Posts
Long time since I posted something.
My parents and I left home around 3pm, to catch the Kingfisher Airlines flight from Coimbatore to Bangalore. This seemed the better choice as it was much closer for a trip. I stopped enroute to the airport to buy a cream, and on reaching the airport (it was pretty much unmarked, on the Avinashi road beyond PSG Tech), we had to go through winding roadblocks to reach the parking.
Once there, I was very pleased to have someone ask me if I was flying by Jet Airways, to which I said, no, Kingfisher, to which a man dressed in a cherry-red-sort-of-suit asking me if he could help me with my luggage(I had 32kg, 23kg, and around 8 kg bags). This made me very very happy('Royal' treatment, which I would have otherwise expected to be only for First-class passengers). We were informed that only the passenger could go into the airport terminal, because Independence day was only 3 days away. So we waited a bit longer, and then, I bid farewell to my parents and went inside, waving a last goodbye when I went completely into the airport building. Felt sad.
Once inside, Kingfisher Airlines had its own X-ray screening, and then the bags were weighed. The weights were clearly higher than for a normal domestic passenger, to which I was asked to produce my international flight ticket, and I gave them a xerox copy of the ticket. I noticed that the lady at the weighing section and the Kingfisher volunteer (sprightly young man) exchanged glances and nodded their heads as though to say "Hey he's over the baggage limit" "Hmmm.. It's ok.. Let him go.. Not a problem.." I would realise the complete reason for this only later. The volunteers printed out a boarding pass from their hand-held device; the pass was printed out in a printer in his pant pocket located half-way down his legs.
Formalities were completed, baggage was checked in. I felt like eating something, and went to the restaurant upstairs. I had a sandwich and noticed there were aircraft crew (young ladies) also having dinner; they were having an interesting chat with the waiter; they must be around for a long time. There was also a gentleman who was engrossed in reading the newspaper. When I went to wash my hands, I was finding it difficult to open the tap, and from behind a hand opened it for me-it was one of those flight crew(lady[ha]). Once done, I went downstairs, and I could see the display panel of the Kingfisher Airlines x-ray machine, and the personnel were discussing the image of a pistol in one man's bag, which I think might have been a toy(obviously!). I waited around till the security check for my flight was announced. When it was, I took off my jacket and placed it in the trays given, along with my shoes and hand baggage, got myself frisked, and collected everything and took a seat in the seating area and waited for the boarding to be announced for my flight. I was wearing this jacket, and did not put it in the luggage, to reduce the weights of the baggages so that I could put something else in it. The jacket was a leather one and easily weighed about a kilo.
I noticed that the images on the x-ray machine were actually freezes; these images could be moved from left to right and were independent of the movement of baggage on the conveyor belt.
Once past security I waited patiently, meanwhile noticing avid smokers heading to the balcony of the terminal to have a puff or two. Then the call for boarding for my flight came, and, a Paramount Airways flight was delayed by increasing amounts of time "due to engineering problems". Most of us in the terminal were for the Kingfisher flight; we were shepherded out to our aircraft and welcomed in by the :chic: airhostesses. Thus began my first travel by air. It was around 8.30pm.
One gentleman was still talking on the phone after boarding the aircraft. Funny, I thought... Soon most of us were inside, and on turning back (I was in the last row of occupied seats), I noticed that all the seats behind me were empty. So, this is why, I reasoned, that I was let off with all the excess luggage I had. Hmmm.. The aviation industry is picking up in India, and a lot of people will soon discover the fantasy of flying. On board, we were given a small plastic bag(something like a short sized girl's plastic pencil-pen bag), which contained, on opening the zip, a pair of earphones, a pen, ear buds, a face towel(sealed in the plastic) and a card which said "Kingfisher Airlines"(so that it was visible on one side of the plastic bag). Cool, I thought.. On the back side of the seat in front of me, there was a small LCD screen. Great! We could plug into the tv(there was an earphone plug in the seat handle), adjust personal lighting for reading, and switch off the ac by closing the ducts. Wonderful. I'd never imagined an Economy class ticket would have so much. Anyway. Once the plane started taxiing(I read somewhere that an airplane spends a lot of precious fuel just taxiing on the runway), safety instructions began to be played out on the screens and the airhostesses also were giving demonstrations. ?? Ironic. Just as you are about to start your journey, you are given instructions as to what to do if the plane crashes, which is just what you wish doesn't happen.
