Finally, finished the darn site work! (…on the morning of 8/11). Just in the nick of time before the tenth anniversary of Anu & I running away from her village in Aizawl, Mizoram. Back in the office now, but there’re a ton of things waiting for me to catch up.
So, no new updates of our lives here, no new photos yet (you think I’d have time to download the tons of photos from our array of devices?!?) Only some old marriage photos taken at the Ipoh studio for our mini wedding in 2008. Enjoy!
Err… they’re pretty corny, aren’t they?
Our latest family pic – In front of The Palace, Downtown Dubai on Diwali, Oct 2016 - yeah, I pulled that off, even with having to wake up at friggin 4+am & coming home at 8pm, all tired, smelly & mighty sleepy after a hard day's work at site, I managed to bring the family out for a Diwali outing!
Thinking back, what we did in 2006 would have been impossible now. It was near impossible back then, especially when Anu had no phone with her, and no identification documents. I planned and booked everything in Delhi, without being able to discuss with her our plans of escaping from far-flung Mizoram. The last we spoke was on a Sunday, 5/11. She said that if I were to come and take her away, it should be soon, as her family had plans to marry her off the next week. For the next 3 days, I checked flight tickets and hotels and waited for her to call me. No luck. The hotels were filled to the brim. Airlines (there were only 2 flights per day to Aizawl back then) were filling up fast, (heard there was some government function on at that time). After 2 days of waiting, and seeing one flight fill up completely, I had no choice but to make my own plans. I bought flight tickets, for one person flying into Aizawl on Thursday, and for two flying out of Aizawl on Friday. Made some grand excuse to the boss on needing to take 3 days off (Thu, Fri & Sat, Saturday then was a working day for me), and off I went.
We were very lucky that Anu managed to call me from a pay phone on the day I flew from Delhi to Aizawl. I was mid-flight when she called (well almost, you think the phone will work up in the air?) I, being a nervous wreck and eagerly waiting for a call to come from Anu, had decided to completely ignore the flight rules of switching off the mobile for the day (heck, sometimes you have to do what you have to do). That day I had to take 2 flights, first from Delhi to Kolkata, and then from Kolkata to Aizawl (there’re no direct flights from Delhi to Aizawl, even now). No calls came when I was in Delhi, or Kolkata. The Kolkata to Aizawl flight took off as scheduled, but made a stopover which I hadn't expected, at Imphal, capital of neighbouring Manipur state, before proceeding to Aizawl. Luckily, just as the plane was landing at Imphal, the all-important call came from Anu! We discussed our escape plans for the next day there and then, inside the plane at Imphal Airport, in the midst of all the other passengers on board (couldn’t care much anymore). She said she had called many times earlier that day, but I was unreachable (I was in the flight, duh…), and she wanted to try one last time before heading home. This was the only time we spoke, before we did our disappearing act the next day!
So many things could’ve gone wrong and the plan would’ve failed. But, by the grace of God, we made it. It was not just luck. We wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without some divine help. It was a day where everything went right (well, almost), but not without the suspense. The hotels in Aizawl were full, so I had to get a friend to let me stay in his family’s house for a night, with no questions asked about my plans then. He agreed, bless him. The taxi driver whom I hired to go inside Anu’s village to wait for her, didn’t understand what he had to do (he was just told to park there and wait – Anu’s house isn’t accessible by car). He went around calling out for Anu, and later returned to the restaurant where I was waiting saying that he couldn’t find Anu, and whether we should leave for the airport without her!?! I sent him in again, fuming… (There I was, trying to hide, …Aizawl’s not a big place, and not exactly teeming with foreigners. My colleagues and I on some road project there, were just about the only foreigners around! And every other person knew us!) The second time, the taxi came back with Anu in tow!!! Anu had gone 10 minutes late to make sure that she didn’t have to stand around as it would have attracted the villagers’ curiosity, but because the taxi had left, she had to wait and talk her way out of the villagers that came by. Got news later that the taxi driver was hauled up by the police in the evening when Anu’s family realized that she had disappeared. (That wouldn’t have happened if he had followed instructions and kept his mouth shut, right?).
Another lucky thing was that airport security in that part of India was not that strict then. They would typically just check the lead passenger, and let the accompanying passengers in. Anu then had zero identification! Also, the flights to and from Aizawl were very much dependent on the weather (still is, I think). The first time I flew to Aizawl from Kolkata in 2005, we had to turn back to Kolkata after circling Aizawl for an hour. The pilots couldn’t see the friggin runway! (It’s on a mountain top, and if there’re fog or clouds, hard luck! Try again another day!) Once, Anu took five days and a couple of flights to get back to Aizawl from Kolkata! She and a group of passengers finally gave up on flying and got back to Aizawl using a shared car from Guwahati!
Thank you God for making this possible, for looking after us, for blessing us, for protecting us from harm, evil, and temptation, sicknesses, strive and deceit. Thank you for guiding us, and for everything you have done for us. I pray that you will continue to uphold our marriage, let it grow from strength to strength, till the end of time. Thank you God. Amen.
