Clueless in Delhi
Trip Start
Feb 29, 2004
1
12
33
Trip End
Nov 24, 2004
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Delhi,
India
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Bad news. An email from Europe informed me of some drastic changes to the structure of my company (franchising off offices from the central structure for more efficiency), meaning I'd need to renegotiate with the newly independent offices if I wanted to return to a new job there.
As I read this news in damp, hot Aluva, Kerala (south India), I felt the urge for some immediate affirmitive action. One glance at the Indian Railways booking website revealed crammed trains northwards for the next days. A glance at the BBC's weather site told of rain showers for the next week, all the way up to Mumbai. A glance at Sahara Airlines' website showed me an afternoon flight to Delhi and three wrong numbers of their local Kochi offices. As a geographer, I had smugly noted earlier that Kochi airport is remarkably closer to Aluva than Kochi - possibly an unconcious reason for me de disembark the bus in Aluva. All these factors clicked together like new Lego, and made me dash for the airport, in full fleeing-president-during-a-coup-style.
I phoned Sahara at 13:15, and a wild taxi ride in an old Ambassador car later I was walking across the apron towards a whining Boeing. At 14:05 I took off to Delhi. That's the fastest action I've ever taken in my life.
Now in Delhi, I'll meet my friend Anu ('let go' by my company a few years ago) for some consolation, and to plan a) how to get up to the mountains with so many fully booked trains everywhere, and b) the rest of my life.
A LITTLE LATER
All is not lost, dear friends and readers.
I had a good laugh with Anu yesterday - she was fired by her company the day after I heard of my company's drastic restructuring.
Kingfisher saves the day
So we went to the Blues Bar at Connaught Place to take full advantage of the rather unfortunately named Happy Hour. She was boiling with rage when we met - the crappy Finnish travel company she worked for in Delhi has ditched her in a most unelegant and unFinnish way.But after a while (and two 0.7L bottles of ice-cold Kingfisher beers) we both came to the conclusion that our changed situations actually could be seen as improvements with new opportunities - Anu can return to India again and continue doing her weekly reports for Finnish state radio on life in Delhi, while earning more than she ever did for the silly travel company, and getting time to travel around too. And it seems that the changes in my company actually makes it better - it seems we're set for concentrating on what we do best, and making some cash in the process. I probably can continue my work as a freelancer, and possibly also persue some other long-dreamed freelance projects that were impossible due to time constraints till now. So after an hour we were both rolling over the floor laughing - it must be something they put into Kingfishers too.
My travel plans are in a state of flux too - ditching the idea of visiting Birma/Myanmar, I'm looking into crossing directly into China from Nepal, travelling through Tibet to get to Hong Kong and finally Beijing. It seems to be possible, though the Chinese take sadistic pleasure in making it all very complicated to do the cross-border trip in this direction (north to south is no problem).
Ah well, I hope this short update has amused as much as writing it has amused me... it's was also an excuse to stay in this deliciousely cool internetcafe a bit longer during the midday hours.
Next up: Farewell hot Delhi, hello cool mountains.
Weather: scorching at 44°C. Hottest place on the planet at the moment.
Stomach: bravely resisting worse food than in the south.
Mood: seriousely depressed yesterday, but seeing twinkly silver linings.
Sign of the day: "Viewing Of Obscene Sites Is Strictly Prohibited" (Delhi internet cafe notice).
