Indians don’t mind the gap, look at any queue in India and you will not find much gap between two people. You still don’t believe me ?? then have a look at the Mumbai local trains, proximity of the same gender folks is beyond imagination and if you took the context of crowd out of this equation, such proximity would be termed public indecency….in fact I am not sure if it is even legal to be that close. It is not that we Indians like to be physically close to strangers, it’s our population to be blamed and guess what.. London seems to be following us. The train and platform speakers keep shouting - “mind the gap” but damn.. nobody is listening !! the population in London seems to have exploded, there is no time to mind the gap …whether between the train and the platform or between travelers.
I have travelled to London after close to a decade and the changes are quite evident. Leave EU supporters of Brexit have one valid reason for sure – growing population. Also, when you are travelling in London there are more chances of you hearing people speaking in Hindi / Tamil / Hinglish / Tinglish than English and I am not exaggerating, it is all for real. Brown people are everywhere and in fact, people seem to prefer “brown” over “white” even when it comes to bread :-)
Also, when it comes to driving, Londoners seem to have turned erratic though some amount of lane discipline still exists. In the last couple of weeks, I have heard of 3 incidents where buses have knocked down pedestrians and/or cyclists. Pedestrians are also not disciplined, they no longer cross only at Zebra crossing or when they have the walking man signal ON…cars, buses, cyclists, people… they are all moving in all directions. By the way, walking man reminds me that how come no women has raised this as a gender equality issue? why not a standing lady and a walking lady for signals ? Come on girls, stand up for your rights :-) Anyways, the traffic on roads, lane discipline and the quality of roadways cannot be compared to that of Indian cities or town, India has a long long long long way to go …not even sure if we will ever reach there. I strongly feel that only way to help Indians using roadways is to implement weird ideas like the one Mr. Kejriwal did in Delhi
Speaking of the changes, I noticed that the scooter used by London kids has “2 wheels in the front and one at the back” exact opposite of that in India. I don’t know if it is just a stupid innovation or if there is any merit to the design, I always thought the back tires bring stability to the ride. Whatever it is .. I am glad that it is still a real scooter and not some app that kids can download on their tablets.
One has to speak about the weather in a western country and especially London. I can bet the climate in London is more moody than your wife, it keeps changing every hour – at times she is sunny, most of the time in tears before giving you long n cold stares. Whatever be the weather the restaurants / pubs has good crowd in the evening and if the weather is good one can sit out in the sun and socialize. The latest fad to have hit London is Tank Beer. I haven’t had it yet but I have heard a lot about it from the locals
Before I close, a special request to Indian wives in London, if you find a long blonde hair sticking out of your spouse's suit or jacket then trust me ….your guy is clean .. somebody just didn’t Mind the gap :)
I have travelled to London after close to a decade and the changes are quite evident. Leave EU supporters of Brexit have one valid reason for sure – growing population. Also, when you are travelling in London there are more chances of you hearing people speaking in Hindi / Tamil / Hinglish / Tinglish than English and I am not exaggerating, it is all for real. Brown people are everywhere and in fact, people seem to prefer “brown” over “white” even when it comes to bread :-)
Also, when it comes to driving, Londoners seem to have turned erratic though some amount of lane discipline still exists. In the last couple of weeks, I have heard of 3 incidents where buses have knocked down pedestrians and/or cyclists. Pedestrians are also not disciplined, they no longer cross only at Zebra crossing or when they have the walking man signal ON…cars, buses, cyclists, people… they are all moving in all directions. By the way, walking man reminds me that how come no women has raised this as a gender equality issue? why not a standing lady and a walking lady for signals ? Come on girls, stand up for your rights :-) Anyways, the traffic on roads, lane discipline and the quality of roadways cannot be compared to that of Indian cities or town, India has a long long long long way to go …not even sure if we will ever reach there. I strongly feel that only way to help Indians using roadways is to implement weird ideas like the one Mr. Kejriwal did in Delhi
Speaking of the changes, I noticed that the scooter used by London kids has “2 wheels in the front and one at the back” exact opposite of that in India. I don’t know if it is just a stupid innovation or if there is any merit to the design, I always thought the back tires bring stability to the ride. Whatever it is .. I am glad that it is still a real scooter and not some app that kids can download on their tablets.
One has to speak about the weather in a western country and especially London. I can bet the climate in London is more moody than your wife, it keeps changing every hour – at times she is sunny, most of the time in tears before giving you long n cold stares. Whatever be the weather the restaurants / pubs has good crowd in the evening and if the weather is good one can sit out in the sun and socialize. The latest fad to have hit London is Tank Beer. I haven’t had it yet but I have heard a lot about it from the locals
Before I close, a special request to Indian wives in London, if you find a long blonde hair sticking out of your spouse's suit or jacket then trust me ….your guy is clean .. somebody just didn’t Mind the gap :)
