In all these years of living abroad
Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2023 11:37 am
I have been waiting in the depths of my heart for the phone to ring at an untimely time. However, on December 10 last, at five o'clock in the morning, something did not pick up. The reason may be that my brother called me on WhatsApp. Or something else. When I picked up the call back at six o'clock and noticed that it was from India, I understood that this was it as soon as I heard Gavin on the other end saying to someone else, "We need to put up a flag". Everything that happened after that happened very, very slowly. When he came downstairs an hour later, his wife was talking to Travels. He said there are places on Emirates leaving Gatwick at 1:30pm.
I calmly took the phone from her and confirmed the special-data places. While talking on the phone, Nandu removed the window screen from the room and watched as the Snow Buddha poured the newly ridiculous birch tree green here and there and filled it well for a while. In between I called the airport taxi to come at 10. But at 8:30 I was brought back to the present when Jay called and told me that there was a risk of traffic jams on the roads leading to the airport as it was snowing outside. But it was too late. It was already 10:30 when the driver entered Chelmsford. We couldn't take two or three roads and came back and somehow took the A12 road and we didn't even go two miles. Snow and stuck cars everywhere.
Realized in no time – as I can't catch the 1:30 flight. After talking to the travel agency again, the only available flight was an Air India flight from Birmingham at 8:30pm... if not the next night. Since it is December season, there is no seat on any flight to India before that. Birmingham Airport is approximately 140 miles away. Friends said that it was also covered by snow at that time... I have jokingly told my father many times that British Airways takes 11 hours to reach Chennai from London – I will touch India by the time I reach Chennai from Nagercoil. …We left Semsport house at 10 am on Sunday morning and reached Eroth house at 5:30 am on Tuesday morning. I don't remember when I cried before.
I calmly took the phone from her and confirmed the special-data places. While talking on the phone, Nandu removed the window screen from the room and watched as the Snow Buddha poured the newly ridiculous birch tree green here and there and filled it well for a while. In between I called the airport taxi to come at 10. But at 8:30 I was brought back to the present when Jay called and told me that there was a risk of traffic jams on the roads leading to the airport as it was snowing outside. But it was too late. It was already 10:30 when the driver entered Chelmsford. We couldn't take two or three roads and came back and somehow took the A12 road and we didn't even go two miles. Snow and stuck cars everywhere.
Realized in no time – as I can't catch the 1:30 flight. After talking to the travel agency again, the only available flight was an Air India flight from Birmingham at 8:30pm... if not the next night. Since it is December season, there is no seat on any flight to India before that. Birmingham Airport is approximately 140 miles away. Friends said that it was also covered by snow at that time... I have jokingly told my father many times that British Airways takes 11 hours to reach Chennai from London – I will touch India by the time I reach Chennai from Nagercoil. …We left Semsport house at 10 am on Sunday morning and reached Eroth house at 5:30 am on Tuesday morning. I don't remember when I cried before.