IT HAPPENS ONLY IN INDIA!

Jan 25, 2010 is a date that I will never forget. I had just completed a nice vacation in India and had started my return journey to Houston. Reached Bengaluru International Airport at 5:30 for an 8:30 domestic flight to Mumbai – well in time – only to find out that the Mumbai 8:30 had been CANCELLED (No reason given). Jet Airways lady: “Sir, the only option you have is to take the 9:30 flight – the last one today”. I replied , “ Sure, no problem” with an attitude that I am not bothered as this flight was supposed land at 11:10 p.m will give enough time for my Amsterdam NorthWest flight at 1:50 a.m.

The flight to Mumbai took off on time. Half way through the flight the captain announces that ATC has communicated a delay in landing. So the flight would instead land at 11:30 p.m (20 min late). I thought, “Screw the delay; I should still be able to make it easily.” However, the flight landed at 11:40 p.m. (BTW, they didn’t serve anything onboard, not even complimentary coffee/tea – stingy service, not even a blanket when asked for!) The captain taxied for 10min and stopped away from the domestic terminal right in the middle of nowhere, wherein a Jet Airways bus was waiting to take us to the terminal. This guy drove at 15mi/h and reached terminal at 12a.m.

Then I went to the baggage area and started waiting. Funny enough, the belt number was not assigned. Then someone shouted- “Bangalore – Belt no. 1”. So I went there, 3 bags came, 2 of which belonged to a nice looking girl who had sat next to me. So I thought, since they are coming mine shouldn’t take time. The remaining bag (1 of 3) kept circling for the next 10min (12:20 a.m by now). The bags finally came, I collected my two bags and ran to the International Transfers queue to board the bus to the International Terminal. Apparently you had to collect a coach coupon before boarding which nobody mentioned to us. Somehow managed to get the coupon and boarded the bus as the last person in!

Now this bus journey was quite an undertaking. Let me remind you, that at this time, Mumbai airport was undergoing a lot of construction. This driver, who was a total genius, drove at 5mi/h while continuously chatting with his assistant leisurely, only to encounter a traffic jam INSIDE the airport! (Can you imagine that?) Finally the International Terminal came (12:45 a.m). I was like – “Ah, should be able to make it”. To my surprise (or confusion), this bus EXITS the frikin’ AIRPORT and goes outside to take the ramp to International Departures entrance – UNBELIEVABLE. (My question is - Why the heck is it called – Inter-terminal transfer?) . Driver goes away from the airport (still 5mi/h), takes a U turn and climbs up the ramp only to my shock to encounter traffic jam for about 800m.The entrance was nowhere visible. We slowly pass information boards numbered Gates A, B, C, D and to my luck NorthWest was flying out of D. This idiot stops outside gate A, and announces – “All passengers please get down here” (12:55 a.m).

I took the luggage cart, loaded my bags (which were luckily out in the front as I was the last to board the bus) and started running. I saw a huge queue outside gate A, could not run on the airport footpath (fully blocked by passengers and their ‘n’ relatives), ran on the street (also blocked) alongside taxis et al. Passed packed entrances to gates B and C only to find a 150 people queue to gate D as well (1:00 a.m). This is the first time it hit me that the probability of me missing my 1:50 a.m flight is >99%. Left my bags, took my laptop bag that had my documents and ran to the front of the queue. Asked the guard, “Sir, mera flight 1:50 ko hai, main saamne aa sakta hoon?” (“Sir, my flight is at 1:50, can I come to the front?”). The guy looks at my passport and ticket – thinks for a minute and says “haan” (yes). I ran back, took my luggage and ran in the midst of traffic and finally ENTERED THE AIRPORT (1:05 a.m).

Ran looking for the NorthWest counter, didn’t see it! Asked people – “peeche hi tha Sir” (“It was behind Sir”). I was like – “I didn’t see it!!”. Apparently the check in for NorthWest flight had been closed and the board had been changed to some “Ethiad” airlines. Went and pleaded with the airport official to check me in. He first said that everybody has been done, then he stared at me and said, “Chalo aapko last kar de te hai” (“Ok, I will check you in last”). He checked me in really fast, while the other guy asked routine security questions and said, “Immigration ke liye aap bhaago” (“Run for the immigration”). 1:15 a.m – the immigration counter, for the idiotic planning of the airport is before gate A, so I ran all the way and saw that atleast 200 people were in queue. The queue was like a snake, I shot across it telling people that my flight is in ½ hr. Thank God, everybody was co-operative. (One guy actually said – “please go ahead”).

I was all sweating by this time, the immigration officer asks me, “Why are you sweating so much?” I explained him my ordeal while he was looking at my documents – “What are you studying”. “PhD in nanotechnology Sir”- “What is nanotechnology?” – “Main bahut chote cheezo ka material banaake uska upayog karta hoon” (“ I make very small materials and apply them”) The lamest definition ever. He was done with checking and said, “Apne airlines logon ke paas jaldi jaao” (“go to your airlines quickly”). (1:25 a.m)

Ran to security check point – more questioning – passport, boarding pass check – “aap ka luggage hai?” – “haan”, “kuch naya khareeda?” – “nahi”, “Is line main khada ho jaayiye”. (“is it your luggage?” – “yes”, “did you purchase anything new?” – “no”, “ stand in this queue”). Lady comes and thoroughly checks my bag (1:33 a.m). Ran to gate no.12 (under the stairs, all the way to the end), joined the line that was boarding, as the penultimate person. Then I started to breathe!!! (1:36 a.m).

