6 AM in the morning, I was on my way back home (spent
the night at the office wrapping up a work)wondering
if I would be able to reach my rented home in the next
one hour against a forecasted target of 45 mins. My
calculation of reaching home in 45 mins, 30 mins of
packing, 15 minutes of breakfast, 10 mins of bathing
and 15 mins of phone calls seems to slide away with
the increasing thickness of the fog.
But I somehow
knew that I would be able to catch my flight on time.
It took me 1 hour and 3 mins to help my friend park
the car and reach my room. 8 AM I was locking my door
at the same time thinking about a report sent to the
site director, which bears an instigation of perpetual
impact on the company revenue structure.
Phew! I would
be on time at the airport.
09:55 AM, on board yet my sixth sense says " boy you
would not leave Delhi before 12 AM, and how about the
next connecting flight scheduled for 12:55 AM from
Guwahati?" "Hello Sir, would you like veg or non veg?"
That was at 1:05 PM. The flight won't just take off as
if to remind me that I got the ticket for 8210, which
doesn't include the punctuality tax. 2:15 Pm, we were
air borne. Now, what? Another day in Guwahati to catch
the next earliest flight to Imphal.
I asked the Air hostess which looks more like hostages in disguise.. "What about the connecting flights from Guwahati to
Imphal?"
"Ground staff" was the answer, to which I said, " You guys have a great service".
4:20 PM touch ground, collected by baggage and reach counter for
help. With a lot of courtesy I was told that, I need
to wait for about 2 hrs for lodging arrangement to be made.
I made my move and reach Paltan bazaar.
Holy
God! I didn't call Ema. After 5/6 trials finally I got
connected to my home number " Ema echegi heijingpot
nunglaroi, nungnaba flight ta lakpani ado dao kaya
yadre Guwahati da ngasi leiba tarre".
I got a taxi through the hotel, paying 400+50 bucks
extra as tips for arranging my taxi but as fate
determined, I found 2 meitei already seated and this
driver would make a sales pitch on the fact that they
are also meitei and blah blah….
Anyways they paid 80 out of 400 and 50 extra to the driver. Finally I got
my ticket rebooked after 30 minutes of dragging my
luggage to and fro for about 3 times from the counter
to the check in.
Here comes the most exciting and interesting part of
my journey. Have you ever seen a couple testing out
the network capabilities of a service provider while
they are in roaming?
I suppose they were putting a
test on the BSNL network coverage. This guy wouldn't
allow his wife to speak to him face to face; he would
only speak through his mobile phone. It seems he had
made up his mind that he would only talk through his
gadget and that too with a bit of Hindi to prove to
his wife that he is one of those multi lingual guy.
I was not only the spectator to their test; we have 2 sister (my assumption as a sister was because of the fact that look alike) who got really motivated with
the test of the husband and wife. They kept crushing Hutch. All four of them speak an accented Manipuri
with a touch of American style.
Hindi was a good choice for all of them to communicate yet they seems
quite uncomfortable with the hindi when the ground
staff enquire about their overweighed baggage.
"Holy cow", I have heard that in a Hollywood movie but this time it seems it has been used for a different
context. Any way I think that was kind of an exclamation mark which is more like " aassshhh
loirehe".
I must have spent about 30-45 minutes
watching them. Oh!! Forgot to tell you, this 2 sister
had packed pizza for 5 days since they can't live
without pizza.
"Mobile mania", He maintained a grumbling act for a
long 10 minute on a Nokia communicator asking every
possible question why his qualis is not at home.
Suddenly in the middle of the talks the mobile phone
rings and he said in a lower tone " yumgi no da oina
touro, eina pairaga lakle".
I think he would have spoken for 30 minutes on the phone strolling around us
had there been no one calling the no. But believe me I
have never seen so many hi fi mobiles at a time except
for a showroom.
I didn't bother to read a message
feeling a little inferior to read it from a Nokia 1100
in front of communicator and …. What I don't even know
the model no and made.
Reached Imphal at 4:15 PM. This guy who was making a
fuss about which vehicle to come for picking him up,
drop away snatching the auto that I was talking too.
* Nongmaithem Meghanath writes regularly to e-pao.net
The writer can be contacted at [email protected]
This article was webcasted on 27th March 2006
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