One Night At Bangalore Airport

Bangalore Airport at Night

Not in very distant past, I had to spend a night at Bangalore airport, not that I wanted to but I had to.  I was returning from Singapore, as I was on a sponsored trip by Tiger Air so they have booked me via Bangalore from where they fly to Singapore Changi Airport. I had a layover for 5-6 hours before my connecting flight.  Long story short I had an early morning flight from Bangalore or Bengalururro or Bengalorouo or whatever the polishitians politicians have named the garden city, either way, they have screwed up the name of one of my favorite city forever. Any Bangoluruleans who disagree with me please speak up now or let your kids be condemned to spell the name of their city wrong forever.

So here I was in Bangalore airport around one in night and had a few hours to kill before my early morning flight. And as you know airports are a great place to observe other people who are secretly observing other people. Which makes you a secret observer of the people who are secret observer of other people, who may themselves be secret observers of the other people which secret observer could be you, thus completing the cycle or it can continue till the secret observation is returned to you. Quiz time: How many secret observes are we talking about here?

So what do I see at the Bangalore (Aha the familiar name, no wonder they say OLD is Gold Saar!) Airport. So this post is a combination of my experience of my night at Bangalore airport converted into one post “ One Night At Bangalore Airport “  I like the sound of this heading maybe I should write a book with this title.

Well the Bangalore airport officially known as Kempegowda International Airport was nice and cozy and trying to give competition to our railway platforms. I was in the domestic section of the Airport where a lot of returning desis were waiting for their connecting flights just like me in the morning. And what do waiting desis at the airport do best?   Well, we love to redesign the seating arrangement at the airport halls. Chairs / sofas are rearranged, suitcase are safely cuddled under legs and we start our orchestra of sonorous sounds from the nostrils, only to be interrupted by a brief opening of the orifice normally meant for eating and speaking, but here it is given extra duty of releasing explosive sounds along with saliva and some gases.

 

How I Quit My Job To Travel The World jee?

Some of the techie types were using the time to work on their laptops. Note to the supervisor of the techie: You sir should not put so much pressure on the poor guy that he works even in the airport lounge.  Note to the techie: Next time you are in the airport rather than write code do check your friendly neighborhood desi Traveler blog, you may soon be writing a blog post of your own – “How I quit my job to travel and found my mojo back “

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There were all kind of people sleeping at the airport, people returning from abroad and waiting for their flight to next city and people like me who have come early for the early morning flight.

So I spent the night moving from avoiding one snorer to another and ultimately I got so frustrated, I started clicking pictures of all the people sleeping around me.. But I was careful not to disturb anybody or click faces as I did not want to make fun of anybody but just trying to pass some time as I was scared if I too sleep along with so many people around me the collective sleep may lead to me miss my early morning flight.

At one point I did feel sleepy so I inquired at the hotel at the Bangalore Airport, but for next 2-3 hours of sleep, they wanted me to shell out about 3500 Rs/- which I felt was too steep and now I understood why all the people were spread out on the chairs in the airport.

I just moved around the airport’s domestic section trying to find something to eat but did not succeed as nothing was open. Only in the morning once I have checked in my flight and moved to the upper level after security I found some of the restaurants. But most of them were still not ready to serve food as I could not find anybody in them.

Finally, my super sharp desi nose got a whiff of freshly brewing coffee and Sāmbhar coming together and I knew the good folks at Malgudi must have arrived.  Now Malgudi, as you must have guessed, is named after the fictional town created by RK Narayanan, where most of us grew in our childhood reading the adventures of Swami and his friends in the picturesque town of Malgudi.

Anyways my nose was right and as my nose and my tummy were in agreement I knocked on the door of Malgudi only to be told by still half asleep guy at the counter, “ Another 15 minutes sir , before I take your order, but please have a seat.”

Thus began the longest wait for placing an order for breakfast in my life. Finally, order was placed and I relished the piping hot Pongal and Vada served with steaming Sāmbhar that you could have run a toy steam engine with it.

By now the Bangalore (remember I have already said earlier to hell with Bengaluru / Bangalorulu or whatever name polishitians politicians have named the garden city now) airport was buzzing with activity with smartly dressed pilots and cabin crew sashaying towards planes waiting for them

I too finished my breakfast and walked towards the gate for my flight to reach home. The flight to Delhi was uneventful, unlike this flight to remember I had some time back, and I reached home just in time for the steaming hot idlis wife jee had prepared for Breakfast. Totally forgetting that I was coming from the land of Idly Sāmbhar aka South India:). On my part, I too forgot to tell her that I had breakfast at Bangalore airport 🙂 and had a second round of Breakfast the most important meal of the day especially when you have spent a night at the airport.

Just as an FYI: All pictures in this post were clicked by my Sony Xperia Z3 mobile phone.

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