When it began : Aug 6, 2006 5.20 pm IST
When it ended : Aug 8, 2006 2 pm EST ( 11.30 pm IST)
It was a bright sunny afternoon... Oh no Oh no! How can it sound so nice? It was a cold wet afternoon when the whole of Mumbai and parts of Pune were facing the onslaught of a severe thunderstorm. And the rains showed no signs of letting up. Right since morning I had received several phone calls n messages from my future classmates warning me about the deteriorating conditions in Bombay and advising me to leave early, since I had to travel by road from Pune to Sahar Airport.
Finally left for Bombay at 5.20 pm. This leg of the journey was reasonably uneventful. Visibility was low but thankfully the driver was good. So no problems. Made a pit stop at a Food mall and then went on our way. Made it to Bombay by around 9 pm and then started hunting for an eatery nearby. Finally thanks to directions from Arpan, located a Pizza Hut and had my last meal with my parents (for now) and then went on my way.
Reached Sahar Airport Terminal 2C at around 11.30 pm. In a group of 12 people, I was the 8th to arrive. Amidst a lot of commotion and tears, we finally embarked upon what eventually became an epic journey.
Got the bags shrink wrapped, checked in and completed the immigration formalities. Then waited in a snaking queue for security check. Just when we were about a few meters from the entrance, an airport official hollered "All passengers going by AI 111, please sit down. Your security check will be later on" Aaaaaargh! How frustrating! We went and sat down in the lounge and waited for our friends to join us. Finally at around 2.45 am our flight number was announced and we proceeded for security check.
Boarded the aircraft, a Boeing 747-400 at around 3.15 am and our wait began. It was past 3.40 am, the scheduled departure time and the aircraft demonstrated no signs of budging even an inch. Finally the plane took off at 5 am and we were on our way to Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi.
By around 5.30 am all of us were fast asleep but AI stewards chose to serve breakfast then.. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! What a pain!!!Amdist a lot of abuses n frowns we finished the food and got set to go back to sleep. But alas! That was not meant to be. We fastened our seat belts as the plane started landing. We reached Delhi and waited for the Delhi bound passengers to disembark. After that we all gathered around and chatted for a while and some of us shifted here and there as the cleaning was in progress. After about 40 min or so, we got back into our seats and waited for the other passengers to board the aircraft. Soon the remaining passengers were in their seats and all hopes of flying comfortably in an almost empty plane were shattered... :-(
Anyways, we waited and waited in the aircraft yet another time. Heard strange sounds and then there was a power cut. Looked like Air India was trying to remind us one last time that power cuts do happen anywhere on Indian soil. After a further delay of about half an hour the flight took off and we were finally en route to London.
Reached Heathrow after some 7-8 hours which we tried to sleep through but failed miserably because everytime we kinda managed to sleep we were served food and then more food. Uffff! Anyways, had to deplane with our handbags for aircraft cleaning and security reasons. Went around a whole circle, while gaping at the awesome duty free oh-so-perfect-for-window-shopping stores. I was stunned to see a board where some security instructions were in Gujarati. Felt like telling the airport folks that Hindi is the national language, not Gujarati (no offence to Gujjus but this was too much to digest!) Thankfully we travelled a few days before the London bomb fiasco so did not face the kind of problems others did. Anyways, boarded the supposedly cleaned plane and waited to get going again.
Alas, the Delhi episode repeated itself... This time more noises and a longer power cut. Finally the craft took off and we were on our way to John F. Kennedy International Airport, NYC. Another last ditch attempt to sleep.. but luck would not allow it. More food... more beverages and some lousy movies made sure I was up.
Landed at JFK on Aug 7, 2006 at 5 pm local time. Got off the plane and waited in a loooong queue for immigration. Finally it was my turn... I approached the officer with my I-20, passport, I-94 and some sheet for customs where I had to declare what I was carrying. He checked it, scribbled an A on that customs form, signed and stamped my I-20 and I-94 and I was on my way... or at least that's what I thought. Collected all three humungous bags which were pretty easy to identify because of the shrink wrapping and then waited for my other not so lucky friends to collect their bags. Once all 12 of us were set, we decided to push off for our connecting Delta flight. At this point the significance of the A marked on my customs form became obvious as I was asked to go to the Agriculture section since I was carrying some food stuff. Airport officials chose to check my cabin bag and 1 suitcase which had nothing. I smiled gleefully, came to the other end with my trolley (for which I had to pay $3 by the way), and then my struggle to put the bags back on the trolley began. The airport official there, seeing my condition offered to help and I gladly took his assistance. Meanwhile, Janhavi, who was also flying with me, was not so lucky. She had to open her suitcase and show them what she was carrying. Finally they were satisfied and both of us started walking towards a pair of huge doors leading to the arrival lounge and the elevators which we were to take for connecting flights. With a looot of struggling I managed to push my trolley out and from the corner of my eye saw Janhavi struggling to find her ticket. Meanwhile we had completely lost track of the remaining 10 cartoons we were travelling with. I waited for Janhavi to come out for quite some time. Then started looking around for the rest... didn't wanna miss the flight. By that time I felt I was lost in that huuge airport with less than an hour left for my connecting Pittsburgh flight. My trolley, loaded with 3 32 kg (actually all of them weighed more than the allowed quantity :-P) bags and my 12 kg handbag was extremely difficult to maneuver. Anyways, after a few minutes of hunting around I finally found some of my friends and with a sigh of relief I went and joined them.
