Prior to my arrival in London, I strongly believed that no good comes for free. However, in the past three weeks, Cadbury (yeah, the choc guys) have proved me wrong. Every saturday, they dish out some special kind of desserts as part of their promotion for the upcoming products. These heavenly trifles are given out for free at Shepherd’s Bush station.I’ve tried to find the aforementioned trifle in the market, but its not readily available. Hence, I’m forced to use this station (instead of White City) every Saturday. So all those chocoholics who live close by, stroll to the station and enjoy some nice and free variety of Cadbury desserts.

“Chocolates are made in heaven” (is that a quote??)

Today came an e-mail containing text that everyone was expecting, and dreading. It is not a surprise, yet most appear dumbfounded. An official confirmation of something that was obviously going to happen has almost changed the thinking of majority. Here is an excerpt from the e-mail:

The examination period for all 3 MSc courses will start on Mon 27 April, and will likely last for 4 weeks.

Best Wishes

Many departments had their exams at the end of first term. At that time we were given courseworks, as heavy as exams themselves, and hence this is going to be the curtain raiser for many of us.

The target is clear: two months and 7/8/9 (depending on choices) subjects to prepare for. Oh, and did I say we will be given more courseworks this term? How cruel is that!

Any wishes in advance are more than welcome!

It is the dream of every cricketer to get an opportunity to take that walk down the stairs from the dressing room, through the luxurious long room where distinguished guests are seated, on to the pitch amid cheers from the crowd and perform on a ground which is called the Home of Cricket. No surprises, I’m talking about the Lord’s Cricket Ground.

Similarly it is also the dream of every cricket-lover to make a pilgrimage to the Home of Cricket at least once in his life to witness the game in a true gentleman’s environment. Unfortunately, getting hold of the tickets for a match at Lord’s is an uphill task for a number of reasons. There are very few international matches played at Lord’s and the tickets are sold-out rather quickly. Secondly, the tickets are pricey. However, the dream of visiting Lord’s doesn’t shatter because the place offers a guided tour at very reasonable price, which goes even lower for students. For eight quids, one can see even those parts of the ground, which are inaccessible during match days.

Coming from a region where every child is born with an innate ability to stroke the ball with a cricketing bat and/or roll the arms to produce some fast and furious deliveries, it was only a matter of time before I made my way to Lord’s.

the gentleman who made the tour lively

First and foremost, let me shower some praises for the man who led the tour of about 20-odd people. The old man was an eloquent speaker and impeccably dressed to present the true image of the game. He was very well versed in the history of not only Lord’s but also cricket in general.

The tour began sharply at noon. The immediate turn-off was the prohibition of photography during the first half of the tour which was limited to the museum and other historical locations. But this was outweighed by the opportunities to click during the next part of the tour. (Keeping in sync, I have added quite a lot of pictures in the second half of this post)

The first leg of the guided tour began in a historical building, which is known to the world as Pavilion. The first place we went to was a huge room, known famously as the Long Room, which at that point was ready for some dinner party (huh!). Anyway, this room is a cricketing art gallery, and the place where most distinguished MCC members sit to enjoy the game. Obviously, it provides one of the best view to watch the game. This is also the room through which the players of the away team have to walk through in order to make their way to the center (!!). It is indeed a long walk from the dressing room upstairs, through the Long Room on to the pitch; and even longer if the batsmen has to return after facing just one ball.

The next place was the Committee Room which is just adjacent (and similar) to the Long Room, but is much shorter. The name of the room clearly defines its purpose. The view from this room is not that great though. It is used for MCC members as well during the match days. On rare occasions when the Queen pays visit to Lord’s this is the room where she sits down to enjoy the game with a cup of tea. This room also features some great artwork (paintings) but mostly of administrators (and not cricketers). The most notable one is of Thomas Lord, the man credited to the Lord’s Cricket Ground. I had no idea this was the reason of the ground’s name. The next stop was the Long Room Bar which had some of the most fantastic paintings at Lord’s. It wasn’t easy to see that the bar was probably the part of the building that came under heavy usage.

We then moved upstairs to the dressing room for the away team which featured honour boards commemorating the centuries scored at Lord’s and the 5/10 wicker hauls. The dressing room has a small (very small, actually) balcony which is shown regularly during the matches on TV screen. It is also the balcony where Sourav Ganguly famously waved his t-shirt in a show of emotion. There is a similar dressing room on the other side for the home team as well.

All this was in the building known as Pavilion, which was built in 1889 (err..I think..) and looks like a huge house belonging to some king. This is where the non-photographic tour ends (sigh).

The delegation of tourists was then taken to the stands (I don’t recall the name of the stand), and the cameras started clicking capturing the lush green ground and the external view of the Pavilion and the awesome Investec Media Centre. A smaller playing field next to Lord’s can also be seen in the rightmost shot below, which is is used mostly for practice and smaller matches.

The guide enlightened us with many interesting revelations, the best of which was the slope that runs across the ground. The slope is highly noticeable given the fact that the difference in height between each end is in excess of 2 metres!! The Pavilion can be seen in the shots below, taken from the stands.

