Night at the Abbey

It was late in the night when the regular Londoners and revellers had hit the bed that I decided to step out of the hotel and take the night Tube. As I came out of the station, the tall, dark and imposing figure of the Big Ben caught my eye. It looked quite magnificent against the shimmering moonlight. I made my way to a wall near the Abbey which I had surveyed during the day and done a whole lot of ‘googling’ on the internet on being denied the ticket into the Westminster. I knew the exact number of Bobbies posted around the place and their shift changing times…. That’s the power of the net… it takes you inside the web and tells you where the spiders sit in prey. I jumped over the small wall and found my way to the west side door that I knew would not be locked for this is the place from where the choir would walk out after hours of practice which would induce laziness and over confidence and, more often than not, this entrance key would just lie hanging from the massive brass lock. With no one in sight I turned the key and, to my delight, it turned a couple of times silently and the door opened up. But the moment I put my first foot inside, the gong went bonkers… it was the Ben telling the world it was midnight with its twelve strokes, each of which  felt like bullets piercing my body… I knew death was near. The BB stopped and I walked into the majestic Westminster Abbey…unescorted, unannounced and unpaid, of course, for a tour that I could not miss having come here after a gap of seventeen long years.

The place looked so awe-inspiring. It was huge…bigger than anything I had seen before… it was exquisitely laid out without being loud and pompous…and it was completely lit up but silent. The foundations of the Westminster Abbey were laid in seventh century AD but it was around the turn of the millennium in the reign of King Edward that a stone church was built. Monastic Churches in those days were often called ‘minsters’. Since it was on the West side, and to distinguish it from St.Paul’s Cathedral which was further down the banks of the Thames on the east side, the place got its name. However, most of the church as we see today was built on the orders of King Henry III between 1245-72. Burial in the Abbey was initially restricted to the royalty and some of the aristocracy but by the eighteenth century it became the place for burial of the great and famous. There are about 600 tombs, memorials and monuments with over 3000 people interred or commemorated in the church and cloisters. ‘Among the kings’ was also the grave of the Unknown Soldier from the First World War and the Royal Air Force Memorial Chapel  is dedicated in memory of the men who lost their lives in the World War II. 

The Abbey has been described as a living church since God is worshipped daily through the four to five services on its precincts and has enjoyed a unique status granted to it in 1560 by a charter of Queen Elizabeth I under which the Dean and Chapter are directly answerable to the monarch. Over the centuries, the Abbey has stood witness to several coronations, royal weddings and funerals apart from services to mark significant occasions. I shall not go into further details but let you see the place with my eyes for there is too much history and too many details in every inch of this massive place. The next few days would be very busy ones at the Abbey for they planned to keep Queen Elizabeth II in state for five days and a huge crowd was expected to come and pay respects to the much loved monarch. No wonder I did not get tickets and had to find my own sly way of getting in.

All was good and as per plan till I saw a Bobby with a map in  hand who looked more like the Paddington Bear. He seemed to be following someone…did he know I was inside? Was the invisibility cloak, that my daughter had given me, giving me away? I realized that I should go elsewhere and explore the main sanctum sanctorum may be at a later time and so I walked down a staircase which was not showing on the map on my wrist…. that’s technology for you!

There was a lot of commotion down below. Who were these strange looking people here walking and talking. I took a few bold steps and went closer to see the name tag of the man with the white beard….Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400).Should I ask him for an autographed copy of  'The Canterbury Tales'? Better not- it my give me away. Had I come into the Poets’ Corner?  

