24 November, 2013: So, I'm finally returning from Weesp (Holland) after 3 months of a super wondrous trip - sorry for my excitement, I mean business trip! :)
I still can't believe that I'm now among those handful percentage of "lucky" guys in the world who get to travel to Amsterdam while they are STILL single/bachelor! All this while, I sometimes used to whine about being single BUT life apparently had "other" plans for me. I had done "almost" everything that Amsterdam offers so easily or effortlessly to single guys (provided you have just enough Euros)! The maxim "Everything happens for a reason" finally made sense to me...:)
....Right, so I've now traveled from Amsterdam and have a stopover at Helsinki airport (Finland). I have "5 cruel hours" to wait for my next connecting flight to Delhi. I'm frigging tired as I woke up at 6 in the morning. I'm roaming inside this beautiful Helsinki airport and "suddenly" I see this Finnish "Deli" restaurant - I had earlier taken their chicken burger as a flight meal & I simply loved it. This was enough "seduction" for me to try the "Deli" restaurant again for some more food as I thought this will also help me chip away some time (even though minuscule) from my 5 hours waiting time. Not sure if "Finnair" Airline had deviously planned this - wonderful Deli (Finnish) burger as a flight meal and then you see a Deli restaurant as soon as you start roaming inside the airport - whatever it was - their plan was at least working on me! :)
Next, I head to my connecting flight's gate and I still have 4 hours to go! I start watching people (duh?) - ah, I see a married Indian couple having a delightful conversation...then I see an Indian-Dutch couple and they apparently have a "mixed-race" kid too - nice! The world is certainly getting smaller & eventually turning into a big "melting pot" (like that old BOYZONE band's song)...I see a gorgeous European (probably?) girl holding a pretty THICK tourist guide on INDIA and I then say to myself, "Apparently, the INCREDIBLE INDIA campaign advertised by our government has mesmerized her enough to visit India"....
...Eventually, I get inside the plane & sit on my aisle seat...Aisle spot remains my favorite as it always makes it easy for me to drink innumerable cans of Coke & then pay almost equal number of visits to the toilet just like that "Tubthumping Chumbawamba...pissing the night away..." SONG - all this without disturbing the "peace" of my fellow passenger!...:)
Anyways, I tighten my seat belt and "wait" for my co passenger - fingers crossed (sheer anticipation makes life so interesting at such seemingly boring moments)! Oh my God, please make some girl sit besides me! I think I might have played this prayer in my head countless times in past on such occasions - the truth is, they've never been successful. It seems such wishes fructify only in movies...
....God smiles on me this time & I see a girl start putting her stuff just in the cabin above my head. Wait, Oh my God this is the same married Indian girl I saw outside...perhaps, I should've been more specific in my "wish" and should've rather asked for a "bachelor" girl. I trusted God here as I thought one needed to tell specifics to Devil only so as not to spoil you plans, just like poor Elliot Richards learnt this the hard way in the movie BEDAZZLED! Returning to my trauma - to make it worst, her husband will now persuade me enough to swap my "aisle" seat with him & I was not even sure where his husband was sitting. Damn it! Nothing could haven been worse. I was almost about to cry but the girl simply sat behind my seat and not besides me - phew, what a relief!
Anyways, I tighten my seat belt and "wait" for my co passenger - fingers crossed (sheer anticipation makes life so interesting at such seemingly boring moments)! Oh my God, please make some girl sit besides me! I think I might have played this prayer in my head countless times in past on such occasions - the truth is, they've never been successful. It seems such wishes fructify only in movies...
....God smiles on me this time & I see a girl start putting her stuff just in the cabin above my head. Wait, Oh my God this is the same married Indian girl I saw outside...perhaps, I should've been more specific in my "wish" and should've rather asked for a "bachelor" girl. I trusted God here as I thought one needed to tell specifics to Devil only so as not to spoil you plans, just like poor Elliot Richards learnt this the hard way in the movie BEDAZZLED! Returning to my trauma - to make it worst, her husband will now persuade me enough to swap my "aisle" seat with him & I was not even sure where his husband was sitting. Damn it! Nothing could haven been worse. I was almost about to cry but the girl simply sat behind my seat and not besides me - phew, what a relief!
...After 5 minutes, as I try to see if the mini TV in front of me is playing any decent show I suddenly get disturbed by a sweet girlish voice - "Excuse me, is that seat vacant?"...I just can't believe my eyes - it's the SAME girl who was holding a THICK tourist guide on India. I retort (controlling my resulting joy) - "Yeah sure...it's your seat only...After all, I was surprised that no one till now had claimed this seat for travelling to a BILLION people country!" As expected, she laughed - "nice start" I thought "smugly" to myself!...:)
"So I'm Melinda (name changed) & I'm from Sweden...What about you?", she said.
I thought she won't talk much but boy here she was even proactively "introducing" herself to me (God was apparently too happy with me today). I said - "I'm Mukul & I'm from India...I just came back from Amsterdam...".
"So you work in Amsterdam?", she said.
"So you work in Amsterdam?", she said.
"No, I was here on a 3 months business trip and now I go back to Delhi", I said.
"Oh ok....3 months is a long time!", she said.
I said, "Yeah, that's precisely what the immigration officer at Helsinki airport also said during my onward flight to Amsterdam. I guess he must be quite happy today to see me leave...".
She chuckled - "So which other places you visited during your stay here?"
