Aaaaaannnnnnnddddddddddd
I am back, from a very short yet eventful and adventurous trip to India. It was
so action packed that this post is going to be a lengthy one, hence a sincere
request to all my fans (aka readers), to show some patience and read along,
while I’ll try my best to make it as engaging as possible.
The
excitement was only sinking in and we were clicking pictures at Ottawa rail
station itself (if you know me well, you’ll also know I am an over enthusiastic
photographer), when a pretty faced, 20 something young lady interrupted our
photo session and asked if I was Deepali. There, I had found a friend at the
beginning of our journey itself and I knew it, this is going to be a fun filled
voyage.
Ottawa
to Montreal, Montreal to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Delhi. One heck of a travel.
But we couldn’t complain as we kept bumping into friends/ acquaintances
(planned or otherwise) and the extensive journey became less painful. Catching
with the Amandeep and his family at Amsterdam airport and traveling together
from there was kinda fun.
Right
when we thought this journey couldn’t get more exciting, a police officer came
to our flight to make an announcement that 2 Afghani prisoners were being
deported to India in our aircraft, but he comforted us by further adding that
they were under security covers and there wasn’t anything to worry about. I
guess the second part of his announcement was lost in all the commotion created
amongst the passengers. As if the journey wasn’t going exciting enough, one of
the Afghani kept screaming and yelling every now and then, to keep us all on
the tip of our toes, ready to jump off the aircraft ;)
After
a sleepless 17 hours, annoying kids kicking the back of my seat and getting
through a very rude immigration officer, we reached Delhi airport (which looked
more like a bus station) at 1AM. Ashish’s mom, dad, sister, brother in law, and
nephew were waiting at the arrival gate for us (only if dogs were permitted,
Brutus and Asterisks would have joined them too). The moment I saw them, tears
rolled down my cheeks and I got overly emotional. I was returning home after a
year and a half.
I
could smell India. It was pollution, mixed with dust, paan spits, dog shit and
body odor of at least a thousand people in the radius of 200 meters. Ah! I was
in India. My country.
Regular
people usually head back home from the airport at 1 AM after a 17 hour journey,
but our priority was different. I wanted the taste of kulfi in my mouth even
before I brush my teeth. So we hunted down a kulfi vendor at that time of
night, savored the taste of that delicious kulfi and then headed home.
It
was good to be back. The pollution in Delhi was bizarre. At noon, you could
look at the sun without sunglasses, and it is an orange ball, as if the sun was
always setting. It’s not just the air pollution that drives you crazy; it’s
also the noise pollution. Continuous honking, loud people, street vendors,
deafening music, is enough to wanna puncture your eardrum.
While
the traffic in itself is crazy enough, in a huge avenue, extremely busy, you
cannot tell which side people drive there. In the middle of that avenue there
are also cows, and everyone drives around them. There are people sleeping in
between two avenues, a place that barely fits the body of a person, while cars
pass at full speed just beside them. Who would choose such a place to sleep?
Besides
cow, you can easily spot other sacred animals let loose on the streets as well,
snakes, rats, monkeys. Not sure if Dogs are considered sacred, but they’re seen
everywhere. Mosquitoes and flies are more common than all these animals
together, but they are not sacred, so just do not open your mouth and you’ll be
fine.
I
was enjoying myself. That smile never left my face. I was relishing every bit
of my stay. I was enjoying the traffic jams, bumper to bumper driving, Hindi
radio channels and FINALLY some funny advertisements on radio (I can vouch for
it that Indian ads are the funniest and most innovative ones).
In
no time, we were preparing to leave Delhi for Jammu. It was time for me to see
my family. My mom, my dad and my Mishti. With a heart full of excitement, we
flew from Delhi. We had been pulling all nighters, meeting relatives, friends,
attending weddings, catching up with parents, that by this time we were exhausted.
With a hope of catching up some sleep in the flight, we shut our eyes, but in
half an hour, captain announced our arrival.
