5 hours too soon

Killing time at the Mangalore Airport is an almost impossible task, trust me when I say there is nothing you can do, you can't even take a short walk as the entire waiting area is a few sq. feet! Breakfast was on Kingfisher at the only restaurant within the airport, the book and handicraft shop held my attention for only a few minutes and of course the duty free shop was off limits to me (being a domestic passenger).

The only other outlets are a tiny tea shop, an MMP's Cashew and dry fruit shop, Karlsburg - Merchandise for Men!, Centrium foreign exchange where they sell 1 USD for 52 Rs and buy it for 45 Rs, another tiny hangyo icecream outlet which did not make a single sale the entire time I was waiting and a snack shop which sells puffs (a kind of pastry) at an absurd price, I had to ask if a pinch of caviar was added in it, I swear, she looked at me like I was weird! But then I think all airports in India are the same with regard to food, overpriced... And then there is one scanning machine as soon as you enter, I know it analyzes a sample of something, looking for explosives maybe, it was not used and the security guard would not tell!

One fact about the Airport, there are a lot of airline staff, they keep walking around, carry your bags into the airport if you want them to, they are on the constant lookout for people who may be flying on their airline, many might approach you if they can't see the tag on your bag! Don't know if it's a good thing. And of course there is no internet access at the airport, I don't say absolutely, because there are some ways!

Everytime I looked at my watch there were atleast two hours to go, the frustrating part, the delay was announced in increments, first an SMS of a 30 min delay, reached airport at + 30 min to be told that the delay was now 2 hours, then 4, then finally 5! and in this time, one source told me that my flight was canceled! Some passengers decided to harass the airline staff but really it's tough to blame them for the fog in Bangalore. (The flight did not leave Chennai due to the fog in B'lore and we were waiting for the flight from Chennai-B'lore to arrive so that we could depart! Circular effect).

Anyway, All's well that ends well.

Dreams... 10 years on

I came across an essay I had written about 10 years ago which helped me qualify for the 'Teen of the Year' Contest, it was titled 'I have a dream and a plan to make my dream come true'. On reading it, I was not surprised to realize that I have still not achieved my dream! or even come close to its realization. The dreams in the essay seemed vague and obscure at first glance but the plans to achieve them were mighty.

I remember being quizzed about the content of the essay as a part of the initial rounds of the Contest and being asked why I did not have a concrete dream for the benefit of myself, rather than the world around me and no, none of my dreams involved world peace! My quest for *those* dreams continues even today and I did not find a single sentence in that 300 word essay (that was the limit) that seemed irrelevant, while it does not prove the vision of a teenager it only proves that while it may be easy to dream, coming anywhere close to achieving them is the hard reality. If I had to write an essay on the same topic today, I would surely need more 300 words, I'd have some of the dreams from the original essay and some with a little selfish goal too and I think the plans to achieve would be more elaborate, I can't say wiser! 10 years somehow does not seem to be a really long time ago!

Fashion Wednesday!

This post has been lying in my drafts for more than a month and I was almost going to discard it… it thus has the most un-intuitive title I could think of!

'Fashion' started it all. I can safely say that to date this is the maximum number of bollywood movies I've watched in a stretch. Decided to watch 'Fashion', since one of my classmates had a non-talking appearance, whatever be the reason, I was not disappointed. The movie is set at a good pace and portrays an almost common and plausible story. The actresses Priyanka Chopra and Kangana Ranaut performed true to their characters and it was not set to the usual stage dance, tree song theme!

'A Wednesday' was another movie that has an impressive storyline. I have never really appreciated movies that portray excessive lawlessness, unless it were a superhero kind of a movie. Don’t ask me why, that's just the way that I like my movies! However the flow of this one and the non-paranoid rationale behind the main protagonist's actions are justifiable. Exactly the reason why I could not appreciate Rang de Basanthi, I was watching this movie with a group of people all of whom had already watched it before and seemed to be heaping praises galore on the movie. Halfway through and I was not impressed and I did not change my opinion when the final credits started to roll too. The turnaround from a fun, entertaining story to lives been plunged into a black hole was hard to digest. What was the purpose of the whole act?, All action seemed needless and the casual attitude of young men towards life irked me to no end.

A few other pure entertainers - Jaane tu ya jaane na, Rock On. Mere Baap Pehle Aap - leave your brains out of this one!

I don't want to over-analyze every movie I watch, but I'd like my brain to play a part, for the scenarios to be plausible of course the primary intention of watching a movie should not be lost. I would not watch a mundane portrayal of daily lives, entertainment counts!

touchdown at IXE

Bold and beautiful was the approach into Mangalore Airport and despite being considered one of the most dangerous airports in India, I don't have to admit to ever being scared, not ever, not even as a kid. The landscape of Mangalore coming into the airport has remained intact, although the same can't be said for the city. Despite my slight aversion towards airports, who can not be charmed by these sights, over and over again?









Construction site of the new terminal