Around a month back I landed in the so-called 'Land of Opportunities' on December 23rd, '07 at ORD, Chicago. Well in the current scenario India is as good a land of opportunities (maybe better than US in many ways) but thats completely a different debate all-together. Ya so where were we.... actually I guess its a good idea for me to give a brief of events which happened earlier in the day so that you do get to appreciate this post.
This was my first onsite trip... finally after roughly 2 years of working my a** off in the IT industry my superiors decided that the time had come to send yours truly on a 'phoren' trip... maybe partly out of fear that if they dont I would quit and partly bcoz in all companies now-a-days we are part of a pipeline.... the beginning of which starts with some training, then project, then onsite, then project lead, n it goes on and on with a lit' difference here and there... and mind you the story is no diff in the so called "dream" companies.... so there I was all set to fly to US on a long-term assignment. Normally under such circumstances people are overjoyed but I had a mixed reaction...bcoz I had an amazing group of friends back in Blore n the thought of leaving them n the good times we spent behind was kind of overwhelming... but since this was the most logical thing to do I packed up my bags (temporarily) from blore and embarked on a journey to the 'phoren' land.
I have a habit of getting too excited at times and the same was the case with my first intercontinental flight... where regular fliers dont even bother checking the time of the flight more than a day in advance... I had done everything under the sun... be it filling up the information sheet online (this is generally done at the airport).. choosing my seats... checking the menu... and even the movies on the in-flight entertainment for both the routes (not that it helped in any way.. in my BLR- london (LHR) sector there was some problem with the screen and it kept shutting down in between movies much to my annoyance and in the LHR-ORD sector it was a pre-programmed one so I had no control other than just switching channels).. anyways as you would see later that would turn out to be the least of my worries....
Okay back to the day of my departure from Blore... I was flying British Airways via london and the flight was at 7 in the morning (much to my relief I was saved the pain of boarding a flight at 2:30 AM in the night in a semi-conscious state). I had asked my parents to come down to Blore to help me with my packing and man wasnt it the right decision. Thank GOD for them I did manage to clean up all my mess and pack everything within 3 days, a no mean achievement considering the amount of work I had left pending :)- One thing I like about my parents is that they are least nagging... my mom is really strong and she understands how this world works n my dad is ever-supportive (touchwood!).... so no tears were shed at the airport... they were more than happy to see me go out of the country FINALLY!!!! So after clearing the tons of formalities I sat there waiting for my flight to leave... it was delayed by half an hour.... I had a heavy heart (personal reasons) but at the same time was quite excited to leave... eventually the moment came and I entered the flight... well wasnt I shocked.... me being used to seeing Jet Airways n Indian Airlines was quite stunned with the huge aircraft which was waiting at the tarmac... but to be honest the economy class was equally cramped in this case maybe a tad better but nothing extraordinary....
Finally I settled down in my seat...well to tell u frankly it did feel a bit alien... I am used to seeing mostly indian faces on a flight with (more importantly) an indian crew at the helm... but here it was diff, there were more phirangs than indians and the crew had a weird accent. I dunno if you wud aggree with me but I am more comfortable with an American accent than a British one... I am not really going into the debate of british english being superior than american english but blame it on the pseudo-american living in Blore/India, american accent is easier to understand.... so there I was in the middle of an alien population with people speaking a known language in an alien tone and I was already feeling homesick (rather Bloresick).. anyways my flight was pretty ordinary... I had ordered an asian veg meal which was okay.. in-flight entertainment had options but I had an annoying screen n headphones which spoilt it... I slept intermittently in the 11 hour long flight which finally gave me a headache. One thing which I liked was the view below... I could see these amazing snow covered mountains n towards the end I did get a glimpse of the Big Ben and the Giant London Wheel before it went all foggy... I always wanted to see Heathrow from air but sadly the weather was really bad with visibility under 2 mtrs....
Finally I landed at Heathrow and after an irritating round of security checks (where they rip you off everything other than just a top n a bottom) I went into the lounge... I found LHR beautiful to say the least... it was huge and had a grrrrrrreat varietly of shops n lounges... but you do get bored of all that after a while... thanks to the horrible weather my connecting flight to Chicago was around 3 hrs late so my total transit time was close to a horrifying 7-8 hrs... After what seemed to be an eternity I boarded the flight and after another eternity the flight finally left... I was dead tired by then... I was up since 3 AM (IST) on sunday and my flight to chicago left at approximately 1 AM (IST) the next day 22 hrs without sleep.... and more was yet to come.
My second leg of the journey was on a smaller aircraft, with crappier food n in-flight entertainment BUT better seats n to an extent crew n fellow passengers. Anyways I was too glad to leave London that I would not have mind anything at that moment. I slept most of the flight and woke up an hour before we were supposed to land at Chicago. We finally landed around 10 PM CST (9:30 AM IST).... AND just before disembarking my worst fear came true... I was dreading all along the sub-zero absolutely crazy weather of Chicago and to my dismay the weather had been particularly bad that night.. with snowstorms n a severe weather warning doing rounds.... all this sent a chill up my spine... just a day before I was a part of the beautiful maritime weather of Blore and now the Captain's voice announcing "Welcome to Chicago! blah blah blah the weather outside is -15 deg Celsius .......... " was enough to drive me crazy....
I got down from the flight after wearing every piece of warm clothing I had (panicky!!!) I went on to clear the immigration. I was greeted by a huuuuge queue which eventually took me around 2 hrs to reach baggage clearance... this was the best part - after waiting for a freaking 1 hr I got to know that both my luggages have gone missing... these BA dumbo's have left them in London itself... this was it... I had gone nuts first of all nothing was going right that day and on top of that I am in an alien land with no luggage other than a check-in bag. Anyways after a 2.5 hr long wait I finally got my luggage (they had sent a lot in a diff flight)... it was already 1:30 AM CST (1 PM IST) and I could barely stand on my legs... now the part was how to reach my senior's house with whom I had planned to stay the initial few days. No one came to pick me up (cant blame them as the weather outside was scary) and I could not find/book any taxi after repeated tries. There is something funny in the US - all public booths work only with quarters and TRUST ME they are the most difficult to find in US. Obviously I had no quarters with me and to manage one (for calling) I dont remember how many times I had to buy a coffee (to get the change). Eventually I did manage a taxi - a guy of pakistani origin who had been in US for 18 years now. He was nice and sweet and we struck a conversation. It was during the course of discussion that he managed to ask me about my monthly income and guess what was his reply, and I quote " well you see we make something similar driving a taxi" TRUST ME I dont care how truthful his statement was (in all probability it wasnt) but at that point of time after such an ordeal that was the last thing I wanted to hear!!!!!!! Finally I reached home after a 38 hr long ordeal.....
Well to everyone who did read so far :)- let me tell you that I have plans of writing the sequels to this post but they would paint a better picture. Actually nothing can beat my first intercontinental experience.... it was unique in more ways than one!!!!!
