Clooneybhai in Transit.....

2/27TH DECEMBER
It's a tight race to pick up our bags, eat and get to the bus station, we arrive to find the bus is late. I talk the the nice gentleman who helped with my bags, he asks about the Lend-a-hand-India T-shirt I'm wearing, so I tell him about the project. He says in his day it was part of the school system to do some kind of 'Community ' service every week, but these days the children don't do it emphasis has been put on academic studies instead. I explain that one of the major components of the Vignan Ashram IBT training is to work on community projects, taking their newly aquired knowledge into the villages and putting their skill to practical use. The graduates are well positioned to seek employment in different fields.
The coach arrives, this is a first for me! a sleeping coach! As we climb cautiously on there's a slightly cheesy smell, but 12 neatly arranged bunk beds with curtains drawn in private cubicles, clean sheets and blankets, a bottle of water and a reading lamp! I feel like a school kid climbing into the bunk and whispering across the aisle to Corinne. Although it's a bumpy ride, amazingly I do have some dream-filled sleep as we roar through the night arriving in Mumbai at 6am in time for our Trivandrum flight.
THe 'Jet' airways domestic terminal is strangely slick and air-conditioned to sub zero temperatures, chai costs 25 Rupees instead of 5, but News is complimentary care of local newspapers and TV networks. There on the front page I notice it..."Clooney wants Munnabai too" ... the Hollywood superstar has expressed a desire to watch the Sanjay Dutt starrer' ..... Yes Clooney seems interested in the film and director Rajkumar Hirani is already working on a sequel, Munnabhai Goes To America!! WOW!! and as icing on the cake, some scenes from Lage Raho Munnabhai suddenly flash across the TV screen above our heads. I ask the young girl next to me about it, she says it is becoming the most popular film in India! She says some doctors had staged a ' Gandhigiri' style protest, with flowers and 'get well' cards in true Munnabhai style.