I am watching the video which tells you what to do if the flight is about to plummet down to earth (i don't know why they scare people with those warnings. But they do put the fear of God in you). Now if you are wondering what I was doing getting scared shitless in an airplane, let me take you a few days back and start at the beginning....
Now that the whole world is still trying to decide whether we are in a recession or have we experienced the worst and moving towards the - give loans to everyone without checks - era once again (at least am getting 3 calls from various financial institutions daily asking me to take money from them. Probably they haven't heard about this slowdown).
All companies are in a financial freeze mode where even if you gotta travel to the restrooms, you have to get an approval from at least 3 VPs. But lo I was asked to travel !. When my manager asked me to travel, I said 'no thanks, I don't wanna pee now'. But he said that I have to go to London. Since London in our local slang has an entirely different connotation which is no way near to the capital of the United Kingdom and more nearer to bowel movements, I politely declined the offer again wondering why my manager is so concerned with the well being of my excretory systems. More over I had been to the old blighty about 2 years ago and the chances of me going again was as remote as Royal Challenngers of Bengaluru making to the finals of IPL. But we all know what happened and I was really flying again.
It so transpired that a new business opportunity arose and our management in their infinite wisdom agreed to send associates to UK as soon as possible(as if all we had to do was to hail a passing auto rickshaw and ask the driver to take us to London. Mind you knowing our rickshaw drivers, they may agree to take you to London, but not to Lingarajapuram. But that's an entirely different story altogether).
Without knowing the latest visa procedures and company policies, our managers asked two of my colleagues to apply for work permits. Since the policies had changed, it appeared that the work permits would get processed only after 4 weeks and our clients were hopping mad at the delay, a search was done to find people with valid visa to leave instantly. My manager was the first one to put his hand up and claim that he had a valid business visa. But he was asked to look for other candidates (I guess the clients had a good laugh). I on the other hand had a work permit for couple of months and a valid visa too and I was chosen to be the err... Chosen one !
I was told on thursday evening to leave on saturday and after the usual long list of processes and medical tests (where after sucking what amounted to a couple of litres of my blood for various tests, I was declared medically fit to travel), I got my tickets.
I was being sent to London through Colombo and after the recent developments in the emerald country, don't blame me for being apprehensive about the flight plan.
When I announced at home that am going onsite, the reaction was 'not again!'. Where my parents are trying hard to get me hitched to some poor girl, before the kids of my neighbourhood start calling me a granddad instead of uncle ( am past the age of calling anna, if you haven't noticed). And here I am flying off. They weren't too thrilled about the idea. But what ho, duty calls and you gotta make some sacrifices in the line of duty and if it means escaping..err...delaying getting married for some more time, then so be it. Not that I had a long list of girls desperate to marry me.....
The day of flying and I with my usual bunch of friends headed towards airport. The new one, which I had just seen earlier and not entered, beckoned me. As we entered the airport we saw some stalls of Karnataka tourism displaying various things. Thinking that its the usual pitch to attract tourists, we headed to towards the check in counters to look for the time when my flight will be called, something made us stop at our tracks. There was a stage and around it lot of people wearing dancing clothes, a lady in green saree, people with traditional music instruments, a lady in green saree, people in various costumes and did I mention a lady in green saree?. Removing all thoughts of checking the flight time, we walked towards the stage to check out what it was all about....ok more importantly to check out the lady in green saree.
There were no short of admirers and wherever she moved, at least a dozen pair of eyes followed her. We being the perfect gentlemen we are, just sat around looking at the whole spectacle of her moving around gracefully and a bunch of males ogling her with their mouth agape.... No I did not ogle..but I did notice that she was quite an eyeful to look at..
It seemed that the Karnataka tourism was showcasing the culture of the state and as a part of it there were programmes daily at the airport (and yeah ogling at beautiful girls is a part of our culture). The lady in green saree was compereing the programme. It started with a rousing Karaga dance where the dancers moved around the airport lounge dancing to the tunes of thamate. Many of the passengers around were amused by the spectacle and a few annoyed (yeah, they were the ones who hated our culture). The foreigners as usual were excited running around with their cameras to capture the real India and what more they got to see it just as soon as they landed in India. I saw some of them after seeing the whole thing, walking back to ticket counters to book tickets back to their countries as their purpose to visit India was accomplished just outside airport. I mean while thoroughly enjoyed it.