The aircraft was taxiing, and then, suddenly, it accelerated so quickly, and we were airborne. My stomach felt funny. I'd heard of it before. We were to have our seatbelts on, and on the LCD screen in front of us we could see our positions on a map of India. Once we were at a comfortable altitude the airhostesses came around and distributed sandwiches and gave a small bottle of packaged drinking water. I started browsing throught the magazines kept in front of us, and I found the airline botique magazine and a feedback form. I promptly started filling in the form, as I was really excited about this airline and how I felt. I was feeling fabulous, even if just for some time. Nearing the end of the flight, the fantabulous Dr. Vijay Mallya appeared on screen and was saying something like "Welcome to Kingfisher Airlines.. ..thank you for choosing to travel with us... ...I have handpicked my crew and take pride in every single one of them.... ..you can contact me about your experience at chairman@kingfisherairlines.com.. " This reminded me of Donald Trump of "The Apprentice" fame where he is always giving away challenges to his candidates and flaunting his wealth simulatneously. I was very much impressed by the airline. I turned in my feedback form and also submitted my voucher to join the "King club" or something, which is for people who frequent on Kingfisher Airlines. I landed in B'lore airport, and collected my luggage(my brand new bags had become dirty :-( ) and halued them onto a trolley(man lifting 32kg IS heavy!). On handing over the voucher to join the King club to one of the Kingfisher personnel, he said to me "This will get activated only after 2-3 weeks". I said to myself, 'Ha, take your time..' I asked one of the Kingfisher volunteers for help in going to the international terminal. As I headed out of the domestic terminal, on seeing the people waiting outside waiting for their friends/relatives, I couldn't but control my wide smile, as I have seen this only on television. I was quietly led to the international terminal by the volunteer. And that was my experience with Kingfisher Airlines. Short and sweet.
Inside the terminal, there were a number of counters; Air France, Lufthansa Economy and Business & First Class, British Airways, coutners same as Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and some others I think.
There was an x-ray screening here too; you put in your bags at one end and it comes out at the other. Now I stood in the line for the Air France counter. There were a few people already in line, including one American family, who were being charged excess baggage for almost everything they carried, an aged American lady, and a French couple. Meanwhile I was given a form to fill out, asking for my travel origin and destination. My turn came at the counter. The young lady[ha] at the counter greeted me, I too greeted her. Then my bags were weighed. I noticed their exact weights: 31.71 and 23.5 kgs. The former bag, I had planned it to be 32kg, but the latter, I had planned it to be not more than 23 kgs. To my surprise, the lady said, "You have one bag over limit, and you will have to pay the extra charges". I had to pay Rs. 2750 for the excess over 23 kgs for only one of the bags. Interesting. I could've packed a little bit more!! I decided, that this 'allowance', I will account for next time I fly. I was showed to another counter, to pay this charge, where an NRI(I guess) was giving out many credit cards to pay for his excess charges. I gave the man at that counter Rs. 2250, instead of Rs. 3250, about which he asked, and having realising my mistake gave him the amount so that he could give me Rs. 500 as a whole. This done, I went back to the lady at the counter, where she handed me the Boarding Passes for all my flights. Boarding passes are the new 'tickets' for all your onward flights, you can board only with them. They are pieces of thick paper with name, flight details, departure terminals and take off times on them, which the lady circled for me. I didn't ask her, but she must have gotten a confirmation of payment on her comp. She was talking on the walkie-talkie in tamil; I said to her, "Tamizha?"(note the 'zh'), she said, yes, but not very enthusiastically. So I toned down the conversation and asked her if she was from Madras, and her reply was yes. I decided to end the conversation there, apart from asking her if I could lock my suitcases. "Oh yes, you can if you want to", and I locked it. Then, as part of duty, she said she had to ask me certain questions. "Did you pack these bags yourself?" "Yes" "Do you have any gift item whose contents you are unaware of?" "No". These questions are asked in order to thwart 'terrorists' from packing bombs in gifts. This reminded me of the famous attempt to bomb an El Al flight, where a husband gave his pregnant wife a bag, and unknown to the wife, it contained a bomb in a secret compartment. A very attentive baggage handler, at the airport, emptied the bag routinely, and found that it was surprisingly heavy for an empty bag. On inspection, he found the secret compartment, and the bomb, which was set to explode when the aircraft was in mid-air. You can search for this incident on the net(this is just a crude version from my memory). And so my suitcases were put on a conveyor belt, probably to the metal boxes which would carry them safely.
My parents and I left home around 3pm, to catch the Kingfisher Airlines flight from Coimbatore to Bangalore. This seemed the better choice as it was much closer for a trip. I stopped enroute to the airport to buy a cream, and on reaching the airport (it was pretty much unmarked, on the Avinashi road beyond PSG Tech), we had to go through winding roadblocks to reach the parking.
Once there, I was very pleased to have someone ask me if I was flying by Jet Airways, to which I said, no, Kingfisher, to which a man dressed in a cherry-red-sort-of-suit asking me if he could help me with my luggage(I had 32kg, 23kg, and around 8 kg bags). This made me very very happy('Royal' treatment, which I would have otherwise expected to be only for First-class passengers). We were informed that only the passenger could go into the airport terminal, because Independence day was only 3 days away. So we waited a bit longer, and then, I bid farewell to my parents and went inside, waving a last goodbye when I went completely into the airport building. Felt sad.
Once inside, Kingfisher Airlines had its own X-ray screening, and then the bags were weighed. The weights were clearly higher than for a normal domestic passenger, to which I was asked to produce my international flight ticket, and I gave them a xerox copy of the ticket. I noticed that the lady at the weighing section and the Kingfisher volunteer (sprightly young man) exchanged glances and nodded their heads as though to say "Hey he's over the baggage limit" "Hmmm.. It's ok.. Let him go.. Not a problem.." I would realise the complete reason for this only later. The volunteers printed out a boarding pass from their hand-held device; the pass was printed out in a printer in his pant pocket located half-way down his legs.
