My First Plane Journey

My journey started with the IA flight from Bangalore to Mumbai.I had two heavy suitcases neither of which I cud lift on my own. but luckily the the person at the baggage checkin counter helped me put it on the conveyor belt.After security clearance I had to wait quite some time before the plane finally arrived. It was interesting to note that atleast a third of the passengers had laptops with them.

Once in mumbai , there was the problem of going from the domestic terminal to the international terminal.I waited for myluggage to come.Here a fellow passenger helped me put my luggage on to the trolley.The trolley was much better than the bangalore one.So was able to move it around with ease.

Then I went to the place outside the domestic terminal where the airport's bus which takes passengers to the international terminal comes. There was a huge crowd there. I had to wait as three buses came, got occupied and went. Time was flying and it was already 11:00 .Baggage checkin had already started at the Delta Terminal.It was then that I got acquainted with Archana another H4 visa holderi who was also a passenger in the same plane to paris which I was to board.We became fast friends and luckily we were able to get the next bus to the international terminal.

There I was unlucky to get a defective trolley and had to get the help of an airport staff to get another trolley and put my luggage there for which he even asked a tip.There was a huge queue at the baggage checkin also.Archana turned out to be even more stupid than I was as she didn't even know her husband's address in the US. She had some problem as they as asked her to fill the address on the tag.

I had time then to just call Vinuettan and tell him that I was in mumbai.Also tried unni on mobile but there was no answer.Then after a brief wait , I boarded the flight to paris.It was quite a large flight and as I was exhausted , I fell asleep almost immediatly.When I woke up , they sereved some food which tasted ok.Then , they put a hindi movie 'Socha Na Tha' which was a usual hindi masala movie.The passenger sitting next to me was also an Indian software engineer and he said he was on the same flight to Atlanta as well.

As the plane landed in paris , the skies were very clear and I was able to clearly see the Eifel Tower from above and it is a great sight.Once we landed in paris , there was a bus to take us to the other gate where I had to board the flight to Alanta. As I was getting out of the flight , I was pleasantly surprised to see an Infoscion from my department -a fellow from tvm named shyam walking ahead. I caught up with him and was it turned out that he was travelling to Atlanta on the flight as well.Together we reached the terminal where we were to board the plane.At paris , I lost track of Archana as she had an Air France plane to catch which was at another terminal.The wait in paris was pretty long and I decided to use the international calling card number that vinuettan had given to call from a phone that I saw there. The first time I tried , it started saying something in French. I thought I would give it a try just once more . This time the message from the phone was in English and very clear "You have called the fireman". I didn't wait to hear any more I went and found a place as far from the phone as possible. Just in case some one came and asked who called the fireman.

There was a large queue to board the plane to atlanta and I found that many of the passengers on my previous flight were here too.My neighbour was a french fellow who seemed to wake up only when the drinks were served.He didn't know English and was asking if there was a transalation of the immigration and customs forms in French!!!

As I had booked for Asian Veg meals , I got some Indian food on this flight .This was also a nine hr flight which I almost entirely slept through.Though this flight actually had tv screens at each seat which we could chnage channels, my screen had some problems so could only see the movie that they put. During the flight , one movie which I partly saw when I woke up to take a meal was "Lara Croft Tomb Raider".Then as

Atlanta was nearing , I thought I would fill up the customs and immigration forms. The customs form is rather funny as it puts FoodStuffs,Insects in one option for us to tick in the list of items that we have in our baggage.As I had food stuffs but (hopefully) no insects , I was unsure abt what do do for that.In Atlanta time was only 2 hrs for the next flight and Immigration clearance queue was very long.There were arond 20 counters but it still took around one hr before I got immigration. The guy asked me why I was in Us and I said I was here to meet my husband. He made a big joke about it asking if I had ever met my husband..(ha ha) and then he asked me if I had any food. I said yes. I had banana chips. He laughed and asked if they were as sweet as I was and let me go.

At mumbai , they had told me that though customs and immigration would be at the first port of entry to the US , I could collect my luggage at albany . Just when I was about to find out where to board my next plane, I saw shyam coming with two large suitcases.He told me that even though they had told him that it was thru checkin , it seemed that the baggage had to be collected and put in the other converyor , based on the destination.I rused to where the bagage was coming in the conveyor belt and saw my luggage there. Again I got the help of another fellow passenger and got my stuff on a troley. There was a security clearance after which they told me that as the bag has food , I should go to the agricultural inspector.Time was running fast and I rushed to the agriculutural inspector's queue. They took out each annd every food item .But luckily didn't open anything. I put my luggage in the conveyor belt for my albany plane and then found that I had to take train to reach the Gate of departure. I rushed to the terminal just in time and the person at the plane said that I almost missed my flight'.

The flight to Albany was uneventful except for some chips and nuts that I got to eat which were very tasty.

