Pawan Blog

"Wishing you and your loved ones a very happy new year"

Yup, "The Music" was yearly when I was studying till my graduation and it was the exam time when I was facing it, it becomes half yearly when I started job and time was project delivery. It becomes quarterly after marriage, not because of any bumps in my married life, but I moved to Singapore with a new job and started the process of moving family here in between got kids, 2 kids in short interval of 18 months and now their health and education. Not to mention 1 or 2 trips to India per year.

I never thought to write anything regarding "The Music" as I have slowly adopted with changing situation and need. But past few days were real tough and still "The music" is ON.

We have 5 health problems in family of 4. Anshu got 2, rest one each… . We all went to see the doctor yesterday and he asked "Who is the patient?"… Cheers…

Most of us have cold, so nothing to worry much on this; just had little concern for Aashi who have got fever. Hope she will be fine in these holidays, feeling bit relaxed as I will be at home and will be able to take care of her. Also there will not be any excuses at new job for late coming or leaves .

I was following up with schools for Aashi admission; she will be of 3 years in coming February. Thankfully I am in Singapore, where things are very well defined so process will be very smooth and least difficult possible.

It’s Christmas Eve and I don’t want to end here with all pain which I mentioned above. So lets talk about something else, something which I always loved "Photography". Posting here a photograph of a HDB block in front of one in which we are residing.

To those who could not find anything special in this I like to explain that it was the time of dawn and Sun was about to rise from back the block, it was cloudy also, I was standing in the balcony and all of sudden cloud over me got cleared and the block becomes very well exposed. Lights in the block were still on which adds little magic to it. Unfortunately there was no activity in those floors so it composition is not appealing.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays…

I was not at all in mood to go there alone, but kept my name in list so that I can drag Anshu and kids with me. Unfortunately they could not make it this time either, this was our day trip to St. Johns and Kusu Islands. Because of my commitment I joined them. Others were Rishi, Hari and Dileep with family. I was playing role of free tour photographer . Other than those with faces here are few without…

Ishu at playground 

I was my way to work on morning of 4th December, it was like any other day to me, and all of sudden felt the vibrator of my cell phone for a SMS. "Who is it and this early?" Yes! It’s a kind of odd timing for a SMS to me. Most of times, I receive SMS between 5-6 PM from Rishi asking if I can join him for badminton or not. Just to add I seldom receive any phone calls from anyone other than family of few friends, so I can guess who is calling or texting me depending on what time is it. But this SMS at 8:15 of morning! I was totally out of any idea.

"Happy Marriage Anniversary", it says and it was from Anshu… I was lost…

"How can I forget this day?"… "Damm…!"

We slept in same room, she cooked breakfast for me in morning, but did not wish… she was testing my memory, if I remember the day or not… and I failed… failed miserably…

Its unforgivable sin if you forgot the birthday of your girl or wedding anniversary of yours. I was a culprit and stand no where to defend my self by any mean… she has proved it already.

Its either a workday or a off day for a working class like me, moreover I went too busy with things to remember the day… too many things – A new job on new technology, long term passes for kids and Anshu and many other commitments, each of it requires a bone cracking effort. Despite all excuses by which I was forgiving my self but I was still feeling guilty somewhere inside.

"I will do something for her this evening" committed in my mind… and replied text "To you too!"

It was another working day with long hour, 2 more extra hours… I hope you will understand that I just can’t say "I have to go for my wedding anniversary" to my boss in a new company, so here I was… late at home, knowing the fact that she will be waiting for me and expecting something from me. Fortunately the bakery was still open, so bought a cake while my way back home.

It was our 4th wedding anniversary…

I was in India for 2 weeks for home warming and to bring my wife and daughter back to Singapore and it was a beginning of 2007. We were expecting our second child, while our first daughter was only 1 year old.

It was chilling month of February in north India and our ticket was booked with Air India. This was the first time I was going to fly with Air India.

Meeting up with friends and catching up with family and those 2 weeks just passed like seconds. To spent more time with family, we decided return to Delhi a night before our flight. To make it clear to you let me mention that my home town is Allahabad, approx 650 KM away from Delhi and it is a 9 hours journey by train to Delhi.

We reached Delhi in the evening before day of flight. After a little reshuffle of baggage I was finally ready to board Air India for the first time. This little reshuffle was required as I was the only person who will be dragging luggage till boarding, so my plan was to have as less number of baggage as possible and check-in as many as possible.

Our flight timing was 6 AM and my brother dropped me at Indira Gandhi International Airport as early as 3 AM. It was chilling outside of IGI, at the same time too crowded. I some how manage to pull a cart and placed all our baggage on to it, while my wife was taking care of my daughter. We have entered into airport.