Yes, so it seemed and all the famous poets and authors seemed to have come alive at that moment, all unaware of the presence of an intruder hidden beneath a cloak of invisibility. One gentleman called George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) got the whole lot of poets together, all standing in three tiers and as he waved his baton, the song came alive…

She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain when, she comes
She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain when, she comes

She’ll be ridin’ six white horse when, she comes
She’ll be ridin’ six white horse when, she comes

And we’ll all go out to greet her when she comes
Yeah, we’ll all go out to greet her when she comes

Then we’ll all eat purple pizza when she comes
We’ll all eat purple pizza when she comes

And we’ll all read books together when she comes
Oh, we’ll all read books together when she comes

And she’ll get to sleep with grandma when she comes
Oh, she’ll get to sleep with grandma when she comes

Stop…stop…shouted two other men. One of them, called Charles Dickens, said, This can’t be sung at all…. Firstly what’s a pizza and do you think there is something called a purple pizza? You just can’t ask the royalty to eat such horrendous stuff! Secondly, she always wanted to lie down beside her man… so no sleeping with grandma…it must be with Prince Philip, someone who’s been a part of her long journey. Of course she will have grandmas, great-grandmas and great- great -grandpas all sleeping here but she should be placed next to Philly.

I still feel we should have a more classical way to receive Her Majesty when she enters our chambers. I can still write a play and all of you can enact and we shall also have a few songs, if that makes you happy. I could ask the people from the Globe to bring the props and costumes and we can present a Broadway musical as they now call it. I have even thought of a name…Lizzy Dizzy and the last lines would be…Et Tu George, then fall Mama!”

There are no marks to guess who this was…William Shakespeare. A small group comprising of Jane Austen, the Bronte Sisters, Henry James and Lewis Carroll seemed to agree with the Bard.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we know she is arriving tomorrow with all the fanfare and show but it is likely that she may not reach our enclosure, said Rudyard Kipling. Seems the Masters at the entrance have  other plans.

What plans…Who are these so-called Masters?

Dr. David Livingstone is all set to welcome her with a short speech...Queen Majesty, I presume.

Charles Darwin has planned her passage on an old turtle which he had got from Galapagos. He wants her to take it easy after having played the Game of Thrones for over seventy years. It is time for Her Majesty to sit back and enjoy.

And then there is Sir Isaac Newton but there is nothing new about the gentleman. He has decided to share with Her Majesty the Fourth Law of Motion that he has just discovered. The new law states that, “For all motion, you always need a ‘Spare’". I still don’t know what he means but he’s a learned man and I am sure she will understand his words and the formula for a happy family.

Finally, there is Stephen Hawking who now wants to present her with his Not So Brief History of Time. Not to forget the Old Man Churchill who has recovered well and wants her to sit on the Coronation Chair one last time to check if it is strong enough to bear King Charles’ weight. The son has had a long wait and put on some extra pounds in the meantime.

In short, by the time she gets in here, we may be all tired and bored and may be the Bard’s musical would have taken shape by then.

Just when so much was happening right before my eyes and I had begun to enjoy the company of the greats, I made the mortal mistake of removing the invisibility cloak a bit from over my head. A strong arm gripped my neck from behind…. Got you bugger. I have been following you since you entered the Abbey on this ‘Marauder’s Map’ that catches every movement of intruders. You know what fate awaits you?

No Sir… I beg of you to let go of me.

No way… you shall meet the fate of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) who in the name of Reformation overthrew the monarchy and established the republican regime here for a short while. Cromwell was initially buried here but not for long. In 1661, after the Restoration of the Monarchy, his body was removed from the grave and hung from the gallows at Tyburn, London. Thou shalt meet the same fate…hung upside down from the arms of the Big Ben and made to move for hours and days together till the vultures get their feast.

Mahatma Gandhi is standing outside and I am sure he will fight my case.

Good Luck Mate…in you go…out you go! Any last wish?

A plate of the finest Fish and Chips, Sir.

Granted. Enjoy!

I woke up from my reverie on my hotel bed, sweating profusely, my blanket thrown aside and the huge pillow smothering my face. Checked the time... Oh I must have a quick breakfast and make a dash for the Westminster Abbey. The online ticket showed the guided tour started at 9.30 AM sharp.

