THE ARRIVAL
Ladies and gentlemen, we have landed in Cochin airport. The temperature outside is 30 degrees Celsius. And with that, I decided to put my ear plugs and eyes mask where they belong. A good sleep of 2 hours helped me prepare for the long and unknown journey ahead. Made few calls, sent few messages as we entered the Cochin airport and I was out, searching for my name on a sign board at 7-15pm (on schedule). Only 3 people I saw were holding the signs, two of which had other names and one held mine but took a while to see it as the gentleman (Leo) held it towards him, while he was checking the status of my flight.
I found it funny during my exhausting stage that he decided to take my small suitcase instead of the big one, as a help to make my arrival and journey easy. After he got the car around at the arrival point, I sat comfortably in a neat and good smelling car. As the AC was rocket high, I simply wrapped my shawl and decided it is time to start this journey. After few seconds, Leo stopped. He wanted to make a call to the centre where we were heading, then again to ask me what I wanted to eat as it would be after 10pm when we reach and then again to buy bananas when I suggested something light. The journey accounted for 3 hours in total and I was hoping sitting in the back would be fine, considering I get car sickness. Leo was interesting in his own way, when I said I can’t have tomato soup because of my tooth extraction a day ago, to avoid anything hot, he thought for a while and then once again in few minutes he asked about the soup and this time I said yes. He suggested I inform him if I needed tea or coffee as he is there to take care of me. What I want to highlight here is the service, after giving me a bottle of water he also gave me a rectangular shaped basket. When I opened the lid, it had the bananas neatly sitting in it, the ones he bought a minute ago. Wow, that’s some service I thought! I thanked him and hoped to make it till the end of this long drive. Then as we drove, I listened to some music, talked to a friend and all the while my eyes were around, looking at the roads, traffic, people and culture in the dark. I crossed one movie poster that said … “it’s not a love story”, not at all surprised.
What seemed like never ending, was still not ending. And suddenly I felt the shift in my stomach, the pain that I faintly recognised, the urge to puke (eww), I kept my eyes closed and kept breathing hoping soon Leo will say we are here. And he did, after precisely 3 hours however, before I could smile to the lady few metres away who was waiting for our arrival, I had to ask him to stop the car. We were so close, I could see her but this call of nature took the lead. I puked the sandwich I ate before the flight, had some water and sat back into the car feeling much better. She was the wife of one of the doctors, she welcomed me with a tulip and asked me to light the stream of cotton dipped in ghee diyas as a traditional welcome. Then she walked me to the room and left me there to settle, with food on the table.
By the end of the night, I unpacked a bit, had my food, thanked God for the lovely people I met today, for the journey so far. I slept with gratitude to make it a great trip, discovering and living one day at a time. This was going to be my home for the next 3 weeks as I had arrived in Kerala, India for Panchakarama and to improve the functioning of my knee.
