The US Diaries - Chapter 1

Departure & Arrival



My flight was on Sunday morning 01:30 AM. I was flying on Austrian Airlines. This was my third choice, so I was kinda happy that I got a flight of my choice. My other two choices were Lufthansa and KLM.



Saturday was a hectic day for me from the very begining. Mom and dad helped me in packing my suitcases and getting hold of all things. I finished my packing before brushing my teeth. This was the first thing on my To Do List. I had called Sunny to come over so that he can also be with me when I leave. After doing the packing stuff, I did my chores and then ran to Haldiram to get sweets. Umesh was supposed to come there, but when I called he asked me to get sweets on his behalf for Manish and Saurabh. I reached home and then took Dad along with me to Sai baba mandir in Sector 61. It was already 4 in the evening doing all these things. Sunny had arrived by then. I was calling everyone in family from morning. I had tried to call Nitin and Abhishek but Nitin's cell was unreachable and Abhishek didnt picked up. Finally in the evening Abhishek picked up the call. I talked to him and Nitin for a long time. I was happy that I called them and talked to them before leaving.



I left my flat with mom, dad and my brother on Saturday night at 21:00 hours. It took us almost 80 minutes to reach International termninal of IGIA, New Delhi. There was slight commotion near the terminal due to vehicles. Sunny got out of the car and went to get a trolley. The driver stopped the car near Gate 1 and we all got out. I got my luggage from the car and loaded on the trolley. A Traffic constable was blowing horns on all vechicles to drive away fast. I touched the feet of my parents and hugged them and Sunny and asked them to leave. Mom wanted to stay back for some more time but I asked her to leave as I didnt wanted to see her wet eyes. I bid farewell to them and they left. As soon as they left, I felt a jolt inside me. Guess, it was the thought that I will be away from them for three months! I dont know why I felt such, coz here also in NOIDA, I leave alone and I went home after 6 months last time! Maybe this is what they call psychological factor. As far as I was in India, it felt like I was with them only. But now it seemes what it likes to be away from family.



My colleague was already there with his parents. We waited for some half an hour and then decide to enter the terminal. By that time I had already weighed my luggage. It was well under allowed baggage limits. I felt relieved. We went inside the terminal and then crossed the level 1 of security check, where the do the x-ray of the baggage and tie it up. The Check in counter of Austrian Airlines was at the other end of the lobby. We moved there. The queue was not lengthy and there were three active counters for check-in. After doing normal formalities I got my boarding pass. Then I started searching for a phone booth so that I can tell mom n dad that I have checked in and ask whether they reached or not? I got sight of a BSNL booth. I called mom from there. They had reached home. That booth didn't allowed local calls. I had to make a local call and after a lot of searching I got hold of a pay phone. Neverthless, that thing was screwed as the other party on the line was not able to hear my voice. I was like Damn you #%$&%#*. I asked my colleague to lets move in. We got in queue for immigration check and got the immigration stamps. Then I saw another Airtel PCO booth. We decide to get our cameras stamped at Custom office first. The guy sitting over there stmped our camera. We were asked to get that doner by Amit so that if we have another camera with us while returning they wont object that! So from there, I rushed to make a call and then did that. The attenadant over there was a lousy bastard and he didnt returned change. I was like, why these bastards think that keeping a ruppee or two with them is like their fundamental right?? It's not that a single ruppee was that important for me in terms of monetary value. No, it was not. But I hate giving away without any reason and I hate more when I have to leave some amount without any reason, no matter how small that amount may be! Freaking morons!



I was seeing duty free shops and I started strolling inside one shop. All that was available on sell was either wine or ciggarettes. Nothing of my interest. So I headed for final check. We crossed the security check and reached Gate 9, where from we had to board our Austrian Airlines flight. I was like scouting for some chicks around but all I couldnt find many of them! :P

However one thing drew my attenton was an indian couple, actually I was hooked on the girl. She was wearing a red pullover and had shoulder length hairs, which were free. no hair bands. She was wearing specs, which were adding to her appeal! Time and again my eyes went on her. My apologies :) So here I was. Waiting for my maiden air ride :) All too excited to fly to US!

As we were waiting the crew members came and I was like Ooosh, how beautiful she is! One of the air hostess was so beautiful and cute. There dress was red in color, which is Austrian Airlines color. they allwnet behind the doors and we were still waiting for the the door to open finally. After some time, we were finally asked to form a queue and the gates were opened.



