My Trip to the US - 8

My company had booked the flight tickets with the 7 hour gap in London. I didn't crib and was actually happy about this. I was hoping to experience London in these 7 hours.

The waiting area was big and confusing. There were hundreds, in fact thousands of peope waiting. There were many sexy ladies all over the place. It looked like heaven for a while - a long one. I could see shops all over. 'Duty-Free shops' most of them. But the very first thing that attracted my attention was the British accent. My ears were wide open trying to listen to whatever of that I could hear. I like observing the way people speak and I somehow give a lot of attention to accents.

I wanted to speak to some Britishers in the Airport. I had a subconscious mission planned to work on during this entire trip - to make new friends and understand as many new things - whatever they may be - as I possibly could. Making friends takes time and happens at its own sweet pace. The mission made me a little hasty to get to this task at the first opportunity. Slowly I have realized, with a strong self-affirmation, that relationships take time to grow. Love/Friendships at First Sight cannot happen to me.

I find the British accent particularly interesting. That's because, it is from the Britishers that we have derived our versions of English. It is really interesting how when people proficient in a particular language learn a different language, they make common errors and develop the same accent without even realizing it. Like all Madrasis have a similar Hindi accent.

As far as English goes, I like the British accent. More than the American or the Australian one. Coz it's closer to our own accent and we can easily master it. Unlike the American accent, which many Indians make a mess of, and end up speaking in weird, funny and unintelligible ways here in America, British accent can be picked up pretty easily by Indians - of course only if the other departments of their English are sound enough. During the many hours of waiting, I got to hear a lot of it. It was fun.

I exchanged some Dollars for Pounds so as to make phone calls to India from the public coin-phones over there. I came to know that one hundredth of a Pound is called a Pence. I exchanged 15 Dollars and got 5 Pounds and 47 pence. I spent 4 Pounds in calls. Also spent 1 Pound and 30 Pence to buy a big cup of coffee. Nothing else, coz things seemed pretty costly inspite of being Duty-Free. I am sure duty is just a small part of the price. Waiving it doesn't help so much, especially for Indians who've come out for the first time and are still thinking in terms of the Rupee. For example, 1.30 Pounds is more than 100 Rupees. My costliest coffee ever. But that was the cheapest thing I could find in the coffee shop. I didn't want to spend any more money in eating, though I was terribly hungry, coz the next flight would serve food anyway. Why waste money, viz. Rupees.

I couldn't see "Drinking Water" written anywhere in the waiting area. There were small Mineral Water bottles everywhere at Bombay Airport. To be picked up by anyone who needed. For free. But at the London Airport, there were none. You have to buy water over there. Sometimes it feels like drinking water is out of fashion in these western countries. Of course, I shouldn't generalize to this extent since I have seen only a few places. Perhaps some of the readers can comment on this.

But after spending 5.30 Pounds on calls and coffee, I was left with 17 Pence. I could see some water-bottles in a fridge at the coffee shop. I enquired the price of a bottle. It was more than a Pound and I didn't want to exchange more money. So coffee was all I had during the 7 hours at London, and it was a really bad coffee. Later as I roamed in the Airport, I found that there were things to eat that were cheaper than a Pound. I regretted having spent 1.30 Pounds on a disgusting coffee. And also felt sad about 1 Pound that got wasted in a call that I couldn't make. The coin went inside the box and stayed there but I saw no balance time for me to talk.

Those coin boxes were pretty good, otherwise. You insert coins and they give you some talk-time. You can make as many calls as you like to exhaust that talk-time. With every call, there is some flat amount that will be deducted besides the charges for the duration of the call.

There were Indians everywhere. Most shops were being run by Indians. One shop was playing Himesh Reshamiya's songs loudly. One Indian guy explained to me how to use the coin-phone. And after I was done with my calls, I explained how to use it to another Indian guy. All in Hindi. I also explained a Canadian lady how she could exchange her Canadian Dollars for some Pounds and use them to make calls through the coin-phone. I guess this was the first time during the trip that I spoke to any 'real' foreigner.

There was a car on display - a nice red one - right at the centre of the waiting Area. I am not a fan of cars, nor do I know much about them. But here's the pic for you. Feel free to stare at it if cars turn you on.





