Got back this afternoon and am so drained that I practically sleep-walked/ sleep-ricked to Mount Mary and back.
My morning began with panic. At the airport, Dad realised he had lost/ misplaced his aadhar card somewhere. Every other form of ID that he had, for some strange reason, was inadmissible. (Apparently, xeroxed copies don't count as valid IDs according to some BIS guidelines.) I was so pissed! At this irate man at the gate and also at Papa. But I have to say that he is the most unfazed, calm traveler ever. I had heard a lot of stories from Ma and Papa's other sailor friends about how Papa would be the last one in the plane, how he once boarded the wrong flight and came to know mid-air that he was flying to a wrong destination and made friends with some government officials on the plane and they helped him out, how he was on a chartered flight once that landed illegally and he had slept off. But he woke up to strange people pointing guns at him because there had been a coup. And he would remain unfazed and get out of all that. Of course I know Papa to be a very calm man...but he just doesn't get frazzled. As admirable as that is, it is very infuriating for me.
I lost 5 years of my life fretting and arguing with that unpleasant security man. But he did teach me something. There's an app called mAadhar through which you can access your aadhar details. This information is stored on a central government server, so it's always there, even if you lose it on your phone. (My father had aadhar card details of my brother, me, the driver, the cook, but not his own. It is unbelievable to think that such people exist, but they do.) And my mistake was to not have Papa's aadhar and vaccination details with me.
You know, if you are traveling with a senior citizen or just by yourself also, take print-outs and hard copies of documents. (Yeah, yeah...plant a tree somewhere to compensate for all that loss of paper.) But this video-game level anxiety of getting the relevant details on the mobile before your phone goes out of charge or your flight takes off is just not worth it. ,
Am so so grateful that I am not a tour operator. My God! These people have to handle calm careless people like my father and nervous wrecks like me. I don't even understand the big deal about traveling. So much trouble for what? Packing is so idiotic. I wish flights or agencies had a concierge service. Someone to come, fold, pack, and then finish off by giving you a back rub.
Anyhoo, reached home in Mumbai. I went out and got snacks from Theobroma. It has Christmas stuff now, so yay! Brother visited. Didn't like anything from Theobroma or the pita bread I got from Farmer's Store and left.
I made dinner for Dad. It turned out too salty. But he liked it with curd.
My father is such a great, fuss-free traveler who will get me to burst a blood vessel. Yet again, I missed my mom. She would have understood.
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