Welcome to India

Sat. 18 Feb 2006 8:30 a.m.

Most eagerly waited day for me and my family. Woke up before the alarm could ring. Peeked out of the window to check the weather. Everything is glowing white. As forecasted it had been snowing heavily. There had been snow forecast like this before but it never snowed like this, just few flakes and it will go but today I was seeing the snow I wanted to see but not quite the day I wanted to see it. Had planned to leave at 11:00 to catch the 1:35 flight. Seeing the wonderful weather changed the plans the leave at 10:30. With lots of good wishes from lot of ppl, bravely fighting the snow, we reached the airport.

11:30a.m.

The queue outside the northwest counter was unexpectedly long. Many flights were cancelled/delayed due to snow. Ppl have been waiting since morning to fly out but no luck. As we could see out from the glass walls the snow had stopped but still the tracks and planes were not clear so can't start flying soon. I was very upset inside, if I get late here I’ll miss all my connecting flights and then the connecting journey to Jaipur for a dear friends wedding. Every thing for the coming week was already planned, bookings done, what to do, where to go, who all to meet everything.

12:30a.m.

After standing for an hour in the unmoved queue, an announcement was made. "All passengers traveling via 1:35p.m. to Detroit can check in separately". Quickly a separate queue was formed for my flight. It was a big relief as they also mentioned that this is an on schedule flight. All my negative thoughts went away bcoz I knew if I could move out of Nashville on time there will be no problem ahead.

1:15p.m.

Checked in the luggage, passed the security check and reached the terminal. The situation was even worse from what it was outside. No place to sit except few patches left on the floor. It was a total chaos. Ppl sleeping on chairs, lying on ground, kids playing, moms controlling babies, dads checking flights on laptops. I didn't bother to find a place to sit. Checked the notice board to make sure I’m at right terminal. It says Detroit but it also says 6:20 a.m. and flashed delayed due to snow. I was not sure what was happening bcoz outside at the check in counter they said the 1:35p.m. is on time. Wondering what's going to happen I found a patch on floor for myself. Gradually after listening to the various announcements made there I realized there were 3 more planes before mine for Detroit and none of them flew. I was still wondering if such is the case then how come they will manage 1:35 to fly on time. Around 1:30 they started seating ppl into the plane in the order of the time the planes were scheduled since morning. Mine was the fourth of the day and I was least expecting to get on on this one. But some how I got lucky as there was space left and they allowed ppl from the 1:35pm flight to board this plane on first come first serve basis. I rushed as soon as I could as I didn't want to miss the opportunity.

2:15p.m.

The plane was full and in fact drove away from the terminal but was standing at a remote place. Had no clue at that point why its waiting there, in fact didn't bother as I was enjoying the fact that I was sitting in plane on time. Later the captain announced the plane is waiting to be deiced and will take 15-20 mins to fly. DEICED!!! I was thinking inside is the plane just going to take a sun bath??? I glanced thru the thick window glass and I could see some ice on the wings. It will take hours to melt this, I said to myself. Why don't they blow some hot water and finish it off quickly. I fell asleep as I was talking to myself. Suddenly a loud noise like something wrecked woke me up. I saw around everyone rubbing their eyes, I checked the watch 30 mins when the announcement was made. Looked out of the window and the plane is still standing at the same place. What the hell!! Why isn't it moving? Suddenly I saw some water flowing over the window. When I looked out a man was blowing water over the plane, looks like they heard me. Lady behind me said it's like sitting inside the car in an automatic car wash. Well for an experience now I know what DEICING of a plane means and how a car wash will feel :). It took another 15 mins to get the entire plane deiced. And by the way the wrecking sound was nothing but the jet of water thrown over the plane. Passengers cheered as the plane started moving.

4:45pm (Detroit, EST)

Reached Detroit. Most of the time in flight I spent sleeping. My next flight for Amsterdam was at 5:20 pm EST. I was happy that I reached just in time and will be able to catch the next flight. I walked fast to catch the next flight. When I reached there and showed my ticket they informed me that I have been rescheduled for 7:00pm flight. I said how is that possible. I'm here how can you reschedule me before time. They said ur flight from Nashville was delayed so the team in Nashville delayed it and didn't inform us that ppl are coming with earlier flight. The lady at the counter strongly said I cannot fix it in this flight now. It’s impossible. I was also kinna rigid, I have to go by this plane I have other connecting flight I cannot miss that. An old man standing beside me fighting for the same said "you are the same company then why cannot you do it". They heard him and gave both of us a seat in the same plane. Thank you very much old man. As I went inside, the air hostess said pretty flowers (I was carrying artificial jasmines for my mom) and showed me my aisle seat. An old lady was already sitting there. She silently stood up and showed me the way for the second seat to aisle. I didn't mind taking it. The air hostess came back and said "Yours is the aisle seat". The old lady little worried waved her hand to say no no. I told them, it's ok. I should not say this but the lady was really huge and was even covering 10% of my seat. I was feeling little suffocated, but my excitement of going home covered it all. I was happy to see everything running on time this time.

