Anecdote #51

We got an entirely free day! On Sunday we got the freedom to explore Cambridge ourselves. 
In the morning we began with shopping for our family. Cambridge is typically not a place for shopping but it had some boutique brands which are not easily  available in India. 
In the summer a lot of the stores provide stupendous discounts. Taking advantage of this we spent generously and bought quite a few goodies.
Although it had only been a week in Cambridge, home food was something I missed dearly. I was determined to hunt down an Indian restaurant today and eat there. Fortunately, there was one in Regent Street called, “Tiffin Truck.” I am delighted to say that the food was pretty authentic and all of us Indians wiped our plates clean.
Subsequently we went for a stroll on Regent street. We spotted Downing College and went inside to check it out. It was absolutely mesmerising with expansive gardens and romanesque architecture. Personally my it was favourite college in Cambridge. There was also an exhibition going on there by a Japanese artist called Yoko. It was a unique experience for us and the people showing us around were really warm. At the end of the display there was a tree where we were supposed to tie a tag with a wish written on it. I was very fascinated with this and wrote down a one as a memory.
Regent street was a long walk from Magdalene College from where our programme ran. We desperately some rest after our morning adventures. 
The closest option was to sit down on the vibrant and grassy grounds of Trinity Garden. This was modelled on the same lines as Jesus Gardens, covering a huge area endowed with greenery. It was the ideal place to rest. Although every thing was going well that day, including the food, shopping and surrounding something felt amiss. 
We had not seen Danny and there was a certain emptiness we felt upon being unable to meet him. Who do we make fun of now?  At who’s expense do we laugh now? 
We decided not to disturb him and reminisced the jokes we had cracked at his expense over the course of the last few days.
It was only the next day that we realised he was much worse off than us. Apparently he was at six hours at one pub whiling away time. The poor man was allergic to alcohol and hence he had to sip on hot chocolate as he had no alternative.
Like I said Danny’s antics never led us to believe that he was the Junior Dean. When he narrated the sad story of his Sunday we only laughed at his face.

Afterwards the next thing we decided to do was tour the prestigious campus of King’s College. 
We had been informed by our Programme Advisors that we should tell the porters of the college that we are prospective students to get free entry. This was imperative because the entry fee was twenty pounds. Naturally after all the money we had spent that day, the former option felt the most feasible. 
What we didn’t anticipate though was how the porter would behave with us. When we told him we were prospective students, which we quite evidently were (Why else would we come for a summer programme? ). Just to trouble us this man claimed he did not believe us and had the audacity to say “convince me.”
When he said those words my blood started boiling. I replied spontaneously, “You should convince us, we’ll be paying you money to study here.”
That seemed to sort him out because all of a sudden there was a shift in his attitude.
He too realised like the ladies from the Italian restaurant of the previous day that we weren’t afraid to speak up.

Suffice to say that the tour to King’s College didn’t go as expected. We had felt let down due to this experience. Yet we were not those kind of people who would let others ruin our happiness. After all we were Punjabis at heart.
 To brighten our mood we decided to head to Aromi. 
Aromi was hands down our most favourite place in Cambridge. It was introduced to me by my friend’s brother who had stopped in his tracks while he was giving a short tour of the City. He swore by their Gelato and said that he had never had anything quite like it before. Apart from the authentic Italian Gelato they offered many other amazing lip smacking Italian classics. Interestingly they had only one outlet in the whole of UK, in the heart of Cambridge. 
It’s safe to say he was absolutely right. The pistachio gelato which I ate loyally could never be matched by any other restaurant. We had been to other Italian cafes as well but the consistency, texture and taste of their Gelato was unmatched. It was as though the flavours in our mouths were right out of Italy.  
After gobbling up the delightful Gelatos our heads had cooled down and now we were only discussing how much we loved Aromi.

By the evening we were still facing the repercussions of having a heavy meal in the after noon and of course the after effects of our indulgence at Aroma. We could not eat a full meal again so I choose to have a hotpot soup at an Asian place called “Itsu.” It was just what I needed and now I was ready to hit the sack. 
As I lay in bed, I had a huge smile on my face because I was very pleased with the day I had. Apart from the laughs Manmeen, Urmeen and I were sharing experiences. Our friendship was getting stronger by the day but we did not feel so because the process happened organically and seamlessly. They were my home away from home. With them the bad days became good and I didn’t miss home as badly anymore.