There was a chaos at airport. There were just queues everywhere and all of them long too. IGI Airport was having 2 more security checks than other airport at that time, moreover there was some construction going on which has taken almost half of the movement area of first hall and reduced immigration area to half also. Someone of IGI staff told me join a queue for baggage security check. It took me 40 minutes to reach at the end and when I finally reached there, the person in-charge informed me this is not the right queue for Air India passenger and I need to join another queue next to current. I have taken a look at the length of other queue it was as long as my current one, I thought I will end up here and will never be able to board the flight at any cost, we were not having any choice but to join the other queue. Another 40 minutes and we were finally done with IGI security check.

Our next target was to get boarding passes and check-in baggage. Yes! here again, a long queue was waiting for us. I was little pleased that I have successfully cleared the security check finally.

We have reached to the boarding pass issuing officer and given him the ticket, the tickets I have booked from an agent in Singapore. "Your tickets have been canceled!" the officer informed me. "You just go back and wait. If we have sufficient seats available we will take you!" he has kind of scolded on me. "How can this be possible, I never canceled my tickets" I asked. "You have to reconfirm your tickets before 24 hours of boarding, else your tickets will be canceled", he reverted. "I have just returned back  to Delhi last night and I was not having any time to reconfirm it!", "Here you go, you tickets are canceled because of that!". I was shocked  and was looking at him with my eyes wide open. He has shown me my way back. I pushed the cart back to my wife who was resting on a chair near. This was the time when flight should takeoff, but they were still issuing boarding passes.

"What will happen now?", "Will we able to reach Singapore or not?", moreover I was worried about my wife comfort and my daughters needs so decided to call my brother back to Airport to pick us. Before I start searching a public telephone booth to call him, decided to make another try. By this time flight was late by 1 hour and there were only those at ticking counter whose tickets were "canceled". They were all arguing with Air India ticketing manager.

"Can you please get few seats for us?" I asked politely, showing him my tickets again. He looked at me and then booking. "OK, get your baggage, we have few seats left!". I thanked God and returned back quickly to push my cart back to counter.

Now the next problem. "This bag has 5 KG extra weight" pointing on my one of the 3 bags, a new information comes from ticketing officer. "How about sum of all baggage weight?" I asked. "Sum is ok but you have take out 5 kg from this adjust it somewhere else". I was not carrying any extra bag, else I could have been adjusted it to that. I informed this situation to him and also my limitation of carrying number of bags as my wife was unable to help me. He was not ready to listen to me, suggested me to buy a bag from Airport and adjust the weight. "You can not get a bag at airport", told a helper standing near me. "Pay me Rs. 500 I will get one for you" he offered. I left with no choice but to accept the offer. What I have got in 500 was dirty, used, tangled and very small bag. My wife helped me to open the bag there it self and stuff few cloths in that dirty bag. We did same practice 3 times to get the exact weight what they wanted. Finally they approved it and issued me the boarding pass. I was sweating in chilling month of February after this shuffling and my shirt was completely wet.

There was a continuous announcement going on for passenger to board on plane while they were still issuing boarding pass at the counter.

My next queue and the longest queue was the queue of immigration check. I requested those who where in queue already to let me go first as plane is about to takeoff, thankfully they allowed me go first. I dragged my wife from one hand and daughter from another, carrying 2 bags on back to immigration officer, I was ready to face his queries. There were almost no question from him and we have got our passports chopped.

We were finally needed to undergo a last security check before entering into plane. My wife entered into ladies section while I have entered into gents. I have pushed my bag inside scanner and entered from gate. "Is there any liquid inside your bag?" asked the CISF security personnel, his tone was dry and rude. "Yes! There is some milk and boiled water for kid.", my reply. "You know bringing liquid is not allowed on plane?", he scolded on me so loudly that every one else around that area started looking at me. This was limit of tolerance, "Are you not living in Delhi? Are you not aware of problem sewage supply with drinking water in Delhi? I don’t think I am doing any wrong and if you think you can simply take milk and water out and throw it.", I scolded back. There was a eye to eye contact between me and the officer for sometime, and finally he let me to go without any more questions. Another CISF officer  standing near to me tries to calm me down. During this hot exchange of words, I could not listen cry of my daughter who got separated from her mother for security check. My wife somehow manage to finish security and we moved towards plane.

Flight was 2 hours late by the time we have boarded the plane and we were last to board.

I am still going through Delhi for my visits to home and noticed they have improved the system a lot with time. There are fewer security check and security officers are more considerate than before, the contraction is over and we have a lot more space than before. And to end, I never traveled with Air India after that day. 

