Its really funny how we would feel two completely different set of emotions for the same situation or experience spread apart in time. I still remember the last time I landed on this foreign soil – USA – Jan 18 2006. It was very different then, I would have imagined the same feelings this time around too but I guess I am not even close. The first time around I was really excited, a bit scared and happy. I was looking forward to getting here, as I had been waiting for it for a very long time, almost 6-7months. Today I wasn’t even looking forward to it. I wouldn’t have boarded the plane if I wouldn’t have had to, so much for a free soul. I have always believed that I would live my life on my terms but still at times I find myself doing things which I wouldn’t have wanted to do.
The charm is gone, the anxiety is still there but due to other reasons. I know I know I am cribbing a bit here, but cmon this is my blog afterall . I guess this time its not the same due to a lot of reasons, I cant put it to just one. I love Bombay (Mumbai if you prefer to call it that) have been fascinated by the city for over 25years. I guess you always have a special bonding with the city/town/village you are born in. I would have loved to do a lot of stuff in Bombay on this trip but then time was not on my side. I did most of the things that I wanted to and trust me all of those were related to food. Cmon if you have lived in the city you cant deny the zillions of food joints, ranging from a small cart famous for tea to a dhaba to a restaurant and ofcourse home. Lekin time kitna hi kyon na ho kam pad hi jata hai!!
I really cant understand what makes people from India choose to settle here, I know they too don’t understand what makes people like me choose to settle in India. The last time I came here I was looking forward to go places and enjoy my time. This time its not the same as I have already seen a lot of places and done all the fun sports and after a while you don’t feel like doing the same anymore. Now I guess I am also thinking a bit more seriously about my future, my career options, my life personal and professional and much more. Not that I have a very clear idea of what I want to do, I haven’t been clearer about this kind of stuff since my 12th grade. That time I was determined to get into a good engineering college and make an engineer out of myself. With that done I had achieved what I wanted but I never set up new goals for me, or maybe I did but I never worked towards achieving them. When I look back I am not sure why this happened and there is no one else but me who’s responsible for it. But I guess once you make a mistake you learn much more about not making it again. Do I regret any of it, no I don’t. Infact I am happy I have made all the choices that I have till date, immaterial of weather the outcome has been good or bad. I am pretty sure if I were to press a restart button in my life I would reach the same place as I have today, nothing would be different this time either or maybe it would….??
Saturday, May 05, 2007
In flight with Delta.
I had promised you another post about my experience when I land in India, but little did I know that I am going to have to write one about my in-flight experience too. Hope you enjoy this post because I didn’t enjoy the flight at all.
Delta an (un-)trusted name in the airline business. While standing in the check-in line at the JFK I was talking to a Brazilian guy settled in NYC with his business in Dubai. Talk about how technology is changing the way we live our lives. He enlightened me with the fact that of all international carriers Delta was the one with the maximum percentage of lost luggage. Man I was surprised, I would have thought Air-India would have take the top spot. One more bad thing about we Indians is that we are rarely proud of anything that’s Indian. So guys don’t blame me if you ask me “What did you get for me?” and I reply “I did get something for you but Delta misplaced it”.
As I write this post the entire plane is shaking as if it’s a BEST bus plying on the Bombay roads. See I told you we never appreciate anything….Indians!!
“What?”
“Did you say you are not like that?”
“…cmon don’t lie…not atleast to yourself….we are all the same…”
Anyways that’s completely another topic of discussion. As of now lets concentrate on my inflight experience.
For starters the flight attendants are not at all good looking. Secondly they are not young except one who looks like a gujarati from Ahemdabad trying to talk in a fake English accent and crack the same dumb jokes to every person he serves onboard. Then there is this gujarati uncle (I know it because ever since I mentioned that I was Gujarati, he has been coming around and cribbing about other passengers, to me in gujarati, I don’t have against gujarati’s Trust ME!!) His face looks like my grandma, or rather like any other elderly who has lost all the teeth. If you ask for his help, to get a glass of water, he stares right back at you and that looks just quenches you thirst there and then. Then there is this lady (I am not sure if she is gujurati) who thinks that she is really good with Hindi and repeats all the announcements made by the captain in Hindi for those who don’t understand English. But then my guess is even if they know hindi they wouldn’t be able to decode what she’s trying to say. She talks Hindi the same way as a Bengali would talk, mixing all the genders (striling and pulling). Last but not the least there are 2 firangs who would be in their late thirties.
