December 15th, 2007
One bright morning, I suddenly got a call from my boss who said that it was time that we packed our bags and left to Sri Lanka. Reason: particpate in the ICAAP at Colombo. At first thought I was dreaming then pinched myself and knew it was real. Actually, never thought I will be part of the team that was proceeding to Lanka.
In the right earnest, I started preparing for the tour. Went to Pune, took some notes on the program. Assisted in designing the backdrop for the booth that we planned to put up at the event.
Design through, I took up the responsibility to have it printed. The design was to be printed on a flex. It was a small one tho, just 40 feet in length and 8.5 feet in height. A quiet small one. It took about 5 to 6 hours to print the banner. And I sat through the whole printing process. Then came a message from my boss. "Don’t fold it but just roll it". That was the begining of my problem.
Roll it, did I. But how do I take it to Colombo, without damaging it. Hit upon an idea and put up the rolled up flex banner into a pipe that was 4.5 inch diameter pipe. The pipe was 9 feet in length. I sealed a cap at one end and the other end I put a screw cap.
Once done, I packed my bags and was off from home. Got caught in the huge rush aka traffic jam. By the time I was at the Hyderabad Airport, it was just 20 minutes for the flight to move on to the tarmac. The kind guys first looked startled seeing such a big pipe but there wasn’t any time, and they let me off into the plane. Got down at Chennai and then somehow got into the Sri Lankan Airliner after getting a small nonsense gyan from a customs officer. (Never understood the customs logic till date… you can carry only Rs. 5000.00 out of the country, but then you can return with upto Rs. 25000.00. How is it possible? Can someone make me understand this?)
Come next morning, 6.00 am and I was in Colombo. Every thing was fine till I got out of the airport. The Hotel sent a car for a pick up into which I somehow managed to put the pipe into a slant position with one part protuding out of the car. And there I did my first mistake and decided it would be the last.
Out of the airport, all was fine when we passed through the first culvert. Then, there were screeching sounds of a siren and I noticed that three cars were about to pass by. I thought there must be some emergency that these cars are rushing towards. And all of a sudden, they started pushing our car towards the footpath. And the formation was one car front of us, one beside and one behind. Then there were three motorbikes with two soldiers on each one of them.
It looked like a scene from a movie happening right in front of me and little did I know I was the culprit for this. What happened next, I will never forget in my life. Once our car came to a total halt, all the soldiers from the bikes and in the cars jumped out and came towards us pointing their AK-47s or SLRs.
Believe me, if it was India, bullets would have pierced us and then they would have asked as to who we are. But thankfully, it wasnt India. The Sri Lankans shouted, "Stop, don’t move, hands up". Started counting the stars that were forming right in front of my eyes.
Regaining my calm, when I heard the soldier murmuring in the local language, I asked the Concierge to take over and speak. It was then that I was told that the soldiers were thinking that I was carrying a ROCKET LAUNCHER. Oops, that was when I realised that I should not have carried the pipe on my shoulders. I was told that the LTTE uses a similar colored device, dark grey pipe type launchers. I carried one end of the pipe on my shoulders, so that the pipe does not damage the car.
You should have been there to see the soldiers and my face. For once, this smiley cute devil became a sad distressed devil. The soldiers were not even ready to uncap or touch the pipe. Only on informing them that the contents were to be displayed at the exposition at ICAAP and that the President is the Chief Guest, we were let off. Little did I knew that attending ICAAP meant almost losing my cap (head). Was just wondering, what if one of the happy go lucky guys gun totting soldiers just pulled that trigger… oh my … oh my… dont wanna think of it again.
Once again, I am thankful to my friend above, I mean God, to ensure that that we were safe and most importantly this incident did not take place in India.
Wah re wah, Ravan ke Lanka mae bhi budhimaan log hai.
The above picture was taken, when I was returning, but this time I did not carry the so called Rocket Launcher. It was almost the same place that I was stopped when I entered Colombo.
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Mike reports from outside the Ondia TV in the Sony Channel
Time: 00:24hrs Date:16th December 2007
Prachi Jhalak wins her the coveted award. She beat her best adversaries like Jay and Sandhya. During the 13 episodes that went by, Jay had the dubious distinction to have danced with every celebrity judge and female guests on the show. Jay and Sandhya were in programme through out every episode without being eliminated, though they were in danger zones at one time or the other. Sandhya also had got the maximum 30 as the score atleast twice.
On the contrary, Prachi Desai was eliminated but then was brought back on public demand as a wild card entry. And today she walks away with the prize. Oui maaa…. "I want to thank God and Deepak", she said. Anyways, competition over, Congratulations Prachi.
K ka blessing hotha tho sab kuch hotha. Bolo k k ki jai.
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