Manish Bhai and Poonam Bhabhi

As much as I am new to London, I am also new to the concept of sharing a house. In London although, it is a very common concept as I understand, more so with the Indians who come to London for a short period or for saving enough money to take back to India or spend it in sightseeing around Europe.

Before I came from India, Ashish had already hunted for a suitable house where we would share the Kitchen and Living room with another couple. The couple Manish Bhai and Poonam Bhabhi, both Gujaratis and staying in London for about 2+ years now, originally from Tanzania are about almost the same age as Ashish and me. Poonam Bhabhi is here on an HSMP visa and Manish bhai is on a dependent Visa. Poonam Bhabhi is basically from Mumbai.

Although I was very apprehensive about the whole concept of sharing the house with strangers it really did not take me too long to adjust. Both of them went out of their way to make us feel comfortable and we hit quite easily. Manish Bhai is a very nice person with a sense of humour that can put you to worry sometime. Poonam Bhabhi is a also a very good person and is very easy to get along.

In fact our first Outing in London (as a family -since I include Ashish here) was at their insistence and their outgoing nature. It so happened that although my visit to London was planned in a way so that we could go around the city and see the Christmas decorations etc, we became quite apprehensive about the whole thing considering that we would have to carry around Dhairya and also that it was quite cold outside.

We did not then have a push chair for Dhairya and it would only be easier with a push chair. Hence we decided to stay indoors. When Manish Bhai learnt about this he suggested outright, that we borrow the Push chair from his sister who had a small daughter and join them for the outing. He was as nice as one can get, he took Ashish with him to his Sister's place in his car, got the Push chair and made sure that we were comfortable.

The outing about which I will be writing in the coming blogs, was a once in a lifetime experience. Thanks to the kind couple that we actually had the pleasure of seeing around the beautiful parts of London.

And then there are so many other incidents that I would like to recollect and add here but the lack of time is just a reason for my laziness. But in all, I would just again like to mention that all the experiences with Manish bhai and Poonam bhabhi are only making us better friends. Maybe that we are developing contacts for a life time.