My Story
Walter Hinteler wrote:.... and what happened today/yesterday?
This is my side of the Story.....
The struggle on Sundays finally paid off (thanks to you Walter), yesterday morning I got an SMS from Clary offering her residential number. I called her up on her mobile. she was roaming outside then. She told me about McTag who was staying in a Hotel in the central town of Byculla in Mumbai. I could not speak further as the damn network was abrupt. I then quickly checked the email where she already sent me a message about our meeting scheduled today (22nd Sept) at 12'O clock noon at Mc's Hotel. (Quite an organized lady I must say). They were supposed to leave the hotel and head towards the Airport at 1:30 pm after lunch and myself back to work.
I live in suburbs. So today I decided to move out early in a day around 10'O Clock for the meeting but could somehow managed to leave at 10:30. Due to my lack of knowledge about the area (Byculla) I spent 2 hours traveling around and reached the destination at 12:30 pm.
Mc and Clary were waiting on the ground floor in the visiting corridor. I could identify Mc as he had already sent me his pic. Clary was a surprise though. Her pic was different than how she actually looks. We quickly got onto the Lunch table (I was feeling absolutely awkward for making them wait for half an hour.. I was accidentally responsible for proving them the hidden meaning of "Indian Punctuality")
On the Lunch table, we ordered our food. Clary ate a Veg Cutlet & Mc ate vegetable Stew and Rice. Me was fasting ... coz its Tuesday (Lord Ganesha's day) So I had plain pineapple juice and discussed things about staying in Hot humid weather, food, spices & Paan (Indian Mouth freshener), Cochin, Kanyakumari and Keralite Backwaters.
Clary was speaking most of the time. Mc was silent. He told me he had some hearing problems so I did not indulge him more into discussion but he was carefully listening though. I was surprised to know that Clary's elder son's name is Rustom (Parsi origin) & younger son's name is Rabindra (after the great Indian Poet & Nobel Prize winner Sir Rabindranath Tagore). She is a Half Indian already.
Mc on the other hand was more into handling and getting accustom to the hot weather in here, and the driving. Meanwhile for an Indian skin like me, winter has just started coz I have started feeling cold in morning these days. My lips have just began drying up and cracking. I can understand Mc and Clary calling this a Hot weather as they came straight from a land of -5 degrees.
We wrapped our lunch quickly and got into a domestic cab heading towards the Airport. The cab was the traditional black yellow colored fiat-origin and as old as a few thousand years. These old taxies are still not banned in this area of Mumbai. In Suburbs u do find Air Conditioned cabs like Indicabs (Called city-rover in London) more often than in town.
The cab driver was no exception to the AID (adventurous Indian driving). Mc was tensed to his life (I suppose) whereas Clary was expert enough in tackling the wild driving style. She looked comfortable. Twice the cab driver did reached a point of collision but hey! no worries. Everything's well that ends well. This also explains why we Indians need no special theme parks and roller-coaster rides. We experience them daily.
But the journey surely offered us some time to talk like mature A2Kites for the first time. We talked about tourists spots in Maharashtra state (where Mumbai resides) (Old forts built in the kingdom of Shivaji, Naval Forts in sea water, salt water lake at Lonaar formed due to a meteorite impact on earth (Asia's only celestial wonder), Replica of Taj Mahal at a place called Aurangabad called Bibi ka Makbara etc). But besides that we also talked about Lakshyadweep, Kashmir and Tibet. Both Mc and Clary have pretty good knowledge about the Indian Continent. I could easily make out that as they were discussing. My hosting was never complete without gifts. So I offered them 2 classical idols of Lord Ganesha (Elephant God) as it symbolizes Wisdom and Luck (needed for the journey). I also offered them a pack of Indian sweets called Malai Sandwitch (Sugar Cream Sandwitch). Mc did a good old Namaste as a gesture for Thank You and I greeted him with the same.
The journey was ample enough for us to know each other well and build a solid "first" impression. For me Clary and Mc are two good buddies whom I can spend time anywhere in the world talking about everything.
