July 2011: Some views of SOAS

The School of Oriental and African Studies in London usually holds some very interesting lectures. While waiting to pop into a lecture, I took these photographs.

The Brunei Gallery usually has great exhibitions, but what is this?

Scratches my head. What is this all about? Looks like SOAS and the University of London were a bit naughty with the Russell Family Trust, eh? Fascinating. But they did get an award.

This is a queue to receive some free vegetarian food from the Hare Krishna cart. Fascinating.

What is this chap doing?

 
The queue grew and grew, very popular, I guess.

July 2011: Duke of Bedford statue at Russell Square

There is a rather lonely statue of the Duke of Bedford at Russell Square. I love Russell Square, its surrounded with such a huge amount of history, education and the world. British Museum is a stone’s throw away, SOAS is next door, the Russell Hotel is one side. Lovely place. And its full of squirrels. The cafe is a bit manky, but a nice place to while away some good times. At one time, the Duke of Bedford owned some serious chunks of real estate around here and this statue was erected. Now, besides some pigeons and some weird boys like me, he is forgotten.

Highlighted under the tree.

Very imposing statue if looking a bit sad and weatherbeaten.

Standing proud.

But a closer look shows that the pigeons havent really been respecting the statue.

Frances, Duke of Bedford. With busts of rather dyspeptic looking bulls on top.

These cherubs arent looking very happy either. Well, I wouldn't be happy either with these feathered rats around, would you?

Silhouetted against the sky. Weak chin.

What is this?





 

The pigeons still sit around and rest. There are some sheep carved into the structure between the bulls.

July 2011: Rashmi interviews Sangeeta

One of my very old friends from Indore, Rashmi Sahi, who is a Professor of English Literature in HK, popped over to London and took the opportunity to interview Sangeeta for her book. Here is the interview if you are interested to read the article. Here are some of the photographs I took. We had lunch outside in the lovely summer sun and then the girls settled down to have a nice natter.

July 2011: The Middlesex Auto Show

This was a charity trip. We were running a stall at the Middlesex Auto Show where we had a variety of stuff like hand prints, lotto and stuff. Good stuff, we made a fair few quid and then Barclays, very very kindly, doubled the donation. How nice of them indeed.

But before I popped into the stall, I took some pics.

First is this extraordinary machine.

Looks like a tear drop but I am not sure about the visibility while driving it.

An old road master







We had some trick riding demonstrations.



Looks like it will just take off, eh?

A Lamborgini Countach. One of my dream cars from my childhood.






























































































I am not a car enthusiast, I have to admit. The idea of getting excited about a means of transportation leaves me a bit cold, but that doesnt mean that i cannot admire a good piece of engineering. It was a nice afternoon and all for charity, so good stuff. Happy with it.