THE NEXT STATION IS OVAL - Part 1

'The next station is Oval' - the announcement on the tube was the one that I was used to for several years now. And as was my habit, I opened my bag to put back my copy of The Economist. Nothing unusual about that - but that, it was rather unusual. Though I had my copy of The Economist and even as I read articles and flipped the pages, my mind was elsewhere. There was a sense of surrealism about that day, that travel, that announcement - which, on that day, seemed to have a ring of finality about it, a definiteness, a finiteness. And it had to be - that was my last day with WaterAid after over a decade working and operating out of itsVauxhall office. 

As I got out of the tube, that one last time when I would go up on the escalator as a WaterAid employee and out of the tube station, I glanced at the 'Thought of the Day' at the Oval station, the plants, the books and stepped out to a rather bright and warm summer day. And as I started making my way, slowly, and a tad reluctantly to my last day with WaterAid, I thought of that rather cold and grim February morning of 2005 when I landed at Heathrow to join the London office of WaterAid after my one month induction with the Delhi office. I had a small temporary accommodation arranged by my colleague Oliver Jones at Wimbledon. By that afternoon, I was making my way to Vauxhall, having boarded the Waterloo bound South West trains to Vauxhall, walked up to the Prince Consort House to report. And what a journey it had been since then !

Crossing the pedestrian crossing at the main entrance to the historic Oval cricket stadium, I walked past it, and glanced to peer through the gates to see the lush outfield and the pitch, which was covered - again, a routine that I had got used to. And today, I knew I will be missing this walk past the iconic cricket stadium !

There was so much that I did during this decade that I had not done before. With a canvas stretching across sub Saharan Africa and South Asia, I had the remit of 22 countries, all of which I had the privilege of visiting (except Lesotho) at least once, and in some cases, 4-5 times. I had travelled to our offices in America, Australia and Sweden. I had also visited Timor Leste which was managed by our Australian office. In addition, work had taken me to Mexico, Belgium, Switzerland and Portugal. I was travelling to most of these countries for the first time, but more importantly, I had the opportunity to travelling to the interiors of many of those countries and see the real country, going beyond the state capital, a true lesson in culture and people and history. I had probably logged over a million miles in the air during this period and thousands of miles on road and some miles even by boats, not to forget the unique experience of travelling by a sea plane in Bangladesh  !

I had done some extra ordinary things - meeting the Presidents of Mali and Liberia, senior ministers in most of the African and Asian countries I had visited, civil society leaders, heads of international organisations, senior corporate leaders. I had the opportunity of meeting Prince Charles on three occasions, and seated next to him for a dinner on one occasion. I had met the Queen in the Buckingham Palace, and been to a garden party as well at the Palace. I had spoken at the UN on two occasions and on one of them, I had shared the panel with the Secretary General himself. I had met several tribal chiefs in some African countries. I also had some interactions with some celebrities and sports stars. All these were part of my regular work. 

Never before had I done a TV interview and here I was, being interviewed by CNN in their studios, live, during prime time news. And then there were others with BBC World and Sky as well to follow (one with Al Jazeera did not materialise !). There were many others, including an interview in Johnnesburg in the studios of SABC TV and a live radio show in Liberia. 

(To be concluded......)