mamaghar in london

imagine coming to london and visiting mamaghar... that's what we did last week. we went to london for kripa and ravi to apply for their schengen visa... then ravi returned home while we browsed up and down harrods before making our way to mama's place... worst was that i forgot to take my camera along.. so most of the pictures below taken by kripa on her iphone.. and some taken by cousin atit on his digicam...


this is us in front of the 'great' harrods, after we'd had a shushi lunch.. we went in to see where the ganya manyas of the world shop...

inside we got reminded of the great mishap that took the lives of d & d

then we took the tube and then an overground rail to reach mama's place in bannockburn road in eltham.. next to benares road!! mama had come to welcome us right at the station. we had a great time.. with mama's fun guph about his days in sisaut, dharan, kathmandu, japan, and now in the u.k.!

even mama's sons atit and utsav were fascinated with mama's humourous narration about his struggles and the grandiose life of the gurujus of sisaut.. of badkababa's wily ways, about dada & deviji's bihey and the ice that was brought from across the border in sitamadi to keep the well water cool for the jantalus!!.. of dheng station.. the dahi swinking on muslin from the bailgadas that ama arranged for while fetching her family members coming home from the station...

with first cousins who are younger than my kids!

maiju, meanwhile was making a great dinner for us...

she had made dal, bhaat, sukkha roti, raito, karela ko tarkari, palungo ra chhana and golbheda ko achaar awash with the yummy timur aroma... and yes there was imitation chicken too...

baba was nursing a hurt jibro and kripa as usual has a bland diet.. i meanwhile feasted on tattato roti and other accompaniments

mama's guph continued throughout dinner... it was most amusing to hear his impressions of life and adjustments in the western world. his appreciation of the 'systems' here.. the way people got work on their skills and merits.. he marvelled at the way even the women who clean glass windows were skilled at that specific job, being able to clean windows with leaving a streak of water behind as they hands darted and zigzagged across the glasspane!!

as we wound our way through dinner to dessert (fruit salad), mama was telling us about the difficulties of the phonetics... of how he can speak bhojpuri even now with the thet accent, and the difficulties he has with the queen's english!! "बल्ल बल्ल गेट लाई गाइट भन्न जानिएको हुन्छ, तर के गर्नु, गाइट त भनिन्छ, तर त्यस पछिका सबै अरू शब्दहरू चिप्ली सकेका हुन्छन्! धत्तेरी!!!"

posing in front of mamaghar


the cable wires radiating to houses along bannockburn road

we left mama's belayati gaun by double decker bus.. then the tube and train back to kingston. and mama reached us up to woolwich station.. such a dear...