At albany , I looked everywhere for vinuettan and decided that he had become late..

But just as I claimed my baggage I saw him ,sreechettan and eeshu(sreechettan's son) coming.It seems they had just gone to take the kid to the toilet. And that was the end of the journey....

Quest

To find my way in a lost world
Without a goal or a destination
Aimlessly I trudge and trundle
Still carrying my heavy bundle

Look inside , a voice reasoned,
Why do you live, what do you want,
Follow your heart and not the crowd
The crowd knows not its wants

Stay away from the rat race
To avoid being a rat?
Will I be called a shy mouse
If I keep me to myself

Questions and Confusion
As I embark on my quest
The answers to which
Will be my supreme test

Kite Without a String

I'd strained my ties till they broke,

I knew I 'd just become free,

Nobody could stop me know

I thought in my glee

Realization struck like a mighty blow

That I was all alone

Though At last I was free

The protection was gone.

When in life , we chafe at ties,

Seldome do we know,

Those ties and chains strong with love

Guide us through and through

When at last the chains are gone,

We dance at freedom new,
But like a kite with out a string
Lose our way, we do!

Demystifying the Malayalam Months

Yesterday on my way back home from work, I was stuck with a strange thought process. About months in malayalam calendar and how they were matching to the english zodiac signs.
Kanni was obviusly virgo , the virgin -the meaning was so obvious. Tulam was libra -the thulas or balance  which was the sign for libra.Meenam was of course pisces. It was a bit more difficult to match up others but here they are

Chingam-simham-Leo

Kanni-Kanyaka-virgin-Virgo
Thulam-Thulas-Balance-Libra
Vrishchikam-(Googling got me that it means scorpion in Sanskrit)-Scorpio
Dhanu-Bow-Bow&Arrow-Archer-Sagitarius
Makaram-(this was a difficult one)-(Sanskrit meaning-Sea monster)-(Creature with Goat head and fish body)-Capricorn
Kumbham-Pot-Vessel-Water Carrier-Aquarius
Meenam-Meen-Fish-Pisces
Medam-Mesha-Ram-Aries
Idavam -Just coudn't get this one, the sanskrit one Vrishabham of course coincides with taurus. But Idavam and vrishabam? coun't make any connection.
Midhunam-Couple- Gemini-Twins -May be the constellation was interpreted differently.
Karakatakam-KarKat-sanscrit for crab-Cancer

Then I realised yet another thing. these months were exatcly one month off from the English Sun signs

The Promise

Saranya  looked at the mirror .  Her long waist length hair was shampooed and brown . Her dangling earrings were black metal and she wore not a tiny speck of gold anywhere. Her tiny black chain looked rusty over her faded T shirt. She looked as less traditional as a girl could be. Usually she would have loved this look. But today she hated herself.

A few months back , her look was a constant source of discord within the house. Each time she came down for dinner dressed this way, Sumitra aunty would make her life miserable. She would scold her head off ."Why can't you dress like an Indian girl. Why can't you wear some gold ornaments. It is not that your parents are poor and can't afford any of this." Saranya would ignore here completely and this angered her even more. Saranya's mother tried to make peace. She is here only for a few days and she is here for treatment. You have to be nice to her. And to her credit , she tried , but wearing gold ornaments and traditional clothes were beyond her."I can't wear ornaments just to please somebody". One day a frustrated Saranya shouted , only to find out that Sumitra aunty had overheard. From then on , she never uttered a word.

Months later, Sumitra aunty became weaker and weaker and lost all her hair after treatment. She would look at Saranya sadly , but did not say anything.Soon she became bedridden.One evening , she called Saranya to her side and said ,"When I was young, I used to love ornaments and new dresses, but my parents had no money to buy me anything.That is why when I see you not wearing any ornaments that your parents buy for you, I scold you so much. I can no longer wear them, At least I may see them on you.Her eyes filled with tears." Saranya understood. "Tomorrow. I will wear my new set saree and show off all my jewels to you and I will dress you up too. Let us take some photos then".

That was the last conversation Sumitra had with any body in this world.

The next day saranya sat alone in her room staring at the mirror. She looked as less traditional as a girl could be and first time in her life, she hated herself. On an impulse she took out her saree and wore it for the first time with out a complaint.She wore her gold chain and earrings. She looked at the mirror again . Tears were streaming down her face , but she felt at peace. She knew she had kept her promise and somewhere deep in her mind felt that Sumitra aunty too knew that  where ever she was.

