Diversity of London

Anyone who has been to London would quickly agree with the assertion that it is extremely diverse. Walking the streets and through the parks of this city I've noticed that interracial marriage is nearly as common as same-race marriage. England does a fantastic job accommodating all of the different cultural backgrounds and life styles. For example, I've never had to worry about how I'm going to get a meatless meal. I have yet to eat at a restaurant that doesn't have a vegetarian menu. That's right, a full menu. There's usually even options for those who are have allergies to gluten.

Southall is a suburb in West London which is mainly a South Asian residential district. It's like a "Little India". As soon as we climbed off of the train I could smell the strong spice in the air. The smell of Indian food seems to stick onto your clothes in a matter of seconds. While there are still some Christian churches, like this super old one, most of the buildings reflect religions such as Sikh, Hindu, and Muslim. 
This is a Gurdwara, a Sikh temple. It is one of the largest (if not the largest) outside of India. It is open to anyone and everyone, so we shuffled in to the bottom floor where we entered into a sort of giant mudroom. There were rows and rows of wooden cubby holes, and big baskets filled with scarves. These scarves were intended to cover your head. There are two requirements for entering a Sikh temple: cover your head and take off your shoes. This shows respect to Vahe Guru, which it their title for God.
After figuring out how to keep our scarves in place, we left our shoes in cubbies and walked into a spacious room. From there we followed a large arched staircase to a huge white room. It was plain except for the colorful shrine centered on the far side of the room. It looked like a seat fit for a Maharaja, complete with a person fanning the area with a white fluffy thing called a Chaur sahib. But there was no king or prophet in the seat. It was a book. Interesting, huh?

Practicing Sikhs come at least once a day (they are asked to attend twice a day) to the Gurdwara. Each person walks reverently down the isle, bows to the book, offers a coin or two, and then backs away to one side to sit and meditate. They never turn their backs on the book. While most people get down on hands and knees to touch their head to the floor, we students simply bent down far enough to touch the floor with our fingertips before going to sit cross-legged on the left side. But even the oldest people with canes got down, all the way, until their foreheads touched the blue carpet before the shrine. I even saw a two-year-old, placed on all fours by his parents, who knew exactly what to do. He touched his forehead to the ground before reaching a chubby hand up to the golden table to try to grab at some coins.

Here is my tray of food.  Any Gurdwara in the world is open to anyone coming in for a free meal.  This is possible because of the tithing that the members pay.  They believe that eating meat is a sin, so I wasn't too worried when we went down for a cultural lunch.  Receiving the food was much like what I've seen in cafeteria scenes in movies.  The lady in the hairnet turns over the ladle to let brownish green sludge plop onto your plate with a sickening splat.  It smelled strong and didn't look appealing.  Some of the girls refused to even eat it.  Trying to be more open minded, I tried everything.  And actually- it was all really good!  I loved it!

I think the Sikh religion is very interesting, and the people are so dedicated. It was an amazing experience.

There was more to see in Southall, including some Hindu temples such as this one:
They had many idols and didn't bother with being quiet about it.  All of their figures wore smiles and the colors were all so bright.  We didn't need to cover our heads in these temples but we were still asked to remove our shoes.

We went to an Indian restaurant for dinner where we tried many different kinds of dishes.  The food was so spicy that my eyes kept watering.  But I liked everything I tasted.  Hearing Indian music in the streets and Bollywood stores was fun, and several girls got Indian henna (which is much different than what we got in Mexico City last year).  It was an eye-opening experience.  Who knew I'd be experiencing a completely foreign culture without leaving London.