Aboard the flight!

I’ve always wanted to say this. Aboard the LH 441 from Houston to Frankfurt (though it isn’t my aircraft, it sounds nice when read aloud :P), I am doing what I wanted to do from a very long time. The only thing is that this would be published as soon as I get access to internet.

Any other circumstance, any other day, I should’ve been extremely elated about the fact that I’m over the North Atlantic now, about to land in approximately 3 hours at Frankfurt, en route to Bangalore. Not today. I didn’t say I’m not excited, but not as much. For one, there is the anxiety of not finding a job back in the US and going back to India for good. It is anxiety but not repenting on my decision. I was never too keen on staying here in the US for a long term. Just didn’t know how long the ‘short term’ would last for. The second reason why my excitement is getting masked is because I hate bidding goodbyes. Few relations made, have withstood against the test of time and as most of us would have experienced more often than not, few would just obliterate in oblivion.

I’ve never opened my laptop in a flight. Just thought it was clumsy to type in such a small space with so much constraints. Moreover, I didn’t have anything life threatening nor thought provoking to an extent that I make a record of it. Today is however different, though it is neither. Maybe a little of the second one.

No matter how bad the place is, no matter how much I cribbed, no matter how much I expressed disgust, no matter how much I relished just the thought of getting back home, few people just change the short span of time spent with them that all of a sudden, nothing matters anymore. 

This happened of course, to a greater extent when I left hostel. 4 years of engineering, 4 years of fun, everything just seemed to go away in a jiffy. Memories are all that remain. I so wish that I’d taken more photos. Now that I look back at the photos that I’ve, I remember more, maybe each single thing associated with each photograph. Maybe that is the beauty of a photograph, maybe that is why its said that it ‘captures the moment’.

The same thing happened when I left India to go do my Masters. Coming to the US in hope of a better life was the only way I assuaged myself. You know, Masters - ‘apparently’ a big deal, then finding a job, making money and the like. Come to think of it, though it all didn’t happen to an extent I’d expected, (the greatest mistake of mankind - Expectation) there were a few people, a few incidents that I’d probably never forget. I was just skimming through my photo albums on my iPod and that is when I realised how important photos are, in anyone’s life. From the trips and shows in 2007, to the various airports I went around, from the first snowfall to the hurricane evacuation adventure, about 4 graduation ceremonies, the first fun trip to San Antonio/South Padre (boy, what a trip!) all the cars I drove, the parties at home and basically all that. Hell, I don’t even know if I’d meet all these wonderful people I’d been associated with, for these 2 years in my life again. Again, there would be few relations which will strongly brave the odds thrown around by time and few will just collapse over time, but it will always remain etched in my memory.

Only qualms were the bed bugs and the cockroaches which I don’t think I’d miss to that an extent. :P

Probably the best statement that I’ve heard in these two years is by one of my room mates, Dhrubo. We would have these engrossed discussions about life, about how people change and stuff, about how things that happen are so unreliable and the like. At an apt juncture, he just said, ‘A person who tries, never fails.’ I can’t forget that. It just came at the right time and was effective enough. 

I’ll miss being a part of all those discussions we’d have endlessly, Dhrubo and I initially, till we shifted to another house, when the rest of the gang joined in. It was fun. 

Anyways, I still have about 2 hours to land in Frankfurt. Maybe I should be excited, maybe. And boy, someone was right. This is the first time i’m flying Lufthansa, and the legroom sucks. Can’t imagine how someone tall can sit here!