From Benaras to Mexico: A Journey for a Lifetime

Mexico: A journey for life

    Hello Friends, or as it's said in Spanish, Hola Amigos! A deep-hearted thanks to all my readers for the love and support to my blog. It's a huge motivation for me to create more interesting and informative content.

    Today let me take you back in time in the year 2009, when I got the opportunity to visit and stay in Mexico City, and also got to visit many places in Europe. It surely was the most eventful year of my life, since, to top it all, it was also the year I got married.

    So, my story begins at Amity University, Noida where I was studying for M.Tech. (Nanotechnology), and the course curriculum comprised of a dissertation/internship during the final semester. Everybody in my class attempted to acquire the dissertation at different places. I, too tried for the same at numerous places, and luckily, I got a call from the renowned institution called Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN (abbreviated as CINVESTAV) in Mexico City, Mexico. I completed all the required formalities for going there. I was quite excited about going there for my dissertation, albeit some of my friends goading me to try elsewhere, like somewhere in Europe or US. But, I was happy with what I had, and was looking forward to it.

    Soon, I got the ticket, visa and other documents related to my journey, and the night arrived when I had to leave for Mexico from New Delhi airport. My flight was of Lufthansa and it had a transit layover at Frankfurt, Germany. The long journey of around 20 hours (24 hours including the layover at Frankfurt) should have been boring, but for me it was exciting, as it was my first international travel (also, my first air travel).

    At last, I reached the Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez (Benito Juarez International Airport) at 8 pm evening. My super senior from Amity University, Mr. Prateek Madhyan, was waiting for me at the airport. I greeted him warmly and we went to the place where I was going to stay. My classmate, Manjesh Jaiswal, was waiting for me at the home. It was located at the educational neighbourhood of the city, Zacatenco on a street called Pisagua. My institute, CINVESTAV was merely 2-minute walk from there. Prateek was doing his PhD from there, while Manjesh was also for dissertation, same as me.

    The house where we were staying was a huge one, with separate accommodation for many students and scholars who were staying there. It belonged to an old lady, whose family comprising of her son and daughters (who were also of decent age themselves), also lived with her. On contrary to the common perception of people experiencing jetlag after international travel, I was fortunate that I did not feel even the slightest of jetlag.

    The next day, I went to CINVESTAV for my joining. I met Mr. Velumani Subramaniam, the Head of International Relations and his secretary, Emmanuel Martinez and Angelica who were quite warm and cordial towards me. Then, I went to my department Coordinación General de Servicios de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (CGSTIC), where I met the Director, Prof. Mariano Gamboa Zuniga, my project guide Dr. Antonio Osorio Cordero, my fellow colleague, Mr. Ricardo Velasquez and others.

    Soon, I got acquainted with the rest of the housemates. There were some more Indians residing there along with some local residents. Also, one of my seniors from Amity University, Noida, Divyanshi Srivastava, lived nearby with another fellow Indian, Ananya Bhojan. As I got familiar with all of them, my fun time at Mexico City began. In a very short time, I made friends with the Mexican residents, and soon, we had a big gang comprising of Indians as well as Mexicans. It was a great time of my life, and I found happiness in the slightest and smallest things of life. The tea-time at Divyanshi's place every weekend, going for bulk shopping at the supermarket Mega, myself re-enacting funny scenes of Kauwa Biryani from the movie Run, buying chocolates from the nearby grocery store and giving it to everybody I met at CINVESTAV, calling the Mexican people Jhingur (cricket), just for fun (however, it wasn't cool, now that I think of it), and many more. We used to play Air Football, playing cards in the night at weekends, drinking soft drinks at night, going to local 24x7 shop OXXO late in the night to buy soft drinks without any fear.

    During my entire stay, many funny and anecdotal incidents occurred, which still remain etched in my memory. Let me share some of them with all of you.

    Few days after I reached there, all of us had a party at an Indian restaurant called Dawat situated in Polanco which was the commercial district of Mexico City. It was a fun experience. We then went to the capital area of the city called Zocalo, where we took many photographs, some of which I am sharing in this post.

