Enroute India - flashback

The Kickoff
It was June 12th already - the day I was supposed to fly to India for the second time in 3 years....

Come to think of it I should have been more regular in visiting my homeland - the place where I was born and brought up, the place where I learnt all the ways of life, the place that trained me in accomplishing what I accomplished outside of its peripheries. But then I guess these things come in a package – you gain some, you loose some! The convenience of pursuing your 'higher education’ at the professed Land of Opportunity with a totally laid-back, independent life comes without a bonus trip to desh year on year.

As always, I was slacking the whole morning and finally got my act together as the clock hit noon. I was going about my daily chores as if it were one of those numerous Saturdays when the virtual crack of dawn occurs around noon, brunch turns into a makeshift lunch and shower is only taken if we r 'going out' (n shave if we goin birdwatching ;))

It wasn't indeed one of those days- it was supposed to be so different! I had to finish up my packing, get ready, make a few phone calls and finally leave for the airport. J came back from D's place, having helped her finish up her packing and even he was surprised to see my state. “Doesn’t look like you are leaving for India.
At first I thought that J's was a biased opinion as he must have been comparing my situation with D. Hers was a different case as she was leaving Cincinnati for good and so obviously had tons of things to take care of. But when even A pointed out, I kinda felt the need to hurry up. I did ‘hurry up’ leisurely and finished up my stuff around 1.
Finally it looked like everything was set – had finished up my packing, had called up T-mobile for suspension of service and even AmEx about the possibility of using my card in India (the chances of which were flimsy with a 'graduate student-like' credit balance!).
I still had a weird feeling that I was missing something but then it wasn't the first time; I feel that way every morning when I leave for work.
Well who would have thought that I was going to forget such an important thing?

The Big Farewell
So the stage was set; I was leaving for India and so was D. It would be generously modest of me to say that the BIG farewell crew came to see D off (as she was leaving Cinti for good). Not taking anything away from her, she had already bid adieu to most of her friends and only a couple of her friends had actually not left Cinti b4 her.
So anyway, we had three cars available but courtesy Japanese car manufacturers we were able to fit ourseleves and the luggage in just two. What more even Di (not to be confused with D!), M and K could come along. We reached the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport without much fuss and checked in timely. J was also leaving for California around the same time, but since mine n D's was an International flight we ran straight for the security check. Much to the delight of my fellow passenger, J joined us within minutes and we headed towards our concourse. Our flight got delayed and that gave the happy couple some more time together. Finally it was time for J to board and after an emotional au revoir we walked towards our gate.
I already was feeling wearied and the actual travel was yet to begin. After a seemingly long wait we boarded the airliner. This is going to be much better than my first Int'l flight I thought (when I made sure that everybody around knew that it was my first!). D and I talked a lot during the flight to Paris. Even though we were in the same city for the last few months we had not talked in good order and this was our day! All stews were forgotten and thank god for that.

Paris – the place full of pretty faces
French beauties stand out and believe me they do! We landed at approximately 10.00 am local time, our flight was obviously running late and that saved us a couple of hours of agonizing wait for the connecting flight. D suggested that we go explore the airport (afterall we were in Paris!) After a committed session of window shopping, we finally bought souvenirs – small (shot) glasses with Eiffel tower prints. By then, even D was tired and we decided to be back to our gate.
You realize the importance of somebody’s company only if you have travelled alone. Time just zips by when you have a familiar face or a pretty stranger to talk to.
We boarded the connecting flight and it was so much similar to the one we took on our way to Paris. There was, however, only one thing missing – comfort!! Two lil spoiled brats were sitting right behind us and for some reason they had decided to play kick boxing with our chairs. A couple of times we turned back and passed 'scary' glares but they seemed pretty keen on making us pay for buying tickets before them. Even then somehow we managed to flake out!
A solid blow woke me up and I checked the screen to find that there were about two more hours to destination. No point trying to sleep I thought since the fiends were back in action! I found out quickly that they were impartial when even D got the same treatment.
Anyways, as we approached Delhi D could no longer hold back her excitement. Not only was she returning to India after two years, it was her wedding trip home! A wedding which was on the cards since the Freshers’ Party of first year of engineering - 7 years back!
After going through the Immigration counters we collected our luggage and headed towards the Customs. I didn't have any 'electronics' on me and was walking with my head held high. Even though D had a DVD player, we decided to chance the GREEN channel and guess what it worked.

