The Trauma of an Inexperienced Young Flyer

Less Luggage More Comfort makes Travel a Memorable Experience - there are many versions to this age old adage , but never does it lose it's worth . 

When it came to the "planning the travel" , I had an unforgettable experience. Due to the misgivings of my innocence, on how I packed before and after an overseas travel I learnt a quite a few things worth learning for life. Sometimes I used to think , unless I get it out of my system , these thorns will never cease to prick me and here I am. Even before I started out for my long travel ahead, I made a gullible choice to use two of my preexisting trolleys, which I thought should be enough . Some Good Karma,from some day stood by me, as one of my paternal cousins came home for a chance visit and declared how dumb it was to use the trolley I had chosen . God Bless this lady , she drew so much caution on this and beckoned me to her home to give me one of her big 23Kg trolleys, as herself and her partner travel every now and then and they were pretty much amateurs in cross country travel. I scurried over , few days before travel , collected her luggage and came home , only to realize what about the other trolley. Meanwhile, this darling , had called up her elder sister to check if she had another 23kg trolley without me entreating her. When I just picked the phone to see if this elder sister has one, she had herself dialed my number and the first few words out of her mouth -" are you out of your mind, you dumb buffalo" . I felt blessed, as my heart was warm with the scolding of a sibling and also confident that, she might have a solution to my conundrum. She ordered me to come the next day and collect one of her big trolleys , as she had just returned from the USA and this blessed lady also lent me some of her winter wear. It's when times like these, I feel so indebted to God, thanking him for driving me to help someone some day before , all to return and lend me help in the most opportune moments when I least expect it. Good Karma is a True Powerful energy - If you get a chance to be off use to someone, do it with cheerful alacrity and altruistic intentions. Anyways, I collected her stuff, swish swish back home, I frantically stuffed my goods, I weighed them 1008 times to see if it met the luggage restrictions . 16 hours later , I landed in the Windy City during one of its best times of the year - the Summer. Chicago , otherwise is a cold place , at least for a chennaite like me , where I have only seen the Sun dominate all through the year. However, by the magic of God's creation, even my tropical body developed a great resistance and immunity to adjust to the pricking cold and snow of the place , it took a while but it got reset to its newer conditions. How peaceful, our lives will be, if we can muster the strength to bend our mind to adjust according to situations.

After seeing all the 4 seasons of the place, summer , fall, winter, spring, it was time for me to circle back to my home. As in the case of anyone, who likes to put their bills to good use, I had bought a decent number of products for myself and all my closest people , to make them feel special. The last week of my travel . The pandemic situation was already causing too much headache for me, and now a new worry joined forces -To pack my luggages. This last week of stay , was intensely tough for me. Varied emotions, multiple important decisions to be made , communications to be closed apart from the uncomfortable post travel nostalgic blues that were silently pulling the softer sharper strings of my inner self. I was all over the place and all alone. As , I prepared to pack my stuff inside the luggages, I got an immediate trepidation that I am going to over pay. The excess Baggage fees syndrome. I then, made a list of stuff , I should be lending to the locals, the desis who recently traveled into town and started making calls to ensure they will be taking my goods. A few kgs went down after my persistent & valiant efforts resulted in success, as I was able to distribute some of my belongings to people, instead of trashing them . Too much still. I then began to take out all my clothes as my body was sweating profusely, my mind was in emotional shock as I had to keep some clothes out there itself if I had to pack the others. I realized my bad decisions over the past few months. I was imagining myself in each dress , trying to keep the best ones and find a convincing reason to drop one. Ah ..those moments. Then came the gifts. Oh boy, I was stripping all my gifts, naked , throwing away all the cases , boxes , as I was imagining the judgmental expressions of my people when they receive it with no glamour on it. I was hoping, my conduct , my ethics will stand by me and they will understand the stress I went through to make this decision. A huge pile of covers, I had to put these in trash cans , as room service was halted due to the pandemic . The pile of trash accumulated in front of me was the brute reminder of the lesson In progress for me. I weighed again 108 times , realized the excess baggage had to be handled and shelled out dollars to pay to the airline. 

