Taking Off… to an experience and a destination

Date and Place: 28^th June 2010, CA Block, Shalimarbagh, New Delhi.

It was a usual day for people in Delhi, but for me it was the day when I started my journey to London, United Kingdom. I started off early to Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport as it was my maiden tour to abroad. The radio cab negotiated the traffic and took nearly 1 hour to reach the air port. I had seen domestic airports but international airport was new to me. The third terminal of IGI will be operational in couple of days and all the way I could see the posters of the terminal. I saw long queue of UAE bound passengers. Most of the people who came to bid adieu to them had moisten eyes. Persons coming with passengers can’t enter inside airport unless and until they have a pass which allows them to go only up to luggage section. The moisten eyes symbolizes tears of separation and pain of loneliness. As I pushed my luggage cart further ahead in the queue outside gate-4 of IGI, Delhi I saw more tears and women who came to bid adieu to their husband were trying to control their tears. The husband files to an alien world to have a job which gives sustainable money to the family back home. For this sustainable amount of money the husband has to endure a great deal of pain and suffering. Long working hours with overtime and graveyard shifts to make some quick bucks coupled with separation from home land, family and friends makes the life nothing more than hell. An old grand parent virtually in tears hugged his grand children and showered kisses for the last time before they entered the air port. But the woman accompanying the UAE bound passengers were not so lucky to get even a hug from their better half. They silently stood their like statues, tears running down their eyes, and vision fixed on their husband. Before my turn came I looked sky wards and had a silent prayer. No one came to see me off the air port, I closed my eyes for a fraction of second before my turn came.   

The CISF personnel guarding the gate checked my passport and ticket and let me in. I booked my luggage, tagged my hand baggage, pocketed my boarding pass and headed towards the immigration. The immigration official was like a teacher who is fond of asking questions. Reading my last name, he knew I am from Orissa and asked “why are you going to UK?” I said, “To attend world congress of engineering, IAENG.” He again asked, “Are you studying?” I replied, “Yes, in Thapar University, Patiala.” He took another couple of minutes and minutely checked my passport and visa before stamping my passport. As I move forward there is a security check point. In India you travel less and go through more security check points. In Delhi, if you go to a mall for shopping, security personnel stand in front of you with a metal detector. You go to a metro station; CISF team is ready with metal detectors and baggage scanning machines. Now its time for a body check with hand baggage check. After a couple of minutes I cleared it also. After all the checks now it was time for a long wait. With only my faithful and inseparable laptop as my hand baggage I roamed around the airport. Saw the price list of different shops and said to my self, it is better to be hungry then to pay Rs. 130 for 200ml of coffee, Rs 50 for nimbuzz whose market price is Rs 15. I converted Rs. 5000 to pound in SBI and got 70 pounds. Queen Elizabeth was all in smiles in the GBP 5 note. It was time for departure. Again a CISF man came and checked the air line tag and the security stamp in the hand baggage and let us move forward to the plane. As people like me started to think that the security checking is over, there is one more. Just before entering, you have to show your passport to immigration officials who ask variety of questions. Inside Air India, I was allotted a seat which was just near the emergency exit. One of the flight crew came and gave some specific instruction about the importance of the seat and how to open emergency exit door in emergency situations if the flight crew is not capable of opening the door. Soon the flight was on the run way and ready for take off. As the flight rushed to be air borne most of the passengers including me and the pretty air hostess sitting near the emergency door had a silent prayer.     

            The distance from Delhi to London is 7330 km on air. A normal plane has a average speed of 800kmph. The height of the aircraft remains at an average 11,000 km and outside temperature of -58 degC. So the simple mathematics says that you have to sit inside the plane for more than 9 hours. After some time, Air India serves hard and soft drinks with a packet of my favorite chana chur. After that an elaborate lunch was made available with accompanying tea or coffee. For the entertainment of passengers TV sets are available in the seats. After lunch, many people started to sleep. I switched on the TV and watched 2 movies (Raan and Ishqiya), read 3 articles of TIME magazine, and listened to my favorite old songs. I didn’t like “Raan” much but I liked “Ishqiya”. The song “dil to baccha hai” by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan saab is great. But there was still a lot of time to spend, so I tried to catch a nap. Before long air India’s crew was ready with a sandwich and a cake with tea and coffee. The real time map on the seat TV showed London was 500km far. After some time the commander announced that Heathrow Airport of London was in sight. I adjusted my watch with the local time. Soon the plane was active. Sleeping passengers got up and prepared to land to a destination. I looked outside the window and it was sunny with clear sky. The time in London was 6pm; still the sun was shining bright.

            The flight touched down at Heathrow at the scheduled time. Again I cleared immigration, reclaimed my bag and waited for one of my friend of my brother in law to pick me up. While waiting for him, I saw a couple of kisses, a couple of tears and hugs and more and more passionate kisses. So the board read “WELCOME TO BRITAIN”