Journey from Bangalore to Guwahati
Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
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Today is a day for commuting, and a boring one at it. I need to catch two flights and spend nearly 10 hours going from my home in Bangalore to my hotel in Guwahati.
I started early from home and reached airport as early as two hours before departure, fearing traffic jams created by early morning rush. It is after reaching the airport that I realized it was a Sunday. Such things are bound to happen if you are not going to office for many months!
The airport is crowded and it looks like a mess. I was hungry and there was no good place to eat. You don’t get a decent breakfast there, but some odd foreign things like sandwich and such sundries. I don’t understand why they can’t take some trouble to serve some local food. I would rather have Idli-Vada or Dosa in the morning than the stale yesterday’s sandwich microwaved to make you feel slightly better. It is the same story in other airports in India too. Why don’t they serve what people actually want to eat? A small restaurant that would serve idli and dosa in south or paratha in the north would make a lot more sense than the boring plastic wrapped sandwich. I have had Dosa in an airport outside India, but I haven’t seen an airport in the country that served it. Anyway…
The airport felt more like a bus-stand. The days of screens announcing arrival, departures, check-ins and boarding seem to be history. Now there were airlines executives shouting at the gates like
“Air Deccan Delhi… Air Deccan Delhi…”
“Jet Airways Chennai… Jet Airways Chennai…”
I wonder what comes next? Two different airline execs fighting for more space or time? Hope it doesn’t come to that.
I had plenty of time in my hands to kill before boarding my flight, so I settled down in a corner amidst the chaos, pulling out a newspaper. Once someone ‘shouted’ about my flight, I got in and settled down comfily in my window seat.
A nice thing about Bangalore-Kolkata flight is that it goes just above the coastline and you get an aerial view of the east coast. I remember seeing Chilika Lake during my last Kolkata flight but this time I fell asleep much before we passed above that.
I was killing time in Kolkata waiting for my next flight as I read through my boarding pass envelope. It read –
“You must identify your baggage at transit point. Unidentified luggage will not be loaded to the next flight”
That sounded stupid and funny. I spent a good amount of time and effort in Bangalore to get my baggage security checked, identified and tagged and left with the care of airline authorities. And as my transit point arrives, they don’t remember it anymore and want me to go back to them and beg them to board my luggage to the next flight! But the last thing I would have wanted is to see my luggage remain stranded in Kolkata airport while I moved on to Guwahati, so I went and inquired only to be brushed off by an unfriendly lady who said “that is not necessary, you can go to the gates and board the flight now”. As I moved towards the gate, I was glad to see that the gates were not in a mess like it was at Bangalore.
There is a change in the air in Kolkata-Guwahati flight. Flight attendants seemed relaxed, and removed their pretentious appearance and fake smiles. They often spoke to passengers in Hindi, which they never seemed to do in the main routes. But then a lot of people in the flight spoke neither English nor Hindi. An old lady sat next to me and she seemed to be unsure of what to do when she was served snacks. One of the air hostesses tried speaking to the lady but all attempts to communicate failed, as they knew no language in common.
We had a stopover at Agartala before moving on to Guwahati. It seemed strange – I never thought I would ever find myself in such a remote corner of the country.
As we took off from Kolkata, we flew over Bangaldesh before reaching Agaratala. From the top, Bangaladesh appeared to be completely devoid of trees. Nevertheless, every inch of the land was green, with paddy fields spreading as far as the eyes could see. Sunlight reflected from the thin layer of water covering the paddy fields. Brahmaputra looked wide and full even from high in the sky. It was a short 30 minutes flight, and we were back in the Indian skies ready to land in Tripura. We next flew over Meghalaya, which was hilly and green, its valleys filled with rivers and streams. It was early evening when I landed in Guwahati and made my way to the hotel in a taxi.
To be continued..