Wednesday, January 9, 2013

The Journey across the Atlantic

Every once in a while, you are confronted to start a new thing. Be it to walk or talk when you were a toddler, or going to kindergarten, or preparing for your first exam as a kid, or your first journey alone in train, by flight. These experiences can be very overwhelming when you do it for the very first time, but as early as second time itself, they become more of a habit! But, then come some special occasions in which the same experience can bring jitters to you all over again! This could be participating in a marathon, elocution, or going to a new school, or writing exams like IIT-JEE, AIIMS or, in my case, an international journey by flight!!

If you think about it, it is the same thing that you have been doing all your life. You have been walking since you are like 1 or 2 years old, but the idea of marathon makes you think twice! You cannot live without talking to people around you, but participating in an elocution or extempore is a whole different ball-game. By the time you finish your high school and start writing AIEEE, AIIMS, or IIT-JEE, you would have written more than 100 exams. But, the name, the idea, and the stakes change your mindset and affect your confidence like never before. The special significance attached to these special circumstances pose a challenge and make them a whole new experience.

I had traveled a lot by flight within India. I do remember my excitement, back when I was in primary school, when I got to travel by flight from Delhi to Hyderabad. But, I was a kid and the tensions were handled by my parents as myself and my sister just enjoyed the journey. Flights were not an everyday deal back then! As I was doing my engineering, flights had become a common mode of transport and I did enjoy many travels in the air for it to become a mundane activity! But, the thought of a journey by flight for over 24 hours while following some extra set of formalities like immigration, customs, a stop in some other country: all these made this particular experience an even more frightening one!

I must confess that I had more than the support I needed from my family and friends who had made many such journeys and of course, the internet! Everyone would nonchalantly dismiss the journey as another flight travel, but at the same time keep reminding me to be extra careful. Bottom-line: you never know where things might go down the hill!! 

It all starts with keeping the appropriate documents in your shoulder bag. The confusing part is no one is accurate on what is the comprehensive list! Then, your baggage should be within the prescribed limits as stated by the airlines. Then, you should pass through the Indian immigration without any hustles. This would mean filling up the form properly and you do not have much help in India for doing that! You need to keep walking in the flight and drinking lots of water in the long journey. Again, for obvious reasons, no written rule on how much! You might laugh it off, but for a nerd from IIT, these abstract things are the ones that make the heart pump faster! The flight should not get delayed so that you can catch the connecting flight! And you should not be stopped at the connecting point due to some visa issues or for doing something wrong. The definition of this "something" obviously depends on your connecting point! Further, there should not be delays in the flight you are going to catch. If so, you need to understand the extent of delay, any overnight stay, how to manage the overnight stay etc.! For a guy who is not so good in smooth talk, well, this is almost a nightmare! Then, there should not be any delays in the next flight's journey as well. You need to fill your customs and immigration forms properly! You do get some help, but, some questions might get tricky! And then, THE MOST IMPORTANT PART, you SHOULD NOT be detained by the immigration or customs people in the USA! And people have literally NO CLUE what would trigger a second/third round of questioning (interrogation)! Finally, you should be able to find the person who might be coming to pick you up! Of course, there is always the doubt if you are carrying enough currency! But, I guess our parents do get generous on this account since they also wouldn't want to see their only son stranded in some godforsaken place! Yes! Pretty small issues for the frequent fliers! But, each of these is no less than a worst nightmare if you fall into the category of a first timer!

Above all this, most probably, you will have to start your fight with Jet Lag! As for me, I had a huge sigh of relief when the helper at Jet Airways in Hyderabad airport, gave a thumbs up looking at the weighing machine with my 2 bags! I was happy I started on a good note! As I landed in Delhi airport, I thanked the Aviation authority for the helpful signs that paved my path towards the international transfers! I was so sure I would get lost in the infinity of the various airports I would be visiting! But, since Delhi had such a great system, I felt that the other ones would also not pose much of a threat! There were some Jet Airways personnel near the immigration, but, they gave me a disgusted look when I tried confirming some questions in the form! I realized it was elementary for them and they were not in a mood to step into my shoes. Meanwhile, a lady had some issues with some flight and everyone was interested in the resulting chaos than helping out the passengers with their mundane questions! As I finished the immigration in a jiffy, except for a small fumble on which counter to go to, I realized that the trip was turning out to be too easy to be true!

The 8 hour wait at Delhi airport was the last thing I was looking forward to. You see, I had nothing to do! And empty mind is a devil's workshop!! I was so sure I would become a lunatic with all the imaginary horrors I would be creating in my mind about the journey! But, "a quiver full of arrows" made the time more exciting as I also wandered around the majestic Delhi airport Terminal 5, taking in the expanse, the huge number of stores, the spacious food court, all reminiscent of a Mall and something I never thought possible in an Indian airport! I played around walking on the travelator (or walkalator, whatever!) for a while. Finally, as I left India for the first time at 2:30 AM in the morning, my mind was at peace, optimistic of a very safe and undramatic trip!

