Travel Guides

I need a goddamn break!

Now this incident might startle those who have not experienced high pressure at work. But for those, who have, it might be something which they had always wanted to do, but feared the inevitable. It was a Friday evening. I was shuffling through my emails. One of my colleagues dropped in to tell me the boss wanted to see me right away. I took off from my cabin to see him. The webpage open in my workstation was on vacation travel packages and a simultaneous search for hotels. It had been a long year, and I had not taken a break for quite some time now. I moved into my boss’s cabin. He offered me a smile and a seat. I took it with the nervousness of what was to come. Smiles from bosses mean 2 things. Either they were delighted with you performance, which meant, you being assigned to lead a project, which inversely mean more burden and goodbyes to those proposed vacation plans. The other meaning of the smile was sarcasm. It was like this calm before the storm. Start with a smile, and make it a howler, leaving you mentally disturbed.

As I kept calculating the possibility of each of these meanings for the wry smile I had received, my boss spoke, ‘Um. We need you to work on some of these core files. They need a re-assessment. Please add this to your work.’ I smiled back. Probably a faint way of saying ‘No Thanks. I have other plans.’ It did not take me more than a couple of seconds to walk out of the cabin. I moved into my cubicle to see that the system network had hung, which meant I had to wait for a good hour, till it returned. At this moment, I yelled my heart out ‘I need a goddamn break!!!’

Flying for the first time

This blog might sound as childish as it is titled. But, it was something I had to write about. My first flight. I hail from a middle class background, and flights in India are not particularly a necessity. People do with trains as well. Though they take much more time than flights, but cost less than half the price of a flight ticket.

Hence, when I got into a law school, far away from home, it was almost certain I would fly at least one in my 5 years, in the process, of shuttling between home and law school. ‘The prices of flight tickets are pretty high.’ Dad exclaimed on looking at a website, where online booking was possible for flights. ‘It’s ok dad. I will use the train. No hurry to get to college.’ In India, there was nothing called ‘ cheap airline tickets ’. It was either a costly one, or a less-costly one! At least, this was the situation with the upper middle class. Months went by, and life moved on. I was back at home for another vacation. Internships and projects followed, which I promptly completed at home. So came another time to book tickets. I hadn’t been keeping track of flights for a while. All I knew was that there was a major slash of taxes on flight companies. As my dad sat down to book for my train, I spoke, ‘Can you check the flight fares? I think they have dropped.’ Dad typed out the website address he had checked a few months ago. His eyes nearly popped out. Flights had indeed become cheap, and I mean really ‘cheap’. They quoted only a few hundreds more than the usual train fare I was charged. Dad booked the flight without a second thought. It may the first of many flights; I would take, to come. But the first one will always be special to me!

Alright, you can fly this once!

Passing out of school can be tough in many ways. First of all, you make a big step by parting with your friends. Then, there are tedious competitive exams. In my case, it happened to be giving the law entrance exams. Now, there were hardly any premier law schools in around my city. Now, by in and around, I mean within a reach of 500 kilometers. But hey, what the heck! My parents were willing to send me any distance away to get the best education. Hence, I attempted the exams after all those nights of pouring over books, study materials and guides. Finally, when the D day came, it came to me as a shock that I was going to shipped off to a place a couple of thousand kilometers away.
After all the hugs and kisses, I was finally off with dad to my new abode for the next 5 years. The train journey can get on your nerves, as it takes a little over 40 hours to reach this city from my hometown. As we got off, all I needed was a nice comfortable bed to hit into and all the time in the world.
Later that day, after completing all the formalities and procedures for enrolling in the course, we checked into our hotel rooms , squeezed out of every ounce of energy from our body. What more , to add to the woes of the day, was a sarcastically delightful news that our return tickets were at disarray. The ticket was listed waiting, and it looked pretty certain, not to make way. My dad logged on to the internet from his laptop, thought over it for a second. Flights were an expensive affair for us. He finished tapping the keypad, shut the screen, turned to me, smiled and said, ‘Alright! You can fly this once!’

Looking Forward

It takes a lot of grit and determination to stay on top’ , my university’s vice-chancellor went off as usual on one of his lectures. It was one of those supposedly ‘inspire’ sessions, where the man on the dais made you feel all good about life and tried to instill that competitive spirit in you. Yawn! I had seen many at schools, and it did not get any better here. My mind was preoccupied with the forthcoming vacations. It was going to be my first vacation on Cruises. Moreover, I couldn’t even clearly remember the last time I was on vacation. All I remember about my last vacation which seemed half a decade ago was a screw up by the vacation company on the hotel reservation, and we, being put up in a single room, with 4 of us sharing 1 bed! However, those were ghosts of the past now, and I really looked forward to facing the serene sea and relaxing my senses out. ‘Have an enjoyable holidays’, our VC saw us off with these words. Most of us were heading homes. Others, directly towards their vacation spots. I bid adieu to my friends and foes (keep your friends close and enemies closer!) It was an eight hour journey home, through train. On reaching home, it struck me again. I missed hostel and college now!. It always happens and I am yet to figure out why. When you really look forward to something and long and yearn for it, and when that moment of truth finally arrives, you just don’t seem all that interested. The Cruise was a couple of days away. Hence, I had time to unwind at home. ‘This will be fun!’ I reassured to myself, and dragged my bag along into my home, being received with warmth from my parents.

Who says that cheap car rentals are no longer available?

It has been along time since I went abroad on office work. For a long time it felt as if my boss no longer had any confidence in me. Till a year or so back, I was the primary person who was chosen by the boss to travel abroad to attend meetings with our overseas partners and also to discuss business with our overseas clients. Now my boss has summoned me again after a gap of nearly 14 months to ago abroad again. Will I be able to get cheap rental cars nowadays? My work entails traveling over long distances both within and outside the city during official tours. Hiring a cab for such purposes would be overkill. This is why my boss always suggested that I should rent a car.

I have some doubts whether cheap car rentals would be available this time around or not. The economic crisis has affected the entire globe and the costs of essential items had gone up like anything. There is no doubt in my mind that the costs of renting cars have gone up too. There is no way that they could have been spared from the global economic outburst. But I soon laid my fears to rest. A phone call confirmed that there are still many organizations that offer cars for hire at cheap rates. The costs of renting might have gone up marginally, but so have the fares of cabs. Proportionately I would still end up the winner as on my previous overseas tours.

Look around and find countless cheap vacation packages