Went up to the 3rd level from where I was supposed to take the shuttle/train to Terminal 3. The train came in a couple of minutes. 2 of my friends boarded and just when I was trying to push my trolley onto the train, the wheel got caught in the groove and just when I (with help from others) had managed to free the same, the door began to close. I had no option but to stare helplessly at the train and my friends as it sped off to the other terminal. Anyways after an agonizing 10 minutes wait, given that it was a race against time courtesy the AI delay and the long queue at immigration, the train came and this time my friend and I managed to board it. Reached the terminal and then made our way to the Delta counter which was a little far off and required a lot of walking. My 3rd bag kept falling off the trolley every few minutes and my friend Hardik and I had to keep putting it back in place. Uff!
At the Delta counter I checked in and got my boarding pass. It was 7 pm and the flight was in 30 min time. We rushed through the security check and reached the gate at around 7.15 pm. Rushed to the lady near the gate and asked her if the Pittsburgh bound Delta flight had started boarding yet. She flashed me a polite but thoroughly bored smile and asked me to wait. At around 10 minutes past the scheduled time, the flight started boarding. Sanchita and I burst into a grin after seeing the size of the airplane which we were to take. But our smiles disappeared when we had to hand in our cabin bags with our precious documents because they were too big for the overhead lockers. Anyways, we boarded the plane, fastened our seatbelts and waited to get going on the last leg of our journey. Alas, this was not meant to be this smooth.....
We waited for almost an hour... and the plane showed no signs of planning to take off. Finally the pilot apologized for the delay caused by ATC and taxied to the runway. Just when the plane seemed to pick up speed and (we thought) gear up for take off, it came to a halt. After another hour the pilot's voice crackled on the PAS, stating that there may be some delay owing to the heavy traffic caused by 1 non operational runway at JFK. Optimistic as I am, I thought things would be sorted out soon. Another hour passed by. Some of us had already begun to doze off. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, the pilot made the announcement we were dreading... He stated that the flight had been timed out or in other words cancelled since it was sitting on the runway for 3 hours. After an additional hour we reached the terminal, completely dejected. It was 12.30 am and we were starving and tired, having gone several hours without food and sleep. Alas, our woes were far from over....
We reached the Delta counter only to find out that our group had been split up and some of us were not even confirmed. After requesting them to put us all on the same flight, this was where our final itinerary stood. LGA (for those uninitiated that's La Guardia airport, the 2nd airport in NYC, about 18 miles from JFK) to Cincinnati at 6.30 am and then from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh at 12.45 pm. Pretty crazy eh?
Anyways, we requested Delta folks to provide us with accommodation and transportation from JFK to LGA but they refused. By then we did not even have the energy to argue any further. We just took the number of the cab service and then went to the baggage claim area to collect our bags.
It was 2 am. The 11 of us started hunting for our bags in the huge baggage claim area. The fortunate few, including me, found all our bags and waited for the rest. There was one security personnel sitting at one end of the room. Those who couldn't find their bags went to him for help but in vain. Finally someone somewhere (ok... honestly I don't quite remember the details here...) mentioned that perhaps the missing bags had been put on the Atlanta bound flight which did take off and these would reach Pittsburgh the next morning. Yikes! Poor Pooja lost all three bags of hers and several others had 1-2 bags missing. We sat there... hungry, sleepy and dejected, with some of us (including me) sitting on the conveyor belt. The only bright spot were the theplas supplied by Jayini, which fyi, the American immigration officials confused for mangoes. :-P Finally around 4 am we called for cabs and mentioned to them that we have around 35 bags. Around 5 am a huge van and a large car arrived outside the baggage claim area. We piled into the van with help from the drivers.
After speeding through the city in the dead of the night, we reached La Guardia Airport in about 30 minutes. The airport was buzzing with activity. After waiting for a loooong time and finally checking in our bags, we proceeded towards security check. Finally at around 6.20 am we were through with the formalilties and while we were running towards the gate for boarding we could hear our names being announced on the public address system. We apologised and boarded the aircraft. Found our seats and sunk into the same after placing our cabin bags in the overhead lockers. Thankfully this flight took off and a beautiful air hostess served us drinks which we sipped happily and then dozed off to sleep.
Reached Cincinnati on time (for once) and then trooped out of the aircraft. By that time we had no energy to even drag ourselves, leave alone our cabin bags. After some amount of walking, reached a lounge and collapsed into the seats. Then went and bought some sandwiches for breakfast from Starbucks. The poor vegetarians had no choice but to drink hot chocolate at McDonalds. After breakfast we went and freshened up (which included brushing our teeth too... lol!). Met an American lady who asked us whether we have been travelling for a long time to which we responded with an affirmative. This was the first proof that we indeed looked tired by then. She then asked whether we were from India and when we said yes to this too, she gave a huge smile and said "Welcome to America". That sure felt really nice....
This time, with ample time in hand, we went and patiently waited near the designated gate for the Pittsburgh bound flight. Had a mini photo session there. After some time we got on board and thus embarked on the last leg of the journey. This was pretty uneventful. I sat listening to music throughout the complete duration of the flight, while occasionally peering out of the window to catch the first glimpses of Pittsburgh. And then I saw.... Scattered buildings amidst lush greenery. Greenery wise no comparison with Cincinnati, but beautiful nevertheless. I was absolutely excited. I paused my mp3 player and just stared out... mesmerized by the view of my new home. It was a fantastic feeling.
After the 55 hour long haul from Pune, I was finally at my destination, namely, Pittsburgh. There was a huge smile on everyone's face and everyone had just one thing to say "Finally we've reached". The excitement was oh so evident. It was almost like an achievement, a battle that we had survived. And at that point it felt as though all the efforts were worth it... And with this the saga ended as we parted ways and departed for our new homes.
