Indian Diaries: The Return Journey

As I gulped my last sip of coffee sitting at a reclusive corner of Kiva Han, I realized that the holidays had finally arrived. It was 9 am on the fifteenth day of December and my flight left in another 7 hours from Pittsburgh. I could see some students running for their morning exam in haste. It was another day for most of the people in Pittsburgh but it seemed to me as though I was completing a full circle. I was going back to the planet I had come from. Planet India- an unique place where 1,100,000,000 brown people coming from scores of faiths and religions reside in an almost unbelievable harmony and run a so-called system called democracy. Yes, I had turned pseudo racist but it had more to do with me not trying to think of the good days than forgetting my planet.

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Bachu called up in sometime and trooped to my place along with Alhad. My place was a mess but Bachu found some place on my Baca lounger somehow. The packing was done in no time and we sat down with some of my home and college videos -almost forgotten treasures I had never looked at in the past 16 months. Everything was coming back-home, Ma, family, food, my room, my college, my farewell. Small creatures with big hearts I had left back when my shuttle took off from planet India. After finishing off the last bit of the ice cream at my place, both Bachu and Alhad left too. I felt like crying but could not. Bachu had summed it up aptly- the three of us had fallen into some sort of relationship.

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Nicole called and said she would be there by 2. My flight was to leave at 3:45 pm and I felt it was cutting too close even with her self proclaimed ‘nice-and-smooth-driving’. The night before she had treated me to some snacks and red wine at her place and I did not turn down her offer for a drive to the airport. She is such a darling that when I say good things about her I am conscience of the fact that she does take them as someone hitting “upon” (yes, it should be ‘on’ but she likes it that way) her. All incoming calls were rejected on the way. One last hug was all I took back for the next month.

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The flight to Chicago was delayed by 45 minutes. I was sleepy, making last minute calls to as many friends as possible. It wasn’t long after I fastened my seat belt that my sleep deprived eyes shut off. I grudgingly walked out of the plane at Chicago- feeling dizzy and tired. After traveling on a shuttle to the international terminal, standing at the AI counter for an eternity, forced to take my clothes off and getting my carry-on bag hand checked twice and almost forgetting to collect my laptop, Mandeep and I finally reached our departure gate. I dozed off immediately. Mandeep woke me up in sometime to inform that we were on the wrong gate. Thank God he was awake and so were my hopes of reaching India. As I reached the correct gate, there was a sea of humanity. Wow, so many Indians!!! Children, students, wives, oldies, North Indians, South Indians, Gujjus, Punjabis, Bongs and thrown in between them were some harried Americans trying to check the baggage, AGAIN!!! I mean, it was insane. One last message to Nicole, call to Sachin and home, and I was walking towards the plane.

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The seats inside the plane could easily have been from the 70s. The plane looked more like a refurbished 3AC railways coach from India than an international carrier. The air hostesses were way beyond their expiry dates and greeted the passengers with folded hands and a shut mouth. I mean, come on. You’d expect them to say a word or two-a Namaste, Hello, or anything. But the trained-to-be-dumb hostesses did not utter a word. The next shocker was that there was no plasma screen at every seat. Seeing me surprised, Mandeep questioned what carrier I had flown the last time. British Airways- that answered it.

“What choices do you have for dinner?”

“Vegan and non-vegan!”

“No, I mean- continental, Indian, Chinese?”

“Yes, we have continental”.

“And Indian?”

“Yes, we have that too.”

“What’s in non vegan Indian food?”

Turning towards Mandeep, the man spoke , “Tell him”.

Tell him? What was the man expecting- he asked Mandeep to tell me what he had to serve me? How ridiculous!! AI was just loosing my next trip and any advantage it had being my national carrier.

“Dude, this is the Chicago-London leg. Wait till tomorrow. They will bloody talk in Hindi and be ignorant once no firang (foreigner) is on board”.

True, Mandeep paaji.

Not once was my call for the airhostess answered. I was not given a shawl and Mandeep was gracious enough to lend his one to me. More was in store during the flight, but forget it, no more Air India now!!

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“All crew, prepare for landing”.

I was there. 3:24 am, December 17 2006. One year 4 months and 10 days. The movie had just begun...