There is always an interesting twist to my first visits to a country: a dash of silliness, a hint of eeriness, and just enough confusion to make the trip a little more interesting, and certainly more memorable.
It all began with my first trip abroad to the US, almost 17 years back. The fascinating turn of events during the maiden journey - from the initial transgressions at the Mumbai airport [First time at international airport.html], the encounter with two Vs between Mumbai and San Francisco [Of water served with lime twist], the check-in confusion at San Francisco Airport on my way to New York, the adventure of the 'missing bag' between San Francisco and Newark, and finally the non-existent hotel booking in New York [Of Ps and Qs], courtesy some wonderful assumptions and funny coincidences – brings a big smile on my face even today. Boy it was exhilarating!
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This time I was Northward bound, to the land of maple leaves. It was also my first international business trip in a while, so naturally some twists were always on the cards.
The scheduling intricacies
The trip was initially expected to be in September, right after Ganesh Festival. After preparing for almost two months, guess what nixed the plan? Sudden appearance of some holidays in the calendar! No, I am not joking, and they couldn't think about it when we started planning way back in June. Next, I carefully tucked my two weeks of fame right in between Dusshera and Diwali, which again got pushed - this time, the hosts abruptly remembered they celebrated something called Thanksgiving in October. This revelation, notably, occurred only after I asked. Finally, since December would have been embarrassingly late for both the parties - after all, we were planning for so long - and too close to yet another holiday season for them - November had to win by default! Boy oh boy, was I getting enough hints for the interesting times ahead? If patience was a virtue, I was getting tested to my wits' end to win the accolades.
The weather conundrum
While we were discussing the travel itinerary and meeting agenda in the three locations in Canada, there was always an incoming advice on the different weather conditions in the different time zones I was bound to experience. Vancouver, followed by Montreal, and then Toronto - it was a good potpourri of what Canadian weather had to offer. Someone subtly, and very jokingly, mentioned 'snow' during one of those light-hearted conversations, but we brushed it off as a low probability event - the disclaimer always being it starts only in November end. Honestly, after spending over a decade in Namma Bengaluru, even traveling to a place with low single-digit temperatures needed some planning - more so because the market was getting ready for the Diwali shopping, not for Winter shopping. Mention of snow at that point was a little too ambitious. And with all kinds of superstitions associated with my previous international travels, all this was happening without the knowledge of my shopping partner who had to play an important role in the preparation.
Taking into account multiple quotients associated with the warm clothes shopping - utility, shouldn't be too warm or too thin; availability, in Bengaluru at that time of the year (no time left for online haggling), reusability, when and whether I will reuse it; affordability (well, of course); brand and probability (of adverse weather events) - we finally settled down with something which will be ok to carry me in low single digit temperatures, slightly wet surroundings, a good mix of semi-formal / formal / casual, and can be used once in a while in early morning / late night Bengaluru weather!
Business luxuries
 Image Courtesy: Of course, CHATGPT!!😊 |
Any other day, the environment and cost conscious, humble "me" would have lightly kicked myself for this. But there comes a time when you decide not to push back for a change. The long distance journey, and a certain designation in the organization, made me eligible for a Business Class travel. Did I have an option of saying no? Of course, yes. Did I exercise the option? No! Not this time.
Carbon footprint can be looked into later on - I will walk to the groceries' throughout next one year. Humility can wait for a while - sorry NRN and Mr. Tata. Purse strings can be managed in different ways - so what if all of them were Five Star stays. This time, I had to loosen up a little bit.
Was it worth it? A resounding yes, for reasons more than one!
Well, I tried a little, to change the class for the Bengaluru to New Delhi leg of the journey - the company policy blocked me from partially changing the class of one part of the journey. The hotels I booked were all a walking distance from the office, hence a lot of money on local transport saved.
See, there was an honest attempt made ... not completely guilty! 😇😇😇
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