First Flight - This is going to be a pretty long post. Please bear with me :P
This is the nth time I am writing under this topic. Know this is pretty late to touch this topic after 6 months, fact is right now I don’t have nothing else to write on.
White ambassador ( not our’s :P ) arrived in serene in to the newly renovated Chennai Airport, it has changed a lot from the last time I was here. I wasn’t interested to check the new stores and restaurants, on any other day I would have jumped into see what was in it. Was waiting for Mukund to come, we are going to the same destination via the same flight.
As any other send off to a son, mine happened too. After waving good bye to my parents with a thought, when will I meet them again? 3 months 6/8 or a year, I turned my head the other way to head off to the formalities.
Was seeing all the flight banners- Air India, Lufthansa, Singapore airlines, Yeah got it..Qatar Airways, there it was. There must have been 4 in the queue in front of us. Oru Sumarana figure onnu vanthu asked us to fill something, before I could think whether tat was necessary to fill up or not, she handed me the pen and was pin pointing the spaces to fill it up. Seri Oknu both of us filled. Till date I don’t know what it was for.
Our turn came, the girl there was so lean, I thought if she had more weight on her, she would look good, I saw mukund, looks like he too had the same thought on her, and I kept my luggage’s for the weight check. I knew the weight on my luggage is above the set limits but still I decided to take my chances. Thanks to the lean girl. Let long live long with some more weight.
This lean girl said something to another girl, on whom I thought if she sheds some more weight, she would look good; they should switch off their weights. But both had strong lip sticks. I hate lip sticks. I was wondering what they were up to. Suddenly another employee at Qatar Airways waved at me and said I am your father’s friend. I thought “OH no, evan namma sight adichatha namma appa kita solliduvane” . I said ‘hi, can we get seats next to each other, and Mukund said preferably with large leg space . He was more than happy to help. Done with the Qatar Terminal. Baggage cleared.
Immigration Check. The lady there was kidding “ How many of you from the same company are traveling today”
I wondered “adei evalu peruda eva kita enniki immigration check vanguninga,” I didn’t know what to reply. I said myself and pointed my friend. That’s it J .
All formalities done. My Flight was at 4 AM in the morning. We had to wait for another 1 hour. Called up few friends and we were doing some vetti Manga and Mukund clientku ice vaika he bought some 2 art pieces :P ( sorry machi ) and then the moment came. I have never stepped into a flight before.
All of us were called and we were asked to enter into some kind of a tunnel, dragging my hand luggage we entered into it and we kept on moving and before I could think where it was leading to,I was inside the flight, the tunnel connected directly to the flight inside. I was thinking like we might be taken over to the run away and like how Presidents enter into a flight and wave a last second bye, but the tunnel straight took me to my seat. Oh God L Called my father and said I am inside the flight and he said ok now you sleep and then switch off the phone. Wondered why I should I switch off the phone and said “ok and bye” but I didn’t switch off the phone, but the phone obeyed my father, No Charge, it shut itself with the typical Nokia Tune.
Since Mukund asked for a seat which has a large leg space, we were given a seat next to the door. LOL. It was too tempting to open the door. Those big exits words tempted me a lot. I was wondering whether this is direct entry to the open air or wil it some more layers.
Then I looked at the seat, It was comfortable, they had a small display and a button and there were headphones. Chumma connect panni patha, ada Radio. Adade Arabic Radio. Another Bulb :( Was waiting for the flight to take off, next to me was Mukund wonder what he was thinking, he was looking all around. It was the scene of Tyler Durden talking to Edword Norton in Fight Club. I was equally clueless, tired and sleepy as Edward Norton :P.
There were Middle East country figures, very fair, tall, actually they were all rose in color, but none matched my taste. Mukund was drooling ( sorry mukund, you see tats the fact anyway). Flight took off, I think for some 10 minute, we would be in the run way only, I never sensed the flight taking off, as I was thinking that, it took off.
WOW – Chennai Early Morning View was so beautiful.
Then the small tv in front of us started playing some videos on safety blah blah stuff and then suddenly a tamil film, I was thrilled to watch that, till date I have seen only movies in Bus, was keenly looking forward to what the movie was. Thirumagan, CRAP. Yet another bulb L Why in the world of all the movies available in this Qatar Airways do they have to play this. Then the airhostess came and delivered what they called it as a Asian Vegetarian Meal.
Then only I realized I was hungry. With all the excitement around I forgot I was hungry.Not sure whether it tasted real good or not, but it did satisfy my hunger. Looked around, everything was in peace. The door still tempted me more. Some 5 hours journey to Doha and in there a I think some 5 hour wait for the next transit flight to Washington D C and after a 2 hour delay to Savannah, Georgia.
I thought Hayo a long way to go and then closed my eyes. All I know after that, when I opened my eyes and saw through the window, it was full of sand, they announced DOHA arrival in another 10 minutes and were asking us to put the seat belts on. I had slept nicely. And so did Mukund, he woke the moment I woke up.
Doha Airport was somewhere in the middle of a desert. That’s how it was when I looked from the flight. I believe some fasting period was going on. There were some announcements going on related to that. We were led to a small bus and inside of the bus gave a feel we were led into some experiment lab. Everybody were unique inside the bus, people from different countries, different color, style, looks etc etc, looked like some scientist is going to experiment with different specimens. I was hungry. That bus led us into some other airport. Everything was new. We were wondering where to step next. I just followed the people in front of us, for al I know even the person in front of me would have been following the person before him. We were like Viktor Navorski in Terminal.
