The New Year--2026

We drove to Leicester on the last day of 2025, to bring in the new year. The dinner we had was from an Indian restaurant, one of the many places in Leicester that cater to Oriental palates. The spread was very good, but the cost was. very reasonable, all things considered. Naturally, the booze kept flowing, and it was well after midnight when we finally called it a day.

The first day of the year saw us drive in to town for another taste of Indian food. We landed up at a restaurant named Chennai Dosai and gorged ourselves on all the goodies on offer--dosais, oothapams, poories, pongal, vadais, channa baturas, and coffee. The taste was similar to what is served in India, but there was a little blandness to everything.

The road on which the restaurant is located was littered with Indian shops of every kind, including paan. Walking down the road, I couldn't help thinking that I was in Little India--the sidewalks were "littered" with rubbish and the area generally dirty by English standards. I guess we take our luggage with us wherever we go. And then it came to me that my own Veteran Lines was referred to as "Little England" well into the 1970s. But now the Lines have become not very pucca.

Driving back to Nottingham, I came across a "New College" in Leicester too. Another reminder of home, for me, at least. That, and other things, reminded me that the world has shrunk, much more than we imagine.

If the Bard said that all the world's a stage, he could never have imagined an Indian cast providing much of the action. So, three cheers to great, big India.

A happy new year to all of you.