My first air travel which became an international one! - Part 2

Aaj mei upar.. aasma neeche…(?) how come..? Aasman tho phir bhi upar hai, just 35000ft above sea level doesnt mean "aasman neeche hai!!" Heights always inspired me. We have a light house very close to our school, where we used to go quite often during the lunch breaks and while some of my friends were afraid of going up, I was always the front runner for that.

Back to our journey, I was eagerly waiting for the dinner (and the drinks!) that would be served. Since the airlines serve food, based on the destination time, and it would be around 9.30 PM local time in Frankfurt. The seating arrangement was 3+4+3 model. Two air hostesses were serving on one side while another group on the other. One of them looked up to my seat number and said "Hi, I have a special meal for you" Special meal… for me..? I wondered what was inside the packet she gave (or lol!! did she mean something else.. !) I opened the packet only to realize that it was an Asian Vegetarian meal which was mentioned in my itinerary. …huh!! I really don’t know who played on this, my company or the travel agent. Socha tha kuch non-veg khayenge, magar mila "idli sambhar". Well, it was not idli-sambhar, it had some rice, curry, side dishes and pickle. I "adjusted" with that and asked for a cup of apple juice. I was following Sreedeep’s (my colleague for this transition who left for Minneapolis a week earlier) advice to take as much of juice as possible. He also said it would be ok to have some hot drinks too, but he wouldn’t recommend it. Again, I didn’t want to spoil my first trip with something which I am not much comfortable with...so took a pass this time, but next time I would surely :D

Though it was not very cold inside, yet I covered myself with the blanket they provided but kept on switching TV channels to reach something which I have interest in… Ah! I got a tamil one, but since it was not thaaaaat interesting I just watched it for some half an hour and switched over to audio music … It was a 10 hr flight from Chennai to Frankfurt. I really didn’t have any idea how to keep myself engaged these 10 hrs. Though we started an hour late, the pilot announced that they expect to reach on time (churukkam paranjal oodi ethum ennu!!) I slowly fell asleep an hour after the meal. Some 4 hrs passed and I wanted to pee, seeing the lavatory free, I got up and without disturbing my co-passenger I moved towards the lavatory. I looked out for the "push" or "pull" sign on the door to open it but it was a sliding one. I got into the lavatory and closed it. The lights got brightened and……………….!!!

I knew I couldn’t sleep for the remaining 4 hrs and so kept myself engaged by simply walking up and down the economy class and in between I took some juice and enquired about the destination and the time it would take to reach. I kept my eye on the TV screen where the flight-altitude levels etc were been displayed. I was watching constantly the altitude level this takes and the places over which we were flying. At times we felt a slight ups and downs in the plane which reminded me of my cousin, Lal, an IATA guy, who told me that there would be something called "air gutters" through which the plane passes and you would feel as if you are traveling on the "kochi" roads!!

As hours passed, I could see the early morning light (kizhakku vella keeri!!) in the horizon. Man, it was such a beautiful sight that I am running short of words to describe it!! I think we could see the morning rays a little bit earlier and brighter than the people who are right below on the surface.. does that makes sense..? whatever…!! I could see from the window that the aircraft was literally blowing apart the clouds as it roared ahead and it was a fabulous sight to see the sunrays passing through the clouds overhead to the clouds below. And the shadow they create on the lower level clouds..ah! what a fantastic scene, HEAVEN, it is!!!

Our pilot announced that we are just 20 minutes to the destination and requested us to "fasten your seat belts, switch off your mobiles. But still it took another 10 minutes since the air traffic controller didn’t permit us to land and we had to take a small round over the city. And the city had many sky scrapers and well structured roads with plenty of flyovers. We can hardly see any vehicles on the road. This place seemed to have a warm climate, however was not sure. I was wearing a white Armani slack body hug and army-green color jean with my brand new Woodlands shoes! (boasting a bit :P) with a jacket folded and hanging down my elbow . The aircraft landed safely and I made the first step of mine and a giant leap for my dreams!! Oops, did I talk Neil Armstrong?

Passing through the gate amongst the crowd, suddenly I saw a face and felt like I have seen him somewhere else. Aey! Wasn't that Yashin….? Oh yeah that's him! Along with him I saw Jally and Rajendran, but Alex was seen missing. Wondering who these guys are…? they are my office colleagues who are back from Minneapolis/Fargo after a 2 weeks onsite visit. Hardly we had a chat (office grapevine) with them for sometime than Alex, our manager came in. I greeted him and we exchanged all sorts of news in the office and how my trip was, had any difficulty at the terminals and bla bla bla… We chatted for some more time as my connection flight was at 12.45 and the time was hardly 9 o’clock.

Alex said he would take me to Terminal #1 as that was the place where I get my connection flight and on the way I saw some more "foreigners" again..! may be this time more Europeans he he… ! As we moved following the sign boards he told me that we would talk to the officer at the counter and confirm the terminal and get the gate number. The officer was answering another passenger’s queries and inspite of that I moved close to him for my turn. Immediately, Alex called me from behind and said that you have to wait for your turn behind the yellow line on the floor. I looked down and saw the yellow line. He continued that there are some social manners which are to be followed in a foreign country. This is not India where you can make a crowd at the counter and overtake the other person. That sounds good and logical! No rush, no noise, everything calm and cool. I wonder why Indians does not have the patience to wait for a while. Alex accompanied me to the terminal and wished me a happy journey. I thanked him and joined the queue for the security check and as I knew that the security checks for US departures were very strict, I was eagerly waiting to know what was in store for me at the US Customs Department!!!

Thanks for reading….appreciate your comments….To be continued in part 3