Simply Me
Saturday, September 22, 2007
My first journey alone...
OK... I accept it... I was terribly nervous... I shouldn't have been of course, but I was... 22 and the first journey alone shouldn't have seemed all that nerve-wracking... Its not like I haven't travelled by flight before... I have flown to Bangalore and other places wayyyy too many times before... but never before alone.
Well lets forward to the day of the trip... I was going to B'lore for chavathi on the 13Th of September... IndiGO airlines... To start off with we were running kinda late... late being we would reach the airport 45 minutes before the flight instead of an hour early. Amma is addicted to punctuality. Rather reach 5 mins early than 5 minutes late. So for my 1p.m. flight we had left at about 11.15-11.20. The roads were just terribly terrible... well no other words to describe them... Traffic... The deplorable state of the roads and preparation for Ganesh Celebrations here in Pune... Just meant we would be 'LATE LATE LATE!!!' like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. And amma gets just as upset... she kept saying... 'We are going to be late... what if you miss your flight... what if...' Now with amma there seriously no use trying to placate her... 'Amma... big deal I said... For one thing I won't miss the flight... Secondly, if I do, I'll take the next flight... and even if that doesn't happen, I'll spend a 4 day weekend at home... chill...' I knew it wasn't gonna work... But I tried anyways... Lord!!!! She was soooooooo tense... 'Amma,' I promised, 'I'll never make you late when you are going to work...' She gets so worked up if I haven't got out of my bath before she has to leave and so she keeps calling out to me to come out fast and if she leaves home so much as 5 mins late, I now know what she is thinking on her way to work...
So finally we reached the Pune airport... No probs... well in advance. Went in and immediately I was called in for security check... Whew, I thought, Just in time... (After all the tales from my friends that Air Deccan is inevitably late and if its afternoon journey, you just have to prepare for at least 2 hours of delay... said my colleague) So do I get to board? Nooooo... we leave the airport gate and into a bus to take us to the plane and we sit there for 15 minutes... Heck I could have eaten something before I left... I had missed my brunch before leaving because we were running late... What a bummer!!!
Finally the bus is full and we start towards the plane... Now anyone who has ever been on an aeroplane knows that soon after the plane has left ground, the pilot dips the flight to give us a view of the city below and circles around a bit before touching down at the destination... Now this bus circled the flight... Around we went once... Well yeah sure... nice flight... Do we get to get in? Soon we were sitting in the comfortable seats of the flight...
We took off about 15 minutes late. The journey was kinda uneventful... I didn't miss the lunch they normally serve on other flights... I never eat it anyway... I did however miss the chocolates :( No chocolates for us. I remember once I had taken a fistful of chocolates and once a sweet air hostess had given me a fistful of chocolates herself... My first journey alone... no one to talk to and no book to read and I had the aisle seat... Talk about height of boredom... but since the entire trip takes about an hour and a half, it wasn't all that big a deal.
We finally reached Bangalore. I obviously missed my favorite aerial view... that of Kemp Fort. For whatever reason, I love looking at the turrets and that's part of the welcoming committee of B'lore. My mhanthu had come to pick me up and when I reached the car... there are my twin niece and nephew.. Mehul and Meghana and my akka.. Vatsalakka. Mehul was fast asleep in Vatsalakka's lap. Meghana was too shy to talk to her pacchi. 'Come on.. talk to her... all thru the trip here both of them were going on and on about how their pacchi was visiting and all they wanted to tell her' says Vatsalakka... Nope.. Meghana hid behind her grandfather's car seat and absolutely refused to talk. Finally when we reached home and Mehul got up did Meghana get into her element and did both of them start with their game of hide and seek calling out 'Pacchi' and then hiding when I looked up.
