Category: it’s not about India

Cosmopolitan and coincidences

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London is an incredible mix of people and cultures.

Manjula was amazed when she first visited U.K. and especially Brixton where there’s a great mix of people of different nations/ethnicity/races/colours….

On my bus now, less than 50% are white. I think that’s great and even the white people are a big mix mainly as the place (pre UK) was invaded by many others for a thousand years before the last take over by the Normans in 1066.

Coincidentally that invasion is featured in an amazing tapestry currently on loan from France and exhibited in London.

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Today I have noticed the following restaurants in just a few minutes from the bus travelling through London…..

Eritrean, Keralan, Lebanese, French, Bangladeshi, ‘Indian’ mostly run by Bangladeshis), English (whatever that means), American (so many fast food joints mainly selling burgers and chicken), you name it… every country is represented in the restaurants and just last week there was a big event celebrating Asia

With street food, entertainment and shoppping.

Just look at the people in the city.

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Teasing

Can you name any of the characters, in the window?

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Just to prove what an amazing place the world is ..

I was out with my son Ben today and we bumped into Rhonda from Australia, at the National Portrait Gallery, who was a guest at Mysore Bed and Breakfast.

How cool is that?

Thinking back

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On this trip I’ve visited places I used to live.

Now I’m also visiting family, here my sister Claire and brother Jason, who live between Sheffield and Rotherham in South Yorkshire

They live next door to each other! Really?

She’s got out the family photos.

Oh no!

Brothers in law Richard and Mark
Family group
Sisters Janet and Claire
Andy Claire Stephen
With my brothers and sisters maybe 40 years ago
Liz
Tricia
Stephen

It’s also been an opportunity to revisit my Sunday School Chapel, second home and school in Sheffield.

Reflections

I first tasted honey at Sunday School and was taken aback. It was amazing. Why had I never had this before? I was maybe age eight and it was probably too exotic and costly for my family.

Compare and contrast.

It’s useful to return to my home city and country. I’m initially shocked by the price differences with India.

I expect the U.K. to be a little better organised but it disappoints.

More later ..

West Yorkshire

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Warning … when you travel north.

I’ve moved from tropical London to typical Yorkshire— wet, windy and coldish.

Initially I didn’t feel cold as London was scorchy but here it’s a serious to contrast to what I’m used to.

But this morning staying at Jill’s is nice and sunny

A lovely stone built cottage

The fact is everywhere is fab as I’m meeting great friends.

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Next stop South Yorkshire.

Here I am with Belle

My sister Claire’s dog.

Cycling South London

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Visiting places from my first years in London

East Dulwich
Amazing art.
Liz, Ben and my first house together. No bathroom so we’d use the slipper baths or visit Gina
Just around the corner. Peckham Rye.
Old
New
Our last London house before moving out of London in 1986 to Hebden Bridge
Goldsmiths University for my social work course

London has so many open spaces. Usually green but it’s been very hot this Summer.

I loved visiting the old places but also realised how forgetful I’ve become.

I’d stopped to chat with Goldsmiths students. They were elected to positions in the Students union.

The Union provides services to help support students and events for entertainment.

The sparrow has landed….

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Clearly not an Eagle.

Gina and I tried to capture images of the eclipse without looking at the sun.
Angus is a great gardener with giant sunflowers at their house.

I’m staying with my good friends Angus and Gina in Brixton South London

Close to their house are lots of community facilities and a corner shop run by Indians that MAnjula discovered on her first visit here. In fact the whole Brixton area is a great diverse mix of people from all around the world.

I can hear people playing bingo in the community centre next to me.

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The layout.

I’m back….

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I’m adjusting to the time difference (this weeks excuse for inability),

But it’s not easy ..

It’s the second morning I managed to drag myself up early for yoga, I’m waiting for the teacher at the gym with three other women when another male student walks in to speak to the women in Kannada. The local language.

Our gentle giant then leaves.

After a few minutes they get up to leave, and when I ask they tell me it’s cancelled.

I was obviously too pale and linguistically ignorant for him to tell me.

Later that morning is my next challenge.

Billet-Doux clambered through the hall (lounge) window, jumps down and drops the rat which scurries away. A gift?

Sowbaghya shrieks so she doesn’t like the surprise.

