Site content © Roopa Farooki 2014
Extras
…But here, in Oxford, it’s different,” Jim said thoughtfully. “Haven’t you noticed, Omar? Here, no-one quite belongs, and no-one is quite themselves. They’re all big fish from little ponds and they don’t know what to do now they’re not special any more. They’re all playing a part – pretending to be clever, pretending to be best friends with people they met a few weeks ago, pretending to care about all the twee Oxfordy stuff like the Union and rowing and stripy scarves and crap like that, just to fit in.”
Omar felt chastened, and relieved at the same time; he’d been wallowing in his complexes and melancholy, and yet here was Jim blithely saying that everyone shared the same disease as him…As Jim got up, Omar couldn’t resist asking him, out of pure self-interest, “So what do you think you do, if you don’t want to play a part, if you just want to be yourself?”
Jim smiled naughtily, “You do the only honest, sincere thing that an Oxford student can do,” he said, gesturing towards the moonlit buildings beyond Omar’s turret window, “You admire the bloody architecture.”
(Bitter Sweets © Roopa Farooki 2007, first published 2007 by Pan Macmillan)
Omar Rashid Khan: By my second year in college, I finally had the tour thing down to a fine art; it’s a good balance of places that people have heard of and want to visit, and the places that no one has heard of, but are actually quite fun to visit. I start off at New College, and take people around all the quads and the garden, then the cloisters, and for a final treat, to the chapel; sometimes you can hear the choir preparing for evensong. Then we head off down towards Broad Street, popping into the Turf Tavern or the Kings Arms for a quick brew, and passing the Radcliffe Camera and the Bod on the way. Then it’s a visit to Christchurch College, and a stroll through Christchurch Meadows, pointing out the college boathouse, and coming out at the other side of the Meadows, where you can go to Magdalen and the deer park, or to the Botanic Gardens. And then you stop for tea in a crowded café and have chips (if you’re with blokes) or brownies (if you’re with girls).
If mates stay for the evening, we tend to hang out at the college bar, have a drink in a pub on the way to one of the clubs a bit further out of town, do a spot of clubbing, and head back to New College via the Broad Street Kebab van. It’s a good little tour, I’ve done it loads of times and still enjoy it; although to be fair you don’t need any insider knowledge to enjoy wandering around Oxford; just walk out anywhere and admire the bloody architecture, as my mate Jim would say.
Omar felt chastened, and relieved at the same time; he’d been wallowing in his complexes and melancholy, and yet here was Jim blithely saying that everyone shared the same disease as him…As Jim got up, Omar couldn’t resist asking him, out of pure self-interest, “So what do you think you do, if you don’t want to play a part, if you just want to be yourself?”
Jim smiled naughtily, “You do the only honest, sincere thing that an Oxford student can do,” he said, gesturing towards the moonlit buildings beyond Omar’s turret window, “You admire the bloody architecture.”
(Bitter Sweets © Roopa Farooki 2007, first published 2007 by Pan Macmillan)
Omar Rashid Khan: By my second year in college, I finally had the tour thing down to a fine art; it’s a good balance of places that people have heard of and want to visit, and the places that no one has heard of, but are actually quite fun to visit. I start off at New College, and take people around all the quads and the garden, then the cloisters, and for a final treat, to the chapel; sometimes you can hear the choir preparing for evensong. Then we head off down towards Broad Street, popping into the Turf Tavern or the Kings Arms for a quick brew, and passing the Radcliffe Camera and the Bod on the way. Then it’s a visit to Christchurch College, and a stroll through Christchurch Meadows, pointing out the college boathouse, and coming out at the other side of the Meadows, where you can go to Magdalen and the deer park, or to the Botanic Gardens. And then you stop for tea in a crowded café and have chips (if you’re with blokes) or brownies (if you’re with girls).
If mates stay for the evening, we tend to hang out at the college bar, have a drink in a pub on the way to one of the clubs a bit further out of town, do a spot of clubbing, and head back to New College via the Broad Street Kebab van. It’s a good little tour, I’ve done it loads of times and still enjoy it; although to be fair you don’t need any insider knowledge to enjoy wandering around Oxford; just walk out anywhere and admire the bloody architecture, as my mate Jim would say.