Preparing to travel

It was a beautiful Sunday and the air was filled with lots of excitement at my place. I was about to travel out of India, to Germany, for the first time in my life! The journey would a long one as the tickets were not available on time. Amma was all ready with her Chatni pudi, Palya-da pudi and some kind of Avalakki pudi that were to go into my all new black Samsonite suitcase. Akka had a packet to be delivered to her friend's brother somewhere in Germany. The last moment packing was hurriedly being done by Akka and Amma.

Amma had kept all my clothes on the cot for me to approve which should go into the suitcase and which would stay back in India waiting for me to come back in 12 days' time. I went into Amma and Nana's room and approved the things that were eligible to travel with me to Germany. After everything went into the suitcase, it was time to weigh and see if it was less than 20 kilos. As expected, the weight was around 23 kilos and now was the time to do further filtering of the clothes that would come with me. I opened the suitcase and the first thing that I removed out of it were the packets that Amma had prepared painstakingly just for me. But what the hell, I was going only for 12 days and I could manage without all these as the woman in the place where I was to stay, cooked very good Indian food.

Akka convinced me to take atleast the chatni pudi and i removed a few of my clothes and the weight was around 18 kilos.So, the baggage was cleared to be loaded into the Scorpio later that day.

Then was the blessing ceremony by the elders of the family for me to have a safe journey. I prostrated in front of the God and later one common namaskaara to all the elders.


(Yes, my posts will be this detailed and lengthy, skip the finer details if you just want the "Synopsis")


It was time for me to leave for the airport to avoid last-minute-rush and namma bengalooru traffic. We reached the airport ahead of the schedule and we bade good bye and checked in to the Chennai bound jet airways flight.

Having to wait for close to 5 hours in Chennai was a tough thing. As soon as we came out from the domestic terminal to go to the international, I was reminded of my 4th month stay in the city. The same weather, same language, same people.. felt good.

With a little bit of hesitation, the immigration officer cleared my visa and let me stand in the loooong queue for the security check to board the flight. The wait in the queue was horrible, we stood for close to one and half hours and then went through the security check procedure. There was ample time for our Lufthansa aircraft to take off after everything was done. My colleague and I
barged into a book store and she bought a sudoku book after I suggested her to buy one (coz I didn't have the money!)

We started solving a puzzle together when we were asked to board the Boeing aircraft which was to take us to 'foreign!!'

Gone are those days when the typical brahmin aunties and uncles considered foreign as a country. Nam huduga foreign ge hogtaa idaan ri. Parents, friends and relatives of the traveler would boast in front of others as though they themselves had gone abroad!

The Hi-Tech software engineers' clan of these days keep traveling around the world as though the previous generation used to travel from Bangalore to Mysore or Bangalore to Hassan. Uncles and aunties of today are busy discussing the weather in other countries, the famous places, the duration for which their sons or daughters would be going, the exchange rates and the what-nots


Okay, back to my travel. The hostess in the flight. Ah! What a smile she had. The aircraft was really huge, not the ones that our Gopinath or Mallya use. Each row in the aircraft can accomodate 10 people. There were two aisles and I had got a window seat. My co-passenger was a 'foreigner'. He didnt know English and I dont know any other international language and hence, my 10 hour journey from Chennai to Frankfurt was a very silent one. It was dark outside for me to keep gazing the skies. The leg room between the seats was also not comfortable adding to my woes. I didnt quite enjoy the journey. The food nevertheless, was good. We were offered a dinner in the night and a breakfast early in the morning.

I think i'm writing a bit too much for anybody to have the patience to sit and read the whole article. I will tell you about my 'Germany Experience' in a fresh article.

Thanks for reading the whole article.


PS: This is the synopsis: I got an opportunity to travel to Germany, I did my packing and left India from Chennai to reach Frankfurt and then would go to Hamburg. End of article.