Thursday and Friday were pretty much the wettest days I had encountered all this year... Friday night... India versus Pakistan match... Dead tired after all the work, my mhave was trying to catch some sleep and outside mhantu is almost jumping up and down with glee with the rate of fall of wickets of the Pakistan team... If India wins, I tell mhave, in Pune unmindful of the fact that tomorrow is Chavathi and people have probably worked very hard getting ready for the celebrations, there would be crackers half thru the night(Yeah that happened amma told me when I got back.)
Saturday... Chavathi (Yeah not gonna bore talking about shopping for vegetables and fruits... thats all the shopping I had time to do during my entire visit... :'( ) Had fun decorating.. had fun during the Puja... had fun serving... had fun gorging on Panchamruta (Soniakka and I were eyeing the Panchamruta bowl so that as soon as everyone had been given that, we were gonna bring out glasses to drink up the rest... kya karen? Old habits die hard and anyway control hi nahi hota... Imagine our disappointment when we got to have about one gulp... Turned out Anil Bhavaji had beat us to it and had his fill :'( )... enjoyed the lunch... enjoyed meeting everyone and had fun going for the Visarjan.
The biggest bummer of course was that my 3.00 pm flight on sunday had been preponed to 10 am in the morning... Lost almost an entire day of the visit... Well either ways, the biggest motive of going there was fulfilled... Going for chavathi and visiting my ajju in his 100th year... Hope now that I could visit B'lore for two consecutive years for chavathi maybe even next year would get to visit... As is said... 'Something that happens once, never happens twice... But if something happens twice, it will definitely happen a third time...'
So will end this loooooong post with pics from Chavathi and the words Ganpathi Bappa Morya...
Well lets forward to the day of the trip... I was going to B'lore for chavathi on the 13Th of September... IndiGO airlines... To start off with we were running kinda late... late being we would reach the airport 45 minutes before the flight instead of an hour early. Amma is addicted to punctuality. Rather reach 5 mins early than 5 minutes late. So for my 1p.m. flight we had left at about 11.15-11.20. The roads were just terribly terrible... well no other words to describe them... Traffic... The deplorable state of the roads and preparation for Ganesh Celebrations here in Pune... Just meant we would be 'LATE LATE LATE!!!' like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. And amma gets just as upset... she kept saying... 'We are going to be late... what if you miss your flight... what if...' Now with amma there seriously no use trying to placate her... 'Amma... big deal I said... For one thing I won't miss the flight... Secondly, if I do, I'll take the next flight... and even if that doesn't happen, I'll spend a 4 day weekend at home... chill...' I knew it wasn't gonna work... But I tried anyways... Lord!!!! She was soooooooo tense... 'Amma,' I promised, 'I'll never make you late when you are going to work...' She gets so worked up if I haven't got out of my bath before she has to leave and so she keeps calling out to me to come out fast and if she leaves home so much as 5 mins late, I now know what she is thinking on her way to work...
So finally we reached the Pune airport... No probs... well in advance. Went in and immediately I was called in for security check... Whew, I thought, Just in time... (After all the tales from my friends that Air Deccan is inevitably late and if its afternoon journey, you just have to prepare for at least 2 hours of delay... said my colleague) So do I get to board? Nooooo... we leave the airport gate and into a bus to take us to the plane and we sit there for 15 minutes... Heck I could have eaten something before I left... I had missed my brunch before leaving because we were running late... What a bummer!!!
Finally the bus is full and we start towards the plane... Now anyone who has ever been on an aeroplane knows that soon after the plane has left ground, the pilot dips the flight to give us a view of the city below and circles around a bit before touching down at the destination... Now this bus circled the flight... Around we went once... Well yeah sure... nice flight... Do we get to get in? Soon we were sitting in the comfortable seats of the flight...
We took off about 15 minutes late. The journey was kinda uneventful... I didn't miss the lunch they normally serve on other flights... I never eat it anyway... I did however miss the chocolates :( No chocolates for us. I remember once I had taken a fistful of chocolates and once a sweet air hostess had given me a fistful of chocolates herself... My first journey alone... no one to talk to and no book to read and I had the aisle seat... Talk about height of boredom... but since the entire trip takes about an hour and a half, it wasn't all that big a deal.
