5th day in London and already in The London Climate March...

This was last Sunday, 21st Sept 2014.. Before the World Climate Change March started in London...

Had partied last night with random hostel guys whom I got to know just 10 minutes before leaving the hostel with them. So of course I slept late at around 4 am and was up at 7 am without an alarm (commendable, if I say so myself! J) I don’t know how it happened, must have been the excitement. I had to reach at 12. The farthest place in London wouldn't take more than an hour and also getting ready and breakfast would take another 1 hour. Since I am a punctual person I added another half an hour to the schedule. So I had 2 and a half which was more than enough to reach the venue. But there I was up at 7 and at the venue at 10. I would have reached earlier, but got late because the tube line not working and I had to walk for 35-40 minutes. If that had not happened, I would have been here at 9-30.

It was my 1st London protest or should I say first ever protest, for that matter. It was for the environment, that's what I had heard. Studying Media Campaigning and Social change, this was the start of my learning and I had the most amazing feeling about what I was doing from the first day itself. It is so different and involves so much learning that it is a new and wonderful experience for me! Witnessing the protest and learning from it; its implications on social change; helped enlighten me. As it was going to be a huge protest, Media and Campaigning played a major role. Many NGO’s were present that day, a few being WWF, 38 degrees, CAFOD, AVAAZ as well as many more!

Since I was early, I began looking around noticing and analyzing things. Various groups were gathering their volunteers and participants and giving them instructions. Some of them were joking, clicking pictures and having fun. There were some tourists and other people who were completely foxed about what was happening. They had expected it to be a normal Sunday on the embankment of the Temple tube station. 

The numbers began increasing.. On with the fun and enthusiasm, but it is still very well managed, with the occasional police walking around. The banners and T-Shirts had things like 'Green Party' 'Say no to Fracking' 'Buy a socialist worker here' 'Against government cuts' 'Against Austerity' 'Green jobs won't cost the Earth' 'Be Realistic Demand the impossible' 'Open your eyes' 'London 100% clean energy' 'People's Climate march' and other things written on them. People with masks, costumes were distributing leaflets and holding billboards, banners and balloons with messages .I was walking around experiencing the enthusiasm, the music, the vibrant atmosphere and of course trying to find the people whom I was supposed to meet here. I knew that it was going to be an eventful and an amazing learning experience. Cheers to that!

A Night when Love and Hate Collide

Peter was talking to a friend and walking…walking is something which had become an integral part of his day. Today he had walked a little less compared to the last 3 days and he wasn’t too hungry so he thought he would walk to MacDonald’s  and have a roll at least as he wanted to walk some more. He was walking down the usual road, usual as in the one he had walked on for the last 3 days. It was huge with all the coffee shops and other brand outlets and more predominantly 1 shop in every 3 seemed to have an Arabic name, owned by Arabic, Iranian or Middle Eastern people in general. There were so many people sitting outside these restaurants named ‘Lebanon,' ‘Beirut.” Nearly all of them had halal written on it. He was amazed at the number of people sitting outside these restaurants and having Hookah and speaking in Arabic. When they spoke in English he realized that they were discussing America and other topics. Peter has always been aware of his surroundings and absorbing things as much as he could. And now that he was in London for the first time his senses were extra sensitive. Seeing all that made him think about how people turn any place into their own, sell their own type of food, display their own colors around their shops and homes, speak their language with their own and fit in everywhere. It was natural and felt good that humans could adapt so well! He said, 'hello' and entered the fast food outlet.

Waiting in the queue, the attendant gave him a smile of recognition as he had been going there for the last 3 days. The place wasn't great, but it was good enough for a fast food joint.  There were 3 kids having fun, abusing each other, near the counter. One was trying to get into the washroom and he thought someone was inside, but when he opened it the other guy ran inside teasing him. They were playing around. Peter ordered a roll and waited. The ‘kids’ were abusive. One of them came out and said something to a girl, she asked him what he said and he was like you are a 'fucking idiot,' as if he was talking to his friend. That girl was shocked and looked around and the guy repeated it with more disrespect. A guy intervened and asked the kid to be respectful and stop the nonsense. This was when the kid tried to punch the guy and so another guy came in and it turned into a push-pull fight.