Formalities were completed, baggage was checked in. I felt like eating something, and went to the restaurant upstairs. I had a sandwich and noticed there were aircraft crew (young ladies) also having dinner; they were having an interesting chat with the waiter; they must be around for a long time. There was also a gentleman who was engrossed in reading the newspaper. When I went to wash my hands, I was finding it difficult to open the tap, and from behind a hand opened it for me-it was one of those flight crew(lady[ha]). Once done, I went downstairs, and I could see the display panel of the Kingfisher Airlines x-ray machine, and the personnel were discussing the image of a pistol in one man's bag, which I think might have been a toy(obviously!). I waited around till the security check for my flight was announced. When it was, I took off my jacket and placed it in the trays given, along with my shoes and hand baggage, got myself frisked, and collected everything and took a seat in the seating area and waited for the boarding to be announced for my flight. I was wearing this jacket, and did not put it in the luggage, to reduce the weights of the baggages so that I could put something else in it. The jacket was a leather one and easily weighed about a kilo.
I noticed that the images on the x-ray machine were actually freezes; these images could be moved from left to right and were independent of the movement of baggage on the conveyor belt.
Once past security I waited patiently, meanwhile noticing avid smokers heading to the balcony of the terminal to have a puff or two. Then the call for boarding for my flight came, and, a Paramount Airways flight was delayed by increasing amounts of time "due to engineering problems". Most of us in the terminal were for the Kingfisher flight; we were shepherded out to our aircraft and welcomed in by the :chic: airhostesses. Thus began my first travel by air. It was around 8.30pm.
One gentleman was still talking on the phone after boarding the aircraft. Funny, I thought... Soon most of us were inside, and on turning back (I was in the last row of occupied seats), I noticed that all the seats behind me were empty. So, this is why, I reasoned, that I was let off with all the excess luggage I had. Hmmm.. The aviation industry is picking up in India, and a lot of people will soon discover the fantasy of flying. On board, we were given a small plastic bag(something like a short sized girl's plastic pencil-pen bag), which contained, on opening the zip, a pair of earphones, a pen, ear buds, a face towel(sealed in the plastic) and a card which said "Kingfisher Airlines"(so that it was visible on one side of the plastic bag). Cool, I thought.. On the back side of the seat in front of me, there was a small LCD screen. Great! We could plug into the tv(there was an earphone plug in the seat handle), adjust personal lighting for reading, and switch off the ac by closing the ducts. Wonderful. I'd never imagined an Economy class ticket would have so much. Anyway. Once the plane started taxiing(I read somewhere that an airplane spends a lot of precious fuel just taxiing on the runway), safety instructions began to be played out on the screens and the airhostesses also were giving demonstrations. ?? Ironic. Just as you are about to start your journey, you are given instructions as to what to do if the plane crashes, which is just what you wish doesn't happen.
The aircraft was taxiing, and then, suddenly, it accelerated so quickly, and we were airborne. My stomach felt funny. I'd heard of it before. We were to have our seatbelts on, and on the LCD screen in front of us we could see our positions on a map of India. Once we were at a comfortable altitude the airhostesses came around and distributed sandwiches and gave a small bottle of packaged drinking water. I started browsing throught the magazines kept in front of us, and I found the airline botique magazine and a feedback form. I promptly started filling in the form, as I was really excited about this airline and how I felt. I was feeling fabulous, even if just for some time. Nearing the end of the flight, the fantabulous Dr. Vijay Mallya appeared on screen and was saying something like "Welcome to Kingfisher Airlines.. ..thank you for choosing to travel with us... ...I have handpicked my crew and take pride in every single one of them.... ..you can contact me about your experience at chairman@kingfisherairlines.com.. " This reminded me of Donald Trump of "The Apprentice" fame where he is always giving away challenges to his candidates and flaunting his wealth simulatneously. I was very much impressed by the airline. I turned in my feedback form and also submitted my voucher to join the "King club" or something, which is for people who frequent on Kingfisher Airlines. I landed in B'lore airport, and collected my luggage(my brand new bags had become dirty :-( ) and halued them onto a trolley(man lifting 32kg IS heavy!). On handing over the voucher to join the King club to one of the Kingfisher personnel, he said to me "This will get activated only after 2-3 weeks". I said to myself, 'Ha, take your time..' I asked one of the Kingfisher volunteers for help in going to the international terminal. As I headed out of the domestic terminal, on seeing the people waiting outside waiting for their friends/relatives, I couldn't but control my wide smile, as I have seen this only on television. I was quietly led to the international terminal by the volunteer. And that was my experience with Kingfisher Airlines. Short and sweet.
Inside the terminal, there were a number of counters; Air France, Lufthansa Economy and Business & First Class, British Airways, coutners same as Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and some others I think.
