Friday, July 11, 2008

On a way to home...





Slept at the time when I used to be most active. It’s a punishment for me if I have to sleep at 12 midnight.

Got up at 5:30 am right the time I used so sleep. So my day was disturbed and night too. I was excited to get into the air bus as early as possible. But how? This time the journey to airport was exceptionally shorter didn’t know the reason. After few blinks of eyes I was nearby the airport. May be I slept in the auto. A guy who can sleep any time in this earth, no matter standing, sitting or even eating sometime is not a now event for him.

Happiness and worries at same time and its not your working place, imagine the condition. My situation was almost like that, when I was stopped to enter the gate stating that my name is not written in the ticket. My travel agent forgot to write my name in ticket, is it negligence or mistake? And I could not notice it before hand. Had it been a prescription I would have noted the mistake. Ha ha.

I talked to my travel agent and wrote my name in the similar handwriting with similar color pen. Thank god I carry blue and black pen most of the time. Here black pen made me enter the airport. I saw my travel agent just arrived when I was about to enter. Thanks for his concern, though I had solved the problem at my level. Any way I was inside, breaching the boundary of security and was traveling without name. It was a narrow escape in fact.

Another funny part of m journey was repeated cancellation of flight in successions. Every half an hour announcement was being made after 11 and the final call was 3:15 pm. My intelligence desperately knocked my investigating center in my brain. My assumption was they cancelled the flight because of less inadequaate passenger. Who wants to bear loss in such critical period where fuel hike has already touched the sky? Yes they had cancelled the morning flight and clubbed the morning and evening flight.

After 11.30 am I checked in and got the boarding pass. Now I was happy that if they cancel the flight they have to make an arrangement for stay in hotel. Now I was dreaming of staying in a 5 star hotel in Delhi. I was not in a hurry now. There was no alternative.

In between I got the emigration clearance but the hand bag was not tagged with airlines sticker. So I was stacked in the lounge mid way between immigration and final security. I was sent back to get the airlines sticker. Now I could not reach the area where I can get the airlines sticker cause I had to cross immigration and immigration is one way traffic. Once you are in you don’t dream of coming same route. Security said wait till the airlines personnel comes and help you. But when they would come no body knows. Probably they come just before departure. I was going through tough situation. Waited for a long. In between a beautiful girl came and asked why who and where? She was from THAI airlines. She tagged my bag with THAI airlines immediately and said go. Ticket and boarding pass from one airline and hand bag from other airlines. It was a big joke that none of the security bothered to see it. They just wanted to see some tag in hand bag. Had they been little bit keen I would have trapped like anything. What a big joke. I am once again sorry for breaching security in my own way. I thought today is my bad day and things goes unnoticed in such day and troubles till you cry. I was lucky that I escaped with minor embarrassment all the way. Thank god nothing went wrong. I was searching for a better place to throw my body in ease. Was coughing continuously, dry and husky cough with chest pain and what not. Really was coughing like a chronic smoker. Yes I am a passive smoker.

When you feel like abusing the culprit you search his enemy first. You just poke once in such situation then the rest is done by the crowd. I was waiting for the opportunity. I meet another passenger who had been victim of flight delay by same airlines. The father of one kid and wife standing nearby started like anything and cursed as if it passes to generation and generation. For me it was first time I was waiting so long in airport.

I believed I could join lunch with family but I was feeling sorry for asking them to cook for me too a day earlier as my flight was at 9 am and its one and half hour flight. Oh god it’s so difficult to get vegetarian eatables in the waiting lounge. Idiots nobody consider for us. Funny thing was there was no television and things to pass time in the waiting lounge.

Ultimately I reached the exit of boarding. Life is too uncertain and you get disappointed when things do not follow as it should be and your way. Yes I was disappointed and hurt by cosmic airways.

Finally 7 hours long waiting came to an end and I marched towards the airbus. Slowly I was heading to my land. The land which gave birth to my mom and me as well, the land where I was taught the lesson of life in whatever form. My happiness, my sorrows, my tears, my smile, and the feeling of being a complete citizen. As soon as the plane took off I felt weightlessness. Why not I feel the weightlessness? I was really beyond the reach of the burden of work, the responsibility, the punctuality, consciousness of being a doctor, this that and what not? My god few of the seats were still vacant. God save the private airlines, government airline is already grounded, so what? Is the bus and train journey the only alternative then? If so I don’t feel like visiting places.

Plane was slowly vanished in the silvery cloud. And after one and half hours later beautiful cabin crew announced that we are about to land in kathmandu international airport. Outside temperature is 24 degree and its 5 pm local time, 5:45GMT. The moment I came out from airbus, a cold shooting breeze kissed my neck and slapped my check. I thought even the air is not happy with me for being an academic refugee. Kissed my neck because it really had missed me and slapped with love because it still loves me to be here. I thought there is no place climatically better than my kathmandu. Am I wrong? Definitely not….

Kathmandu has changed a lot. Earlier my flight used to be in the evening or night. So true picture of kathmandu used to be incomplete in my mind. This time I saw the real kathmandu suffocated with many new concrete forests and wild creatures of this forest. Yes people have changed a lot. The typical nepali of being polite, honest, clean hearted, and an unexplained typical nepali essence, where they have gone? I felt country has marched to globalization amidst poverty.

Shortly I reached the place I was desperate to enter. Oh god they have changed the main entrance. A beautiful new metal gate was the first picture attracted my mind. Slowly I peeped inside it wow, the same greenery, and same garden exactly similar 2 years back. Thanks all for your continuous labor and interest to maintain it. for a man who has no where to go apart from typical dettol smelling wards, formalin smelling theatre and crowded OPD it was like a heaven. In fact going heaven alive and with out ticket if one needs to pay for it in wildest dream to go to heaven. Phuchu barked at me showing his sadness of leaving alone. Barked for a while and surrendered as if he is under my custody. Came closer and kissed my nose. Wow he is same as I left 2 years back. Same intimacy, love and affection, after all I shared same bed when he was too small. Still remember cleaning my bed sheath when he used to be naughty enough not to go outside for ……. Home burst into tears so as me. I felt sorry for staying outside far so many years, but it was a need . I consoled my home, garden, and room. But how can I stop my bed. It laughed like a mad and showered the tears, tears of happiness trickled down the bed and I was flooded in its love.

Met every member of home and I felt elated on their welcome. They forgot I was approaching 30 and showed the same love as if I was just a kid. God I pray, make me a kid always in front of them. My study room, where I learnt to cook food is same it was before, it disguised the smoky wall for my welcome. In fact it was recently painted. Sat for minutes and refreshed the memory of various stage of my life, a crying neonate, a consolable kid, learning ABC, doing homework, reading comics keeping inside book to cheat mom and cooking food, all ran through my eyes flashing the perfect visual memory. Thank god human brain is super computer, no fear of virus disabling to retrieve data, no chips, no pen drive, and no floppy required to process data. It is store inside internal hard disc; yes it is a black box of human organ.

Day one came to a halt after finishing dinner. Imagine self grown green vegetables and rice. God can’t imagine how I was alive with hostel food. After all its necessity of life so compromise is inevitibale. Can’t resist further without going to my bed.

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