what's not to like about London..

A recent short business trip to London after 2 years made me realize why I like this city so much, I had lived in London in 2008 for some time and got to know the city very well during those months. Having experienced the underground network of London once, it always makes it easy for future visits.

Been living in stockholm, the city I like as well, there is no shortage of sunlight and greenery in spring and summer which is good 6 months of the year and I love the snow in winter as well so all that is fine so what is about London which has its own unique charm?

1. London Tube & Bus Network- which is huge and well connected. It can be overwhelming for the first timer but once you get the hang of it and get used to all the lines, The Jubliee, The Piccadilly and rest and of course the DLR, its not so difficult to get around. Stations can be overcrowded in peak hours and most of them are only stairs, no escalators, still they have this antique feeling about them considering this system is more than 60 years old and still running. And the Tube itself are unique design. From outside, they look so small that I wonder how anyone will get in, but everyone does..



Also that typical underground sign is never far away from the street and huge escalators which can take you so below the earth that you will loose mobile signal. The best part, you can be assure that you will not be bothered about people next to you talking on the phone loudly, you can read your book in peace..


on the other hand, the charm of double decker busses, stops are strategically placed so you always have one near by and pleasure of sitting on upper deck and watching the traffic go by below you is something to experience..

2.Buzz of the morning Rush hour-
Going to office in morning via public transport has this refreshing feeling in London. for some people it might be stressful as Tubes are crowded but coming from India, crowd doesn't bother me. Also , there is common theme and understanding between office goers, a common london office goer will dress in suit and tie, with overcoat, a briefcase and umbrella in hand and either listening to music via earphone, reading newspaper (ah..the free copy of Metro) or a book, which is being replaced by e-readers..
Also , the understanding is quite evident when its time to get in or get out of the tube at your stop, no matter how crowded it is, every one allowed to get off first, they all get out in queue one after the another, no pushing and then every one gets in , one by one and you can always squeeze in..
3. London Taxis- the unique looking old black taxis are best way to get around, the best part of the taxi is internal design, the boot space is removed and converted into spacious sitting area, where you can stretch your legs, and even sit comfortably when you are 4 people or have big luggage.. and they can take you anywhere, no matter how short and long distance you need to go..


4. London parks and places to go- you always have someplace to go during weekends, in summer, its mostly the parks, which are huge anyway with children play areas. No. of attractions & sights to visit. In evenings , the choice of theatre and movies are unending and not to mention the amount of restaurants you can choose from. the evening crowd on weekends on the streets gives that feeling that it's happening city.


5. Lord's- Ofcourse, how can we miss that, the Temple of cricket which is the place to be in July and rest of the summer, there is no other cricket ground like it..it would be dream to watch a cricket match over there and see your favorites up & close., Having been inside the visitor dressingf room and seen the famous scoreboard and the Ganguly balcony, I can say its the place for every cricket lover to be..

6. A sight of London residential street- a sight to remember in London suburbs, mostly identical houses on both sides of road with house nos. in even and odd orders, with typical british door, with street lined up with Cars on both sides but wide enough for traffic.


7. CBD area- Canary wharf, the best commercial address in London which houses all financial institutes and all global companies, the view of London eye from high rise buildings and the sight of those buildings with huge company logos on top of buildings.

8. Telephone Booths- A typical London telephone booth can be recognized in any part of the world, a signature sight of any london street



Not to mention the typical english tea , which just tastes better in london..2012 is big year for this city with so much lined up, including the biggest one, Olympic 2012.. Seeing the preparation, its going to be huge and also a chance for 10.5 Million visitors to visit this amazing city, sure most of them will be there for the first time and will come back again..
looking forward to another visit to London some time soon..


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What's wrong with Indian Cricket now...

Its not the first time Indian team has lost matches overseas, or all the test matches of the series but this is the first time since 1999, after Ganguly took over the captaincy and joined by John Wright as coach.
in the decade of 2000, Sachin was at his peak and India got Dravid and Laxman, 2 batsmen of lifetime came together with 'one of its kind' ever to make Indian middle order one of the most strong of all times. On top , we had Sehwag, who just blew everything away, and with the Ball, we got Zaheer and Harbhajan and a champion who had aggression of fast bowler in his 6 step run up, Kumble. This Core team was supported by bunch of young players like Yuvraj, Kaif, Pathan, Gambhir, Dhoni and bunch of fast bowlers like Nehra, Agarkar , Sree santh etc. who can just play their own game and be themselves with bulk of pressure taken up by the core team.

Three Legends of Indian Cricket.. when will they bow out? 

What is lost in this golden period of Indian cricket is the realization that all these players were not part of any systematic development of cricket in India but just bunch of exceptionally gifted and driven cricketers coming together at the same time. They were also hampered by the same infrastructure as previous generations, no bouncy pitches at home etc, but they made it up with their talent and temperament when they travelled overseas. India fought well overseas , in SA, in Eng and in Australia, twice. They didn't dominate any series but won with enough regularity to shake off the poor traveller tag and for some reasons, Indian fans started to believe that all will be well now. It happened so often that Indian fans started to believe that Indians are getting good at playing overseas, which was not the case. Indians were not getting good, only the bunch of same players were getting better. There was nothing at home to sustain this success, no long term view to create second string of players who can carry this success forward. To be fair, it wasn't easy to do as well as there wasn't enough opportunity to induct fresh faces when you have 4-5 legends playing in team at same time.

When this happened to Australia, bunch of exceptionally gifted players came together around 1995 for next 12-14 years, likes of waugh brothers, warne, McGrath, Ponting, Hayden, Gilly etc. they just won everything, 3 world cups in the row and every single test and ODI series, this shows the difference in the set up. Not that Australian cricketers were more gifted during those times, they were just already better playing in any conditions where India just learnt as they went along. That's why India still lost few matches during this period, but we held off Australia, home and away(2001 & 2003). though we started loosing to them as well, 2003 WC final, 2006 series at home and 2008 away. but there was enough fight and controversy to keep the interest alive.
Now, when Australian legends retired between 2007-2009, they also started loosing, ask Ponting! how does it feel having lost Ashes 3 times, twice in Eng and worse, once at home. They knew they needed to rebuild and they did. India, however , still believed that our current set of core players are still good enough, though they were getting old, but easy thing was to ignore it.

Now , finally the truth has hit home. It has come right after when everything was looking ok, India just drew the series in SA and then won the big thing, WC 2011. No one thought that this will go downhill so fast, but it did. Indian legends found it difficult to repeat or better what they did in last 10 years. There was no hiding. their brain knew what needed to be done but body was not quite there.

I feel for Dhoni, no wonder he wants to hang around with Kohli's and raina's and Sharma's. He sees the hope there, he knows that he can't get much out of likes of Dravid and Laxman, or even sachin now. He can't even drop these folks and that's where the flaw of making some one captain with so less experience comes out. But then no captain can drop any of these 4 -5 guys. Only Selectors can do that. Kapil has asked why Raina was given so many chances, but what about Laxman, Sehwag or Dravid in tests? In Kapil's defence, he is anyway saying that these guys should retire, question is why are they not retiring?

Only Sachin, Dravid and Laxman can answer, and Sehwag need to find some answers soon , or some runs. They might still believe that they have it in them to actually go on, their bodies are so used to this that age doesn't matter. They can try another series, it might turn things around.

May be an injury might solve this , but that will be sad way to go for any of these guys. They need to pick the series and call it a day with head held high so India can have next batch of talented and driven players who can try to repeat what these guys did for last 10-12 years. If they delay it more, they will take India further back.











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