The Ferocious Bug

A couple of days ago I was driving home from office. The roads did not seem to be as crowded as usual. There was a cool breeze outside. It was a nice drive. It was a nice drive …………. till I spotted a vicious bug. And that bug was “inside” the car. Thank God I did not freeze in my tracks or I might have wrecked havoc on the road.

Well that bug was a wasp. It was strolling merrily on the rear wind screen of my car. I had not noticed it earlier. But when its merriment went out of control and it started going across the screen, I noticed. I was scared that what if it flew all the way to the front. *gulp*

Since the time I spotted the highly dangerous bug till I reached home, I looked more frequently into the rear view mirror. And while looking I paid little or no attention to the cars behind me. My eyes were fixed on the wasp. It moved from here to there and there to here. The times it was out of sight were the scariest. At every such instant I would think that what if it is flying inside the car and approaching my “juicy” self. What if it has reached near the paddles and ready to take a “bite”? I did not want to be “stabbed” anywhere, not at all.

I remained safe the whole journey. The wasp was on my mind and in my sight the whole time. The minute I reached home and stopped the car, my first mission was to get rid of the flying ferocious insect. If I let it snuggle in there, it could have stung my sister the next day, when she took the car. How could I let that happen? I couldn’t.

The silly wasp was still on the rear wind screen. I opened the boot door at the back. It still remained pinned to the glass. I took some papers out of my file and with those I pushed the wasp off the wind screen. I guess it was sleepy as it didn't rebound and flew back to me to take revenge. After throwing it out I made sure that the coast was clear and then I moved towards the stairs of my apartment.

Phew! That was a close call! At least for me it was. ;-)

But I Do Love You by LeAnn Rimes

I don’t like to
Be alone in the night

And I don’t like to
Hear I’m wrong when I’m right

And I don’t like to
Have the rain on my shoes

But I do love you
But I do love you

'But I Do Love' You by LeAnn Rimes

Counter says 3000

I couldn't resist the temptation and so accessed my own blog to be the 3000th visitor myself. I am so happy to see this count on the counter. It took 4 years to get here, but still it look good. Thanks to all the regular and not-so-regular readers who helped my counter climb to this level. Apologies to all those who came to my blog to find something else and found irrelevant stuff.

Next target 4000 visits! >:-)

Gilgit Trip: Climax

Well I did get my seats reconfirmed for Thursday, but that was all I could take. I didn't repeat the routine another day. I was heart broken at these setbacks. I was also running out of holidays. So I decided that Wednesday would be the last day of the struggle to get to Gilgit. I consoled my friend there that Insha Allah we would meet there some day soon.

I went home that day from the airport, dropped off my suitcase, removed some extra stuff from my purse and went to office. This is how my 4 day long endeavour to try to go to Gilgit ended. I am sad but I know this was not my last chance. Some day, I will try again. :-)

Gilgit Trip: Wednesday – Once Again the Same Old Story

Yeah I repeated the same routine on Wednesday too. Got up, sorry, was woken up by my mother, early in the morning. The weather was dry but cloudy. This gave me lots of hope. Today my father had given up so instead of him my sister dropped me off on the airport. I did the same stuff I had been doing for the past few days. Checked in, waited in the lounge and started at the green ‘semi-misprinted’ writings on the schedule screen.

I was lucky that day. The flight time was 6:45 am and I was on the plane by that time. Wooo Hooo! I had got my window seat so snuggled up in there and waited for the plane to fly. Soon after we all settled down the plane began to taxi. That took quite long though. 15 minutes of movement with zero speed on the runway seemed a bit silly. But finally when the plane came to the right place it sped ahead and till I counted to 13 it was in the air. Tat acceleration of the plane and taking of tickled me again. I was laughing, having fun and was utterly delighted.

We slowly moved through the light clouds. It was a lovely sight. The clouds were so yummy that I wanted to jump on them. The sun was on the other side so it didn’t bother my eyes at all. I was in a nice spot at a nice time.

Soon after we took off, snacks were served. I asked the airhostess if tea was served as well. She replied that since the weather was not good they were not serving it. I listened to her but said to my self, “What bad weather?” Yes it was cloudy but there was no rain, no turbulence, no nothing.

I shrugged my shoulders and started enjoying my view out the window again while having Lays chips (the flavour I did not like) along with Pepsi. As I was sliding deeper into the amazing world of the clouds I felt something going wrong.

Guess what it was! The plane was turning! :’( I felt like banging my head on the window. I felt really bad and sad. Soon after the plane turned and the sun started shining in my eyes (now I was on the other side), the pilot announced that we had turned back. He gave the reason that it was to cloudy on the mountains so he couldn’t find a suitable way. He couldn’t find his way! Aaarghhh!

He was the pilot. What could we say or do. We accepted the fate and calmed down in our seats. We had been flying for about 25 minutes when the plane turned. In another 35 to 30 minutes we were back on the ground.

