Aurangabad airport feels like home. It is as small as, okay not anybody's home that I have ever visited, but enough to feel cozy. I know the staff, they know me. In fact, some of the women who frisk me are on rather intimate terms, having posed a variety of questions to me, ranging from where I work to whether I am married and suggesting good naturedly (or so I choose to believe) that I should now find a good boy and tie the knot. It does feel good to come to this airport after a long day of being in the hot sun which threatens to beats me into a sweaty, pulpy mass of headache and dehydration. It does feel good to know that I am soon going to board a cute little ATR and zoom off to what is really really home.
It is a small airport, but it has international flights. It also has a good percentage of foreign passengers, what with the caves at Ajanta-Ellora being some sort of firang magnet. And that explains the availability of Diet Coke and Pepsi. I would know, being somewhat of a pro on small-town-ism that Diet drinks being available is a sure sign of the place having arrived.
But amongst all the contradictions that this airport presents me with, what really smites me between the eyes is this - Karlsburg, the International brand for men's clothing and accessories!
This airport does not have a restaurant and consequently perhaps, even working flushes, but it has a Karlsburg showroom! The sole upholder of consumerism in this kindergarten of airports! The brave lone Columbus discovering new lands, albeit a little barren but having the potential perhaps to turn into an America! Hats off to the guys who own the label in India. They have clearly been paying attention to the Diet Coke Index.
4 comments:
Wow! Dude, you could very well write a contemporary did-you-know epic on India, you know?
But is Diet Coke index really = arrived-ness? My good ol' Ludhiana figures as very arrived on most lists, but good luck finding a diet coke. You may get a very quizzical "Punjabi hoke mitha ni peende?" instead. We are like that wonly :|
O damn. There goes my first 'framework' biting the dust. And Ludhiana does not have Diet Coke?!! That is revelation of the day :)
Frameworks should ALWAYS be 2*2 or more :P
Never keep them simple, otherwise you will get caught unawares :D
You will get Diet Coke, but not very easily. And forget about it in the smaller shops/ restaurants. Anything 'diet' is not our priority - we are after all deep-fried parantha eaters, who are not scared of sugar or oil :D
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