeling anything odd about it.... Yes, it is going to be one of the coldest moments of my life....