With Lord Paul at the London Zoo

July 3, 2016: I landed in London today. London is one of my favourite cities. I love the weather here. I am staying at the Taj St James. This season, as always, I find so many Indians in London and also in the this hotel. I met Asish Saraf and Sumit Majumdar at the hotel’s lobby.

In the afternoon I went to the ZSL London Zoo at Regent’s Park to attend a reception hosted by Lord Swraj Paul and his wife Lady Aruna Paul. I had attended this memorial quite a few times in the past.

It is an annual event which Lord Paul hosts over tea in memory of his daughter Ambika who died of leukaemia in 1968 at the tender age of four. Lord Paul had set up a charitable foundation Ambika Paul Foundation in her memory that very year. A section of the zoo is named Ambika Paul Children’s Zoo in her memory. This year a special tribute was paid to Lord Paul’s late son Angad who died in his youth in November 2015.

I met a number of people at the memorial including Mohini Noon, wife of late Lord Gulam Noon, the Indian High Commissioner to UK, Navtej Sarna and others. I also got a chance to chat up with with former Prime Minister (2007 – 2010) of Britain, James Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah Jane Brown. While in New York, I found that Brexit was a hot topic of discussion everywhere. The weather here today was beautiful and it got a little cooler in the evening. I went to the Regent Park to catch up with few friends who were having a picnic there.

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