There were lots of chairs to sit on. I wanted to talk to someone...Make friends...Talk about London. But I am a jerk when it comes to starting conversations with strangers. I was trying to not be myself for a few hours and reach out to some people. I went and sat beside an old British woman. I didn't know what to talk. I asked her the time. I adjusted my watch and told her how important it is to set your watch to local time so that you don't miss the next flight. She didn't say anything except the time, smiled and was lost in her own thoughts. I took out my laptop just to look busy. Tried to look for wireless networks available. I tried a few, but all of them asked me to pay so as to use them. I gave up. I got up saying bye to the woman.

I walked for hours around the place checking out all kinds of shops except for the Lingerie stores. I am not so good at this, I mean at roaming around in markets and checking out things. I saw the prices of a few products just so that I get some idea. But I could hardly form any opinion. I don't even remember the prices now. The best was the Liqour section. I saw Smirnoff Vodka, Romanov Vodka and Antiquity Whisky...felt homely :D

I went inside a book-store. I was curious to know how many books by Indian authors these British stores kept. What I found was disheartening. Only one - Salman Rushdie. I was expecting more. Perhaps I missed a few. But surely not many.

At one corner there was a sign-board that read "Multi-Faith Prayer Room". Though I am not a religious person, I felt like checking it out. It is always nice to see people of all religions praying together in peace. Anyone who has ever visited Pir Haaji Ali's Mosque in Mumbai would know that it is possible. Religion and God begin to acquire new meanings in such places. Perhaps their original meanings.

I was sad to see that the door of the room to which the signboard pointed was closed. I went and sat in front of a TV hanging from the top. Two chairs to my right was a sexy gal sitting and reading a book. And to my left, there was a fat British guy. He also was watching TV. I tried again to start a conversation. Couldn't think of any topics. Continued to watch TV and figured that news channels in UK (and now I know that in US too) show more crap than the Indian ones do. I decided to chat on this topic with the guy sitting next to me. I asked him whether that was the kind of news that the channels there normally showed. He smiled and said yes. I told him that in India, we had similar news channels that showed crap, and we thought that things are better in the west. He didn't give any expression - surprised or happy or curious or offended - and continued to watch TV. That ended the conversation. He went away after a few minutes and a few more minutes thereafter, a couple came and sat next to me. I felt like Forrest Gump.

('comment' in the terminology of computer progamming is a block of code that is ignored by the compiler and is not to be executed and is enclosed between /* and */)

/********* JAVA COMMENT STARTS *********

The material enclosed in the comments might be objectionable to some people and so, must be read with caution. Ignore it if you want to and if you can...

I got up and took another round of the Airport. I have been trying for long not to mention anything about the toilets at London Airport. But I guess I have to, otherwise I'd feel like I skipped an important observation. I went there twice for susu and combing hair. The susu basins, or whatever they are called, were so low - almost near the knees - that anyone could see anyone else's Jhonson (that's what it is called in America. It has many other names too). I somehow did it. I don't know if this is the way things are all over the UK or if the Airport ones are just an exception. I have many friends who find it difficult to pee even if someone is peeing right next to them.

I am sorry these toilet-topics keep coming up. I have come to know that they offend some of my readers, who might discontinue to be my readers due to this. But I cannot intentionally deny the Right-To-Information of others. So kindly bear, or wear and tear - your clothes or whatever.

********* JAVA COMMENT ENDS *********/

I was confused whether I had to checkin again or the boarding pass given in India - one for each flight - would do. I was told, though, by the girl at the Mumbai Airport that those were all Dummy boarding passes, except for the one for the Mumbai-London flight. I was not sure what she meant. I went straight to the American Airlines counter at the London Airport and asked the girl there if I needed to do something before boarding my flight. She said I had to checkin again and gave me a new Boaring pass. Also she gave me a form - Custom's form or whatever - that I had to fill and submit at Chicago - the Port of Entry into the US!

2 hours before the departure time of my next flight, I marked in my mind the gate through which I had to enter for my flight - American Airlines Flight No: AA 047 to Chicago - O'Hare International Airport! And 1 hour before the departure time, I entered the corridor that led to the gates. It was a very long corridor. A Long Long one, with many moving floors in between. My legs were aching, so I used all of them. Actually walked on them so that I reached faster.