The other bystanders who knew nothing of what was happening intervened on the kid’s behalf and tried to defend them by saying they were just kids. Seeing this, the kid shed crocodile tears, and it made the others there especially the girls come and shout at the guys who were in a fight with the kids. They were saying, 'let it go they are just kids.' The bigger guys were saying, 'that’s why they got to learn some respect. They can’t disrespect a girl.' Another guy came and said, 'at least not my girlfriend, I will not take it.' One of the guys skipped the place and called up the police. Soon the shouting increased and more and more people began getting involved. Peter was watching all this and moved a step back as he had been warned thousands of times not to get involved in anything like this. Keeping this in mind, he had to force himself from telling the girls and the people who were backing up the kids how badly they were behaving.

In all this the staff had forgotten Peter’s roll, he signaled to the staff and the waiter was like, ohh yeah, the roll. Peter took the roll and headed out, as he exited the police were already there and one of the two guys had already sensed that the police were coming and had run away. The fight was now taken out of the fast food outlet. The people outside realized that the kids were Arabs from the same area and the others were British; so all the Arab’s were interested in what had happened and again started feeling bad about what the kid had told them. The main person, a young, smart, business like guy in the suit whose girlfriend had been abused did not budge. Peter looked at him and imagined what was going on through his mind. Normally people would feel it is anger, but Peter sensed it to be love. All that was going on in the mind of the guy in the suit was love, his love for his girlfriend. The promises he had made to her, to be with her and protect her against all the harm that comes her way. It was the way she looked at him when the kids abused her. It ticked him off, he wondered how this could happen to her when he was around and how could he stand there and not do anything. Peter admired the guy who knew how to stand up for his Rights, for Justice and for Love.  

The 2-3 girls who had nothing to do with any of it were shouting on the road. When more people gathered and the police got there, they just walked off smiling, as if they had done a great job. Peter felt like giving them a hearing, but it wasn't worth it. The area being dominantly Arab, people were already shouting, the police called for backup and in few minutes another car filled with cops along with a cop van arrived along with the kids’ father and someone else with him. Soon it became visible how much power projection they could show. It was less about the fight, but in a way more about the power or numbers. In all this, Peter admired one thing; that the guy in the suit neither ran off nor was he visibly afraid of anything, though it was intimidating. He was cool and was saying the same thing that he had said earlier. It wasn’t acceptable; it did not matter if they were kids. It does not give them the right to do it and that nothing could justify what they had done.

Peter was finishing his roll watching all this. Another 30-32yr old Arab guy asked what was happening. Peter told him in brief what had happened. And he said that it was nice to see someone standing up to these kids. Peter did not get it; he asked him what he meant. The guy said he travels through this area every day and knows who these kids are. He said that they are rich spoilt brats whose family own shops, restaurants and cafes around the area. And after 11 pm these and others guys in the area stand at the corners of dark streets with knives and mug people. The police know about it but can’t do much as they are in majority here and are well connected. Of course politics and minority comes into play in this particular scenario. Peter was on the move to the hostel, as it was already late and he had to get out of this as he was getting tempted to go and take guy’s side and tell him how he admired that he had stood up to them. He was also tempted to tell the police how right the guy in the suit was. Peter was that sort of guy who admired the right thing, standing up for someone. He was a man who wouldn’t care where he was and how many people were against him and how the odds were against him when it came to his love or justice.  

As Peter left, the guy in the suit was taken inside McDonalds and sat with the police, while the number of Arabs outside increased.This Incident made Peter think of how the minority can use their presence in a majority while being in a specific area and pretend to be the victim in order to get things done for them. It’s sad that these things cut down the seriousness of true incidents of harassment and make you doubt some genuine cases of injustice. Unfortunately, that’s the way the world operates, he thought… As he left, he was not worried about what was going to happen to the guy in the suit or whether the police were going to charge him or not or if the Arabs were going to make a bigger scene and do something or just let it go. The only thing which was going on in his mind was the admiration for the guy in the suit for standing up for right and also for his Love.  Peter knew the importance of Love and being loved and was happy that it still mattered in the world.  It is said that everything we do in life is in a way to get more love….

