Bidesh...

When I told Dad, I was going to London, he said – Jao bidesh ghoore aasho (go visit the foreign land and come). It’s a typical bangla word but you will rarely hear it now a day. For me it sounded like the 40’s and 50’s when a native Indian goes to a foreign land – typically meaning a white men’s land. At least in my mind it evoked that kind of feeling / visual picture.

As I start back from Heathrow, I realize there was hardly a moment in all these 5 days when there was not an Asian (Indian / Pakistan) around. Right from the immigration counter to the ticket collector in the Heathrow express, the receptionist in Hilton where I stayed for a night, Paddington hotel where I stayed for rest of the days and the Grange hotel where the conference was – most of the staff were Asians. Even walking down Oxford street, or on the cruise on Thames or the Underground or the Starbucks coffee in front of me (as I write this on the airport) I was always surrounded by Asians.

It was comforting for someone who has never visited London and I almost felt like home but having said that most of them were only Asian in their looks. When I tried to speak to them in Hindi or start a conversation, except for a young guy who was manning the store part time and studying on week days all of them had no interest or shared the feeling which I had when I saw an Indian. They are as much a Londoner as anybody else – except for their color of skin.

When I reach home I am going to tell dad – Bidesh ta aakhoon amader desh hoi gache (the foreign land has been converted into our land)*.

*As per a survey, the non island population will be more than the native population in 2020 or sometime around that.