Flight capture!!

The funniest and the scariest journey of my life, funny in my head, scary in my heart. I am traveling from Whitefield  area to the Bangalore airport which is approximately 50 kms and which should take me no more than one hour thirty minutes to reach and so I choose to take the bus at 5 pm from Whitefield. Now here is my blow by blow account of the journey. Flight time 19:40

Time 17:42  We have been stuck at a traffic signal at HAL for half an hour now and in that much time we must have moved barely a kilometer. 50 meters away from crossing the signal. My guess we'll clear it in two lights. Okay one has come to pass but for the second one there is no sign. In fact at least till now it was showing a red sign now even that is no where to be seen.

Time 17:53 Suddenly I'm concerned. I look up from my tablet and ask "bhaiya der kyun lag rahi hai" he says some minister is coming because of whom they have stopped the traffic. I am doomed my heart says and strangely my mind which was acting funny consents.

Time 17:55 I panic. I need to find another mode of transport if I have to get to the airport. I get off the bus and go look into an empty auto,as the people were on the road getting sick of being stuck. I ask a person whom I assume to be the autowala whether he would take me to the airport. He said he couldn't go beyond some bridge. I knew it would be a roadblock for me to get off a bridge and find another convince to the airport just then the bus conductor who I had been looking for to take my change of 500, turned up and he warned me not to take the auto. I gave him a look of askance "what the hell am I supposed to do then" he guides me to a cabwala. Both make promises that I will be able to reach airport by the cab. Poor me what choice do I have.

Time 18:10 Although the traffic cleared by then I knew I wouldn't make it in the bus. Had I taken that guy at the bus stand's offer to go with him in the cab one hour ago I could well be making my way into the airport by now. That time I was weighing Rs.400 versus Rs.200 for the bus. Alas a little bit of my kanjoosi caused me double the harm at triple the daam. I asked the taxi guy how much would it cost. The taxi guy said the charge would be 1150 but guaranteed delivery to airport " madam I know small gullys, little traffic, definitely you'll reach." I couldn't believe him. I said almost tearfully "bhaiya I just paid the bus full 200 and now you expect me to give you that much. Take me in 800 bucks, I have only that much." taxi guy " ok medam ap jao. Hum itne mein nai jaeyga." now do I have any choice?

Time 18:14 I sat crying tearfully at the backseat, while these two men sat in front grumbling. I couldn't believe myself. What was I thinking going alone and it was getting dark. I felt like the biggest loser. What on earth made me get into something like this. I had given up all hope. I let go. It didn't matter to me what happened anymore. I didn't even note down the cab's number. I sat listening to music. It calmed me down a bit. I thought to myself that I was incharge of my own life. I brought myself together and became more composed. Suddenly I saw in front of me a whole line of cars and buses.

Time 18:24 We were at mahadevpura! Not ten minutes away from the place I had been at two hours ago and now I'm the middle of a traffic jam. Damn! "didn't you tell me you knew all the gully's and the ways," I retorted angrily. He retorted back and I felt scared again as to what he may do, so I told him not to get worked up, I am just tensed, he mumbled something, I ignored.

Time 18:40 I ask him a rough estimate of how much more time it would take. He says roughly half an hour.  He suggests I call the flight and ask what levy can be provided. Thanks to Anil an office colleague, I had taken spice jet's number earlier that day. So the spice jet guy said quite sternly that the counter close 40 minutes before the flight, I made all kind of protests that I am stuck in a traffic jam because of some stupid VIP. He says something while cutting me off that maximum is 30 mins. I was like fine thank god the numbers are matching.

Time 18:48 I see we are stuck at another traffic light. Am I restless..hell yeah! Are they concerned..boo yeah! I wait silently. Now I have other things going on in my head. I remove my heels and wear my flats. I know I would have to run if I had to catch this plane, and it was not happening in the heels. I had very conveniently carried all my toiletries hoping to send it in baggage which looked remotely possible now. So I collected them in a packet. Now I was deciding what to do with them. Should I give it to these guys in exchange of the 250 bucks that I was short of, because getting of at an ATM and withdrawing money would consume my time. My favorite guess perfume and the wonderful body and craft lotion and body wash,and the new bottle of panteen shampoo I had purchased two hours ago,thrown all away at these bastards.

Time 18:57 I look at the speed of the car. Bloody 80km/hr. The road was empty. So I said "bhaiya 15 minutes mein pahuncha dogey kya? Kyunki bas utna hi time bacha hai." then he speed up to 100. He figured I wouldn't have time at the airport to withdraw money and give it to him. So he told me to do so at andhra bank ATM which was on the way. I was skeptic. I told him ya we'll see.

Time 19:00 Oh there is the ATM. Sure I have a lot of time to stand in a line and withdraw money. I told him I'd give him some of the stuff I had. He considered it and turned on the ignition and to my horror it wouldn't start, even after repeated tries. They acting cool said " it'll start in a minute you go withdraw money. I thought what other option do I have, so in the meantime I went and withdrew some money and when I returned they were stopping another cab and booking him for the rest of the journey. Could this get any better? My first taxi wala was rushing my bag out of his car and into the new one, I was running behind him. Haa it was funny.