"Basically, Amsterdam only. I visited almost all the top 20 places in Amsterdam right from Red light area to the best museums. I did almost everything that Amsterdam has to offer, especially what it offers to single/bachelor guys..."
She smiles - "Right...So you enjoyed your stay..."
"Yup, I did....What about you? Have you been to India before", I said.
"Oh yeah, I've been here earlier as well...I think I'm gonna visit Delhi then Jodhpur and then Dharamshala maybe. I love Dharamshala....", she said.
"Oh ok, so you must've booked your hotel and train tickets for places you wanna visit...", I said.
"Actually no, I just play along and do such things at the last moment...", she said.
Having grown-up in a billion people country where ever since you come out of your mother's womb, you have to be in a long "queue" (starting from getting admission in a decent school) and almost "fight" with the crowd for your turn, I would've never imagined that there may still exist some people (that too a girl) who would come to India without booking their hotel/train tickets in advance!
"Good for you...may you be lucky this time too with your last minute reservations in India...", I said.
"He he....thanks...So what else did you do in Amsterdam?", she said.
"Well, as I said earlier I did all things expected of a guy in Amsterdam but yeah I also developed a taste for museums in Amsterdam. I visited almost all of the top 10 museums. I especially liked the Anne Frank museum - ah the poor Jewish girl who was in hiding with her whole family in a secret annex in Amsterdam during second world war when Germany was ruling over Holland. They were hiding there for almost 2 years but then they eventually got busted and were later executed by the German soldiers just months before the liberation - what a pity! You know when you take a walk inside that actual house where they were hiding - it feels so damn scary just to think about the trauma the family must have gone through. Very touching moment indeed. I simply loved my visit to Anne Frank museum - the sheer experience was worth the 1 hour wait outside the museum.", I said.
"Yeah, true...", she said.
"You know there's this funny American sitcom called Family guy. They show a German teacher teaching history to students. One of them asks - Sir, why is the German history book having blank pages from the year 1941 to 1945? The teacher gets dumbstruck and simply orders the student to sit down....", I said.
She laughs -"he he...yeah...".
At this point the air hostess brings us food...
"Wow, it's matar paneer....I just love it...", Melinda said (excitedly).
"Yeah, paneer is supposed to be a bit heavy on stomach....so I hope that unlike Leonard of The Big Bang Theory fame, you are able to digest it properly... "
"he he...thanks...", she said.
....Hardly 2 hours left for flight now & Melinda tries to get some sleep..as for me, I choose to stay awake as I don't wanna lose any opportunity to talk with her (in case she wakes up!). So I put on my earphones and start watching The Big Bang Theory episodes. To help kill my sleep, I keep visiting the air hostess for a fresh Coke can...:)
...She finally wakes up and suddenly she starts fumbling for some stuff...
"What is it? Did you lose something?", I said.
"Yeah, I'm not sure where my India immigration form is...so yeah...searching for that...", she said.
"OMG, I can't believe you lost that...", I said.
"Ah there it is...I got it....wow..", she said.
"Ah...by the way I hope that the immigration folks simply accept your form even for the fact that you've so illegibly overwritten few items in it....", I smiled (while looking at her form).
"he he...yeah, I hope they do...", she smiled.
...It's early morning and our plane is about to land. We start seeing Delhi from above now and see some poorly built apartments/houses with lights on (as it was quite dark).
"Wow...it looks so beautiful....", she said.
"Beautiful??? It's creepy. It's nothing compared to beautiful houses/scenery you see when landing in Holland....", I said (kinda shocked, as I hardly found the sight beautiful).
"Well, still...it looks beautiful...", she said.
"Maybe from above, certainly not beautiful when you get closer to them", I said (pretty confident about my "not-so-beautiful" stand).
She smiles and continues looking outside the window very curiously like a child - enjoying every moment of it!
...Anyways, I join the queue outside the immigration counter that says "Indian passport holders". As for Melinda and other foreigners, even I'm literally confused as to which exact Immigration counter the foreigners are supposed to go to as we kept seeing different counters with "Indian passport holders" only sign. Finally, Melinda finds the non-Indian counter and gets quickly in the queue. In my head, I feel pissed off again with this idiotic arrangement at the airport where I see a total lack of clue that may help such hapless (visiting) foreigners to at least quickly identify the exact immigration counter that they need to go to - instead, right now they are left confounded & made to "guess" on their own! I feel the same disgust like any other Indian - lack of faith and hope in such Indian government systems where this perceived disillusion only gets stronger with more such real life examples!
...It's 15 minutes now and I wait for Melinda right outside the immigration counter. In my mind I'm slightly worried - "OMG, have I lost her? Damn it, I didn't even take her mobile number. How the hell will I be in touch with her?".....Suddenly, to my relief I see her again, smiling - as always....
"Hey....I'm back..Should we collect our baggage now?", she said.
"Sure...let's go...", I said (delighted to see her again!).
.....We are outside the airport now and I request to take a picture with her as a souvenir.
"Tell you frankly Melinda, I really enjoyed talking with you in the flight. I never thought I would make a new friend during this flight...", I said.
"Same here...", she smiles.
"Let's meet sometime in Delhi...You already have my number - call or Facebook me whenever you get a chance...", I said.
"Sure...will do...", she said.
...I just look outside my cab - the sun is shining, I'm back to my home country, the weather is pretty nice and I see that typical Indian traffic & chaos outside, lots and lots of people almost every where (what a stark contrast to Holland)...Eventually, I hear a "grateful" voice inside my head:
"Thanks HOLLAND! I've got a friend in you!"....:)
