At Paris Airport I interacted with few passengers who were returning to India after spending evenings in Paris. Not a bad time to savor the salubrious climes of Europe as a getaway from the stifling heat and humidity of the Indian Summer. I was doing exactly the opposite, travelling on a vacation straight into the Indian summer and excited to core.
At the Paris Duty Free Shop, I asked a Sales girl the price of a perfume I was buying for my wife. She responded to me in French where except the word "Monsieur" the rest sounded Greek and Latin to me. I replied back - "English please". She replied in feeble English. Same thing I encountered at the security gate where an official was explaining something in French where people from all over the world connecting to their destinations across the world assembled.
My son who learnt French in School could understand French and told me that the security officer was explaining the standard procedures. He also overheard another guy whispering in French - "Americans are no good". He perhaps hasn't read any history and should be told that if Americans didn't liberate the French from their Nazi occupiers during the World War II the French would be speaking German today. However full credit goes to French for taking pride in their language. We Odias perhaps is the only one race on earth who do not take pride in its mother tongue should learn a thing or two from the French.
I am now reminded of an interesting episode during one of my layovers in Europe. A Virgin Airline flight was about to take off and names of passengers not boarded yet were called. An Air hostess swung by, shouting on top of her voice - "ANY VIRGIN HERE", obviously looking for some missing Virgin Airline passengers. Couple of girls raised their hands. Everyone close by started looking at them, some with chuckles and half baked smiles. The shy girls retreated to their privacy by dropping their heads over their smartphones to hide their embarrassment, still peeping through their corner of their eyes. Non of them got up to board the flight. We humans are slaves of inadvertent reflex actions.
After an eight hour flight when the aircraft started to descend over New Delhi pilot announced "Welcome to Delhi's IGI Airport. It's 1 AM in morning. Hazy, 27 degree Centigrade (80 Fahrenheit) outside." 80 degree at one O'Clock in the morning, imagine about the day time. During one of previous trips, just before landing in Delhi came abruptly the voice of an exalted teen sitting close to me exclaiming to his buddy, "OI UTTH, BAIN**OD DILLI A GAYEE" (Get up, so and so, sister slammer Delhi has arrived). More than the pilot, I found the teen's welcome far enthusiast and more apt way of welcoming to Delhi. As Jai Maharastra goes with Mumbai, O' Calcutta to Kolkata, Jay Jagannath to Odisha, Behn**od fits well to Dilli.
It was a grand Welcome to Delhi, Punjabi style, where a sentence can start with Bain**od (occasionally sound as Pain**od, interspersed with a few liberal dosages of Bai**od and ends with Bai**od. It's how the Dillwalle (Heartful) Dilliwalle (Delhites) often greet each other. Same in the Punjab province of Pakistan. When Sunil Gavaskar was in Lahore in 1978 he was puzzled by some Pakistani players frequently uttering "Pain**od" thinking it meant "Pant-Shirt" until his skipper Bishen Singh Bedi confirmed what it means.
Bai**od" is not such a bad word in Delhi and Punjab. Apart from usual meaning, it can stands for multiple euphemism, to describe a scene or situation. Bai**od KYA THAND HAI YAAR (My friend, it's so cold), Bai**od MEIN GIR JAUNGA Bai**od (I will fall down, spoken after sighting a pretty girl), Bai**od KYA MATCH THA (what a game it was) ! Friends hug each other, A GALE LAG JA OI Bai**od (give me a hug, my friend, you sister slammer).
At IGI Airport in Delhi I breezed through the immigration which was a shoo in for me. The Terminal 3 is quite impressive. Restrooms (toilets) maintained nice and clean. No strong smell of ubiquitous Phenyle and dark brown betel stains at each corner. Our International Airports can now be considered truly world class. I saw a digital bill board proudly displaying Mahatma Gandhi's picture, followed by a visual of Chivas Regal Scotch. Ironically our Father of Nation never favored consumerism, nor he extolled Chivas Regal. Many streets in big cities in India bustling with consumerism are named as M.G. Road, after a man who abhorred consumerism.
I remember that in the year 1998, no sooner I came out of IGI Airport in the middle of night than I was treated like a hapless hare amid hounds baying for my blood in form of haranguing touts. I was forced to do an about turn and beat a hasty retreat, only to come out at break of the dawn to be ragged again. It was not unusual then for hapless passengers to dish out a $20 note (Bill) to buy themselves out of harassment at the Customs. Such things are long passe.
After checking in for my last leg of flight to Bhubaneswar, we settled down on reclining chairs as the sun brightened on the the horizon, revealing the array of Aircrafts on the turmac, spraying them with Orange hue. The Round trip return fare between Delhi and Bhubaneswar cost me only around Rs.6000. I remember paying at least Rs.12,000 for one way ticket in 1990s, a stupendous amount then. How the affordability of airfare has changed in two decades !!!
No sooner I reached the boarding gate for the Vistara flight to Bhubaneswar, I could recognize the typical Odia crowd close by. In one of my prior trips I chit chatting with a guy sitting next to me. Before boarding the flight the gentleman excused himself and went to a corner letting out a letting out a loud fart and heaving a heavy shy of relief. He found me trustworthy enough and requested - "AGYAN ETE SAKALU GHARU BAHARI THILI. JHAADA SAFA HEI NATHILA. JOR RE JHAADA LAGI LANI. TIKE MO BAG TA DEKHANTU" (As I left home too early in morning couldn't get a clean bowel movement. Now got to visit the loo. Please keep your look on my bag). I dutifully obliged.
The domestic terminal was bit chaotic, especially around the security gates. There were lot of people taking the morning flight. The departure area of the Domestic Airport before boarding resemble our BADAMBADI Bus stand in Cuttack. The Airport Authorities and CISF were doing a decent job, however the public were not following the Covid rules. Most were wearing masks below nostrils. Social distancing - forget it.
Once I saw a guy surreptitiously scratching their private parts in public. When our eyes met he pretended to adjust his belts with a "Not I" look on his face. The Airline crew were goading passengers like cattle towards to board the flight (hats off to the person who coined cattle class for economy class). In spite of several reminders from the Airhostess, many wear not wearing masks, if wearing, their nostrils were not covered. More later...
No comments:
Post a Comment