Holidays and afterwards (1)

Holidays are to be enjoyed. I made up my mind before leaving for holidays to just keep cool and relax . My plans for the holidays were to
meet some old time friends (not by age but those whom I have not met for long).
Taste different kinds of food at different places and different restaurants.
Try to mingle with chennaites and catch up the normal things which I have been missing for few years.
Meet our bloggers and know each other more.
Take plenty of pictures.
Visit few shrines in South Tamil Nadu and take pictures.

But whether I completed all is what you will know after reading my next few postings.

It was all a nice start from early morning drive to Birmingham Airport. My favourite friend Rashid who owns a Cab was there to pick me up at 3.45 a.m. from home. My son got up at the right moment to say bye. It was not my intentions to wet my wife's and son's eyes, but it happened. A slight drizzle greeted me and conversations with Rashid did not allow my minds to wander. I started thinking of using my new DVD Handycam once I finish check-in formalities. There was nothing interesting to shoot. I found an elderly Tamil couple in the plane. I wanted to surprise them by talking in Tamil and just smiled at them while going to loo. People from Coimbatore are very respectful. The couple started conversing very nicely. Looked like they were longing to talk to someone and I was the perfect match for them. My talks would have given them a small preview of my life so far. The gentle lady was nodding her head more, and trying to know more details about me. Anyhow, it was all smooth. After reaching Frankfurt, I took them to the terminal and left them, and went around to do a small duty free shopping. ( Thought about people whom I have to meet and wanted to make them chocoholics).

My shopping was over and after a relaxed stroll around the duty free shops, went back to my terminal to see the queue having grown faster than India's inflation. We Indians have certain originalities, out of which standing in a queue is remarkable. I have hardly seen some well formed queues by desis. Some of the ladies were handling their first grandchild and their daughters were not showing keen interest in learning those techniques. As usual the fathers were busy in gossipping politics or their visits to Niagara. I have always cherised meeting people at Frankfurt Airport especially in the terminal to Madras flight. You can hear people conversing loudly in Tamil and it gives a great enthusiasm for people like me who have hardly heard someone conversing loudly in Tamil in UK.

"Lokku Lokkunnu irumbareengaley........ antha muffler katikongo...." this is the lady to her husband.
Most of the uncles hardly speak and just used to follow the instructions.
"Ivanga kooda namba Vimala irukara Los Angeles-lirindhu dhan...varangalam. Naan appavey sonnane illaiya.... namba vooru than paaru...". This is the gentleman to his wife about the newly found friends.

I always meet someone in Frankfurt who is known to me. When I was looking for someone this time my efforts did not fail. I met Venkatesh my ex-colleague who was returning from his official trip to Switzerland. He was very much surprised. By the time I reached my seat, it was the next ordeal to find a suitable place for hand baggage. This is the biggest drawback, if you want to be gentle in getting into the plane. You will never get the newspaper you want, and space for your handbaggage. Somehow I managed to get some space this time and I knew my journey is going to be horrible after seeing a gentleman next to me, who must have been in his 60's and was reluctant to smile. He had a monkey cap and was keeping his eyes closed. My seat on the left was still vacant and then came a gentle lady. She was full of smile and a contradictory person to the one on my right. I thought she was a German but later came to know she was from the same place as our congress party president. She gave me lots of information about Italy and I shared lots of information about South India. I loaded her with so much of informations, she complimented about it while getting down at Chennai. It was one of the best journey, because of our conversations and she enlightened me with so much of informations about Italy. I was really excited when she told me that her trip was long time wish and was keen on seeing Temples, since she was fascinated by her brother who had visited Temples of Tamil Nadu for 5 times. I felt happy for getting an opportunity to let someone know more about our country, customs and traditions(I could hear somebody saying.....Oh.......do they exist...). We enjoyed the plains and mountains of Turkey, Istanbul and Iran. The whole trip was memorable. But I never thought my happiness was so short.

(To be continued.....)