New Beginnings - London

He landed at Heathrow with a body ache, congestion and tiredness which was aggravated by the queue for the washrooms. There was no entertainment system working on-flight (which a beautiful Virgin Airline’s air hostess claimed was the 1^st time in 7 years) and completely non-interested and sleepy co-passengers. Not one of the best or rather it had been one of the worst flights till date!

The landing had been beautiful, the airport, the passages, the management, everything was so British. In Kirat Vaze sir’s words ‘Very Officer like’. This made him forget all the painful airline experience. The immigration with the British border agency went on smoothly.  Getting down at the luggage collection area he got a ticket for the Heathrow express to Paddington (tube, against all suggestions of taking a cab, as it was his 1^st time). He saw a vending machine for sim cards and got a Lycasim. It was all new and amazing (doing all of this himself!); of course he was old enough and should be doing it. Still for all his friends and family it was new, he was so far away for the 1^st time and did not have a good record of managing things on his own!

Reckless as he always was, he did not check the hostel check-in timings and neither the address. So she did it for him and realized that the check-in timing was after 2 p.m. It was just 8am...cheers right…!!! So he roamed around Heathrow as if he wanted to study the area so well so that he could draw a map from his memory later on. He then met and began talking to an old lady who wore a T-shirt saying, ‘Students, need any help? ’. Not that he needed help, but saw it as a good opportunity to talk to someone really British before he entered the capital. A mix of roaming around and talking and finally down to the Heathrow express terminal for Paddington! While moving around he realized how much pain it was to carry the bags around...58kgs in total.  He was so tired that he began visualizing all the things that he should not have brought with him, but it didn't matter now.  The 15 minute journey was in a way, very enlightening as he was seeing a new city for the 1^st time.  The real pain of carrying the bags began again when he alighted at Paddington station. He then hired a taxi and reached the hostel, “The Duke of York,” An impressive bar; where he waited with a coffee for around an hour trying to connect to the Wi-Fi and thinking of different things. Images and thoughts the new city evoked in his mind!

Taking the bags to the room on the 4^th floor was a feat in itself and then putting it in the 5X5 room with 6 bunk beds, 3 in pair, one above the other, was something really that had to be done with great precision. He changed his clothes, had a wash and went down to the bar. He did so in order to charge the phone basically and message a girl he had been in touch with via the flat search website. He asked her if they could meet and she was keen. They decided to meet around 6 in the evening. He left the hostel around 3 and began roaming around the area.  He walked and walked and called friends on Viber. He messaged her and she said that she was running late. He looked at the map and figured out where he needed to go and then realized that it was the dehydration because of which it was taking more time. Unfortunately, he wasn't felling it at all, but had been warned and reminded by a friend about this on the phone because of which he realized it.

He called up the girl after reaching the destination, and there she was with another friend, both cute in a different way. They were famished and said that they will go to an Indian restaurant. They were walking towards it, and he realized the amazing speed at which they were walking at. At first he thought it was the hunger, but realized that it was normal for them. 1^st thing learnt on the 1st night in #London. They had tasteless mutter paneer and mushroom masala, of course he couldn't eat much, that goes without saying. They were talking of continental food and all and how it’s so much this and that and the Turkish and all that with sooooooo many expressions. That’s another British thing, I guess. Sophistication and expressions! As it’s said it is so British when you say ‘Bullocks’ instead of ‘Balls’. Then they all went for a beer at a pub, well that’s another so British thing. Evenings spent at a bar or pub. So that’s what he did on his 1^st night. British evening drinks after an Indian dinner. They had good conversation, about current world affairs, about future career, travelling, doing things, working in different areas, for what and all. So for a first night in London it was great. One of the girls had traveled to Nepal, Tibet, South Korea and Japan and her experiences were amazing. He was just listening to their talks and noting their expressions also, as it was so new - so many expressions in one night!

They parted after a good time and promised to meet later. He returned to the tube station after checking and rechecking it the schedule. As he got out of the tube he had no problem reaching the hostel as he had walked the area for almost 3 hours.  He went to his room to find 4 girls there. Each of them gave a warm smile. He went into his bed and tried to sleep, his mind filled with aspirations and thankfully not fear. Yes, there was a bit of anxiety, curiosity and about how things will happen and how he will manage! Since he was tired he went off to sleep, not a very good one. But when had he had good sleep anyway!