I disconnected the call and stood up and looked at her
confusingly. She again said “Rajan, could you come with me for few minutes,
just some formalities”. And she started walking and I followed her and I asked
her “What madam? Any problem?” She again said “No no don’t panic, it’s just a
formality,” and she entered into a room which is mentioned STAFF ONLY. I
hesitated for a second and she said “Come sir, I’ll take you back in the same
way, don’t worry”. Then she entered from one room to another, then one lift,
and we went 2 floors downstairs and reached the basement. There one police men
was sitting and she asked to give the hand baggage to him, then he tore off the
tags in the baggage which had the security check seal. Then he asked for my
Boarding pass and crossed off the security check seal in that too. My heart started beating very fast. “What’s going on here? Why they are tearing
the security check seals? What kind of formality is this?”.
Then the police man searched my hand baggage and hand it
over that lady. She said “We’ll keep this in my room for a while; we’ll take it
while returning back”. Then she kept the bag in her room. I just took my
passport holder with me. Again I asked “Madam, what is going on? I’m scared,
where we’re going?” she said something like luggage needs to be checked again
and some problem like that. I didn’t understand anything properly, she was
saying mostly in Hindi. Then we went inside a room which looked like some
industry. All containers were kept there. She said “Here’s where we keep all
the containers which have the entire luggage, we’ll connect it to the
appropriate flight. No one is allowed here, you’re probably lucky”. “Lucky??.....Lucky???????????................you
*****. Its almost 7 PM now. I have to board a flight to US in 1 hr and you’re
scaring the hell out of me by bringing here and I have no clue what’s going on
and you’re saying I’m lucky???”.
Then we went inside a small room where there was only one
security guy sitting and one baggage screener was also there. She asked me to
wait in the room and went somewhere; I was just standing in the room with my
legs shaking. Then another police man came inside. While coming itself he was
shouting “who are you? What is your name?” (In Hindi). I said “My…name
..Elavarasan”. He asked “Madarasi??”.
“Yeah ..yeah madarasi”.
“Enku tamil theryum”( I know tamil).
“oh..that’s great” I smiled without smiling.
“engu pora??”(where are you going?)
“hmm..to US..America”.
He seems not a tamilian, he just spoke broken Tamil. The way
he asked the questions, it seems he was trying to make me relax and not scare
too much.
Then the lady came and said that she asked them to bring my
luggage. She told me that my luggage needs to be checked again. Then some
people brought my 2 big bags and it was fully wrapped. The police took a knife
and tore the wrap and opened the bags and threw everything outside the bag. The
lady said “oh me must have spent 400 rupees for wrapping that and everything is
getting wasted”. “400 rupees?? Yeah that
is the Important thing I need to worry about here” .I had some homemade
powders like Rasam, chilli, Idli powders etc. After seeing those, his tone
totally changed. He shouted “what are all these? What powders are these?”. I
started shivering and said in shaky voice “Those are for cooking, rasam, chilli
powders, home made”. Then after seeing that I got afraid he again turned back
to normal, trying to speak in tamil to relax me. For few minutes it was like
watching Anniyan (Aparichit) movie climax. One second he is shouting in Hindi
next second he is politely talking in tamil. “God, I don’t even want to go to US, just get me out of this room”.
Then finally all my things are outside my bags, and time is
now 7:20 PM. I stuffed everything back in the bags and the lady also helped me.
It took almost 3 hours for me and my roommate to finish the packing in the
morning. Now we did it in 3 minutes.
Then she tore the luggage tag and pasted a new tag in the two bags. Then only I
came to understand that they did something wrong in the system while tagging my
luggage. And if they didn’t fix it, it would get transfer to different flight
in Delhi. So when they’re doing the tagging again after it went to the container,
they needed to do it before the police officials and luggage needed to be
checked again.
Then they took the luggage back to the container and the
lady took me back into the airport. We went to her room and picked by hand
baggage and went to the security check again. I had my jacket in one hand,
passport holder in one hand and bag in the shoulder and we both were running.
