The Night In Rome

  Rome is the city packed with history, and was standing on that soil ... God it was unbelievable.  My head was spinning, not from the thought of being in a historical place, but due to lack of sleep.  The bitter cold was doing no good.  As we entered the airport building, wanted to get all done in a jiffy.  I was looking forward to go to the hotel for a good night sleep.  Oh!  The thought of a soft bed was so alluring.  Mom shepherded us to the line for the customs and all the formalities. Fate had something in plan for us, as my mom struggled to explain to the customs official but none of them spoke English.  She signaled them with her hand explaining in staggered sounds, that we had a visa to stay a night in the city and then catch a flight the next day.  The officials did not comprehend her.  I was under the impression that once we leave India, everyone speaks English especially in Europe, but now I saw how wrong I was.  After hours of struggling with sign language, an official appeared who seemed to say a few words in English, and we finally made it through.  We were boarded on a bus to take us to the hotel.

  ROME.....the city with its awesome statues and architectures.....in the night light all these colossal figures seemed to have taken a new life of their own.  I looked out of the bus window with my mouth hanging, till it could not hang any more.  Every bit of the passing scenes was getting encoded in my memory.  I felt a strange kind of chill thinking of the ancient people building and carving these magnificent pieces of art.  My ma leaned in and whispered that I was lucky, as there were no flies around here, as by now I would have had some nestled in my tummy.  I looked at her and pulled my mouth shut.

  By the time the bus dropped us at the hotel it was almost midnight.  My little sister was fast asleep in ma's lap. We looked at the hotel in front of us, it had huge glass door with no door knobs on them.  In India usually when the doors are closed at night of a hotel, then it means it is closed for business.  My ma informed me at the verge of tears that, we will have to spend the whole night on the sidewalks in this new city.  I looked dumb found at mom then at the hotel.  Then all of a sudden I saw someone inside the hotel and I shrieked with joy.  I gallantly announced that, I will bang on the door and then they will let us in, as we have reservations.  With determination I walked to it and as I was about a yard in front of the door, it slid open with a "whoose".  I jumped out of my skin and ran to my mom.  She stared at me as if am I missed the greatest opportunity. She furiously told me that I should have held on to it, so we could have got in.  At that very moment there was another "whoose" sound.  We looked and saw a lady walk to the door and it opened and she went in and the door closed.  That was the introduction to automatic doors for us.  We entered the hotel looking a little peeved, lucky for us there was none of the people we knew around.  

  The next morning, when we reached to the airport to take a flight to New York, I realized that ma had been avoiding all the escalators since we started our travel.  When I asked her she sweetly smiled and said that her saree gets caught in it.  I looked suspiciously at her, and asked if she was scared of it, she just blushed and then we boarded the flight to Caracas.  We boarded the flight with bold writing of Royal Dutch Airline written on it...ready to fly into the new world....