Oh! My merciless princess

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From Chennai to St.Louis

My experiences in travelling from Chennai airport to St.Louis, that is to say my first trip abroad

Take-off
We reached Chennai airport at around 1:15am. My mom and dad accompanied me. I asked them to wait in the visitor’s area and went straight to the place where they see the weight of the baggage. They had said that the maximum allowed weight was 23kg per each luggage. I thought mine would be more. So, I was curious to finish checking the weight fast, so that I can rearrange or remove some of the things and give it to my parents. The weight of both the luggage was same – 25 point something. I checked with the lady of British Airways about the maximum weight allowed. She said I can carry up to 32kg in each. So, I was relieved. But when I checked the size of my cabin luggage (the one we carry in hand), the size was a bit bigger. They said that there is no weight limit for the cabin luggage, but its size should be lesser. So, I took the luggage to the place where my parents were standing and did some rearrangements to reduce the size.

Then I went to the ticket counter and waited for a very long time before getting the boarding pass and checking-in my baggage. After that I had to go to customs check. I won’t be able to come back to the visitor’s area after that. So, I went to the visitor’s area to bid adieu to my parents. Then, after a brief customs check, I stood in a very long queue for the security check. The people who stood behind me kept on talking some crap in “peter” English. It was so irritating. At one place, the queue split into two. We can take any one of them. I made sure that I was not in the same queue as the peters. The security check was very brief. Then I went to the gate meant for my flight. I had to walk for some distance through a narrow path. After that, a lady asked for my boarding pass and showed me the direction. I was thinking that I was inside some room and only when I turned to the direction the lady showed, I realized that I was already inside the flight.

I found my seat and sat there. It was an aisle seat. Our seat was just behind the wings of the air plane and I could see the wing through the window. There was a head-phone and a small TV in front of every seat and we can change the channels we want. A Tamil girl came and sat in the window seat. It seems she is working for TCS and was going to Arizona. A bald-headed, fat guy sat in the middle seat. He was drunk. Around 4:15am, the flight took-off. And I looked outside through the window. The sparkling lights from the buildings and the moving ones from the traffic were such a stunning sight. It was like seeing the sky on a Diwali night. I never realized that Chennai could be that beautiful.

From Chennai to St.Louis
I was reading the magazines kept and was changing the TV channels when the airhostess gave me a box. “What is that”, I asked. “Breakfast”, she said. I looked at my watch. It was 5:30am. There was pongal and masal dosa inside the box. After finishing my earliest breakfast ever, I fell asleep. Got up after some three or four hours. There were some English movies shown in the TV and after sometime I realized that they are playing the same movies again and again. It started to get boring. As they had closed all the windows, I could not look outside too. I realized the mistake of not bringing any of my books. Tried to watch the movies for sometime as I had nothing else to do. I had juice now and then, finished my lunch also sometime before we arrived in London. Then we landed on the famous Heathrow airport in London, some eight hours after I boarded in Chennai. I realized that I have to travel at least seventeen more hours to reach St.Louis. I changed my watch time to that of London so that I won’t miss my connection flight.

It was a long walk in the London airport to reach our terminal. There was security check again, and it was stricter than the one we had in Chennai airport. We even had to remove our shoes. When it was time, I went to the gate for my flight. Again walked through a narrow path and there was a lady asking for my boarding pass. And this time I knew that I was inside my flight.

It was an aisle seat this time too. There was an old American couple who sat next to me. They were both professors in Texas University. The old man said that there was a big computer company in Texas and as a result there was a huge Indian population. He said he is a professor of philosophy and economics. I admitted to him that I did not know anything about both.

After sometime, the airhostess gave me a box. “What is that”, I asked. “Breakfast”, she said. My God! Then what is it that I had in Chennai? I looked at my watch. It was 10:00 am. I wondered whether I would be having my second lunch for the day too. And sometime later, I did. There was this “maps and directions” which was shown in one of the channels of the TV. It interested me to know the altitude of our flight, the air temperature outside, the direction of our flight and where we were at the moment. It also showed the present time in the source and destination locations and the time left for landing. After checking the time left for landing for, say some hundred times, it was actually time for landing in Chicago. I changed my watch time to that of US Central timing. It was when I looked outside the window, that I witnessed one of the most beautiful sights of my life. I could only see pure, white, thick blanket of snow in every direction that I turned. I was looking at it in awe and wonder with my eyes so wide open that the old, gentleman sitting next to me asked me, “Is this the first time you are seeing snow?” I smiled gently and nodded my head in agreement. “There was this friend of mine who was also from India, who told me that the first time he saw snow was when he went for honeymoon with his wife to Kashmir. But he described about the snow in a better way than I do.”