Vroooooom , I am in the airport. I was in a state of blank trance. I didn't know what I should be thinking about as I was nonchalantly moving along the line when the Lady , an Indian, in harsh emotionless tone , announced, Sir, you need to pay 720$ for the excess baggage. I died for a second, and then I asked her, what's the calculation, as I had already paid for excess baggage, only to realize my excess baggage plan was just for one piece. These airline websites are never ever easy or clear to understand their actual policies, and most of the times, we go by popular advice and mercy of the personnel checking-in the baggage. I requested some time, as I helplessly, with all my goods, began to take out my pants, shorts, one book and a list of articles that will bring least economical loss to me. I was praying to the gods, even as I was furious of how naive I had been . Adding to my agony , was when one of the Airline's lady  staff remarked "Aww , I feel so bad, i feel so sorry you had to do this". She murdered the leftover good spirits I was clinging on to , as a bit of self pity is enough for the strong mind to lose wit. I took out some more goods, only to realize I was still over board and with some luck ,I managed to bring down the excess baggage down to 80$ . At the cost of already paying fees for one bag, at the cost of these newly trashed items and all the gift wrappings I sacrificed. Finally , after the payment I was finally through. 

At this moment, I felt , I had literally lost someone in my life. I was in mourning , like I really lost some one. And that someone was my Stupidity. I felt a rush of Karmic lessons. As I was thinking about these chain of incidents ,I closed my enervated eyes out of intense pain, tiredness , hanging on to all my emotional fortitude to not break down , even as the Pilot wished everyone on the flight a happy and safe journey. It was the last flight out of the United States of America to India as India had placed travel bans from the next day. 

Once in a while, when I share some good memories on social media and someone comments out of their own insecurity , judge me , thinking I am boasting of my travel , I mentally frown with such intense anger , at them , at their apathy  , as they don't know what I went through. 

Before you judge someone for the good things, they seem to have,you should also make an effort to understand what they lost to get there. 

I have moved on,  I learnt my lessons and I am now a stronger man who lost things to gain what I have today.

Help yourself, Heal yourself....

Stay Well ! 

Truths out of a Tea Cup

"Vigneshwaraa.."  ! I heard the loving familiar voice of the man who brought me into this world , as he came gently gliding into my room where I was arrested for a period of 14 days . It was during the quarantine period ,  where all contact with the outside world was cut off and I was left to the mercy of my laptops, mobile phones, some books and most fortunately the balcony . But for the balcony, I might have lost it, as there was an air of gloomy caution about the world level drama that took all of us by surprise. The unpredictable nature of the universe is not easy to fathom, as we are dragged by the strings of changing fortunes of life. My roving mind suddenly fell into a nonchalant reverie as father brought in the cup of tea. What surprises me often is how day to day menial tasks make my mind meander into some of the finer truths of life, which ideally happens when you have taken an excess of the M drug. Anyway, without further digression, let me take you through the riveting trail of thoughts , my mind took,  as I gratefully took the cup from the floor to have a steaming sip of fine home made ginger tea. 

Take for example this very cup of Tea - if you paused for a second the amount of life force it has touched , before it ended up in my hands, you will be bowled over by how deeply connected all our lives are, how much thankful we should be to the people around us with an imperative need to practice the humility of a blade of grass every second of our existence. Breaking it down, it's not just the cup of tea with its saucepan . There is the tumbler, the saucepan. The tumbler and saucepan is made out of a metal which once was being mined out from earth. To identify this metal, someone studied to gain knowledge of geography, some one before him taught the geography to him, some one used their knowledge of mining, the number of hands that went into excavating and melting the metal into liquid, which again is some one's knowledge of chemistry to know how much heat to give , how to preserve it. To house this molten metal someone had a space where it can be kept, someone who rented out a space for this purpose. Some one who did business out of all this, some one who purchased the end product. Some one who had the smartness to create crafty vessels and cups. Some one who transferred these articles from the go-down of their manufacturing to the shops . Some one , who sold these cups. Fast forwarding, to my parents who worked hard to earn money to buy these vessels. I am genuinely sure, there are more people involved in this, but I deftly choose to not be superfluous on this further. 

