Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Let me go- I wanna go home!

I spent my first Monday at home washing everything that I thought was washing machine safe- clothes, linens and anything in between. Its been a week since I have been back from my almost 3 months (2 months 24 days to be precise) Indian summer vacation. And honestly I was eager to be back into my space.
Initially, I thought my house looked so neat, dust free and vacuumed, shocking SH who was expecting some wrath since he had left every household responsibility for me. Even the dishwasher had not been loaded for the last three days in anticipation of my return. But that comes later.
I was just so happy to be back, to my “not really very clean house”. The illusion and the tinted glasses are wearing off and I can rationalize my initial reaction. The households in India with all the maids and paid helps, still has a thick layer of dust the very second after your help swipes the dusty duster. And most people have got so used to that kind of “dust cleaning” that they do not think of it twice. I mean my initial hyper reactions to everything had mellowed by many folds by the time I boarded my plane back to San Francisco. And every time I voiced my thoughts I was given the “drop your superiority American” shrug.
But this is not what, I would like to nag about on my first blog at the end of my Indian festive holiday in almost 3 years. I want to write about my wonderful and some thought provoking times in India. And to chronicle my holiday updates, I have planned to go reverse. Yes, so I will start with my boarding of the plane and reaching SFO. Before I write about my departure from India, I must must narrate my departure. So there-
I am a lazy one. In spite of my brains revolting and telling me that I must not ask SH to do any chore for me, I do. I asked and expected him to check the baggage weight allowance on Singapore Airline, to and fro USA/India. Do I just have to repeat the story? It was just plain drama. With four suitcases (overweight), two hand in suitcases, 2 laptops. It was difficult to manage our luggage. Not many of your friends have a big enough car/van or live near enough to help us with our luggage. But thankfully we have at least one. SH asked his friend with a brand new seven seater to help us with our luggage transportation. It was very stressful and hazardous. My constant prayers were in vain when we were informed in a sorry tone about being 15 kgs over weight. I checked in my hand suitcase for an extra charge of $109. I was quite depressed about the charge cause that would have been so much handy in India ;-))
But just be happy the charge was only till Singapore. I was going to see one of my closest friends from college after 5 years. Singapore was a blast and will be covered in a special post dedicated to only my lovely lovable friend and her adopted country. We realized that the old Samsonite was outdated and weighed 10 kgs. So we threw it and bought a durable, light American tourist in Singapore dollars. With some gifts given to my friend and her beautiful baby boy we were 3 kgs over the mark. But the front desk girl excused our extra kgs and we were off for India.
During my comeback journey from Delhi, I tried my best to fit my things within my weight limits. I almost did. I was 4kgs over but the fellow on the desk acted as if I was over the limit by 400. He must be a really depressed fellow. “I know ma’am you are a resident of USA ma’am but I am sorry.USA is very strict. If it was some other country we would be fine.” SHUT UP. Anyways, I pulled some stuff from my suitcases and put them in my handbag but was still 1kg overweight. What a stupid fellow he must be to call the manager to ask if I could be allowed 1kg extra. His boss, a young girl looked at him and said “sure, that’s just fine.” – in a tone that suggested, you really need to call me for this???
The rest of the journey went eventless. I met up with some friends in Singapore who had boarded from Kolkata and we travelled together for SFO. I watched a number of offbeat movies and Australian comedies, played Sudoku, ate vegan and slept. I Love the new facelift of Singapore airplanes. More leg space, bigger, nicer TV screens, leather seats and designer stuff(Givenchy). A nice trip back.

But the best part of every vacation is that in the end you are back home and able to appreciate what you have built for yourselves.

1 comment:

SD said...

Hey, Welcome back. So happy to see a new post on your blog after so long. Looking forward to reading about your trip in detail.:) the weight limitations in flights are a real pain. I know!!