My Canada visit

My Canada visit – Return of the Reluctant

My last visit as a Superintendent.

Leg 1: Chennai ~ Frankfurt ~ Montreal ~ Quebec ~ Baie Comeau

Here I was at it again, doing what my heart didn’t want to – traveling, to far corners of the world, and in a variety of modes of transport.

However this was a visit which was not unplanned but rather delayed. I was very reluctant to do this as I had returned from my previous trip just last month. And I really did not look forward to this one especially since I had recently shifted my residence from Mumbai to Chennai, a task which had drained me completely – physically as well as mentally. I tried to put off this trip for as long as I could but I knew I had to undertake it someday. Better to get it done with, I thought.

If there was any solace then it was in the fact that this time I knew when I would be returning.

Amazing what that small bit of information can do to your morale. No matter how the trip turned out to be, I knew that I was coming back for sure. This was a great relief compared to my previous trip wherein I did not know at all when I would return home. Even my wife and daughter were not as worried either, because of the promise of my return.

Also this time it was a short trip, just for a few days.

Chennai ~ Frankfurt:

So it was that I found myself boarding the aircraft bound for Frankfurt from Chennai which was the first in a series of flights that would take me to my eventual destination.

The flight itself was unremarkable. Everyone was sleeping except a few lost souls such as me. It was two in the night and the flight was more than nine hours long. I tried to will myself to sleep – all in vain, as I can never sleep on a plane.

So what now?

But this time I was geared up for the long flights. I had with me a book, not just any ordinary book, but Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix!

I had discovered the charm, the romance, the adventure and the magnetic thrill of the Harry Potter series some months ago. It all started off when I walked into our neighborhood library along with my daughter and wife. We were selecting books to take home for reading. My wife had her ‘Good-Housekeeping’, ‘Health’, ‘Prevention’, etc., magazines section all for herself. My daughter was nose-deep in comics. And I was looking at the fiction/non-fiction books. And right there, in front of me, was an entire shelf full of Harry Potter books kept along with the ‘Lord of the Ring’ series, Eragon and other books of fantasy.

At first I dismissed them. They are a series of seven books in all, some of them thick enough to last many, many nights of reading. I did not fancy spending that much time, nor did I think I had that much patience to go through them all. More importantly, I did not want to leave any story unfinished either. Besides, I had seen the first three movies, which I had liked considerably. Since I knew the initial stories I thought there would not be any fun in reading them over again. Well, I would be proved wrong!

My wife saw me hesitantly eyeing the books and suggested that I try one. If I did not like it I could always return it. That’s what libraries are for, aren’t they? You take a book, read it and return it. Even if you do not read it, you have to return it.

Here I was, a grown-up man, finding myself holding ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ and glancing around sheepishly to see if anyone was looking. I took the book home and started reading; I could not put it down till I had finally finished it. What a story! I was captivated by the book. It was so much better than the movie! I found myself going back to the library again and getting the sequel. Very soon I had read four of the books in the series.

And here I was holding the fifth book. This one was big, more than seven hundred and fifty pages. But then I was hooked. And I had a long way to travel, (a small voice in my head was repeating Robert Frost’s poem ‘Miles to go before I sleep………’).

Lost in the adventures of Potter and his gang, I reached Frankfurt in the morning and went about looking for my next flight – to Montreal.

Frankfurt ~ Montreal:

I could not locate my Lufthansa flight on the display board. After a sleepless night the last thing I wanted was a flight cancellation or a missed flight. I kept looking from one board to another but no luck. Then I remembered that this airline was part of the Star Alliance group. With that in mind I looked again at the board and sure enough, this time I found an Air Canada flight going to Montreal at the same time which included the Lufthansa passengers as well.

Another long flight.

I was well into my novel by now. Harry Potter was getting tongue-tied expressing his feelings to Cho Chang. I was hoping that by the time I reached Montreal, Harry would confess his love to Cho. Aah!, but that was not to be. He would have to wait till my next flight.

Montreal ~ Quebec:
This was a commuter flight. Although it could accommodate about 20 ~ 25 passengers, we were only about eight of us. The stewardess made us sit four on either side of the aisle. She said that would balance the plane. I tried to imagine how a 10-ton plane could be balanced by a few people weighing under 100kgs each – didn’t work out. Neither were Harry’s plans working out. And Hagrid was missing too! And to top it Professor Umbridge was getting on my nerves as well!

Quebec ~ Baie Comeau:

As I got into the baggage claim section of Quebec airport, I looked around and saw that I was the only one who had checked-in luggage. So I had to wait till my bag rolled over the belt to collect it.

Meanwhile the person who was to pick me up at the airport was waiting right outside seeming very happy because I had waved to him indicating that I was the person whose name was written on the placard that he carried. I would have thought it very obvious as I was the only Indian coming out.

