An Odd Sorta Day!

Friday, February 6, 2009
London

It was an odd sorta day because I broke completely from routine--which makes me realize that I have developed a routine of sorts here in London.

Awoke at 6. 30 (yyeesss!!!)--finally awaking at a decent hour and not when the rest of the world is still snoring! Read my Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for an hour, then at 7. 30 am began to check email and catch up with correspondence. This always takes longer than I expect, but by 8. 45 am, I finally got out to bed to have my breakfast. You see, it's become part of my routine to eat my breakfast when I am home while watching As Time Goes By on Gold--I caught the series at the very beginning and am now watching it in sequence (after all these years of seeing it in dribs and drabs and completely out of order).

Watching it also gives me a chance to do the Contrast Bathing Therapy--actually Contrast Soaking is more like it, so that's what I will re-christen it--the alternate foot soaks in hot and cold water. I also do my exercises at the time and massage the arches of my feet.

Today, after breakfast was done, I went back to my PC and did more work mainly by way of trying to sort out my schedule for the next two months. February is already chocobloc with interviews and travel--though I had one disappointment this morning when one of the folks I was supposed to meet this evening cancelled at the very last minute. In fact, I believe that she forgot she was supposed to see me and when I called to confirm our meeting, she said she wasn't able to see me because the snow had disrupted her plans. What snow??? It's all disappeared already--at least here in London. The snow seems to be providing the kind of excuse that Londoners have not had in two decades--so it's as good a time as any, I guess, to take advantage of the freaky weather and cancel undesirable commitments!

Since I had a fairly free morning, I decided to watch Under the Greenwood Tree based on the novel by Thomas Hardy, but I was sorely disappointed to find that my DVD (sent to me by Lovefilms.com) was defective and half way through the movie, it simply stopped working--so frustrating! Now I will have to read the rest of the synopsis online somewhere. This brought me up almost to lunchtime when I decided to make myself open toasted sandwiches--one smoked salmon, the other cold tongue (both delicious and with the new tasty multi-seed bread that has just been introduced by M&S).

Then, it was time to shower, and get dressed and go off to school--but I caught Chriselle online and so we chatted for about an hour. Right after, I went in for a shower, then left my flat, took the bus to school and spent over two hours at my desk making phone calls to the various Anglo-Indian contacts I have recently made to request interviews. I was able to schedule about five of them, most of which will be done late this month or in March. I am hoping that the couple of people for whom I left messages will get back to me and that I will have at least ten more respondents by the end of next month. I really do want to spend the month of April in the British Library but I do not want to start examining documents until I have finished the bulk of the interviews.

When I had completed my work at my desk, I took the bus to Kensington to the V&A. I had a completely odd character come and take the seat at the side of me in the very front of the upper deck. Barney started a conversation and told me that he was a paranoid schizophrenic. "Most people think I am mad", he informed me, "but I'm not mad. I'm just under a lot of drugs. My wife is a paranoid schizophrenic too", he said.

My heart bled for the poor man. He couldn't stop talking. He voiced this endless monologue while drinking coffee in great big gulps out of a paper cup. He asked where I was headed and when I said, "The Museum", he said, "Which one? The Science Museum?"

I replied, "No, the V&A", to which he said, "Oh, that one's too high brow for me".

"What are you?" he asked. "A secretary?"

"No", I responded. "I am a professor".

"Oh", he said, and started to shake my hand vigorously. "I have never met a professor. What do you teach? Sociology?"

Now why did he pick Sociology, I wondered. " No", I said. "Literature".

"Ah, Literature. Do you write well? I have great penmanship. Everyone says I write very well", he said.

And so it went on. He pulled out a glass phial from his pocket and showed it to me. "I need to take these as injections on my bottom", he said. "But these allow me to feel normal. They really work".

Another Close Encounter of the Anglo Kind for me to write about and put into my proposed book. How pitiable was his condition! I truly hope that the combination of drugs he is taking will work for him and bring him healing; for truly, I have never come across anyone quite so distressing in a long while.

Then, I was in the V&A at 7 pm as the museum has late evening hours on Fridays and stays open until 10 pm. My feet felt better with all the massaging and exercises of the morning and I was determnined not to make them worse. I decided, therefore, to stay for no longer than an hour and a half. With this time frame in mind, I headed straight for the Nehru Gallery of South Asian Art on the ground level and then spent the most fascinating hour inspecting a great many jaw-dropping treaures from the Indian sub-continent from the Buddhist era to the Victorian Age of the British Raj.

I saw, for instance, a magnificent set of clothing of the Begum of Oudh. There was also the controversial sword of Tipu Sultan about which there was much brouhaha a few years ago in India. Vijay Mallya had bought it at auction and taken it back to India, if I remember correctly, but I need to read up a little more about it. At any rate, Tipu seemed to have possessed more than one sword for there is still one in the V&A that apparently bears his signature just below the handle.

The throne of Maharana Ranjit Singh was on display as was the signet ring of Moghul Emperor Shah Jehan and the wine cup of Jehangir. I saw spectacular turban ornaments that were presented by Nawab Siraj-u-Daulah after his defeat in the Battle of Plassey in 1757 to the British officials of the East India Company--seriously, the emeralds and rubies were as large as small eggs.

The gallery is stuffed with Moghul and Rajasthani miniature paintings, rare and antiquated Indian textiles--cottons, silks and woolens--that were fashioned into Western and Indian clothing of the time, furniture in ivory, sterling silver household articles, a number of amazing glass utensils, and an array of items that were acquried by British officials during the Raj as presents from Indian rulers--all of which were brought to England from where they made their way into the V&A through donations from the families into whose possession they entered. This section is a must-see for my students of South Asian Civilization and I will surely bring them to these galleries and conduct a lecture in the next few weeks.

Next, I went to the Fashion Gallery next door where I saw a number of interesting exhibits from dresses by leading couture houses over the 20th century to shoes in a variety of styles spanning several centuries and bridal dresses that covered about two centuries. This section always presents an ecletic mixture of items from the ridiculous to the sublime. I mean there were clothes in which I couldn't see anyone dead and then there were exquisite gowns by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel and Valentino, among others. There was a lovely outfit in ivory silk covered with seed pearls and sequins that was worn by Princess Diana on a state visit to Hongkong. This was auctioned off to raise money for her charities and was donated to the museum by the folks who bought the gown. The V&A is able to display only a very limited number of items from its vast repertoire at any given time; but it was fun perusing the cases. Certainly, there was nothing in this section that anyone could call remotely "high brow" so I would have to disagree with Barney here.

By 8. 30 pm, my feet had started protesting and I had promsied myself that I would stay for no more than an hour and a half, so I left the museum and took the bus straight home. I settled comfortably in front of the telly to watch Jamie Oliver while tucking into my Broccoli Cheddar Soup (possibly one of the most delicious things I make) and the Steak Pie I purchased from M&S for a pound. It was superb for the price--lovely crusty puff pastry concealed a hearty Beef Stew beneath. It was crammed with very tender pieces of steak and the gravy was finger-lickin' good.

So on that rather satisfied note, I ended an odd sorta day and look forward to a more normal one tomorrow.