150 minutes!

I am writing this on my way to Chennai today. Right next to me, sits an unshaven, brittle Spaniard and in the window seat sits a woman who should be probably in her late 40’s. In the front of us, there are two more women again in their late 40’s and an old man with a pair of reading glasses and books. I assume, The Spaniard has been living in Noida and these women (madisar mami’s) are on their way back to Chennai.  Now our Spaniard is probably a singer, trying hard to learn and master carnatic music. He has come all the way from Spain to learn this in India. Sensational!  Frankly the flight duration between Delhi and Chennai is like 150odd minutes. In these 150 odd minutes, the Spaniard and our women band started discussing from carnatic music, food, and even soap operas. Usually, in flights, I sleep. In almost a majority of my flights, I end up sleeping for at least an hour. The best place to sleep without much disturbance, but here I found it really odd. Are all women gossip mongers? I don’t personally think so, but let us look at some of the questions and answers here. All the questions I have given here are asked by these women (Q) (madisaaru mamis), and were answered by our very own Spaniard (A). 

Q1: What do you eat in Noida in the morning?
A1: I always eat Idlis outside and I really love it.
My reaction (MR) is, I have been here in Noida for about a year now and tell me one good place which gives hot idlis in the morning before 10am. The only restaurant that opens before this time is our very own McDonalds. And even the restaurants that open after 11am sell 2 idlis at 75bucks!
 

Q2: Do you get Sun Tv in Spain? In that they show a lot of family dramas which portrays the plight of Indian women.
A2: I really would love to watch it.
MR: Plight of Indian women? Bullshit. People are jobless.
 

Q3: When I was young, I used to get up at 4am in the morning in Chennai and start practicing singing for two hours, in front of my guru and in weekends, I used to stand in the river and then practice.
A3: Oh wow, that’s amazing. I have also read about this, and I really want to try it out.
MR: River? Chennai? Coovum? Well, I really am not aware about any other river. I guess, Coovum, is not considered a river anymore.
 

Q4: Do you watch cricket? Sachin? He is a genius. I leave all my work and start watching Sachin whenever he bats. Spaniard nodding his head.
All others: Yeah. I really like Yuvraj Singh
MR: All work? Yuvraj? Does Yuvraj know this?

Nonstop radio it was. I am no big fan of a radio. I don’t like listening basically, that’s something different. But here, one thing that really blew me out was the way the woman in their mid 40’s behaved. All were dressed up in their madisar’s (In the Brahmin community, this was the compulsory method in which the sari was supposed to be worn by a female after her nuptials). Though I was asked a few questions like what phone is this and are you from Chennai types, our Spaniard was interviewed left, right, and centre. In fact, all these women are put up at Adyar and have even personally invited this guy to come in to their place, shared their email id’s and mobile numbers. In fact, one of the ladies had an IPad. She even knew the cost of a blackberry phone and their model number by just looking at the phone. The discussion started from idlis and ended with  our captain Vijaykanth. Looks like our captain already has four votes. Thank god, the flight landed. Home!