I tolerate the louder and louder squeaks coming from under the divan.

I have to take action with the help of a lathe stick .

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But then Facebook brightens my day. The Donald —whilst destroying the US fabric — entertains.

PS in the middle of the night Bullet-Doux who’s supposed to be sleeping but she’s faffing around. Next I hear squeals and investigate under the bed.

The queen is eating a bat!

I can’t imagine what might happen next.

Memory Lane

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Part one with Julia and Tom

My tour of England led me to Sheffield, my home city.

Warm showers

I was visiting Julia and Tom intrepid cyclists who’d visited us last year, in Mysore, on their journey across Asia, through Europe and back home to England.

Warm showers is a network we’re part of where hosts offer an overnight stay to distance cyclists.

They now live in Sheffield the city of my birth and their new home is just round the corner from the first place I escaped to at age 18

That was fifty years ago. I lived with my first serious girlfriend Tricia who kindly supported me for the final few months of school

Stephen and Tricia with my mum’s poodle.

A great revisit. The house no longer exists but there was plenty of reminiscence.

Part two

A lovely couple.

CANDO custard pies.

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Getting people to work together and actively engage in their locality is a critical part of participative democracy.

In the 90’s I was asked to focus on the town of Holmfirth in West Yorkshire to consider how individuals and local organisations could work together to service and support each other.

As the project developed I was interviewed by a local reporter.

I was asked what initiatives would we establish and what projects are likely to work. “We don’t know until we try. We’ll use action research, suck it and see.”

“So,” said the reporter, “it’s as if you’ll throw a series of custard pies and see which ones will stick?” .

I like the analogy.

That’s about it. Spending time on research is too slow, it’s best to dive in there, changing and adapting as you go along.

We also brought our Internet workshops to the town A great success wherever we introduced it, including to young people in Leeds and veterinary practices throughout the U.K.!

Footnote.

Background

Representative democracy is our current system but wherever possible we should be participative, helping people be active participants and not passive recipients of the decisions others make on their behalf.

Voting is necessary but what does it mean on a day to day basis? it might involve single issue campaigns, volunteering to serve, joining measures the council’s introduce to garner your opinion.

The council/local authority/corporation called Kirklees Metrolotian Council I worked for, in West Yorkshire, brought in great innovations.

As well as reaching out to engage we tried to support people to have the confidence and competencies to take their part.

That was over thirty years ago and such experiments are struggling as the government role is decimated.

Flashbacks

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Today’s conference reminded me of some of my innovations in the 90s

I was inspired by Negroponte’s book ‘Being Digital’ to explore the Internet … and develop projects to help others to do it … before it became monopolised by big business.

Commodore Amiga

A friend Dave and I would use the Commodore Amiga (much more than a games machine) in the late 80s and gopher to visit US Sheriff’s offices wanted lists.

It got me thinking. As Negroponte stated in ‘Being Digital’ we were going through a revolution as significant as the invention of the printing press.

Often my thing was ‘how do we engage people so they’re actively involved?’

Here was a great inspiration

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My senior role in government with Kirklees Council — who were very supportive of ‘wild thinking’ — had already provided me with the opportunity to innovate.

Here was another possibility: a creative challenge ..

Cyber Coffee Mornings.

Within a year of the introduction of the world-wide-web we hit the local community and throughout the teams in government introducing them to this revolutionary new way to access the internet.

Coffee mornings are community gatherings to meet and share.

Invading these community events with lengths of phone leads, modem, over head projector, LCD panels (what we’d use before digital projectors became available) and a Toshiba laptop.

Cyber Citizens

Was the group that took it to the wider community.

The innovative projects came thick and fast.

We were the first Social Services (social work) department in the U.K. web site in the country and electronic information service

Disabled People’s Electronic Village Hall an idea borrowed from north Europe. This was a community project to promote access to learning about computers, becoming confident and surfing the net.

To help all this along we had ..

An EU — European project to share experiences between Athens, Crete, Manchester and Kirklees.

An exciting time

I initiated the projects but they worked because people got involved including students from the university to make them a success

I was also privately sponsored by Pedigree Petfoods (MARS) to provide a workshop to veterinary nurses throughout the country.

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Footnote

Reflection

For many this was an opportunity to make money

But not for me … as usual my motivation was to serve the community.