assam chronicle

Chik has travelled the entire length of the country and arrived at guwahati two weeks back. We had alot of anxiety about how he would handle the nearly four hour flight with two take offs and two landings. D had a couple of friends who did the Singapore -India flights with a five month old baby.They exchanged do's and dont's. For me it gave me confidence that it can be done. D's friend had done the trip alone with the infant, so it gave me added confidence.

We were on the way to the airport and we got a message that flight was delayed by 2 hours at chennai. Was it due to fog at Delhi or Z category VIPs from Delhi coming for a wedding in the city, is still an unsolved mystery. We were a little anxious but after locating the child care room on the ground floor , D was fairly comfortable and so was chik. I was the chaperone and kept hovering about. We carried the baby stroller with us. We need not check it in, but can carry it right upto the aircraft.It is meant to help mothers who are travelling alone with an infant. I was with the stroller and D had gone past the security with Chik. The stroller could not go through the security box.I had to fold it, but I did not know how.The CRPF personnel at the gate just kept saying that this is not going in. D saw me from the other side, spotted a gap and quickly rushed in and told me to press some knob. By which time the CRPF lady was shooing her off saying, once you are through security you cannot come back.The seasoned traveller that D is, she was unfazed and kept guiding me to fold the stroller properly and saw me pushing it through and then vanished from the scene.

In the child care room, Chik was exposed to a colourful  screen for the first time. Arrivals and departure information kept flashing in different colours and Chik was fascinated. Suddenly so much of stimulation of all kinds, he was transfixed. A usually restless kid, was quiet and excited and helped us to spend the extra time there in the airport without much difficulty. Once inside the aircraft, he was again stunned at all the activity at such close quarters. Take off and landing at Kolkatta airport was not much of an issue. He did sleep through during that stretch. Thatha had to just take him for a walk a couple of times and that's it. He became restless during the stop over at Kolkatta and the stretch to Guwahati was a bit of a problem. He had had too much stimulation and he wanted his own bed and his cosy home. But D managed to keep him a bit rested and calm.

D had arranged for express check in and luggage clearance, so that part went through smoothly. Yes you guessed it, we had got nicely struck in the  traffic jam in the bridge across brahmaputra.Well actually it was much ahead of the bridge that we got stuck. Our driver said the traffic jam is quite bad right from 3 pm. It was a sunday night and a long weekend due to sankaranthi, a k a bihu in Assam  was perhaps the excuse for the jam.

Reached home a full 9 hours after leaving home at Chennai. Chik was cranky once we reached home but managed to get pacified after comforting. The marked change in weather in chennai and guwahati also must have troubled the tiny fellow. But he managed it gamefully.

Chik is home.