Finally I reached my gate - gate No. 18 - if I remember correctly. I went inside. My passport was checked and I was let into a hall with a lot seats. I sat on one of them and waited. The Airline staff was all American and the Airport staff was all British. I was enchanted to hear the conversations between the Americans and the Britishers. A treat to hear both of the best accents of English - each melodiously following the other - more so when the 2 people talking are females.

A few minutes later, it was announced that we could board the flight. I went along with all others and was inside the plane within 5 minutes. And from there started the American world for me.

To Be Continued...

My Trip to the US - 7

I believe that happiness is a choice. Like with any other big choice in life, choosing to be happy is very difficult. Not many are conscious enough to be able to make a conscious choice of happiness. I sometimes wonder what is the process of choosing to be happy. Is it like shaking oneself out of an illusion of spontaneity to a deliberate 'happy' approach while choosing one's reactions to various situations. Or is there something like truly spontaneous which gives the maximum happiness? Or is spontaneity an illusion? Can one be spontaneously happy? Is happiness a feeling one derives out of behaving in the most instinctively spontaneous manner? Can one consciously choose to follow one's instincts, while making a choice is itself the opposite of letting the instincts govern?

I now remember the name of the nice and senti English movie I watched during the Mumbai-London flight. It is 'The Pursuit of Happiness'.

Though London was for transit, I had a good 7 hours before my next flight. Though I couldn't go out of the Airport, I decided to use this time in the best way possible to get a feel of London. I had heard a lot about London - it's a beautiful city, Shakespere used to live here, so did Katrina Kaif, BBC comes from here, GMT, Bukingham Palace...

From what I saw of London from the air before landing, I felt that london was quite a well planned city. The roads were nicely laid out and the buildings were quite distant from each other. It looked quite empty actually, though I now know better how empty most foreign lands seem to us Indians when we compare them to cities in India. The flight landed after it gave me a few minutes for seeing London from above. It was cold out side. The temperature was 9 Degrees Centigrade. One interesting fact is that it gets colder as the aeroplane rises higher as shown by the LCD. Confirmed what I had studied years back in school.

The Airport is called the London Heathrow Airport. I was a carrying a bag with my laptop in it. I hung it on my shoulders and walked out of the plane saying "Thanks" to the Air Hostess before she did. Since Jet Airways is Indian, most of those who were in my flight were Indian. But even outside, I saw Indians everywhere. The uniform-wala guys and many people working at the Airport looked Indian.

Though I saw everyone walking in one particular direction, I wasn't sure what people who were there for transit had to do, since obviously for most of the people, London was the final International destination. I went to a uniform-wala standing at a corner, told him I was going to America by an American Airlines flight, and asked him where I needed to go. He asked me to follow the directions shown the boards with "Flight Connections" written over them. Later I found that even in the US, they use the same term - "Flight Connections". It must be a standard term used all over the world in Airports.

I had to walk a long distance. And for those who had difficulty walking or for those who were too lazy to walk, there were long stretches in between where one had to just stand and the floor moved - like a long tread mill. It was good, I tried it a few times. You walk on it, you move even faster.

I reached the dead end where "Flight Connections" people made a long queue that turned around a corner to somewhere that I could not see at that time. As the line moved ahead I came to know that I was going to undego another security check. Ahead of me, I saw people removing their shoes. I felt a sudden fit of happiness that very moment. The reason - something made me take off my torn & stinky socks before I got off the place and wear the shoes directly. I did keep the socks in my pocket coz I felt it was not appropriate to leave such socks in the Aeroplane. And now, I could take off my shoes without getting embarrassed. And I also felt that my brand new Woodland Shoes on bare feet would in fact look cool as my feet would get undressed and redressed before and after the security check - of course if someone bothered to look at them.

There was one old lady in the queue who was going to Canada and had come from India. She was literally in tears coz her next flight did not allow 2 bags to be taken inside as hand-baggage. She had 2 because her previous flight from India had allowed. Different Airports have different rules. She was told by a uniform-wala while she was in the queue that she could not take along 2 bags and had to do something about it. She started screaming at him - why was she not told about this in India, why she always preferred some other Airline, why she took her laptop with her in one of the bags, why she could have avoided that if she hadn't listened to her kids, etc etc. The uniformwala was an Indian guy with a nice beard. He didn't belong to any of the Airlines. He spoke in a British accent and tried to calm the woman by giving her various options like contacting the Airline Staff and asking them to do something about the extra bag, tying the 2 bags together somehow to make them look like one etc etc. He ended every sentence with "Darling". Reminded me of "Mona Darling".

