Amy Arrives, Bloomsbury Beckons, British Library Research Commences, Presentation at NYU-London

Amy Arrives, Bloomsbury Beckons, British Library Research Commences, Presentation at NYU-London

London

Monday, May 9, 2022

    I am still jetlagged enough to wake up at 5.00 am while light is already sneaking in through my window. Blogging kept me busy for the next hour, not to mention sorting my photographs and deleting the bad ones. At 7.30 am, I called my Dad and brother in India, I showered and went down to breakfast to enjoy another one of the huge buffet brekkies that is a treat to peruse and partake. Today I tried the pancakes with Lyle's Golden Syrup with maple flavor, a Full English breakfast and fruit--with decaff coffee, of course. How wonderful it is to be in the West where decaff coffee is not a rare novelty!

    I was at the hotel Reception requesting cleaning of my room and fresh towels today when my friend Amy walked, right on cue, right through the door. I was seeing her after about 18 months and we were just delighted to be together again. Her flight from New York had been very pleasant, she said, on JetBue, and she did not need to take a nap. Having stopped for a takeaway coffee en route, she had a caffeine flx to fire her with renewed zeal.

    Upstairs in our hotel room, we spent a whole hour catching up, but we also knew that we'd be together for the next few days with several long rides thrown in on public transport. We'd have ample time to do what we love doing most--gabbing! Amy showered while I got ourselves organized for what would be the first item on our agenda--a Literary walk in Bloomsbury

A Literary Walk in Bloomsbury:

    Any student of English Literature knows that the very name Bloomsbury conjures up fervid literary activity in London of the early 20th century. This was the great age of Virginia and Leonard Woolf, her sister Vanessa and her husband Clive Bell, the biographer Lytton Stratchey and his close friend, the artist Dora Carrington, the economist John Maynard Keynes, the painter Duncan Grant, the novelist E.M. Forster and his gay partner John Middleton Murray. These intellectuals became close friends with the Stevens' boys, Adrian and Thoby (brothers of Virginia and Vanessa) at Cambridge and part of a circle of friends that met every Thursday for what they called "at homes"--salons, of sorts, where they met to discuss their literary  and artistic work. 

    Thus, in the course of this creative fraternizing, romantic relationships flourished, marital partners were exchanged and creativity flowed. It is said, somewhat humorously, that the members of the Bloomsbury Group belonged to Circles, lived in Squares and loved in Triangles! Indeed, their homes were located around London's most fashionable squares (Bloomsbury, Tavistock, Russel, Woborn, Fitzroy, Gordon)--all of which sport a whole clutch of blue plaques--the symbols of celebrity domestic occupancy. I have had such a ball, through the years, taking walks around these squares occupied by "the Bloomsburywalas" by which name they were once referred in a movie I watched, that I return time and time again to take in the unchanged ambience of the neighborhood. As Amy and I will be moving on towards what is called "Bloomsbury in Sussex"--the country homes of the two sisters, Virginia (at Monk's House in Rodmell) and Vanessa (at Charleston Farmhouse in Lewes), I thought it would be pertinent to take her on a walking tour of their London homes before we reached Sussex.

    The walk not only showed us the homes of the members of the Bloomsbury Group but exposed us to some wonderful sculpture, some of which were of Indian notables: Gandhi is seated in solemn splendour at Tavistock Square where he shares space with a bust of Virginia Woolf and Rabindranath Tagore is seen at Russel Square. We also passed by the Foundling Museum and Coram Fields (closer to Holborn) where our walk began, the Green Man sculpture just behind the School of Oriental and African Studies where I was once invited to give a guest lecture, the imposing heights of the Senate House Library (where I once had a membership and had done research)--the only building in London that Hitler gave orders not to be bomb because its Brutalist architecture appealed to him and he wished to convert the building into Nazi Headquarters after his anticipated invasion of Britain, The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) which is considered one of the finest drama schools in the world, the main building of the University of London (where I took Amy to see the auto-icon of economist and huge supporter of the university, Jeremy Bentham who sits in a glass case, now in the Student Center) and, of course, the imposing bulk of the Neo-Classical British Library.

