The Wistful Odyssey!!
It's been nearly a month but the retrospection's quite lamentable. Cannot think of anytime, when I wanted the clock to work 'anti-clockwise', more! Can't the bookmen come up with some convincing technology to pack bags???
Date : 09/07/2005
Time : 7:15 PM
WARNING : This is no "my dear diary" stuff! I don't mind being opprobrious or scornful!
Jabbed my flight ticket into my shirt pocket, just after checking if I really was running late. Affirmative! The 22:00 printed on the ticket hadn't looked so ominous till then. Should've let my mom do the packin, as usual! It wasn't long before I was in the car but the long winding traffic would've made a blind snail reach my destination faster. I could've used the time to get more perplexed but chose to take it easy and gather my thoughts, instead! I had made plans of dedicating every minute of the last 24 hours of my 'India Trip', to family, whatsoever, but with me, the infinite spirit always comes up with different plans.
And so it happened that in festinating my packing and the start of my flight-catching chronicle, I almost never had time to let the thoughts of leaving home for the distant 'dreamland', sink in. Though it saved me from all the melodrama that would've haunted me, throughout my flight, I'd rather things just happened the conventional way. You've got to speak your emotions out, when you have to...after all, time, tide and International flights, wait for no man! I knew everyone was forlorn but they made no exception of letting me be a clumsy time-keeper. I was a little more relaxed, on my way to the airport, refusing to think about checking-in late. It suddenly felt like it was all a dream...a fading one.
I had mixed emotions running inside me! I could remember the day I stepped out, for quite the 'warm' welcome at Anna International Airport, and time just flew by. Now I was on my way back to the airport. Reminiscing the last fifty days was good enough to make me teary-eyed! I felt like a child having had it's toy snatched away! Know it's quite stereotypical, but hey, it's always better to bring in a child, when you are talking about you, with wet eyes! Suddenly, the fanciful american life and making big money, everything seemed so diminutive before home! I couldn't help wondering when I'd be in the roads of my hometown, again...when I'd be with the people I love the most, again. Felt like Alice, at the bottom of her fall...I knew I was at the end of it, but was yet lost!
Had one good look at the Nehru statue in Kathipara junction and started searching for the protagonist, in me. The last thing I wanted was, to worsen things for my folks and my sis. I closed my eyes and chose to rest on my favourite spot, mom's shoulder! Was finally at the airport, flaunting my boarding pass. Had all the time in the world, for the customary departure. I'm never comfortable doing it...who is?! Spent those last few minutes with family and walked towards emigration, turning back every few yards to wave a bye, until I reached the point of no-visibility! No exaggeration, but this is always quite an ordeal! I did eventually board the flight and watched with melancholy and utmost grief, as the plane lifted off the ground, making Chennai a bunch of lights, by the sea! I bade a healthy farewell to my homestead, looking forward to my next visit. Though I had three other good friends of mine, flying with me, I knew it would be one long flight that was going to give me enough time to noodle around my trip and drown me in emotions. I knew, then, that the gates of hell would've been a better place to be in!!