Moving on , to the actual tea. The milk, which was once inside the udders of a cow. The farmer who fed the cow, the farmer who grew the fodder for the cow , the person who had the knowledge to feed fodder for the cow. The person who knew the first dash of milk should be given to the calf and then milked for hungry homo sapiens. The milk that was collected had to be pasteurized. The guy who had knowledge of this, apart from the founder, Louis Pasteur. The guy who had the milk manufacturing unit, to make sure the milk is not spoiled , the guy who created plastic packets, the mechanical guy who built those machines, the teachers who taught him all this, the guy whose coding skills drove the automated process of filling milk into plastic packets, the guy who understood concept of brand marketing through his Business studies , the teachers who taught him, the guy who found paint, to print labels on these packets, the guy who collected these packaged milk packets and sold them to consumers through shops and again Fast forwarding, to my parents who worked hard to earn money to buy these vessels. I am genuinely sure, there are more people involved in this, but I again, deftly choose to not be superfluous on this further. 

The sugar cane farmer, the sugar manufacturer , the ginger farmer, the people who understood sugar business and so on and on. If you were already sulking out of the message I am driving here, do you even realize how grateful you should be , for everything there is, in front of you ? When did we forget to say thanks to our blessings. Do we need a Thanksgiving like the Westerners to gather as a family to profess our thanks ? Where do we even start , with all the human beings that were involved in this so called successful life of ours ? All this wealth and prosperity with us, at this juncture, can we even claim ownership of any of this ? Are we even owners ? Is not every person involved in this big chain of events an owner by themselves ? The amount of efforts that is spread all over this life around is the result of some human breathing air in and out somewhere . All we did was just , concentrate on living our own life, without reflecting for a moment, how deeply & hopelessly intertwined our lives are with one another. We are one big Super Family . Every one of us needs Every one of us.

Except the creator of all things , none of us can ever claim any kind of control over anything . Hinduism confers this wisdom through the Sanskrit saying : "Sahasra-Shiirssaa Purussah Sahasra-Akssah Sahasra-Paat , Sa Bhuumim Vishvato Vrtva-Atya ,Tisstthad-Dasha-Angulam" , Meaning: The Purusha (Universal Being) has Thousand Heads, Thousand Eyes and Thousand Feet (Thousand signifies innumerable which points to the omnipresence of the Universal Being), He envelops the World from all sides (i.e. He pervades each part of the Creation), and extends beyond in the Ten Directions ( represented by Ten Fingers ),The Bible says "The Lord your God is supreme over all gods and over all powers. He is great and mighty, and he is to be obeyed." . The Quoran refers to Allah as "The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.[All] praise is [due] to Allah, Lord of the worlds" . In this temporary passing clouds existence of our lives as Human beings, whether or not, you have belief in concept of rebirth , life after death etc, one thing is evident. As long as you take a human form , you are as much just "a human", as much you are "the human". Science has pompously ,with great conviction for ages established the hegemony of human beings over all creatures, in our capacity to use our faculties of mind and body to live a life,and not just "be" . We have powers, powered by the source of power , but we are not just the only power. Have a look around yourself. Do you now feel , you can claim any leadership over anything ? If one practices this small piece of wisdom that, we need each other, no one is higher or lower , no matter what is their current state of life, this very perspicacious Gyan will make you abdicate all sense of "Ego" , or the "I" , "Me" in you and mix with life, with as much humility as you can generate out of your life force.

Let's not waste this Blessing called Life, Let's just pursue our duties with undivided attention with the firm belief that you , by living your life is just another act in this universe , just like every other thing around you , living/non-living thing that has come into existence and any sense of animosity you bear against anyone or anything is of no significance and may this thought help you in clearing all the unnecessary clutter that has muddled your wisdom eye.

May Good thoughts reach you from all corners, May you assiduously pursue Love, Kindness and Respect towards your fellow beings , creatures every second, May you with all humility be thankful for all the things you have & don't have,  May you attain the very purpose of your existence !