You may luagh at me, but I was too excited while I kepy my first foot in the plane. We were seated in our economy class seats. The place was not a big one! The economy class seats were having green color covers and every seat had a tv screen. Thanks for that Austrian! I was seated in the middle column first row, which added to my discomfort :( I wanted to be at window seat so that I can have a look outside shen the flight takes off. Jut the thought of the scene outside the window was making me more and moe excited. But here I was seated in the middle column :( Anyways so the plane took off smoothly and we left Indian soil behind us!



The handset in my seat was all screwed up and after repeated attempts to dismount that, I failed! I kept pressing buttons by having that fixed in its position! The embarassing moment came when I swicthed some channel and after wasthing for seconds, started looking into my book, the next moment I looked onto screen and the thing that was running was an adult movie!!! I was shocked and immediately switched off the screen. It was embarassing cos besides me was an Indian couple! Thank God, the lady didnt saw that but I think the guy had a look when I hurried to switch off the screen and dur to my damn handset, I created a stir there :)

I resisted having wine or beer in the flight! Though at moments, I was tempted but someone came in my thoughts. I had my promise to keep to someone for whom I dont even matter now! But for me, the person and the promise still hold as strong as it was on the day, I made the promise.

After repeated attempts to sleep, I was feeling like hell. I wanted to lie down on the floor and have some sleep, at least for an hour. But I knew I couldnt do that. It wasearly morning, arounf 5:00 AM Vienna time andI woke up completely. I can see the darkness in the sky fading. The temperature outside was -1 degree celsius. What!!! I am gonna freeze, if it will be so cold down there as I didn't had any warm clothes with me in my hand bag. The plane started descending and the temperatyre started increasing making me happy. When we started to land for touchdown, the temperature down was 7 degree C. I was like "Ok, Its not that cold. And after all, we have to be in the transit area only. The flight landed and I was seeing the beautiful landscape outside. Lush green trees and forest in the distance can be seen out the right window.

The terminal was small but beautiful. It was aesthetically designed and was not at all congested despite being small. I shot some pics here and there and then went to transit area to take rest. I sat there for almost 3-4 hours, somwtimes wandering here and there in shops, trying to convince myself to buy something. But I didnt bought anything. My colleague did bought something for someone special, I had no such person and so I bought nothing :D

The time to check in came and we lined up near teminal 1. After security check, we came to know that the flight has been delayed due to some technical fault. It got delayed for almost an hour. I was busy in bird-watching ;) and try to have eye contact with someone, but I think I didn't had that much guts.

Finally, it was announced that the flight is ready and passengers were requested to board the flight. We boarded the flight and after taking our seats, the captain announced that they are going to take the flight at its 83 % of max speed to cover the time lag. This time I got the window seat but it was not adjacent to my seat, it was a bit ahead so I had to bend to look outside it :(
Theperson seated next to me was an American and as soon as he seated he opened his book and started reading. I asked him, whether he can change the seat so that my colleague can sit with me? He was not interested and so I did not insisted again. This time, I had to eat non-veg coz both options were non-veg. I opted for chicken coz the other option was Pasta with tuna fish :(
For drinks, I went for Coke only :D

After around 7 hours, we reached NY. I was checking the map on my screen and seeing outside window. I was seeing the beautiful country right down there, the land of my dreams, the land of my oppurtunities. Soon, the map showed that we were in the NY skies. I was looking down at the Manhattan skyline. Wow, it looked amazing from up there. Man, I wanted to hold that flight there and sit in the cockpit to keep looking at that skyline. Soon, we were hovering above the JFK and the flight started to prepare for landing. We touched the American soil and I was all set and done for coming out of the flight. I was seeing the vast airport outside my window and all the flights standing in the hanger area. When the flight was docked, I took my bag and came out of flight. We were given two forms to fill for Immigration check in the flight. I had to re-fill I-94 coz I had screwed some section in the form.

The immigration check was easy and simple and I was just asked some simple questions. I got stamping and the date was 29th DEC, so I would not be here for seeing the new year bash at Times Square. Anyway, we went for collecting the baggage which came after almost 20 minutes. We collected our baggage and took the baggage trolley after paying $3 bills. We came out of the terminal and so here we were looking at the gate of JFK and US outside that gate!

I had arrived uncle Sam!