London Chronicles – Out & About

You know all those dreams you have of being in the best cities of the world.. London, Paris, New York…. Well I am living my dream.. working in London, minutes away from the Buckingham palace. It doesn’t get any better from this – location wise. The flip side is I don’t live at or anywhere near the Palace. So I need to travel to work – almost an hour one way daily. So what’s the big deal – most people do you say. But it depends on whom you ask. For example – In Bangalore, the hour, hour and a half to or from work was in the comfort of my car listening to RJ Shraddha and RJ Daraius. I knew the trouble points and was mentally prepared – Marthahalli, KR Puram…. When you are in Mumbai, everything is a mad rush really. The only good thing about being in a local train at peak hours is that you are so squeezed from all sides that you really don’t feel anything – no pain from standing hours on a local from Churchgate to Virar or VT to Karjat – in fact you are so cocooned that you can actually sleep standing. For our friends from Delhi – it’s the hours spend at the Delhi – Gurgaon toll plaza that is the bane. For us Londonnites (look at me – 3 weeks in the country and calling myself a Londonnite…) it’s the myriad forms of public transport that is available. I have discovered that from my home to my office is around an hour door to door. No matter which route I take the time taken remains the same – an oh boy… how many options to choose from. So let me describe the few that I have discovered in the past 5 days. I walk to Surbiton station – take a national rail train (southwest line) to Waterloo. Now a fast train would take me directly to Waterloo from where I take a tube via Bakerloo line to Embankment which is one stop from Waterloo and from there a District or Circle line tube to St. James’s park which is 2-3 stops from Embankment. A slow train to Waterloo will stop at around 6 stops on the way. So one of my options is to get down at Wimbledon and take a District line from there to St. James’s park. Or to get down at Vauxhall and take a Victoria line to Victoria Station and walk down to the office. These are three options that I discovered in the past few days. I’m sure that as days go by, more routes will be added to this list. So what makes you decide your preferred route. First, there is the time factor – which is the quickest route – there is no shortest route, so quickest will have to do. If you are under a misconception that a fast train to Waterloo will actually get you there faster, you are mistaken. Like in Mumbai, a fast train will most probably come in after 3 slow trains. And even if one route actually got you from point A to B faster, the number of stairs and escalators that you had to go up and down to cross over from National rail to Bakerloo line to District line to Victoria line… you really don’t require any other exercise. Just climbing up and down the stairs and running from one platform to another will get you calories burning. The other factor is obviously the comfort factor – the Wimbledon option is really the slowest of the above, but it is the most comfortable. I get a place to sit on the train from Surbiton because it is a slow train. I always get a place to sit on the tube from Wimbledon and most of the trip is over ground… so you get to take in the sights. So I prefer this over the others.

Being on a train or a tube is almost like being on a plane – you have a guard making an announcement in a very cultured, clipped tone. Sometimes you have odd ball characters like I had today on my District line tube” Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the district line train to Tower Hill taking a very scenic route via Putney, West Kensington, Earls court, Victoria, Embankment and Tower hill. This train will attempt to stop at all stations on the way to and especially at Tower Hill. So take you seats if you have found one and enjoy the rest of the ride.” They wish you a pleasant day or a safe onward journey at the end of your trip. They all mention that we look at the safety information displayed in each compartment and that we keep our belongings to ourselves. All of them let us know why a train is running late or has stopped at an unscheduled stop. They apologize a hundred times though their voices emote no feeling. And very much like our flights, trains are often late. They have a good reason like “person falling on tracks”, “signal fault”, “faulty train before”.. so a lot of your time is spent on platforms… waiting for the next train, the next tube, the red light to change, the dead man to be removed.

The other thing that needs to be mentioned when you talk public transport is your fellow passenger. It was a pleasant surprise when I got into a tube and nearly everyone was reading something or the other. Most are reading the free newspapers handed out outside most stations, but others are reading novels, magazines, something on their ipads or kindles. It is so heartening to see people read. I have almost never in my 5 years in Bangalore see people read in public transport. Can’t blame them fully. Difficult to read properly when you are on a roller coaster ride due to the condition of the roads or so crammed that you can hardly take a full breath let alone spread a news paper to its full length. Most of them have their headphones on. Some are playing stupid phone games. But there is one thing in common. No one ever talks. You may have a couple of people or a bunch of people who are together having a conversation in hushed tones, people speaking in polite, courteous tones into their cell phones – but never ever striking a conversation with a stranger – that is an unwritten rule on the London underground – thou shalt not speak to thy neighbor. Maybe the only commandment strictly followed in London. I find it quite amusing to see people. Actually see them, not to hide behind books or ear phones, but to actually observe humanity in its raw form. All shapes, sizes and colours of people. Formally dressed, stylishly dressed, shabbily dressed, drinking coffee, balancing books, kissing and fondling, airing their dirty laundry, out of place strangers, people who belong so much that they almost blend in with the décor of the train – what they do, how they sit, how they react.. it is a fascinating study of the human species and its free and uninterrupted – till the person leaves the train.

Once you get off a train the next interesting thing is getting on all those stairs and escalators. People in London have immense patience. You can see two structured lines, barely moving in the direction of the stairs. The odd one person or so who is in a hurry slightly jostling others, but more or less everyone – just waiting for their turn to get on to the steps – in an orderly fashion. Imagine putting them at Dadar station at peak hours. They would end up paying for therapy sessions for the rest of their lives to recover from the emotional trauma. I haven’t counted, but am sure that I climb up and down at least 100 steps everyday. If I still don’t lose weight – at least I tried.

After you get off the stairs and escalators beeping your oyster card at each gate, you land into a big cross over hall in most big stations – Victoria, waterloo, Liverpool street. Such halls are a sea of black and grey – all rushing across all corners to board the next mode of transport to their next point. In the midst you may see a rush of colour, a whimsical blue, or a bold red, or the more common pastel or brown – but mostly it is just a sea of black and grey. Sometimes with poppies or broaches on the lapels, sometimes with dainty scarves, sometimes with a shirt so colourful you know that the guy is gay, sometimes with a red dotted bow tie, sometimes with coat tails, but mostly black or grey pants, skirts or dresses with black overcoats.

After all that darkness - the darkness of the tubes, the tunnels, the clothes, the silence, you come out of the station into a rush of blinding light. You just want to rush into it, embrace it with all you have…..its London, you don’t have too much of day light anyway.