the quest for samosas

It was a 14-hour flight from Dallas to Dubai, and I was flying in economy. I was both excited and terrified because the ultimate destination was Bengaluru, India, and I had never been to India before. This opportunity excited me. A 14-hour flight to Dubai followed by a 4-hour flight to India terrified me. It was a great privilege to have a job that afforded me the luxury of travelling to many different places and working with so many varied cultures and backgrounds. However, this had been a really busy period in time with people visiting me, trips for myself, the start of a new job, going through US naturalization process, applying for a passport, registering to vote, voting, planning the trip to India, etc. It was the final stretch before, I hoped, a lengthy period at home, sticking to routine, and spending time alone.  

Arriving at Dallas airport, via the train and terminal link bus, I found the ‘bag drop’ section for Emirates and was asked to show my visa for India. I had checked with a colleague who had assured me it was just a matter of having the approval email. I handed this over and was asked for the actual visa. My heart sank, I had no visa. The Emirates guy then said he could help me to get it easily from the visa website and so I handed him my phone. My phone is a brand new one with excellent connectivity but, sure enough, data stopped working as the site was loading the visa info. After ten minutes of struggle and patience, I finally connected to the airport WiFi and was able to download the visa. I proceeded through security and to the nearest bar to have a beer.  

Once on the plane, I was horrified to discover that there were several babies that seemingly surrounded me. A 14-hour flight, even with noise cancelling headphones, was going to be a challenge with a wall of babies. That thought turned out to be correct… I became tired of listening to music, and the crying and screaming was incessant. It actually sounded, most of the time, like the babies were having their legs sawn off without anesthesia. Fortunately, I had AirPods and Bose Headphones, so I could switch between to the two to try to reduce ear and head pain whilst mostly blocking out the endless screaming. Aside from that, I was also falling in love with the stewardess taking care of me throughout the flight. She had an Audrey Hepburn look with a witty smile that hid the thoughts inside. 

 

Upon arrival, I was greeting by a chauffeur who spoke only a few words of English. He seemed a really pleasant and trustworthy individual and I immediately began to relax in his company. He tried to push into an elevator amongst a large group of people and I suggested we just take the stairs down. We did so and easily found the car within a minute or two. Leaving the airport, my first impression was that the street resembled Miami. Then we took a left turn, and all resemblances ended. Upon our left turn was a pile of trash and rubble marking our entrance into a dark and unlit street. Driving in front of us was a massive garbage collection truck with no lights on, we nearly drove into it, but my trusty driver pulled out just in time to overtake it. As he pulled around it, a man was walking aimlessly in the road in the darkness, and we nearly collided with him. We swerved to avoid him and, immediately behind him, was another man on a motorbike, stopped in the road, facing us, with no lights on. We swerved again and avoided him. Little did I know at the time that this would be the norm for the rest of the one-and-a-half-hour journey to the hotel. For good measure, to welcome me to India, there was a dramatic thunderstorm with pouring rain through which motorbikes, often carrying entire families with no helmets, drove rapidly down the street surrounded by an assortment of vehicles all looking like they had never passed any form of roadworthy inspection test.  

 

The first full day, Sunday, November 3, 2024, was a wonderful one. After a lazy morning, we were picked up and driven out to lunch at a place called ‘Skydeck by Sherlock’s’ where I started to fall in love with the food and the people. Amazingly tasty dishes of all varieties were brought to our table by wonderfully attentive, kind and caring staff. Even when asked to take out photo, staff went above and beyond to take the best photos from various vantage points and angles, it was truly amazing.  

 

Monday and Tuesday were spent in the office, meeting all of our colleagues and collaborating together in workshop style meetings. By Tuesday afternoon I already felt a love for everyone, both local and those who had travelled in from around the world. I felt that each member of the new team was dedicated to their work through a direct personal interest, they were highly skilled, and yet every single one of them was truly humble, quiet, kind, and approachable. 

 

On Tuesday night, I went to sleep at midnight, at 1am I awoke from a terrible nightmare and decided to plug my MacBook and iPhone in to charge them… I discovered I had left my chargers in the office. What’s more, the following day, we were not planning to go to the office at all. I was frustrated and disappointed because I wanted to lie in the next morning but, now, I was plotting a million different actions I could take to secure and collect my chargers. I turned on the TV and started watching CNN to see what was happening with the US election. I ended up being awake for the rest of the day. As the election unfolded, I was left in a state of pure shock and disbelief. People were actually voting for an idiotic criminal with no plan… simply because they think they will get cheaper groceries? He has no plan, no clue. It is an embarrassment to me that I just became a citizen of a country that has elected this miscreant. I got out of bed around 6am and went down to the hotel gym to see if I could walk or jog a little to clear my mind. With one hour of sleep, I realised that anything I did would have to be taken easily. I jogged lightly for 20 minutes and then went for a swim. Whilst jogging, I was listening to the live election feed and things were going well, I was celebrating silently on the treadmill and, by the time I got into the swimming pool, Texas was blue. By the time I got out of the pool, Texas was red. A few hours later, it was over. Trump was to be the next president. I was in a state of deep shock… like I had just been told a friend had been killed in a car crash. But, even worse, more than half of my adopted country wanted the crash to happen and were cheering now that it had happened. I cancelled my morning plans and stayed in bed. I slept a couple of hours and woke up assuming I’d had a very bad nightmare. The truth settled in like a dark and rancid fog, and a true sense of fear, anxiety, panic, and claustrophobia settled in. I couldn’t lift myself, I couldn’t see how this was possible. People were putting their rights at risk simply to fight a few immigrants and the hope of paying a few cents less for their groceries. 

