The Bangalore-Delhi Air Sahara flight took off late, on expected lines. Landed up in Delhi amidst heavy rains with barely a couple of hours to transit from the national to the International Airport. A broken wheel on the jumbo suitcase didn't make matters easy, and amidst traffic chaos and rains, made it to the International Airport well in time. Spent a few minutes trying to recollect the baggage lock codes, and spent a few more minutes eliminating nailcutters and silica gels from the cabin baggages (harmless pieces that keep us and suitcases (resp.) hygenic, but these days, nothing's safe any more). Reweighed stuff to ensure that two 23 kg and a 25 kg baggages were transformed into two 24 kg ones. Fortunately, they were lenient on the weights and made sure I didn't have to pay through my nose for carrying extra curry powder packs and stuff. (In hindsight though, I could have stuffed in more of those - greed, I tell you.) What followed next was the first encounter with the immigration process.
Immigration Officer (an Indian with a heavy American accent, and worse, spoke faster than usual Amreekans) : Hi. I need to ask you a few very simple, but very important questions.
Me (as meekly as I could) : yes Ma'am.
IO (Looking at my baggages) : Are those yours?
Me: yes Ma'am.
Io: Who do the contents of your baggages belong to?
Me: (duhhhhh) To me Ma'am. (I understand these are important questions, but they kind of sound too obvious..)
IO: How long have you had them?
Me: For about a month Ma'am.
IO: And when did you pack all your stuff?
Me: A day ago Ma'am.
IO: Please understand you'd be held responsible for everything found within it, and you'd be charged if we found narcotics and stuff in your bag.
Me (scared to my wits) : Uh yes Ma'am.
IO: Fine then. Have a &^%$%$##@$#@. (trust me, it sure didn't sound like good socially acceptable set of words, or maybe my speech processing was a little too slow!)
Me: Beg your pardon Ma'am?
IO: Have a nice flight.
Me (phew!) : Thanks Ma'am.
Got the baggages checked in, and after about 3 hours of waiting, which involved the search for a decent and affordable place within the airport to eat, and a phone that worked, we (that's me and Ramki, the guy who tolerated me through the journey, and continues to do so as my roomie here.) got through and boarded the American Airlines flight.
The Boeing 777 long range airliner was a dream to fly in. Much as one'd despise the 15-hr non-stop flight, the first flight in a jumbo-jet was a good experience in strange ways. Spent half the time fighting sleep off to make sure I didn't miss the foods, and the remaining half trying to get some sleep to keep myself in some shape for the next day. Needless to say, neither worked. Expected them to be a bit generous with the foods though, but all I got was 1/8th of a dosa (or was it 1/10th?) and something that was originally intended to be a vegetable curry. Survived them, miraculously. The on-board entertainment was no help either (a personalised touch-screen console playing reruns of oldish serials and movies, which though bad, weren't good enough to put me to sleep). Landed up in Chicago and made it through customs without too many hiccups. Travelled on a Monorail for the first time as well, transiting between terminals, and after about 3 hours of wait, had a roller-coaster ride from Chicago to Cincy. This aircraft really made the maneuvers feelable - gulping down what I was told was tomato juice, without spilling a lot of it, was no less than an adventure onboard this flight. Landed at Cincinnati, all 60 kgs of me safe and sound. Couldn't say the same of the baggages though.
Immigration Officer (an Indian with a heavy American accent, and worse, spoke faster than usual Amreekans) : Hi. I need to ask you a few very simple, but very important questions.
Me (as meekly as I could) : yes Ma'am.
IO (Looking at my baggages) : Are those yours?
Me: yes Ma'am.
Io: Who do the contents of your baggages belong to?
Me: (duhhhhh) To me Ma'am. (I understand these are important questions, but they kind of sound too obvious..)
IO: How long have you had them?
Me: For about a month Ma'am.
IO: And when did you pack all your stuff?
Me: A day ago Ma'am.
IO: Please understand you'd be held responsible for everything found within it, and you'd be charged if we found narcotics and stuff in your bag.
Me (scared to my wits) : Uh yes Ma'am.
IO: Fine then. Have a &^%$%$##@$#@. (trust me, it sure didn't sound like good socially acceptable set of words, or maybe my speech processing was a little too slow!)
Me: Beg your pardon Ma'am?
IO: Have a nice flight.
Me (phew!) : Thanks Ma'am.
Got the baggages checked in, and after about 3 hours of waiting, which involved the search for a decent and affordable place within the airport to eat, and a phone that worked, we (that's me and Ramki, the guy who tolerated me through the journey, and continues to do so as my roomie here.) got through and boarded the American Airlines flight.
The Boeing 777 long range airliner was a dream to fly in. Much as one'd despise the 15-hr non-stop flight, the first flight in a jumbo-jet was a good experience in strange ways. Spent half the time fighting sleep off to make sure I didn't miss the foods, and the remaining half trying to get some sleep to keep myself in some shape for the next day. Needless to say, neither worked. Expected them to be a bit generous with the foods though, but all I got was 1/8th of a dosa (or was it 1/10th?) and something that was originally intended to be a vegetable curry. Survived them, miraculously. The on-board entertainment was no help either (a personalised touch-screen console playing reruns of oldish serials and movies, which though bad, weren't good enough to put me to sleep). Landed up in Chicago and made it through customs without too many hiccups. Travelled on a Monorail for the first time as well, transiting between terminals, and after about 3 hours of wait, had a roller-coaster ride from Chicago to Cincy. This aircraft really made the maneuvers feelable - gulping down what I was told was tomato juice, without spilling a lot of it, was no less than an adventure onboard this flight. Landed at Cincinnati, all 60 kgs of me safe and sound. Couldn't say the same of the baggages though.
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