There was an x-ray screening here too; you put in your bags at one end and it comes out at the other. Now I stood in the line for the Air France counter. There were a few people already in line, including one American family, who were being charged excess baggage for almost everything they carried, an aged American lady, and a French couple. Meanwhile I was given a form to fill out, asking for my travel origin and destination. My turn came at the counter. The young lady[ha] at the counter greeted me, I too greeted her. Then my bags were weighed. I noticed their exact weights: 31.71 and 23.5 kgs. The former bag, I had planned it to be 32kg, but the latter, I had planned it to be not more than 23 kgs. To my surprise, the lady said, "You have one bag over limit, and you will have to pay the extra charges". I had to pay Rs. 2750 for the excess over 23 kgs for only one of the bags. Interesting. I could've packed a little bit more!! I decided, that this 'allowance', I will account for next time I fly. I was showed to another counter, to pay this charge, where an NRI(I guess) was giving out many credit cards to pay for his excess charges. I gave the man at that counter Rs. 2250, instead of Rs. 3250, about which he asked, and having realising my mistake gave him the amount so that he could give me Rs. 500 as a whole. This done, I went back to the lady at the counter, where she handed me the Boarding Passes for all my flights. Boarding passes are the new 'tickets' for all your onward flights, you can board only with them. They are pieces of thick paper with name, flight details, departure terminals and take off times on them, which the lady circled for me. I didn't ask her, but she must have gotten a confirmation of payment on her comp. She was talking on the walkie-talkie in tamil; I said to her, "Tamizha?"(note the 'zh'), she said, yes, but not very enthusiastically. So I toned down the conversation and asked her if she was from Madras, and her reply was yes. I decided to end the conversation there, apart from asking her if I could lock my suitcases. "Oh yes, you can if you want to", and I locked it. Then, as part of duty, she said she had to ask me certain questions. "Did you pack these bags yourself?" "Yes" "Do you have any gift item whose contents you are unaware of?" "No". These questions are asked in order to thwart 'terrorists' from packing bombs in gifts. This reminded me of the famous attempt to bomb an El Al flight, where a husband gave his pregnant wife a bag, and unknown to the wife, it contained a bomb in a secret compartment. A very attentive baggage handler, at the airport, emptied the bag routinely, and found that it was surprisingly heavy for an empty bag. On inspection, he found the secret compartment, and the bomb, which was set to explode when the aircraft was in mid-air. You can search for this incident on the net(this is just a crude version from my memory). And so my suitcases were put on a conveyor belt, probably to the metal boxes which would carry them safely.
Now, guess who I met? The couple who I met during my visa-interview-adventure! They were apparently going to Dallas,Texas, by Air France with their extended family as well! What a coincidence....
Baggage checked in. I headed to the Departure Terminal, which was on the first floor(Indian English). With jacket and cabin bag in hand, I found my way upstairs and found a telephone booth. I promptly called my parents, told them the flight was fine, and said good bye and good night. The guy at the booth fumbled with the change, I corrected him and gave him back the extra change and told him to be careful in the future(?). I made my way to the waiting lounge. There was a checking done here also, I had to pass my cabin bag and myself to frisking. I had to pass through immigration, where the person at the desk(he was talking on the phone all the while) asked for my passport, and slid it through a slot, and then I realised that the passports are machine readable. He opened the visa page and put it under UV light bulb. I could see the visa glowing, which I guess, had optical fibre bits which gave the visa that quality. Immigration stamped; it said, Bangalore, India, 12 Aug 2007.
I noticed that the lounge had been refurbished recently; I saw ceiling fans; Iwondered, did this place have just fans till recently? The Bangalore International Airport? There were quite a few people around, some NRIs, one American family dressed in Indian clothes, with flambouyant ghagra-choli, kurta-pyjama... My... Even North Indians flying wouldn't dare wear such clothes.. There was a couple of shops here, one selling liquor and cigarettes and tea and souvenirs, the other a book store. I sat down, just looking at people around, I had a long time to go. It was just around 11pm, and my flight was at 2.05am. There was an NRI lady who had a tough time controlling her small kid, and people coming and going. I tried to read a book I had brought, about Swami Vivekananda(bought at the Rotaract Book Fair at Makkal Mandram, for a very low price, as are all books by the Ramakrishna Mission). Each line made me think profusely. I tried walking around the lounge to kill time, and it was then that I realised that there was another waiting room nearer to the exits, about the same size of the previous lounge. I saw a currency exchange 'booth', his rates were so so exhorbitant(about Rs. 4 off the selling and buying rates per dollar)! I noticed someone being led through the lounge, it was Dr. Kasturirangan, former chairman, ISRO. I was hoping I'd see someone famous, I did. Somehow time passed; around 1.30am, 13 Aug 2007, the boarding call came.