My old 3310

As I was lazily snoozing the alarm on my iPhone in half woken slumber , a picture came to my mind.-My first cell phone , the Nokia 3310. It was big and blue and my constant companion for a good 6 years.It was back in 2003. India was a land where mobile phones were not so much in vogue as it is now. Incoming was also charged at around Rs 5 per min and even those select few blessed with the latest gadgetry hardly ever answered calls unless it was urgent.Then TRAI made incoming calls free. It was then that my mother, who wanted to keep tabs on her teenage daughter in college persuaded my dad to get me a cell phone. A small sleek (by the standards of the time) Nokia 3310. I was the least happy of the lot. Not only did I not want frequent calls from my mom asking where I was , but the fact was that being the scatter brain that I was , I was pretty confident that I would lose it somewhere in the course of the month.

But soon , for the first time in life , people started looking for me in hostel. I became an overnight celebrity as there were very few in the girls hostel who had cell phones .Hostel mates with boyfriends queued up to use my cell phone and in 2 years , the phone was witness of hundreds of hours of sugar coated puppy love.By the last year of college , cell phones became cheaper and more common and the use of my cell phone diminished considerably. It was then that I realised the power of the composer in the phone. I spent many fun hours trying desperately to create some new ring tones with not much success.

Later in 2004 when I got engaged and moved to Bangalore for my first job, the phone became a symbol of my new status as I was almost always on call with my fiance.Later the phone would also see a large number of international calls as my fiance moved to US and I emptied my pockets constantly to make expensive international calls.As the mobile world changed around ,me with people opting for sleeker and newer phones, I was looked at with disdain for holding on to my old phone.Do you use it to throw at stray dogs to keep them away was a common refrain I heard in those days. But I held on .. I had to change batteries three times and kept the phone which woke me up faithfully every day and kept me company all day long.

Everything has a life and life cycle and that was what I found out in 2006 , when I tried in vain to get the phone to charge up . It stubbornly refused to do so even after changing the battery and the charger and that was when I realised that it was the end of a long and eventful comradeship.

I got a Samsung 2310 after that and then a Nokia 3100 ,and now finally an IPhone.As I am gently touching the touch screen of the iPhone , I think of all those text messages hammered down into the hard keyboard of 3310. How times have changed.

ഉറുമിയും മാണിക്യകല്ലും

Happened to see two Prithviraj movies -the much hyped urumi by santhosh sivan and also manikyakkallu which has prithvi in a soft role -without action and muscles as a simple school teacher. Let me take them one by one.

Urumi on one hand has the trademark cinematography by Santhosh Sivan which makes watching the lush green shores of kerala in the 16th or 17th century candy for anyone's eyes.The movies traces the course of a young man(Prithviraj) sworn to avenge the death of his father by the hands of none other than Vasco Da Gama .  But For some reason, the film fails to touch a chord with your heart.The movie looks good , the performers are all awesome, but there is a certain kind of soul missing in the script that prevents the movie from being what it was aimed to be-an Epic. Prithviraj has done an excellent job and is well supported by Prabhu Deva, Nithya Menon and Genelia, though apart from Prithviraj and Prabhudeva, the rest of them look and act odd in their present day counter part roles.The attemps to draw a present day parallel  fails miserably and the movie should have stuck to its original 17th century track.

Best Part :Santosh Sivan's cinematography , Nithya Menon, Prithviraj's drop dead looks.The other suppprting actors from Jagathy to the singers at the king's palace have done justice to their roles.Notably I liked the actor who played the role of the king .

Good Part : Prithvi and Prabhudeva have a good cameraderie and have done well in their roles. Genelia in Action scenes.
OK Part : Script , which is good in parts , but meanders off without knowing if it should take itself seriously or not.
Worst Part :Vidyabalan and Tabu,Costumes(nobody can be tricked into believing that these were authentic kerala costumes)

 Urumi is an enterainer with eye catching visuals, amazing songs, attractive people- eye candy and just like some of the jokes that the lead duo crack on screen, it is not a film to be taken seriously.

Manikyakkallu on the other hand takes itself too seriously, were it a little less idealistic , a little less preachy and did not try to praise its hero every other minute of the second half, it would have been a pleasure to watch. The movie takes after many of the movies in the same genre about a teacher coming to uplift a downtrodden school and has little new to offer and evokes a sense of nostalgia of good old malayalam movies , but does not reach anywhere near them.

Best Part : I liked all the kids acting as students-(They were so natural) & Samvrutha and the location.


Good Part : All the supporting cast like Nedumudi and KPSC and Jagathy sleep walking through the roles they have played a billion times invoking nostalgia of old movies.

OK Part : Prithviraj-He looks good , I liked his non action hero look and style but needs to improve while talking long monlogues.

Worst Part : Script getting kathi like when Prithvi asking kids to read MK Gandhi and stuff. And the unrealistic ending. ( would have been good if it was just a 100% pass and A1 for 1 or 2(A1 for everyone was just unbelievable) and the editing. The movie is a good 20 mins extra long.

It was a movie that could have been better made with a tinge of freshness , but alas , that was not meant to be. It is the same old wine in a slightly newer bottle