…was the day that I was supposed to fly back to London after about a week in Delhi…and what a week it had been! I’ll certainly spare you all any details about it and would just say that if nothing else, I was a bit relieved to head back to London and trust me I never imagined that there would come such a day when I would say this but yes I was indeed relieved, for the lack of a better word to describe what I was feeling.
I was here standing in the line for the security check and I had already witnessed events in the airport which I am sure would have deserved a post on this space by themselves, when the guy standing right ahead of me turned back and said “Namaaste” with a delightful smile and an accent. I had never noticed him since he looked normal…looked Indian...and thus blended into the environment for me to not notice him at all and that’s why I guess I reacted the way I did..with surprise and said “Oh! Ha ha…I didn’t expect this because you look Indian!! Where are you from?” “Ha ha..that’s ok…I feel quite Indian because I follow God and come to India often following him…I go wherever he takes me and brings me here often and then I go back to Italy with him...happy...”. Of course I do not remember most of it verbatim but I am sure you get the drift of what he said. And there I was, having a discussion about spirituality (I, of all people!!!) with this Italian guy who was very warm and always smiling and speaking like he was singing and was of course ridiculing the Americans and the Brits at every opportunity in the conversation. I had of course told him at the start that its odd for me to have a conversation about god since I am an atheist, a borderline agnostic at best but that is where the conversation actually started and I was enjoying what we were discussing till the time we were interrupted by a really rude and unfortunate family. Unfortunate because of the character the father, the head of their family was to show!
Given that it was January and foggy, the airport was a mess with flight delays and long queues, and with the disciplined set of people that we are, there was chaos all over. Some people see an opportunity in times of chaos, to save a little time for themselves while screwing public peace for sure. So did this family when they decided to start a parallel line slightly ahead of us. Since we were in an engaging conversation, we didn’t notice it for a while till the time the guy’s bag hit the Italian fellow. We of course protested and asked them to join the queue, but of course this Indian looking guy did what he thought would be easier and more comfortable…he started shouting at us…at the Italian guy mainly since he was the one who had politely asked them to get in line, with a smile of course. “Of course he has a British passport..they still own the world” (this last phrase may be a stretch of my imagination but he meant something like that :-) ). “I rest my case sir!” is how I responded and got back to our little chat about different things, some of the topics of which certainly were a bit clichéd for any cross cultural conversation involving an Indian..the rural urban divide, the smiling villagers, why most people in the cities don’t smile…you know the usual!
Anyhow, we had both gone to our respective gates by now and my mind went back to what was still occupying it before this encounter. This one is in a queue again…I wonder why do some of the more interesting incidents in our country happen in queues..maybe lacking a sense of queuing is not all that bad! I, of course, had to pass through emigration counters before I could get to the security check-in area and I was in the queue to get to the counter. There were quite a few laborers in my queue and the 3 guys behind me were already freaking me out with their enthusiasm since in their hurry to get to the counter they had forgotten that I was ahead of them. The guy behind me was taking 3 steps forward for every 1 step that I took whenever the line moved and soon he was on my butt, literally! He was of course invading my personal space, which made me very uncomfortable and was planning to ask him to back off a bit. But then I noticed that the emigration guy at the other counter was asking the laborers in the front of his queue was shooing them and asking them to join our queue at the end. He apparently wanted to leave for a break and was asking, actually rudely instructing, them to go at the back. This set of 7-8 laborers that I am talking about were followed by a bunch of 4 Swedes who asked the emigration guy if there was a problem. What followed totally shook me and annoyed me and frankly my eyes were red in anger. The emigration guy had responded by saying that there is no problem…asked them to come to him…quickly stamped their passports and let them go while he had shooed away 7 Indian laborers to the back of the next queue half a minute back!!! I could hardly believe what I was seeing, with my mind going crazy with anger with this outrageous behavior of racism, if not worse, against our own people by our own people in our own country!!!! Of course, I couldn’t stay quiet and didn’t want to start shouting right there so as to not delay my line which had grown bigger by now with the new additions to it. I was next to get to my counter and was hoping the guy at the other counter could stay for 1 more minute so that I could confront him as soon as my passport gets stamped. Luck was obviously not on my side and the guy left before I could reach my counter. On getting to the counter, I asked my emigration officer if he had noticed what had happened and he promptly started to defend his colleague. This reaction from him totally annoyed me and I don’t know why but I had almost started shouting at him when I demanded he let me know who the supervisor was. I spoke to the supervisor then, after regaining my calm and clarifying that I do not intend to start a revolution based on this this incident and that I only wanted to register my disappointment at what had happened...that I was hurt to see this happening in my own country. The guy had a fair argument in saying that he wanted a break and they are extra careful with the paperwork of laborers while they could just stamp out the firangs. So, in order to get to the break quickly, his guy had preferred the white skinned dudes over his countrymen for the right reasons. Though I thought the argument was reasonably fair prima facie, I was still disappointed by the way they had been treated and was hardly any less angry. I, for the sake of my country, hope that he was saying the truth. I really do, even though I quite frankly am not the patriotic or the passionate about country kinds.
