News That Stays News

三人飞必有我施华洛世奇 February 6, 2013

It was good to travel with a friend in the Chennai airport – if you don’t put the little elastic airline tag on your bag and get it stamped, it doesn’t board the plane.

It was good to travel with a couple of NGO workers on the road to Aurangabad – no one else will ever believe me that, when the bus hit speed bumps at night, I flew so high my feet hit a metal rack a foot above the bed!

It was good to travel without a friend, because the ice cream guy on  Tilak Road does a three part handshake.

It was good to travel without a friend, because I fit in a shared auto in Aurangabad, with some guys who openly pretended to each other that they spoke perfect English (dubious), and just as guilelessly to me that they spoke none at all (idem).

It was good to travel with an acquaintance on the train out of Aurangabad, because he found me a seat, and kept it somehow on a train that was full.

It was good to arrive with friends into Mumbai, because it near midnight by the time I arrived.

It was good to be far from my friend in the Thane suburbs, when the hotel discovered they needed a copy of my invitation letter to allow me to stay on a business visa.  Sometimes it is better for a friend to be at your fax machine than at your side.

It was good to fly out of Mumbai with a friend, because no one else will believe me that there’s a diamond store in a domestic terminal with eleven gates.

It is good to travel without a friend, because you’re willing to put the effort in for other people to be real to you.

It is good to travel with a friend, because it’s not just a matter of effort.