Vinny’s Blog

Friday July-25^th-2008 5:30PM/India Time US Time would be Saturday - July 26^th approx 5:30AM. I left my house in US around 5:30 PM it’s Friday, they (airport security) these days generally recommend to arrive at the airport at least 3 hours earlier to the actual flight time. Flight was to leave at 9:00 PM.

A friend of mine and my brother-in-law were at home, one of them was going to drop me at the airport. My friend did, flight was late by 50 minutes right at NJ before taking off, due to runway congestion.

Mumbai Airport Boy oh Boy , have we arrived ? Gone are those days when the airport looked like a Bus Parking lot with shabby light and poor air-conditioning. India might have been late to the party but boy oh, boy. Look at this new air-port now. Plenty of room, some 3 or 4 crowded flights arrived at the same time and there was more than enough room for everybody to spread out , no part of the airport looked crowded. Cheap labor has been put to a very good use. Attendants are everywhere and remain ready to help, just ask a question, directing passengers to their right destination and/or immigration. It took all together 5 minutes to reach immigration desk from my plane. Once there it took 1 minute to immigrate, not kidding 1 minute that is all. Now, that’s efficiency. And the look of the new airport is quite European like, construction is still going on everywhere but portions that are finished are excellent neat and clean and efficient. From no angle it looks like you’re in India. Only appearance of Indians make you feel like you’re in India. But this is one of those moments when you can be proud to be an Indian.

I paid $3 or $5 at Newark airport to get a luggage trolley. Surprise again, Please do not pay for the use of trolley’ are posters displayed everywhere on Bombay airport. Quality of luggage carts is much better at Bombay than at Newark.

Finally I claim my luggage and get out, you can’t get to your luggage without passing through the duty free open shops, they are selling and people are buying, I am expecting chaos right outside the gates as usual but again surprise, no pushing no pulling and I see a humble driver standing with my name tag in his hands. I single him that it’s me he is looking for and he acknowledges. He immediately calls from his cell phone my family in Pune and inform them - he just received me. He took over the luggage trolley and pushed it himself towards the taxi. Unloaded all the luggage and we left.

Since flight was late by an hour I arrived on July 27^th instead of 26^th of July. Big deal ? depends how you look at it. For being away from India for years I forgot all about happenings on that date in India, generally speaking for some strange reason that date is stuck with me, and on that date it will rain. I remember now very well it does rain on July 27^th in India. It was true, once again, as soon as I stepped out of the airport it started raining, It may not rain a day before and a day after but July 27^th oh, yes! It will rain, specially in the town I am.

Then came the confirmation, I sat in the car and the drive reminds me, Sir it has not rained much in India this year, today is a good day it’s raining pretty good. It’s good for people, ‘fasal (crop) , it’s good overall sir’, he was smiling from ear to ear, I was glad to see someone being so happy. Much happier thinking my arrival brought the rains.

On our way to Pune driver stops at a rest area and asks for my permission if he could have additional 5 minutes of break as he skipped dinner and wanted to eat. Typical of me a few years back (before I broke my back) I could have been very rough and may have even looked upon this as an excuse to delay my arrival. My thought COULD HAVE BEEN something like It’s not my problem “ you were at the airport for 4 hours doing nothing should have eaten so now, drive.’

Anyway that wasn’t the case new me asked and glad I did. He was waiting at the airport since 10:30 PM for me, flight was scheduled to arrive at 11:00 PM, little that he knew it was running late at least by an hour right from NJ. He did not leave the post as he feared he would have missed me and that was not a risk he wanted to take, instead he skipped dinner.

I was touched, I admired his dedication and actually bought him dinner, felt very happy doing that and appreciated his sincerity deeply. Not every taxi driver in India is like this but than again I am not talking about all taxi drivers either.

He drove after that stop straight for my house in Pune, no talk just drive, once arrived he unloaded all my luggage and helped me bring it up to the elevator to my house. Can’t get that service in US ! Rs 70/- tip took care of that, dinner included (Rs30/-) my expenses for him were a total of Rs100/- or $2.2 approx.

Now it’s US - July 26^th (Saturday 5:30 PM)/Indian July 27^th (Sunday 5:30 AM ) “ After long brutal journey I finally reached home. Nothing to do that early in the morning, I crashed on the bed and waited for morning to grow fully. Kids were excited about meeting me, after all I had two full bags worth of stuff and definitely there was something for everyone in it. I decided not to carry a whole lot for myself and carried as much as I could for everyone else. Specially for all the kids I was going to meet. If they don’t enjoy in this age when will they enjoy ? in our age ? yeah right J.

Sure enough as soon as morning reached it glory, I was surrounded by kids eagerly waiting for me to get up so they could share the loot. I wish I could bring even more stuff, but airlines these days have cut down on how much stuff we can carry.

Rest of the day was spent relaxing , trying to overcome jet-leg, doling in and out of my sleep or the lack of it, 27^th July evening we went out for dinner. Came back home drunk late in the night and crashed again. BTW “ since the time I stepped out of the Airport at 12:00 AM on July 27^th and it started raining it rained and rained and rained all the way till July 29^thit’s 3 days of continuous raining.

I wanted to skip this chapter all together but since I have been asked too many times about it..it’s better if I put it here that way I don’t have to answer everyone individuallyand putting it here only because I can end it with cheers, still gonna keep it short.

Pain Management“ Before leaving US of A, I was emotionally drained already to being with, I am not in that age group where I can elaborate on this so this is all I can say. I left US in a rush, my last week before my departure was hectic and brutal, my manager was out on vacation I was running the show. Upon his return I had to hand over a lot of stuff to different people in my team, shop, pack, clean my house, pay utility bills, credit card bills, stop mail etc. etclist just goes on.looked like everything was crashing down on me.

Not sure if this was my conscious decision or an un-conscious mistake, I did not carry my pain medication. When something hurts this badly everything else hurts less, I remember that all too well. Before I arrived at France pain had set in, my tolerance for sitting in one position is 4 hours, that lag of journey was over 7 hours. Realizing that I had no pain medication I had to just lay dead in my seat. Generally speaking sick passengers are deported until they are fit to fly and I saw real possibility of that happening with me if I opened my mouth. Good thing is plane does not stop there for long, so after an hour+ plane took off, next destination Bombay of course, by the time I got home I could not even stand and crashed immediately on the sofa, positively very painful arrival, next 2 days were like that.here is the happy partgrand finale..the good news I am almost out of it now.

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