The flight from Delhi to Brussels, Belgium was on time. I slept through most of the journey, and while I was up, I kept pestering the cabin crew for water, or walked on the aisle, for a bit! The "dude" beside me seemed like a regular to the international trips and immersed himself into the movies available on the flight, though it took me a while to understand the operations of the video system. After I finally figured out the proper orientation to sleep in with the tiny pillow and the blanket, I dozed off waiting to land in Brussels!

As I took note of the amazing castles, green pastures, tall buildings, small forested land, complex flyovers, and tiny water bodies, I realized that Brussels was upon us. As expected, the path to board my next flight was pretty easy to find, and it took me a while to get through the long line through security and come out of the other end with, thankfully, nothing confiscated! As I had just about 2 hours to pass on here, I enjoyed the travelators yet again. Though I looked around to get some Euros for making a call back home, I discarded the idea since the next and final flight was already declared on-time and there was nothing much to say! After a small note on my passport, I was on the flight to New Jersey, with a sigh of relief that only the immigration remained between me and the USA now!!

So, just to make things a little interesting, I got an Indian girl in my adjacent seat. But before I knew it, time flew to a point where it seemed too awkward to start a conversation! As I had become adept at video system by now, I, nonchalantly, put on the headphones and started watching random series and movies. Soon, my body started reacting to the exposure to too much of sun and the weariness was kicking in! For the first time in my life, I encountered a kind of surreal feeling of existence as the fight with Jet Lag started! Or, may be it was just the tiring posture I had been in for the past 20 hours or so! This made it even more difficult to even ask the name of the co-passenger and I continued with the usual routine of drinking water and walking on the aisle! Well, yes, I did talk to her whenever I wanted to get out of my seat for the walk. But, it was not much of a conversation, after all! Just as the flight tracker indicated we were almost closing in on our destination, disaster finally struck!! It was not much of a disaster per say, but, it was one of the few glitches I had, in the otherwise mundane travel! New Jersey was suddenly experiencing thunderstorms and there was huge confusion as to land the flight in JFK or take it to Boston. As the flight made weird closed trajectories in the sky while deciding between the two airports, the pilot announced the fuel supply could be a major issue in a while! My head was reeling in confusion of the daylight as against the expected night sky and hence there was not much room for processing the gibberish from the pilot. But, the moment of confusion and scare gave me the subject I needed to strike a conversation! The 3 hour wait in Boston was the most surreal experience, as I fought with the head reel from the Jet Lag, and thought up of other things we could talk about! I finally did manage to gather some details about this graduate student on her way to Texas and I at least had someone to help me fill the immigration and custom forms! As the flight finally took off, we had shared a few lighter moments, but the delay meant she missed her connecting flight! It was at that moment, that I thanked my mother for making such great friends in her undergraduate days and further thanked the friends for making it to the USA and living so close to one of the bigger international airports!!

As I bid farewell to my friend in flight and made my way into the airport, the heart started pumping hard all over again! The huge "Welcome to the United States of America" board meant I was to face the reputed immigration team, the most uncertain and scary part of the whole journey! The line seemed modest and as I finally managed to reach the counter, the officer took my I-20 and seriously started circling stuff with a yellow sketch! My heart skipped a beat, but it was just a matter of name and signature which I had forgotten! As I readied myself to finish up the matter at the desk, he sternly pointed me to join the line again! I looked at the line dejectedly, but found just a couple of people! As I stood at the end of the line, the same officer declared he was done for the day! I looked around blankly to find all the lines with at least 3-4 people! I kicked myself for getting delayed on such a silly thing, but, nonetheless, stood in another long line. Luckily, the officer directing people to the counters, found me another freshly-opened counter and I hurried there, not willing to waste any more time on the wait, and still horrified of other setbacks! This officer turned out to be quite swift in his dealing and I was out of the immigration counter with just a small quip on how cold it would be in the Upstate New York area! I was also happy that my running nose did not raise any alarms on the kind of diseases I was bringing in to the USA!

My mother's friend had already warned me that the use of trolley would cost $5 and I spent my first dollar currency and waited as the baggage claim area became almost deserted and I was yet to get one other bag! Just as panic started to creep in, I found the bag waiting in all its glory, to be still put on the baggage belt! Relief spread through my body as the two biggies were intact and unscathed, something that was notoriously rare in international travel. The customs did not even care enough to take the form properly. As I rolled out of the airport, following the helpful signs present as everywhere else, I heard a familiar word amongst the unfamiliar crowd! MY NAME!! Before I could even look around properly, the uncle had spotted me! I can never forget the elation that shivered my spine!

The long journey was over! Never before had I felt so happy to see another human being who at least knew me, and who had a working mobile phone! The long silence has been broken and words just kept spilling out of my mouth! I was exhausted, jet lagged, and excited, all at the same time! I had fought my fears and came out of all the confusion successfully! The first time was over! I immersed myself in the America around me, with some commentary from uncle!

1 comment:

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