First day in London

I began the journey to London with only £200. I took a 4-hour flight from Trivandrum to Mumbai where I was to wait 9 hours before the onward flight to London. I could have used that time to explore the city but I chose not to take any chances with the Indian traffic and so I just explored the marvellous Airport. It was during this time that I got a message from Nat that took me by surprise. After 2 years of being together in Kochi and 2 years of no contact whatsoever in Chennai, after that chance meeting on her birthday and bidding farewell, she showed an interest in getting back together.

London in the first few days was not even close to what I had imagined. I got in touch with a Gujarati Indian guy who managed properties in London. To my unpleasant surprise, he put me and a couple of others in a completely wore down rat infested old Victorian house opposite to the then West Ham United's home ground, the Boleyn. I think they played their last match there around that time. There were about 10 guys in that cramped house with 2 in each room. Over the next few weeks, I cleaned up my corner of the room and reluntantly settled there. A few days into the country I had to go collect my Biometric Residence Permit. For some reason, I put my address as the company address which was registered in Reading. I went to the post office in Reading to collect my residence card. The postmaster read my address and immediately recognised it to be a notorious part of London known for Football Hooliganism and recommended me to watch the movie - "The Green Street Hooligans". Sure enough, I went home and watched it. I learnt a big lesson that day, trying to cheap out always gets you the worst things in life. I stayed there for 3 months and eventually moved to a nicer place, sharing with another guy. Even after moving to London, my sharing woes never seemed to end. From the middle of the financial ladder in India, it felt like I was now at the bottom of it in the UK.

But, I did what I had in my control which was to work hard and make the most of the opportunity. I joined the Statements team along with an Engineer from Greece, Pol who became one of my good friends very quickly. Over the next 3 years, I worked as hard as I ever did. I often came home and put in more hours, converting the ironing table into a makeshift desk and working and learning late into the night to get better at the job. But a life in London earning £27K made it very hard to save anything. It was a downgrade in lifestyle. I should have done my homework in understanding life in a global city like London before accepting it. I was too naive and young and just decided to go with the flow.