- What is your educational qualification?
- What is the nature of your job?
- What wud be your pay scale?
and other blah blah....
These are the few questions which created a turning point in my life. You might have guessed it by this time.. these are the standard visa interview questions asked. I guess it was my day.... the moment i heard the "Thank you" on the speakers and passport was thrown into the not so full basket for stamping, i realized that my New Year 2010 will not be in chennai :)
So after lots of apprehension and 3 anxious days i got my passport with the elusive visa. Within the next few days i was to travel to a land where any normal IT guy aspires to go. So many things happened at lightning fast pace, that i almost get dizzy when i think of them...
This included the tiring shopping and checklist days... i was frantically creating lists of items that i needed and TO DO before i left Chennai. I came up with such an exhaustive list that i was proud of myself.... only till i realized after reaching Boston that i had forgotten the toothpaste!!!! Felt like kicking my self !!!!
And take off
I had always fantasized international travel and foreign lands right from my childhood... it was a kind of dream come true. After over an hour long wait, the time to leave Chennai had come. Found my seat without any trouble with the help of Maria :) the hostess on my aisle. All hopes were shattered when an aunty (not so great!!) came and sat at the aisle on the opposite side. I consoled myself :( and checked my watch, there were 20 mins for take off. Prayed to god to make my travel little interesting :) .... but i guess even God was deep asleep at 1:30 AM. The plane took off.... it was just me and the aunty sitting at the aisle and 2 empty seats between us. She was so anxious.... i was wondering wat could be the reason !!!! Then after a few moments drinks were served.. i took a very refreshing lemonade..... but almost choked myself to death when I saw aunty gulping a glass of beer within seconds.... she slept till we reached Brussels. I went about exploring the in flight entertainment kit and saw the movie Dasvidaniya.
My first sticker shock
Well so far so good... reached Brussels early morning. Saw abundant snow for the 1st time in life. It was awe inspiring.. felt like running out of the terminal onto the runway and grab some snow in hand... but couldn't. The transit was close to 3-4 hours... as usual i got bored easily within the first few minutes of the transit. Fine i reset my watch to local time.. checked it for the nth time and re-checked the the flight timing for the zillionth time and decided to go for a stroll within the airport. It was really beautiful.. and very clean needless to say.
On this interesting stroll, i came across a chocolate shop. There wudnt be any person on this earth who wudnt like chocolates (if he is normal). I decided to jump in and buy some... so this cute little lady greeted me and showed me a few of her shops specialties. The packing and colors were brilliant and very tempting. Then i saw this white patch, on which was written Euro 10.99 only. Fish!!! This small box hardly contained 4-6 globules of delicious fruit and nut covered in rich dark chocolate and was worth over 600 indian rupees. This pretty lady noticed the excitement fading on my face... it was embarassing.... at that moment i cud only think of H.G.Wells Invisible Man. How i wished i could disappear at that very moment. But life is not easy always.
Had no other option... so i decided, let it be a lesson. And pulled out the $100 note i had in cash and handed over to her. Immediately i heard her saying only Euro accepted sir! Wow, how glad i was... now i took over :) i requested as if i really wanted to buy :).. but she wudnt accept... btw who wanted her to accept ??? ;) I then quickly moved out of this place and decided not to hv any more embarrassing adventures at least until i reach the US.
To be continued...
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