Pray for me !

My travel to Paris in 2008 was quite a quiet one, not much work, planned well, had enough help and careful. But this time it was just the opposite. I still remember I wasn’t carrying a pen that time and it was really embarrassing looking for a pen. I sort of even decided to remember to carry a pen the next time I travel. You already knew, I didn’t take the pen this time as well. It is a well known truth that we shouldn’t make decisions when we are mad and it held well for me.


Remembering the last time I missed my flight to Chennai due to starting late, I decided to start as early as possible. For the domestic flight that starts at 21:40 from Bangalore to Mumbai, I had booked the cab at 16:30.


I left from the room at 16:40 along with Anandhan and UVK who accompanied me till the gate. The cab driver played on the way some real nice Raja songs.


Me: அருமையான பாட்டு, கேட்டு வருஷக் கணக்காயிடுச்சு (nice song, haven’t heard in ages)
Driver: எப்பவுமே நம்ப வண்டில ஓடி ட்டு தான் இருக்கும், அப்பப்போ வாங்க... எங்க ஸார் போறீங்க? (played daily in this vehicle, come once in a while, btw where are you going?)
Me: லண்டன் (London)
Driver: எவ்வளவு நாள் ஸார்? (for how long?)
Me: 2 மாசம் (2 months)
Driver: அங்க ஜெர்கின்லாம் நல்லா இருக்குமாமே ஸார், ஒண்ணு வாங்கிட்டு வாங்க மறக்காம.. (I heard jerkins will be really good, dont forget to get one sir)
Me: அய்யய்யோ, ஜெர்கின மறந்துட்டேன், வண்டிய திருப்புங்க.. (oops..I just forgot my jerkin at home, please turn back..)


I have always found it difficult to easily finish things those aren’t started well. So, I kind of felt the whole trip could go messy. And it was. When we are not confident in some thing, we mess it by trying to be over-cautious. 


It started with where we should go thro’ the immigration process. Even though I was sure that we’ll have to go thro immigration in international departure, I went to an Air India representative at the airport counter.


Me: Excuse me, I need some info. I’m travelling to London thro’ Mumbai via Air India. Do we     have to go thro’ immigration process here or in Mumbai?


Rep: Can I see your ticket, sir?


Me: Its here.


Rep: Sir, you are late for your flight. Boarding is about to start. Please get your boarding card now. You can go to counter no 41, 42 and 43.


Me: But the ticket says 21:40 is departure time.


Rep: Sir, the ticket says wrong time. Must be something wrong with the travel agency.


Me: How about the flight from Mumbai? Is that at least correct?


Rep: Oh, sorry sir. I thought you are going thro’ AI621. Your flight IC108 actually starts at 21:40 only sir.


Me: How about the check-in baggage?  Can I check-in for London directly?


Rep: You will have to collect your luggage and re-check-in in Mumbai. There is no direct check-in to London.


But the person who issued the boarding pass peacefully issued a direct check-in to London. Probably, the rep I had been contacting requires re-training. We got the boarding pass with the gate no. mentioned as 01. Gate 01 as it implies was the first gate and was in the left most corner. The TV was just there in which the T20 between India and South Africa was being telecast. It was 21:35 and the boarding hasn’t started in Gate 01. There were not even Air India staff. When I was wondering what the problem is, a security person approached me.


Security: Sir, are you travelling to Mumbai in IC108?


Me: Yes, waiting for the boarding to start.


Security: Sir, the boarding is almost over. They have just given the final call and waiting for you only sir.


Me: But the boarding pass says its Gate 01.


Security: Sorry sir, it has been moved to Gate 09.


I was supposed to spend 3 hours in transit in Mumbai. But I was late to board the flight. All the time was eaten in the check-in counter and the immigration queue. The passenger before me in the check-in counter was a student. The Air India rep in the counter had a tough time with the system to give him the boarding pass. She had to ask him to wait to clear the queue.


A very similar situation happened in the immigration queue as well. There was an immigration queue manager(?) who will make sure there will be 2 passengers per counter, one at it and the other behind. She asked me to go to counter 26 even though I didn’t want to since 27 was fast-moving and was about to be free. In 26, I was standing behind a person who had to finally say “கேள்வி கேக்குறது ரொம்ப ஈஸி மாமா, பதில் சொல்லிப் பாருங்க, எவ்வளவு கஷ்டம்னு தெரியும்..”(questioning is very easy, you will the difficulty only when you answer) to get his stamp.


I was quite relieved when the person before me didn’t hog during the security check. But my fate was at its worst, the moment I lifted my hands for frisking, the metal detector ran low battery and stopped working. Even the spare he had didn’t work. Finally he had to borrow one from the nearby guard to let me through. I was late for the flight by 10 minutes. But fortunately, the flight itself was late by half an hour.


