Category Archives: Airport

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Mohan – the darling of all

It’s been nearly more than 10 years and my memory is still afresh. I could still visualise that day. It was one of those night shifts when I was posted as a Preventive Officer at the Chennai International Airport. In between flights, the customs enclosure in the airport wore a deserted sleepy look. Neither were there any passengers around nor the airline staff. Feeling brisk after a cup of tea, I took a walk in the arrival hall and there I found a few officers at the far corner. There was one fair middle aged man sitting on the counter and doing the talking while the others surrounding him were listening intently with intermittent burst of laughter. Being deputed from Hyderabad, I hardly had friends in the Chennai Customs and since I could sense that the conversation was interesting, I walked to the group and tried to involve myself. The group fell silent and all the eyes around were staring at me. I felt a sudden lull in my thoughts; probably I was not invited there. Still gathering my strengths, I moved towards the group. The middle aged man gave me a welcome smile and put forward his hand and said “Hey, I am Mohan Kumar”. That started a friendship which endured the vagaries of time and which literally put me today in nothing but utter darkness.
As the days passed by, I had become more and more close to Mohan that my boss once when enquiring about Mohan, asked me “Where is your alter ego” It is probably his captivating smile which was the main reason for people flocking around him and I am no exception to it. His sense of humour knew no bounds. Always enthralling people around him, I have never seen a sad man in his vicinity. He was nothing but a child with beard and moustache. I still remember when we were watching “kasae than kadavulada”, a Tamil movie at his house, he laughed, laughed and laughed loud like a kid enjoying the comedy. I had seen people use the word ROFL in messages but none would have literally seen it. I had seen him rolling on the floor and laughing for a piece of comedy.
Mohan and I were PROs in Customs so that gave us the flexibility to move around. In between flights, we used to go out for a smoke and discuss varied subjects. He was very articulate and logical in what he wants to speak. In fact I could spend hours together just listening to him. Our discussions were on subjects ranging from economy to external affairs. His passion for music is unparalleled. It was he who introduced me to the music of Muthuswamy Dikshithar, Aruna Sairam and others. If I have developed a liking to carnatic music, the credit really goes to Mohan. He used to take me to the various sabhas around Mylapore in Chennai during the Thiruvaiyaaru Festival and explained to me the nuances of Carnatic music.
Another driving factor to friendship is that we both are food lovers. We were frequent visitors to Saravana Bhavan, Ratna Cafe and Amaravathi Restaurants. There would be no time constraints for Mohan. It would be mid night and he would say “Mapplae pasikudhu da” (feeling hungry bro) and immediately we would be at an eatery for our gluttony. Moving back to Hyderabad, I used to visit Chennai often. Many a times on such visits, I had stayed in his house and enjoyed his hospitality. I always had the liberty to ask Priya, his wife to cook some food. We used to enjoy the home food and all the while he keeps telling me how great a cook is his wife.
There were a lot of memories with him which I could relish my life time. The long drives to Bangalore to visit my family, a drive to Mahabalipuram just to have a bottle of beer, the list goes on. In fact, I feel that with him I relived my teens with all vigour and energy. All this association with him happened just for a smile. Never have I seen a man with such a million dollar smile on his face all the time. In fact, I couldn’t recollect a day when he frowned or a day he was angry. He was energy itself and he shared it to all who were around him. There was always a sparkle in his eyes and coupled with his smile, he had a dash of divinity. If there is something that I learned from him is that to take life easy and smile when in adversity. He always used to say to me “Free a vudu maamu” (Leave it free bro) Yes he too has left himself free today.
The day I saw him in CCU, with bandages on his head and tubes around him, I wanted to yell at him and ask how you could do that. As always he was serene and was sleeping with that divine look which answered me “Free a vudu maamu”. Never did I believe that he would desert us. Probably the Gods needed him to cheer up the heavens. The Gods have betrayed us, Mohan has betrayed us – never have I witnessed such a betrayal. How I wish I never met him. How I wish I was not attracted to his pristine smile. How I wish I was not posted to Customs at all.

