Last evening, while having my dinner at a local mess, I had a few uninvited guests to my table. As these guys entered, they glanced over the place for a table to sit. Found my table, and came over to sit beside me. So I was literally pushed over to one corner of the table. While waiting for my onion rava to come, I was forced(!) to listen to these guys. One of them who seemed elder with a white shirt and a white pant was in his 50’s with the spectacles reaching the tip of his nose. The two other guy seemed to be rather young, probably in their late 20’s. Their dress looked very new and one had a vibhuthi (religious mark) on his forehead and was looking very timid and shy. The other one had a screw driver in his shirt pocket, probably a electrician.
The oldie opened his bag, and took out a Kumaran silks cover. He dragged two passports out of them and handed it over to each of them. A flight ticket which was folded by two was also sticking out of the passports. He gave it to them and started telling them as to how they need to behave in the airport. I assumed that they were just leaving abroad for employment. Looks like they were leaving to Malaysia or Singapore. Couldn’t get that from their talk. He also handed over a pair of documents and told them that it was their insurance cover for 1 lakh. He also bragged about how he recovered one lakh rupees for an guy who died in accident abroad and scared them that if they lost these documents, they had nothing to back them up.
All this was looking fine. But he continued to say that when the reach the destination airport, they need to go through immigration and show these docs. Once they are out of airport, they need to take an escalator, reach the lobby and need to meet a man who will be stout, short and big bellied, who will take them to the place of employment. He said ” Angittu oruthar gunda..kullama…nalla periya thondhiyoda varuvaar. Avaru Ungala pickup pannikinu kottinu povaru”. I couldn’t hear him telling the name of that fat man who will pick them up. This dude with the vibhuthi was already scared after hearing the formalities in a foreign nation. He was probably scared because he wasn’t able to talk any english. This last advice should have scared him totally.
My onion rava was done and I had ordered a strong filter coffee. While picking up my bike outside the mess, this scared guy came out and reached for the auto rickshaw standing nearby. His wife with a kid and probably his mother were waiting for him. He entered the auto with them and I vaguely heard him telling the autowala ” Neraa Airport Udunga” [Go Straight, to the airport].
On my way back, I was thinking about the guy, his scared look and his young baby in his wife’s hands. I seriously hope he reaches the place safely and more sincerely the big bellied, stout ‘n’ short guy reaches the airport on time.
kirukkal.com 
15 responses to “The Mess(y) Issue”
I tght married folks in India don’t eat in a mess!!!??
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I tght married folks in India don’t eat in a mess!!!??
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Pondatti Orukku PoyittaaaAAAAA….. 😉
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Pondatti Orukku PoyittaaaAAAAA….. 😉
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touching.
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“Pondatti Orukku PoyittaaaAAAAA….. ;-)”
That was the first thing that came to my mind after reading ur “veesugindra thendrale” post. Was almost expecting somebody to comment on those lines;)
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Sankalp, You got that right man. That was for that.
Thanks for that good guess. Someone finally got that out. I didn’t mention it because it might sound too personal on the blog.
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Lakshmipathy… No Baby Ensooy! Mudhalali, No Thangamani Ensoooy!
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Lazygeek, as others have said, this post was very revealing. I couldn’t help smiling.
BTW what you saw is supposed to happen routinely on the Madras-Singapore/Malaya routes. Dude must have been smuggling something in his insides. Unlikely it was for employment.
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And I sincerely hope Mr. Thondhi hasnt decided to go on a diet.
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I’m touched. I hope the poor guy makes it.
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Anand, exactly what I was shouting…
Ashok, What you said could happen, agree. But going by my mediocre judgemental skills, I feel it was a true case of flying for employment. The ignorance in the guy’s face, showed his curiosity and equally his timid atittude.
BTW, I again hopeit wasn’t what you said.
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Lazy you are quite naive :-). I tend to agree with ashok.
I went to s’pore recently – clearly there was a gumbal at the airport which seemed quite unemployable and was definitely not there to sightsee either.
so, therefore…….
I was surprised myself because after Manmohan Singh’s term as FM – I thought this “smuggling” of Yardley powder, Camay soap etc., Levis Jeans had come to an end and there was no need to sponsor such “parties”.
And the really serious stuff – the S’pore/M’asia cops will give them the death sentence so yes what are these people upto?
maybe they supply chewing gum to S’pore!
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this article in bbc just a few days ago…we also had one in the hindu a couple of months ago..abt recruitment agencies expoiting the poor by promising gud jobs abroad…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3618352.stm
i dont know abt spore/malaysia…but i think it happens a lot in the gulf…
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Tilo, Probably what you/ashok said could be true. Again that timid look on that guys face doesn’t show him as a smuggy. The way he took the kid to his hands, that showed that he is going to be away from the kid for a long time.
Capriciously Me, Got it. Agree that a lot of stuff happens in Mid east.
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