Saturday, August 20, 2016

My cup of coffee

Had a long 2-leg travel from Kuala Lumpur to Mumbai  on Malindo Air 1950hrs Friday and connecting Mumbai to Dubai on Jet Airways 0155hrs. Landed Dubai Terminal 1 at 0315hrs Saturday. Both flights were uneventful, smooth and had good sleep.

As you might notice that it's a crazy loop when direct KL Dubai flights are available. That's right!!! Sometimes these crazy routing happens due to my travel logistics. This time it was because my incoming trip was via Mumbai and doing the outgoing on a different airline was going to cost a whole lot more. So comes this combination.

Of course the immigration at Mumbai was puzzled trying to analyse what illegal business requires this kind of camouflaged travel! He still looked puzzled after my pathetic explanation about my route but stamped my passport anyway since I am a "Overseas Citizen of India" with a handful innocent business trips in and out of various Indian airports.
And I had no time to waste as I had used up most of my 115 available transit minutes and I was on the last reserve of 18 minutes before the boarding closes!!

Glad to have arrived Ibis One Central near World Trade Centre in Dubai. Checked in at 0430hrs. Unpacked my cargo load of stuff as this is going to be "home" for the next 4 weeks. Now having coffee watching the garden and having the long awaited break.

Chattrapathi Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai... Malindo Air check in counter

First there is a sotta thalayan cutting the queue, rushing from the side and almost crashed the trolley onto the bum of another kannadi kaaran. Finally the airline staff got him back onto the line. He was just plain ignorant.

Then there is the middle aged cowboy with his elderly mom. Cowboy is a Indian guy with a huge tummy, spotting a bushy moustache like overgrown grass by the banks of Kaveri river, wearing a Dallas hat, with a white mobile phone tucked away in the back pocket of his faded jeans with a earphone wire going onto one ear like a FBI agent and wearing Nike!! In summary he looks like a clown out of a Amir Khan movie. And more so while he tries hard to take selfie while smiling broadly!!

The sotta thalayan now completed check in. Carefully packs his passport into a husky plastic bag, pushes it into the large front pocket of his brown bush jacket, puts on a black cap and is now loitering around the waiting area.

I have all this time because my ticket was booked using a Malaysian credit card and they need 30 mins to verify!! Another complicated Indian procedure to curb money laundering??

Friday, August 12, 2016

Sugoi Deira City Centre

Today I came to Sugoi at Deira for my lunch of teriyaki chicken and fried rice with miso soup... and my weekly people watching hobby.

There's a guy on the next table with a kid calling his mother in law and asking her to move her buts and get to the food court sometime today. His wife is sitting on another sofa table at a distance. They fought over the mother in law's punctuality??

And there are 2 Filipino guys handling 2 very young kids. One kid walking on the table between the plates of noodle from the Fujiyama stall. And another trying to play Pokemon around the food court. Third behaving well. Now one of the guys are trying to make milk!!

Ah and the mother in law just arrived. Now the wife is missing!! She must have gone to Carrefour.

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Flight AI581

Today's eavesdropping on Air India flight AI581 from Mumbai to Kozhikodu. Mohan on seat 3A was excitedly speaking to his "buddy" on next seat about the freedom he enjoys in America.

Mohan is 73 yrs old. Went to USA in 1975 to complete his MBA in Ohio State University. And settled down there. He landed in Mumbai last night from New York via London while his baggage is still in transit somewhere!!

An aircraft engineer who used to work with Air India and has trained many pilots on aircraft mechanics. That's his glorious young days.

He was in St Petersburg, Russia last month. So now started reading about those who amassed wealth during the Soviet Union split. His story has slowly drifted to the Aryan invasion of India and how Andra Pradesh resisted the move south hence preserving the Dravidian culture in south!

His newfound buddy took some selfie after their vegetarian breakfast on flight.

As we landed in Kozhikodu and got on the bus at the tarmac, a lady of similar age started talking to him. Both were trying to figure out if they've met in Mumbai in the 70s!!! His old flame???