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Malaysia!! – A truly Asian Experience!!!

Hi this is my first post to start off with!

Travel has always been my forte and I would like to share the experiences I had during my travels. They always say to start with a happy note but to differ I would like to take the bitter pill first and here is one!!

It was early in 2009 when I embarked on a trip to Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore and this incident happened when I was travelling from Malaysia to Thailand. An experience  … may be the worst one as it clearly reflects the attitude of the bureaucracy of a country which boasts itself as a developed nation. It was on the 14th of April when I took a bus from Kuala Lumpur to Hat yai in southern Thailand. The next morning at the Hat yaiimmigration I was refused entry on the pretext that I didn’t carry enough US dollars. I showed them my valid visa, my credit cards, hotel bookings and the money I carried, but all in vain. Stranded at the Thai border with my fingers crossed I was trying to impress upon the officials when the  driver of the bus in which I came approached me and told to pay RM 100 and get myself cleared. Yes! A bribe of RM 100 to the Thai immigration made me enter  Hat yai though I had in my possession all the valid documents. My eagerness to visit Hat yai made me succumb to it and I paid for my entry. Well at that time Thailand was going through a political turmoil with the red shirt movement and probably the officials took it as a right opportunity to make a fast buck. This shouldn’t have happened but however I had no choice. But the worst was yet to come on my return to Malaysia in the form of Malaysian Customs. 

It was on the 17th of April, on my way back to Singapore by bus I was stopped by the Malaysian Customs and was asked to open my bag. I promptly opened my bag and offered myself to check. The Customs officials treated me like a drug peddler and checked every nook and corner of my bag as I quietly stood in a corner as a mere spectator when the whole exercise took place in front of me. Unable to see my things strewn apart, I approached them and introduced myself as a Customs Officer from India and showed my identity card to them. Looking at my credentials one of them gave me a weird look and said “Does this make you immune to checks?” I didn’t know what to answer when cornered by such a question…I just said, “Well Sir please carry on with your check”. They checked all my bags and took out the souvenirs I picked up from various countries and started to appropriate them. The souvenirs may be cheap stuff but I had bought them bearing in mind my friends and relatives and of course they had an emotional value attached to them. They then took out the half bottle of Regency Brandy and said that I cannot carry it. I argued that I was allowed to carry 2 litres of liquor…..but it went to their deaf ears. I had a pack of Indonesia Gudang Garam Cigarette … the limited version one with just 12 sticks which a friend gifted me back in Thailand, quite an expensive one in my pocket.  One of the officers put his hand in and took it out. When I objected he said he loves to smoke that! Quite a reason he had! They offered to let me go if I parted with the things I had or they said that I would have to wait for a couple of hours to meet a senior official and to get things sorted out. They put me in such a fix as they knew that I had a bus waiting for me to take me to Singapore and that I would eventually leave the stuff with them. Added to that driver of the bus was complaining that he was late and had to hurry. My bags were in a total mess: all the things spread out in the table. I had no way but to give away the bottle, some of the souvenirs, the pack of cigarettes…and then I was allowed to go with my clothes. This is the state of affairs of the Malaysian customs at the border. They just appeared to be like the bandits in the old medieval period robbing off the helpless travelers.

The Immigration and Customs Officials are the first representatives of a country a foreigner encounters on his day of arrival. How they treat him in the first instance goes a long way in the memory of the foreigner and creates a positive vibe about the nation he visits.  I being a customs officer, having the privilege to have worked in two major Indian international airports took the above incident on a positive note as I had gotten to see things from a passenger’s perspective.  In fact this incident has made me to put up always a smiling face when greeting a visitor and it definitely does give a sense of comfort to a passenger who arrives after hours of boring travel. I am happy to see that smile on their faces as they move towards the exit; the very smile which I was deprived of in Malaysia!