Flying Finn

err not everybody will understand the next few lines but normal post content resumes right after.

for those who get it!!!
puglu's name can be modified again, what with all the poogloo and igloo jokes going around, and puglu being the lovable "shuor" that he is, we could do with pigloo!!! WHAT SAY???

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Normal post resumes:

04.05.2006

Helsinki, Finland.
My office (yes, MY office) which is a cubicle shared with 3 others(guessing by the number of comps) who havent turned up today. More about being here since yesterday later. More about getting here now.

Left Calcutta on the morning of the 3rd at 8 55a.m. by Jet. Was a peaceful flight to Delhi, where I sat down to get bored till 1 55 at night, when my flight to Austria was scheduled. The waiting lounge at the international terminal was certainly better than the one in cal, but it was appalling to see flies around in it. And for anybody who thinks its just india where all this kinda thing happens, take another guess; encountered flies on the austrian airlines flight as well!!!

Anyways, more to the point. spent hours online from the cyber cafe at delhi airport, some terrible, and i should add "to the power infinity" to the terrible, vegetarian food at the snack bar-they didn't have non-veg, i wasn't experimenting, some sleep(quite a bit in fact) some reading(a research paper sent by the prof from helsinki), some watching(not much... everybody was taken :( ) and then it was around 11 pm.
Oh, something happened in the meantime that got me listening to:
"I feel it in my fingers,
I feel it in my toes,
Love is all around me,
And so the feeling grows."
And, in spite of the source being what it was, I listened to it some 100 times. And then felt compelled to reflect some on the first scene of "Love actually" which, I now feel, could not have been shot at a more appropriate place. It really was almost touching to see people take leave, and I watched quite a few in the twelve hours. Mothers and sons/daughters hugged tearfully, couples kissed and just held on to each other, little kids all cute and bustling ran from one end to the other in their excitement, honeymooners more than happy to get rid of their families and just sit gazing into each others' eyes, hands clasped together, and a few bored ones like me, yawning away to glory.

****sorry for the interruption*******
Something else also happened that reminded me of something S said earlier(btw, ppl who know me well enough don't try o guess who S is, coz u wont guess it!!), that I had turned almost into stony emotionlessness. I remember smiling then, and I think, as I did then, that he is very close to being right, even though I would rather be the reactive welter of emotions that I was a couple of years ago.
*****rukawat ke liye khed hai, post jari rahega**********

And then off on an eight and a half hour flight to Vienna, Austria. Some browsing through the duty free shops, setting my watch back by three-and-a-half hours to match local time, some lip-smacking at the chocolates, and no purchases later, I was off for the final flight to Helsinki.

Observations at the airports:

1. I wonder if its something to do with me. Steward on Jet Airways flight to Delhi treated me like a kid; worse still, made me feel like one.

2. The best looking air-hostesses are with Lufthansa.

3. Austrian Airlines air hostesses wear different uniforms, one with red coat, skirt and stockings, and the other with blue, except the stocking which are skin coloured. The second one's are better.

4. However, the sight of an air hostess in the first uniform running is second only to that of a running penguin- it is sooooooooooo cutely funny!!!

5. Of all things, a man at the airport came and tried to talk to me in Japanese. What gave him THAT impression?? Or chinese, it may have been.

6. Certain air hostesses(not all; its not a uniform) and cutting across all airlines, wear this wristgear, bangle like only a bit thicker and white and red colour. Very becoming.

7. I didnt see any of Austria because they wouldnt let me through into the city, but what I saw from the air made me feel that if I ever built a city using lego or something like that, it would be exactly like that.
Vast farmland, very green, blocks of inhabitation, and neighbourhoods separated by more farmland and long highways, and those conical sloped roofs, tapering into a point at the top, houses. Beautiful it was. And cloud cover over it was very litle, so I could see the land from a fair way up.

8. The approach to Helsinki was the godliest I ever saw. It was a sea of clouds till we came low enough, and then there was a sea of water right below. And small islands here and there, for quite a long time till the coastline hovered into view.

9. i never knew how pilots find the airport. Didnt think they could remember routes, so always thought they used sight, to locate where there were aeroplanes around and landed. So when this chap went low enough so I could see the telephone wires within touching distance outside he window, I looked all around and was terrified to find no planes and only tractors. And he continued to fly at that kind of altitude for another 20 minutes before his myopic vision finally located a plane.

10. It helps to be rich. You could have bought half those adorable things at the duty free shop if you were.

11. Adjusting to couples in love can be quite difficult. I tried to decide for a while whether it would be easier if you had a girlfriend and thought of her back at home, or whether it would be easier not having one, when you were alone and saw people very obviously in love. Not sure, but it didnt matter too much.

12. Not speaking english is a good way to get talking to women apparently asking for help. But then, they giggle too much and too irritatingly at your accent and t their own fumbling efforts to make you comprehend.

But I had a great time, and Kristina and Timo were there at the airport to take me to my apartment, so it was no problem. Just that there seems to be no funda here on how to make international calls, and no places from where you can make them. "Use your mobile" is the most received answer when you ask "how do you make international calls?" Also reminded me of the time I call the States using my mobile from kharagpur.

All right now, lets work some, and get back to blog later.

Post script: I dont know how i forgot this before, but tall!!! and seriously tall, everyone of them... and i am talking only about the women here coz i havent been looking at the men too much, but the passing glances tell me they average pretty high as well. But the women, omg, hardly seem to be the heights i am used to!!!