Saturday, September 15, 2007

Oh..what a gruelling time...


The day I landed in Paris was a very hectic one. I had a morning 6 o' clock flight from Mumbai and I hadnt slept almost the whole night before. Infact the situation was not too different from the time of the GMAT....... The exam preparation, exam, the app' ing, the calls, interviews, conversions, scholarships, edu loans, packing, forced shopping, resigning from TCS..... The process was already taking a toll on me.


After finalising the packing until 3 AM, I still had an hour before I had to leave. I decided to use it productively by sleeping. I was also counting on the time during the journey to fullfill my quota of sleep. But I could barely sleep and the clock moved on. It was 04:30 already. In between cursing myself for careless-ness & checking the luggage for the last time, I hurried towards the airport.
It was a boring flight with people asking for an exchange of seat citing the reason of their kids. The sight of a lady with 2/3 kids looking furiously for a potential hunt to exchange her seat warned me of the trouble brewing up....two 7 year olds with their giant mother entered with a wretched smile on their face and a searching look in the eyes. I am not sure whether its written on my face that I will oblige, but her eyes rested on me and with a winning shine of having found the hunt, the family approached me. I dont know how but these creatures dont bother about their seats while boarding and once inside, then their search starts.....And I find myself meekly obliging to see the kids and their mothers seating happily together....Long live everybody!


Thanks to my exchanged cranky middle seat, I was not able to catch up my sleep. When I reached CDG airport , it had totalled 32 hours since I had last slept. I was tired as hell but still I had to go to my university city of Grenoble which was a further half hour connecting flight (to Lyon & further). I was hoping to have a nice sleep after reaching Grenoble soon. But some more testing times were served for me... Just after my arrival at CDG, there was a bomb hoax at the airport and all subsequent flights were frozen for the time being. I decided to catch a train and after 3 more hours I finally reached my hotel in Grenoble.


There it was.... A cozy bed and a blanket....What more can a tired soul ask for.... needless to say, I threw my luggage and slept with peace......