Don't know how the woman's 2-bags problem was resolved, coz she stayed back continuing to argue and the queue moved ahead. I finished my security check - laptops have to be taken out of the bag and placed for scanning - I went ahead to find a huge waiting area - a big shopping mall really - with hundreds of people all over - waiting - and I became one of them - for the next 6 hours.

To Be Continued...

My Trip to the US - 6

I started from India at mid-night. It wasn't dark for long outside the Aeroplane window. And once it got sunny outside, it stayed like that all throughout my journey till Chicago. Somebody can try to explain how clocks and planes moved to create that effect.

The shutters were always kept closed so that it stayed dark inside the plane. I often used to raise it a little to get a glimpse of the clouds outside. Sadly nobody else seemed so curious. The LCD had a lot of channels. One of them constantly showed the plane's position on the world map. I felt elated to see my plane flying above so many countries. I was particularly thrilled when we were flying over Afghanistan and Iraq. I tried to see down through the window hoping to get a view of the barren lands and the remains of buildings destroyed during wars that are often shown on TV. But I could hardly see anything from that height. There were clouds below the plane that blocked all view. Wonder how the pilot sees the path in these murky skies.

The last line was a joke. I didn't want to put :P or :D or :) or :)) after it. Sometimes I hate using these. Perhaps it is the weakness of our writing skills that we need smileys to express emotions and fail to produce the desired effect without those.

The LCD was fully loaded with movies. I watched some good scenes of Phir Hera Pheri, and Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna by fast-forwarding, watched the 2nd half of Bhagam-Bhaag for commedy, then an episode of Friends. Drinks were served, and I had 2 Vodkas. Then I watched a very nice and senti English movie. I cannot recall its name or what it was about. All I remember is that it was very nice and senti. I also slept a little.

The flight was quite comfortable. I never felt even slight pain though I sat in the same position for so many hours. I also figured that if you put on ear-phones and continuously play some music etc., you don't get that uncomfortable feeling in the ears during the flight.

Early in the morning, the scene in the Plane was not very different from that in a Railway Train in India. People were brushing their teeth, there were queues to use the toilet, women doing make-up, kids shouting...

I once went to Chennai in a 2nd Class Railway compartment. The train was reaching Chennai early in the morning. In my comparment, most of the people even took bath in the toilets, came back in towels, did puja and then got dressed. Nowhere else does it get so crazy as it does in and around Chennai, even outside the trains.

Coming back to my Air Plane... I also freshened up early in the morning. Breakfast was served after that. The Air Hostess gave me something which looked like a Patties. I asked her what that was. She said some name. I had never heard it, nor did I understand it properly. She told me 2-3 times when I kept asking what what what. I gave up on the name and asked whether it was vegetarian. She couldn't stop herself from laughing, put the thing in my hand and went away. The thing was actually bread. It looked so weird. It had an external cover resembling that of our Cream-Roll that we get on our Railway Platforms. Can someone tell me the name of this kind of bread which, it seems, most angrej people have for breakfast?

It is tough to talk to very beautiful gals. You can avoid most of the times, but not always. Like you cannot avoid talking to an Air Hostess in an Aeroplane. She will come again and again, smile at you and ask you stuff you won't understand a word of. You will ask her to repeat. She will repeat. But that won't help a bit. You will ask again. Finally you will say a "Yes" or "No", she will do what she likes and that will settle the matter. Unless you are a gal. Gals settle matters differently.

And sometimes it gets very hard to ignore the Air Hostesses. Like whenever I am in a plane and an Air Hostess is around my seat, serving a passenger one row in front or behind and I am the next to be served, I start turning to look at her again and again just to check if she is done and is coming to me. Also to observe what others are asking for so that I have some idea of what normal people eat and drink and what things are available with the Airhostess in the first place. Sometimes, like in Air Deccan, where you have to pay if you want to have anything, I turn again and again in just preparing to say "No I don't want anything" in the right way. But my turning again and again increases her bhaav. So nowadays, I start looking out of the window or at the LCD as soon as I see an Air Hostess around and turn to her only when she calls me. But I feel guilty - she might be thinking I am eating bhaav :-(

The plane reached the London Airport at exactly 7.00 AM London-Time. I came to know that the standard time in the UK is ahead of GMT by an hour. Found just now from www.greenwichmeantime.com that British Time is 1 hour ahead of GMT during summer (March-October) and is the same as GMT during the rest of the year.