 

In the afternoon, I lifted myself and had a shower. I met up with the team and we went to play cricket. It brought me laughter and helped a lot to lift the spirits. After the cricket, tired, sore, hungry and thirsty, we went to a restaurant for dinner. Walking in, we simply said ‘beers… any beer… lots of them’ and the staff delivered glasses of cold refreshing beer that we devoured within minutes. The restaurant was a brewery with a large Koi Pond in the centre of it, it was beautiful. We sat outside at a long table and tried various local dishes with copious amounts of alcohol. 

 

In the morning I awoke wondering if I had had a long and complicated dream… then the reality sunk in, I was to return in a few days to my adopted home, something I had been looking forward to, and it suddenly seemed like I was returning to a cauldron of hatred run by selfish lunatics who thought only of their own selves with a narrow minded and short-term plan. What would come? I thought of the Bush years (Senior and Junior), both brought Gulf Wars and acts of terrorism within the US. I thought of Trump’s first term when he was posting reckless and idiotic messages every few minutes on Twitter and each one of them was an angry threat against some minority group or someone who disagreed with his deranged views. He was like an idiotic manager in a small company who wants everything his own way and therefore torments his staff every day. Or a spoiled little child who screams and cries because it doesn’t get the sweets it wants in the supermarket. I went down to the swimming pool to clear my mind and try to find a new perspective. My French colleague was at the pool, and we swam together. It started to fill me with hope… this connection that we can build with people through the most simple of things. I’d known him for many years but we had never really spoken. Suddenly, we were in the same team, and we were forming a bond based on a common gentle kindness. 

 

Dinner that night was in two groups, I travelled with the other managers to a restaurant about 45 minutes away and found myself deeply attracted to the lady who was attending to our table. At one point, she disappeared for 20 minutes or so and when she returned I told her that I thought she had left and was happy that she returned. She looked at me for a few seconds and then started slowly moving away from me as if she was doing Michael Jackson’s moonwalk. As she moved, she said ‘okaaaaaaaay’. The other managers laughed, and, for the rest of the trip, I was teased a lot with ‘okaaaaaaaay’ from the group. 

 

I had been expressing a craving for Samosas throughout the trip but, unbelievably, they had been difficult to find. Even the restaurants we had been to didn’t have them on the menu (even the very local restaurants). As we sat in a meeting room in the office on Friday morning, a large bag of hot samosas was placed before me. I was delighted. Finally, they were found. With a huge grin on my face I asked where they were from, and the response was ‘anything is possible in Bangalore.’ Someone replied ‘Anything is possible except finding food that is not spicy.’ We shared the bag of Samosas as we had lunch that dayThe rest of the day was uneventful. 

 

Saturday morning we awoke early and set off on a 4.5 hour drive to a safari lodge. The drive, like every drive in Bangalore, was painful. Especially in the beginning when we were trying to get out of the city. Even as the road opened up a little, and we entered onto a highway, there was still chaos… and, with slightly higher speeds, it is increasingly terrifying. Random people, animals, bikes, cars, trucks, will simply be stopped or standing in the middle of the road, drivers are crossing lanes with reckless abandon, and trying to overtake at any given opportunity. Once we arrived at our destination, it felt like we had found utopia. Mostly, I think, because it was the end of the drive. But, also, there was a beautiful lake surrounded by greenery and silence. Only birdsong could be heard. We crawled from the cars and made our way to the entrance where I was soon enraged by the fact that we were asked to hand over our passports and fill in a ridiculously long form. It was like we were at a border crossing and trying to get into a different country. I was tired and extremely frustrated… but a short while later, we were walking through the beautiful grounds to the swimming pool where we swam and simply relaxed. It was truly wonderful, an infinity pool next to a gigantic lake. We drank beer and shared stories until sunset. After dinner there was a bonfire where we danced and drank with people we met at the lodge. 

 

The following day we drove back, the roads were not as bad with it being a Sunday, and the group had fallen to exhaustion. Most of them slept all the way back. When we arrived back, it was time for everyone to fly home, except me, I had mistakenly booked my hotel room until Monday. We all sat together in the lobby, drinking beers, awaiting the arrival of the various airport-bound taxis. Around 11:30pm, everyone had gone. I walked to my room feeling a mixture of relief, joy, and sadness. Relief because it was almost time to go home, and the intensive socializing was over. Joy because I knew I had a slow morning with no plans ahead of me, then I’d be heading home. Sadness, because the hotel felt very empty and lonely with everyone gone, and it was another ending. 

 

Arriving at the airport the following day felt like a great achievement. Especially once inside – there was a security check outside where I had to prove my identity and that I was legitimately flying somewhere, not easy to do when I didn’t have a boarding pass due to US travel compliance – I made it through official airport security about 1.5 hours later as check in only began 4 hours before the flight. I walked to a bar, hoping for a drink, but they had no alcohol, so I decided to purchase access to the business lounge where I proceeded to chat with the staff whilst sipping local whiskies and eating samosas. 

 

The flight to Dubai was 4 hours. Then a 4 hour wait in Dubai. Then an agonizing and torturous 16.5-hour flight to Dallas… no sleep at all along the way. 

 

I’m now home. I am happy. And I am sad. Mostly, I am exhausted.