I am really glad to welcome you all to my very first attempt to write a travelogue. I had several travel experiences that are worth mentioning and the most memorable among them is the long route from Hyderabad to Alappuzha with my husband in our car. Leaving the straight way through Bangalore- Palghat, we diverted our path through Mysore and Kozhikode by Thamarassery Pass. Travelling in a car with the entire back seat loaded with our baggage and utensils was a different and difficult experience. We did have only friend seats to cover more than 1500 kms. Yet, we enjoyed the journey to a greater extent. There were many hot-spots and memoirs on the way to make it one of the most exciting experiences in my life. Hopefully I will write about it soon. Now I am thinking of writing my travel to Doha, the capital of the kingdom of Qatar.
I started my journey in Jet Airways from Cochin international Airport on 5th February 2013. While booking the ticket, I was having only one demand to the travel agent that I need a window side seat as I wanted to have the beautiful sight of Kochi during take-off. I imagined the sight of horizons that begins and ends in the sea, the sight that my eyes never enjoyed during my entire life time. As requested I got the window seat itself. While settling down in the seat, my mind was yelling with excitement for I could not control myself for watching the panoramic view of the blue sea from above. The take off time was 7.50 pm and I was the happiest to see the light wrapped Kochi from above.
Before getting down that excitement, the yellowish light of Kochi started fading and darkness met my eyes. Much before thinking about the reason of power failure in kochi, I could realize that it is not the power failure, I have reached the place where there is nothing to do with power failures. The sight of diminished lights in the fishing boats made me clear about a shocking piece of news: at night, like every other thing on earth, sea also have a dark complexion and the horizon starts and ends within the window. Shortly, excitement paved the way for disappointment and so, I felt that the dinner I got in the flight is the worst I ever had in my life. In fact, the dinner was not bad and the flight stewards were polite enough to fulfil my repeated demands to get hot water.
Before starting from Kochi, I had two streams of thought. The first one counted my 4 hours 20 minutes journey as very long as its desire was to meet my husband after a long time and the second one counted it as very short for I wanted to enjoy the beautiful sight of the sea. When I understood that sea losses its beauty and colour at night both these minds reunited and my only remaining wish was to reach Doha at the earliest. I wanted to sleep, but ‘the disappointed me’ in me made me responsible for not to sleep. So, I started reading the handbook given to learn the safety measures in the flight to bring back my mind to normal. As I already had a brief of it from the pilot before leaving Kochi I suddenly felt bored and I directed myself to the movie I watched several times.
It was a Hindi movie in which the hero reaches Punjab from the US to win the heart of his heroine. The movie could touch my emotions and it brought back all the images of my love with my husband. I started loving those moments and thanked God for blessing me with a wonderful partner. Even though I was immersed in the emotions created by the movie, I often looked out through the window but there were nothing other than darkness. The second part of the movie was more emotional than the first. The hero finally wins the heart of his girl’s father and he extends his hand to help the heroine who runs after the train to unite with his love. The scene again fueled my memories and brought a lot of images of me running after the train to be with my hero. I have become more affectionate to my husband and told myself that I have borne to become his wife.
While drowning in the sea of emotions I forgot the sea for time being and when I came back from memories, the sight was stimulating. There were sights of a few lighted landmasses entangled with dark places. I have become charged up once again even though ‘the disappointed me’ in me told me that you lost a lot while watching the movie. As the flight moved ahead I could see long lines of light connected these lighted landmasses. They must be bridges that connect islands or they could be roads that connect inhabited areas. Those dark areas either could be sea or bare land. I could not make out what exactly they are. I felt ashamed of myself calling skillful in map reading as I could not even make an idea of my route to Doha. Yet, my mind called for the possibilities. They could be the places in Oman, Saudi Arabia or UAE. Suddenly another thought came to my mind. I must have travelled through the gulf of Oman and the land mass I am seeing now is Qatar.
Before finishing this new thought, I could see a place where there are lights of different colours. Some colours changed to become some other colours and new colours appeared where there were old colours. In some places the existing colours offered way to darkness. Some lights were arranged in the form of arches. In one place lights appeared as the face of a torch. It was like a feast for my eyes. My excitement exceeded its limits in such a way that I could not even think about anything else on earth. Further view aided my exhilaration to descend a bit. There were normal lights that have been arranged as squares and quadrilaterals. They must be lights from villas, I thought. When this view prolonged for some time it offered me a bit of monotony and I started to recall the most beautiful sight I ever had seen in my life. I compared it with the fireworks ceremony offered in temples of my state. But, those were nothing compared to this. I prayed to God that this place must be Doha. I could not even having the thought of having those beautiful lighted places anywhere else other than Doha.
The instruction to tighten the seat belts accompanied my prayers. The pilot gave a brief information about the temperature and other details of landing. I was not interested to listen that as I could not wait to see my husband who must be waiting for me at the airport. Simultaneous to this thought my eyes met with another hugely lighted area. I guessed it as the airport. The flight took more time than expected to land and I was a bit worried about it being late. The airport was tremendously decorated with lights, but I could not see anything as now I wished for only one sight. The flight landed in a comparatively darker area and there was a bus waiting to take us to the departure terminal. Even though the airport was beautiful and organized well, I couldn't enjoy anything there. I presented myself like a machine in all the arrival processes and collection of baggage. After completing all the processes, I moved towards the exit gate and there I saw the man who loves me the most.
At the airport, I had no trouble as I was spotted by those eyes, that has no other destination other than me. I could not see anyone else I couldn't hear anything else. I came back to the reality in the very next moment and was happy to see Asish, Vishnu and Sherin along with him. Three of them are his friends who showed true colors of friendship. While meeting them here, I washed out even the last bit of disappointment for losing the beautiful sight of lights in different colors. I thanked God for giving us such wonderful friends who waited for me in that late night. Thus my entry into Doha was quite spectacular. After reaching Doha, I have visited several places like malls, parks and Corniche. Each experience was wonderful and worth mentioning. I hope to write about it in my next post. Thanks for reading this and stay tuned with me here in my blog for further update of my stay in Doha
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