Its been long since my last post .... more than a full year or so.... i guess blogging isn't my cuppa tea... Simply because of the fact that I am not a consistent writer ... not one who can write on the demands of a blogging community .But recently I am writing more..(in fact in my diary) than i used to in this time period when my blog laid dead....
After a long lull I am blogging again ...So why not write about my biggest journey so far in this very short life..(as my friend puts it... a quarter life).Yes undoubtedly this has been the biggest journey that I have ever ventured into in the first quarter of my life.Be it in the scale of distance that I have traveled or the decision that I made to come here...Either way it was big ..for me..for my family and friends....Cos myself and most of them thought I would never do this !!
So when I am talking about this big journey ..you might wonder where I am .....Am I in some Antarctic zone or the steep heights of Himalayas ?? Nope I am in the arid deserts of a tiny , gas rich gulf country ,Qatar. Speaking about the arid desert lands,that will be definitely an overstatement cos during this very short stay in here I have been to desert only a couple of times....(thank goodness for that :D). A joke about a friend who landed in Qatar goes like this.."Where are the date palms,where are the camels!!!" Yes in the heart land of Qatar ie Doha you don get to see both of these ...What you get to see is streets full of Land Cruisers and more Land cruisers. So now lets go back to me and my point about this "big" journey to Qatar .You might think that too is a bit over the top..Cos it is such a mundane fact to state that a mallu to be in Gulf .. ??? !!! Every other mallu u see will be having a gulf connection or he himself might be a gulf resident NRI . Back here in Gulf every person you see in street who has Indian looks is bound to be a Mallu(most cases, not responsible if it happens otherwise) ..Even they have Malayalam advertisements !! Supermarkets, Hypermarkets, even small restaurants everywhere Malayalam can easily save u through..Even Nepalis who didn't even know that a language like Malayalam existed, listens to Madhuram Malayalam ( Sweet Malayalam ) on radio !!!! That's how things have turned the Mallu way ..Its kind of a culture invasion..But I would also say that its the Malayalee way of acceptance of this culture so easily ... After all whats the relation between the lush green God's Own Country and Oil mining Arabian peninsula !!!! ..
So now that my big journey is no more BIG enough let me tell u at least about the journey to Qatar ! It was indeed special for me!! Cos often I had thought of getting my passport stamp !!! Unlike my dads one which expired without a single stamping !!! Now that its stamped for once i can die peacefully !!!! But coming this was indeed emotional for me . So I purposefully thought i would not think of it more. So leaving home for such a log period didn't pass my mind when I bid bye to my HOME :( . At the Airport as expected Dad and Mom followed me to the waiting lounge..Even now when I am writing this a deep pain engulfs me as I recalls the longing at their faces ... The sadness that they were carrying as they were looking as long as they could catch a final glimpse of me !!!
At the lounge had to wait for many hours ..I din count them as i was a bit excited about the first flight. As the time approached people assembled at the Gate .I think it was a mad rush then to get to the first of the queue.!!! I recalled the days when i used to travel by a boat to school.there used to be huge crowd at rush hour and only one gate of entry and exit. That's where i mastered my skill of navigating through a crowd and reaching the front !!! Is anybody else here with such credentials ,cant beat it !! I reached the front as easy i could.Now the gates opened . I had already made the last calls from India to all my loved ones when I was waiting.Now I was inside the airplane.It was an Air-India Express flight,sounds pathetic eh?? Yea more to come . I
checked the seat number and sat on it. The inside of the carrier looked so crammed.it reminded me of some private bus we had rented for a school picnic !!!! seriously ...But as I was doing my first airtrip I am not supposed to make comments on the flight !!But, we see a lot of ads !! Lovely ladies and gourmet food spanking white interiors !!! I din see any ..just noticed unfriendly cabin crew ..but loved their signaling part :P . Its a running joke in my family that my late grandmother refused chocolates in an airline (not a budget one i guess) thinking that they might charge for it.I expected at least some chocolates ..maybe that was good old days of airlines when they had only few travelers and might be chocolates are costly after recession. But what about cotton for flight pressure ....or i guess that's for people who travel in Concorde , after all its a Government owned budget Airline operating from India !! So as it was my first flight I was satisfied with the having the Crap covered in Aluminium foil !!! And I was only accustomed to used Indian rupee I am also not supposed to bother about the 5 riyals they demanded for headphones to listen to the audio of a movie playing. And I was indeed content with the video alone ,that's all u can get for a 750 riyal ticket.But doubt lingers in my mind when I think about the currency in mid-air should that be riyal or rupee .. whatever!! Watching the audio less movie was fun and I didn't realize when i slept off and woke up only when we were about to land Doha .
Down through the window in could see a wonderfully lit up city,beautiful !!! We were about to land on Doha International. AS the flight touched the ground.The plane was jerking hard.So was my mind bursting out with prayers.......I was really really praying ,Praying that all goes well . My Cousin had been waiting in the airport to pick me up (unless for he my dad wouldn't have dared to sent me here :P) he took me out of the airport.As we moved out from the airport I saw a small restaurant,the signage on the top of it read Doha Rocks ! .It better be rocking for me ..else am ...doomed :P:P
No comments:
Post a Comment