Twenty- five Seven

Making a spectacle of myself

November 6, 2013

My Diwali has been a really hectic one though this was the first time ever that I didn’t make a single traditional sweet. In fact this was my first un-traditional Diwali where I worked my XXX off and still didn’t do anything festive. This was mainly because Bayda the Bai decided to celebrate her Diwali and left me before the festival even began with the threat of never returning. So when my brother came down for our Diwali party (which was a catered affair thankfully) I had just a two minute’s hesitation before I jumped into his car for the ride back to Pune to make a quick trip to see my folks.

I realised how foolish this impulsive decision was only when I sat in the car and realised that I had left my spectacles at home. I also realised that six hours in the car was not really the ideal way to treat a dodgy back but having once sat in the car, I had no option but to just go on. Luckily my back held and I spent a lovely 12 hours with my folks. On the way back home I jumped into a bus ( the easiest way to travel if you don’t have a reservation) and when I got on, I realised I couldn’t see the seat number. I asked the driver to show me where the seat was and he pointed out the number on the ticket! That made me want to whack him because I knew where it was on the ticket, I wanted to know where the seat was in the bus!!! When I asked him to point out the seat, he looked aghast that I, an apparently educated person , couldn’t read????

I felt equally foolish when I told him that I didn’t have my spectacles which was why I couldn’t read….
What you don’t know about claiming baggage at Mumbai’s International AIrport

October 26, 2013

Returning home

I don’t know why but coming home is always the most exhausting part of a journey. On our return home from Milan we had a fifty minute stop over at Munich during which time we had to clear Passport Control and walk on to our Gate. Because our plane was going ahead to another Schengen country, we did not disembark at a Gate but had to be bussed to the Terminal. In all this we didn’t collect our pram and even though a helpful airport attendant assured us that our pram was loaded onto the next flight, all through the flight back home we kept worrying about what state we’d find it in.

Lost Parents

We needn’t have worried though as the pram was well looked after and arrived at Mumbai Airport much fresher than our co- passengers from Canada who were waiting at the Gate to board the flight to Mumbai. I felt so sorry for the dozens passengers who were being ferried the airport on carts and looking like assorted pieces of baggage piled high, clutching on to their bags, their hair askew, their clothes mismatched ( sweaters with Salvar kameezes and Nike trainers) and eyes looking glassy eyed and dazed. Honestly I can’t imagine how children would subject their old parents to a journey like this – according to me there can be nothing more cruel than uprooting your parents from their homes and transporting them to a country where they can do little else but look after children who don’t really relate to them or watch endless hours of Cable TV, cook heaps and heaps of Indian food while making sure that the fire alarms don’t go off and the house doesn’t smell of garlic and ginger as is wont to do with Indian food.

By the time we reached the end of our journey, we were equally tired not because the plane ride was particularly uncomfortable but largely because one kid in the back insisted on screaming for most of the 7 hour journey!

At the Baggage Hall

But what was worse was the welcome to Mumbai . The moment we got into the terminal we were literally accosted by porters who promised to help us with the baggage. With one lift to transport 26 wheelchairs to the Immigration Hall downstairs, we decided it was faster to go down pram et al ( yes, we were promptly handed the pram at the plane itself). When we got to the Baggage Hall, there was not a trolley to be found and we soon discovered why the porters were so eager to serve – this apparently was a code for ” do you want your baggage in ten minutes or two hours?” Obviously we didn’t understand the code as did many other passengers and we had a torturous wait where 4 bags were released every 10 minutes and the baggage belt shut down every 15 minutes for a 2 minute break while announcements were made in English, Hindi and Marathi apologising for inconveniencing the passengers. Luckily the screaming kid stopped screaming and the passengers began clapping every time the belt began working else there would have very well been a riot on hand.

When we finally got our bags we were asked to screen our hand luggage before exiting the Baggage Hall!!!!

What really got my goat was the video which was WhatsApped to me ……

This I thought was the ultimate insult to injury ……….

p.s. I heard from friends that they pass on a 5 dollar bill to the porters and get their bags in as many minutes!
One day in Venice

October 24, 2013

Venice was the last Italian city I wanted to visit before I returned home with Anna Shetty and Wow Dinga and it was the one city I got to see with them. Wow Dinga had a terribly disturbed sleep the night before we were scheduled to visit Venice and we almost cancelled it because the weather forecast was gloomy – grey and occasional rain. However Wow Dinga and the weather are always unpredictable and we decided to chance it and go ahead with our plan.

So expecting the worst, we got on the Frecciabianca to Venice – a journey of 2 1/2 hours even on a high speed train. An hour out of Milano we suddenly came upon a picturesque village/town on a beautiful bluer than blue lake- Desanzano which we realised long after it had passed was actually one of the towns on Lake Como. This beautiful sight lifted our spirits and we soon began to notice that the sky got brighter and that the sun was coming out.
The weather changed miraculously after a brief shower at Venice during which time we grabbed a spot of lunch before heading out to the vaperetto for the obligatory canal cruise. One of Anna Shetty’s friends had told us that we should get out of the station and go to the glass bridge from which we could board the boat. Alas, we searched high and low for the glass bridge till we realised that what she meant was a jetty where the boats docked.
As usual there were long lines in front of the ticket office and with every passenger taking his time to decide between the 28 Euro conducted tour or the 20 Euro day pass, moved slowly. But the line did move and we managed to take one boat which was going to San Marco or the famous St. Mark’s Square. Unfortunately we got off at the Rialto and walked around for a bit before we realised that this was not a wise choice as the Realto bridge was choc a bloc full
of people and it would have been foolish to attempt scaling it with a baby in a pram. So we got back on the boat and went to San Marco.

Along the way we passed some marvellous buildings, some teetering dangerously and looking terribly rundown and decrepit while others which were restored reflected the famed beauty of this city. San Marco was all that it promised and more. While we didn’t have time to visit the Basilica, we took the lift up the bell tower to savour the gorgeous view of the city sprawling beneath us and the snow capped Dolomites in the distance.

The Square itself was filled with people enjoying themselves in the unexpected afternoon sunshine. A small band playing at one of the cafes added to the charm of this gorgeous morning as we marvelled at the mosaic decorations on top of the domed arches that we could see from the outside of the church.

Unfortunately we didn’t really have time to see all the details of the square and quickly made a side trip to the alleys and streets behind to catch a glimpse of the shops selling masks and Murano glasswares.

Venice is famous for its masks which were worn during the masked balls before Lent and you can get hundreds and thousands of masks for prices ranging from 10 Euros to 100 or more. Buying a mask can be quite difficult in the sense that one can’t be too sure of how genuine they are, but I took the chance and bought two which I hope are authentic.

The Glasswares of Murano are simply stunning and once again you get a wide range to choose from – the cheap and the expensive. Here again you have to go by your gut feeling but generally speaking, you can spot an expensive and exclusive piece if you look carefully.

Since time was of the essence, we took a boat ride to another island across San Marco to see the two Tinterettos in the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore.

While walking to the vaperetto stop we had to cross several bridges and we realised that there is a ramp which made it easy to take the baby across in the pram…So perhaps we could have made it across the most famous bridge at the Rialto. On the way back to the Railway station we took a long route where we passed ocean liners with happy passengers sunning themselves on their balconies and waving to all of us.

As the vaperetto approached the station we went under a new bridge made of steel and painted white – beautiful and modern but looking strangely like the spinal cord of a dinosaur. Truly in this magical city, there’s still lots to see and I will have to make another trip to see the sights I missed.