If there was anything good it was the in-flight experience. I had a real good food and watched several movies Kandasamy, “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly” and a classic hindi cinema Gumrah. The songs' lyrics were really nice in Gumrah, at least the translated were good.


The immigration officer in London was very nice, she asked only simple questions and answered those questions herself. But she made me repeat “put the index finger-take it out” sequence for 3 times before telling me even that machine is not working fine. The 4th attempt succeeded and I was through.


I hope to have a smoother life onwards. But the first-day experience at work seems to guarantee continued struggle.


Pray for me !

B.Lit

This could well be considered as a follow-up to my previous post,  though a bit distant in time. As you all know, I have been longing to meet the kid and when he finally came to India, I couldn't be there to receive him since I was on my way to catch a flight to London from Mumbai. This travel to UK, even though just a normal process thousands of people go through everyday, it wasn't in fact a very smooth trip for me. Anyway, that experience deserves a separate post and those who want to know need to wait for some more time.


I was in Mumbai, on my way to the international terminal from the domestic, when my sister-in-law landed in the Coimbatore airport. We had a short fond chat as usual. I started with the usual how-was-your-journey questions and after the formalities I asked her "What have you brought from Australia for your brother-in-law?" looking to tease her for not taking any gifts, yeah I know she wouldn't have bought anything special for me since her trip was planned in very short time. But she responded with "புள்ளையக் கொண்டு வந்துருக்கேன் அங்கேர்ந்து, அத விட உங்களுக்கென்ன வேணும்?". 


I think only now she deserves that B.Lit degree she got years ago.


Sorry guys, those who don't read and/or understand Tamil, its time for you to look for help.

A Moment

I happened to have a chat with my bro in Australia after a long time. I asked him to upload some of his kid's photos. He doesn't like Picasa Web for some reason known only to him. So he uploaded those to his favorite Orkut. And I had been in hatred against office since then for blocking Orkut. And the non-sense Orkut doesn't allow to save those photos to my local system. Now I have to take screenshots and save them, hmm.. lots of work to do.


The second thing I did after reaching home was you-already-know-what-it-is. Of course the first thing was switching on my laptop. ;)

I haven't seen the boy in person yet since he is too far from me geographically. There were just about 45 photos. But it took me more than an hour to finish watching all those. I realized towards the end that my eye sight is not clear due to the fact that tears that were about to roll out obstructing the vision. It was something I didn't expect from me.

It is in that moment, I decided to write about that. At the least, it was one moment to be captured. It is almost the same as the time I saw his first-ever photos.

I saw his week old photos more than 3 months ago. He has grown(?) a lot cuter and prettier now. I'm loving the way he looks at the camera, smiles, cries and plays. 

Wow! after a very long time, I felt filled with positive energy ! 

Isn't watching a child grow make us feel so good and happy about living?

I still remember the good old days I made fun of Kadhal kottai movie's never-met-before-love or Koperunchozhan's never-met-before-friendship. Only now I realize so well that we dont have to meet to be in love. 

I just wish he is right here with me in my arms.. missing him a lot :-(

But the good news is that he's coming to India soon.. :-)

The Love thing

I never had the time or the inspiration to write a blog until now.

But having been thinking in not-my-usual way in the past weeks, I finally found them.

This is not the first time I've been disturbed by a movie.

People watching me in the last few weeks would easily know the movie I'm referring to. For the others, it is the Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (VTV in short) of Gowtham Menon.

Even though I believe I have changed a lot as a person in terms of interests in food, music, movies,work etc., I realize that the core is the same.


I am still vulnerable to such subtle yet intense emotions. The last time I remember to have been majorly disturbed was by Titanic in 1999 which I watched almost 2 years after it was released. VTV had a similar impact on me even though a decade has gone by. And it has raised several questions to me on how this "love" thing works.

Is it true that a girl likes a boy who chases her?

Does a woman expect that a man should be ready to lose anything to gain her love?

To me, if there is anything that will stop a guy from telling his love to a girl,

it would be his fear of unknown / shame that he will have to face if that girl says a no. Isn't a guy expected to be ready to face that if he has to even attempt gaining a girl's love?

Why is gaining love of a girl so tough? When guys can fall in love so easily, why is it not so easy for the supposedly-more emotional gender? Even in societies where woman are treated equal, the story stays the same.

I guess I will agree with what one of my friends once said,

"Most men are idiots when it comes to love. Most of the women are intelligent in love most of the times". Even though I've heard people also saying "Being mad, stupid and crazy in love significantly enhances the joy of its experience".

Can true love happen at first sight?
VTV says we shouldn't consciously choose someone to love. But I can't find a logic on this true love part. Or is it all about that? Is love similar to god, not supposed to work based on a logic?

I know these are quite a lot of vague questions. And I'm not looking for answers right now. I hope to understand these things later (if I ever fall in love). Even otherwise, its not going to stop me from living my life.. is it?

Yeah, I can hear you saying "why the hell are you talking about it then?" ;-)