Finally, I was on the plane and had taken a power nap while the plane still hadn’t started moving. I was quite relieved to see a new movie list on the entertainment system. And this is where the third “experience” worth a mention for this space, happened. I watched “The Bridges of Madison County” on the flight. I was so totally blown away by it. Since it is a romantic movie, the best one I have ever seen, and since I have an image to take care of, I wouldn’t elaborate on why I liked it so much or what about it did I love so much. And since I seriously do have an image to take care of, I would even avoid confessing that it was so powerful that it almost brought tears to my eyes…almost!!! Go watch it if you haven’t…
Wondering if I am done yet? No! Certainly not…
Off the flight and I needed a taxi to get back to my serviced apartment (you’ll soon find out why I decided to mention the unnecessary detail of it being a ‘serviced’ apartment). I called for one and when the driver called me once he reached the airport, this is what he said to identify himself “I am a black guy in a brown suit outside…”. On hearing “I am a black guy”, I had a funny feeling that the day wasn’t over as yet and there is more to come. If you are wondering if only 2 incidents had made me feel that it was enough for the day, I have of course skipped a couple of others not so abnormal incidents for the sake of holding your attention and I hope I have been successful. Like I should have sensed this day was going to be different, in the morning when while I was leaving for the airport my mom didn’t cry!!! Can you believe it? MY MOM DIDN’T CRY WHEN I WAS LEAVING FOR THE AIRPORT TO GO STAY IN ANOTHER CITY WHEN SHE WOULDN’T SEE ME FOR FOUR WEEKS!!!!! I could hardly believe it myself but was still happy about it, very happy. If only I had recognized the omens and sensed that this was going to be a different day…a day that was worth a blog post on my blog :-)
Not that there was anything outrageous about what happened on the taxi ride back to my apartment but the taxi guy happened to be from Uganda and I had another very engaging conversation with a random stranger. I find this significant since I rarely connect with different people this well and give them enough time and attention to have a good conversation about anything. And here was my second really engaging one for the day...Here is a sample of what I remember of this discussion that I had enjoyed so much to actually write about it:
1) He wanted to go back to Uganda soon since he was sure that even though he could do well for himself in London, he could never be really really rich here. For that he would go back to Uganda soon. I realized that maybe it’s not education, leave alone the degrees, which could take you far. It’s the dreams babay…it’s the dreams that you dream. Don’t know why this thought hit me as soon as he started talking about why he wanted to go back to Uganda and what he wanted to do there. So dreaming is all I shall do from now on J…kidding…
2) He thought there wasn't not much racism in London and its improving with time anyhow. That these are very nice people as long as they feel that you are not doing better than them. When they do, they are not that nice :-) This part of the discussion was of course in a certain context and not just because I was celebrating “World Anti-Racism Day” that day!
3) He didn’t remember the last time he picked up someone from Pakistan from the airport, someone new. He said there were of course locals of Pakistani origin but it wasn’t as common to see new people from Pakistan arriving for business or work. The kind of consequences, for the people and the economy, that a social shakeup in that country has had are not too obvious after all. And for me as well, since I really want to visit Pakistan once in my lifetime…sooner rather than later hopefully...
When I reached home and switched on the lights, I thought I had finally reached the end of my day by now…almost there..when I found a letter lying on the table of the living room which said something like this:
“Dear Guest…we expect you to maintain a certain basic level of cleanliness in the hourse…blah blah…please make sure blah blah otherwise we would have to charge you extra”!!!!!
A near perfect ending to a near perfect day!!
-j
