Sitting on a flight to Denver, I am casting this. I couldn’t find myself doing anything useful anyway. The last two weeks has been a blur, with me going from coast-to-coast – From New York to Phoenix to San Jose to New Jersey…and now to Denver. And, it was laced with bad food, lack of sleep, working over weekend and flying a red-eye. Despite all this, I love travelling. I really do. You always get to learn a thing or two new. See new places. And, most of the time, I end up losing weight. Certainly, not by choice though. Blame it on my vegetarianism. Above all, are my experiences with fellow travelers. Generally, I end up staring at the front seat wondering ‘is there a method to this madness?’
Picture this. Last week, I was sandwiched between two women (now hold your horses) - a 60 year old Mexican grandmother and a middle aged Buddhist nun
‘This go Phoenix? No?’ The Mexican grandmother showed me the ticket.
I looked at the ticket and assured her that she is in the right plane.
‘I crying crying yesterday’ she said with her broken English. For the next 15 minutes she tried feverishly, to make me understand, with a mixture of broken English and Spanish, why she was crying. Finally, she gave up in despair. Guess, I was not smart enough.
I turned around to strike up a conversation with the nun. Fortunately, she spoke English. As usual, the discussion started about the bad weather and moved on to other topics. The next hour and half she explained the two streams of buddhism, her life history, why she chose to be nun, and how her parents reacted to it and so on till I started snoring. I am not sure if she inserted 'cheetos' in my nose, just like they show in the ad.
I just lifted my head after typing this. The lights were switched off and most of the window shutters were down. Barring a select few reading lights, it was dark and pretty quiet. I looked out and saw the snow capped mountains below me. I murmured to myself, 'sometimes silence is really a bliss'.
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