I stood in the long queue for the Air France flight. I think a Lufthansa flight was also taking off at the time, so there was another queue as well as long. There were counters selling calling cards(Airtel) to which I paid no interest. We went through a long corridor, and as I went to pick up a copy of The Hindu dated 13th(Yes! It was printed by then!), I was told that was for the Lufthansa passengers, and those for the Air France passengers was further down the corridor. Of course, it was free. I picked one up, being the person not letting a newspaper going by unread. There were personnel checking the hand baggage, the line seemed to stall, but, some other personnel called me on, I guess to just bypass the checking, maybe just to speed up things. I made my way across the boarding deck, where the Captain of the plane and the airhostesses welcomed me(said Namaste!), checked the remaining half of my boarding pass(the other half is torn when just earlier when you report to the boarding call), and guided me to my seat. The economy is arranged in 2-4-2 seats, with the 2's being near the windows. You have to pass through the Business Class section(I think it was Business Class, not First class) after entering the aircraft, which is arranged as 2-2-2 seats. I was in the 4 seat section, seated away from the aisle. I found, as with the earlier flight, a pair of earphones, and a shawl. I put my cabin bag into the overhead compartments. My bag just fit. And then, surprise surprise, who do I meet? The couple from the visa-adventure I came across earlier during check in. They had seats next to me! This is too much for a coincidence, I thought. Anyway, I got into my seat, put on my seat belt, and waited for the flight to be filled, flipping through the in-flight brochures they had in the seat pocket. Then, before take off, the instructions, to be heeded if the plane crashed, were given out, with demonstrations by the airhostesses, as with the Kingfisher Airlines flight. And then we taxiied and soon we were airborne-the second flight of my life. I could see out of the windows, the lights of Bangalore city. On the back of the seats in front of us, we had LCD screens, controlled by remotes which could be pulled out of the seats, and they were connected by wires doubling as elastic cords.(I pulled so much out I struggled for a few minutes putting it back). Soon refreshments and dinner were out, we got packaged water, and for dinner, I had chosen 'Asian Vegetarian Meal', or AVM, which was some form of Rajma(soya beans) and rice, and in some time everyone was asleep. It was getting freakin cold, lucky I brought my jacket on board, I thought. I put it on snuggly and wrapped the shawl around myself.
I woke up after a good sleep, and we were in sunlight. I think we were somewhere over Europe. Breakfast was serve; I got a breadstick, an offer of coffee/tea which I turned down, some fresh fruit salad, milk in a small sealed cup and sugar in tiny sealed packets. All during the flight, there were announcements by the captain, in French and in English, but you couldn't really make out the difference, because it was so so close to gibberish. You had to really concentrate on what he was saying to understand. It's an Air France flight, okay, the crew are French, fine, but can't they speak the language the majority of their passengers know clearly? This is what really saddened me. This went on and on and on, for all their announcements. It was like as though he had by-hearted the English version and was reciting it from memory, trying to recall from memory and pausing at times. Nonsense. On the LCD screen, there were a lot of programmes, including movies, serials, including French ones, radio channels playing music and some Indian movies. I took some time to get accustomed to the settings. I managed to see Shrek 2 by the time I landed. There was also an option to show our location on a map, and I saw that we were slowly approaching Paris. And so we landed in Paris.
Forms were distributed before we landed, to those whose final destination was Paris. These were to collect information about those persons, probably like the US' I-94 form. The plane soon came to a halt and taxiied to the boarding deck. We tried getting out of our seats and getting out our bags, but since everyone was trying that, in that cramped place, it wasn't possible. So we had to wait till some of the people ahead of us, in the Business Class, got out. It was during this time, that I got to know my other neighbour, who was a software profeesional on his way to Amsterdam, being sent by his employer in Bangalore to meet with a client. After about 15 minutes, we made our way out of the plane, with the airhostesses and the captain bading us good bye. Making our way down the stairs, I set foot on French soil, into a bus. Our captain had announced that the temperature outside was 15 degrees C. Cold, I thought. Once inside the bus, we were told to get into another bus, which we did. One Indian woman got a phone call-from India apparently, and she was like, "I'll be in Paris for this week, how about we meet after I get back". Yeah right, bringing your cell phone from India on your foreign trip.. Must be rich! The bus we were in, was a huge thing, and didn't have any gears, so no clutch. And it was a powerful thing. The driver took us around and around the roads, giving us glimpses of the serene surroundings of Charles de Gaulle airport. A really big airport, because we were inside the bus travelling for a good 15 minutes. We got down at one terminal, and made our way up a flight of stairs, and let me tell you, CDG is nothing lesser than a Bhoot bungalow. It's got such huge buildings, and not too many people, it gives you the impression of a scary place. I passed through one set of checking, again, removing my shoes and getting my passport checked. And then began my search for terminal 2E.
The problem was, that I didn't know the right time, and the time on the boarding pass was around 09.45am, so not realising that was boarding time and not time of departure, I was panicking, afraid I'd miss my flight. I checked some LCD displays, they showed two flights to JFK, one around 10 and one later, and the thing is both were in different terminals. To make things more confusing, one of the personnel I asked didn't know where I should go. I followed some signs; turned out I had to take a metro; I got into it, travelled in it for about 5 min, got off and continued my search for terminal 2E. I came upon a board which directed me one way, and I saw that 2E was just ahead. Or so I thought. I walked. And walked. And walked. Such a big airport! Phew.. I needed to use the Restroom. Finally I came upon 2E, the last of the terminals, with the end encased in glass, overlooking a runway and open fields, all green in colour. It was getting pretty warm, coz of the 'Greenhouse effect'. I asked one of the attendants how much longer the boarding would take, she said, about one hour. Great... I wouldn't miss my flight after all... There were bean bags for people to sleep on, and some chairs. Some time later, the boarding call came, so we stood in queue. I was handed two forms, I-94 and a Customs and Border Protection one. The former is an arrival-departure record and the latter is a declaration that you don't have any soil, plants, animals, etc which can harm the United States, and if you have anything you were going to leave any items in the United States when departing. I ticked appropriately. While in line, the attendant asked to see my visa and on knowing that I was a student, asked to see my I-20. When I gave her a xerox copy, she said, "For USA, only original",and asked to see the original(actually she got to know it was a xerox only after I told her, so she actually didn't know the difference). Then boarding time came, I gave my boarding pass, and went on into the airplane. The same greetings; "Namaste", but when I said hello, the airhostess replied with a nice hello. This time I sat in a window seat, with the arrangements 3-4-3 I think. And off we went on our trip to NY.