We were then taken to the media centre which was inaugurated in 1999 before the World Cup. The media centre is exactly opposite the Pavilion and is the only modern-looking structure at the premises. Interestingly, all construction companies refused to build it prior to the 1999 World Cup after looking at the architect’s model citing different reasons. It was then given to a company that builds ships and structures for planes, which probably gives the structure that it has. The use of aluminium sheets in its construction is hence not a surprise. The Media Centre is state-of-the-art laden with all sorts of facilities for the journalists and provides an extraordinary view of the happenings on ground. Another interesting point to note is that the two most interesting structures at Lord’s (Pavilion and Media Centre) are exactly opposite each other and are separated by 110 years in their construction. The pictures below are of the Media Centre, including a peek inside and also a view of the field from within.

Fast forwarding towards the end, we were taken to the shop, in case someone was interested in souvenirs (which weren’t very expensive). Finally, after about two hours, we were taken back to the museum (no photography zone) and shown one of the most precious exhibits to conclude the tour, the Ashes urn.

statue of... (dunno who it is)

my souvenir!

For information on tour timings and getting to Lord’s visit the website: http://www.lords.org

The public transport system isn’t that bad but regular users are always found wanting and whining for improvements. The TfL answers with improvements over the weekends which is a pain given the fact that the lines I use regularly are often closed for the weekend - specifically the Circle Line. I learned very early on here that the usage of buses for time-critical events must be absolutely avoided. (Read on my personal blog for that outdated post about my horrific bus experience)

The buses can be used only when you don’t have to be punctual or when there is no tube service. Under all other conditions, say NO to buses. Sadly, I broke my own rule and paid the price.

After enjoying a productive day at the College I took off at around 6 p.m. making my way to the South Kensington station. Shock and horror gripped me when I was greeted by a crowd of people. They were huge in number and were leaking out of station due to the lack of space within. Immediately I decided to avoid the use of Tube because it looked impossible to even reach the gates in the next 10 minutes. Oh, and there is another rule, whenever there are signs of delay Circle Line will always be affected.

Thus I decided to avoid the (yellow) Circle Line and go for a bus ride. I expected some traffic congestion and that would be usual at around 6 p.m. Luckily, the bus appeared within no time and I hopped on to it immediately and seated comfortably. After few minutes of easy going suddenly the bus halted. There was no way to go, it was jammed. Not an inch of space and there were no signs of movement. (more…)

An international student is bound to be nostalgic at some point of his stay here especially those who come from countries where families stay close together. Not only families, but you do miss your old friends with whom you spent several years. Ok I think you all know what I’m trying to say…

The best way is to communicate – chat or call. With the advent of services like Skype and other Instant Messengers, this luxury comes at no cost. The downside, however, is the requirement of computer on both sides, which isn’t convenient at times and hence comes the need for phone.

So here is a little heads up for international students who love to call overseas and are also worried about the costs. I use the following two services which I’ve found to be the cheapest among all after great deal of research. This suits me because in both these cases I am required to dial a local landline number to call abroad. I’ve got abundant free minutes to call on such local numbers which makes this ideal. So, if you have a nice package with tons of free minutes, these services pay be of interest for you guys:

• LOCALPHONE
• CALLEASY

I must add, in the end, that these services are great for calling countries like United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, USA, Pakistan, India and more….

And NO, I’m not getting paid for this advertisement!

I’m talking about football - nothing else

After having an extended weekend due to the snowfall, normal service resumed on Wednesday. Despite having no lectures scheduled on wedneday, I headed off to the uni for an indoor game of football, which has now become our weekly tradition. One of us is assigned the task to stay up all night on Wednesday to book a 1-hour slot as soon as registrations open for an indoor game of 5-a-side football at Ethos. Here are some pictures and a clip from the action this week. The fun wasn’t over after the game. We headed off to the Union for some food and drinks and then ended up playing foosball for some time.

Finally, some went to the library and others headed off to different labs - geeky, I know!

Last night I was worried about having to wake up in cold and get to the class. I did manage to wake up on time only to find a text message saying that my first lecture is cancelled. Wohoo! I can sleep for another hour, I thought. The phone rang and the same friend asked me to check tfl updates before leaving. Okay, delays were expected but the website reported chaos. Almost all lines partially or completely suspended and no bus service. Moreover, South Kensington station shut down. I checked my e-mail and there it was…the good news! Classes were called off. Since I was wide awake now I went out to get a feel of my first real snowfall experience.

But seriously, snow or no snow, class or no class, waking up on a Monday morning sucks!!!

An unusual wave of chill caused an abrupt halt in my otherwise peaceful sleep. I woke up, looked at my clock which boasted a time of 11 p.m. I slept most of the afternoon so it was probably time to wake up. I extended my arm to move the curtains in an attempt to get a clear picture of a somewhat bizarre image outside the window. Things were flying in the air and the roads looked crystalline. As soon as I realized that it was snowing heavily I jumped out of my bed, grabbed the camera and rushed out to snap the lovely scene. Withtin few clicks the battery ran out (arghhh!) however I did manage to snap a couple of nice shots and record a small video clip.

little green tree goes white :)

white road and footpath!

another tree covered in snow

The words weather and unpredictable are almost synonymous in London, and this sudden change is just another example. Since my arrival here, I have seen some light snowfalls but this one is awesome! I’ve been told the weather has been like this all day (when I had been sleeping). It is a pleasant Sunday surprise, but I do hope (and plead) that this doesn’t continue tomrrow. If it does my chances of getting up early to attend the first lecture will be extremely slim

Below is the clip, which is very short (battery blues!), but I think it does serve the purpose