Desi Feeling.....
It was an easter week end in London....Getting four days off from the boring routine, is like the biggest treat of the season... Still nothing can beat an unpredicted snow fall on a Monday morning with an official off.. Nonetheless...we had a four day off and i was really looking forward to have a good break...
Me and few of my friends here planned for a small trip at wales, but as always somehow technology ditches the technocrats only.. there was some false info posted on internet regarding the grand accomodation available there... and we poor souls had to cancel the plan when this brutal truth was revealed...
Any how we had our part of fun when we visited York for a day and then on the second day we planned to go to a place called Southhall in west London. Its very famous for being a Desi Punjabi Hub in London. The foremost attraction of the trip was the visit to Gurudwara**, having food at the Langar and then the spicy pani puri at some road side stall like that happens in every nook and corner of Jaipur, Delhi and Bangalore.
I have been to a Gurudwara before, and this time I again had the same feeling of peace, purity anf stability. I was overwhelmed by the chastity of the surrounding. The air was dancing with the b'ful and soothing words floating around..
"Choji Mere Govinda...Choji Mere Piarea....."
The feeling was amazing and the b'ful melody just enchanted my mind with pleasure....The ambience just lifts up all the dark clouds from your heart and liven it up with respect for the religion.
And then came the most awaiting part.. "The Langar"... food is served as 'prashad' in all the Gurudwara's and as i had heard, the meal was simply delicious..Now was it my taste buds or the aura of the environment around.. m still figuring it out.
Now we were out to explore the south-hall for the indian touch.. and believe me it came out as a shock to see a hard core mini Punjab residing in the suburbs of London. The next day was 'Baisakhi' i.e. The Punjabi new year.. so the roads were flooded with the celebration carvans, traffic jams, deafning music all around and glittering eye catching colors in contrast to the silent, organized and formal London. There was a charm flowing all around, and you will simple forget that we are in the west unless and until u hear some accentuated english coming out from the nucleus of the crowd.
Half clean roads,water running around on roads in its own pride, protruding shops with bollywood numbers rocking the bazar, smell of oily spicy food, Chaotic Traffic Jams, road side stalls of Pani puri, jalebi and chats..... Man I was so much in India...
It was a mixed feeling.. was amusing though.. still ... is this the India we wanna live in? Was this the India which i miss.. and wanna feel proud of...Trust me.. I dont have an answer till now.
