Sharmila and I went to my brother’s in-laws’ place next. His family was there to celebrate Durga Puja. In their living area, I sat in a way where anybody who came out from inside of the house would see Sharmila first. And they would have to turn around to see me.
Check out the expression on my sister-in-law’s face!!
My mother in law was on a call sitting outside in the yard. As I mentioned before, my brother had already walked in. And then I followed half a minute later.
I kept walking past my mother in law smiling at her to go in and give the surprise to Sharmila.
She could not utter a word. I could hear the other person on the phone yelling “Hello! Hello!”. She just kept staring at me speechless.
In Bengali, we say “bhoot dekhar moton” (like she had seen a ghost!!)
Much fun was had then over a cup of tea!!
So, the surprise destination for me turned out to be India!! As I had mentioned, Sharmila came to India after 31 years to see Durga Puja with her mom.
Totally, unbeknownst to her, I had made plans to show up two days later for my Durga Puja after 31 years too!
Thank you Heida and SK for helping me plan it and Julia and Bess at office who pushed me to go ahead and pull the trigger (I was dithering till about a few days before Sharmila left).
My brother – the only person in India who knew – picked me up at the airport and after parking the car in front of Sharmila’s mom’s house, went inside – ready to take pictures.
And half a minute later, I walked in.
Check out the first reaction on her face realizing who was walking in!!
Priceless!!
For a person like me who is an anachronism in so far as writing instruments are concerned, it is difficult to not marvel at somebody like Karan Dhir.
I lazily strolled into Terminal 1 of Mumbai airport a bit early for my maiden flight to Durgapur. I had flown out of Durgapur once and that was three months back but never into. My hope was to score my first delicious masala dosa this trip in the food stall inside the terminal.
Instead, like a fait accompli, I soon found myself scanning the fountain pens at the William Penn shop. There was nobody else other than an unassuming young gentleman at the counter. With who, I struck up a conversation. And was soon amazed by his knowledge of fountain pens.
I apologized for taking too much of his time. He would have nothing of it. He talked about how he comes across fountain pen collectors once in a while and can’t help exchange information and learn new things.
We went over to my website and checked out my collection – the bamboo pens, the glass pens, the quilt pens and of course the modern fountain pens. He taught me about some of the more modern Indian pen brands and we went over quite a few of the pens in the store.
I told him how I carry two fountain pens always in my bag. He stunned me by reaching into his bag and fishing out a hooded nib style Hero pen. You may remember how I had collected one of these. It has a very sentimental value to me. That was a gift my mom had received when she became a teacher!!
I was suitably impressed that in modern day and times when even keyboards are giving way to touchscreens, an young man like Karan Dhir still has a passion for classic instruments like the fountain pen.
I finally landed up picking up a fountain pen to add to my collection. And a few new writing pads for the coming year.
I must have made an impression on him. He insisted on gifting me a fountain pen from his side. I got a feeling no doubt like my mom had with her pen.
“I do not often meet collectors like you sir. Please accept this from my side.”
That was a surprise that started this whole trip of surprises!!
Boarded Air France from Paris to Mumbai. First time I was flying this sector. We had to take a slight detour due to the unfortunate events going on in Palestine/Israel area. And looks like now threatening to spread to Lebanon.
The plane came down the Mediterranean Sea and stayed over the Sinai Peninsula over Egyptian air space. Came all the way to Aqaba (you may remember this place from Sharmila’s and my visit last year) and pulled a near right angle turn to the left to avoid air space over Jordan and instead went over Saudi Arabia and then onward.
I admit that escaping Atlanta for a warmer place the moment mercury drops down to the 40s is a bit of being a fair weather friend.
Truth is though, Sharmila is in India to see her mom during Durga Puja (after 31 years). I thought I would get a jump on the weekend and put another international trip to a country for this year under the belt. Can you guess where I am off to?
Some hints:
1. It is of course warmer than Atlanta now
2. The places outside of the USA I have already been to this year: Abaco (Bahamas), Canada, Curacao, El Salvador, England, France, India, Malta, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Turks and Caicos.
3. It is a very short stay – 3 nights to be precise
How irritating is it when the phone rings while you are in the middle of an important meeting?
I had just landed in London after a near sleepless night and was in the middle of some serious discussions with the Board when the table vibrated slightly. Everybody glanced at their phones or fished them out of their pockets. I noticed that it was my phone and it said “No Caller Id”. Well, one more of those scam calls, I concluded. Pressed the power button to cancel the call, looked at the beautiful River Thames in front and proceeded with my spiel.
Within 5 seconds, the phone rang again. With “No Caller Id”. Fairly persistent fraudster. Canceled it yet again.
And sure enough, they called up yet again. For a moment, I had a doubt that Sharmila or the daughters might be trying to get hold of me. Excused myself and picked up the phone.
“This is Alpharetta Police Department. Am I talking to Rajib Roy?”
This was TROUBLE.
“Let me take this. It is urgent”, I told the Board members as I ran out of the room, fearing some real bad news. Visions of one of the three in an accident is what kept flashing in my mind.
“This is Rajib Roy speaking. What is going on?”
“Your car is parked in an illegal spot. You need to move it now or we will have it towed.”
That was confusing. My car is at the airport. It is in a reserved parking spot. There is no way my car is anywhere near Alpharetta.
“Where is the car?”
“On Highway 9. In front of Smokejack. We have signs all over not to park anywhere on the road due to downtown events”.
“Officer, I am in London right now. I suspect that is my wife’s doing. Let me call her”
So, I called Sharmila and sure enough she and Nikita were out and about and had the car parked where it should not have been.
I went back to the room and within a minute there was a message from Nikita that they had moved the car to a proper place.
Late in the evening after all meetings, I called up Sharmila to find out what had happened.
She explained that there indeed was a sign not to park. They saw it. It said Oct 15.
“Well, why were they disallowing cars to be parked there today? It is Oct 13th today.”
She explained herself.
Unfortunately, my phone had said “No Caller Id”. If I knew the number, I was so going to call back Alpharetta Police Department and let them know that somebody thinks it is all their fault. The “From” date should not have been written in smaller font than the “To” date!
