Milton Keynes

Today at lunch I was talking to Mia and John when I mentioned that I had stayed in Milton Keynes for some time. John asked me whether it was an industrial city and I immediately started explaining them that it was not and that it is a very special town in England. Anybody could have thought that I was putting forth a sales pitch on behalf of the city municipality about how wonderful the place is.

I had really enjoyed my days in Milton Keynes and I remembered them after a long time. The lake, the boulevards, the lonely streets in winter, Lido, XScape, easycinema, the municipal library - all of them came back to my mind in a flash. The town has a pristine church, where they have regular Sunday mass. Neatly dressed people start coming in in pairs and groups, rarely alone, and assemble in the square in front of the church. In the summer we used to have a cute, little fair on such Sundays with colorful kiosks selling varieties of sundries. Surprisingly, I have never noticed any shop selling edibles, other than the regular 'Breakfast on Wheels' van selling cold sandwitches, hot dogs and of course fish and chips. I found it funny when I learnt that in England you call pommes frites as chips, and what we call potato chips as crisps.

Milton Keynes is the only pre-planned town in England, where the government had taken out land from the wilds and converted it into a dwelling place. I think it was primarily done to take the pressure of population off from the northern suburbs of England. But due to its unusual origin, the town has some distinct features. For one, all private houses in MK look exactly alike. All the roads in the city are boulevards. The town is also remarkably bicycle and disability friendly. The municipality has strong community support for older people and disturbed youth. I had very strange experiences as a volunteer in the youth programme. It is surprising to know that how much more difficult it is for a girl to grow up even in a first world country than it is for a boy.

Let me put a few images of MK from my old repository of photographs.

This is the house I stayed in MK.

The Mall.

The Lake.

This friend of mine cooks fantastic Biriyani.

Saalon! Talli log!!!