You may not be as amused as I was when it happened; anyway, let me tell you about this incident. I was waiting for a friend’s arrival at the IGI airport in Delhi when it happened. The flight was late by an hour, so I was gadding about in the waiting lounge. My legs don’t like to toil without a reason, so they began to ache. It’s their way of disapproving an act they don’t like. To make them feel better, I seated myself in the chair next to a woman from a Middle Eastern country. The woman was clad in a black burka, with only her face showing. A huge suitcase, which is usually seen with international travelers, was placed horizontally across her feet. From the corner of my eye I could see light flashing on her snowy white face (these women always have good skin…and why not, their faces are always covered). My face turned toward her out of a reflex action common among Indians. I became amused when I saw her playing with her Blackberry/a high-profile GPRS phone—I still don’t know which phone it was. In techno matters I’m two generations behind, if not two world wars…She was chatting, I figured out. She seemed to be pretty comfortable with her gadget. I didn’t want to look curious or less-privileged, so I pretended to mind my own business and began staring at the LCD monitor installed on the wall in front of me. And then, only God knows why it happened: I sneezed! I sneezed so hard that it felt like a round of Kapaal Bhati pranayam. My diaphragm and lungs opened up and became the unobstructed channel of pranas. After the powerful sneeze, I said, “excuse me” in a soft voice, which no one hears from me during my regular conversations. Trust you me, I didn’t pretend. It’s one of my many reflex actions. After I said my phrase, I heard a word from that woman. “Excused!”, she said. That was it. I left the burka and GPRS oxymoron there and starting gadding again until my friend arrived.
Filed under: Life