Now I was pretty exicted when my friend told me that in Delta you have your personal TV and you can choose which movie you want to watch. So I thought then whats the use of bringing my laptop along, but now I know otherwise. Once we were airborne the captain announced that now we can enjoy the movie that we like. I chose to watch “Stranger than Fiction”. If you haven’t watched this movie, please do because the actress is pretty HOT and then it also has a good plot. I was just 20mins in the movie and the captain announced that some of the television screens were not working and the ground support had advised to reboot the entire system, which meant we all would have to wait for 15mins before we can start watching the movies again. But then if only technology worked the way it should. For the sake of a couple of complaining passengers (why couldn’t they be happy that atleast their neighbours were enjoying the movies) most of us lost our in-air entertainment. I always wondered who uses Red Hat Linux, now I know the answer. Boeing 777 does. So now that the TV’s were out I had to fall back on one of the three things iPod, Book and Laptop. I am mixing and matching them to keep myself from getting bored. But I noticed one thing, each time I start with the book by the time I turn the third page I am asleep. I guess doctors should change the prescription for insomnia from sleeping pills to books. I am sure it would work for me, but then again maybe because I am not an insomniac.
I guess now its time to switch back to my book and sleep because my thought stream is drying out for now. I had one more couple to write about, the one whos sitting by my side, an elderly gujarati couple “Patels”from Bombay with Greencards. But as I am writing this the uncle is reading every word I type, or atleast I think so, so I cant write much about them. Lets just consider that they are a typical elderly Patel couple and leave it at that.
Delta an (un-)trusted name in the airline business. While standing in the check-in line at the JFK I was talking to a Brazilian guy settled in NYC with his business in Dubai. Talk about how technology is changing the way we live our lives. He enlightened me with the fact that of all international carriers Delta was the one with the maximum percentage of lost luggage. Man I was surprised, I would have thought Air-India would have take the top spot. One more bad thing about we Indians is that we are rarely proud of anything that’s Indian. So guys don’t blame me if you ask me “What did you get for me?” and I reply “I did get something for you but Delta misplaced it”.
As I write this post the entire plane is shaking as if it’s a BEST bus plying on the Bombay roads. See I told you we never appreciate anything….Indians!!
“What?”
“Did you say you are not like that?”
“…cmon don’t lie…not atleast to yourself….we are all the same…”
Anyways that’s completely another topic of discussion. As of now lets concentrate on my inflight experience.
For starters the flight attendants are not at all good looking. Secondly they are not young except one who looks like a gujarati from Ahemdabad trying to talk in a fake English accent and crack the same dumb jokes to every person he serves onboard. Then there is this gujarati uncle (I know it because ever since I mentioned that I was Gujarati, he has been coming around and cribbing about other passengers, to me in gujarati, I don’t have against gujarati’s Trust ME!!) His face looks like my grandma, or rather like any other elderly who has lost all the teeth. If you ask for his help, to get a glass of water, he stares right back at you and that looks just quenches you thirst there and then. Then there is this lady (I am not sure if she is gujurati) who thinks that she is really good with Hindi and repeats all the announcements made by the captain in Hindi for those who don’t understand English. But then my guess is even if they know hindi they wouldn’t be able to decode what she’s trying to say. She talks Hindi the same way as a Bengali would talk, mixing all the genders (striling and pulling). Last but not the least there are 2 firangs who would be in their late thirties.
Now I was pretty exicted when my friend told me that in Delta you have your personal TV and you can choose which movie you want to watch. So I thought then whats the use of bringing my laptop along, but now I know otherwise. Once we were airborne the captain announced that now we can enjoy the movie that we like. I chose to watch “Stranger than Fiction”. If you haven’t watched this movie, please do because the actress is pretty HOT and then it also has a good plot. I was just 20mins in the movie and the captain announced that some of the television screens were not working and the ground support had advised to reboot the entire system, which meant we all would have to wait for 15mins before we can start watching the movies again. But then if only technology worked the way it should. For the sake of a couple of complaining passengers (why couldn’t they be happy that atleast their neighbours were enjoying the movies) most of us lost our in-air entertainment. I always wondered who uses Red Hat Linux, now I know the answer. Boeing 777 does. So now that the TV’s were out I had to fall back on one of the three things iPod, Book and Laptop. I am mixing and matching them to keep myself from getting bored. But I noticed one thing, each time I start with the book by the time I turn the third page I am asleep. I guess doctors should change the prescription for insomnia from sleeping pills to books. I am sure it would work for me, but then again maybe because I am not an insomniac.
