The Winter and Us

Ashu and I are currently surviving our first winter in the city of Birmingham. These days our vocabulary and wardrobes have been enriched with ‘thermals’ and ‘long johns’. This word really cracks me up, how many associations can the English language make with the word john. Well anyways, winter in England sees the sky in varying shades of grey. Mornings are generally defined by a lighter grey which rapidly turns into a black, post the afternoon siesta. Such is the ‘day’ with extended durations of night.

I realise the first question on reading the above to any reasonable person would be – When you knew the weather conditions why did you go? It’s a question we ask ourselves frequently, but when the bank debit of 40k INR is made every month, the answer stares us in the face.

But life isn’t so bleak in good ‘ol England. Christmas heralds a showcase of well lit trees and colourful pavements at the City Centre. It also brings us to the supposedly worthwhile Boxing Day sales which I am eagerly looking forward to. Needless to say like any well spoiled gal, retail therapy is all that’s needed to mend the problems of life. Ashu on the other hand is dreading this day. He has already run through a variety of excuses to save maxing out his credit card, but alas to no avail. His only silver lining is the dough nuts he can eat while I run through a number of shops searching for the perfect pair of sandals. The likely outcome of this day would be the reduction of the blogs name to The Rao Space.

Another highlight of the winter is the inspired cosiness. Hours spent sitting in front of the fire place shaped heater swapping stories of childhood memories. All this comes to an abrupt halt when we realise it’s time to cook again, which is followed by the normal routine of what to make and how boring it is to eat the same stuff every week; Googleing recipes to make mundane dishes a little more tempting to eat.

So naturally we miss the Mumbai winters, which were all about the long walks on Carter Road promenade, where one has to look past the dirt into the captivating sunset. Eating pav bhaji on Juhu beach till it was time to back to our respective accommodations. But such is life in a new land, where the vada pavs have been replaced by dough nuts and dosa by pancakes. So all in all, this is how life progresses with us and the winter chill.