Well, it has been a while since I left life as I had known it which had revolved around my tiny little state of Goa in India. I had never travelled further than 2,000 km from home until that day - July 31, 2005. This was the day when I was to leave all my dear ones to pursue my higher studies at the University of Southern California where I'm still doing the same thing as I write this. I can still remember with amazing clarity and vividness everything that happened from the morning of that day until 60 hours later when I actually touched down at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport).
Heres an account of that fateful journey as I remember it. The latter part of July 2005 had most of the west coast of India flooded. Mumbai had been bearing the brunt of the monsoons that year, and they were bad enough to even bring India's commercial capital's main arteries - the Mumbai local trains to a halt several times. Airlines were having an equally tough time with poor visibility as well as difficulty landing. In fact a few days earlier an Air India Boeing 747 from Chicago had skidded off the run-way during landing. Most flights seemed to be getting delayed and cancelled, so I was quite nervous as to whether my itinerary would hold up without getting changed.
As it turned out July 30 seemed to be better (at least in Goa). We left for our local airport - Dabolim, and got there in time to go through the formalities without incident. Unfortunately I was at the airport way too early - because our airplane connecting to Mumbai didn't land in Goa until it was 11pm when I should have been flying out at 3pm. We had to wait for Mumbai to issue clearance to take off for another hour after boarding and then I had the longest flight ever to Mumbai - all of 2.5 hours. We spent most of it circling the airspace near Mumbai awaiting ATC clearance for landing - because there were nearly 20 planes attempting to do the same thing there. Needless to say I was praying that our plane would touchdown without skidding off when we got to Mumbai, but the landing was perfect - one of the best I've experienced so far.
Anyway, my dad and I decided to catch a cab to go between the domestic and international terminals. When we plopped into our seats we realized that the seats had soaked our clothes! I questioned the driver on his cabs wet seats and the response I got was that there was no way I was going to find a dry cab anywhere in Mumbai that night. So I turned up at the International airport terminal looking like I had waded in. But as it turns out, most of the Mumbaikars around me were also in a similar state so there was no cause to feel embarassed.
Then I went through the stressful baggage check-in after bidding a rather emotional adieu to dad. Stressful because I was almost 10kg over-weight and was hoping that I wouldn't have to leave anything behind. Luckily, the airline attendants seemed to be in a good mood when it was my turn and everything got checked in just fine. Now I made my way to the transit area, where it looked like everyone was flying to the US for their further studies. It was 4 am, so I was slightly early for my plane which was scheduled to depart at 7am.
But alas, that wasn't to happen. At 6am we were informed that the departure was delayed to 10am. Soon 10am became 12pm, and so on. We were herded in and out of the restaurant in the transit area for our meals, while the transit area kept filling up with more and more passengers. There was a small respite around noon when a sudden boarding announcement for the Aeroflot passengers going to Moscow was announced. But the Russian pilots were the only ones who feared their bosses back home more than the consequences of taking off blind. It is amazing that they even knew their plane would take off in the midst of such a downpour.
The rain was so heavy that for the longest time I didn't realize as I peered out of the windows at the airport that there might be a massive Boeing 747 nose just a couple of meters away on the other side of the glass. During the time when the Aeroflot plane took off, the rain had reduced for about half an hour, and thats when I realized that the rain had been heavy enough to obscure visibility completely within two meters in broad day-light. All that I could see out the large glass windows was a dull gray which I had assumed meant there was only rain outside let alone several large passenger planes.
I was carrying the most important documents of my life on me at the time, and maintaining the safety of these kept me awake and alert through each passing hour as we awaited the boarding announcement. While waiting I met quite a few other young people who like me were also heading to the US for the first time. All of us were looking forward to what awaited us on the other side of the globe. But first, our airplane needed to take off... Most of these new friends of mine seemed satisfied that if we sat in a group our belongings would be safe. I guess that attitude comes out of living in a big city like Mumbai and sleeping through a journey in the Mumbai local trains, where you've got to be able to distinguish between being brushed by other people in a crowded train or getting pick-pocketed. I couldn't get myself to fall asleep because I was pretty sure I wouldn't realize when I'd lose everything if I did.
So the day wore on... I had been carrying an extra battery for my cell phone which turned out to be a big help. I managed to speak to everyone at home, all my relatives and friends and so did most of my new friends at the airport because their phones had already run out of charge by early morning. (I hadn't counted on the large cell-phone bill due to the roaming charges, when I would check it online from LA though...). Anyway, it was good being able to communicate out of there. The number of people in the transit area had kept building up as loads of passengers kept piling in with nowhere to go. By evening everyone was getting desperate. Some people began arguing with the airline representatives. I didn't feel angry about the situation though, because it seemed to me that there was no point venting my anger on these poor people given they had no control over the weather, and if take-offs were not being allowed there was probably a very good reason for it.
After dinner, we were informed that there was a good chance we would be flying out later in the night. They were right! We got our boarding call at 12am. I clambered into line and made my way through the security check-point and into the awaiting plane. After finding my seat and placing my bag (with the important documents) safely in the overhead baggage compartment, I got strapped in my seat and fell off into a deep slumber. It had been over 36 hours of not sleeping a wink for me and the pressure of having to take care of my bag vanished as soon as I was in the aircraft. It was very relaxing.
I was woken up by our air-hostess who suggested I get dinner. I was still groggy when I opened the meal, but something seemed amiss. I noticed that there was a large patch of salt that seemed to have been dropped on the salad. Wondering why anyone would do this, I poked at it with my fork and realized this was actually fungus growing on the salad. I guess the food had not been preserved properly and the 24 hour wait had ruined it. I brought this to the attention of the flight attendants who didn't know what to do about it ofcourse... so I decided to skip eating for the night, specially since I wasn't that hungry anyway.
Our plane touched down in Frankfurt beautifully. This was my first time on European soil... and I was impressed with the efficiency of the Germans. From this point onwards the journey was just great - just like it should always be. The breakfast on the flight to Los Angeles from Frankfurt is one of the best I've ever had - probably because I was famished by then, and I would've relished last night's salad even if there were mushrooms growing on it by then. But seriously after all that we had gone through in the first half of that journey, I don't think I'm ever going to enjoy another airplane journey as much - even if I will never fly by Air India ever again. :-)
So that was how I reached LA on the afternoon of the 1st of August, a good 24 hours later than I was supposed to... and nearly 60 hours after leaving home-sweet-home in Goa to begin my journey to the City of Angels.
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