Diwali In Leicester

Staying away from India and home on Diwali is a little difficult because you know you wont be pampered with all the sweets and all the good lunches and dinners. But I am fortunate to be at Loughborough because I am close to Leicester. And also very fortunate to have loving parents who couriered sweets from home! And very Lucky to have friends who came to see what is Diwali at Leicester!

We took a bus from Loughborough to Leicester (a slow one because it took 50 minutes to reach Leicester!!) Reached Belgrave Road at around 6pm and the whole street was lit up! Lights everywhere, Indian music being played, ISKON deities singing on the streets and lots of festivities around the place. 

The shops caught my attention. There were two kinds of shops there- Sari shops and Eating joints. Both were overcrowded. Our main focus was food. We indulged in chat at two chat houses- The Chat House and Chai Paani. Both has typical Indian street chat food.. I loved it!

Talking about Diwali, there was a small parade with big effigies of Ravan and Hanuman taking rounds of the road or The Golden Mile (famously known)

There were more than 6000 Indians and foreigners on that street at that point when the firecrackers started. It lasted for a few minutes, but it just reminded me of home and the amount of crackers people burn in India. It is much peaceful without crackers, the Indian classical music and the lights are enough to give the feel of Diwali and maybe a feeling that yes, this is how Ram was welcomed home after defeating the 10-headed Villain on Indian mythology.

Leicester made me feel like I was in Mumbai (sans the crackers) with my close set of friends from Loughborough, who are like family now!

Until next time!!

Cheers!  

Of weekly holidays, Clubs and fire-alarms

Though the pattern of education in UK does not differ much from India, many styles of teaching are new us. Like having an interactive lecture all the time, or even having no written exams for some papers and replacing them with oral presentations or something like that. Also, weekly holidays for studying, assignments and a lot of reading. And again a lot of assignments... well this is life. 

Here at Lufbra, you do feel like going to the library, sitting, reading books and getting them back to your room to read them. Maybe its because of your levels of interest in the course or even because of the ambiance that surrounds a library contrary to many parts of the campus :P 

I also went for the Universal Thursday night at Lufbra Students Union. Back home in Mumbai, I have never been to a club because I find such places too drab and boring because I dont do anything whats supposed to be done in a club- Drink, (eh, puke then?) Dance and then "while yourself away into the beauty of the night" (Call me boring, But I call that very boring!) I still find them the same and after yesterday- yeah, just confirmed it. It is some place where I will never go to have "Fun" I have better ways of having fun. Just my opinion!!!

And then to top it all (the best part of yesterday and today morning!!) Fire Alarm Drill!!!- 5.45 am, We just ran downstairs and I turned out to be the second person to get down. Hahaha! It was fun coz we were not equipped to face the drizzle and the cold!! Me shivering in that horrifying and seeing drowsy and sleepy people walk down was very funny for some reason.... phew! good start to a great day I guess !!

Till next time, Cheers!

Welcome!

Hi there, new place, new people, a brand new course and a great new beginning. These words are few to describe my first few days Loughborough University or as we call it LUFBRA!

Lufbra is a town university located in the beautiful town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, UK. It was a dream to get through Loughborough since it is (proudly saying this) Ranked #1 for Sport Sciences (and I am doing a masters degree in Sport Psychology)

It feels good to start a new life and a challenging year.. for those who did not get what I meant and for all those who are experiencing the same, wait for my blog to start! Happy reading, hope to keep you entertained!

Cheers!