travelling

I do not really have any substantial excuse for why I did not write this post earlier. But today since I am in my part-time writer mode again, I decided to do it soon. One never knows when I turn back to my non-writing lazy persona , lolz😂😂😂.

So the next morning I woke up early at around 6 am , wanted to cherish and enjoy the English morning and watch Brit shows for a while. Did I tell you , that I started writing the prequel to this post while sitting on the bed thinking about the journey. Nope. As most of you know , yours truly was not able to finish her job and had to rush towards the airport.

Image result for girl thanking gif — source:giphy

I packed my hand rucksack , booked a cab ( well the people in Mariott did that for me 😁😁) and reached Heathrow again.

Here’s what you should know the London black cabs are more expensive than other cabs.

Back to airport , since both of my check-in baggages were already moved I just had to go through security, whiiiichhh ….. was not a piece of cake. Common it’s Heathrow I am talking about guys , one of the busiest airports of the world. They had strict restrictions against bottles more than 100ml , deodorants and other stuff ( threw my deodorants 😢😢). I had a different experience while boarding the flight this time because 90% of the passengers were American and British and only few Indians or Asians. The feeling of going far away from home had slowly started to seep in. My co-passenger was a very kind American , who offered to help me anytime I needed him , while being here in the US.

It was a long 8.5 hours flight and as soon as the flight landed , we all moved through the immigration area. This was my third time during the journey , so I knew which documents to pull out and not to feel very nervous. Point -to-be-noted “not very nervous” I was still N.E.R.V.O.U.S. , who would not be standing in front of the Border and Homeland Security. Well, I went through it eventually. The officer was very polite, he asked me the purpose of visit, checked my I-20, VISA and I was asked to move forward. The baggage collection centre was completely thronged with passengers. I was one of the last passengers to get my bags , so imagine this girl who is on her first international trip to US and her bags take almost 20 minutes to come down. I would panic if it would be a few more minutes late, already having taken a round of the baggage collection belt 😂😂😂😂.

The best part though is about to begin , as soon as I start moving with my bags one of cops stopped me and asked me to follow him. I do that and once we are in his office, he informed me that he would check my bags . I was fine with that ….externally, had to maintain the calm facade . Unfortunately I had an uneaten apple from Heathrow and he picked on that, cops and their way of suspection. After he was done I started walking in search of terminal I ,my flight was scheduled there. My baggages were already taken care of land crew members , but I could not find a way to go to the terminal. There were these stairs people were walking through downwards and found that the terminals were all connected through subways . Once in the proper terminal, I moved around for a bit and then started dozing .

The long journey did take a toll on me. For the next few hours I kept myself awake through coffee, but once I was aboard the flight to Arkansas, sleep took over.

Image result for sleepy girl gif — source:K.I.D.

I do not remember anything about the journey, besides it was late at night by the time we reached XNA.

This is where my journey ended , but literally it just began.

NOTE: For those of you , who has not read my previous post on this topic, the link is https://meloheartsite.wordpress.com/2019/08/24/delhi-to-heathrow-london-a-first-timers-experience/ .

Life so far is doing good for me and I hope all of you are well.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I don’t know how often I travel

Exploring some secrets left behind to unravel,

May be a hidden necklace or a priest’s stake-

Comparable to the knife I used to cut my cake.

Travelling for me is an adventure,

Fun and frolic gets when passed through a joint venture.

This much for a limerick. Travelling is something which I suppose most of us enjoy except for those who are sick, the sickness may range from homesick, cant the TV soap sick, lazy sick to real sickness. One thing that I can say for myself is I love travelling to wherever it might be anywhere in the world, just include a few medicines for me if the temperature is unbearable.

In India the commons mostly travel by train, thanks to the services of the Indian Railways people most of the time carry their own food, which is often puri sabji for a North Indian. Now may be thinking why am I discussing food out here instead of simply concluding after finishing the limerick, I must remind you of my promise I told you this month my posts will be based on Indian food items. Today I’m going to talk, rather discuss about this item called Puri and its importance in India’s culture.

It history is unknown. So I’ll directly start with the ingredients which are flour, water, salt and oil or ghee. A dough is prepared using the flour(maida), salt and water; little balls are prepared from that ,then the balls are rolled out and cut into small circles. These are deep fried in oil or ghee. Some of them may include cumin seeds in the dough, another variety of puri is bhatoora which is much larger in size than the puri and is prepared from a different flour. The puri used in pani puri is much crispier. Puri is often accompanied with a potato curry, sometimes it may be chola otherwise a simple curry. It can also be served with desserts like Halwa, Kheer, Suji etc.

Puri is occasionally served during pujas, marriage or any other special occasion, including travelling. Because of its crispy nature it remains intact for a long time and can be eaten even after a day of its preparation.