To Be Continued...

My Trip to the US - 5

Immediately after I sat in the plane, I called my Parents to tell them that I was inside the aircraft. I also called my Brother to give him a confirmation that his fundas made sense and he was right about the whole damn procedure. Also spoke to my sweet Sister to tell her that I was safely in and would eat well during the flight. And also spoke to my Jeeju to confirm to him that the whole thing was non-sense and stupid for anyone from the IITian community. (My Jeeju is also an IITian. Nothing gives more pleasure to IITians than proving to themselves that everyone else is an idiot and everything is non-sense.) Thought of calling a few girls too, but dropped the idea. I had called a couple of them while I was standing in the line for checkin. Good Friends of mine, all of them.

I am sure these Airlines allot seats such that people are not made to sit with strangers. I would want to believe that. Otherwise why would they always keep me alone at one of the corner seats? (There are 2 of them) They don't check thobdas before assigning seat numbers...do they? It might be possible...perhaps that's the reason why those hot gals at the checkin counters say hi to me with a smile and bye without any and then possibly ensure that there is no hot gal around my seat while giving me a seat number. The first 15-20 minutes after entering the plane are always spent in aticipation that some young hot gal would come and sit by my side. But another side of me, and the one which dominates my thinking more, doesn't want anyone around, coz I wouldn't feel comfortable sitting beside a hot gal anyway. And of course, I don't want a guy's company.

I have one usool. Either stay alone or with a gal. It's about room-mates. Another theory of mine says that it is very difficult to stay with a gal. So I stay alone :D Same applies to even humsafars during safars.

After I settled down a little bit, I couldn't stop wondering about where the toilet was located. i.e., Loo (- for people who don't understand or stopped understanding toilet)...Jet Airways have beautiful Air-Hostesses. They are cute, polite, sensitive, understanding, caring, emotional... uff... sorry, I got carried away in thoughts...gals!!!...what was I saying?

Haan, toilet. These Airhostesses divide the Aircraft among themselves into blocks and concentrate on their own blocks. My block had a guy too - Airhost? What do you call them otherwise? Reminds me of the movie Meet the Parents. What do u call a guy-nurse? I mean nurse sounds feminine. Airhostess is even gramatically feminine.

Sorry I get digress too much...now back again to toilet...I asked the Airhostess who serving in my side of the aircraft where the toilet was. I was surprized to find it right behind me coz as I metioned earlier, mine was the last-row-corner-seat. I felt like an abandoned passenger :-(. I examined the toilet door. It looked weird. I wondered how to open it. I pushed it. It bent at the middle and I saw where I could go inside from. Trying to postpone for future, the thought of how I would come out of the toilet, I went inside, examined the door again and found a way to latch it.

I quickly took out my comb from my pocket and ran it through my hair for 2 minutes. It was great relief. I felt better now. Decided to pee. Did it. But then, couldn't find the flush. It was a strange toilet. Everywhere, there were just symbols. I couldn't understand any of them. There was nothing written anywhere. I tried pushing whatever button-like things I could find hoping that something would burst the flush. I also started thinking what I would do if I did not find the right button. I could come out, but what if one of the Airhostesses saw me while coming out and came to know that I didn't flush the toilet. It would be embarrassing. So I kept trying. After numerous hits and trials, I got the right button. It was a wonderful flush. Unlike the western toilets everywhere in India, this one had a way of sucking the water and everything in. At that time I thought, that may be, only aeroplanes have such flushes. But later I found that that's the way flushes work everywhere in America.

I came out and sat on my seat. Mine was not the window seat, but was the one beside it. I stopped expecting someone to turn up to sit at the window. I started to check out the LCD screen at the back of the seat in front of me. I found that there was no head-phone at my seat but there was one at the window-seat. I quietly took that head-phone. Let the window-seat guy/gal get his/her own headphone from the airhostess, if at all he/she comes - I thought.

