Trip to India - Part I

He parked his car and walked up the stairs to his apartment. As his mind went over the events of the day, he felt exhausted and craved for his cup of tea and the softness of the sofa. He switched on the TV and smelt the aroma of the tea and richness of the flavour as he slowly drank it. Outside he could hear the neighbour's children playing and shouting as their wont. As his mind slowly cleared, his mind was filled with images of his childhood back in India, playing cricket and badminton, all day long. Ah, the innocence of childhood, not a care in the world. He debated whether to call up his parents or not and decided against it. He could predict the whole course of the conversation. After finding out their mutual wellbeing, the conversation would invariably drift towards his plans for (or lack of) marriage. Consequently, he would change the topic and after some talk, he would promise to call them up next week.

He sighed. Life was getting so predictable. Was it just him or was it the same for everybody? When confronted with something new, say a new job, a man tries to decompose the change into a repeatable series of steps, i.e. a routine. But when the routine becomes a routine, the man complains about predictability. He smiled as he envisioned Obelix tapping his head repeatedly and bemoaning "These humans are crazy". A ad on the TV screaming about a lease on a BMW interrupted his reverie and his mind switched back to the present. He looked around his room and made a note to himself about vacuuming on the weekend.

Then his phone rang. It was his dad. As he picked up the phone, he prepared himself for the conversation to follow. He found himself relaxing as his father talked about the marriage of his cousin residing in North Dakota, the next week in India. Hmm, that was surprising , he didn't know that marriage was in the works. He couldn't stop his father rambling on the details; how hurriedly it was fixed, etc. His cousin Ravi was leaving this weekend, he was told. He finally interrupted his father and told him that he was going to call Ravi and wish him. His father's next few words gave him the shock of his life.

The conversation went like this, "You are coming too. What? Me? Where? Where else, Bangalore, you idiot? I can't come, I don't have leave, plane tickets ...." his voice trailed off as he tried to think of other reasons. His father countered his reasons, by reminding him of all his leave accumulated for the year and the availability of tickets during off-season for travel. "Why do I have to come?" he wailed. It seemed that during the marriage ceremony, there was a ritual to be performed by the eldest, unmarried, paternal cousin. And since his fool of a cousin did not have a brother, it seemed that he was the chosen one. His father asked him to get on with his travel arrangements and concluded the phone call. He swore at his cousin and wondered why he hadn't strangled that blighter when he had the chance.

So that was how Raghu from Indianapolis found himself alighting from a Indian Airlines flight in Bangalore Airport with his cousin Ravi.