So, no new updates of our lives here, no new photos yet (you think I’d have time to download the tons of photos from our array of devices?!?) Only some old marriage photos taken at the Ipoh studio for our mini wedding in 2008. Enjoy!
Err… they’re pretty corny, aren’t they?
Our latest family pic – In front of The Palace, Downtown Dubai on Diwali, Oct 2016 - yeah, I pulled that off, even with having to wake up at friggin 4+am & coming home at 8pm, all tired, smelly & mighty sleepy after a hard day's work at site, I managed to bring the family out for a Diwali outing!
Thinking back, what we did in 2006 would have been impossible now. It was near impossible back then, especially when Anu had no phone with her, and no identification documents. I planned and booked everything in Delhi, without being able to discuss with her our plans of escaping from far-flung Mizoram. The last we spoke was on a Sunday, 5/11. She said that if I were to come and take her away, it should be soon, as her family had plans to marry her off the next week. For the next 3 days, I checked flight tickets and hotels and waited for her to call me. No luck. The hotels were filled to the brim. Airlines (there were only 2 flights per day to Aizawl back then) were filling up fast, (heard there was some government function on at that time). After 2 days of waiting, and seeing one flight fill up completely, I had no choice but to make my own plans. I bought flight tickets, for one person flying into Aizawl on Thursday, and for two flying out of Aizawl on Friday. Made some grand excuse to the boss on needing to take 3 days off (Thu, Fri & Sat, Saturday then was a working day for me), and off I went.
We were very lucky that Anu managed to call me from a pay phone on the day I flew from Delhi to Aizawl. I was mid-flight when she called (well almost, you think the phone will work up in the air?) I, being a nervous wreck and eagerly waiting for a call to come from Anu, had decided to completely ignore the flight rules of switching off the mobile for the day (heck, sometimes you have to do what you have to do). That day I had to take 2 flights, first from Delhi to Kolkata, and then from Kolkata to Aizawl (there’re no direct flights from Delhi to Aizawl, even now). No calls came when I was in Delhi, or Kolkata. The Kolkata to Aizawl flight took off as scheduled, but made a stopover which I hadn't expected, at Imphal, capital of neighbouring Manipur state, before proceeding to Aizawl. Luckily, just as the plane was landing at Imphal, the all-important call came from Anu! We discussed our escape plans for the next day there and then, inside the plane at Imphal Airport, in the midst of all the other passengers on board (couldn’t care much anymore). She said she had called many times earlier that day, but I was unreachable (I was in the flight, duh…), and she wanted to try one last time before heading home. This was the only time we spoke, before we did our disappearing act the next day!
So many things could’ve gone wrong and the plan would’ve failed. But, by the grace of God, we made it. It was not just luck. We wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without some divine help. It was a day where everything went right (well, almost), but not without the suspense. The hotels in Aizawl were full, so I had to get a friend to let me stay in his family’s house for a night, with no questions asked about my plans then. He agreed, bless him. The taxi driver whom I hired to go inside Anu’s village to wait for her, didn’t understand what he had to do (he was just told to park there and wait – Anu’s house isn’t accessible by car). He went around calling out for Anu, and later returned to the restaurant where I was waiting saying that he couldn’t find Anu, and whether we should leave for the airport without her!?! I sent him in again, fuming… (There I was, trying to hide, …Aizawl’s not a big place, and not exactly teeming with foreigners. My colleagues and I on some road project there, were just about the only foreigners around! And every other person knew us!) The second time, the taxi came back with Anu in tow!!! Anu had gone 10 minutes late to make sure that she didn’t have to stand around as it would have attracted the villagers’ curiosity, but because the taxi had left, she had to wait and talk her way out of the villagers that came by. Got news later that the taxi driver was hauled up by the police in the evening when Anu’s family realized that she had disappeared. (That wouldn’t have happened if he had followed instructions and kept his mouth shut, right?).
Another lucky thing was that airport security in that part of India was not that strict then. They would typically just check the lead passenger, and let the accompanying passengers in. Anu then had zero identification! Also, the flights to and from Aizawl were very much dependent on the weather (still is, I think). The first time I flew to Aizawl from Kolkata in 2005, we had to turn back to Kolkata after circling Aizawl for an hour. The pilots couldn’t see the friggin runway! (It’s on a mountain top, and if there’re fog or clouds, hard luck! Try again another day!) Once, Anu took five days and a couple of flights to get back to Aizawl from Kolkata! She and a group of passengers finally gave up on flying and got back to Aizawl using a shared car from Guwahati!
Thank you God for making this possible, for looking after us, for blessing us, for protecting us from harm, evil, and temptation, sicknesses, strive and deceit. Thank you for guiding us, and for everything you have done for us. I pray that you will continue to uphold our marriage, let it grow from strength to strength, till the end of time. Thank you God. Amen.
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