And we landed in Mumbai...

...after a while.
That while just happened to a few hours. Fifteen to Sixteen to be precise. The journey was smoother than I expected. I slept more than I thought I would. I missed seeing the sunrises and the mountains when flying over them.

But I was happy. We were happy. We had reached India. A place that was close to both of us. A place where our love blossomed. A place where the soul is satisfied.

I must tell you something about Netra. She cannot walk. However, I do not want to go into the details of it. So its like I have to carry her in my arms or on my shoulders all the time. And every-time I do that, I feel blessed to be at her side always. Even though my shoulder hurts at times, I still feel good when I carry her around. Its like having her makes the pain go away. Its a different matter that it hurts when she is off my shoulder. Perhaps as an indication of the pain that people go through in separation.

I have always had this fear, no not fear...rather a strong feeling about people who are in some sort of trouble and still have their loved ones beside them. So when I see someone being loved, inspite of having the inability to walk, or to see, or something else, I think that the other person who is loving is an avatar of God.

So Netra and me go through customs in Mumbai. I must say this was one of the confusing airports within India. It was my first time there, and I guess due to the renovations going on it seems to be a bit of a mess. Hope they fix it soon and project a better picture of themselves. But then I should not be complaining. Should I? Just because I have seen better airports in the world, could I expect better service? Or just be ignorant?

Netra till now was still in her new outfit that I had got for her.

My transfer to the connecting flight was confusing. I had to take a domestic flight, at the international terminal, going through and also not going throug immigration again. Pretty confusing? Yes, thats what it was.

At the stop, waiting for the flight to Chennai, which was at 0300 hrs local time, I struck a conversation with an uncle from Chennai. The interesting part about random meeting people and talking to them is that they always have something interesting to tell you. This uncle was an alumnus of the college I was going to ! Of all the colleges he was an alum of that college! What a co-incidence!

I started the conversation in the context of asking the time , and then he started to talk. He wasjust getting back to India after spending 6 months in the US. He had some pretty interesting views.

Suddenly there was a rush at the waiting area. Apparently almost 70 % of the people waiting were on the flight to Saudi Arabia. And people were rushing to get first in the queue. I felt strange at the sight.

The time said 1 o clock. Another two hours I had to wait further for my flight. Netra was still inside, and I had not yet let experience India yet.

Was she going to be shocked, glad, happy, surprised, content?

Only time was to tell. Another few hours before I land in Chennai.

To be continued...