LONDON DIARY
Dream trip
This dream trip down memory lane has been made possible by many - from my newspaper to the British Deputy High Commission through Gavaskar who said nothing was too much trouble to let me be associated with the commemorative event down to Kapil who said I could be a honorary member of his band of brothers for a couple of days. The Brits in Chennai went out of their way to grant me a visa 'under exceptional circumstances' barely 12 hours before departure. No consular staff could have been so gracious. Srikkanth offered me the key to his room much like Boris Johnson handing out the key to the city of London.
Kapil said that for hours after the formal BCCI function in New Delhi on Sunday night, his boys had run riot with the spontaneous laughter show hosted by Srikkanth, Sandeep Patil, Kirti Azad and Syed Kirmani with everyone else chipping in with slices of humour and snatches of memory of the good days gone by. "It was so much fun," he said along the lines of the Barbie doll in the controversial song.
Wimbledon connection
The spotlight is on Wimbldeon here, the focus having been on Maria Sharapova's grey shorts at practice; it shifted to the white shorts she wore on Monday. An early hint of what to expect on arrival was Anand Amritraj boarding the same British Airways flight out to London. Much like Vienna is to music, London is the spiritual home to two great sports of modern times – tennis and cricket. The only hint of a grand celebration of the Indian cricket team's feat is three television cameramen have come out here to film the team's arrival and the events around the commemoration.
A friend
Soon as I walked in to the hotel to find out when the team would be arriving, the chief of the concierge came out spontaneously with – 'Neenga Tamila' (Are you a Tamil?). Shankar is an old hand in London who knows what works where. No problem is too big for him not to be able to tackle it – from adapters, to extra beds to where which traveller's requirement could be bought. Along with Shankar are two Maharashtrians who were readymade information kiosks to all the members of the team who wanted their cell phone sim cards sorted out. |
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