The same instructions, same demonstrations. This time, for lunch I got some channa (crap) which started to make my tummy feel really bad. The thing had an aweful taste to it. Next to my, on my left, was a girl(I think French, because she was reading a guide to NY city in french) who was fiddling around with the controls on the LCD screen. I promptly showed her the remote. Next to her was an American guy, probably in his mid-twenties. Nothing much happened during this flight. My seat was directly above the wing, so I couldn't see much of the ground , all I could see was a light blue sky and clouds here and there. I did notice that the wing bends upwards, obviously due to the lift generated by the air, and I would occasionally look out of the window, which was a double glass window with a gap in between. I got up to use the toilet once, both of them had to move to let me to the aisle, from where I walked to the toilet. The toilet wasn't very big, a pretty fat person would definitely find it difficult. The water is sucked down by a suction pump, unlike on ground where it would be gravity's headache to get the water out. There was a wash sink, a baby-nappy-changing-station, and a 'drop-box' to drop off any paper waste, after wiping your hands clean of water or the nappy for the baby. I used this opportunity to ask one of the flight attendants about the I-94 form which was handed to me at Paris airport and which I had to turn in at JFK, my port of entry. And then I headed back to my seat.
The food this time around was some sort of channa dal, and after eating it, I knew something wasn't right. My tummy started growing butterflies in it. I was also handed a Customs and Border Patrol form, (CBP), which also had to be turned in at JFK. The CBP is a declaration to be made that you do not have any soil, or food or any item which you would leave in the US, or any biological agents, or blah blah blah.......... The I-94 is a form filled by all aliens(people who aren't US citizens, not people who fly by UFOs), so that the US Department of State has a record of when you enter the country and when you left it. It is also proof that you have entered the country through legal means. And slowly we headed to the 'land of freedom'.
We soon landed in JFK. It was bright and sunny, it was summer in the US, while it was monsoon season in India. I was pretty excited. We had pretty much the same 'sense of rush' when we got off at Paris. As we got out of the plane, onto the 'ramp', connecting the plane to the terminal, as before, the captain and the airhostesses saw us off, with the customary 'Bonjour', 'Namaste', or the 'Have a nice day'. All this while, I was wondering whether to call this 'stepping out onto the ramp' my first step on American soil, because, technically, it was not soil, it was just some sort of carpeting on a metal skeleton. The carpet could've been made in China for all I guessed..
Anyway. Out of the ramp into the airport terminal. And we had to walk some distance to get to immgration. Was pretty long. Along the way there was an automatic ramp, more so a sort of a horizontal escalator. So you stand on it, and it transports you. What bewildered me was why it wasn't there all along the entire length of the terminal. I couldn't think of a possible reason for that. Along the way, I could see that we were also joined by travellers from a Lufthansa flight which had also just landed. I didn't know this would be a problem. As we descended the stairs, we came to immigration - a number of counters , serviced by only one queue, which was made to wind a number of times along the counters. There were a separate set of counters for American citizens. Now, since the Lufthansa flight landed at the same time as we did, the previously empty counters were full. Damn. I had to stand in that long queue. All the while agents were screaming to get the American citizens to go to the counters specially earmarked for them. In front of me, were a couple with a child, a young boy, who started crying while on top of his father's shoulders. They were allowed to bypass the queue so that we wouldn't have any more annoying crying. As we waited, the citizen's counters became empty, so we were allowed to go to those counters. Some counters were closed. I stood at one counter, where a trio of men were having their fingerprints checked. The first of them registered their prints; they didn't match, so the agent at the counter held up his hand to ask whose passport it was; it wasn't the guy who had registered his prints. It seemed of the three only one knew English, and they were Europeans. Meanwhile I took out my I-20, passport, admit(it wasn't needed), I-94, CBP form.
My turn came. I wished the male agent, and gave my documents. I registered my fingerprints, while the agent verified my photograph and other details on my visa. He proceeded to stamp my I-20 with the date of entry, stamped my I-94, tore the bottom half off and stapled it to my passport. The date of enrty was visible, but there was something scribbled on 'last allowed date', which I later learnt was 'D/S', which meant 'Duration of Stay', which meant I could stay till I finished my studies.
Immigration done, I put away my documents into my cabin bag, traded a $20 note for small change, took out a trolley for $3, put my HEAVY luggage onto it(man, 32 kg is heavy!) and took it around to the Delta terminal.