I got a ride from an uncle who knew Abbu. Got my tickets reconfirmed for the next day and was dropped off at my destination, i.e. home sweet home.

Gilgit Trip: Tuesday – Back to the Airport

The time of flight for Gilgit on Tuesday, July 08, 2008 was again 6:45 am. I woke up on time. OK I was woken up by my parents on time. :-D hehehe I got ready and then we set out again on the quest that seemed to be turning into a regular feature. When I was still home, it was not raining. Just when Abbu, Ammi and I fixed ourselves in the car along with the luggage, it started raining. It was a light rain so it didn’t dim my hopes too much. I was dropped off at the airport as usual. I went for check in and then after the security checking all the way up to the lounge.

I was there at 6:00 am. Started waiting for my flight. While doing so I was looking at people, glaring at the schedule screen and watching the kids running around. I was exchanging texts with my Gilgit and Pakistani friends as well. When I got bored of all this I took to blogging, on paper that is. Thank God I had the necessary elements in my purse that enabled me to do this. Blogging on paper was fun but a bit hectic as I was writing on both sides of 2X4 inch sized mini pieces of paper. I was writing on both sides as my eco-friendly self instructed me to save paper.

You might be knowing the stuff I blogged about as I put it here, several posts ago. That is how I spent my time on the airport that day. I was there till 10 am. And then again I head the dreaded announcement of flight cancellation. “Oh boy!”, said I to myself. “Here we go once AGAIN!” ;-)

Gilgit Trip: Monday – On the Road (Pursuit of my Ticket)

My flight to Gilgit was cancelled on Monday, July 07, 2008. But that was not the end. I hadn’t given up. I had to try once again. So I bit later in the day I set out with my mother to get my seat reconfirmed for the next day, i.e. Tuesday. We left around 10 am for the PIA office on The Mall Road, near Saddar. We reached there in no time.

Then there was this agony of no available parking spaces. We passed in front of the building once, looking for parking, but failed. Then we passed in front of it again and still no success. Due to this ‘snail-paced’ driving, my clutch leg (left) was already hurting. So I suggested that I would let my Mum out in front of the building. She would get things done and then I would come back and pick her on my now third round. She agreed and I dropped her off. As planned when I passed in front of that building the third time, work was done. I took my mother and we headed home.

It was really hot and the traffic was too much. The whole experience on the road was tantalizing. I “tried” to keep my cool. I lost it all when I reached Ammar Chowk (very near my house) and saw the traffic stopping. There was once again a “route”. I cursed, abused and maybe even thought of swear words for the army official for whom traffic was blocked. Off course I didn’t utter a word out loud because my mother was sitting beside me. She would have freaked out on seeing me use such language.

Those were painful 20 minutes, waiting in the hot and humid weather. I managed to survive, somehow. When the traffic started after that, it was like a cool breeze. I tried to hurry home but a kind of jam had formed due to all those vehicles rushing to their destinations all at once. I was stuck in it but Thanks to Allah, not for long.

So just to go to the PIA office and get my ticket reconfirmed, it had taken more than 90 of my minutes. That too in the car, either driving, idling or waiting.

That was my adventure of the day. More than an hour spent on the roads, amidst heavy rains, trying to get to the airport. And then 90 minutes on the road in scorching heat topped with humidity, to make arrangements of my journey for the next day.

I was still hopeful and full of energy for the next day’s journey. Life brings such immense miseries and setbacks to one’s life. Compared to those, this was nothing. I could take this, definitely. :-)

Lost Control by Anathema

Life has betrayed me once again,
I accept some things will never change.
I've let your tiny minds magnify my agony,
and it's left me with a chem'cal dependency for sanity.

Yes, I am falling... how much longer till I hit the ground?
I can't tell you why I'm breaking down.
Do you wonder why I prefer to be alone?
Have I really lost control?

I'm coming to an end,
I've realised what I could have been.
I can't sleep so I take a breath and hide behind my bravest mask,
I admit I've lost control.

'Lost Control' by Anathema

Gilgit Trip: Monday – On the Road (To Airport)

Yeah Monday was spent on roads. Here is how. It had been raining the whole night. When I woke up, it was still heavily raining. It was raining so much that we were thinking that how in the world would we ever be able to get to the airport. There is one spot on the way to airport from my home where water always settles after a heavy rain. And the water level is always high so it prevents at least small cars from passing thorough.

Anyways, on my and my mother’s pleas and requests my father agreed that he would give it a try. So we set out around 5:20 am towards the airport. The distance is about 10 minutes drive but since I had to be there an hour before flight time, as instructed, so I was going so early.

First we took the usual path, out of Chaklala Scheme III and round Ammar Chowk towards the airport. We went just a little bit ahead when we saw cars returning from that side. And that too on OUR side of the road (that was the wrong side). My father dipper-ed the first car. Then another car came. This time my father slowed down and asked the driver of that car (which was a taxi and had already slowed down for us) what was going on. He told us that the water under the ‘bridge’ (that spot on the way to the airport I just mentioned above) was too much. He further told us that the water was so much that even trucks were unable to pass so every vehicle was turning back.

