Exploring London in all its glory! Pt. 1

Before I begin, apologies for being MIA. I can blame it on assignments, deadlines, and university, but I won't. I take full responsibility for not being consistent, but I am going to try and be regular at this. The thing is, I am super duper moody, whimsical, and have an attention span of a 5-year old; nevertheless, I am going to try and keep myself pumped.

You might be wondering what I have been up to? (or may be not, because some people would be like "why do we care what she does?" but for those of you who feel otherwise, welcome to this blog). I will walk you through what my past month has looked like.

Since London has almost transitioned to the spring/ summer season, it is bright until 8pm. The sun's out on most days; however, London doesn't take too long to remind us that after all we live in London and not Italy! Moreover, I'm surprisingly liking the rains. It reminds me of Bombay, all the more because it is not frigid cold like it used to be in December.

One of my favourite things to do is grab some coffee from Starbs and chill near this fountain we have in our community. I sit there for hours, listen to music, podcasts, colour, write, admire dogs from afar (of course!), and lastly observe people.

April 27

I started with meeting a group of writers at Dishoom, Covent Garden for an Indian lunch. Dishoom is an exquisite indian restaurant chain all over London and my personal favourite for when I'm craving chatpata khaana 🤤 (I can't translate this to English because it's not a word, it's an emotion. All my Indian mates will get it!) I ordered vada pav (an authentic street food from Bombay) after a very long time, while rest of my group mates preferred indulging in non-vegetarian delicacies like chicken tikka pot, prawns etc.

Later, I decided to finally checkout the Southbank book market that everyone had been talking about. As soon as I got out of Waterloo station it started pouring! Good thing I had my infamous, huge-ass red puffer with me!! I grabbed some coffee and started walking towards London Eye. I walked along the promenade for roughly 30 mins but couldn't find the book market. I walked past Tate Modern, National Theatre, a shady undercroft where teenagers were skateboarding, but there was no sign of a book market. Also, I encountered two creepy men (perhaps drug dealers from what my friends told me) who were standing at the corner of a road and as soon as they noticed I was walking alone, one of them approached me. Luckily, I managed to walk out of the road and digress to a different one, but I'm not going to be lie: it was shit scary. Even though it was in broad daylight, I was mildly stressed because not many people were around me. I immediately checked my route back home and the next tube station was St. Paul's, which was a 15- minute walk.

Moving on, I walked and walked and walked until I reached a bridge where everyone was clicking pictures. I thought to myself "I've seen this thing somewhere", and then it struck me I saw this in Jab Tak Hai Jaan ( it's a Bollywood movie). It was beautiful! When you see things that you once only saw in movies is pure magic! Specially in India, films are a major part of our upbringing and lifestyle, no wonder why women expect Shahrukh Khan in a man (umm...if you don't know who SRK is, I recommend getting a life). Anyway, I later realised it was the Millennium Bridge.

I, for one, stopped and clicked pictures. What made the moment even more magical was the Tower Bridge in the backdrop. Those of you who know me would know my love for The Tower Bridge!!

As I walked through St Paul's cathedral (no literally, the way to the tube station was through the courtyard), I saw a mall around the corner, and I said to myself "Let's see how we can waste our money". Look at this incredible view from the mall's elevator:

Later that night, I reflected on how much money I had unnecessarily spent on food and drinks, hence impulsively decided to sell my red boots on Vinted that impulsively bought in December for £45 😂

Told you, I'm extremely moody! (Mind you, not worn even once, so if anyone's still interested it's up for grabs)

April 28

After a pretty eventful day I simply wanted to chill at home, but things happened otherwise. I made an impromptu plan with my flatmate to the National gallery in Trafalgar Square. We started our trip with some coffee and chilled at Embankment. Later, she decided to go to St James' Park and I explored The National Gallery for the very first time, and what do I tell you!

Up until February this year, museums and galleries didn't excite me, but it was only after one of our professors delved deep into how to use the words of others, vis à vis museums, that my interest piqued.

1. Look how brilliant this sketch is; read it's interpretation as well- I found it absolutely stunning!

2. This painting reminded me of the time I visited Kashmir when I was little. Also, lot of aesthetics from the film 'Fitoor' resembles this painting.

3. When I first looked at this painting, my immediate thought was "I have done something similar". See it yourself

4. Story time: When I was taking horse riding lessons back in 2020, I used to ride on a horse called Marijuana, but this one time he was already taken and I had to ride on another unfamiliar horse called Katrina. Now the thing with animals is, you have to build a rapport, a bonding, love them, caress them, talk to them, which I did with Marijuana and we were quite comfortable with each other; however, Katrina was a tough one! She never followed my instructions and during the entire lesson that day she was basically just walking, not even trotting. Almost at the end, one the instructors screamed at Katrina, and boy she flipped out!!!!!! She was furious! She was galloping, overtaking other horses in the circle and I was bloody traumatised! I was fighting for my life, crying for help, and only a professional was able to take her down!

This painting of frenzied horses took me back to my time with Katrina.

5. A group of artists were sketching the portrait of this horse, and look at the man who's leading them 😍 Ladies, I managed to get a glimpse of this greek god at the end of the second video.

6. It's not a lie when people say London is a cornucopia of history. A poet/ writer/ artist performing his piece about the painting in front of him in a musical/ theatrical manner:

7. There were white boards that read "I HOPE" and "I FEAR". Initially, I was skeptical about writing anything down, but upon seeing other people do it, I joined in. Surprisingly, it was an invisible board. Hundreds of people expressed what they feared and hoped, but it was illegible to naked eyes.

8. Lastly, a street artist beautifully drew this piece as an ode to Vahid Beheshti who is on hunger strike urging the UK government to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organisations.

To end the day, my flatmate and I had pizza for dinner, and we managed to get a free dessert by pretending it was her birthday 😂

I have been exploring hell lot of places and experiencing the weirdest things, but I guess this blog has turned out too long anyway, and also because I have been writing since this morning (thanks to my ADHD I took half a day to write this blog), so see you in Pt 2!!