Very soon I figured out how to play the video. As I was browsing to check what all programs were available, there was an anouncement and the video changed on its own. Unlike in domestic flights, the Safety Instructions were not performed by an airhostess. Instead, a video was played on all the LCD screens. I was disappointed. I wanted to turn it off. But I couldn't. The switches and buttons don't work when something important is played for all the passengers or even when there is an announcement.

Soon, the Aeroplane took off! I did vakra tunda maha kaya, gajaanana padmaarkam and yaakundendu tushaarahaara dhawala...childhood habit :D Bye Bye India!


To Be Continued...

My Trip to the US - 4

I had read in "The Inscrutable Americans" that american shitteries(i coined this word!) don't have latches on their doors and can be opened by anyone even if someone is inside, and also that they don't have taps or any such source of water for someone to wash after shitting. Though it hasn't exactly turned out like that, I will talk about my shitting experiences later in detail...(Aren't you curious :P)... As I started from India, I wasn't sure how I was going to manage that sort of shitteries. So I emptied myself well at home before starting so as to avoid it for as long as possible. Also since the journey was long - 30 hours, it was good to take that precaution coz who knew how things were going to be on the way?

So as I stood in the line soon after I entered the Airport, many questions loomed in my mind. During the drive from Pune to Mumbai, Sylvia had mentioned that these days passengers are asked to take off their shoes during the security check. And I was wearing torn socks, that stinked as well. Actually I had washed and got ready 3 good pairs of socks for my trip. I was going to wear one of them during the travel and put the remaining 2 in the bag. But by mistake I had put all 3 in the bag while packing. And so when I was wearing my shoes just before starting for Mumbai, I realized I didn't have any good pair of socks to wear and so I wore the one I had been wearing for office for a few weeks. They were torn at the thumb (pair ka angootha) and stank, but I thought - kya farq padta hai, who'd smell my socks...

But now it seemed I would run into problems. I didn't want to open the suitcase and take out a pair and change my socks at the airport. I had placed the socks below everything else. So I didn't want to make a mess of it at the airport. I had mentioned to my Sister and Jiju and they'd suggested that I take off the socks and wear the shoes directly. Not a bad idea, but I didn't want to do that unless that was inevitable, coz even those torn socks seemed good enough to wear a lot of times for office etc. I mean unless u go to a place where you have to take off your shoes, how does it matter what kind of socks you are wearing. They are hardly visible. Of course, you do need to keep washing them before they smell a lot.

The line moved ahead. I dumped my luggage for scanning when my turn came. I collected the bags, put them back on the trolley and started looking for the guy who was in front of me in the line. I found him. He was standing in another line. So I went and joined him in the same line. This time there was an old lady standing in front with a fat kid. I tried to apply common sense, looked around and found written somewhere that it was the line for checkin for the Jet Airways flight 9W 0120 to London. During Checkin, the luggage is weighed and sent inside - taken away from you. If you exceed the weight limit, you may be asked to pay for the extra baggage. And in the end you are given a boarding pass.

I tried talking to the old lady standing in front of me in the line. I said - "It's such a long line. HaHa" She replied in a pakka British accent. I don't remember what she said. Then I also gave her some fundas that it always happens that whenever you reluctantly stand in a line that is very long, you find that nobody comes behind you for a long time. Don't know whether she could make any sense out of what I said. She smiled and started looking somewhere else.

My turn for checkin came. A beautiful girl sitting at the counter smiled at me, checked my passport and tickets and gave me my boarding pass after verifying that my luggage was within the weight limit. I asked her where I had to check out my luggage - London, Chicago or Cincinnati. This question had been haunting me for the past many days. She told me that I had to check it out at Chicago - the port of entry for me into the US and then check it back into the flight for Cincinnati and then check it out again at Cincinnati.

I smiled back at her, collected the boarding pass and asked her where I needed to go next. She pointed in one direction and asked me to turn right from there. I did that. There were a few counters where my visa was checked and my boarding pass was stamped.

That was it. I was ready to board the flight. I couldn't believe that it was just 3 simple steps. I went in the direction the guy at the counter pointed to and reached the gate where I had to wait for boarding the flight. There was a security check at the gate where I underwent some talaashi and my hand-baggage was scanned. I feared that I might be asked to take off my shoes here, but that didn't happen.

