the trip

ok, not boring evs wit a long and torturous exposition of my trip to mumbai. will just mention the salient points. i have to concur with deepti on this post of hers though. murphy does rule the universe. at least he did, during most part of the mumbai trip.

1. our flight from trivandrum to mumbai was scheduled to depart from the airport at the inhuman hour of 3.45. because all our lucky stars were out on that particular day, the flight departed at the still inhuman hour of 7.45. woke up early, bathed and got ready for bloody nothing!

2. mumbai airport is freaking huge! dad used to work there, 18 years ago. needless to say, there have been slight changes since then. we took a route he was familiar with, only to find out that it was the bloody wrong one. after we walked for the good part of half an hour, we finally found our way out of the airport. and oh joy! the exit we took was nowhere near a taxi stand. so i had to lug my inhumanly heavy bag and walk around until we found one...

3. it was bloody fucking hot there! that night it started raining though, so i thought things would get slightly better over there. i had trivandrum in mind when it actually started raining. mumbai is nothing like trivandrum, even when it comes to rains.

4. that very night, my dad and my uncle were drinking their way to oblivion. i couldn't take part in the revelry as my uncle was my mom's brother. dad didn't want news of my inebriatedness reaching anywhere within 26.9 parsecs of my mom. so i had to go awol for a little while to get my fix. then we ordered pizza :)

5. mumbai rains = x_X
mumbai traffic = x_X
mumbai (rains + traffic) = X_X

6. the taxi guys are honest for the most part. at least the ones we encountered were.

7. the next two days were (apart from the times i went awol) spent at the wedding we were there to attend. anyone who has been to a tamil brahmin wedding will know that they are long and elaborate affairs that involve one religious ceremony after another. there's this thingy where the guy is lifted by his uncle (who is helped generously by the guy's cousins because it ain't that easy to lift up a person onto one's shoulders) in order to mock-prevent the girl from garlanding him. then the girl's uncle lifts her up so that the garlanding can take place. i have never really understood the point of this ritual but its fun anyhow.

8. i am convinced that i want a simple wedding. no elaborate religious ceremonies, no fucking reason to go awol. just sign, get a marriage licence, and throw a huge party later (unlimited booze).

9. we then went back to my uncle's place and it was still raining bloody murder.

10. i got to spend some quality time with my cousin while dad and unc were, well, you know. she's the sweetest person in the world, and i'd've happily braved the mumbai rains and traffic just to meet her :) and no, i'm not just putting this up to make her feel good. she doesn't get time to read blogs.

11. we left my uncle's place on saturday night. the flight was scheduled to be early in the morning. my dad wanted to get to the airport early as he didn't want us to get stuck in the rain. we got out of my uncle's house by around 11.15 pm for our 5.35 am flight.

12. we spent all fucking night at the airport. i couldn't sleep because firstly, i don't sleep with people watching me, and secondly, my dad was snoring like one of them power drills, and that made people stare even more.

13. our 5.35 flight left at around 7.35. a twitchy, bloody-eyed and fucking irritated g-man walked onto the flight.

14. an even more twitchy, bloody-eyed and even more fucking irritated g-man got down at trivandrum airport at 10 am. the flight had a stopover at cochin, and i knew i wouldn't be getting any sleep all day (i can't sleep during daytime unless i'm really sick)

and there we go. btw, if anyone sees murphy anywhere around, just tell me. i've got a tennis racket ready to sodomize him.