I exited the arrival terminal, went to the Delta terminal, checked in my luggage with the lady at the counter, and was informed that the flight I had to take was in another building. I noticed, that as my bags were put on the conveyor belt and headed out of the building, there were officers in uniform noting down details on the bags. It was then that I realised that I had forgotten to unlock the bags, to save the trouble of the officers breaking open my bags if they wanted to. Damn. So I headed out of the building. One taxi driver asked me if he needed a taxi, I said no. There were a lot of people waiting outside the terminal but inside the building. I stepped out of the building, and for a second I thought I was in another world. There was noone to be seen, except for a few limos here and there. I asked a policeman who was puffing away where I had to go, he pointed to a building not far off, I thanked him, and started walking, clutching my bag and documents. I went into that building, went up the stairs, and headed to what I thought was a departure section. On enquiring, I was told to go to another part of the building. Off I went. The first checkpoint. I showed my boarding pass, and this volunteer, who had really long nails, looked at it, checked my passport, and let me in. Second checkpoint. I had to take off my shoes, jacket, document bag and put my bag and all these into the X-ray machine and pass through the metal detector. I collected my items on the other side and didn't care to tie my shoe laces, stuffing them into my shoes. I noticed an agent in uniform looking at me as though to check my behaviour. I guessed at once what role she was playing, assured myself I wasn't a terrorist, and looked at her for a few seconds to see if she would stare back or just look the other way. She glanced at me, and then looked away, dismissing me. I wasn't a terrorist, you see.
And so I headed to the departure terminal, which was some distance away. I headed to the restrooms, relieved myself, drank some water and went ahead to the terminal. There was still some time left. I called my parents and told them I was in New York. It was early morning in India and afternoon here. The flight was supposed to be at 15.45, but there was no sign of it on the arrival/departure charts. Another interesting thing to note was that this building seemed to host the flights within the US, or rather central and mid-west US, and the terminal I was in was handling almost one flight every 15 min or so. Phew. And so I waited and waited and waited. I was looking around the terminal, at the building, at the people. There were pilots, probably relieving themselves. There was a pub, and people would leave the money on the table, not waiting for the change. People must not mind, or was it that the pricing was such that the difference between the closest dollar note and the drink would make the change negligible.... Too much thinkin, ain it. The building had a high roof, and over the intercom there were regular calls for people who were about to forsake their tickets. There was also an announcement to neglect a fire alarm, which would just be for training purposes. The building also had, as a first floor, a lounge, which was I think for the business/first class.
But my flight still hadn't arrived. There was this young lady, who was carrying a cat, in its carrier, and fondling it at times, while reading a book. I also noticed that people weren't bothered about sitting on the floor. Unthinkable in India. All this while, I was ruing my memory for not noting down Darshan Patel's number, who I had requested to pick me up at Cleveland ariport. He was President of the Indian Student's Association, Akron, which had arranged for members with cars to pick up students arriving at Canton/Akron airport or Cleveland to the temporary accomodation in the university, which would usually be someone's apartment. Finally, when it my flight came, it was near five in the evening. I stood in line, gave out my boarding pass, and off I walked along the ramp into the airplane. We had to walk quite a long way... along tunnels, on and on. There were tunnels branching off for other flights. Just before we walked into the plane, there was a personnel who offered to stash away cabin bags which we didn't want to carry into the cabin, and I gave mine and got a 'reciept'.
to be contd.....
The same instructions, same demonstrations. This time, for lunch I got some channa (crap) which started to make my tummy feel really bad. The thing had an aweful taste to it. Next to my, on my left, was a girl(I think French, because she was reading a guide to NY city in french) who was fiddling around with the controls on the LCD screen. I promptly showed her the remote. Next to her was an American guy, probably in his mid-twenties. Nothing much happened during this flight. My seat was directly above the wing, so I couldn't see much of the ground , all I could see was a light blue sky and clouds here and there. I did notice that the wing bends upwards, obviously due to the lift generated by the air, and I would occasionally look out of the window, which was a double glass window with a gap in between. I got up to use the toilet once, both of them had to move to let me to the aisle, from where I walked to the toilet. The toilet wasn't very big, a pretty fat person would definitely find it difficult. The water is sucked down by a suction pump, unlike on ground where it would be gravity's headache to get the water out. There was a wash sink, a baby-nappy-changing-station, and a 'drop-box' to drop off any paper waste, after wiping your hands clean of water or the nappy for the baby. I used this opportunity to ask one of the flight attendants about the I-94 form which was handed to me at Paris airport and which I had to turn in at JFK, my port of entry. And then I headed back to my seat.
The food this time around was some sort of channa dal, and after eating it, I knew something wasn't right. My tummy started growing butterflies in it. I was also handed a Customs and Border Patrol form, (CBP), which also had to be turned in at JFK. The CBP is a declaration to be made that you do not have any soil, or food or any item which you would leave in the US, or any biological agents, or blah blah blah.......... The I-94 is a form filled by all aliens(people who aren't US citizens, not people who fly by UFOs), so that the US Department of State has a record of when you enter the country and when you left it. It is also proof that you have entered the country through legal means. And slowly we headed to the 'land of freedom'.
We soon landed in JFK. It was bright and sunny, it was summer in the US, while it was monsoon season in India. I was pretty excited. We had pretty much the same 'sense of rush' when we got off at Paris. As we got out of the plane, onto the 'ramp', connecting the plane to the terminal, as before, the captain and the airhostesses saw us off, with the customary 'Bonjour', 'Namaste', or the 'Have a nice day'. All this while, I was wondering whether to call this 'stepping out onto the ramp' my first step on American soil, because, technically, it was not soil, it was just some sort of carpeting on a metal skeleton. The carpet could've been made in China for all I guessed..
