Wednesday, May 31, 2006

London Ahoy

Yeah its been a month since i last arrived in london, and as reminded by Noodle, I havent blogged since.

Its not that there hasnt been much to blog about, but lack of net connection is the main culprit.

The guys at office are smart, and they block blogger and other entertainment sites, and i was way to busy searching for an apartment to do anythign else.

anyways after great pains and lotsa hassles with the estate agent (that in itself needs another blog) finally found an apartment, which i feel has been worth the wait.

So currently i am sharing it with Nippo and Paldy.

anyways for a week i was in Bayswater at a company provided accomodation, and the first thing i notcied about london was the multiculturalism.

At Bayswater there was a nice immigrant community, though i guess a lot were from north africa, and middle east, and one could here lots of different languages on the street and there were many lebanese restaurants as well.

Then when i came to work, it was a pleasant surprise fro mexpecting all Brits who might speak in a Accent like Ooncle Geofferey (BOycott) I saw there were 3 French guys, one American (of Mexican descent) and we two indians along with a Polish guy joined on the same day.

Its a nice multicultural department (or desk as they call it here in banks) and even on the debt markets floor in Merrill Lynch, opne can here all kinds of languages.

Most of the sales teams are geographical and thus one can here chatter in italian spanish portuguese, french and god alone knows which other languages.

Another aspect that i have liked is the egalitarianism. Due to a smart public policy of applying a stiff congestion tax, most people use public transport (even my boss, and eveyone in my department)

so construction workers sit next to investment bankers and commute daily to work.

Another place of egalitarianism is at work. Everyone sits at the same desks.
(In a single football field size room, there ae long desks lined up and everyone sits ther staring at their 3,4 or even 6 screen monitors and there is a constant chatter on the phones, with news being played onthe TV screens on the pillars.)

THere is no concept of privacy and every one can see what one is doing (well as long as you dont do naything worth hiding, it should nt be a problem though )

Well out of 600 odd people only 6 sit in corner cabins. Which is another likable thing.

Yeah this post is just kind of an update, but i am in a public library in Whitechapel and my net time is gonna end soon,
so more hilarious updates which need editing have been saved for future.

So all my readers (mom and sis and anyone else who might be there) i shall soon be back with all my exploits.