Remembering time to time that my actual reason for being at the airport was a tough job with all these cultural extravaganza around me. And then the lady in green started to announce a bevy of performances. Though seeing her just speaking was nothing short of a visual delight, the first performers, the thamate (which by the way is a traditional percussion instrument) troupe was outstanding. As they performed, one would just want to dance with abandon to those earthy tunes which no world renowned musician can create. I had a tough time switching between watching the performers and the lady in green.
The next performers were the kamsaale group, who along with singing, also dance with playing small cymbals. Their moves were so complicated and sometimes dangerous that wearing protective gear to ones nether region is a must if you have to avoid injuring your manhood. Nevertheless, there was no two words about the performance..yeah just one word...outstanding.
Here was a perfect example of what is generally known as irony. Me being in Karnataka all my lifetime never once bothered to see all these art. And there I was watching and appreciating the performances, just when I was leaving the country !. The lady too was encouraging the crowd to applaud and also to get their pictures clicked with the performers as this was a one of a kind opportunity. That got us excited and we were about to rush and get our snaps with the lady, but stopped short of of doing it due to absolute lack of nerves.
Meanwhile the lady in green had realized the presence of an extremely handsome man at the premises and started throwing sideway glances at us. And I believe if my flight had not been announced, she would have surely approached us to have a word or two (might also would have talked at length, cursing us for ogling at her as if she was the last female on the planet). I would never know as I had to leave just a group of bharathanatyam dancers were enthralling the crowd. Remember the earlier sacrifice in the line of duty?.... Yeah made another tough decision and decided to board the flight after all.
So here I am sitting at the Bhandaranaike International Airport Colombo, waiting for my connecting flight to London (yeah I crossed Indian ocean and landed in Srilanka while writing all this), musing over the happenings of last couple of days and wondering what the future will throw at me. Whatever it will be, be sure of hearing it from me....
PS: waiting at Colombo airport is so boring after all the excitement at Bangalore......
Now that the whole world is still trying to decide whether we are in a recession or have we experienced the worst and moving towards the - give loans to everyone without checks - era once again (at least am getting 3 calls from various financial institutions daily asking me to take money from them. Probably they haven't heard about this slowdown).
All companies are in a financial freeze mode where even if you gotta travel to the restrooms, you have to get an approval from at least 3 VPs. But lo I was asked to travel !. When my manager asked me to travel, I said 'no thanks, I don't wanna pee now'. But he said that I have to go to London. Since London in our local slang has an entirely different connotation which is no way near to the capital of the United Kingdom and more nearer to bowel movements, I politely declined the offer again wondering why my manager is so concerned with the well being of my excretory systems. More over I had been to the old blighty about 2 years ago and the chances of me going again was as remote as Royal Challenngers of Bengaluru making to the finals of IPL. But we all know what happened and I was really flying again.
It so transpired that a new business opportunity arose and our management in their infinite wisdom agreed to send associates to UK as soon as possible(as if all we had to do was to hail a passing auto rickshaw and ask the driver to take us to London. Mind you knowing our rickshaw drivers, they may agree to take you to London, but not to Lingarajapuram. But that's an entirely different story altogether).
Without knowing the latest visa procedures and company policies, our managers asked two of my colleagues to apply for work permits. Since the policies had changed, it appeared that the work permits would get processed only after 4 weeks and our clients were hopping mad at the delay, a search was done to find people with valid visa to leave instantly. My manager was the first one to put his hand up and claim that he had a valid business visa. But he was asked to look for other candidates (I guess the clients had a good laugh). I on the other hand had a work permit for couple of months and a valid visa too and I was chosen to be the err... Chosen one !
I was told on thursday evening to leave on saturday and after the usual long list of processes and medical tests (where after sucking what amounted to a couple of litres of my blood for various tests, I was declared medically fit to travel), I got my tickets.
I was being sent to London through Colombo and after the recent developments in the emerald country, don't blame me for being apprehensive about the flight plan.
