The FSA squad has grown very close over the past month or so. Traveling abroad for the beginning of our college experience has been a very unique experience and has created a strong bond between our small group of 13 young adults. In a majority of ways this closeness has been a very positive thing, however, it has definitely limited my interaction with people outside of our group. It has been all to easy to get socially complacent instead of being outgoing and meeting locals, students, or any of the unique brands of people inhabiting London. Anish Suri came to the FSA squad as a night in shining armor; saving us from the terrible fate of becoming recluse as a group and truly losing all touch with reality and life itself.
Our first encounter with Anish came during the YHA pub-crawl. Some credit must be given to Becca: Anish was a friend of hers from her days in Singapore now living in London and she was kind enough to introduce us to this wonderful man. Judging from my initial introduction to Anish I would never have expected to know anything about him other than the most basic knowledge of his existence. We said hello and exchanged names but before we could get any further we were whisked off to the next bar, Anish fading into the turbulent sea of bodies stretching far down the street. I didn’t see Anish again until the last stop on the crawl, a club by the name of KOKO. We ran into him entering the club and, against better fiscal judgment, bought some severely overpriced beers and went up to the lounge. Over our half pints of liquid bankruptcy we got to know Anish and found that he was a pretty cool dude.
Our second encounter with Anish came after we saw The Oresteia. Wanting to explore a new part of London we decided to meet up with our newfound buddy in Piccadilly Circus, which he aptly dubbed “the Times Square of London”. We explored this part of the city, or should I say we followed Anish around this part of the city for a while before settling into a bar of his recommendation. After a pint we headed back to the hostel and were lucky enough to have Anish accompany for an extravagant meal of cheesy fries, an YHA delicacy.
Our third and final encounter with Anish came on his last night in London before he had to head off to Edinburgh University. Of course, we were honored by his choice to spend his last night with us, despite the fact that we had only known each other for a very short time. The only problem with this was that we were spending the night in the hostel doing homework. Our grand finale with Anish ended up being our least exciting. We spent the majority of the night doing work before deciding to go to a pub right before closing time, just so Anish’s last night wasn’t a total bust.
This is the story of Anish, an unsuspecting fellow who stumbled into a group of wide-eyed college freshmen learning their way around a new city. He provided a breath of fresh air and a changed group dynamic, if only for a short period of time. In getting to know Anish I found that he plans to study abroad at Babson College. This college is a short drive from my hometown and one of my best friends is a freshman there this year. This being said I am hopeful that this will not be my last encounter with my newfound friend, Anish.
The man, the myth, the legend.