Chicago Airport was so big that I had to go in something like our electric train to reach my terminal, thus getting a glimpse of Chicago city. After Immigration check and another round of security check, I reached the gate where my flight departs, thinking how to spend the one hour left before the scheduled departure. But, when I reached the gate, I came to know that I should be planning for a longer duration. They said that the flight was delayed by an hour due to bad weather. I was already feeling very tired and decided to sleep for the remaining couple of hours. Even though I was very tired, I kept checking the time frequently. It was already getting late and the last thing I wanted was to miss my flight sleeping. The flight arrived later than the announced time and it took such a long time to depart. When I looked out of the window and saw the weather, I realized why. Hardly anything was visible. Everybody had doubts whether we would reach St.Louis - which was just over an hour’s journey - that night. But at last, after much confusion, we landed in St.Louis.

The Not-so-warm welcome
The weather was so bad. I wasn’t sure whether my friend who was supposed to pick me up would come there in that weather. But, as soon as I came out, he was waiting for me. We went to collect my luggage. All the luggage from that flight was going around in rounds in a conveyor belt but I couldn’t find mine. We waited for a long time to find mine but in vain. Then went to the airline authorities and complained about the missing baggage and came outside the airport to catch a taxi. When we came out I realized how cold it was. And my friend said that it was the worst snow of the season so far and he found it too difficult to reach the airport. When we checked, no driver was ready to come in that snow. At last, we and two other people who were going in the same direction got into a single taxi that we got. After struggling to find the address amidst the heavy blanket of snow that was seen in every direction that we turned, I reached my apartment. But, I can very well say that United States did not give me a warm welcome, at least literally.

Lion and a kitten- An untold love story

Note: Please read this in the tone of any of the rhymes you had learned in kindergarten.

There lived a lion

He was strong like an iron

Except near and dear

Everyone had fear

He won many wars

Always aimed at stars

Mastered many arts

And was smarter than all smarts

Others went restless

Even close-ones were jealous

Sitting on high throne

The lion always felt alone

A kitten came that way

Lion felt it was "the" day

However strong he may

Cupid had his say

They made an ideal pair

Had lots and lots to share

In front of his future spouse

Lion became mouse

Stupid people gave stare

They couldn't tolerate the pair

"Kitten is his would-be?

Oh! How can it be?"

At last, kitten told her dad

He said lion is so bad

Kitten became sad

Lion went all mad

One fine dawn

Kitten was gone

Lion's heart torn

Not a soul to mourn

Again, Lion stood alone

And threw away the throne

He turned so tame

And lost all the fame

There lived a lion

It was weak and dull

Everyone made fun

So the lion had to run

I lost myself

I can not be myself anymore


In the name of survival,

In the name of practicality,

In the name of winning,

I have lost myself somewhere.


I’m running fast

I’m running hard

But, am I running in the right path?

I can not stop to think

The next one will overtake.

In the madness to win the race,

I have lost myself somewhere.


Oh! The millions of dreams I had,

The things I held close to heart,

The love I thought will never depart –

All are lost along the path

And I have lost myself somewhere.


I had friends, am still so proud

But today, alone among the crowd

I was very rich without a penny

Now, just a beggar with lots of money.

I know, I have lost myself somewhere.


This is not the ‘I’, that I had always known

Alas! I am not myself now

And I can not be myself anymore

F.R.I.E.N.D.S.H.I.P

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My umbrella and me

It is amazing how a rain in the morning can change everything, including my mood. I got up from bed, earlier than usual, on hearing the sound of the drizzle. I gazed at the beauty of the rain for a long time, before getting ready to office.

When I stepped out of my house, I pat myself on the back for bringing the umbrella from office yesterday. Usually, I keep my umbrella in office so that I am not taken by surprise by the evening drizzle that comes these days. But then, something told me that it is going to rain today morning and I remembered to take my umbrella with me.

