Events in my Life that have amused or touched my soul...

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Mid-Air Friendship!!

This happened on my flight from New York to Dubai....It was a "fully packed" flight...and i was happy to have got the window seat!!(window seats have always been an obsession for me...be it in a train,bus or plane!!.....and i remember the innumerable fights with my bro for the elusive window seat!!)
So...having settled comfortably on my seat...i was hoping that i could make the person who is gonna sit near me exchange his or her seat with my brothers fiancee....
Then she came...a serious looking woman...wearing a traditional muslim attire..( a bhurkha..did i get it right??)...walking towards the seat next to me.
She had an irritated look..and gave me a kind of unfriendly stare!!I was like...what a snob!!Iam gonna be doomed sitting next to her for the next 13 hours..!!
Then..to my surprise, she started a conversation with me.She was like.."where are you from?? whats your name??...the usual ice-breaker questions...and i was amused to hear her name.."NADAH". she was from syria.She was like..."RAMYAH"(the ones which end with an "AH"..signify feminity in the arabic language)..sounded like an arabic name!!Then we started chatting like "long lost" friends...i asked her about the significance of her attire..She was like....the bhurkha is worn to conceal a womans beauty and protect herself(well..i did know this before..but was surprised to find a woman living in the US for 13 years still wearing it!!and she looked like a 30 year old woman...).She was proud of her culture..and yet she seemed to have adapted so well to the fast-paced American life.

Then she revealed that she was actually going back home....as there had been a death in her family.Her eyes revealed the pain and sorrow...she felt...i didnt want to question her further...about the death....
To my surprise, she herself offered to exchange her seat with my brother fiancee...as she had observed my initial hungama to change seats.....
She quietly moved on...as i realised that "first impressions need not always be the best impressions"!!and...that i had made one more friend...
Even though, our conversation was shortlived...i sincerely wish..everything is fine with her....

5 Comments:

Blogger Ram Prasad Bojanki said...

Very much true.
First impressions need not be the best one!!
Nice and interesting episode.

5:27 AM

 
Blogger Anand Subramanian said...

Hello!!! Hello Anybody there? Echoooo. Wake up enough of sleeping. Nobody stopped you...why did you stop?

6:26 AM

 
Blogger ArChaNaR said...

"first impressions need not always be the best impressions

so true! i've learned a lot from it :)

4:19 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

it wud have been awesum if that female had kidnapped you to her godforsaken country!!!! pity!!

9:45 PM

 
Blogger Prashanth said...

ea...ur experience is another example for my thinking that "first impression doesnt decide wht a person is...interesting episode..

4:42 AM

 

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