SS

Magical Mystery Tour

Dad, you have a day in hand. Go to Liverpool and you will love it. I did the same tour in my trip and it was one of the highlights of my visit to the UK. Remember my pictures of the place? And that’s where ‘They’ started, so it has to be.

But Darling, I saw where they started it all at Hamburg… remember my visit there?

Yeah Dad, but how much more of London will you see? Move out, see the country side and enjoy the Mersey side.

So far, in life, it had always been Baby’s Day Out when I would decide where I would take my little one but now time has passed and she’s no longer little anymore. Now, she has decided on Baba’s Day Out.  So here I was searching the net for the best organized tour and booked myself on to The Magical Mystery Tour to Liverpool, the birthplace of Beatles. This music group always has had a special place in my heart… just love them. If you ask me the reason for that, then the immediate answers would be that they were easy to understand with their simple lyrics and their music just got you grooving. When I was young, possibly around 1980, the movie Birth of the Beatles was released in a cinema house called Priya in Vasant Vihar. It was still a single screen theatre before becoming PVR and it always played the English movies. I saw the movie six times in seven days…. That’s simply the most times I have seen a movie in a theatre surpassing Namak Halal which I later saw five times. 

Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour
The magical mystery tour is waiting to take you away.

At first, it was a mystery that set my heart racing on the appointed day and time as the tour operator did not show up at the Euston Station with the placard as was expected. There was another lady in a similar predicament on another tour. With the e-ticket still open on the mobile screen, I frantically started calling the local tour operator and the lady at the other end matter-of-factly said she would not be able to help. Finally, she gave me a US number where the helpdesk lady sounded more like a helpless lady. The train was due to leave at 8.07. I checked with the guy at the station ticket counter and he said there was no 8.07 train Liverpool Lime Street! There never had been one for months. Yes, there was a train at 8.43 am. Mystery was deepening further. Was there another platform 9and ¾ like the train to Hogwarts? A voice in my head said- a scam?  It was already 8.30am and the train to Liverpool Lime Street was ready to leave and here I was stranded and cheated. “Cancel my tickets and refund my money”, I shouted on the cell phone loud enough for the entire station to hear. I wanted to in fact shout...

Help! I need somebody, Help, Not just anybody.

Help! You know I need someone. Help me if you can, I’m feeling down...
Won’t you please, please help me?

I now had two choices…take a tube back to hotel and then explore London or buy a train ticket and go to Liverpool all on my own. I picked the second one and rushed to the ticket vending machine, paid by my card and started running for the 8.43am train. Having lived in Mumbai and travelled by the locals, I knew how not to miss trains and in the nick of time somehow clambered on the Avanti West Train.

Trains there are good… the WiFi works so I pulled out my iPad and started writing a stinker to the tour operator asking for a cancellation and immediate refund of money failing which I threatened to reach out to social media and give them a bad name. By the time my mail went out of my box, a mail immediately hit my inbox confirming that the tour had been cancelled due to unavoidable circumstances and that my money would be refunded in three to seven days… Thank God it wasn’t a fraud! Now magic was happening. I wrote a mail to Mike, my co-speaker at a Marine Insurance programme, who had told me that he was a Liverpool Boy and the locals pronounced it was Li’erpool. I wrote a quick mail to him to guide me through his home town and in no time he shared an itinerary which looked nice and compact. As I stepped out of the station, my heart began to flutter… I am going to get lost in Penny Lane or Strawberry Fields or least of all walk down the Abbey Road.

First stop, where else but the Beatles Museum. This was some place to read about the Fab Four, see the pictures, enjoy the memorabilia and listen to the audio detailing the fine points. For instance, did you know about Mona Best?  She owned a The Casbah Coffee Club in Liverpool which served as the venue for rock and roll music and she helped the Beatles in those initial years. Her son Pete was the first drummer in the band and was later replaced by Ringo Starr. She was given the title of Mother of Merseybeat.