We thought of our own next move. We turned back too. The idea was to go through Murree Road and then taking the Rawal Road to reach the airport. Now how to get to Murree Road! One route was the long one. Going all the way up to ‘Kachehri Chowk’ and from there to ‘Mareer Chowk’ and then we would be on Murree Road. The other route was a bit shorter. We could detour from ‘Jhanda’ and reach ‘Mareer Chowk’ and then Murree Road. But then there was fear that what if there was water standing on the Jhanda road as well.

We moved slowly from there and when we saw some other cars taking the initiative to go on the Jhanda road, we followed suit. We even stopped and asked people standing by on that road to confirm if the road was fine and water-pond-less till the end. They assured us that it was safe. So we moved on and reached Murree Road. That road was also fine till the Rawal Road entrance.

Then we turned on to Rawal Road. That was fine too, but not for long. Soon we came to a huge puddle of water, going through which would have literally been suicide. So we turned back, on the same side (wrong side) of the road. Abbu turned on the indicators to let the other cars know that we were heading back and to warn them. Then we tried taking the other side of the double road (wrong side again) to see if we could get through. We covered a certain area safely, but then when again we came to our side of the road, there was another humungous water pond waiting for us.

At that point we all gave up and decided to head home. Abbu had already been driving for more than 30 minutes. And it was going to take the same amount of time to get back home. During the return journey I kept checking the PIA flight inquiry for updates. I kept hearing that the flight was delayed time 9:45 am. I was bit relieved at this as it meant that I would not at least miss the flight. When I got home I checked the flight inquiry once again. This time I go the news that ALL flights to Gilgit on that day had been cancelled.

I said to myself at that point, “Here we go again!” :-) hehehe

Gilgit Trip: Sunday - On the Airport

Abbu drove and Ammi accompanied me to the airport. We were there well before time. Just when we reached there the check in started. I bid farewell to my parents and went inside. I was wondering if I would know what to do to get my boarding pass and where to go from there. Thank God I was not dumb in there. I went to the right counter to get the boarding pass. Then after a secrity scan of my purse and a body search by lady police I climbed the stairs up to the departure lounge.

I was there around 9:00 am. The time of flight was 9:45. I waited impatiently for the time to pass. There was nothing to do there. I just took a seat in front of the schedule monitor and kept staring at it. Till the clock struck 9:45, I had gone to the help desk twice to ask about the boarding time. Finally after 45 minutes of doing nothing, there was an announcement that the flight was delayed till 10:30 am. I felt disappointed. But I was hopeful at the same time that at least the flight was going and was not cancelled.

Around 10:30 am another announcement was made that the flight to Gilgit was ready so the passenger should start boarding. I was the first one to jump from my seat and run out the door, all the way down to the exit from where we were supposed to get on a bus that would take us to the plane.

When I reached that door, the guard inspected my boarding card and then instructed me to stay there as there was no bus outside. :-P So I waited for another couple of seconds before the bus came and I boarded.

The bus got filled with people almost instantly. When the doors closed, the bus moved ahead to take us to our plane. Even before a minute it stopped and people started getting out and getting on the plane. Just as the first 2 or 3 people reached the top of flight of stairs, up tot the plane, the airhostess in that plane shouted, “This is NOT the plane to Gilgit. That plane is a bit far ahead.” :-P

So we again boarded the bus. This time it took us to the right plane and we all boarded. I felt glad that I was on the plane. I started making plans of what I would do when I reached Gilgit and met my friends.

The plane took off around 10:45. When it finally accelerated and took off, it sort of tickled me inside. I was laughing (not too loud so as to make others suspicious of me). It felt like I was on a ride of some kind. It was fun. The journey was smooth. I was loving the view outside. I took some pictures as well. After a while we got snacks on the plane (Lays chips, a pack of salted peanuts & TUC salted biscuits). We also got drinks (non alcoholic offcourse! ;-) hehe). Till then all of it was like a dream.

As I was slowly munching my chips and sipping my Fanta there was an announcement. It was around 11:15 am. The pilot said that the weather in Gilgit was not too good so we might have to turn back if it continues. He said he will check again around 11:30 and let us all know of the situation.

I didn’t like this announcement. I got scared that the plan would turn back and ruin my plans. I impatiently waited till 11:30 am so that I could hear the updates. There were none. I was a bit sleepy so I started to doze off. Around 11:40 I felt a push of the centrifugal force. I thought maybe the plane was turning. But then I reassured myself that since the pilot did not announce anything so that could just be a figment of my imagination. But then 10 minutes after that, the pilot announced that weather in Gilgit was still bad so had turned back. 40 minutes after that I was back to square one, standing in front of the ticketing and reservation window, with my luggage, to reconfirm my seat for the next day.