send-offs

we are familiar with parting scenes in poems, stories, movies and all that. the depiction of a send-off is of course flooded with the all-absorbing emotions, as if that is the only thing occupying the minds of the persons being sent off and the persons sending off.

in reality, when kk stood in the LA airport beside us, flipping through the stuff in his waist pouch- passport, i20, airtickets and so on , -careful and focused, i realized there was little room for sentimental thoughts. whether it is a feature of modern life, or of real life itself, sending-offs are very much less romanticised than what we know them as. endless things to pack and time constraints on packing bring tremendous stress to the traveller. therefore lack of sleep. therefore more stress due to fear of missing anything important to traveling. travel has become such a hassel, with the heightened security checks in response to more terrorist attacks. those who are sending the traveller off also become nervous, and spend most of the time worrying about reminding the traveller about things to bring, about catching that flight, or just worrying. packing, driving, send-off lunch, send-off dinner, getting to the airport, queuing to check in that luggage, queuing to swap ticket for pass, queuing for security check. by the time everything is done, it's already one hour from boarding. so everyone sits down, heaving a sigh of relief. and then silence and occasional jokes to break the silence. and a brief good-bye. and off he or she goes. at this moment yesterday i was thinking maybe after all, it was better to have that hassle than not to have it. or the combination of heavy hearts and the long hours might have killed us all.