When I walked outside the doors of the lobby, the cold hit me hard. I rushed back inside and waited for the driver of the taxi to come over. As soon as it came closer to the entrance I ran to it and shut myself in.

The drive to Baie-Comeau would take about five hours, as if I needed another journey. I had by now traveled for almost thirty hours and I was ready to drop dead.

The driver tried his best to keep me awake by regaling his life stories but I dozed off and awoke only when we had come to a ferry station.

The ferry took us across the Saguenay River. I promptly fell into a disturbed asleep again and when we reached Baie Comeau I was having great difficulty keeping myself awake.

I got off the taxi. I had to wait at the agent’s office as the ship had not berthed yet. I had some sandwiches at the cafeteria and waited.

How many times in life does one have to wait?

People say ‘Life is a journey’. Well they are wrong!

‘Life is a long wait’.

For anything. For everything.

Before the moment we are born, till our death, and beyond. We wait.

Waiting to get fed, waiting to be attended upon, waiting for the journey to begin, waiting for life to happen, and waiting for the journey to end.

Sometimes we wait for death, in the middle of life. And invariably we wait for a glimmer of life when death is upon us.

Do we even know what we are waiting for?

Catherine-Zeta Jones asks Tom Hanks in the movie ‘The Terminal’, ‘What are you waiting for?’. With a look of a lost pup, he replies ‘For you’.

There was definitely no Zeta Jones waiting for me here on this cold night. I was waiting, miserably, for a ship to berth, so I could board it!

Which eventually she did, and I did. But I had to wait for the gangway to be laid across so I could board her.

It was one-thirty in the night when I finally sat in the ship’s office chatting with the Captain.

Leg 2: Baie Comeau ~ Quebec ~ Toronto ~ Frankfurt ~ Bangalore ~ Chennai

I left the ship in the morning as she was to depart. I had to be driven back to Quebec from where I would be starting my second leg of this whole trip. As my flight out of Quebec was booked for the next day I would have to stay in a hotel for the night.

So began a long and beautiful road trip through the Quebec province.

The countryside was strangely beautiful. The Maple trees had all shed their leaves waiting for the snow. Just a month ago I had seen them dazzling in color. Now only the Pines and Spruces still had their greenery on them. The stark beauty of the naked trees stood out in relief against the clear sky and pleasant weather, which was very welcome at this of the year.

And it was the same man who had driven me from Quebec to Baie Comeau. This time he did not miss his chance and started telling me his life’s story. What a colorful life he seems to have had! Doing what he pleased, going where he wanted. His ‘wish’, it seemed, was his ‘command’! Living life on one’s terms – Just Imagine!

The places we passed, the small towns we drove through were simply lovely. The houses made of timber were painted pink, green, and blue, yellow, red – they were so pretty. The road took us over the hills and at many places from the top we could see the St.Lawrence River.

It was a traveler’s dream come true. I felt as if I had entered a picture postcard, as if someone had stuck a stamp on me and posted me to a far, far away land. The undulating green meadows, the rolling hills, the sea on one side and we were driving through the middle of it all.

We stopped at a couple of places for refreshments and took on the road again. I was lost in admiring nature’s beauty and I don’t know when I dozed off because the next thing I knew we had reached Quebec city.

I checked into the hotel and refreshed myself. Later I went to the nearby eating joint – Sports Bar – had myself a Margarita and some great food amidst some splendid ambience.

Quebec ~ Toronto:

This flight was not very comfortable. I didn’t like the way the plane bucked up and down in the turbulence. And for the first time in my life I suddenly felt air-sick.

Motion sickness is a dreadful affliction for a traveler. I remember my mother suffering from it. Even a short bus trip would nauseate her. My daughter would get sick during long trips in our car. I have seen many sailors, the young as well the experienced succumb to sea sickness. Though I have been a sailor all my life I can truthfully say that I never really, really fell sea sick. The only time I feel sick is when I sit on a ‘Merry-go-round’! Now that makes my head spin. And it makes me violently sick too, though the merry-go-round doesn’t go anywhere! Talk about motion sickness.

And here I was feeling air-sick. Thankfully the passage was short and I reached Toronto in one piece, without throwing up.

Toronto:

When I reached the airport I called up my old friend who had settled down here. Luckily he was in town and we decided to meet up. I waited for him to pick me up at the airport and he drove me to his lovely house. His family was as thrilled to meet me just as I was to see them – after a very long time. The last time I had seen his daughter she was just a baby, now she was turning out to be a pretty young girl. And also, now there was a new addition to the family.

We spent some good moments reminiscing about our college days and the carefree life we had lived back then. We talked and talked, ate and talked, took some snaps and talked. And then we talked more. I wish I had had more time to spend with them. Ahh!.....wishes!

I bade them farewell with a very heavy heart not knowing when I would meet them again. Canada is far from India. They say distances have grown shorter in this age, but I disagree, for I am a weary traveler. What wouldn’t I give to have Scotty beam me up!

