Buckingham Palace to Southall

Late in the afternoon with no signs of the sun, we were in front of the Buckingham palace. It is grand and imposing. The building, the grand gate, the huge park and the guards in their red uniform, all, exude the royalty and power of arguably the 2nd most authoritative centre in the world. This was the centre from where India was ruled for 200 years. I got somber, slightly embarrassed for the fact that my forefathers and the motherland was ruled by the same centre.

We left for Southall from the Buckingham palace.
We enquired about Southall from the ENQUIRY at Embankment station. Southall was no where mentioned on the confusing UNDERGROUND network displayed at all the stations in and around London. There are numerous TUBE, underground railway network service, routes that forms the arteries and veins of the transportation network in London. The female at the enquiry counter suggested us to the take the CIRCLE route, alight at Paddington and take the National Railways to Southall.

It took us about 20 mins to reach Paddington. Paddington station is huge and very impressive; it reminded me of the 2 biggest terminal stations of India, CST in Mumbai and Howrah.The train to Southall was to leave from Platform no 12 in 10 mins. There are display boards at the stations which makes traveling easy for people who are new to London. The TUBE managing authority has done a commendable job of making available all the information at the stations. We boarded the train on reaching the platform. A few hours back I had seen a lot of Indians in the main tourist locations in London but most of them appeared from the southern part, opposed to that the few oriental co passengers in the train were from the northern India, punjabi to be specific. The train took us away from the quintessential pandemonium of a metropolitan city. In some time we were at the Southall Station. I was surprised to see the name of the station written in Punjabi, needless to mention that English was the first language. We got down and a beautiful Punjabi kudi perched from the following bogie. We were enjoying the feeling of being there, felt close to home. We came out and took a subway to get to the other side of the road where we could see some shops. We wanted to buy Indian curries and spices and have a good Indian dinner for which we had come to Southall. The shops visible on that side of the road promised all that. The subway carried the pungent smell of urine which is so common in any less frequently traveled lanes and corners in India. I couldn’t help smiling. I had never thought of sighting this in the western world. I was assured that this place would offer all that we were looking for. It started raining lightly and we hurried towards a shade of a restaurant, a hyderabadi restaurant. DUM BIRYANI SERVED HERE was written in bold letters. We were joined by a Punjabi family and another man who was divulging how he came to Southall. It was time for some Sutta break, my colleagues lighted a cigarette each and started smoking. I was content smoking passively. The rain stopped and we walked further on the road. The homely feeling grew stronger as we saw posters of the latest movies ‘FANAA’, ’36 CHINA TOWN’ etc on the walls. We moved further and realized that we were in an archetypal Indian shopping street. We kept walking till a MITHAI shop lured us inside. Our mouth watered looking at the Indian delicacies. We decided to have Samosa and Tea to begin; neither the samosa nor the tea was so great. Disappointed with the snack, soon, we got into an Indian super store and bought spices, curries and loads of other stuff as well. We had grown heavy when we came out. Mobility was certainly gonna be affected. We bought DVD’s of a few latest Hindi movies and some more of the kinds that remind you of your soul mate….from an adjacent store. All of us were hungry and were trying to spot a good restaurant. We decided to go back to the one that we had seen on the way. The ambience and menu seemed potential. We ordered Chicken biryani for all. We were confused to decide on one thing. I wanted to have so many things at the same time, would have been good if humans had the capability of storing the food for days somewhere in their body to be consumed later. Some of the living species can do it. I believe this happens to people who are devoid of the food they have thrived on for 25 years or so. We savored the Chicken biryani with Boondi Raita, the preparation was palatable and we ate it all. Happily we left that place and came back to the station, avoiding the subway this time, though it reminded me of home but it wasn’t certainly pleasant. A beautiful stranger accompanied us on our way back and my colleagues went gaga about it. She was in an extraordinarily revealing outfit and unfortunately I was sitting on the wrong side. Nonetheless the day was good, I felt close to home after a long time, near yet so far.I could feel my homeland strongly at Southall. The embarrassment that I had felt in front of Buckingham Palace alleviated. I was filled with admiration for all the Indian people in Southall who made their presence felt in a big way thousands of miles away from their roots.