So here I am with my blog on my UK experiences. I may mention a few things that might make some people a tad bit uncomfortable including some of my friends in the UK, so I am writing this with some personal angst, because I do look back at my UK stay with a degree of nostalgia and fondness in spite of all its warts and hype.
The UK in my mind was not akin in anyway to the UK in reality. I had imagined a beautiful sunny country with lovely landscapes - hills and vales, delectable food as described by Enid Blyton and the daffodils described by so many British poets. In fact UK half of the time the UK is a cold, dark, damp country with very little sunlight and people stay indoors for most of the time once winter kicks in making up for it in the summer when it is pleasant weather - the bare foliage turning into all hue of colors - green, brown, red, yellow.
I landed in the UK sometime in late autumn and I was disoriented not hearing any sound at all - evening or night, except for the wind whistling through the branches of leafless trees across my residence, its bare branches reaching into the sky. No mew of a cat, bark of a dog, or even a rat scurrying across to the recycling bins. Late winter when the days were longer, in the late night I could hear the the only sound outside of the melodic chirping of birds, maybe starlings? nightjars? I had no clue as I could only imagine them from the so many books I have read.
side of a road and the usual glorious rose bush in front of every cottage - it seemed I was more familiar with the flora and fauna in the UK than the ones in my native land with so much diverse greenery.
The soft power of this small island with a remarkably low population is without doubt immense, having once ruled half the world and indirectly impacted the entire world, spreading English culture and language far and wide.
The nights seemed unreal. Locked in my room with all lights on, cooking my favorite Indian dish, I felt like I had crept under a thick blanket with a torch, doing my own thing, oblivious to the world, the world oblivious to me and inky darkness outside.