Once reached the security checkpoint, they asked me to open the bag and I took
everything outside. The lady said “let me help, give your jackets, passport
holders etc. So I gave all the things in my hand to her and finished the
security check and we finally reached the gate. Time was 7:40 PM. And there was
a big queue standing. She gave all the things back to me and told the security
that I was taken for some formalities and so need to be allowed before others.
So the security allowed me to go inside before others in the queue. While
leaving, the lady said “sorry for the inconvenience sir and thanks for the
co-operation and have a safe journey”.
I went inside the flight and was still in confusion and I
started to feel something is missing. Then I started checking everything again
and I found that my cell phone is missing. I gave to that lady during security
check along with Jacket, passport holder. I forgot to get it back. I got
freaked and said to a airhostess “I need to go out immediately”. She asked worryingly
“What sir? Why? What happened?”. I said
“I missed my cell phone outside with one lady”. Then she said “Ok no problem,
go and get it”. Then I came to the door and told one office that I want to go
outside. He also asked in the same tone “Why sir? What happened”. I started
blabbering “one lady, took me for checking, my cell phone.. with her, I have to
go..please please”. He said “Ok sir, go” and he asked one security to go with
me inside the airport. Then me and that security guy started running inside the
airport and that lady is running towards us with the cell phone. She laughed
and said “Oh sir!! Really really sorry sir”. I didn’t know how to react, to get
angry? Or to say thanks?. I just gave a weird smile and came back to plane.
Finally I sat in my seat and felt little relaxed. It started to rain outside and they announce
that it’ll take some time for the plane to take off. I took one of my novels
and started reading it. I didn’t even finish one page, I felt someone touching
my shoulder. I looked up and it is that policeman who checked my luggage. There
are no words to explain how I felt that time. He asked “Give me your passport,
quick, give me”. I gave him my passport
and he noted down something from it and gave it back. Then he asked “You got
your cell phone right?”. I shook my head symbolizing yes. Then he said “Ok
happy journey and thanks for the co-operation”. It took few minutes for me to
come back to feel normal. “God, till the
plane lands in US, there are no guarantees that I’ll reach there”. And I
was still worrying whether my luggage will tag in the flight correctly in Delhi
or not.
The flight took off at 8:30 and reached Delhi at 10:45. **CHECKING**
The Delhi airport itself looked too good
compared to Mumbai and Chennai airport. I was wondering how US airports will
be. Then I boarded on flight to US at 1 AM with lot of excitement and fear. The
journey time went mostly in movies in between meals. Yeah they gave the meal like almost every 2
hours, and every time it was getting worse. It was like a warning to get used
to US food. Two hours before reaching Chicago, they gave all the forms such as
customs, Immigration check etc. And it landed at around 7:15 AM CDT on Chicago. “God I couldn’t believe I’m really in US”.
**CHECKING**
I arranged all the documents that they might ask in the
Immigrations check. I was preparing answers for all questions which my
teammates told me that they might ask me in the Immigration. I got nervous when
I came here the counter. But they didn’t ask me anything; they just stamped the
I-94 and sent. Then I was waiting for my luggage and found it when I almost
decided that it got lost in Delhi. Then I came out and “wow..am I really in US? I couldn’t believe it” took a train to the
domestic airport.
**CHECKING**
I got the boarding pass and searching for my Gate. The gate
number is G10. It was upto G 13 ot 14 and almost in all letters. “A1-14,B1-14,…how many gates are here? This is
US..hmm..i couldn’t believe it”. I asked some people and found a way to
reach my gate G10. Then I reached the Gate G10. Nobody was there in the gate, of
course it was too early and I had more than 3 hours layover time. I had to call
my teammates in Chicago and I needed quarters to call them from a payphone. So I
decided to have a cold drink to get the change and went to a restaurant near by
my gate. I was looking at the menu card. “Cool
drinks?..I’m in US..lets start with a beer”. So I ordered a beer, the waitress looked at me up and down and
asked “may I see some id please?”. “Is it
not good to ask for beer at this early morning?”. Then I showed my
passport, and then she went to get a beer.
An old couple who was sitting nearby me laughed at me and said “don’t
worry you’ll get used to here”. And the beer came. I told cheers to myself and
had my first drink in US.
