Landing (Egypt part2)

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Our flight to Cairo had a stopover at Sharjah (called Sharika by the

locals). As we were nearing the Sharjah airport, the Indian passengers

hurriedly started stuffing the jam and butter packets into their handbags.

Some were even quietly stuffing the earphones as souvenirs of their visit.

One guy was hungrily eyeing the pillow and blanket, looking regretfully at

his small handbag. I am sure that the next time this guy would travel with a

large holdall.

Air India has made a wise policy. It has earphones, which work like a

stethoscope. No fancy electronics. Hence stealing them is useless. Other

airlines need to take a lesson on how to deal with Air Indians!

The pilot made an announcement, " We are ready for landing. All passengers

please take your seats. " I thought that now these guys would take out their

spanners and screwdrivers and pry out the seats to carry with them.

Fortunately this did not happen.

We had already been served tasteless lunch between Mumbai and Sharjah. It

being still lunchtime between Sharjah and Cairo, we were served a second

installment of lunch. It was slightly tastier than its wrapping paper, which

got stuck at places, and had to be swallowed with the lunch.

There is one riddle about airlines that I have not been able to solve. If

the Volvo bus, which carries me from my home to the airport at snail's pace,

can afford to show me a new movie which is barely a couple of weeks old, why

can't airlines show even one movie which is less than a year old?

Cairo Airport is boon for quiz buffs. I shall ask you a simple question.

What is the name of Cairo International Airport? I bet you would never guess

in a million years that its name is Cairo International Airport! Yes! No

fancy Nassr or Anwar Sadat Airport here. Yes they have leaders, but they do

not go about in a frenzy naming things after Shivaji or Gandhi like us.

The first thing that struck us about Cairo was the evening chill. One

expects a desert to be hot, so the weather comes like an icy jab on your

spine. Blindfold anyone and put him in the center of Mumbai, Cairo or

Bangkok and ask him where he is, and 9 times out of ten he will say " Remove

my blindfold. " After removing the blindfold, he will be equally mystified

and could well say Kuala Lumpur. All major cities have started looking the

same. The same flyovers, the same cars and the same traffic jams.

After settling in our hotel, where they confiscated our passports without

giving us a receipt, we set out for an evening stroll. The first pyramid we

saw was an inverted food pyramid. Layers of meat are marinated and arranged

in an inverted pyramid in front of a vertical grill. The cooked outer layers

are cut off in vertical slices and served in bread or rotis along with sauce

and tomatoes. This is called Shwarma.

The crossing of streets in Cairo is not for the faint hearted. We first

tried the gentlemanly way. We waited for a gap in the traffic. There are no

gaps and the traffic, which consists entirely of large gas guzzling cars

(Petrol at Rs. 7 per litre) and no scooters, whizzes past at an average of

60 kmph. We then decided to cross the street, running with our hearts in our

mouth. However, luckily, some locals decided to cross over at this time. We

waited to observe them.

The locals did not look left or right, they just plunged into the street in

front of the cars and calmly sauntered along to the other side. It was the

cars that did the stopping. With dry mouths, we decided to emulate these

Egyptians. A tentative step on the street and lo behold, the car, which was

whizzing along a moment ago, came to a sudden lurching stop. Then we just

walked across.

Thus, there are no Pedestrian crossings or lights in Cairo. You just have to

be intrepid.

The Egyptian population belies your expectation. Just as you expect a desert

to be hot, and you are shocked by the cold wind, similarly, you expect

population of the desert to be thin and scrawny and you get a heavy shock!

The young children look like models of Baby food advertisements, who have

grown up and presumably have not been weaned off.

Being an Islamic country, Egyptian women cover their hair, elbows and knees.

However they leave their faces open. Seeing them, I remembered my

kindergarten poem, " Chubby cheeks, Rosy lips, etc " . The rest of the body

resembles a sack of potatoes. It's fortunate that it is covered. The curves

are positively mind blowing.

Thousands of years ago, sands covered the ancient civilizations. Our modern

archaeologists uncovered these old monuments and deciphered their language.

Thus we came to know about the Pharaohs and their riches. Thousands of years

hence, sands will cover our civilization. People will dig up our old

buildings and wonder who this bearded king of men is whose photo is painted

in all capitals of the world. They will say that he was a benevolent king

who had temples dedicated to him in nearly all cities of this world. His

benign, spectacled and bearded smiling face will make him a hallmark of our

civilization. Then someone will decipher the ancient language -English. And

they will find the name of the king is very small. In fact it consists of

just three letters. And scholars of the future will ponder on what the

initials KFC stand for.

Yes! Every street has a KFC and Pizza hut and a Mac's. So travellers

need never feel away from home. We drowsily returned to our hotel in

anticipation of meeting great old men, and maybe the Egyptian version of

KFCs.

(to be continued)

Kishore Shah

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