Is London safe for Indians?

This year's Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, focusing on young artists, is fabulous.

"When the Royal Academy was founded in 1768, one of its key objectives was to establish an annual exhibition, open to all artists of merit, which could be visited by the public," according to the history of an organisation that is as British as Chicken Tikka Masala.

"The first Summer Exhibition took place in 1769. It has been held every year since without exception," we are told.

It was not cancelled during Hitler's Blitz of London, the IRA's bombing of mainland Britain and lately attacks by home-grown terrorists.

But before I go on to describe this year's Summer Exhibition, let me ask the most obvious question: is it safe for Indians to come to London?

"I don't feel unsafe," I am assured by Sharmila Tagore.

She says that "people are talking about it (the security situation) on television, there are a few more policemen about but I have been to the movies, I've been shopping for food. What happened here could happen anywhere."

Restaurant owner and movie producer Rohit Khattar responded: "Why not? Life goes on."

Head of Cipla Yusuf Hamied asks: "Tell me which place in the world is safe? When you open an Indian newspaper, 40 per cent of the news is about rape or so and so killing so and so."

He seeks a clearer definition of "terrorism".

"To me attacking Iraq is terrorism," he declares. "The West attacking Libya is terrorism. The Americans are fighting Islamic State but selling arms worth $100 billion to Saudi Arabia which is funding Islamic State. It is difficult to define terrorism."

As a family we tend to use London Bridge all the time. The one restaurant we frequent more than any other in adjacent Borough Market is Black & Blue, where the three terrorists carried out a murderous attack before being shot dead.

The restaurant and indeed much of Borough Market was still cordoned off when we looked last week.

Redefining art

•“This is the 248th Summer Exhibition,” Tim Marlow, artistic director of the Royal Academy, tells us at the press preview.

"Every year we celebrate the fact this is the longest running open submission exhibition in the world," he points out. "Next year we celebrate our 250th birthday."

This year out of 12,500 works of art which were submitted, fewer than 1,100 were selected for display - I found only two Indians, Professor Dhruv Mistry and Shanti Panchal.

This year the lead curator and co-ordinator of the exhibition is Eileen Cooper, the keeper of the Royal Academy schools, who says she wanted "inclusivity in terms of geography, culture, cross-generational. I also wanted to have inclusivity in terms of art practice. I wanted to ignore the sort of rules where you are only supposed to hang painting next to painting. And photography is ghettoised. Works under glass should be shown separately. I wanted to mix it all up."

Planning has already started for next year, says Edith Devaney, the Royal Academy's curator of contemporary projects.

"We will be looking at the history of the Summer Exhibition in some detail (and) think very hard about the future of the Summer Exhibition - to get into shape for the next 250 years, to look towards the younger artists, diversify and acknowledge that the nature of art is changing. People are working in very different mediums," she emphasises.

She points out: "Immediately you come into the exhibition the first work you encounter is a well-known artist from Benin (a French-speaking West African nation), Romuald Hazoumè, which is all to do with the political situation between Nigeria and Benin. It's a bike with vessels carrying petrol on the black market - and it sets the tone for the exhibition."

Tiger country

• Rosa King, 33, a devoted keeper at Hamerton Zoo Park in Cambridgeshire, was savaged to death by a tiger on May 22.

The zoo has four tigers, including two white Bengal tigers. The one responsible has not been identified. But following a public campaign, the zoo has confirmed the killer won't be put down - a decision "fully supported" by the keeper's family.

Right degree

• Lord Swraj Paul, who did his BSc and MSc but "didn't finish" his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is delighted MIT has been named "the world's leading university for a record sixth consecutive year" in the QS World University Rankings 2018.

"Makes you feel good," he says.

Tittle tattle

• Traffic wardens will be traffic wardens. Since they are on commission, they spotted an opportunity and slapped £130 fines on cars abandoned by fleeing motorists in London Bridge last week. Transport for London later cancelled the fines and apologised for the "insensitive mistake".