So where were we? Yes our plane had taken-off finally after lazing around 45 minutes on the run away. I don't know for what reason. May be Katrina Kaif was shooting at the run way or may be it did that because the pilot had a bad stomach early morning.
Enough of nerdness. I guess when someone pisses you off then you tend to say everything that is unpleasant. So some positive things now. Air India has one of the best on board services. You just look at their interiors. They are just fabulous. Comfortable seats, cushions, blanket, personal LCD to view movies or play Sudokos and clean toilets. I do not understand why these people cool the aircraft so much and then provide blanket as well. I guess for the same reason.
Meanwhile, after the take-off, I looked around. My seat is in the middle row on the right. An elderly Sardarji is seating on the other end with the middle seat empty. Its always very comforting when no one is seating next to you. You can stretch as much as you can and not get bothered when the person goes to the washroom.
Memories are a little faint now and I am trying my best to recover. Finally the plane had stopped climbing up and moving stably. I was having mixed feelings. A lot of shock and little bit of exictment. I was still bothered by the 'narcotics experinece'. I tried to get some sleep but it was more of a closed eye stuff.
Breakfast was served in a few minutes by the 'beautiful' air hostess. I wondered what things were left behind except my family and friends. Well the list is fairly long. It would be a real pain to read. But I am a smug and I shall do what I please.
First on list was 'Khatron Ke Khiladi', my then most recent crush. I just loved it. Papa won't like it but I watched it twice daily, once in night and other time the repeat telecast in the morning. Who would miss great stunts, lots of drama, hot models and Akshay Kumar's evil laughter. Then of course cricket. I don't know how many years I spent on watching cricket on our pristine TV or Youtube. Only consolation for Papa is that I do not do that any more here.
Among other things I was sick about in the plane and now also is Krishna's sweets and McDonald's meal. Another honest confession for Papa. I really loved you when you brought sweets though I always showed my dis-pleasure. I dearly miss hindi movies. They have their own flavour. Simple love stories, some illogical suspence, hot heroins Katrina, Aish, Priety are there asset. English movies are very complicated. I dearly miss Kamala nagar and Connaught Place for obvious reasons. I spent a lot of money of my parents at these places. Who could forget the Metro.
Then our car. Its so white that my teeth look tardy in front of it. My books, novels, cricket bat, our market, our park, Homoepathic Doctor to whom I would run to when I got cold, Laxmi who gave me all the stationeries over the years, yeah the list is endless.
Some hours later there is an announcement, "Passengers, plaese tighten your seat belts. We are going through some rough weather." Now an airophobic(new term) person like me is certainly scared to the hell. My Dadi tells me to remember God or our 'Ramji" when you are nearing death. But I think this was not that bad. I have meet a lady in my lab who says that she enjoys such situations. My God!! GG you are such a chicken heart.
An old Sardarji was seating near the window and apperntly there was some problem with his LCD. It was not working so the flight attendent placed him on the seat next to me. The Sardarji was of my Baba's age and he was very fond of TV. I guess all old people are. But the odds were not in his favour. The audio of the LCD was not working. So he decided to just watch it as it is. I am a TV addict but I am still sane enough to not view TV when there is no volume. Meanwhile I just acted as if a was sleeping as his last hope was me. Trust me this a great trick. I practised it successfully in my days at DCE when I used to travel in DTC and got away from giving seats to many lady passengers. Just act as if you are sleeping.
It almost 9 hrs in the plane now. 1 breakfast and a juice session were gone. Now people were roaming around the plane. Desi students also were looking to socialize with others of their kind so that they could find someone else who could accompany them further. But my mind was pre-occupied with something else. Those 'drugs'. What should I do? They stopped me in Delhi. I thought they would arrest me in London and I would soon be newspapers around the world. Hey, thats neat. Free publicity and world recognition at the expense of Crocin , Dygein.
But yeah my head was swirling with ideas. Dispose them in the toilet. Or eat them all. Or leave the boxes in the rack above. Or better give them to old air hostess as a parting gift. Or a very nerdy idea. Hide them in the bag of the Sardarji next to me.
I asked the air- hostess how much we had before we touched down at London. Apart from the medcines and next thing that bothered me was my next flight. My next flight was to Philadelphia from terminal 1. The Air India plane was to land at terminal 3. I had read and heard a lot about the London Airpot and I was really scared that I had very little time to change my flight.
The plane landed at Heathrow at about 11:45 a.m London. Within seconds I had a call from Papa. Some GPS system or What Dad? A lot of people were getting down and majority was Desi Mal. Its very true London is a virtual India. Come on Desis go, give these British their own medicine. Divide and Conquer. This is not history poor readers but a class of computer algorithms. Got you.
It took around fifteen minutes for the plane to get to the terminal. It almost felt like we were travelling to Patna and were stopped just because some other train was passing by. Then to slow nature of Desis. All of them were taking there own liesurely time to get off the plane. Picture chal rahi hai kya? Jaldi Chalo.
I just had one thing on my mind, to reach terminal 1 somehow. The directions at the airport were good and I was able to get the bus to terminal 1. At terminal 1 I had a security check. Boss they are just courteous enough to leave your clothes on. Belt, jacket, shoes and mobile are all sources of bomb for them.
Moving quickly I reached the US- airways counter only to find no one. I read the display and saw the gate at which the Philadelphia flight was to leave. I rushed to gate and reached the gate with 1 hr to flight. There was US- Airways staff(apperntly for help). I told them that I was on the flight and showed them my ticket. They confirmed the ticket on there computer but told me that they could not put me on the flight as I had not been issued a boarding pass. I broke cold sweat. I told them, I had a confirmed ticket and that they should put on flight. My broken english did not help me. I was now close to tears. The lady told me that I should speak to the supervisor. But then she came back and told me that the supervisor was in a meeting. My mind stopped working now and I do not know how was I speaking or doing anything for that matter. I called Papa and told him that they were not allowing me to get on the plane. I don't how did he feel at that moment. But surely it was not comfortable for him either. I moved around uneasily hoping some one would do something. But all was in vain. I kept looking at my watch and the time in it was slipping away. My worst fears had come true. I was stuck all alone at the Heathrow.
Papa was calling repeatedly. But I could not speak much. The whole situation was so over-whelming. I learnt this word from my adsivor. During my first month he always asked that if I was over-whelmed by the American System. And I always lied to him that I was not. The staff was not ready to hear my part of story. They told me that it was Air India's fault that they got me down late. I just kept repalying their messages to Papa. It was now 1:00 p.m. and the plane was ready to take off. All I could do was to watch fly-off. I was stuck at Heathrow.
What really happen in Heathrow is still to come.
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