This happens only in...

See the troubles that poor me has to go through to write something on my blog :-p. I am writing this from a cyber cafe in Udupi and yup I reached safe and sound for a great reunion :))). I am going through the happiest moments of my life right now. Err, except the fact that the heat is so much that I'm sweating profusely all over the keyboard, sheeesh!!

Just thought I'll post a few observations on the trip back to India ;-).

1) We left early on Friday April 28th 2006 as we had to catch a flight from Cincinnati to New Jersey. Cincinnati itself is 1.5 hours away!! So Sri went to pick up a rental car he had booked. Since we had luggage (luggage is an understatement :-p) and no car was suiting our purpose, we got a free upgradation to a mini van!! This surely happens only in America :-D.

2) Ok we got checked in Cincinnati airport and our luggage was sent away :(. They checked it all the way to Bangalore :)). I think this too happens only in America, though me not sure ;-).

3) We climbed the plane and it went till the runway. Just when we thought everything was smooth, the flight halted and we were told there would be a delay of 1.5 hours. The pilot spoke in very low tones (which I thought was deliberate) and I couldn't hear the reason :-p. As for this, you can certainly guess where this happens :-p.

4) We reached Newark and we still had about 3 hours to go for the Air India flight :-p. We went to the counter and were issued boarding passes. It was only later we came to know that my seat was in one row and Sriram's was in another. Well, cursing the lady didn't help at all, but another girl travelling alone helped us by giving up her seat. Thanks lady, whoever you are. And as for the other lady, I wished I could strangle her :-p. Looks like this happens only in Air India!!

5) On aboard Air India flight which left thankfully on time, looks like the only job of the air hosts and hostesses is to feed the passengers. Totally from New Jersey to Bombay, we were fed 2 lunches and 2 dinners full of oil-rich food. It was almost as a witch fattening children for her dinner ;-). Not that I'm not grateful and this, I'm sure happens in all international flights :-D.

6) One of the saddest parts of the flight was the stop-over in Paris. We thought we'll be allowed some time in the airport though the stop-over time was only 1.5 hours. But sadly, they kept us in the plane!! And this was while the cleaning crew cleaned the plane over. I half expected the vacuum to be run over us too :-p. One lesson learnt was that we need some time in a stop-over to stretch our legs and freshen up. And I'm confused where this happens. So I'll leave the choice to you. Your choices are:

a) Only in Air India
b) Only in Paris (as the plane was in Paris at that point of time)
c) In America (as the plane was from America)
d) In India (Going there ;-) :-D)
e) All of the above :-D.

7) Landing in Bombay was one of the best feelings of my life. It was great to feel the balmy air again ;-). As soon as we were out, there were people shouting Hyderabad, Bangalore, Cochin and Chennai :-D. This was to direct people to the connecting flights :-D. Hehehehe. This happens only in India bhai :-D.

8) We were crowded into one place (where we were actually supposed to form queues). After about 15 min or so, suddenly, one lady said that people going to Riyadh had to shift into another line and poeple to Hyderabad had to join our line. One guy shouted that he had been standing in the wrong queue for 15 min and couldn't these people have informed us earlier? Sri and me were laughing at all this and I said to him that I missed all these things in America :-D. Boy, I really did ;-) :).Well, where else can such things happen? :).

9) I have another reason to hate the lady who issued our boarding passses at Newark. She issued passes to the flight from Bombay to Bangalore too. And screwed up again!! One of the seat numbers issued, didn't have a seat on the plane!! God!! After some stress and fuss, we settled down in 2 seats as, thankfully, the flight was not full and there were extra seats available. This was an Air India flight again and I have strong reasons to believe that this happens only in Air India :-p.

10) After landing in Bangalore (my excitement was feverish by this time), we cleared immigration without too much effort. The luggage arrival was a bit late, though the plane was on time. The customs was a breeze thanks to the Rs.100 + $1 note given to a guy ;-) :-D. Poor guy begged for a dollar note :-D. Corruption is everywhere but this happens only in ....

After crossing the customs the first people we saw were our parents. The smiles, the hugs, the tears wow, I can't describe them. And it was 4 AM in the April 30th morning. Parents and sibling coming to receive you at totally odd hours, yup, you guessed it right, this happens only in INDIA :-D.