Published in the Hindustan Times Mumbai Edition on 5th December 2008
My best friend is coming from the States today. We are very close and I decided to go to receive him at the air port. I come from a small town and I have been brought up in a simple but educated family, where education was more important than display of material possessions. I have had my own share of struggles and life is progressing on the “thoda hai, thode ki jaroorat hai” lines. . I have worked hard and achieved a position at a very young age. All my colleagues are all high profile people.
However, till date I have never travelled by plane (But I cherish in my heart the dream of visiting all the wonderful places on this planet and I am confident that I will realize it.) I was bit excited and a bit tensed at the thought of visiting the air port. I had never ever been to air port, not even to receive any one. Several thoughts like, how should I enter the airport, whether I have to buy a platform ticket, whether I have to undergo security checks, where will the plane land, from where my friend will come, kept on haunting me.
Lyra disturbed my chain of thoughts and kept the letters which she had typed on my table. Should I ask her, a thought crept in my mind. Lyra was our Steno typist and had a lot of relatives in gulf. But what would she think when she would came to know that I have never ever travelled by plane in my life. She was very good at gossiping. I would be a standing joke if all my office colleagues came to know that I had never travelled by plane.
My intercom rang; my boss had called me to his chambers. I discussed work with him. My boss would travel many a times from one country to another for official work. Should I ask him how to reach the air port and enquire whether I have to buy a platform ticket before entering the air port. But would he laugh at my ignorance?
I felt petty at myself that I have never ever travelled in my life by flight. I started feeling depressed. Depression and hunger are closely associated. Right from the time we are infants we associate food with happiness. When a young one cries, his mother feeds him and the child feels happy. So I decided to get out of this depressing situation by finding happiness through food. I stepped down from my office situated on the sixth floor. I decided to cherish a burger available at the nearby Churchgate station. I paid twenty bucks and bought the coupon for a vegetable burger.
There were some urchins begging to the commuters who were gormandizing fast food at the stand and eat eatery. Suddenly a thought crept in my mind. I am fortunate than these kids. I have at least the money to eat whatever I wish. Even if I want to travel by air, I can book a ticket for me at any point of time. Given my education and my standing, it is not too distant future that I will fly. Rather it may so happen that I will travel only by flight. There is nothing wrong or disgraceful in enquiring the formalities at the air port. There is always a first time. However I did not muster the courage to enquire to any of my colleagues. I called up my friend, Sagar whom I was going to receive. I expressed my apprehensions. “Aree Mahesh I will be landing at Delhi and taking a domestic flight for Mumbai. So you will have to come at the domestic air port. It is just like a railway station. Only see that you come at arrivals. Arrivals and departures are at different places And you need know buy any ticket!” said Sagar. My best friend did not ridicule me and understood my apprehensions. I am happily going to receive him with a dream that one day I will also travel by plane.