I
was home. I was going to see my Mishti. I didn’t know how I would react upon
seeing my parents. I was imagining all this in my mind when Ashish said:
“I’m
sure your dad would come to the airfield to receive you”
“Arrey!
How can he come to the airfield? It isn’t a joke, the security is strict here.
How will he be allowed?”, I shrugged my shoulders.
“Your
Bapu (dad), has so many friends. I’m sure they’ll let him in”, Ashish uttered
with confidence.
We
stepped out of the aircraft and our eyes took a quick scan of the airfield and
didn’t see him. “See, he isn’t here”, I said.
We
took two steps further and there he was. My dad, my hero, on the airfield.
Walking towards us.
He
has always managed to make friends everywhere he went and charm people with his
personality. He knows how to get his way through. I hugged him for a minute,
shed a few tears and happily, we head home. I wonder why other co-passengers
gave us that look, as if we were celebrities or shooting a movie ;)
Mishti
was waiting for us at the door. She can always sense when we around. For a few
seconds, she looked at me in disbelief, and then she didn’t leave the sight of
me.
Ma,
as always, kissed me all over. I had longed for her kisses.
I
was in my house. The smell, the feel and the aura was so mesmerizing. It was
pure bliss. The feeling of being pampered and loved by your parents is
incomparable to any other. Pre breakfast fruit bowl, heavy breakfast followed
by super heavy lunch, supper, dinner and post dinner sweets, makes you wonder
how does ma get all the time to prepare so much food and yet spend all the time
with us, when we can barely cook one meal a day? The answer is simple, she
would wake up at 4AM to prepare all this, to be able to spend every minute with
us.
The
next 4 days were delightful. Mishti followed me where ever I went. So much so,
she followed me to the washroom, and would wait outside until I came out. Once
she even managed to sneak inside the washroom (naughty girl ;))
My
dad had taken 20 days leaves coz I was coming home for 4 days J
“Why
did you take TWENTY days off Bapu?”, I questioned
“We
had so much to be done before you came. All the light bulbs needed to be
changed, clock batteries are all fresh and new, the curtains of the entire
house needed to be cleaned, etc”.
Even
though I’m sure Ma did most of the work and Bapu just lay around watching
Cricket, the excitement that his daughter was visiting home after a year was
clear in his voice.
I
love my family so much that I couldn’t digest the fact I was leaving so soon. I
was upset, sad and distressed. My heart sank when we reached the airport to
depart. I could barely speak. My throat choked everytime I looked at Ma. She’s
the most adorable piece of art. God must have been at his best while designing
her.
Passing out at the airport:
-
While
checking in, my head started to spin and I told my dad that I felt dizzy. The next
thing I know, my dad had lifted my legs, some other fella had lifted my
shoulders and I was being taken somewhere. Everything seemed very unclear and
hazy and it took me a while to realize I had passed out. I opened my eyes to
see that I had vomited all over the place and I was sweating profusely. I saw
my concerned parents trying to wake me up and some angry passengers staring at
me. I guess if I was at their place and some random girl had puked on me, I
would be mad too. But I didn’t pay much attention to that and went back to
passing out.
After
creating a huge scene and some entertainment for the co-passengers, I regained
conscious and cleaned myself up. I smelled foul. I quickly went to the nearby
garment store to get a change for myself. He didn’t have anything for girls, so
he handed over a kids t-shirt to me, which he was certain would fit me. Only
after a bottle of water, 2 cups of coffee, medication, two cans of deodorant
and a round of interrogation, were the aircraft security staff satisfied that I
am not sick, but just homesick. So they let me in.
