Three years ago …
A ring on my mobile phone woke me up in my Noida apartment. It was four in the morning and I was alone. My wife had been staying in Kolkata, with my in-laws for the past two months.
… A strange fear crossed my mind, before I answered …
It was a short call, and keeping down the phone I called a cab. By the time the cab arrived, in 15 minutes, I was ready, with my baggage of bare essentials. And I cruised to Delhi Airport in the next 30. A mild drizzle followed me …
That was my first instance of buying a ticket from an Airport counter … There was a long wait for the flight – actually about an hour – but it felt way too long. Two quick phone calls followed – making me more nervous as I boarded. And I switched my phone off at the command of that overly made up hostess …
… I had not bothered to choose a seat … so check-in counter allotted the worst of the lot … a middle seat just in front of the emergency exit … one with a fixed back … A very long 30 minutes later …. stooping to my front I tried looking out of the cabin window… Little patches of clouds stretched out from beneath the aircraft … all the way to the mighty Himalayas on the left … It was the rainy season … but I was flying over the heavens … watching a perfect sunrise over the highest mountains on earth … live …
…. A sudden jerk brought me back to reality … from the painful, neck-stiffening doze … the flight had just landed …
I tried turning my phone on … and it was the longest I have known for any phone to turn on … now signal was playing truant … I tried calling a few times …. in vain … that same hostess had come down to me by then … lecturing on the how unsafe my act was. I felt like throwing that worthless phone on the her painted face.
I deboarded … and finally, on the pick up bus …. the phone crooned, receiving a message … and … I opened it …
… I felt a lump in my throat, my vision blurred … and I realized I was crying! My fellow passengers inquired… consoled … patted …. my haggled, unbathed, unshaved, uncombed self …
“A little rain cloud has showered bloom in our lives.”
“Mehuli is born: I am a father!”
Honest Blabber 