On my way to office, I could not but wonder how rain can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. The same trees, the same flowers, and the same road – everything looked great. Even the crow sitting on a tree, with its feather wet in the rain, appeared so beautiful.

I was walking carefully to avoid the splash of water from the passing vehicles, when I heard the sound “Mani Uncle”. I was surprised to see the kids from the child-home which I used to visit on weekends. The kids were five to ten years old. They were on the way to their school (which is in the road connecting ECR and OMR). All of them were fully drenched. They were trying very hard to protect their backpacks from getting wet. They did not have the luxury of an umbrella like I did. Rain was not-so-beautiful for them.

In spite of all this, they smiled at me cheerfully. I smiled back at them standing inside the safety of my umbrella. When the kids left, bidding me goodbye, I felt guilty for carrying an umbrella with me.

My hair dresser and me

It is great to have a holiday in the middle of the week. But, this Wednesday I did not have the usual enthusiasm. Yes...I had to do the thing I hate most - going to the barber shop. I do not know why, but I had developed this rather strange aversion towards going to the barber shop even when I was a kid. For several weeks, I have been successfully discovering different excuses to postpone my haircut. But, this time my hair had grown to such an extent where further postponing is just not possible. There is no stopping the inevitable, I realised. Now came the big question. "Which saloon should I go for?" Living in ‘Solinganallur hi-tech city’, I did not have many options to choose from.

I reached the saloon which was near the hotel where I used to have my dinner. To my pleasant surprise, there was no one in the waiting list, probably because it was not a holiday for many. I need not sit there in the bench, pretending to be reading the left-outs of the local newspaper. At last, I could find something to be happy about that morning.

I went inside. All the three chairs were empty. I went towards the centre one and was about to sit, when the hair-dresser stopped me. "Sir, sit in this one" he showed another chair. I got irritated. “Is that chair reserved for some other VIP?” I wanted to ask him. But, ended up moving silently towards the chair that he showed.

He started asking me the time-tested questions.


"Cutting or shaving?"

"Cutting", I said.

"Long or short?"

"Medium", I said irritated.

"Should I cut it straight in the back side or keep a sheet (now, that is a highly technical term)?"

"Don't cut it straight", I said firmly.



I remember Viswanath telling me long back that, when you cut it straight at the back, you look like a school kid. Viswanath is never wrong, especially in matters related to style.......... By the way, Viswanath is my friend, right from my school days and now he is my project mate and room mate.

"For your face-cut, it will be suitable only if it is cut straight". He was not ready to give up. After all, he was the master of the trade.

"It looks like a school boy when you cut it that way". I was not ready to give up either. After all, it was my hair.

"Sir, it is not the way you think. Moreover, the style of keeping a sheet at the back is outdated". I was not very keen on having an
argument on the latest trends in hair-styles with him. So, I let him have his way.

Now came the worst part of it all. I had to remove my spectacles.......had to sit there completely unaware of how things take shape over my very own head. (Now, don't start guessing the power of my eye. It is pretty high). I tried hard to listen to the FM radio that was being played there. Two program-anchors were talking continuously, making sure that they make no sense. I started wondering what would be the recruitment criteria for these people. Soon, as always, I got lost in thoughts. I was brought back to this world by the words of my beloved hair-dresser.

"Shall I reduce the moustache?"


"No"

"I will just trim a bit. It will look good". I am not going to be taken away by his stupid arguments this time.

"No. Thanks"

He turned my face both the sides and gave a careful look. It was the same look an artist gives after completing his master piece. Satisfied with his work, he said "Yes. It is over". As if waiting to hear those words all my life, I stood up and put back my spectacles. At last….Into the world again. I could not wait to look in the mirror to see what he has done to my hair. And my worst fears came true. Yes, it looked really bad, or so it seemed to me.

When I reached home, Viswanath was watching the same song that they put at least 5 times each day in every Tamil channel. Now, I have to hear his sarcastic comment on my hair style. He looked at me and said suddenly, “Mani, What happened? Looking very smart today. Had a hair cut, is it?” I couldn't believe my ears. Hearing those words from Viswanath is like getting the Mr. Universe title. I was delighted. May be the barber is good. After all, Viswanath is never wrong.

I went near the wash-basin and looked myself closely in the mirror. Yes, I was looking good. But, there seemed to be something wrong. He should have trimmed the moustache a bit.