WAITING...

Really, our city doesn’t sleep… our international airport, particularly.

Yesterday, at 2 at night, I did not find place even to place my foot in the waiting area…

There were hundreds of them waiting out there, and waiting holding their breath!

Along with my wife, I was waiting for her brother to arrive from the US.

We were waiting…

Everyone was waiting for someone.

The people who came out through the entrance seemed millions in number! But, where is the one who they were waiting for?

Some screamed with uncontrollable emotions… hugged, kissed and again hugged;

And some jumped over the barricade just to tell the one who arrived: “Here, here I am!

I waited and waited long… My dear, you are worth all that waiting!”

A family of at least twelve had come there along with a wheelchair-bound grandma…

They too were waiting;

And lo! He came… a handsome teenager; probably, her grand son…

The first thing the young man did was to bend down to her feet…to the rest, it was hugs galore!

A Goan family was waiting with a placard… and the threesome, who made this family out here, waited poking fun at every one who came out… the Black, the White, and the Brown.

I knew Konkani… and, I didn’t tell them that I could understand the meaning of their crude jokes… It seemed, they were waiting for one Johnny… Till Johnny arrived, they had a ball out there… and when their Johnny came, he turned out to be the clown of their great circus… They hugged the way the clowns do!

A young couple came out with a little baby in their hands. The ones who waited for them seemed to be their parents… and when the moment came, the first thing they did was to hold the baby and take to it to their bosoms. The little one’s grand pa seemed moved… Tears said, “You mean the world to me!”

Scores of pilots, handsome... Scores of Air Hostesses, gorgeous… They all kept pouring out of the exit… No one waited for them… They just disappeared like a ship passing by the night… Only a small trolley they pulled… Only a routine grind… No hugs, no kisses… No wild screams.

The guards who were there minding the exit had a tough time… They had to be rough at times… they had to shout, even push back the ones who did not listen.

Who came and who waited… What difference did it make?

We were waiting… for our dear one to come…

Who cared who else came?

The driver of our vehicle too was waiting…

Who cared who was coming?

Back, in the US, it was day time… My Bror-in-law’s wife was waiting to hear if her dear one had landed safely out here…

He had... Past 2, last night!

GERALD D'CUNHA