Delhi Airport – effusion n confusion!
There was a huge gathering of people outside, waiting to receive their near and dear ones and D quickly spotted her father and brother in the crowd. She obviously couldn’t stop her outburst and went boohoo hoo…
I was very sure that somebody should be coming in to receive me. So I looked around for familiar faces but all in vain. I thought maybe they could not make it and decided to wait with D & co. and take the flight to Bangalore @ 6.
After conversing for some time I thought of calling up Dad and at least informing him that I have landed in India. I did have my Uncle’s number stored in my laptop but then since he had not turned up I sagely decided not to ‘disturb’ them. When I called up dad he told me that my uncle(s) were waiting for me outside! By outside dad meant outside the restricted area, but since I had already looked around on the inside, I thought he meant 'outside' as in outside the airport. So I put my luggage back in the cart and took the exit. It was a royal PITA trying to walk in the crowd with that much luggage but then it was going to be a matter of minutes before I would have gotten help. Apparently not! Couldn't find em anywhere.
The first thing that crossed my mind after that was to come back inside the air conditioned zone. Once inside, I saw a STD PCO and called up the only number I remembered - the number i used to call most often! Smart me, it was their landline and I ended up waking up Mami at that late hour. She gave me the correct number and confirmed that they WERE waiting for me at the airport. By that time even dad had informed my uncle that I have reached and he was furious about the fact that I chose to call up dad and not him; when the reality was that I was trying to avoid taking my laptop out in public and looking for the 'correct' phone numbers.
After a series of explanations, I succeeded in (partially) convincing my Uncle. We squeezed my luggage into the ultra-compact maruti (boy does maruti look tiny after driving the likes of impala, camry) and made our way to the local residence. It was around 12.30 am when we finally arrived at my Uncle’s place and I had my first go at Indian delicacies right there right then. After hungrily gulping down the bowl of kheer, I could not deny an offer of hot coffee and that kept our session of conversation alive till about 2 am when mami advised me to catch some sleep as I had an early flight to catch next day. My body clock had been badly played with and I simply laid there, tossing n turning for a couple of hours. At 5.30 am I was ready to leave and my mama promptly dropped me at the domestic airport. Jet Airways was kind enough to not charge me for the extra luggage and I took the two hour long flight to Bangalore. For the first time in 3 years I enjoyed some desi hospitality and it was so nicely different from Videshi flights- fresh neebu paani for drinks and parathas for breakfast!
Finally I reached Bangalore and nothing else could make me feel more like a celebrity than receiving a rose and a welcome card from the Bangalore airport staff. I collected myself and my luggage up and headed straight for the exit – my India trip was about to begin…

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If u have been an attentive reader, you would want to know a couple of things before I end this ...First the characters of my story: D - Deepali, J - Jayant, A - Abhay, Di - Dipti, K - Kris and finally M - Manjiri. Second ...what was the important thing that I missed to carry with me to India...Could you try and match my idiocy?!?!?!...I bought tonnes of choclates (everybody knows that choclates are the most famous gifts in India) and safely stored them in the refrigerator for my roomates to enjoy after I had left. So much for the shallow pride of being on top of things aLwaYS!!

Our beloved MEN IN BLUE

Once I read somewhere that 'Consistency is the last resort of an unimaginative person'. This is the best positive statement I could come up with, when thinking of our Indian cricket team...They indeed are imaginative, for they can think of new and improved ways of letting us down!

Ok. Let's face the facts - not every team in the world can be number one ...atleast we are in the top 10/12 cricket playing nations in the world. But the sunny story ends there! We are close to being 7th in the ICC ODI rankings, which will barely keep us above England (who I thought were doing pretty good; apparently not!) and the minnows Zimb, Bang and Kenya.

Well, had the problem been with skill level it probably wouldn't hurt as much....some countries are just plain rich in talent...and that's a fact ...But the reaL problem is IN THE MIND... It's the mental toughness that's missing! On paper we have one of the strongest teams in the world - players like Tendulkar, Dravid, Sehwag, Laxman, Yuvraj are immensely talented BUT when they step into the arena, they somehow manage to look ordinary.

The true supporter that I am, after India's historic test victory in SA I refuse to write any further!!

P.S. Inspiration unlimited - ODI series drubbing