As I woke up after a couple of hours I had lost the track of time, no idea which time zone I was in. I opened the laptop I was carrying for my friend and watched a movie. 1:30 hrs more gone. Then came dinner. Thank God they had vegetarian, and that too very decent (rice, dal, salad, bun). Then I started browsing the flights entertainment panel. As was browsing through, the lady beside me was saying something. I could not understand and she became silent. After five minutes she again said something and then I realized she is not speaking english. I continued to talk in english and sometimes hindi too bcoz I knew she is not understanding either. She pointed to my screen and then she pointed to her screen. I was thinking what’s wrong? I realized her screen is just showing the flight trace and she does not know how to change it. I showed her the remote to tell that you have to use this. She sat silently again for some time. In the mean time I started talking to the guy on my right. He is a merchant navy, travels a lot, deals with shipments of chemicals. He told he is going to India for six months. Phew!!! what a luck. But as we talked through his and my life I realized the other six months are a lot struggling than mine. Mean while the sweet old lady was still struggling with the video. I took her remote and fixed her for what she wanted. Slowly we started communicating in the sign language. Later towards the end of the flight when everybody was watching the panel, anxiously waiting for the plane to land, she pointed on Rome in the map. I realized she is going to Rome from Amsterdam. Then she asked me where am I from. I pointed to India and she smiled. We both were descending the time on our fingers. 2, 1.5, 1, .5 and Good bye.

7:15am (Amsterdam time)

As I walked thru the Amsterdam airport I was feeling little tired. And more tired by the fact that I had to wait another four hours to board the next and the final flight. I opened the laptop to see if I can get some wireless network, got nothing but disappointment. Started watching another movie on the laptop. It got really tiring and I decided to catch some sleep instead. At this point I was feeling little feverish too. Some how I managed to pass the 3 hours. The crew members and the security personnel started coming in. People became active as everyone was eager to board the plane. After a round of security check I was in the plane. A semi-old Indian on left and an old foreigner lady on right. I could not resist sleeping and I said to myself "I'll talk to them later". Ignored the announcements, ignored the initial round of drinks and woke up directly for lunch. I was so happy, half the time of flight already gone. And to my surprise it was a sardar on my right now. BALLE BALLE !!!! echoed into my years. Had good Indian veg lunch. Talked to sardar. He is coming from Norway and going to some place in Punjab. He told me he knows Norwegian (language of Norway) better than Punjabi. Why? Bcoz he was born and brought up in Norway. Has a wife and a son too. He is coming to India after 17 years. The lady on left, has six gas stations in Houston, Texas (works along with her husband). Has three kids, eldest daughter in college and other two in school. She is coming back to India after five years and she is also going further to Punjab (Ludhiana). As the flight was coming towards an end, the air hostess distributed the immigration forms for Indian and foreign nationals. Both besides me took foreign nationals form. I was surprised how world has changed. Seeing there passport I confirmed both of them had foreign passports.

As I stepped out of the plane, I could smell my soil. It was a gr8 feeling. I quickly walked to get the immigration cleared. Went to baggage claim and as expected found no luggage. Due to snowfall in Nashville I had expected that the luggage would have been left behind. Filled my baggage claim papers and started walking out. I was hurrying everything as I knew my parents were waiting outside. As I walked through the waiting crowd, I watched each and every person to find out where my parents are. There I see a hand waiving, there they are. I rushed off to catch them and all emotions flowing through. Two of my cousins had also come to receive me. We took some pictures and walked towards our taxi. It took 1 hr to reach home, and as we discussed various things in the taxi I never realized how the 1 hr passed away. I and my dad discussed about my next day activities too. And it was on how I’m gonna travel to Jaipur to attend my dear friends wedding. We all reached home drank some tea, exchanged some more pictures and it was 4:00 am when we all finally went to sleep.

Monday 20th Feb 7:00am (IST)

I was the first one to wake up. May be bcoz I was the one who was excited about me future endeavours. Freshened up myself, went for a bath and while in bath I realized something strange on my body. I could see a couple of blisters. I suspected it to be Chicken pox, as one of my roomie in US was carrying it. I took lot of precautions but looked like not enough. I came to my mother and told her I might have to cancel all my plans. I showed her the spots and she hurried me to a doctor. The doctor in one glance said "100% chicken pox". I came back home and informed my friend that I won't be able to make it. I stood in front of mirror and said to myself "WELCOME TO INDIA".

Tuesday 21st Feb. 12:00pm

My left behind luggage showed up. In the evening when dad came back from office, in all excitement we started opening things. I described the things and labeled them too. As we reached the end of the entire baggage I realized there is something missing. Something which was most precious. A camera which I had specifically bought for my parents is no where to find. I strongly remember I had kept it in my bag, but it’s no longer here. I was totally shattered, not for the monetary loss but the thing had lot of emotional values. I was so pissed of how somebody could do this. What do ppl get by stealing somebody’s emotions? I cursed whosoever a lot and silently went into my bed to take rest. Dad realized my disappointment and gave me a few inspiring lectures.

Don't know what else to say. I had planned a lot for this trip and it turned out to be absolutely the other way. I was thinking for the first week I will have absolutely no time to sit and relax. And see here I'm doing nothing but just sitting, relaxing and writing this useless story bcoz I can't do anything else.

Came expecting lot of rock n roll and life here is absolutely stand still.