Tag: London

The Name Saga Continues.

Another peculiar story concerning names. Perhaps the Universe is not satisfied with just the two stories that I wrote about earlier.

I received a phone call from a friend of over thirty years to inform me of his first ever overseas trip to the UK and wanting some contacts there in case of need.

I immediately told him that in an emergency he should call Barath, my brother in London and he wanted to know the name again as there was a lot of static in the call. I started off by saying Barath Rajgopaul and to give a telephone number, when he interrupted me to say that Barath was in Mumbai and Ahmedabad and not in London. I was zapped and I asked him how this was possible as I should know about my brother’s whereabouts more than he would. He said, that he did not realise that I was talking about my brother and that he was talking about Bharat Rajgore, who was a colleague of mine over 32 years ago.

I was reminded of my ex colleague, and decided to get back in touch with Bharat Rajgore who I had known in 1985/90.

I did some detective work and found out the phone number and called Bharat up much to his delight and my satisfaction that an old colleague was still working and remembered me well.

A bad telephone connection resulted in my getting back in touch with an old colleague.

The friend who was to go to London has postponed his trip due to a death in his family and my brother Barath has to be kept on hold till the visit eventually takes place.

Homophobia.

I could have told Iain Lee about this had he only asked me about it. This article in The Independent by him took me back to some two decades or so. What the reporter found was exactly what I found too.

I was visiting a number of places in the UK and Europe, while my brother Barath normally resident in Edinburgh then was to meet up with me in London for a last night together before I left for India the following morning.

I reached London in the evening and checked into the Grosvenor House where Barath was also to check in later. When he did, the two of us met up with some other friends for a couple of drinks at the bar and then went off to a Thai restaurant in Soho that Barath was fond of. We had great food there and it was about ten in the night when the two of us quite maudlin with a lot of booze inside us walked back to the hotel talking about how we will miss each other from the next morning. I was hugging Barath as we were walking and that is when we experienced homophobia, that must have been fairly common in London then and now this article tells me is so even now.

A group of four young boys, could not have been more than just out of their teens started abusing us and making obscene gestures at us. I did not quite register what was happening because it was a strange English that they were speaking, and thought that it was Paki bashing, which too was quite prevalent those days London. The street fighter in me took over and I was ready to pile into the four and asked Barath if he was game for a bit of a dust up. He was saner and told me to ignore the youngsters and explained that they thought that we were queers hugging each other. So, I turned to them and tried to explain that we were brothers and this for some reason made them even more obnoxious! Barath pointed out that I would miss my flight if I landed up in a police lock up for the night and that we should just ignore them and walk to the hotel. That was what we did with the hooligans accompanying us for quite some time hooting at us.

Another story from the family archives for the family now resident in the UK!

Sexual Harassment.

I was under the impression that Indian cities were the worst in the world for women due to sexual harassment that they face. Here is a sobering thought about the situtation. It is also another fact that among all the cities in India, Delhi is the worst with one in four registered complaints coming from that city, our capital.

So, this article in the Guardian came as a complete surprise to me. My memory of the London of my visits had not prepared me for this shocking news.

Our two capitals seem to compete with each other for the fist place.

What is it that drives these men to such despicable acts? The most reasonable answer that I have received is that they are frustrated in their personal lives and take it out on women who are perceived to be easy targets and fair game. I suspect that there is more. In the case of India, single men migrate to cities to seek some kind of employment not available to them in their native towns or villages and are subject to loneliness, and also the very suggestive Indian films and television programs that make it appear as though securing the attention of women is very easy.

Whatever the reason, quite why this should happen in London is beyond my understanding. Continue reading “Sexual Harassment.”

The world is your oyster – where would you like to visit?

As I had indicated in my Saturday’s post, this is the fourth post to answer the seven questions that Grannymar had asked in her meme.

After having come to know Grannymar, Nick, Elly, George and Lily through the blogsphere, Ireland of course.

But, I cannot get a direct flight to Ireland from India and have to pass through London. So, first call will be to keep a date for a dance in the rain near the Ritz! That is, if my date will dance with a lame man after all! I have tried to inspire her with a video, that lame men too can dance. But who knows the way of the feminine mind?

After that, Ireland, here I come.

India,Britain And Me.

My friend Anil sent me a link to an article in the Evening Standard of London by Sebastian Shakespeare to say how happy he was to read such nice things about India in general and Tamil Nadu in particular.

My origins lie in Tamil Nadu and I have lived some parts of my life there. I have also traveled extensively within Tamil Nadu and can vouch for everything that Sebastian Shakespeare says about it.

What however came as a surprise to me was the thrust of the article that London is going down the tube! Now for the uninitiated, there is a play of words there and I leave it to the readers to figure it out.

As my regular readers know, I am anglophile and admire the British for many things and the article was a bit of a let down to say the least.

As if that was not enough to get me thinking about the changes that are surely taking place in Britain, another article, this time in the Independent caught my eyes. The article by Yasmin Alibhai Brown is equally troubling.

I am sure that my regular readers from the UK know that I have a date to visit London, dance in the rain and have dinner with a charming lady reader. I wouldn’t like to be treated shabbily by BA cabin crew or get stuck in queues!

My regular readers, Grannymar, Magpie, Nick and Bunc may have something to say about these matters. I look forward to their comments. Barath and Simon, your comments too will be more than welcome.