Time 19:05 So the new cab was a lot better and a lot less creepy, the driver had a cool, helping attitude, there was some song playing on with beats, if anything I was more comfortable. I asked him how far is the airport he says 16 kms and I look at him aghast because the previous one had told me it's just 10 minutes away.

Time 19:10 The new taxi guy asks me what time is my flight I tell him 7:40 and he looks at me ridiculously but seeing sullen expressions in condolence he rings up the operator at the airport and asks if there is time for my flight, he makes me speak to the guy so that I could convince him better, but alas all I got was be there by 7:20. If anything by now all the fun that I was feeling had jumped out of the window and all I was feeling was stupid and sad that I might actually miss my convocation.

Time 19:15 We are pulling into the airport bridge. Should not take more than five minutes to reach. Now that I had saved my toiletries I still had to decide what to do them. I asked Junaid bhai, the cabbie, whether he would take my packet of stuff back to my home near kundalahalli gate. He said he would do it and told me to hurry on. He stopped the car right next to the gate. I gave home the packet along with some 100 -120 bucks.

Time 19:20 Finally I reach the gate and show my ticket to the guard and he didn't let me through saying that its way past the boarding time for my flight and I could not go in. I was like what the hell?? Let me through. Its my flight and I would like to speak the flight operators and not you. Whatever, seeing my attitude he told he won’t allow me back through the same gates when I come back having missed my flight. However I reached the counter and almost tearfully showed the flight operator my ticket. They shook their heads and said sorry ma’am can’t let you through. Oh my god!! Worst nightmare ever, was coming true. I couldn’t let this happen. I said look I don’t have any check-in baggage I just need a boarding ticket. He considered this and spoke something into his walkie-talkie. After much a do he gave me the  boarding pass, telling me that it was now my responsibility to board the plane. Wow so much for the girl who thought she wouldn’t catch her plane, well hell yeah I would get into that plane. I ran through the airport and breezed past security check which was thankfully not crowded. 

Time 19:35 I reach the gate and see a longggg boarding queue and I smiled at myself. The flight was delayed by 10 minutes.

Time 19:40 Someone up there knew I wouldn’t miss my flight but wanted me learn a lesson that I should not be late. So I am standing now in the queue to board my flight, feeling on top of the world.

Corrupt are we?

When I view the world of the people around me while travelling in a bus or a train or an auto, I am intrigued by the thoughts in their heads, the life they have faced to come to this point and the things that they have to do ahead.  Since I am so comfortable under a shelter, and have no book to be interested in, this becomes my leisurely act. The objects in my view become points of curiosity. Looking out of the window I have countless things in my view, countless stories to be told. If I have a seat in the bus, everybody I see standing becomes a point of my pity. Pity is inherent in our characters. Look, there goes a scooterist driving past in rain, oh I am comfortable, even if I am standing. Because we have a shelter on our head we are comfortable,we have a seat to rest our back and ease our burden we are comfortable, comfort can be found in the littlest of things. It is only in discomfort that we realize we need to change things around us.

The plea of everyone calling out to the youngsters or the GenNxt to take the struggle against corruption in our hands just as the youngsters of independence era did to win the country’s freedom, is falling on deaf ears and blind eyes. Since us youngsters have never been at the receiving end of corruption the whole struggle against corruption unfolds before us like a spectacle, pretty much like the viewing of passerby’s from our window. Even if we are involved, it is because of the mere fantasy of relieving the era of independence that has been glorified before us by our cinema. Our generation is a very aimless one. There is nothing much to achieve, India is on path of becoming a developed nation, thanks to the previous generation, and we are enjoying the success of it. There is no struggle left.It may be out of need to be a part of a phenomenon, to have a cause just for the heck of it, that some joined forces with team Anna.

The whole cycle of corruption is revolving in the middle generation, be it in parliament of that of our sorry politicians and the huge sums of unaccounted money in their foreign bank accounts or of government bureaucrats looking to fatten their pockets.

The reasons for this mid-life corruption could be many but the two that come to my mind are parents and technology.

Our generation has been spoon fed by our parents till the very age that we become adults and maybe even after. It is thus a parenting thing that everybody does at some point in their life. Our parents have provided us with the best of comforts and participated equally in our struggle to get to colleges etc. When it comes to being bribed or cheated they blindfold us and get us the lovely candy we want, while we on our behalf don't care how it reached us, as long as it did reach us.Our grandparents did so for our parents, and parents for us and we will for our kids. But when that time comes for us it will be like a late first menstruation, where one knows the pains of it from others and have only just come to realize it for oneself.

Secondly, with internet and other technologies the human interaction has decreased, making transactions more transparent and clear, with no scope left for "the approach" factor. We having been brought up in this day and age of technology and have played with the technical toys since childhood. As compared to us our parents still prefer the paperwork over these technologies because they either don't have time or are too afraid of technology. They are therefore, the ones at the receiving end of corruption.

It is evil I admit, but  to counter it we need to be put through the drain, for us to feel the need to clean.