Just kidding – am leaving for London tomorrow night, to attend a cousin’s wedding. It’s mainly a family obligation thingie but it might be interesting in some ways: typical ostentatious NRI affair straight out of DDLJ or Bend it Like Beckham, with many functions, annoying relatives (including at least one evil uncle), choreographed dances (which I’ve sternly instructed my cousin to leave me out of) and colour-coordinated sherwanis, one of which I’ll have to wear, alack (also a bandhgala, for the reception). Unfortunately, I probably won’t have access to a Net connection at all – some of this would be eminently photo-bloggable. Maybe later.
Will probably just be cooped up in the house most of the time, or drifting from one function to the next, or helping out, or intervening in drunken brawls or generally marveling at human idiocy. Don’t have many expectations otherwise but am hoping to get one afternoon to myself so I can skip down Oxford Street to that big HMV store where I spent so many happy hours last year. Yum.Back on the 14th. See you then.
P.S. Am disabling further comments on the top few posts while I’m away – hate-mail has been on the rise and I don’t want nastiness littering the site when I’m not around to monitor it. My email ID is jaiarjunATyahooDOTcom – kindly direct all abuse thither.
Oooooo, are you going to wear suspenders under your bandgala, ala Salman :)? Have fun, and take loads of pics.
ReplyDeleteword of advice if you are music or DVD shopping in London (this advice doesnt hold if you dont care about the fact that DVDs/CDs are horrendously expensive in places like HMV or Virgin megastores)...
ReplyDeletethere are definitely cheaper options. One extremely good and cheap place is called Fopp. It's on cambridge circus on a street called Earlham road (where all the theatres are - the tube station is tottenham court road). They have DVDs for as low as 5-7 pounds (as compared to HMV where the prices start at 12 pounds usually-except for special deals). The range at Fopp, though not as wide as at an HMV, is still extremely good - till a few months back, you used to be able to get DVDs of Bresson, Eisenstein, Godard, and a whole bunch of other great stuff for about 5-7 quid. And this wasnt a special sale either but their usual prices. Ditto for CDs. All brand new stuff too. So if i were you i would definitely check this place up first before going to the HMV. They have books too but the range isint too great. But you can still pick up some good and (by Brit standards) really cheap stuff.
If its music you're after you get 2nd hand CDs at berwick street in Soho. You might even get DVDs there though i'm not sure about that.
Have fun!
...Avinash
Thanks Swati. No, unfortunately the bandhgala is a stuffy black thing. The dress code was Black Tie but since I’ve had a lifelong phobia of bowties I decided to take the marginally less painful option instead!
ReplyDeleteAvinash, thanks, but I picked up 25 DVDs (yes!) on my last trip, most of them from HMV, and it worked out to around 7-8 pounds per disc on average. They seem to have 'special' deals (3 for 20 or 2 for 10) throughout the year. Maybe it helped that I didn't buy any new films that were only just out on DVD.
Besides, I definitely won't have time to seek out other shops.
Just a thought, but if somebody had given me helpful tips on where to get DVDs, I would perhaps have said: "Hey, thanks, I will certainly check it out if I can."
ReplyDeleteT
Mister T, awesome comment - I've been laughing my head off ever since! Maybe you should also be the one going on this trip.
ReplyDeleteJabberwock, you ingrate, you! Not one gracious bone in your body, is there?
ReplyDeleteDying to see pics of you in bandhgala et al. Till now, you have only presented yourself to us in boring striped tees and trousers (unstriped ones, sadly), so the curiousity is understandable :D. Have a great trip and do brush up on those shaadi numbers. Want me to send you lyrics of the most appropriate songs?