Observed at Terminal Three, Heathrow Airport
-One mandatory Gujarati lady on wheelchair
-One mandatory Punjabi lady on wheelchair
-Two Tamilian men talking very loudly. One sitting with his legs apart and violently shaking them, making the whole row of plastic chairs rattle
-One helpful airport Sardarji at conveyor belt, who rescued me after seeing me struggling with my mandatory mountains of luggage
While fuming in long immigration queue (clearly my complaint of last year, made after taking the same flight, has had no effect):
-One proud Delhi dad come to “settle” his daughter in London for a one year Masters. Announced to fellow curious Delhite she was not going to stay in the halls of residence and he was going to arrange a flat for her to rent with her friend, at a rent of around £575 per week, arrange her mobile, open her bank account etc etc. Thought uncharitably to self, why can’t she do all this without Daddy? Then sternly admonished myself, remembering my cousin’s and A’s help when I landed here for the first time as a student.
-Several screaming Indian babies, exhausted at being made to wait
-One Maharashtrian threatening the person who had called him on his mobile
-One Punjabi airport employee, declaiming to people in the queue: You only [emphasis added] have to stand here for about one or two hours. We have to stand here for eight to nine hours. And then passengers abuse us. We call the police!
£575 per week?!!!!
Is she staying with the queen?
And I hope she has a washer dryer in her flat for that kinda rent!
Heh, heh
. Since she’s sharing I think they’ll split the rent in half, and apparently it isn’t much more than the Halls of Residence are charging. Since the economy is in such a bad shape I guess people will be happy that some wealthy foreigners are spending money here.
Why bother to get an education at all if Daddy has that sort of money to throw around ?
To multiply it?
lol
nice post!
and blog!
Typical!
What an amusing post
Why do people seek such help even at the age of Masters?
Why do parents fill undergrad application forms?
If the kid cant do it, he/she is not worth joining the course.Thats what I feel.
Why can’t people be independent in these things?
-Nikhil
Desi parents aren’t that easy to shake off:)
Heathrow airport has a nice dhaaba like feel to it.
I couldn’t have said it better than Chakli. Dhaaba.
What? No cook for the little princess?
Iris scan at LHR at least helps avoid the immigration drama.
The rest is just life and anyway, no drama can exceed what goes on inside flights with Indian compatriots – phones not switched off (or worse, switched on midflight), people pinging the stewardesses every half hour and saying “I want…” etc to the extent that the last time I flew to Delhi, a stewardess told me that no British staff want to fly the LHR-DEL route thanks to the passengers. Great PR!
If it weren’t for phellow-desis, the Indian blogosphere would be several thousand posts poorer though
Shefaly, the reason it’s only desis in this post is because I was surrounded by them, it being a flight coming in from India. I’ve travelled with some amusing non-Desis, though I admit I observe desis more keenly, being one myself! I notice the British are keen observers of their compatriots while travelling. I know it’s “just life”-meant it to be a snippet of life observed.
Hilarious – I loved the picture of the Tamilian man shaking his leg violently. I can see it now… Lol.
“..meant it to be a snippet of life observed.”
That is why my last line has a winkie
I wrote a similar post when I got back from my last trip to India as well. We were made to sit on the tarmac for 45 minutes to enable Dubya/ Air Force One to take off.
Ok if you wish to read that post:
http://laviequotidienne.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/delayed-by-dubya-and-other-travel-stories-from-last-week/
Please delete the link if it is in violation of your blog’s norms. I am a new reader so I may not know all that works and doesn’t work here. Thanks.
Thanks for the link and am sorry I misunderstood. Of course you may leave links here!