I didn't have to wait for boarding the flight, coz the boarding had already started. I directly went stood in the line of the passengers boarding the flight and within seconds, I was inside the plane - last row corner seat!


To Be Continued...

My Trip to the US - 3

I carried my Passport, the e-Ticket and the Invitation Letter (from our American Client) in my hand as I entered through the Airport Gate. The security guard checked my passport and the e-Ticket and let me in. First Hurdle Crossed - I said to myself. I don't know why, but I couldn't help thinking of the whole journey form India to the US (never forget the definite article here) as a series of hurdles that I had to cross. It was there all the time - consciously, unconsciously, subconsciously - in various forms. It may be because of the way we are made to see life. It may be because of the way our education system breaks down the growing-up phase of our lives. It may be an attitude problem - viewing goals as hurdles because of a negative outlook...like seeing a glass half empty when it is also half full.

I saw a long line right in front of me as soon as I entered. I wasn't sure what I had to do. I had travelled a few times in domestic flights before, and knew roughly about what all one had to go through before boarding a flight. But the terminology and sequence always confuse me. And though in each trip I try to clear some of those confusions, they come back the next time. My memory is not consistent in all areas. It is extremely good in a few and extremely bad in the rest. And since this one was an international flight, I was apprehensive that even the terminology, procedure and sequence were going to be all different.

Sometimes I seriously doubt my intelligence, smartness, whatever. Everyone else seems so cool about the whole damn "Check-In". It feels like I am the only one who sees bloody hurdles everywhere. I guess I need to work on it. This trip is changing a lot in me. Will write some of it later...and some more of it much much later, when I am sure I won't be screwed if one of them reads it.

I realized that the best thing to figure out the formalities to be completed before boarding the flight is to follow the crowd. Do what everyone else is doing, and you don't have to worry about anything, unless something screws up. Just make sure you are with the right crowd i.e., the one for your flight. I often do that, but then I put my dimaag once in a while and look like an embarrassed confused idiot to everyone around. Perhaps I think too much. Who in that huge mass of strangers would care to form an opinion about my looks and actions? Well, ever since this hair went off, I cannot help getting nervous about silly things. I need to work on this too. It's amazing how much psychological damage hair-loss can do to you. You can't imagine unless you have gone through it.

As we got into this hair topic, I got reminded of something I would like to talk about. Lately, the hair on my head has reached a very low density level. I have been pretending to be ignoring it for some time now. Ever since my head started showing drastic signs of baldness - and that was exactly 9 years back - I have been wanting to shave off the hair. Something stops me from doing it. May be it is a stupid love for what remains, or may be it is just a fear of the embarrassment the acceptance of being bald to the world and most importantly to myself might cause. Numerous times I have almost been to a barber's shop to get it all shaved and dropped the idea right before the implementation stage. During one such occasion I bought the Brylcream-Strong-Hair-Gel as a consolation for having failed to execute the hair-shave-off-plan. That was during my first year at college. The gel turned out to be my hair's best friend for a long time. It was wonderful. It kept the hair stiff and well-set and exactly how I combed and set it and stayed like that for a long time. I loved it. But over the last few days in college and thereafter, my hair fell more and is now too little to look ok even with gel.

Ever since I came to know that I was going to the US, I set a deadline to shave off all the hair before leaving India. That didn't work out because of the above reasons. And now as I am in the US, though I do think of changing my look every now and then by emptying the top floor of whatever remains, I have another deadline set - to do it soon after I go back to India. You can't imagine to what extent I plan things which I finally don't do. For example, right now I am planning to get it shaved before reaching my home at Pune. But am really confused whether to do it in Mumbai or in Pune. If my company sends a vehicle to bring me from Mumbai Airport to my house at Pune, I will get it done after dumping my luggage in the house and without any one of my friends seeing me before I clean my head. How's that?

This reminds me of another kissa. It happened at Dr.Batra's Positive Health Clinic. In one of my monthly visits, I asked Dr.Archana whether "shaving off my head" would help.

Well, I guess I will talk about what happened at the Airport in my next post...

To Be Continued...

My Trip to the US - 2

I normally prefer carrying very little luggage when I go out - just the bare necessities. And so I don't need much time for packing. I generally do it in the night before the journey. It was the same case this time as well. I did buy one of those huge bags with wheels which most people do before they go to the US. Though mine wasn't so huge, it was pretty big by my standards. I still bought it, because my company was paying for it, and because I felt that to stay in the US for six weeks, I would need to carry more clothes than I usually do.