**CHECKING**
I went to payphone and tried to call my teammates, but I didn’t
know how to use that phone. I asked some guy who also tried to call there, but
no use. Then I asked him the local time and set my watch to the local time to
catch the plane on right time. Anyway I was nearby my gate only, so I’m not
worried about missing the flight. There were PC’s with Internet connections,
and I update the status in Facebook that I reached Chicago. ”In Mumbai/Chennai airports only 2 or 3 laptops
will be there for internet and that also won’t work properly or some keys would
be missing in the keyboards. Here how fast it is!!!..God, I couldn’t believe I’m
in US”.
**CHECKING**
I was roaming here and there around my Gate trying to make
me believe that I’m in US. It was like in exhibition. Everything looked clean,
sophisticated and luxurious. Then I went to one more restaurant and ordered a
coke and took my diary and noted all the incidents happened in Mumbai airport
to write in blog later. While drinking coke, I was looking at the menu board in
that restaurant. “Muffins,doughnuts,bagels,trifles…ahh!!
All names we heard in the F.R.I.E.N.D.S show or some English movie. Look at the
peoples here, they are really white. I can’t believe I’m really in US”. I
was wondering each and every second and it was like I was watching English
movies for long time and suddenly I’m in the movie. Then I again went to the
payphone and this time I succeeded in calling my teammates and informed them I reached.
Then again some Facebook in the superfast internet and some **CHECKING** and some
Oh-god-couldn’t-believe-I’m-in-US stuff.
But every time ten minutes I was going to the gate and
checking that the flight is not started yet and was checking time also
constantly. Then the time reached 10:45 AM. Alarm rang in my brain. Very few
people were there in the gate though just 45 minutes are there for flight to
take off. I asked one old man in the gate, “flight to Philadelphia is from this
Gate right?”. He replied “no, this is for Florida”. I showed him by boarding
pass and the Gate G10 mentioned in that. He saw that and said “Yeah it’s right,
this is G10, but don’t know about this flight, wait…this flight was at 11:30,
now its 11:45. You have missed your flight”.
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttt?????????????????..............................”
I saw my watch, it showed 10:45. “Oh my god, I must have set the timing wrong”. He said “you better
go and contact some officials here.”. I didn’t know where to go, I got panicked
and I went to one person in green uniform and said “Sir, I missed the flight,
but I’m in gate the entire time sir”. He checked in the system and said “That
flight has been changed to Gate H11, but you have missed it, it’s past 11:30. You
better go there and ask”.
I started running to the gate H11 and at the same time lot
of thoughts started running in my mind. “Will
I get another flight? By any chance this flight would have got delayed? For next
flight ticket, the money I’m having is enough? Can I use my traveller’s cheque
to buy ticket? Can I stay tonight here in Chicago with teammates and go to
Philadelphia tomorrow? OMG my luggage already went in that flight, can I get
that back if I go delay? Why am I this irresponsible? Super fast internet? beer in the morning? Yeah I know something
like this will happen”.
I reached Gate H11 and as I was running fast I was
breathing heavily. I showed the guy in the gate my boarding pass and said “huh..huh..huh…I..
huh huh missed flight..huh huh…gate changed..huh..huh…I didn’t..huh..know..huh.huh..”.
He looked at the boarding pass and said “Well Sir, there is one more flight to
Philadelphia which is leaving in 45 minutes from now, I’ll give you the
boarding pass right now”. I said “How much huh..huh..i need to pay..huh..huh ?”.
He printed the boarding pass and gave it to me and said “Sir, go to gate H1, it
leaves exactly in 45 minutes”. I asked “Do i..huh.huh..need to huh..pay for
this..huh..?”. He replied “no need sir, just go to the gate immediately and
catch that flight”.
**CHECKING**
Then I boarded on that flight and reached Philadelphia. I
got my baggage from baggage claim and took a taxi from there to Pennsylvania.
While going in taxi I was looking at all the places around and wondering “am I really in US? Well In Mumbai airport
they did some mistake in the system and tortured me for more than one hour and here
I missed the flight itself and they just simply gave the ticket to next flight.
NOW I SHOULD DEFINITELY BELIEVE THAT I AM IN US….100%”.
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