We finally reached Bangalore. I obviously missed my favorite aerial view... that of Kemp Fort. For whatever reason, I love looking at the turrets and that's part of the welcoming committee of B'lore. My mhanthu had come to pick me up and when I reached the car... there are my twin niece and nephew.. Mehul and Meghana and my akka.. Vatsalakka. Mehul was fast asleep in Vatsalakka's lap. Meghana was too shy to talk to her pacchi. 'Come on.. talk to her... all thru the trip here both of them were going on and on about how their pacchi was visiting and all they wanted to tell her' says Vatsalakka... Nope.. Meghana hid behind her grandfather's car seat and absolutely refused to talk. Finally when we reached home and Mehul got up did Meghana get into her element and did both of them start with their game of hide and seek calling out 'Pacchi' and then hiding when I looked up.
Thursday and Friday were pretty much the wettest days I had encountered all this year... Friday night... India versus Pakistan match... Dead tired after all the work, my mhave was trying to catch some sleep and outside mhantu is almost jumping up and down with glee with the rate of fall of wickets of the Pakistan team... If India wins, I tell mhave, in Pune unmindful of the fact that tomorrow is Chavathi and people have probably worked very hard getting ready for the celebrations, there would be crackers half thru the night(Yeah that happened amma told me when I got back.)
Saturday... Chavathi (Yeah not gonna bore talking about shopping for vegetables and fruits... thats all the shopping I had time to do during my entire visit... :'( ) Had fun decorating.. had fun during the Puja... had fun serving... had fun gorging on Panchamruta (Soniakka and I were eyeing the Panchamruta bowl so that as soon as everyone had been given that, we were gonna bring out glasses to drink up the rest... kya karen? Old habits die hard and anyway control hi nahi hota... Imagine our disappointment when we got to have about one gulp... Turned out Anil Bhavaji had beat us to it and had his fill :'( )... enjoyed the lunch... enjoyed meeting everyone and had fun going for the Visarjan.
The biggest bummer of course was that my 3.00 pm flight on sunday had been preponed to 10 am in the morning... Lost almost an entire day of the visit... Well either ways, the biggest motive of going there was fulfilled... Going for chavathi and visiting my ajju in his 100th year... Hope now that I could visit B'lore for two consecutive years for chavathi maybe even next year would get to visit... As is said... 'Something that happens once, never happens twice... But if something happens twice, it will definitely happen a third time...'
So will end this loooooong post with pics from Chavathi and the words Ganpathi Bappa Morya...
posted by Tejaswini Shenoy at 1:49 PM
6 Comments:
Nice description, except that the things you have heard of Airdeccan.
Actually when I came back from Manglore, it was the only flight which was on time and Jet had already started cribbing of the traffic at Mumbai for its delay (Incidentally the Deccan was also from Mumbai only)
Any ways am a fan of deccan now..
BTW wonderful description of your Chavathi, encourages me to write about mine.
Good one...
Even my experience of Air Deccan (Dhakkan) was good in the sense the flight was on time.
But I miss the chocolates too!!
Kids are so damn shy...esp little girls.
Nice post.....and nice photos
Hey guys don't shoot the messenger... this is wat i had heard... not something i had experienced myself...
yesterday read half and today read the remaining... so my comment comes today. :)
First :: u told me abt ur trip to Blore by phone. so needn't comment on that part.
Second :: ur fist journey alone?? well congo! tis allays exciting! (my plan to blog abt my trips alone)
Third :: never been on any other airlines cept Jet Airways... so dunno abt Dhakkan or IndiGO
Fourth :: Beautiful snaps... Ganapati Bappa Morya !
The next time you fly to bangalore from Pune, if it's an evening flight reserve a window seat to the extreme right. Look out of the window throughout, you won't be bored.. You'll get a glimpse of some of the best sunsets .. I might have a pic or two, lemme check ..
Nice one!!
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