CINVESTAV

Air Football on Weekends

Dawat Restaurant in Mexico City

Party time at Dawat Restaurant

Tall Skyscraper at Polanco

My visit to Europe

    Soon after reaching Mexico City, I started looking for PhD opportunities around the world, and one of the favourite places I was trying for was Europe. There was a long holiday approaching in the form of Easter, and I was looking forward to using it to my benefit. I planned to visit some parts of Europe during that period. But unfortunately, there was a huge glitch in my plan. At that time, coincidentally, there was a huge server problem going on back in India, due to which all the debit cards had stopped working for many days. I needed money for tickets, visa and other travel expenses, but unfortunately, there was no way of withdrawing money from my account, and my stipend was due for many days. So, I got in a dilemma, since the opportunity to go to Europe was only during the Easter holidays, and I did not have enough money at that time. Also, I had to get a no-objection certificate from my institution for my visa application. I had expected a series of hardships in getting that, as well as I had to manage the money. But both my problems were solved at the same instant. When I asked my guide, Dr. Osorio for giving no-objection certificate, he asked me to prepare it myself and get it signed from him. After that, I went to see the director, Prof. Gamboa to let him know that I have to go to Europe during the Easter Holidays. He wished me Happy Journey, and asked if all my arrangement are up to date. I told him that I am short of money for my travel expenses. Quite strangely, he asked me how much money I needed. I said I require around 12000 Mexican Pesos for the ticket. He immediately called his Secretary, Patricia Castillo, and asked her to get my ticket booked via her credit card. And to my surprise, she got it done in next 5 minutes.

Pic with my fellow passengers: On my way to France

Fun at Disneyland

Me at Parc Disneyland

    Then, I had to get the visa for which I borrowed more money from Prateek. Soon, I was flying to Madrid, Spain on an Iberia flight, from where I had a connecting flight to Paris, France. In Paris, I visited the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, the Disneyland and many local places. In Madrid, I saw the Plaza Mayor, Parque del Buen Retiro, and had the experience of traversing the neat labyrinth of streets and alleyways of Madrid on foot. It was a journey of a lifetime, and one part of the adventure was that almost all the expenses of the trip was from borrowed money. I even had to borrow money from my super senior in France. But, I had no worries. The trip ended after 8 days and I returned to Mexico City with gifts for my friends and office colleagues. The trip was fruitful, since based on the talks in the universities, I got a PhD opportunity in France. Unfortunately, it did not come to fruition in the end, but I learnt a lot, and had a great experience to cherish for my lifetime. Of course, later I returned all the borrowed money to the lenders, even my super senior in France, during my return journey to India.

Memorable visit to Louvre

The Eiffel Tower: What a sight!

A funny prank:

I would like to describe a particular funny prank which we played on one of my classmates from Amity University, who had gone to England for his internship. When he got the call for dissertation from England, and we got from Mexico, he was elated that he was going to England. After we reached our destinations, we used to video chat with one another through Google Talk (nostalgic, Huh!). Soon, my gang was formed, and we used to hang out in large groups at various places We went to Zocalo, Parque Lindavista mall, shopping in Julio, watching movies in multiplex, etc. I and Manjesh used to go to ISKCON Temple in San Miguel Chapultepec, which felt so good. 

Fun Time at Zocalo

Visit to ISKCON Temple

I used to post pictures on Orkut (another primitive thing) of our outdoor visits. He saw the pictures, in which there were many Mexican girls as well. While on video chat, he said that we were so fortunate that we were having so much fun, while he was lonely in England, with no friends to hang out with. Then, he asked about a particular girl in the picture. Her name was Analise Mejia, and he was quite interested in getting to know her. He asked for any contact of her. I was about to tell her name to him, but suddenly, Prateek suggested that we play a small prank on him. He wrote down that her name was Angela, and she would be happy to know his acquaintance. In reality, Angela was the daughter of our landlady, and her age was around 45-50 years. I was hesitant in going through with the plan, but the prank sounded a lot of fun, and so we stuck to it. We gave him the email address of Angela and told her that she could mail her. In those days, sending emails was a quite common thing, unlike today. Soon, he began having long conversations with Angela, having the mental image of Analise, but actually talking to Angela. This went on for many days, and his loneliness became a thing of the past. He was quite happy having those sweet conversations with Angela. One day, during a video chat, he told us how he was having a good time talking to Angela. I felt guilty for playing the prank on him and told him everything. Initially, he got a little angry on me, and said, "Vipin, I can expect this from Manjesh or Prateek, but I did not expect you to do such a thing." I was filled with remorse and apologized for my mistake. Later, he said that whatever be the reason, the time he spent talking to Angela, were one of the best he had. So, in the end, it was all good.

Snapshot with a Hummer

My birthday celebration

A night of despair

There was another funny incident which I would like to share. Prateek was in the Department of Biotechnology, and as the name suggests, his department had lots of girls, but only two men. Later, even the other guy also left, and he was the lone man among numerous girls. So, of course, his emotions ran high, and hormones went boiling. He used to throw parties at our house, in which he invited most of the girls from his lab. We did not mind, since we got to eat delicious food, all prepared by Prateek. And oh boy, could he cook? We had a great time, eating yummy food, dancing to music, and having a blast. Many housemates also used to join the party, and Prateek never complained, instead, he encouraged.

