London Trip

I am visiting London and surrounding places all this week. London is an amazing place and so cool. I really enjoyed my visit. Next on my agenda is to do the main European continent.
But for now back to London - Here are my trip details and suggestions
First, if you are visiting England or UK, brush up on your British history. It helps identify all those Kings and Queens who have the same names but different numbers. Otherwise it will get very confusing on who is whose daughter and who is whose son.

First Day in London
Got on the Hop-On Hop-Off bus and stopped at Buckingham Palace first. Since I am visiting in July, London and all of England is very crowded with tourists. If you can stand the cold, it is best to visit in May or August. You can also see inside of the Buckingham if you visit August through September. With swelling crowds around us, we decided to skip Changing of the Guard ceremony and move on to other things. The HOHO bus is a great way to visit all sites without tiring your feet.
Next we saw the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. After taking some good shots we walked over to Westminster Abbey. We did the inside tour for about an hour. No photography is allowed inside the Abbey. It was very grand but kind of spooky since so many kings and queens are buried here.
We moved onto Trafalgar Square which was crowded. We circled the square and then moved onto the London Bridge and Tower of London. We spent couple of hours in the Tower of London touring the Crown Jewels and White Tower. It was great place to see. We did see St. Paul's Cathedral from outside but did not tour the inside. Hopefully next time, I will go atop the dome.
Towards the evening we went over to London Eye to get some great views of the city and river Thames. Unfortunately, it began raining but since we had timed tickets, we had to go. The view from top is great and should be done once.

Second Day in London
Continued seeing the city from atop the HOHO bus. Saw Hyde Park, Marble Arch, Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus on way to British Museum. After seeing many statues and Egyptian mummies we went over to Kensington Palace and toured the inside. It was a decent tour especially since we got to see it at half price using the 2-for-1 offers that are valid with a travel card.
We did skip over a few things and did them quickly, but considering several logistics we did cover most of London in a good way.

The next week was spent doing an international course for my MBA program. The most I learnt during that week is that all shops close before 6 pm every single day in the UK. This definitely hampered my shopping adventures.

The following Saturday, we visited Stonehenge, Oxford and Windsor Castle. We did Stonehenge early in the morning and avoided the crowds. It is such an awesome place. However, we got sucked into the crowds at Oxford and Windsor. It is definitely a good idea to have at least four hours for Windsor Castle. We returned to London on Saturday evening. I walked over to Buckingham Palace so I could take some good pictures of it.

The history and architecture definitely amazed me and I loved all the places I visited. The things that surprised me were the lack of trash cans around London. It was odd that people threw their garbage into plastic bags at various points and the town workers gathered up all the garbage into the bags and then hauled them into the truck.
I loved the Cornish Pasties. They are so yummy. Overall I found the food at pubs and restaurants very tasty even though it was vegetarian. Taking the tube was very easy and doing the travel card is definitely recommended if you are getting on the tube more than once.
I found it funny that many phrases such as "mind the gap", "way out" were on souvenir t-shirts because they were funny to Americans only.

Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince Review

I saw Half-Blood Prince in the land of Harry Potter and like typical England weather, it was raining on the day. We had to stand outside due to a fire alarm in the pouring rain. Fortunately, it all happened before the movie began.
Well the movie is good but not excellent. I had imagined so much when I read the sixth chapter of Harry Potter series. The movie is only 2.5 hours long which explains the missing parts of the book. A lot of story from the book is missing especially all the memory journeys that Harry has with Dumbledore. Some key fight scenes are also missing. Voldemort hardly makes an appearance only once as a child and then as a teenager. This was disappointing because I was expecting a character build up for him.
I hope the final chapter is better visualized and since it is releasing in two parts, it would include all key scenes and stories.
This one felt more like a romantic comedy with Ron-Hermoine tiffs and Harry-Ginny love angle. It was made worse by giggling teenage girls around us who giggled every time Harry and Ginny looked at each other.

The Art of Appreciation!

Indians, in general think very highly of their culture and I as one take pride of the same. But sometimes the love for our own culture results in looking down or being blind to other cultures. There are good and bad points in every culture and recognizing the differences is the key to be respectful to every nation's culture.
Indians who have never traveled to US or lived here hold a very different view of America and its culture. They think that US is mostly about lack of family structure, divorces, rampant public display of affection and more. Mind you that when I say most Indians, I do not mean all and everyone. I just mean that this is the impression I get and not every single person comes under the umbrella of Indians that I am talking about here. Since I have been living here for so long, I can see that the views held by so many are incorrect and not as prevalent as they think. They are many aspects of American culture that we wish aren't there but at the same time there are many good things about the culture of this country and its people.

What I want to talk about today is about is the Art of Appreciation that most Americans possess. In India, people would never say "Thank You" or "Appreciate It" to cashiers, electricians, plumbers or anyone who performs a paid service for them. Paying for the service is considered enough. Here, almost everyone says these kind words as an act of courteousness towards the other person. When I first came to US, I would feel odd and weird as to how everyone says "thank you" like its no big deal. I would think that they don't really mean it and still say it and that's rude. But having stayed here for longer time, I have learnt why it is important to say two words to a person. It always feels good to be appreciated or acknowledged. Even spouses utter these words to each other.
I am sure the Indian generation is changing and I haven't had close contact with them but there are still many who need to assimilate this particular good from the American culture. I think the bottom line behind saying these words of acknowledgement is not taking for granted any relationship or person. Sometimes, people do say things just to make the other person feel important and they don't really believe it. Many years back, I would have thought of it as a bad thing but today I would say that at least an effort was made for someone. It is a classic Dale Carnegie principle. There is an old bollywood song - "pal bhar ke liye koi hume pyar kar le, jhootha hi sahi" which means "Love me just for a moment even if its fake". Everyone likes to be appreciated, liked and loved. It doesn't cost anything except few kind words to make them feel that way, so what's the harm in doing it.

Just because I am friends with you, married to you or related to you does not mean I am not worthy of being acknowledged. Even if its my duty to do something for you, if I did it right, say so.

And even though I am from India, I like living in the suburbs, I like my privacy and I like that no houses are behind my house. I do not like uncalled interference from others or random Indian aunties asking me about baby plans. If other Indians consider it "unIndian", please do by all means since everyone is entitled to their opinion but don't hold your breath!