Toronto ~ Frankfurt:

For once in my life I did not notice the flying time or the time flying by as I was absorbed totally by Harry and his adventures. The book had gripped me. It was as if I had put on Harry’s Invisibility cloak and was wandering through the grounds of Hogwart’s along with Harry, Hermoine and Ron! J.K.Rowling had cast the ‘Imperio’ spell on me and I was bewitched and bedazzled by the book. I was in the midst of animaguses (or is it animagi?), the dementors, the death-eaters, the thestrals, the boggarts, witches and wizards.

I was literally spellbound.

Bangalore:

Or Bengaluru as it is called now.

As I was waiting for my next flight, I was convinced of three things – one, travelling had ceased to fascinate me; two, I hated Professor Umbridge; three, Bengaluru airport is boring.

I had finished reading the book. I could not wait to lay my hands on the next one. And here I was sitting in a newly built but otherwise dull airport in the middle of the night.

I looked around and some sights greeted me - Sights which I find are becoming very commonplace nowadays in any Indian airport – techies with their laptops, some catching up on some pending project; some indulging in chat and IM; and some simply showing off. Welcome to the new India!

There used to be a time when you would see many travelers bent over some book or the other. Nowadays it is usually a laptop and more often than not, a mobile phone. The latter has virtually taken over our lives. Nine out of ten people have a phone glued to their ear. Very often one sees people talking to themselves. Well, look again – they would be talking on a ‘hands-free’ mode phone.

As for me, I like my books. I looked around in vain for a bookshop in the airport. I wish airports had a circulating library system. You could borrow a book in any airport and return it at some other airport. Not free, of course not.

I have always loved books.

Back in my childhood, I was a regular at my local library. I would read every comic book that I could lay my hands on – starting with the Amar Chitra Katha’s – comics on Mythology, Indian freedom fighters, Spiritual leaders, Jataka tales, Tenali Raman stories, the Mughal emperors, etc. – ah the list was endless.

I even went through the Beetle Baileys, Beau peep and his capers in the French legion, Sad Sack, the comic duo Laurel and Hardy, Tarzan and his son Korak, the entire generations of the Phantom - the ghost who walks, Mandrake the magician and his friend Lothar, Flash Gordon, and many, many more.

And who can forget Tintin and his friends Capt.Haddock, Prof.Calculus, Tintin’s dog Snowy, Bianca Castafiore, Col.Alcazar, the twins Thomson and Thompson and the scheming Rastopopoulos.

Then there were the inimitable Gauls – Asterix, Obelix, Dogmatix, Vitalstatistix, (wow, there were so many of the ‘ix’ characters, I can’t remember them all).

Later on, I read books which had less of pictures and more of content – Chandamama, Target (I used to subscribe to this one and await every monthly issue eagerly).

This led me to the Enid Blyton series – The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, The Three Investigators, and so on.

Later in my teens, I grew up on the Hardy boys, Frank and his brother with their friend Chet. I also read every book of Nancy Drew and had a secret crush on her. What a girl! There were many nights when I had dreamt of being her boyfriend, and how I envied Ned.

I finally graduated to fiction books, running through the range of authors in mysteries, thrillers, detective stories, drama, etc.

And then I discovered P.G.Wodehouse – who changed my perspective on language. It was from his books that I learnt the subtleties of humour and the potential of language in sarcasm.

Here I must add that my reading habits were thoroughly encouraged by my family. In those days when the computer was just a contraption in Isaac Asimov novels and television programming was at very nascent stages, books were a great source of entertainment and knowledge. Later on the video parlours caught up with the young crowd. In the late 80’s cable TV took off and then the 90’s saw the computer obliterating every other form of past time indulged by kids.

And now it was the mobile phone.

Wonder what it will be next?

Bengaluru ~ Chennai:

I couldn’t believe I was in the final leg of my tireless journey, a seemingly never ending one. Thankfully this was a short one too. All my travails of the past travel were slowly forgotten to be replaced by only memories - memories of having seeing new places, meeting new people and old friends, experiencing adventures, some exciting, others not so.

Chennai:

Home sweet home. At last!

Epilogue:

Wanderlust!

The dictionary defines it as ‘a desire to travel’.

And I know it does not apply to me, not anymore. I lost it long ago. What does apply to me is a word that defines mindless traveling sans desire? - Whatever that is.

Travel of any kind is never boring, only tiring – and only if you want it to be. And I am tired of traveling.

Some are born travelers. Others learn to travel. I have been both.

Ah! If only I had a wizard’s broomstick I could zip through time and make my travel more comfortable. Of course I would have a business class seat fitted on the broom – by casting a spell, obviously! On second thoughts, I think I would prefer the flue powder or the portkey! They are faster.

But imagine, just imagine the thrill of driving Ron’s father’s enchanted car!

There you have it – the traveller’s bug. Once bitten never shy.

MUSAFIR HOON YAARON!