Wishes you best of Eid al-Adha…

Thanks for these holidays, I got some time to rest and rejuvenate my body. Though there were few important works already planned for this morning, which is Anshu and kids’ long term passes but still I was able to get sufficient rest.

Let me start from where I have left, we were at IGI Airport (Indira Gandhi International Airport) and our flight was late. Travelling with very young kids has its own concerns; you can not afford to spend a couple of hours just waiting to takeoff. They have their timings of food and sleep and their milk has limited life span, it will either be spoiled or finished and you will be in trouble. Though all airlines provided food for kids but a slight change of taste and kids will reject it and this is not just that’s it, after this be ready to take their cry. Though we (Anshu and me) are quite "use to" of it, but it will be unwanted entertainment for fellow passengers and this will be something really embarrassing .

Anyways we took off at approximately 1:15 AM, 2 hours late from scheduled departure. We reached KL calmly. Airliner was courtesies enough to provide use breakfast and lunch coupons with new boarding pass at KL, but our flight to Singapore was after 2 hours, means 2 more hours of wait again. While having our breakfast Anshu informed that milk for kids is spoiled, thanks to her she was carrying dried milk powder. I used all my coupons to get sugar and hot water from Burger King.

The terminal from where we have to take off was far away from the place where we had our breakfast, moreover later they announced that the gate have been changed to just opposite to the gate from where we were waiting to board and here I noticed stress on Anshu’s face . It was not at all smooth landing at Changi, I guess there was little turbulence at ground level, and plane landed like someone punched it from top to runway. I heard a scream just before touchdown and pin drop silence for some time afterwards. Anyways "All well if it ends well".

Few lessons learned, avoid travelling with young kids as much as possible at first place, never ever book a ticket with break journey and always get direct flight, pram comes handy all the time, carry dry milk powder and make your kids use to it in advance, always keep sufficient number of diapers in your cabin baggage .

Posting for 21st and 22nd November

I spent some good time on 21st shopping things which I can not get here and few medicines, doing packing and providing support to Anshu in her packing on-phone throughout afternoon. Elder brother AK was also returning to Delhi same day and on same train. I called my youngest bro-in-law to drop my family at railway station. Train (Prayagraj express) was on time and so were we; boarding was done without any difficulty.

22nd November; train arrived 2 hours late due to fog, there was no one expected to come to receive us as brother AK was traveling with us, so hired coolies and cab to. I was kind of "in need" so did not bargain, later brother AK pointed out that we have overpaid both coolies and cab.

Called Anurag, Rajkumar, Farhan and Ragini in afternoon, was thinking to meet them but as there was no plan earlier so could not make it.

We have started for IGI airport as soon as brother AK returned from his institute, it was around 7:30 PM, while getting boarding pass came to know that flight was approximately 2 hours late. It was a flight from Delhi to Singapore via KL, I was sure that I won’t be able to pick connecting flight from KL to Singapore. 

19th November was date of wedding, though I was not one of the important people in this event, but still spend my entire night with the process of wedding. A typical Hindu wedding process is very tiring, core ritual of marriage starts early morning (around 2-3 AM), but other events start way early. Barat, Dwarchar, Jaimala, dinner, Fere (+other sub processes), Kohbar and then Vidayee are events which happens in within of 12 hours and all of these in night.

I was awaken entire night watching every thing, I was bit late so missed the Barat, Dwarchar and Jiamala part of it. I was not in mood of photography but took my camera out of car when the actual process of wedding started. Here is one of best (in my opinion, ok???) of Groom, Mr. Shikhar –

I was sleeping entire day after retuning back in the morning, thought to explore international food options available in evening; there are 2, not sure about others…

McDonald (in Allahabad)

Dominos (in Allahabad)

Here is another one fresh and typical vegetable shop, which I have taken last night. 50mm F-1.8 gives more than expected results every time –

Have to start for Delhi this evening and to Singapore tomorrow. Will try to log if got time.

I decided to play with my 50mm F-1.8 today, and got some satisfactory results.
Here I have few cheerful faces for you… all of them are around me since I am here

He is "Pandit Ji" (Priest) who will perform wedding tonight.

And finally "Ladies and Gentlemen", here is the most important person and most important place in my entire trip. This is place where I am having all my dinners. For those who don’t know what this let is I tell that this is a "Chat Shop". It’s a typical mobile fast food shop you can find in Northern India. They are loved for their spicy and hot food mainly "Tikiya" and "Golgappy" (Golgappyes has many other names, known as "Fulki" in Allahabad)