I washed all my clothes and got them pressed too, well beforehand. Packing was easy. I made sure I didn't forget the underworld and all the clothes, the books to study for the exam I am going to write here in the US on the 2nd of June, all the things which one of my collegues, who was already in the US, had asked me to get for him from India, my passport, the eTickets - 2 copies, Invitation letter from our client - 2 copies, the destination address in the US - 2 copies, my cell phone - fully charged and with all necessary numbers needed in case of emergency during the trip, the dollars my company gave me to carry along, etc. etc.

My company had booked space in a KK-Travels (also known as JJ-Travels sometimes - I never understood the connection) vehicle that picks up people from Pune and takes them to Mumbai International Airport. They also bring people back. Will get it booked while returning back to Pune.

It was May 04th - 2007. The vehicle that came was a Qualis. And it came an hour late. Thank God, I had planned to reach Mumbai Airport 7 hours before the flight departure time. Firstly the qualis came late by an hour, then the traffic in Mumbai and my own miscalculation about when I'd reach the Mumbai Airport led to a further delay. And I actually reached the airport only 4.5 hours before the departure time.

The qualis trip from Pune to Mumbai was a memorable one. There were only 2 passengers - an old lady and me. Her name was Sylvia. She had been in the US for the past 10 years. She stayed in New Jersy. Her daughter worked in New York and used to travel daily from New Jersy by train (first by car to the train-station). She was a nice person and spoke good english. Her legs were weak and she walked with a great difficulty.

The qualis was without an AC and it was a very hot afternoon. As usual I adjusted. It didn't even strike me that I could fight with the driver for not bringing a vehicle with an AC. Actually somewhere deep down, I was not sure whether I deserved one at the price I was going to pay. (This is funny but this is how my mind works.) When I cribbed mildly about the heat to the lady, she told me how much she had faught before they picked me up, about why a vehicle with AC was not sent for her and that the KK Travels guy had apologized to her but didn't do anything to fix things. Fighting against injustice is so important. You keep adjusting to what you get, you will always get less than what you might deserve. But for that you should have a clear and fair idea of what returns you deserve at your level of investment. And if you don't, you will end up creating disturbance in a smooth pattern of things. Some people don't bother about the disturbance they might end up causing, since in the end, they will know what is their fair share. I think they are fully justified. And of course if you do it with vinamrata, there will be no disturbance and you will only gain. So what if you look foolish 50% of the times initially. In the end, you will slowly reach a state where you will be fully clear of where you stand. But for some people, looking foolish is too big a blow to their egos. They never get rid of their foolishness in trying to avoid looking foolish.

The qualis stopped once at a Food Mall near Lonavla. I had Pani Puri there - last time. I am missing it so much. Not a day passed without Pani Puri when I was in India, and now, it's 24 days already. Sylvia got 2 samosas packed for her - for dinner. The flight was in the mid-night and she was travelling alone.

Sylvia told me that she was a Puneri and had spent most of her life at Pune and Mumbai. She also gave me her telephone number - the one in New Jersy, which I stored in my mobile phone. I later lost that mobile phone in the US and lost Sylvia's number too.

We reached the Mumbai International Airport around 8.30 PM. Sylvia stood in line for going inside immediately since hers was a British Airways flight, about an hour before mine - the Jet Airways flight, both to London. After I got my bill from the KK-Travels guy which I'd submit later in my office for reimbursement, I stood outside Gate-2, which is the entry for Jet Airways flights to London. I saw Sylvila sitting down close to her luggage, waiting to enter. It was the entrypoint for British Airways flights too. I stood at a little distance waiting for my Sister, Brother and Brother-in-Law who were coming to see me off.

They came. As usual, my sister found me much fatter than last time. We went to a restaurant close to the Airport to have dinner. Took a photo there. Then came back running, coz I was a little worried how the pre-flight process would go. Before entering, I hugged all of them. This was a very special moment. I had never hugged my sister and brother before.

As I enetered the Airport through the Gate, I had a strange feeling... I knew, I was stepping into an unknown world... I realized it was too late to stop or walk backwards...


To Be Continued...