91 – Aunty arrives, Grating German and Enduring Ethiopian Customs Officer – Ethiopian Journey.

The dye was cast and I prepared to stay in Addis Ababa. The next day as I was sipping my morning Cuppa (Shai), I was approached by a smart Ethiopian. “Mister” he greeted me cheerfully “You, Teacher!”. It was more than a question. It was an assertion.

“Yes” I said “Teacher from Bahirdar university, Bahirdar”. “Bahardar” he was impressed “You very lucky”. To the uninitiated, Bahardar is one of the holiest places in Ethiopia and is famed as the place of Amhara, the most populous tribe in Ethiopia.

It has many island monasteries and Tiss Abay the highest waterfalls in Ethiopia. He had a wistful look “How I wish; I could visit Bahardar”. He shook himself and said “One day, I visit” and added with a twinkle “would you host me, mister??” and thumped me on my back.

 “Sure, Sure” smarting under his too healthy smack. He told me that he was a taxi driver. He was a cheerful character and he made me promise that I would take his taxi whenever I visited Addis the next time. He also had a very smart way of picking up business.

He would wait patiently at the Bole International Airport and quote slightly less rate for a drop to the city. He would ingratiate himself with the tourists who would take a liking to this jolly, well behaved, English speaking Ethiopian.

He would generously pass information about places to visit and volunteer to help. Within no time he would be ferrying them around Addis Ababa and act as a tourist guide, friend, historian and also give them personal transport at a reasonable cost. The loss he made by offering a drop at a low price was more or less compensated by the day long travel that the tourist would take in his taxi. “How much do you make per day?” I asked him.

He gave a half wink and said “100 birr per day and rarely even 150 birr a day. Sometimes some generous tourists might even give me a tip of 10 - 20 dollars”. I was impressed. He was practicing invitation pricing. The initial offer of a product or a service is at a low price and when the customer samples the product, charge regular rate.

Making 100 -150 birr per day was a great deal in 2003 and that is what I admire about the self-employed of the world. They have no complaints about lack of government jobs. They don’t curse their bad luck. They smile and live their life as it comes. I told him that I would use his services to get dropped to the airport and for intra-city travel. “awo, awo (yes in Amharic sounds like aah, aah)” he said on his way out.

That afternoon, I went to a movie “L. A. Confidential” in Piazza. The movie hall had a primitive look and had hard seats. They were uncomfortable to sit upon and the theatre was not air-conditioned. It had some very old fans which were struggling to work. The movie hall was stuffy and on the top of it neither the audio nor the movie projection was working well. The audience were a mix of young and old and most were quite passive. The movie too was not very interesting and I left within half an hour.

Outside on the pavements, I found some old novels. I picked up two of them at a very reasonable price. I still remember the novels and the authors. 

One of them was “The case of the Velvet Claws” by Erle Stanley Gardner (my favourite author and it was the series featuring the ace criminal lawyer, Perry Mason).  I already had this novel in my collection in Hyderabad, India but Perry Mason is like first love, you can never forget them! You want to revisit the memory again and again.

The second was “ABC Murders” by Ellery Queen. Ellery Queen was a maverick crime novelist. Agatha Christie, the queen of crime, slowly builds up the story and leaves too many clues which are some times ambiguous. One needs to keep guessing about the identity of the murderer.

Ellery Queen’s technique is totally different. He would lay out the entire plot, give the summary of all the clues, sometimes even provide diagrams and pictorial illustrations and say “the entire case is in front of you. There is no intention to confuse or side track. Can you solve the case?. No guessing”, It has to be good old fashioned detective work based on logic and clarity of thinking. Even the most ardent crime fans have not been able to crack an Ellery Queen mystery, the way the author explains it right at the end.

That day evening Padma had good news for me. Aunty’s ECNR clearance work was done in a jiffy and she was flying to Ethiopia two days later. Once the date was known the time passed quickly. Of course Messers Perry Mason and Ellery Queen helped a lot. They were with me in the Tourist hotel. I had so much time that I read both the books twice over. Cover-to-cover. Perry Mason should be made a compulsory read for all aspiring lawyers. They would pick up the nuances of how to fight and present a case and use the law to benefit the innocent.

Two days later (29-07-2003) at 10.30 p.m. I found myself waiting outside the arrival gate of Bole International Airport. I was an hour early and there I was hanging onto the entry gate. Facing me was a menacing Ethiopian army person. After glaring at me for half an hour, he said “Asitemarie? (teacher)” “Asitemarie, Asitamarie” I said “Mother, mother, coming from India”. His face broke into a smile “Inati, Inati” he said “Hind, Hind”. What he said was “mother, mother from India”.

After a long wait, I could finally see the travelers emerge from the immigration and come on to the customs clearance area. The line was long and moving at an excruciatingly slow pace. I saw many young Ethiopians and Indians come out first. I knew the reason, the able bodied and the agile must have raced through and made it first to the que lines. Aunty would be coming in slowly.

Then I saw her walking her way to the customs area. FINALLY SHE WAS IN ADDIS ABABA!!! In front of her was a huge man (later Aunty told me that he was a German). In front of the German was an Ethiopian lady with her two children and the customs officer was dealing with them and the process was taking some time.

Even from the distance of atleast 100 feet, I saw it coming. The German first said something and then said something else quite loudly. Aunty later told me that he made some snide comment about the speed (or lack of it) of customs check and said something obnoxious about Africa and its airports.

The customs officer was upset but chose not to speak. He quietly went through the Ethiopian Lady’s belongings, let the lady go and gave his full attention to the German.

And oh boy, he gave the German full attention!!!!! He looked at the German’s passport very carefully, put it through the computer and checked it many times to find out if it was genuine or not. Then he very politely opened each and every item that the German had and went through it with maddening thoroughness. This really got to the German. He was seething with anger but there was nothing he could do about it. The customs officer was simply doing his job.

Finally, the customs officer was satisfied. By this time the customs officer’s counter looked as if a cyclone had hit it. It was cluttered with the German’s belongings. The customs officer looked at the German, stamped his passport and said “Okay, you can go”

This left the poor German with a herculean ask. Whenever we pack a suitcase at home, we have the luxury of packing leisurely and with a plan. A suitcase packed at home, can never be packed the same way once it is opened at the airport, especially by an irate customs officer who unfolded all the shirts and trousers and made a heap of them. Aunty had finished her own customs check pretty quickly and I went forward to pick her up. I am sure that the German would have spent the next 30 minutes to repack. He had learnt a lesson of his life – You don’t mess with Customs officers!

Aunty and me stayed in the airport and early in the morning took the first flight to Bahirdar. The flight landed in Bahirdar and Aunty was surprised to see, Padma, Pranav and Sahithi at the airport. They all hugged each other and we were all relieved that Aunty finally made it safe to Bahirdar without any problems. It was second time lucky for her. We also thanked Dr. Kuldeep Singh for accompanying Padma and the kids to the Ginbot Haya Airport, Bahirdar.