Of Airports, God and Airhoshtesh

Well someone once said: Just got back from a pleasure trip, I took my mother-in-law to the airport"

Airports and railway stations somehow are a place where the phrase 'endless wait' really holds true...Either its waiting for the long planned departure or long expected arrival...Thanks to the flight schedules these days, endless wait is getting a bit more stretched...

I somehow love going to the airports...I have lost count of the number of times I went to the airport, though my flight journeys are quite less in number...

I went to the airport early this morning... Busy, sleepy yet snazzy as usual... A few frantic luggage stuffed travelers, Air India airhostess in neatly done horribly printed silk sarees, sexy Kingfisher 'bitches', yellow sleek Jet crew and so on... but wait till you visit the airport washrooms... They are almost similar to any local train station 'toilets'...Dim lights, smelly, and watery floors...watever be the source of that flood!

I was going through that endless wait phase in the lounge. As I looked around, a kid was moving his both hands aimlessly in the air ...the jesture was followed by the adults sitting beside him... the playful act was one of the ways to keep the mosquitoes and flies away!

But this post is not about 'toilets', 'flies' and other third world theatrics... Someone once said "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players"-

I spotted a number of Hare Krishna hippies today...Rucksacked, Krishna clad, sporting shaved heads, the tuft of hair on the back of their head, fair skinned legs wrapped in silk white dhotis... Each chanting Krishna prayers oblivious to the world around though making it more obvious for the people around...God knows what Krishna had in store for them which Jesus did not!

Well I'm not that religiously inclined to get into a debate. I spotted a middle aged woman... Trendy tracks, almost 6 feet, well built female in her 50s...Busy stretching half the time...Her tees boldly declared her love for the Himalayas as she was busy reading a book on the British Raj days in India...

Airports are not only about international tourists.... Our good old Dum Dum airport has the local flavor too...The doting son, bidding farewell to the proud North Calcutta parents, leaving for - Mumbai! The frantic newly married jeans clad wife, vermillion smeared forehead, overdose of Shakha Paula, Mangalsutra, bidding farewell to the husband, going somewhere I don't know... The husband ensures everything is in place, before the newly born oops newly married starts to fly... He even explains her how to fasten the seat belts... May be the airlines industry would soon get a few volunteers... Parents providing breakfast to their sons , husbands checking the documents and the sisters and brothers doing the last minute security check- "Nailcutter ta bag ey rekhechish to?"

I can't miss out the group that inspired me to pen down the post... They were like me , had come to 'see-off' someone...May be the daughter in law/ daughter... She was wearing stretch jeans and a well fitted shirt that made her plump figure all the more prominent....red shoes... red vermillion that ended in a triangular shape on her glowing forehead ( typically inspired by the daily soaps)... Her relatives ogled at the pancaked air hostess who passed by... pointing at them one of the yellow tanter saree female told the old man in the group: "Oi dekho...era shob air hoshtesh"--- The man stared silently at the picture perfect fashion school dropout divas ... "O erai"--- Seemed like the most important information he was waiting for, a minute later he answered..."Bhaloi banieche" --- May be he was talking about the airport, whatever...

I left at around 530 am... The sun had already kissed the Calcutta skyline... The city was waking up to a Monday morning... I need to get back to office... A new month begins... On a positive note... and I was coming back with my mother in law...so the pleasure trip quote was not much applicable for me though! ;)

P.S: My comments are solely based on my travel expereinces to DumDum airport...Haven't done much airport hopping in this short life!