Saturday, May 31, 2008

Moving house..

Finally I made it,to the UK, to London,one of the nicest cities to live(only next to Bangalore!)

I live in London, work in the City, in a big investment bank. It feels nice to say this. It feels great to walk amidst the big boys of world banking. It thrills to walk out of the Bank station (Bank of England which apparently has the world's biggest gold reserves) and step into THE CITY passing by hoardes of faces that think money, plan money and make the world move forward,atleast in some sense.

It feels independent to live alone. To wake up and cook for yourself,take care of locking the house,ironing your clothes,making your lunch and doing the shopping. It taught me the value of my time and my MOM! :)

It feels great to shop in Harrods and Next,thrills to own a blackberry,to pay your bills online.It feels relaxed to get things done easily.

It feels great to converse finance. Derivatives,options,leverage and the sup-prime crisis all sound familiar now,a bit,if not more.. It is a whole new world, away from the abstraction of memory leaks and CPU cycles(though am in a technical job), a new,real world that exists! Finance thrills because it is about two Ms - Mathematics and Money!!

It feels great to spend weekends outdoors, amidst hills and valleys, with calm and quiet all around. It thrills to climb hills and walk miles, to get away from the hassle and get back to the hassle again on Monday mornings..

Life has changed a lot in the last three months and I feel good about it. I am riding on waves of confidence and vigour, energy and enthusiasm.

The sun goes down and am back to my nest,to that little home I have in East London.As I make my dinner,I turn my music on. KVN maama singing 'Annapurne Vishalakshi' reverberates in the one bed flat that I call mine. I listen to this divine piece of carnatic music.. The CITY,the bank,the shops,pubs,restaurants,the hills all fade away to the background. Nothing matters,except the fantastic manner in which maama sings 'kanchana maya bhushanam bharadhare'. The energy,the confidence and the money fade away...All that remains is absolute peace and serenity. Things don't change much ,do they ?

(Look out for my Scotland trip blogs on my travelogue)