Anyways,
in this entire ruckus, I did make a great friend at the airport. Again, I
apologize for puking at you Sahil ;)
I
was back in Delhi. Back to the regular long night outs, tiring days, attending
functions and caching up with friends. It was time to attend Ashish’s best
friend’s wedding. I swear, if I wasn’t such a wonderful and mature wife, I
would have certainly misunderstood their relationship ;)
We
caught up with all his friends, friends wives, friends parents and friends
siblings. Was a lot of fun. We danced till Ashish’s shoe broke, then went home
to change the pair and danced again ;), laughed till we dropped out of our
chairs, got some lovely clicks, ate the food to die for, witnessed
relationships, drove around at 3 AM in search of paan with no luck, and slept
during the main wedding.
Again
sleep deprived, we thought we would finally catch some sleep on the aircraft
now. Tired and exhausted, we say out goodbyes to families at 11 PM, get on the
aircraft, and rest our heads for a while that in an hour an announcement is
made, “Due to technical fault, we’ll be heading back to Delhi”.
That’s
it! The universe doesn’t want me to sleep. This is all a conspiracy. We were
stranded at Delhi airport for nearly 8 hours, and we kept fighting with the
staff until we did manage to get our tickets re-routed.
It
was one heck of a journey, but at least we came back with tones of stories.
Highlights of my trip:
Here
are a few things that fascinated me enough to take space in my blog:
1.
We were entering a mall, and at the gates, boot of ever car is checked
(apparently in search of a bomb). The security guard opened the boot of the car
in front of us, and a mouse jumped out of it. Where we burst out laughing, to
all the others, it was a normal day-to-day sight :)
2.
In a hope to get my tooth fixed, I went to a dentist in India (since they are
so freaking expensive in Canada). I am not exaggerating an inch here, but the
dentist was talking to my dad while drilling my tooth. When I asked him to numb
my tooth as it was hurting and bleeding, his usual reply was, “It’s quite
normal”… hahaha J
No wonder dentists are so cheap in India :)
3.
While we sat in line for our eyes check up, the doctor was inspecting a
not-so-literate man’s eyes. It was clear that he had never been to an optician
before. We were all left in splits when the doctor prescribed him glasses, only
after asking him his age :) 56?, +4 :) hahaha
4.
My grandma is adorable. She is one person who can take any joke and knows how
to laugh at herself. If you know her, you’ll also know she can talk for hours
and hours keeping people around her in awe. This time, she said something so
funny, it cracked me up completely. One of my uncle’s has been promoted to the
post of District Collector. Grandma wanted to congratulate him on his success,
so called him up and said, “Congratulations on becoming a conductor (bus
conductor)”:) hahaha. My oh my! :)
5.
When Ashish was getting late to catch his airplane from Jammu to Delhi. It was
nearing the take off time; Ashish and my dad were still stuck in traffic. My
dad called up the airport authorities and requested them to do something about
it. The authorities (one of whom is dad’s good friend), assured that they can
delay the flight by 15 minutes max. As soon as Ashish reached the airport,
without any security checks or check ins, he was pushed inside the craft. One
crazy experience. It can only happen in India.
6.
This was the first time I was meeting all of Ashish’s friends after our
wedding. The charming me, doesn’t take much to create a good impression. But
things can get messy, when I am mad at the dhol waale (musicians). At Ruchit’s
wedding, the band party (musicians) was so annoying that they seemed to be
bugging everybody. After a while it got uncontrollable and they started passing
some remarks. People who know me, would also know, that I don’t take any
non-sense. Even if I am nobody at the wedding and it doesn’t remotely concern
me, if my blood has boiled, god save people around me. In front of the entire
baraat, Groom’s family and friends, bride’s family and friends, I stormed at
those musicians, yelled at them and shoed them away. That’s when Ashish dragged
me in and said, “Can’t leave you alone for even a minute” :)
7.
Bapu coming at the airfield to receive us :)
8.
When I collapsed at the airport (read above)
9.
When our flight made an emergency landing (read above)
10.
Those priceless walks with Mishti Wow! I’m ending it here, coz I can’t write
anymore. Have fun reading!