At this point of time, I am still not sure if my luggage got loaded in time or not?

Only in India can everything get screwed up and you still make it!!

Psycho-analysis (attitude)

What is attitude? I believe its a glimpse of your character. It is oversimplified by delineating it into positive and negative categories. Character - is a complex evolutionary attribute, a result of your actions over the period of your life; a realization of your likes and dislikes coupled with repetitions of similar events. Hence, your attitude cant just be positive or negative. It is like a spectrum of colors, judged by their aptness. Some colors look good on some backgrounds, but some are gaudy or too dull. So we are in a way a mixture of several colors such as cultures, freedoms, values, ideas and we paint different situations differently. Out of these core qualities of an individual comes out his/her behavior. Behavior, however, is a dependent variable. It is controlled by society, structure, success, failure and religion. The goal here is to blend in the right proportions of attitude and behavior to make you be at peace. Lessons learnt on this path shapes your character, an evolutionary loop.
Now, why did I write all this now? just to repaint the forgotten wall of blogging :-)
To be continued...

Time connects the pragmatic to the metaphysical

If you cant see it, it doesnt mean that it isnt there!

filosofical

Had a nice conversation with a friend yesterday, about life, in general. We came to some interesting conclusions about expectations, trust, independence and satisfaction in our lives. It is so much true that we always want what we dont have, thereby loosing the joy of experiencing what we have and hence will never be satisfied (hard luck there!). How we expect behavior from people around us to do right things (whatever 'right' means to oneself, its convenient) and time and again how they fail 'us', how the thought of being self sufficient and hence independent gives us the power to atleast theoretically 'not trust' others at all. The latter is however not practical, as we have to trust one another to have a common ground to work towards anything in life. And how intricate is the relation between our personal and professional lives. I used to wonder why people came up with the distinction in the first place, as I was of the belief that they are the same as they represent the same mind. However, diplomacy and politics completely throws that thought off the table. I guess it all comes to the question of right and wrong, artificial and natural outlook of life. The catch however, is the fact that, right and wrong coexist, they are of the same kind and relative to each other. This quality of righteousness preserves the spirit of life and fills in the enthusiasm and the zeal to experience life.

Bourne.. An Ultimate experience

There are some moments in life when you are awestruck! 'n go WOW
Bourne Ultimatum, no doubt will make your acquaintance with many such instances. I saw this movie today, and was one the most exciting movies I have ever seen. It outdoes the first two parts and gets your adrenalin going crazy!

Bourne-->Moscow-->Paris-->Turin-->London-->Madrid-->Tangier-->NYC
-->Bourne

The cinematography is just excellent! The background music deserves a lot of credit. I wouldnt go into the details of the plot, for it will spoil the fun for people yet to watch, nevertheless, I highly recommend this movie to anyone who can withstand 2hrs of BOURNE..

Back 2 Bangalore..

I am going to India on Jun 13th, excited to meet my family and friends. Bangalooru was Bangalore when I left it (I call it the FNCS - fanatic name change syndrome). However, it seems that name is just one among several things that have changed. People who recently visited have already freaked me out on its current state- the traffic, cost of leaving, heat and so on. Reasons aside, it will always be 'home' for us Bangalor(u)eans.

Plan to spend most of my time with family. Visit NCJ (my college) and meet some professors. Especially two of them, KVG and GSS. KVG was our chemistry teacher, just brilliant and funny. I still remember his second lecture, "This compound is known as Barbituric acid. Do you know why? ಇದನ್ನ ಕ೦ಡ್ ಹಿಡಿದನಲ್ಲ chemistಊ, ಅವನ girl friend ಹೆಸರು Barbara ಅ೦ತೆ. So he named his discovery after her. And ಇದನ್ನ ನಾವು ಓದಬೇಕು, ನಮ್ ಕರ್ಮ." GSS was our math teacher, he always tried to scare the hell out of us - "ನೋಡಪ್ಪ, ಈ ಹುಡುಗೀಗೆ physics - 99, chemistry - 99, maths - 100, ಒಳ್ಳೆ score ಅಲ್ವ, ಆದರೂ ಎಲ್ಲೂ ಒಳ್ಳೆ collegeನಲ್ಲಿ seat ಸಿಗ್ಲಿಲ್ಲ, ಕಷ್ಟ ಇದೆ :-( ". Those were some days one would never forget.

I also need to catch up with my friends and visit NITK (my undergrad institution) for a couple of days. I have to meet DVRM, our professor - "Yyouu ppeople dont study and waste time allways, Chemical engineering is not a jjoke".

These are all secondary though, the main agenda is mom and homemade food. No matter how much I personally like cooking, I surmise it takes years of practice to perfect the art. I will meet with my crazy doctor cousin who will praise all the politicians(in ಅಚ್ಚ ಕನ್ನಡ) and bring me to a complete update on what I have lost track for 2 yrs. My 'n' number of relatives who got married after I left (2n) already have their babies (3n). It would be fun to play with them. ( Just love the babies, they seem to know everything). I want to go to Biligiri hills (ಬಿಳಿಗಿರಿರ೦ಗನ ಬೆಟ್ಟ), amazing hill station. So serene, and yet so wild. Too many plans, however my state of mind depends on whether the three people I am going to propose to on monday(my thesis proposal defense) will agree to marry me for the next couple of years or not..