13 February 2025

Off to another country!

Taking full advantage of Sharmila being in India and the long weekend, I am venturing out to check out another small country. Guyana.

Why Guyana, you ask? I don’t know. Two years back when I flew to India to surprise Sharmila, my cover for that travel was a trumped up story that I was visiting Suriname. I loved the name of their capital – sounds like a Bengali word – Paramaribo.

Guyana is an even smaller country right next to it. Got fairly good tickets. (In Bengali, দামটাও দেখে নিলাম “গায়ে না” লাগে !). So, here I am.

Found out that 40% of Guyanese are of Indian origin (like Fiji) and one in three are Hindus. Apparently it is sparsely populated (only more than 4 other countries are more sparse) but GDP per capita is pretty high. In the Americas, only USA, Canada and the Bahamas beat it. However, there is tremendous inequality of income. Nearly half the people are below the poverty line.

Time to explore now!!

13 February 2025

Amex outdoes itself again

One of the best play on words – and ad placement – I have ever seen was in JFK airport many years back while going thru customs and immigration. As you come out after wrapping up your formalities and start walking down the long corridor to exit – there was an Amex ad that said “If you had a green card, you would not need a visa!!” To get this, you have to remember that in the old days, Amex cards used to have an iconic green color.

Coming out of the flight from Atlanta today, as I started walking down the corridors of Miami airport, I looked up a saw the Amex Centurion lounge. And right there was this lovely play on words for folks who are tired of their delayed flights…

Amex: You are a Member when you seize the delay !

13 February 2025

First time I am seeing this

You see that wheelchair meant to transport people with ambulatory difficulties sitting in the middle of the corridor? Actually it is not sitting there. It is moving. You can see one more behind it – following it.

It is an autonomous, robotic wheelchair! It was amazing to watch it negotiate the traffic. I guess, after autonomous vacuum cleaner, cars, food delivery carts, I should have guessed this was coming!

This is in Miami International airport.

10 February 2025

No caffeine for you!

This morning Jay Jay and I had come to Boarding Pass Coffee to grab a cup of tea during our morning walk. (I am the only family member not in a foreign country this week – so I get to walk him).

This evening, during our walk, he made a beeline for the coffee shop and stood in front of the door with that “Let’s go in and get some coffee” attitude around him. No amount of showing him that the sign clearly says they closed at 4PM would convince him!!

8 February 2025

One more of those surprises

The genesis of this story starts from our short Dallas trip last week when we met up with my best friend from school days – Avijit Bose – who was visiting his brother in law. At that time, I had enquired after his return itinerary and realized that he would be leaving for Australia from JFK the same evening as Sharmila and Natasha were to leave from India (also from JFK).

I was in New York for work this week anyways. I extended my stay to get a chance to see Sharmila and Natasha off to India. Their flight and my flight was scheduled to start at exactly the same time. However, Avijit’s flight was to start long after mine – so, I did not harbor any thoughts of being able to see him at the airport.

Besides, JFK is a huge airport with 8 terminals and you cannot go from one terminal to another without getting out of secured zone and taking a train.

An idea started taking shape when I found out this morning from Avijit that he was coming from Dallas to JFK by Delta. Dallas being the hub of American Airlines, I had assumed he would be traveling by American.

Quickly checked his flight and realized something. He is coming into the same terminal (4) as my departing flight. In fact, his international flight is also from the same terminal.

And that is when the plan was laid.

After seeing Sharmila and Natasha off at the security queue in Terminal 8, I took the train to Terminal 4, finished off all formalities and waited outside Gate A14. Finally, their flight pulled in and they were one of the first ones to get off. You can see them walking out of the plane as I took a few snaps from the other side.

Then I put the phone in my pocket, hauled the backpack and briskly walked up to them. And like I have done before to surprise others, brushed past Avijit purposely with an audible “Excuse me!”. Avijit instinctively pulled a bit aside as he kept walking. And I kept walking next to him. Staring squarely at him as he looked back at me.

One mississippi… two mississippi… and then it struck him!!

“Arrey, tui? “ (meaning – “Huh? You??”)

We grabbed together a coffee and had some laughs before they had to claim their baggage and do the international check in and I had to run to my plane!!

Another surprise pulled off!!