Camden market on a sunny Saturday

The radio and newspapers ( remember, we don't have a TV these days ) were full of how the English Summer has been a let down -and they are not speaking of the weather alone. They are talking of a 'summer of discontent' ,mainly referring to England failing to make a mark in football's EURO 2004,in rugby,in the NatWest Cricket one day international series (against West Indies and New Zealand) and to Tim Henman making his exit from yet another Wimbledon quarterfinal.

For me this was not an issue. I came to London after being in Delhi in the month of May.So the question which kept going through my mind was - forget discontent ,where is the the summer in the first place ?!! 

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I saw clear blue skies and the sun shining last Saturday.One of the nice things about London is that it has many markets to explore.We decided to start with Camden Market. If you take a bus ride to Camden, the sudden change in  atmosphere as the 'feel' of the cityscape changes is sure to take you by surprise. Rows of regular,dull Victorian houses are suddenly interrupted by  block upon block of brightly coloured houses and shops with funky signboards. And when I say bright I mean - as bright as purple, pink and an almost red! Glorious!

Then we entered one of the many markets which are located in the Camden area-the Camden stables. One of the many entrances to this market was marked by a makeshift stall where an African -Caribbean guy was selling orange juice,which reminded me of the numerous fruit juice centres in Jayanagar market in Bangalore. You know ,where they pick the fruit in front of you and give it to you in a glass filled with juice! We picked up a glass of lime juice and made our way in.

To our right was a row of eateries offering a various cuisines-Italian,Moroccan,Thai, Chinese,Indian,American,Indonesian,Cuban andLebanese(Please note that most of the stalls were run by people who seemed to be from the far east with a pronounced far-east kinda accent- so there was north Indian cuisine served by a group of people ,I could swear ,were from Thailand!! Kinda stuff Pico Iyer would gladly write about if he wrote a revised edition of his book 'The Global Soul').

Anyway, it is quite a spread,isn't it? But if you are a vegetarian like me, then you start looking at this with slight suspicion- but I am happy to say that there was considerable choice for the veggies too. So, I had falafel and couscous. Both were not great, mainly because it was not spicy.Anyway,Aj says his food was top-notch-hmmm.....sigh.....the story of my life :-))

Over the next 3-4 hours we were there, we accquired- a second hand book( autobiography of Malcolm X), a CD of Cuban music ( Compay Segudo's 'La Coleccion Cubana'), a bracelet made of wood and a simple trinket (for me) and a plan to come back to numerous shops to pick up assorted paintings,furniture,gifts for Shyls/mom/aunt/uncle/friends and other collectibles. And for the record ,all this was not expensive- and I of course, mean that by London standards! 

One of the shops which caught our attention was a furniture shop called Jarabosky-  specializing in making furniture out of original railway sleepers- the furniture had immense character and was made out of wood which had already been cut many years ago to make railway sleepers( 'from Europe and South Africa'-we were informed by the kind elderly lady who described the entire process to us).    

Shops selling Indian stuff seemed to be a big hit too - most of the stuff seemed to be from the Kutch region of Gujarat, characterised by bright motifs, mirror work, patch work clothes and chunky silver jewellery. It brought back memories of my last job where I used to be in Bhuj almost every month (till four months back) working with the survivors of the earthquake which hit the region in 2001.

I wonder how the craftsmen/women who made the stuff would feel if they knew their work is being displayed and sold at the Camden Stables  of Camden Market in London.......
More later.