Silly deviations littered the road to the airport, unnoticed
the first time I took the airport bus in the other direction. I casually
presumed that they were metro lines under construction, but then realized that
they are over-hang bridges that will speed up traffic once they’re done. At a cost of slowing it down now, I
thought to myself – but they are probably
a good addition, na?!
I was extremely happy to be back in Bangalore these past 2
days. It almost felt as if I had never left in the first place, hanging out
with the office girl-trio at Legends of Rock (with Uma finally joining, taking
Graham’s spot I guess haha). I did a cover of ‘One Step Closer’ again, but fumbled
badly – probably because a slightly drunk guy next to me tried to sing along on
the microphone, which distracted me from what I was doing. I also made friends with Blen, my
2-day PG roommate, who is extremely friendly and drove me at least 10KM to Cox
Town on his motorbike barely half an hour after meeting each other.
Blen
Being back near scattered parks, juice shops on every
corner, the voices of endeared friends, and my favorited Sagar Fast Food nearby in my good-old Koramangala, all made me wish I
could just drop my traveling plans and spend the last two weeks of my summer break
in Bangalore with friends; perhaps an all-the-more appealing alternative since
I will be traveling all on my own for the next two weeks. I am however a lot
more mentally prepared to leave Bangalore this time around, because I saw the
two-day visit in isolation as the brief visit it is. I can still feel part of
the euphoria from booking my train tickets last weekend, and typing up a two-page
long itinerary of plans. By the way, I capitulated and reduces my plan from 7
to 6 cities in 14 days, giving me an extra day in Jaipur (up from one-and-a-half).
New Delhi Airport
IndiGo provides pretty good service and we boarded the plane
in good time. I was a little scared that I would be too late to check-in
because of the bad traffic jam on the highway deviations, but the check-in line
was non-existent. The only minor hold-up was in security where they took my
small suitcase off to the side for inspection, and took out my packed Halwa (weirdly brown and deformed from
being in my suitcase) that I bought in Kerala. The two security guards stared
blankly at each other for an extended moment, and then the Halwa was put back
in my suitcase when nobody had a clear answer. I had awkwardly realized that as
a result of my small suitcase being changed from main baggage to hand luggage,
a rigged kitchen knife was staring blankly at us all – about to be carried
on-board an airplane. The guards didn’t give it a single look. An ironic lapse
of security, considering the mesh of red tape that is an Indian airport (where
the guards pointlessly stamp your tickets after passing through the metal
detector).
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