I am flying home tonight. Boarding a Thai Airways Airbus from Singapore's Changi Airport, I will transit at Bangkok and catch another big bird which will fly me home to Calcutta (Kolkata).
My wife will be waiting for me at Dum Dum, now called Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Airport, when I land there shortly after midnight.
I guess my son will also be at the airport. Dear me, he will miss one of the World Cup soccer matches on TV if he comes to the airport.
Meeting me at the airport after midnight will be hard on my wife too.
But no flights from Singapore land in Calcutta in the morning, afternoon or evening any day of the week. The Singapore Airlines flights land in Calcutta shortly before midnight and cost 200 Singapore dollars more. That's more than 100 US dollars.
Anyone flying from Singapore to Calcutta has only three choices: Singapore Airlines, Thai and Bangladesh Biman. The Bangladesh airline also doesn't fly direct to Calcutta -- one has to transit at Dhaka. I have never flown it.
God, it has been such a long time since I have been with my family. I last saw my son in September when my wife and I left him at his college in America. He is now in Calcutta for his summer holidays.
That's why I am going now so I can see him and my wife as well. I last saw her when she visited me in Singapore during the Pujas. She flew back to Calcutta early in November. She teaches in a college in Calcutta and could not stay here any longer and miss her classes.
Boy, am I counting the hours till I touch down in Calcutta and see my darlings!
Thank you everyone who read my blog and posted comments. I hope to respond to each and every one of you when I return to Singapore two weeks from now at the beginning of next month. I am really grateful for all the comments about the iPod I bought for son. You are all so wonderful.
I won't be able to blog for the next two weeks while I am in Calcutta. Though my son has brought his laptop with him from his college, there won't be any time for me to get online. I will be watching the World Cup with him on TV and quizzing him about his college life in America. And I will have plenty to talk about and do with my wife. Of course, I will also spend time with my parents, in-laws and meeting old friends.
There are still 18 hours left before I board my flight. But I have to be at the airport at least two hours in advance. And before that I have to get some sleep. I have been up since yesterday morning though I had no time to blog. I had to go to work. I haven't packed my bags yet. But there isn't much to pack, I am travelling light. Still, I have to buy some chocolates and chips. Chips for my son, chocolates for my wife. That reminds me of a Drifters song: Sweets For My Sweet. It goes "sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey". I have it on a CD.
Now I will go to bed. But I am so excited I just can't sleep. I have been listening to Cliff Richard singing Travelling Light. I love this dreamy number, the lyrics are really sweet:
I got no bags and baggage to slow me down
Well, I'm travelling so fast my feet ain't touching the ground
Travelling light -- travelling light
Well, I just can't wait to be with my baby tonight
No comb and no tooth brush
I got nothing to haul
I'm carrying only
a pocketful of dreams a heart full of love
and they weigh nothing at all
Soon, I'm gonna see that love look in her eyes
I'm a hoot and a holler away from paradise
Travelling light
Travelling light
Well, I just can't wait to be with my baby tonight
But my favourite Cliff Richard song, which I just started playing on my computer, is Evergreen Tree. Everything is beautiful about this wistful ballad starting from the gentle guitar thrums and the plaintive wail of the harmonica.
Oh darling, will our love be like an evergreen tree
Stay ever green and young as the seasons go
Your kisses could make love grow like an evergreen tree
Bloom in the summer's sun and the winter's snow
On every branch will blossom, dreams for me and you
Our tree of love will stay ever green, if our hearts stay ever true
Oh darling, I love you so, don't you know that I'll be
True 'til the leaves turn blue on the evergreen tree
On every branch will blossom, dreams for me and you
Our tree of love will stay ever green, if our hearts stay ever true
Oh darling, I love you so, don't you know that I'll be
True 'til the leaves turn blue on the evergreen tree
On the evergreen tree, on the evergreen tree.
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