As the wheel doors of the Airbus A380 opened, almost with the sound of a cloudburst, I had just one prayer on my lips: “Let the ‘Beast from the East’ not make a comeback to London — not in the next 96 hours,” the duration of my stay. Meanwhile, there was some reassuring visual on the screen in front. The plane’s front camera had just caught the Heathrow runway and there was not a speck of white on the black tarmac. The snow was gone. Hurrah!
About an hour-and-a-half later, as I strutted out of the Leicester Square Underground, the sun was out and I had half a mind to fish out my Carrera. But it was nestled too deep in the inner recesses of the handbag. Forget it. It was just a short walk anyway to the Edwardian Hampshire hotel. However, even that short walk was enough to make me understand why Jane Chapman, my friend and travel guide from VisitBritain, was so particular about “warm clothes and comfortable shoes” in her travel advisory. I realised that those near-sub zero JNU winters in Delhi had probably made me a bit overconfident about taking on the London chill. The suede shoes were doing fine, but my Pierre Cardin jacket was more of a fashion statement and less of a winter shield!
Hop-skip-and-jump. Leicester Square to Waterloo, by Tube, obviously. Brisk walk. Short queue. Ticketing done in a flash. London Eye covered in little more than an hour. Not bad at all, I told myself. Had Madame Tussaud’s and Lord’s on my radar too, later in the day. But so were storm clouds on the BBC Weather radar!
So back to Leicester Square. This central London neighbourhood lets you unwind, mentally, even before you have come to terms with the frosty winds sweeping the city, or agonised enough over that homeless man scrounging around the corner of the street near Ladbrokes, where fortunes are made and unmade with such amazing regularity. A quick visit to Hackney, later in the evening, for my first brush with London theatre, off West End. The pre-show smoked salmon at Cafe Route, followed by the play Napoleon Disrobed at Arcola Theatre, rejuvenated me.
Warming up
Hours later, a short taxi ride brought me back to — Leicester Square!
Ideally, having started my day at 3.30am, Dubai time, I ought to have called it stumps. But Leicester Square was just beginning to warm up to the loud cheers emanating from Five Guys and the allure of those beautiful, impeccably dressed women assembled outside Hippodrome Casino. The fabled London nightlife just knocked all traces of a jetlag out of me, quite like the fear of the ‘Beast from the East’ that had been exorcised by late evening.
Walking towards Piccadilly Circus, I crossed an area that was a slice of Shanghai or Beijing in the heart of London. It was the China Town, still resplendent in red following the celebrations of the Chinese New Year several weeks back.
I kept walking, as the clock inched its way towards midnight. Hunger pangs. I came across a fish-and-chips joint and couldn’t resist the temptation. By the time I was done, Irving Street and Bear Street bore a slightly deserted look. The cops were out on the rounds, questioning an inebriated soul who had just dropped anchor at the door of Angus Steak House. I moved in the direction of Charing Cross Road, in search of a bottle of ‘still water’. Stepping into a grocery, I overheard an altercation: “Just let me have one loaf, for the night … I promise …”
“Get out.”
“One day, I’m going to take you all to the river and shoot you …”
“Huh … you can’t even hold a stick, you buffoon.”
The shopkeeper, an Asian, looked at me: “The daily nuisance around midnight …”
As I stepped out of the grocery, a droplet of rain brushed my cheek. I cursed myself for not having brought the umbrella that was so diligently kept in the wardrobe of my hotel room. First the sunglasses and then the umbrella, both missed sorely. Didn’t someone say that in London, you get to experience all four seasons in a day? Perhaps I should have stayed at the Four Seasons hotel instead! Forget it. The Edwardian Hampshire king bed was just fine.
You can follow Sanjib Kumar Das on Twitter: @moumiayush.
