My work took me to Central India recently. Its 7th day now that I left that region and came up North. But that long trip through the heart of the country is still firmly etched in my memory. When at my office I dont really tend to meet interesting people, but when I travelled this belt starting from Pune then into Nasik, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Indore, Raipur.....couldnt complete the journey to Nagpur, it was replete with interesting instances that came my way.
Pune, Baroda and Ahmedabad dont qualify as the towns of Central India. So I will start with Nasik. Now in Nasik people had good time. Typically I meet developers or land brokers in all the cities but these people are time pressed. Now in Nasik people are soaked in the success they have had in their small city. But all said, they were nice and sweet. They may be "I am the one type" but atleast not "who are you type". Said to be clean (though I didnt really find it clean) but definitely green the city gives you a hill station feeling while still being industrialised.
But what was to come my way later on the journey was something unexpected. I flew from Ahmedabad to Indore in an all men-steward Jet ATR flight. The journey was long but no flight attendant to look at. This was an unpleasant surprise not at all thought about a jet flight. The answer to this mystery 2 days away. Now I entered Indore with an impression its a food lovers city and it prides itself as mini-Bombay. Yeah the airport is tiny, I remember seeing one conveyor belt. Salman Khan's influence in the city is seen easily. So I meet my driver very early in the morning or so to say I had to find the driver because laat-saab was in his car. The moment he pressed the accelerator he was also on his telephone almost doing his entire business while driving. The dude drives errr...flies the vehicle to a spot to my hotel and plans to leave. The guy was booked for the day but he had no intention to serve his duty or may be he was too busy and I was taking a lot of his time. Somehow he decided to then wait for me. Now enters the Salman Khan 2 of Indore, he (a landbroker???? powerbroker????) comes in denims with an aviator on his eyes and looks at me from head to toe. And then Oh!! Ashish Ji...!! The first thing he says is you know salman khan is from Indore, I said no doubt you are the second of the day. Now this man seems to know the city front to back and every influential person the city had, No points for guessing that he knows Salman Khan. Not just that when Salman comes to town he pays him a visit.
Now with 2 salman's in my car we leave for the day's visit discussing business etc. Now Salman 2 supposedly a land broker, takes me to the bigger land shark i.e. Khurana...errr Boman Irani (Khosla Ka Ghosla). My repeated attempts to clarify that I am not here for land purchase go unheard and one more man is piled on with me for site visits. Ok now atleast my purpose of seeing the city is solved. But in the afternoon something strange occurs. I am told to follow a Getz car. Thinking there are 1-2 people in the car we follow them onto a land parcel. The the doors of the Getz all open in tandem. Till date I dont have a count how many men stepped out of that car. One was Boman the other were the sidies. All gang up around me as if I had a box of money and would transact right there. I am told the nature of the site....I was about to say Mata Ka Mandir kaha hai?????
After 2 eventful days in Indore I finally depart from the city, taking the same flight I boarded in Ahmedabad, this time to Raipur from Indore. Here is when the mystery of only male stewards unravels. People climb up into the plane many probably for the first time. But this isnt about those first timers. It is about one person sitting the row behind me and old shaky fellow. He rushes in the queue to board first.....and asks ye gaadi raipur jaegi na!!. He places himself comfortably in his seat but by the time I sit he starts coughing. I may never have heard or seen someone coughing this loud that too with a thin frame like his. It seemed to me soon the heart would come out of his mouth. As I looked back just to check whether I have a safe enough distance from his so that in case of that eventuality the heart doesnt land up in my lap. I prayed that this should not happen. The flight leaves Indore and this guy is asleep. But it lands in Bhopal in 30 minutes and guy wakes up. Then itall starts. He picks his phone makes a call presumbaly to his son and to read what I am gonna write next you will have to close your ears.....errr eyes....!! His first words of wisdom were "MAD** C*** apnee MAA KO BULA" followed by "BH** CH**...." and then it goes and on. The mystery of only male stewards is now wide open in front of me.
As this continued I witnessed a passenger moving towards the cockpit and then never coming back. I thought may be he was some airline guy and since the luggage area in ATR is in the front he may have deplaned from there. But when the flight landed at Raipur I noticed the pilot, co-pilot and this elusive personality emerging from cockpit!!. Now what was he doing inside and where was he doing what he was doing....!!!
bargained for the ticket made to sit on the floor? Here I was in Raipur the capital of the fastest growing state in the country. When there is nothing in the city then growth is the only thing to be there. Raipur was a 3.5 days struggle as there was nothing there that I could in terms of work or leisure. Thinking there is business there I planned longer visit but the turmoil I went at Raipur with bad food and dirty city was didnt leave me easily. The flight out of Raipur was cancelled. There were n o ACs in the airport and I was stuck. As in the entire there are just about 6 flights that come into and leave the airport. When I could never make it to Nagpur that day I returned to Delhi later in the night. I walked about 500 mts to my plane. The morning flight that was cancelled was parked there. no hangars for storage...
Central India was fun, but could not manage the real centre of India i.e. Nagpur. I was hoping I would go to the zero mile marker in the city. May be in future.....
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