Budapest Diary - Day 0

“Are you crazy?” asked the cab driver. “What the hell are you going to do at the airport for 5 hours?” 5 hours? It‘d probably take me 3 hours to reach the place. Which city was he living in? I was made to eat my… thoughts. We covered the 30-odd kilometers in an hour. But then, airports are always interesting places. No sooner had I got off the cab, than a posse engulfed me. “Sir? Taxi? Where do you want to go?” they screamed. “How about inside?” I quipped back.

Sleep was already tugging at my eyelids. Any hopes of having a quick nap were dashed by the two gentlemen seated behind yapping away happily in Bengali. I couldn’t make any sense of it – hardly a surprise if you do not happen to know Bengali. Soon, I was surrounded by three beautiful ladies – all blabbering on their mobile phones. So much for sleep! I plugged in my I-pod.

Snag arrived an hour later. We had done an e-check-in, and she had deliberately chosen the last row of seats! The baggage drop-off was taking a hell lot of time, thanks to the lady with the fluffy black dog. I mentioned it to snag. “How can they allow a dog inside? What if it came and bit me?” I assured her it would be well packed up in a bag. I pointed to the dark blue bag at the lady’s foot. It was bouncing up and down. Snag insisted on checking out whether her food preference had been booked. Needless to say, it had been, and to my shock, I found out that there was no food option booked on my ticket!

I almost forgot to declare my camera. I pulled Snag out of the security check queue to return back to the customs desk. She was cross, since there was hardly anybody at the security counter. “Should I declare my mobile phone?” She innocuously asked the official. He smiled wryly. “You can also declare your bangles, chains and everything else, madam. Namaskara. Have a nice journey!”

As the clock ticked over to the next day, I perceived the all-too-familiar argument at the security check counter. This time, it was an American lady, with a huge bag full of lotions and potions and other liquids. “I cannot drop it here! I have to carry it! It is allowed in America, if it is packed in a sealable container! This is not how security checks are done in our country!” She screamed at the officials. In her country, they only believe in frisking.

And thus, I passed on into my tenth year with SAP.