The City That Invited Me to Take a Walk
London, Liverpool, and what leaving India for the first time does to your priors.
My Garmin strongly suggested that I should not do any exercise that morning. Poor sleep history, high stress, and the whole dashboard was red. But I went for it anyway, into Kensington Park on our 3rd day in the city.
It ended up being one of the best runs of recent times. And Garmin also updated my VO2 max after that.
I was in England for roughly 9 days. 6 of which were spent in London (in two phases), 2 in Liverpool. And 1 in Bath. This was the first time I went out of India. My wife’s1 UCL convocation was the reason for the trip. As noted from the duration of stay, the observations will be London-heavy.
For phase 1 of the London trip, we stayed near Paddington station. I had done very little research about the city before the trip (I am generally very lazy in this aspect), and I was totally surprised by it.
Most of my frame of references would be the Indian cities that I have visited and stayed in, so pardon my comparative and a bit of reductionist lenses. But I don’t think they are directionally completely wrong.
Anyways, carrying on, the neighbourhood where we were staying had many green, continuous pastures. The footpaths were wide. The air was comparatively cleaner (AQI was around 10). I knew about the AQI, and had a slight idea about the footpaths also, but the greenery was rather surprising.
I have this habit of looking for data when I see something unique. So, I had to verify if the greenery which I was seeing around Paddington was just a local thing or not. Apparently not. Looking at HUGSI, more than 41% of London is green. In India, currently, the only big city that came close was Pune. And I haven’t visited that.
I spotted many runners on the road in the evening. And many of them were carrying a backpack. Which was kinda surprising. But apparently, London has this culture where you return home while running. This serves two purposes: you get back to your home, and you also have a workout in. I liked that.
We left London for Bath. And stayed there for a day before leaving for Liverpool. Bath is a historic city full of historical artefacts. The fish & chips I had there were heavenly. If you are a history nerd, you would love Bath - for sure.
After that, we went to Liverpool. This deserves a separate blog post, so I won’t spend much of my time here. If London was like Delhi-Mumbai, Liverpool would be like Kolkata. There are some strong, striking resemblances also. I will cover them in a detailed blog post later.
After 2 days in Liverpool, we came back to London. And this time, the weather was completely different. Previously, it was windy and a bit chilly. Now, it has become hot and sunny. This time, we stayed near Euston Square. This area, particularly, had many Indian restaurants (and expats too!). Even in Paddington, there were a few Indian & Pakistani restaurants (had Delhi & Lahore in their name), but here the number was quite high.
We took the tube (basically their metro) for most of our commute. Efficient, and the fares are capped - once you hit GBP 8.90 on your Oyster card for the day, you travel free for the rest of it. I only found out midway through the trip. This felt like a great nudge for citizens to take the tube!
Sunday, 24th May, was the final day of this season’s Premier League football. The streets were vibrant and colourful. Spotted many Arsenal fans and a few Spurs. And most of the Arsenal fans were mocking the Spurs fans. A few fans of other teams were also there, who were eating and drinking in eateries and pubs. And having serious discussions about their teams. This whole scene reminded me of Kolkata’s football culture to some extent. We would often see this level of banter between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan fans. But London was far more vibrant - for sure.
When I woke up on my 2nd last day, I received a “new trend” notification in my Apple Health.
I like walks. And running. As you can see. My 21-day average was around 10k steps. But in England, for the last 7 days, it was around 21k steps. The last day, I went for a run around the street. It was a bit annoying as I had to stop on every signal, but even after accounting for that, it was far more pleasurable than running in India. My respect for Indian runners (and people who walk) increased greatly. To commit to a cause even after so many obstacles is not a matter of a joke. That day, I ended the day with 30k steps.
London just invites you to walk. Wide roads, greenery, a kind of ambient permission to slow down even when the city is busy. There were suited types (the tech and fin bros) rushing somewhere, and there were people just sitting in parks doing nothing in particular. Both kinds seemed comfortable existing in the same city.2
I love city centres. Seeing many people from hugely different backgrounds coming together for work is refreshing. London had some added layers on top of that. The greenery and Victorian architecture.
I always thought of immigration as a means, not as an end. You leave your city and country to pursue something - a job, a degree, etc. So it made little sense to me when I would come across people whose only target would be to leave India at any cost.
But after this trip, that started making some sense to me.
London doesn’t make the argument loudly though. It just shows you what a city can feel like when the basics are sorted - the air, the footpaths, the green. And somewhere between the Kensington run and the 30k steps on the last day, I think I got it.
Observations, data, and the not-so-ordinary world. Subscribe if that's your kind of thing.
Share this post, or tell someone about Ordinary Analysis.
Yes! I am legally married now!
I suppose it is there in a few Indian cities too. More prominent around a few pockets of Bangalore.