Airport was like a big Mega Mall. Not sure of the exact chronological steps we did. We were checking out the shops inside the terminal. There was this liquor shop, the bottles were arranged attractively. I wanted to take a picture amidst that. While we were about to do so, the security stopped us. They didn’t allow us to take snaps in that particular shop. There were some cars shows, mobile shops, gold shops; we went up, down, diagonal. There were enough to check out for some 2 hours.
Went to a shop and bought something to eat. Currency Problems. Don’t remember what we did for that, but we ate nicely.
Rest Rooms – we thought devi theatre rest room was lot more better :P.
We were looking for water to drink, we were lookin whether there would be any aquafina kind of thing somewhere, what we jumped into was this. Look at the pic, Weird idea to drink water.( Oh no, i have lost this pic, you have to drink water like drinking from a tap; no Cups ) I think I felt cold and I took a tablet.
Time went on before we could notice 4 hours have passed by, we were clicking photos, checking the stores etc etc: when we were about to run out of idea as what to do next. We saw this free internet café. Podu.. next one hour we spent browsing.
Stepped in and I passed the message around to home, friends back home and friends at destination that I was in Doha airport. Changed status message in orkut to IN TRANSIT. Then we decided to check in.
We sat there and chatted for some time , regular security measures and I had to throw a bandage stuff that I had with me because the security lady there thought I would gag somebody with that: P
Got into the flight but this time as how a president would enter. I was searching for my seat but the air hostess gave a reaction like you can sit anywhere you feel like. Yeah it was literally empty. I think some 100 odd passengers would have been there on a flight with 300 person capacity.
Our seat number was actually the last row, we liked that seat and we seated there. Again the same Middle East figures but this time they were looking good and this time both of us were drooling. Wonder from where they would get such skin color.
I was wondering what to do for the next 12 odd flight journey. The air hostess it started with R, I don’t remember her name, She came and asked us what we want, I said Orange Juice and he said Apple Juice, tat was the first time. We would have had enough juices to clear up their inventory.
They had a tv behind each seat, I wonder if it will work. Surprisingly there was a remote kind of a thing under the lever where we placed our hands. Patha oru remote. It didn’t strike me the first time that the remote is for the tv. Was playing around with it, it looked like a cell phone and suddenly I pushed something and tv was on. We were in the air by now.
Okka Mokka. Patha countless no of movies, games, current flight location, cock pit view blah blah it had number of options. I got answer to how I am going to spend my jounery here.
I watched 5 movies during the Travel, Mr Bean’s Holiday, Evan Almighty, Ronin and one film I totally forgot it was about split personality and the 5th film I totally forgot what it was.
He was watching Chenni Kum, that’s what I could recollect now.
Orange juice again, again and again.
We were given lunch/breakfast no idea but something to eat.
Umpteen no of incidents happened which I wanted to write down but none I could recollect now.
Since the flight was empty everybody were stretching their hands and legs and were having a nice nap. I disliked to sleep. I was watching movies continuously and air hostess took turn to give me whatever I ask for.
Not sure whether it was dark outside but sure it was dark inside the flight.
Everybody were fast asleep I was busy watching some movies, then the turbulence came. Flashes of Final Destination Movie flashed before my hand. Air hostesses were rushing here and there. People fastening their seat belts. Mukund was gone somewhere to sleep.
Turbulence was very high, the plane shaked by angles of 20 degrees both sides, the air hostesses were passing on the message to people tat this is normal. Keep calm. Tried to keep myself cool and tried watching the movie. The whole hoo-ha would have lasted for some 15 minutes. Then things were back to normal.
Hours passed by. I don’t know what time of the day it was.
Again the same Asian Vegetarian Meal was served to my seat. I searched for Mukund inside the flight, he was fast asleep some where in te corner, woke him up and said “Dai sooru podranga va, udane paiyan vandhutan”
One thing I forgot, Rest room was damn Sexy, it had numerous colored buttons, Cha I missed a photo of that. It was like the inside of an alien space shuttle. Cute buttons. Taps, basins, everything was so good, it was like the rest room of James Bond 007.
We had food and I think I would have slept for one hour. The next moment I opened my eyes I saw Washington D C below me. Wat a scene it was. I was thrilled to watch another country from flight, I am going to land there in a couple of minutes from now.
Done. Landed in US. Again some tunnel bus business, suthama I don’t remember now. Immigration Check, slightaa oru fear. What if something happens in the immigration check, will they send me back in the next flight to India?
Oru Valiya Immigration Check done and we were searching for the next flight terminal. One Lady there gave me trouble with the baggage; I had to shuffle between the 3 luggage’s ,why this lady wasn’t like the lean lady in Chennai terminal.
The airport was damn crowded. Alien in a foreign country. It was a weird feeling. We were waiting for the next flight. I felt cold. I knew I was going to catch fever. Yes I did. The first 1 week in US I was down with fever.
The night view of US was even more good when watched from the flight. I was feeling very cold. I was having high temperature but still I couldn’t resist the orange voice.
Savannah Landed, some boring stuffs happened – but savannah airport was small and beautiful and more important less crowded. My friend came to pick us up. This is one incident which I want to write
Time is 12 Mid night. He was taking us to the room on the way , a traffic signal, no one must have been around in the 1 Km diameter, Red Signal, he did stop at the signal, I asked him why the hell should you stop now. No one is around why cant you go. He turned and smiled at me. And Now the same situation , I will stop too. As well as I stop this post too :D
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