6 AM in the morning, I was on my way back home (spent the night at the office wrapping up a work)wondering if I would be able to reach my rented home in the next one hour against a forecasted target of 45 mins. My calculation of reaching home in 45 mins, 30 mins of packing, 15 minutes of breakfast, 10 mins of bathing and 15 mins of phone calls seems to slide away with the increasing thickness of the fog.

But I somehow knew that I would be able to catch my flight on time. It took me 1 hour and 3 mins to help my friend park the car and reach my room. 8 AM I was locking my door at the same time thinking about a report sent to the site director, which bears an instigation of perpetual impact on the company revenue structure.

Phew! I would be on time at the airport.

09:55 AM, on board yet my sixth sense says " boy you would not leave Delhi before 12 AM, and how about the next connecting flight scheduled for 12:55 AM from Guwahati?" "Hello Sir, would you like veg or non veg?"

That was at 1:05 PM. The flight won't just take off as if to remind me that I got the ticket for 8210, which doesn't include the punctuality tax. 2:15 Pm, we were air borne. Now, what? Another day in Guwahati to catch the next earliest flight to Imphal.

I asked the Air hostess which looks more like hostages in disguise.. "What about the connecting flights from Guwahati to Imphal?"

"Ground staff" was the answer, to which I said, " You guys have a great service".

4:20 PM touch ground, collected by baggage and reach counter for help. With a lot of courtesy I was told that, I need to wait for about 2 hrs for lodging arrangement to be made.

I made my move and reach Paltan bazaar.

Holy God! I didn't call Ema. After 5/6 trials finally I got connected to my home number " Ema echegi heijingpot nunglaroi, nungnaba flight ta lakpani ado dao kaya yadre Guwahati da ngasi leiba tarre".

I got a taxi through the hotel, paying 400+50 bucks extra as tips for arranging my taxi but as fate determined, I found 2 meitei already seated and this driver would make a sales pitch on the fact that they are also meitei and blah blah….

Anyways they paid 80 out of 400 and 50 extra to the driver. Finally I got my ticket rebooked after 30 minutes of dragging my luggage to and fro for about 3 times from the counter to the check in.

Here comes the most exciting and interesting part of my journey. Have you ever seen a couple testing out the network capabilities of a service provider while they are in roaming?

I suppose they were putting a test on the BSNL network coverage. This guy wouldn't allow his wife to speak to him face to face; he would only speak through his mobile phone. It seems he had made up his mind that he would only talk through his gadget and that too with a bit of Hindi to prove to his wife that he is one of those multi lingual guy.

I was not only the spectator to their test; we have 2 sister (my assumption as a sister was because of the fact that look alike) who got really motivated with the test of the husband and wife. They kept crushing Hutch. All four of them speak an accented Manipuri with a touch of American style.

Hindi was a good choice for all of them to communicate yet they seems quite uncomfortable with the hindi when the ground staff enquire about their overweighed baggage.

"Holy cow", I have heard that in a Hollywood movie but this time it seems it has been used for a different context. Any way I think that was kind of an exclamation mark which is more like " aassshhh loirehe".

I must have spent about 30-45 minutes watching them. Oh!! Forgot to tell you, this 2 sister had packed pizza for 5 days since they can't live without pizza.

"Mobile mania", He maintained a grumbling act for a long 10 minute on a Nokia communicator asking every possible question why his qualis is not at home.

Suddenly in the middle of the talks the mobile phone rings and he said in a lower tone " yumgi no da oina touro, eina pairaga lakle".

I think he would have spoken for 30 minutes on the phone strolling around us had there been no one calling the no. But believe me I have never seen so many hi fi mobiles at a time except for a showroom.

I didn't bother to read a message feeling a little inferior to read it from a Nokia 1100 in front of communicator and …. What I don't even know the model no and made.

Reached Imphal at 4:15 PM. This guy who was making a fuss about which vehicle to come for picking him up, drop away snatching the auto that I was talking too.