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I was fascinated by London Underground transport since my first day there. I used to travel to my office via Tube only. It was fast and the frequency of trains was also good. As far as crowd is concerned, the tubes used to be completely filled with people at peak hours, just like we have in Locals, Buses in Pune or Mumbai. Only difference is that, tubes have doors, so people won’t be hanging outside the train. Sometimes when I used to be on the escalators going down, there used to be the train on the platforms about to leave. I used to think, who cares there is another one after 5 minutes. But some persons would run down the escalators to catch the train.
On my first day, I met my manager (another one in London) on the bus stop! As I did not know the exact address of the office, so he had asked me to wait there. I had worked on the project for almost 3-4 months from India. We had interacted sometimes over the phone. He took me the office and introduced me to some persons working on the same project. I was the only new person in their team.
There was one day when I had to take the first tube of day back home. It was raining that day. I had my umbrella with me just in case if required.
We were almost near to the end of the project (and my stay in London as well). We were left with one last data load job. Once we did this correctly, it was going to release stress for many people. So, my manager and I started the data load around 10:00 am in the morning that day.
The day came to an end for many people in the office at around 5.30-6.00 pm, but not for us. We did not finish with the data load. Around 7.30 pm, everyone in the office had left, but us. We went outside for dinner. I was not in the mood for Non-vegetarian, so I ordered a tasteless (I came to know that after first bite) palak (spinach) pizza. We came back and continued our work. It was around 9.30 pm, the streets in front of office were almost empty, but we still were doing the data load job! As per our estimation it was going to take 3-4 hours more, but we had to complete that job on that day only as per the plan.
We checked timings for last (or first) tube of the day, for me it was 12.20 am. The next tube was after 4 hours then.
Finally around 12.05 am the job was completed. It used to take around 10 minutes for me to reach the tube station from office so I thought I c0uld make it there around 12.15 am. We started moving towards the ground floor of the building.
We reached the ground floor and just to add some obstacle to our journey to home, the main exit door was locked. There was nobody at the reception and no other exit door. At that moment, we thought that we are stuck in the office for night! After searching around for 2-3 minutes, we found a “small” note written near reception saying “go to lower ground floor for exit”. We ran towards the floor, there was a person downstairs. We asked his help and somehow got out of the building.
My manager had a bus in next 5 minutes, but for me, I had two options, either take a bus after 40 minutes that goes halfway to my apartment or take a Tube in next 5 minutes. Though I had only £20-£25 cash with me, for my safety I took out the umbrella, I had! Without thinking for a minute I started running towards the Tube Station. I did not know if the people on the street (I could see 2-3 persons) were watching me or if I was looking like a thief running around, but I had only one thing on my mind to get on that train. It was a funny scene my manager and I, both of us, were running in opposite directions!
I reached the station. I heard the sound of train; it was about to leave. I was running down the escalator, watching the train leaving the platform. I reached the platform, but the train had gone. Then I checked the time. It was around 12.15 am. That was the second last train that left. There was a last one after 5 minutes. I thought, I was freaked out and ran too fast that, I reached the station in 2-3 minutes only. Finally the train arrived and I boarded the compartment having some persons in it. I did not put my umbrella inside my backpack until I reached home!
The next day, I went to office a little late. When I reached there, almost everyone associated with the project was happy, the people on client’s side, my managers (yeah, there were a few at different designations) and me, I was happy with the experience I had the earlier day.
Though the data load job was boring, chatting with my colleagues, eating that tasteless pizza, listening to English songs that I have never heard before and running on the streets of London at midnight…it was a good experience!
y don u write a book on ur london journey??…