WEEK END TRIP

'Good evening ladies and gentlemen
We are tonight's entertainment'

the voice of the joker from batman greeted me when i awoke from my nights slumber.It was sunday, 7 in the morning and my room mate was watching THE DARK KNIGHT; cool movie to begin the day with. If it was any other weekend it would have passed of with me playing cricket. But this sunday was something special. I was to meet my school friend who had joined the airforce academy at dundigal ,hyderabad. After finishing my morning ablutions I proceeded towards the bus stop apprhensively unsure of which bus i would board. Finally I came to a conclusion to board the bus to secunderabad. When I reached there ,much to my relief I found the Cab exclusively for the airforce academy waiting at the entrance of the sec'bad railway station .The cab started by 9 with me peeping out of the window ,and trying to memorize the route in vain.

A journey of 40 minutes through the outskirts of hyderabad brought me face to face with a mig aircraft prototype stationed at the entrance of the airforce academy.The academy ws situated in a serene and natural place far from the hustle and bustle of the city. Whew!!! after a longtime I was seeing some greenery. Then I had to obtain a pass to visit my friend.

My bad luck they did not have my friend's name in the list of students who would be having visitors that day.I was left to languish in the waiting room,with only the fleas and bugs of the visitors room for company, for more than an hour until the authorities confirmed the existence of my friend among their ranks:)

I was called and given a pass to meet my friend at the FLIGHT CADETS MESS. The autorities asked me to wait for the next bus to go inside. i thought.' why would not these guys let me walk' . It must be a very small distance, a thought which would be proved long later. As the secon cab came I got into it ,and to my surprise i found it going into a forest.

well u will not beleive me the entire academy is well laid out in a forest wth roads connecting the different campuses of the academy. It was like an african safari , with HOMO SAPIEN being the only animal in view. Even there was a sign 'WILD BOARS CROSSING BEWARE',WOW what nice place to study :)

After half an hour of twists and turns and less of wild boar crossings i came to the MECCA of the academy, the flight cadets mess. My friend was waiting for me there in immaculate white uniform with a black necktie and the customary haircut,remember me during the first year IV:). How long has it been since i met him ? ages .....

The entire place was bautiful,with lot of well laid gardens . Here u can find the purest of oxygen. My friend took me to the foire (reception), to register myself. Then we proceeded to the visitors waiting hall. It was equivalent to the reception of a five star hotel , with expensive furniture and many paintings and portraits adorning the room.

We chatted for long time and i just gave a call to his mom. U must see how his mom felt while talking to her son after three months . the only means of communication between them was letters, Cellphones were banned for the students .

After chatting we had a very tasty lunch provided by the academy themselves. One word to describe the lunch absolutely fantastic . The astonishing thing was that there were many girls too who had joined the short service commisison.Brave ladies ..... they get the same punishment as the boys ....

I found that all the cadets were taking food and transfering them to their plates in a different way. i asked my friend the reason behind that.He then told me that all were supposed to eat with a particular etiquette. While serving food , the scoop had to be used like a shovel being used to remove sand from a pit. The reverse was to be followed while transferring food to the plate. The logic behind this taking and transfering is that if u followed this way u would nt take much food and waste it while taking and not spill food on u or don while serving :)

Another was that , the cadets had to take food by the fork,put it on the spoon , eat it and place the fork and spoon face down on the plate until they had finished munching the previous morsel.even there was a protocol for lifting glass tumblers. They had to grasp the tumbler firmly with 3 fingers other than the thumb and place the little finger down to provide support and prevent the tumbler from falling. Amazing isnt it?

After i had finished lunch I was informed that my stay had to be cut short as the bus for secunderabad had come and that was the last bus for the day . With a heavy heart and of course a heavy stomach i bid aideu to my friend and got into the bus. Along with me came the parents of another tamil boy who was my friends co-batch.

They were so ignorant that they had not reserved a return ticket, and were planning to get ticket for chennai after reaching the station A highly impossible task, and that too on a sunday evening..... As we neared the station , I saw a billboard advertising some 3rd party reservation for railways. I suggested that to them only to receive the reply that the would ask more commission and so it was better to reserve in the station. After journey to hyderabad paying in hudereds they were looking to save 20 rs. Okie let it be. But as they did not know any language other than tamil i took it as my responsibility to help them.

I sttod in the long reservation queue for almost half an hour to enquire if there were any statu available for the next day only to be snubbed by the person at the counter. The were in a dilemma whether to go by bus for the day or to stay and go by train the next day. Amidst all the confusion i was the guy who did all the enquiru for them bnoth in the bus and railway stations shuttling here and there. The must have thought that getting a train ticket must be as easy as getting a tiocket in local bus.

Then finally they came to a decision to go by bus and thank god there were two tickets available in APSRTC. I booked those two tickets, accompanied themall the way to the bus stand which was miles from my place. Then after leaving thm safe and secure in the bus stand i began the journey to my house.

at the end of they day though tired from exertion i was extremely satisfied that i had helped some one. I felt really good :)