When I announced at home that am going onsite, the reaction was 'not again!'. Where my parents are trying hard to get me hitched to some poor girl, before the kids of my neighbourhood start calling me a granddad instead of uncle ( am past the age of calling anna, if you haven't noticed). And here I am flying off. They weren't too thrilled about the idea. But what ho, duty calls and you gotta make some sacrifices in the line of duty and if it means escaping..err...delaying getting married for some more time, then so be it. Not that I had a long list of girls desperate to marry me.....
The day of flying and I with my usual bunch of friends headed towards airport. The new one, which I had just seen earlier and not entered, beckoned me. As we entered the airport we saw some stalls of Karnataka tourism displaying various things. Thinking that its the usual pitch to attract tourists, we headed to towards the check in counters to look for the time when my flight will be called, something made us stop at our tracks. There was a stage and around it lot of people wearing dancing clothes, a lady in green saree, people with traditional music instruments, a lady in green saree, people in various costumes and did I mention a lady in green saree?. Removing all thoughts of checking the flight time, we walked towards the stage to check out what it was all about....ok more importantly to check out the lady in green saree.
There were no short of admirers and wherever she moved, at least a dozen pair of eyes followed her. We being the perfect gentlemen we are, just sat around looking at the whole spectacle of her moving around gracefully and a bunch of males ogling her with their mouth agape.... No I did not ogle..but I did notice that she was quite an eyeful to look at..
It seemed that the Karnataka tourism was showcasing the culture of the state and as a part of it there were programmes daily at the airport (and yeah ogling at beautiful girls is a part of our culture). The lady in green saree was compereing the programme. It started with a rousing Karaga dance where the dancers moved around the airport lounge dancing to the tunes of thamate. Many of the passengers around were amused by the spectacle and a few annoyed (yeah, they were the ones who hated our culture). The foreigners as usual were excited running around with their cameras to capture the real India and what more they got to see it just as soon as they landed in India. I saw some of them after seeing the whole thing, walking back to ticket counters to book tickets back to their countries as their purpose to visit India was accomplished just outside airport. I mean while thoroughly enjoyed it.
Remembering time to time that my actual reason for being at the airport was a tough job with all these cultural extravaganza around me. And then the lady in green started to announce a bevy of performances. Though seeing her just speaking was nothing short of a visual delight, the first performers, the thamate (which by the way is a traditional percussion instrument) troupe was outstanding. As they performed, one would just want to dance with abandon to those earthy tunes which no world renowned musician can create. I had a tough time switching between watching the performers and the lady in green.
The next performers were the kamsaale group, who along with singing, also dance with playing small cymbals. Their moves were so complicated and sometimes dangerous that wearing protective gear to ones nether region is a must if you have to avoid injuring your manhood. Nevertheless, there was no two words about the performance..yeah just one word...outstanding.
Here was a perfect example of what is generally known as irony. Me being in Karnataka all my lifetime never once bothered to see all these art. And there I was watching and appreciating the performances, just when I was leaving the country !. The lady too was encouraging the crowd to applaud and also to get their pictures clicked with the performers as this was a one of a kind opportunity. That got us excited and we were about to rush and get our snaps with the lady, but stopped short of of doing it due to absolute lack of nerves.
Meanwhile the lady in green had realized the presence of an extremely handsome man at the premises and started throwing sideway glances at us. And I believe if my flight had not been announced, she would have surely approached us to have a word or two (might also would have talked at length, cursing us for ogling at her as if she was the last female on the planet). I would never know as I had to leave just a group of bharathanatyam dancers were enthralling the crowd. Remember the earlier sacrifice in the line of duty?.... Yeah made another tough decision and decided to board the flight after all.
So here I am sitting at the Bhandaranaike International Airport Colombo, waiting for my connecting flight to London (yeah I crossed Indian ocean and landed in Srilanka while writing all this), musing over the happenings of last couple of days and wondering what the future will throw at me. Whatever it will be, be sure of hearing it from me....
PS: waiting at Colombo airport is so boring after all the excitement at Bangalore......
2 comments:
Oh yeah... "feel free to take pictures of the rare sights"!:)
good one...
@Pradeep :)
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