Enjoy the pics, not the usual ones… The Visiting Card

The first possible selfie taken in 1965

The autograph

Ever heard of Izzie Bravo… she was a Brazilian girl who loved the Beatles so much that on her sixteenth birthday, she flew in with a friend to London to catch a glimpse of her heroes. She went to Abbey Road studios and within minutes of her reaching, the Beatles came out, stopped and chatted with her. She burst into tears. She returned a couple of times and was eventually delighted to be invited to the studio to sing the high harmonies on “Across the Universe.” So, dreams do come true. I too had dreams and I too dreamt of meeting the Awesome Foursome but never had the means of Izzie to land in London…anyway… I got to meet my idols today and stand next to their photographs, dresses and busts.

Next stop was a peep into The Cavern where the Beatles played innumerable times. Today a man sat there singing Imagine… there were still enough people there that day to create the sound of thunder when the song ended.

With joy in my heart and music in my ears, I walked to Mersey side, booked myself on the ferry ride and had an enchanting view of the city from the riverside. With loads of chubby kids on the boat, the ride seemed a lot of fun….. did I say it was only fun? I did have to respond to about fifty mails and calls from frantic office folks who were struggling with the business pressures of April 1…the All Fool’s Day for us insurers.

What’s Liverpool famous for other than the Beatles… you know who? But how could I go to the den of my arch rivals…. No no no…that’s blasphemy…can’t do it. How can a Manchester United fan walk into Anfield and that too just when they had ruthlessly beaten my team seven nil, just a week ago in the same battlefield of Mersey side? Impossible, I said to myself but then I remembered Lennon’s lines…

Imagine there are no countries (teams)
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people, living life in peace.

And I boarded the bus to Anfield, got off and took that One Small Step for Man and a Giant Leap for Mankind. Then I told myself, ok I will see the stadium but not take a tour inside for sure, John please don’t mind. Is it not good enough that I am here and now seeing the huge stadium before me? The statue of the legend Bill Shankly seemed to spread his arms wide and trying to say, Son You’ll Never Walk Alone. 

I stood before The Champions Wall and it sure looked impressive… this is a great place to be and I forgot all the rivalries in my head and began enjoying the place. 

Found myself in the gift shop and even picked a couple of stuff including refrigerator magnets and a small ball for a friend’s son who loved kicking the ball. The kids’ corner was the most fascinating and the best part was that the toddlers insisted on wearing the club clothing even before the parents had paid for them. No wonder each kid, when he or she grows up, is an absolute die-hard fan of the club…never to change colours. When it comes to colours, you need to be extra careful of what you are wearing...Red or Blue..for this is also the town that houses another famous English club, Everton who too have their fans. Since you are a tourist, my daughter had told me, do not wear either of the colours for who knows which street belongs to the Red Gang or the Blue Gang...stay safe, enjoy the trip Dad.

All check boxes ticked, I looked at my itinerary once again…oops… I had missed the Beatles statues at the Merseyside. Hopped off the bus and then took a long walk back and, finally, got my picture of the day standing beside the larger than life size statues of the Liverpool Boys who will always and always remain my idols and their songs the best ever…. No Prince or Queen matters.

And for the places I wrote about in the beginning of the long walk around the famous city, here are the facts. Penny Lane happens to be in the outskirts of Liverpool. So Penny Lane where ‘all the people that come and go, stop and say Hello was out of bounds for me. Happy though that M managed to  see it on her trip five years ago. Then there was the Strawberry Fields which used to be an orphanage and is now the HQ of the Salvation Army in Liverpool. Missed that too. And, finally, Abbey Road happens to be a place in London where there is a studio and the picture of the Beatles crossing this road featured on the cover of an album released in 1969. So there are still mysteries unexplored for another tour. Will do it, maybe ‘When I’m Sixty Four!’

With a loads of happy memories of places visited, things seen and experienced, I boarded my train to ‘Get Back’ to London.  So ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ and having enjoyed ‘Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’, I knew for sure that I would sleep well tonight watching ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.’

SS