I guess now its time to switch back to my book and sleep because my thought stream is drying out for now. I had one more couple to write about, the one whos sitting by my side, an elderly gujarati couple “Patels”from Bombay with Greencards. But as I am writing this the uncle is reading every word I type, or atleast I think so, so I cant write much about them. Lets just consider that they are a typical elderly Patel couple and leave it at that.
The longest wait.
I have been looking forward to this day for a long time now. The day when I return, home, Bombay, India. And now today the day has finally come but the wait is still killing me. I just cant wait to get home, see my parents for the first time after almost 14 months. Cant wait to see their reaction and more so my own reaction….
Jan 18th when I left India for my onsite assignment. I had taken it as a change, something that will help me grow stronger and I had already lost a lot. I wanted to prove to myself that I will stand strong…..and move forward no matter what. Now when I look back I cant believe what I have accomplished, I know I know a lot of kids from India have lived their lives away from their families and done really well in life. But this blog isn’t about them, its about me. I never wanted to spend my life in any other country but India, why? I would ask Why not? Its just that I am sentimental about this place…..the people….the hope…the hate….the love….the life…..and everything I have experienced in the past 24years. Did I grow stronger..i guess so….did I grow smarter definitely…but most of all I have survived….thats what I wanted to achieve and now I have.
Its true that when you face a big challenge you are at first overwhelmed by its magnitude, then you take in a breath and get started with it, and before you know you will have the job done and finally when you look back you will smile or maybe even laugh at that first reaction of yours. I too feel the same now. The recent experiences in my life, when I say recent I mean the past year or so have taught me a lot. How you cant get through your life all by yourself, at times you have to help people out with theirs and more importantly you have to allow people to help you every once in a while, it’s a way of allowing them to say thankyou for all you have helped them.
Now let me come back to the point where I started writing this post. Its 7:30PM 23rd March 2007 and I am sitting in the waiting area at Gate 4 Terminal 3 JFK airport in NY. As I am a little too early for my flight scheduled at 10:20PM I am trying to get through the wait as smoothly as possible. After I hooked up my laptop I realized that there are no wireless networks available and I don’t have any movies on my disk that I can watch. So whats the best way to do TP, yep you guessed it writing this post while I am listening to Nickleback.
I am surely going to write a blog about my flight to India and my experience when I land in Bombay. So cya then.
Jan 18th when I left India for my onsite assignment. I had taken it as a change, something that will help me grow stronger and I had already lost a lot. I wanted to prove to myself that I will stand strong…..and move forward no matter what. Now when I look back I cant believe what I have accomplished, I know I know a lot of kids from India have lived their lives away from their families and done really well in life. But this blog isn’t about them, its about me. I never wanted to spend my life in any other country but India, why? I would ask Why not? Its just that I am sentimental about this place…..the people….the hope…the hate….the love….the life…..and everything I have experienced in the past 24years. Did I grow stronger..i guess so….did I grow smarter definitely…but most of all I have survived….thats what I wanted to achieve and now I have.
Its true that when you face a big challenge you are at first overwhelmed by its magnitude, then you take in a breath and get started with it, and before you know you will have the job done and finally when you look back you will smile or maybe even laugh at that first reaction of yours. I too feel the same now. The recent experiences in my life, when I say recent I mean the past year or so have taught me a lot. How you cant get through your life all by yourself, at times you have to help people out with theirs and more importantly you have to allow people to help you every once in a while, it’s a way of allowing them to say thankyou for all you have helped them.
Now let me come back to the point where I started writing this post. Its 7:30PM 23rd March 2007 and I am sitting in the waiting area at Gate 4 Terminal 3 JFK airport in NY. As I am a little too early for my flight scheduled at 10:20PM I am trying to get through the wait as smoothly as possible. After I hooked up my laptop I realized that there are no wireless networks available and I don’t have any movies on my disk that I can watch. So whats the best way to do TP, yep you guessed it writing this post while I am listening to Nickleback.
I am surely going to write a blog about my flight to India and my experience when I land in Bombay. So cya then.
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