  Research in the British Library:

    By this point, I bid Amy a temporary goodbye as I wished to carry out some research at the British Library based on the material for which I had called on Friday last. I took a bus for a couple of stops past Euston while Amy decided to walk down Gower Street and get to the British Museum where I suggested she take the Highlights Tour based on a leaflet available at the Main Information Desk.  She did just that and had a brilliant time as she saw The Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, the Assyrian bas-reliefs of a lion-hunt, etc. My own work went fine and I was able to cover a lot of ground in my own quest for information on my current manuscript, some gaps of which need to be filled.

    My work done, I returned to my hotel and not a long time later, was joined by Amy. She and I had just enough time to snatch a quick nap before we realized that we had to meet our friend Raquel at 4.00 pm. We were running late but we texted her and let her know. 

Coffee with Raquel at the Hoxton Hotel, Holborn:

    I was simply delighted to have the opportunity to meet Raquel again as it had been ages since I had last seen her. In fact, I think she was last at my place in Southport, Connecticut, for dinner, a long time ago--about six years ago. We do chat occasionally on the phone, of course, but seeing her in person is simply the biggest treat. She had picked the venue--it turned out to be a massive bar on the ground floor of the hotel just at the point where High Holborn meets Shaftesbury Avenue. Raquel had already ordered a mint tea, but Amy and I had decaff coffees as we sat and chatted avidly. I had already dressed formally for my presentation at NYU which was at 6.00 pm and so Amy (who was going to accompany me to the talk) and I parted company with Raquel and told her we really did hope to see her again. '

My Presentation at NYU:

    It was simply grand to be at Bedford Square again (I had avoided it on our walk around Bloomsbury this morning) as I knew we'd be back there later today. NYU in London has expanded and where we once had just one building overlooking the square, today we have three.  I have been to these premises, of course, off and on over the years, and am very well known to the porters, Mo (short for Mohammed) and Mark North, both of whom know me well and give me a joyous welcome--this time it was Mo. In the lobby, I bumped into Catherine, the Director, who was responsible for inviting me to speak and for green lighting my talk. Amy and I made our way upstairs to the floor above in the Academic Center where we were joined, just a bit later, by Ruth who is also a very dear associate of mine and someone who always and unfailingly supports me and my research. Through past presentations at NYU, she has been there to organize and orchestrate and I am always very grateful to her.

    Sadly, with final exams around the corner, we did not have much student participation. But Catherine began the session and I talked about my work and described the journey from Blog to Book and from Screen to Page. I also read a couple of extracts from the book in which I talked about a visit to Barcelona and about getting afflicted with plantar fasciitis. There wasn't much time for questions although we paused for interesting discussion. Overall, it was a small and rather informal chat rather than a presentation and I am glad it went well.

Dinner at Hiba Lebanese Restaurant with Amy:

    I had one chore to do at the medical center before 8.00 pm and we returned so that I could get it done. Next, we decided to carry on for dinner and since My Old Dutch Pancake place was closed (much to my disappointment), we opted to eat at Hiba instead. En route, I suggested Amy step into the Princess Louise Pub on High Holborn which has all the original fitments of its Victorian Age origins as well magnificent etched stained-glass windows.

    Hiba was just two minutes away and Amy and are were relieved to end our day on a quiet note as it had been quite eventful. Amy chose a Cheese Wrap (made with Haloumi) while I had the Fatoush Salad topped with grilled chicken. It was all very good and satisfying and, as was to be expected, both of us took much longer to eat as we chatted non-stop.  

    Dinner done, we walked briskly back to our hotel as it was just past 9 pm and Amy (who'd had little or no sleep on the flight) was swiftly fading away.   

    How delightful it is to have my friend for company and to look forward to sharing a few lovely days together. Tomorrow, we have plans to get to Oxford and so, I will bit you goodbye.

    Until tomorrow...