Last week was pretty hectic for me. Was unwell for 2 days & had to take offs on mon & tues. Had to visit Doc as the temperature wasnt going down. I had temperature of 103 'C when we visited Doc. Went to work on wed. Thursday - had to wake up 4 in the morning as had to board the 7 am flight to Coimbatore. Only reaching at the Airport I came to know that the flight to Coimbatore is via Mumbai. Anyways we reached Airport at 6 AM. At the last moment I was packing my stuff. First time I saw the Flight status as "Boarding" even when there was 45 min to go for the flight to take off & we did not clear the security check-ins. We were not alone.... There were others too :D
Indian Airlines has improved a lot - be it their food or in-flight entertainment channels. You will find different movies played on different routes. For e.g. last month when we travelled from Delhi-Trivandrum (via Kochi) the movie which they had was "Love Aajkal". And this time I get to watch two movies. One was starring Bobby Deol & kagana - dont know the name of the movie. Another movie was getting played on another video channel- starring Shammi Kapoor & Asha Parekh - once again dont know the name of the movie but it had some amazing numbers including the one 'O mere sona re sona re son re ..." When the movie reached its climax our flight reached its destination - Coimbatore. Prior to that we landed in Mumbai - my first live experience of Mumbai. The Airport is all surrounded with slums - one of the biggest in Asia - but you wont even come to realize it b'cause it doesnt look bad from above :) I found the Mumbai crowd - people who got down at Mumbai - well behaved, dressed and decent as compared to Delhites. I would love to visit Mumbai again n' would like to explore their culture (that by default includes food too). After landing in Coimbatore we boarded a cab to Salem which was approx. 150 km away.
It was a nice drive because of the smooth roads. We crossed over Cauvery river which was full of water. When we reached Aunt's place we were told that we were the first relative to arrive for the function. It was my cousin's wedding the next day. It was a north + south indian marriage. My cousin is from south & his bride from Jabalpur. He follows Christianity & her bride is from a Hindu family. Anyways the bride's family was expected to reach by 3 PM but their train was late. I waited till 10 PM - was dead tired so went upstairs to catch up some sleep. The relatives arrived around 10 PM & they had their dinner. I slept like a log & woke up next morning. I had batch early in the morning because we had some customs to follow - we went to the hotel & gave sarees & all other stuff to the would-be bride. My bua speaks good hindi so conversing with the other people wasnt that difficult. But still the translation was happening as they sung songs. After it was over we went back to home for lunch - relatives were expected for lunch. After lunch we started getting dressed for the occasion. Had few photo sessions which were funny - thanks to my cousin. We all departed for the Church where the ceremony was suppose to take place. Church was all decorated beautifully with flowers. The ceremony took place - bride & the groom said their prayers & accepted each other as husband & wife. Everyone proceeded to the community hall for dinner where the reception was hosted. I was ggiven a good job - had to stand on the stage along with the newly weds to collect the gifts. Thats a job given by my bua to yours truly. I had no issues but I stood there for more than 2 hrs - God there were so many people - and imagine yourself standing for that long on a footwear which I wore after nearly a gap of 3 years. After every few minutes I looked at the Q hoping that it will get shorter - (people lined up for the presentation ceremony). Anyways everything went off well & wanted to return back to Delhi to my sweet home & wanted to sleep on my sweet bed for a good sleep.
Next day we boarded a Kingfisher flight from Salem to Chennai - it was a small aircraft - baby aircraft :D. The pilot's accent reminded me that its not the first time I am listening to such an accent. His accent reminded me of Ruslan. :) We reached Chennai shortly within 45 mins. From there we boarded Indigo flight back to Delhi. My suggestion would be to never board indigo as its one of the cheapest airlines & the lack of space would be a big discomfort for you.I've told my father that i wont fly unless he gets the tickets booked with AI/IA in future :) It was a good journey but a tiring one. One more thing - when I am in South I at times get the feeling as if I am in California & when i was there in San Francisco I felt as if am in my home town. It has happened to me many times when I visited South last month & this month. I still dont know the reason why.
