rude mumbai or downright rude london?

the brits still hate us!!!

today at leicester square. was to meet the gang to see a night club at nine in the night. got out of the tube & was told to come to a store called switzerland. So i turned to the aged couple manning the newspaper stall just outside the stn. to my shock, the guy who had just sweetly aided another tourist a moment ago with directions shook his head violently & shooed me away. round the corner was switzerland!!! its an anomaly compared to the rest of the angrez janata's treatment. but i have learnt the hard way to get in to a store, which belong either to pakistanis or bangladeshis & ask for directions.
if you approach any body else out here, & look the way i do, you are going to be illtreated, & even by a sweet old couple. should write this to the lonely planet & see if they publish this in their guide notes!!!

the good thing about today

well, there will be enough bad things to stuff your day to feel miserable, & then there is that one meeting, that one good thing that makes it all worthwhile. I was out looking at locations way out in london, when i was told that the day is free. called naman & he didnt pick up my call. called shamrao & ditto. so called manu, & he said come to datchett to the set. so off i went to waterloo & tried to search where datchett was. called manu several times. damnn! its next to windsor! if only he had said so...
anyway, took the train & landed at datchett. no sign of manu. got off the platform & called him. so there i am at the rly crossing & he is on the other side.










































he takes me to this glorious property which is costing him 5000 pounds a day to shoot in, & i meet mohanlal, gopi, snatosh thudiyal, his assistant who has worked for me on the binod pradhan shot rahu dravid tvc, & manu's mother & dad. So i get to tell mohanlal about his shirt that i wore for 2 years, speak to gopi about his fight with his ailment, & share manu's dad's concerns about the shoot, & so on...
& a lovely indian khana after 5 days...

then we go to radisson where they are staying & i feel like a country cousin because of the budget constraints that the brits are working with. & then a whirlwind tour of the countryside with an inimitable character who is a caterer called ronnie from jalander!!! & then i try to rush back to central london & then to leicester square. Phew!!!

the location we saw today at nine in the morning.