From Trivandrum to Kolkata

‘All passengers of the Indigo flight departing from Trivandrum Airport to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Airport in Kolkata via Bangalore are requested to proceed to Gate No. 3 for boarding.’

As soon as we heard this, we arranged all our belongings and carry bags, double checking if the tags on the bags had the seal or not, and stood in the long queue that had already formed within a few seconds. We showed our boarding passes to the lady in uniform and proceeded into the long tunnel-like thing that would ultimately come to an end at the entrance door of the airplane. We got in and were greeted by the air hostesses.

This is just random observation, but all air hostesses are ugly robots that put a lot of make-up on their faces to cover up the blemishes, pimples and acne that might make them look, say, unattractive, unsightly or hideous . . . or so they think. Moreover, to give this an appropriate conclusion, they think they look pretty in their short skirts and shirts, but clearly, they do not!

We found our seats in the plane and sat down. The first thing I did was to fasten my seat belt as tight as I could, stuffed cotton balls into my ears and prayed for my sake. This was mainly because I had had bad incidents of vomiting all over myself and experiencing excruciating headaches whenever I travelled by air. The plane “revved up” and started cruising along the runway. The air hostesses were showing the general things to do if the plane lost air pressure or if it suddenly fell into the sea or ocean. Though I’ve travelled in planes many times before and seen this procedure, I always love to see it again and again! Weird habit.

We heard the pilots speaking, informing the stewardesses to take position for take-off. As soon as I heard this, I clutched the chair handle and closed my eyes. I felt my stomach doing twirls as it took off from the ground . . .

The airplane successfully landed at Bangalore International Airport. I was half-happy. The other part of me was anxious about the one-hour travel to Kolkata in the same flight. I just hoped that nothing bad would happen.

Up in the air, when we were about fifteen minutes from Kolkata, as I was sitting in the seat next to the window, I saw bright lights of mostly yellow, but also some smudges of red, green and orange. I smiled as I saw this beautiful city. At that moment, I could not wait to land.

After we collected our baggage from the conveyer belt, my father fixed up a taxi and all of us driven on the roads of West Bengal’s capital.  After about one hour, we reached our place of stay, which was a guest house arranged by my dad’s company. We had a very yummy dinner and a good sleep after the long travel.

The next day was a sunny and cold day in Kolkata. We were on the twelfth floor, and the view was just magnificent. We saw mostly many red-brick buildings and some others which were coated with cement. We also saw the expected leaking water from a pipe or balcony of the building. We quickly ate and we were soon out on the streets. We first visited the Victoria Memorial Hall, where there were also horse rides with chariots suited for kings and queens! We rode on one of those and we got to see the clean, well-tarred roads with one or two stray dogs taking a nap on the pavements.

Then, we saw the Memorial, taking umpteen pictures of everything from top to bottom. Me and my sister are crazed photographers, I’ll admit. We had an absolutely awesome time but now, it was time for shopping! We hailed a taxi, which was an old ambassador car, and asked him to take us to Gudiya Haat. Gudiya Haat is like Commercial Street or Malleswaram in Bangalore, or more appropriately, Bengaluru. It is a lengthy line of tiny shops on both sides, located on the pavements of the streets. It is not as it sounds. It was not pretty bad. We started in the morning and ended at about half an hour to five. Mind you, the place was already pretty dark. It was like six thirty in Trivandrum. It was that dim, believe it or not. We had had lunch at a vegetarian hotel called Banana Leaf, where the manager conversed with us in pure Tamil. It was a taste of home, more or less.

We reached back at about seven thirty. I, my sister and my father were reading something while my mother was watching something on television. Like yesterday, we ate a flavorsome meal, which consisted of roti, dal fry, vegetable jalfrazy and dry gobi manchurian and peas. Then, we bid good night to the cook and caretaker, packed our bags and awaited the long flight to Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati by taking a long siesta.