    One such party evening, many boys and girls came to our house, and we had a great time, dancing to music, and eating good food. As the party came to an end, people began to return to their homes one by one. Soon, most of the people were gone, and only me, Manjesh and Prateek remained, along with two girls, Angelina and Syriana. Actually, Syriana was not feeling well, and Angelina stayed to tend to her. Soon, Angelina started feeling getting late, and had to go back home. So, Syriana stayed back in the night. Naturally, something fishy began to come to Prateek's mind, which I also started to sense. He tried to make her feel well, but not too well, since that would cause her going back home. I and Manjesh were chilling out on the terrace, since the weather was awesome. Soon, it was late in the night, and we decided to turn in. Manjesh told me that Prateek has instructed us to stay upstairs for the night. I had no plan of doing so, since I knew better. I knew that if we stayed upstairs for the night, and let Prateek attempt to fulfil his fantasies, it could be dangerous for him, since we were in a foreign land, and any excessive mingling with the locals could be dangerous. So, I took Manjesh with me, and returned to our room. Prateek opened the door and said annoyingly to Manjesh what were we doing there. He reminded that we had to sleep upstairs tonight, as per his instructions. I said that we will sleep in our room, no matter what. Of course, he could not argue much with me, in front of Syriana. So, the sleeping arrangements had to be reconsidered. What happened finally was that I and Manjesh slept in our beds, Syriana slept in Prateek's bed, and Prateek slept on the couch. It was a funny turnaround to Prateek's fantasies, since despite attempting a casting couch, he was the one who ended on the couch. The night ended without any disturbance (although I guess there was a lot of disturbance in Prateek's mind!), and Syriana returned home in the morning. It may sound cruel to Prateek, but it was to our benefit in the long run, which got proved in another event, much later.

Some more funny incidents:

Let me narrate some more funny incidents to you. One time, I and Manjesh along with some of our Mexican friends were hanging out at Parque Lindavista. After some time, I said to others to carry on, as I want to sit down for a while. They went for more window-shopping, and I found a chair in the central portico of the mall. I sat on it. Few moments later, a Mexican guy came to me, and started speaking something quickly in Spanish. I was not fluent in Spanish, so could not understand. I gave the conventional response that I used to give to the Mexicans, "No habla Espanol!" (Meaning I don't speak Spanish). He spoke some more furiously and went away. Soon, some more people came to me and spoke something. I gave them the same response. Again, they shouted something furiously and went away, as if cursing. I saw that my friends were looking at all this from nearby and laughing hysterically. I went to them and asked what all this was about. They controlled their laughter and replied that the people coming to me were asking about a Audi car which was being showcased in the mall, and I was replying "No habla Espanol!". So, they were cursing the company for appointing a representative in the mall who could not speak Spanish. Actually, the chair on which I was sitting belonged to a representative of the Audi company, who was at a kiosk in the mall for showcasing their new car, and the people coming to me were posting queries about the car. It was such a funny scene.

    A similar thing happened when I went to watch the movie "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" ("Harry Potter y el Misterio del Principe" in Spanish) with Manjesh and some other friends. Before entering the multiplex, I thought of buying some mint gums to chew on during the movie. We went to 7-Eleven nearby, and I picked up some chewing gums from the shelves, threw it at the counter and handed over the money to the lady at the counter. She started speaking frantically to me in Spanish, which, of course, I could not understand. I said my go-to response "No habla Espanol" to her, picked up the chewing gums and went out. My Mexican friends were laughing hysterically. I asked in a serious tone why they were laughing. They told me that the counter lady was angry at you since you skipped the long line of people waiting for billing and went straight to the counter. Of course, being a foreigner has some benefits.

Much more to come.

The entire experience of going to Mexico and Europe gave me a lot of confidence and provided a lot of knowledge to me. It was an experience of a lifetime. I was a boy from the ancient city of Varanasi, and I became a man of the world. I saw many cultures, encountered different hardships, saw beautiful places, met people of different nationalities, and made a lot of friends. I even got to experience the infamous Swine Flu which was most rampant in Mexico. Now, the world has seen the deadly COVID-19, but the scenes were quite similar in Mexico during the Swine Flu.

    When, I was returning to India, and was waiting for my flight at the Benito Juarez International Airport, Mexico City, I realized how much I had grown as a person during my stay in Mexico. It's a phase of my life which I miss the most. Of course, As I said earlier, I got married to my college sweetheart, Swati, in the year 2009. So, as I said, it was the most memorable year of my life.

There are many more funny experiences, which I had while I was in Mexico. I promise to share in the time to come. So, stay tuned!

Disclaimer: The names in this blog have been changed for maintaining confidentiality.