In search of the Buddha - Day 1

Indian airlines sucks. The hell on wings was scheduled to depart at six. The creatures at the check in counter manage to arrive for work at a little before 6. But when they do, they make sure they sit at the counter right NEXT to the one where all their passengers have queued up. The next few minutes are replete with absolute mayhem as the janta find themselves in a mad scramble for position. Its not over. These guys do not give up that easily. "I'm sorry sir, but this system's down. Would you please move to the next counter?" <stream of abuse follows as the mayhem builds up again>
The hell box will be late, they tell us. Nobody's leaving till seven. That's ok. This is India. And in India they dont give a damn. Half past seven and the thing finally arrives. <Let me remind you at this point of time that the air hostesses are NO chicks. In fact the company's air hostesses and aircraft have a lot in common. Both deserve retirement. Immediately.(buy em Mr Mallya!)

9 am: All hell breaks loose as the ageless monster lets loose a musical fart and climbs into the skies.
ok. We've a stopover at Kochi, but hell-in-the-air has is circling around Kochi for a good half hour now. Just as you get the feeling that the captain is dead at his stick, his voice starts to resonate inside the cabin . He's drunk. I'm sure."Ladies and gentleman, we're currently *hovering* over Kochi due to some *foreign objects* on the runway. We'll commence landing in ten minutes." Another half hour and the monster begins it musical fart again. We touch down at 10. A new speed record. Trivandrum to Kochi in 4 hours flat! (beat that Branson!). Old boy hasn't even come to a halt when drunk announces a change of hells in kochi. Till then I'll have to kill time in Kochi.
We leave Kochi at 11:30. On the flight I meet David. He's a freelance photographer from the UK on his first trip to India. A formula one freak, he's been to almost half the GPs this season. We connect instantly. The dude's even been touched by Schumi. That was in 2002. After he won the Italian gp at Monza when he was enroute to the press conference. Lucky boy David.

Its three when we reach Delhi. The flight to Leh is at 5 am tomorrow. Till then we'll stay at Noida. I'm on the way to Noida right now and just left Delhi. Hope to post again soon! See ya...

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