I could see him from my second floor balcony. He was a black man in this early 50s, wearing a thin pullover to suit the mild-warm English summer. Apart from the silver chain around his thick neck that glimmered a bit from the bright sunlight, there was nothing to suggest that the man was endowed with reasonable wealth. His grey tracks that stopped a few inches above his ankles and the worn-out black sneakers suggested this even more.  Yet something about him suggested that he was serious about his dreams.

He was sitting at the park bench opposite to the waterfront (a small man made tributary drawn from the famed Thames) and staring at the brochure he must have picked up from the Royal Quay sales office.

The sales brochure was in all-color printed on high quality art paper alluring any prospective property owner to buy a piece of dream that is built on the East-end Docklands.

He did not seem to be reading this brochure. Rather he was simply staring at the pictures. At one point I could clearly see him stroke with right thumb a particular section of the map that said where he was sitting or where his dream house was located on the map. As he turned the pages more pictures of show apartments stared at him. He wasn’t smiling. He seemed a bit afraid, may be a little nervous to be precise, almost as if his mind was oscillating between reality and possibility.

About 10 minutes later he quietly stood up and made a small semi-circle around the waterfront and measured his steps towards the sales office. What happened after that I do not know. But I would like to believe that he decided to buy a house in the Royal Quay and someday I will bump into him in the elevator and say hello. He may nod back and not give a second thought about the stranger he just met in the elevator. And I will not tell him that he once shared his dream with me and am glad he secured his future and that of his children.

All this is possible. Reports in the media suggest that prices in the UK have now fallen to March 2005 levels. After all every dark cloud has a silver lining to it. And the cup sure is half full. All this if you wish to see it…