Anyway. Out of the ramp into the airport terminal. And we had to walk some distance to get to immgration. Was pretty long. Along the way there was an automatic ramp, more so a sort of a horizontal escalator. So you stand on it, and it transports you. What bewildered me was why it wasn't there all along the entire length of the terminal. I couldn't think of a possible reason for that. Along the way, I could see that we were also joined by travellers from a Lufthansa flight which had also just landed. I didn't know this would be a problem. As we descended the stairs, we came to immigration - a number of counters , serviced by only one queue, which was made to wind a number of times along the counters. There were a separate set of counters for American citizens. Now, since the Lufthansa flight landed at the same time as we did, the previously empty counters were full. Damn. I had to stand in that long queue. All the while agents were screaming to get the American citizens to go to the counters specially earmarked for them. In front of me, were a couple with a child, a young boy, who started crying while on top of his father's shoulders. They were allowed to bypass the queue so that we wouldn't have any more annoying crying. As we waited, the citizen's counters became empty, so we were allowed to go to those counters. Some counters were closed. I stood at one counter, where a trio of men were having their fingerprints checked. The first of them registered their prints; they didn't match, so the agent at the counter held up his hand to ask whose passport it was; it wasn't the guy who had registered his prints. It seemed of the three only one knew English, and they were Europeans. Meanwhile I took out my I-20, passport, admit(it wasn't needed), I-94, CBP form.
My turn came. I wished the male agent, and gave my documents. I registered my fingerprints, while the agent verified my photograph and other details on my visa. He proceeded to stamp my I-20 with the date of entry, stamped my I-94, tore the bottom half off and stapled it to my passport. The date of enrty was visible, but there was something scribbled on 'last allowed date', which I later learnt was 'D/S', which meant 'Duration of Stay', which meant I could stay till I finished my studies.
Immigration done, I put away my documents into my cabin bag, traded a $20 note for small change, took out a trolley for $3, put my HEAVY luggage onto it(man, 32 kg is heavy!) and took it around to the Delta terminal.
I exited the arrival terminal, went to the Delta terminal, checked in my luggage with the lady at the counter, and was informed that the flight I had to take was in another building. I noticed, that as my bags were put on the conveyor belt and headed out of the building, there were officers in uniform noting down details on the bags. It was then that I realised that I had forgotten to unlock the bags, to save the trouble of the officers breaking open my bags if they wanted to. Damn. So I headed out of the building. One taxi driver asked me if he needed a taxi, I said no. There were a lot of people waiting outside the terminal but inside the building. I stepped out of the building, and for a second I thought I was in another world. There was noone to be seen, except for a few limos here and there. I asked a policeman who was puffing away where I had to go, he pointed to a building not far off, I thanked him, and started walking, clutching my bag and documents. I went into that building, went up the stairs, and headed to what I thought was a departure section. On enquiring, I was told to go to another part of the building. Off I went. The first checkpoint. I showed my boarding pass, and this volunteer, who had really long nails, looked at it, checked my passport, and let me in. Second checkpoint. I had to take off my shoes, jacket, document bag and put my bag and all these into the X-ray machine and pass through the metal detector. I collected my items on the other side and didn't care to tie my shoe laces, stuffing them into my shoes. I noticed an agent in uniform looking at me as though to check my behaviour. I guessed at once what role she was playing, assured myself I wasn't a terrorist, and looked at her for a few seconds to see if she would stare back or just look the other way. She glanced at me, and then looked away, dismissing me. I wasn't a terrorist, you see.
And so I headed to the departure terminal, which was some distance away. I headed to the restrooms, relieved myself, drank some water and went ahead to the terminal. There was still some time left. I called my parents and told them I was in New York. It was early morning in India and afternoon here. The flight was supposed to be at 15.45, but there was no sign of it on the arrival/departure charts. Another interesting thing to note was that this building seemed to host the flights within the US, or rather central and mid-west US, and the terminal I was in was handling almost one flight every 15 min or so. Phew. And so I waited and waited and waited. I was looking around the terminal, at the building, at the people. There were pilots, probably relieving themselves. There was a pub, and people would leave the money on the table, not waiting for the change. People must not mind, or was it that the pricing was such that the difference between the closest dollar note and the drink would make the change negligible.... Too much thinkin, ain it. The building had a high roof, and over the intercom there were regular calls for people who were about to forsake their tickets. There was also an announcement to neglect a fire alarm, which would just be for training purposes. The building also had, as a first floor, a lounge, which was I think for the business/first class.
But my flight still hadn't arrived. There was this young lady, who was carrying a cat, in its carrier, and fondling it at times, while reading a book. I also noticed that people weren't bothered about sitting on the floor. Unthinkable in India. All this while, I was ruing my memory for not noting down Darshan Patel's number, who I had requested to pick me up at Cleveland ariport. He was President of the Indian Student's Association, Akron, which had arranged for members with cars to pick up students arriving at Canton/Akron airport or Cleveland to the temporary accomodation in the university, which would usually be someone's apartment. Finally, when it my flight came, it was near five in the evening. I stood in line, gave out my boarding pass, and off I walked along the ramp into the airplane. We had to walk quite a long way... along tunnels, on and on. There were tunnels branching off for other flights. Just before we walked into the plane, there was a personnel who offered to stash away cabin bags which we didn't want to carry into the cabin, and I gave mine and got a 'reciept'.
to be contd.....
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