The day started early for me, not that I was nervous, but I was too exited to sleep. My parents turned up at 5:40 and it was time for me to bid farewell to Durai and hand over the house keys to him. It was decided that he would take care of the house and pay my bills.
I knew I was going to miss Dad and Mom but did not want to be an emotional freak and all that stuff. We reached right on time and were in fact at the airport 15 minutes before check in. I liked everything about travelling by plane.
I still remember, the way I used to go frenzy whenever I saw someone walking with a newspaper – the latest evening edition and a mineral water bottle usually a smaller one that is given in the flight and the tags hanging deliberately on the luggage as if they were some muse with price tags used for window dressing.
I always thought that the West was fascinating and for me a typical day would start with me walking in a overcoat with collars sniffing my ears and a leather bag in one hand and a Starbucks on the other hand with the latest edition of ‘The Guardian’ crumpled under the Arm.
I could see this happening, when all of a sudden, I felt something hot. It was Durai with a Cup of coffee that costed a whooping 25 bucks. There’s a poster stuck on the wall next to the cashier, it said…
‘All prices are inclusive of Taxes’.
The price you pay sometimes is not worth the catch. It was time for me to approach the baggage section and get my luggage checked in. I was taking the Emirates, and was in the beeline for Emirates check in and after 2 questions and three tags later I was relieved of my luggage leaving my hand luggage and me do all the talking. I was supposed to head to the immigration department in 10 minutes time. It was a point of no return. So I went back to dad and mom, assured them of calling them and patted Durai and Kumaran, my engineering pals farewell. I could sense my Mom wet her eyes, and could feel my heart sink in. I turned back and asserted my mom to take care of her health and dad to take his eye drops daily.
Two levels of Escalators later I was here being frisked by a Bihari guy with a metal detector. One thing you would never want to do in an Airport is not be yourself. It may attract unwarranted attention and indulge you in an impending doom. You know you are no Jason Bourne straight from an Espionage thriller that you can show a finger to the security and be out in the open.
Welcome to India guys, people are waiting to screw your plans. After half an hour on the net in the Airport lounge and a Sick samosa I was on the line for the terminal gate for Emirates - Boeing.
The flight was gigantic and majestic in its appearance. I could see a pretty gal in the line and already was guessing the probability of sitting next to her. Obviously my math was weak, as I was 10 rows behind her in the plane.
Before you enter the cockpit, you are allowed to pick free copies of newspaper dailies, one of the countries you are travelling from and one of the countries of your destination. As this flight was till Dubai, it made sense of me to collect the Khaleej times and the Hindu.
I could not help but my eyes did pop up when I caught two hostesses, one a Mexican and the other a Japanese. For the first time in life I could realise how lucky these cabin crew guys where …Having fun on the job…Will take this example in future in any of my management training events…Having fun at Work…The Emirates Way …By noted Management Guru – Raghu
At 9:30 my time I was hypnotized by a sweet lady to fasten my seatbelts, when the flight commander greeted us and informed us that we were about to fly at 38,000 feet and would reach Dubai by 12:30 pm. I was already thinking of the flight being hijacked and me stranded in a runaway with the Mexican…
The next 16 hours I could sense how inevitable it was for me to be patient and alert as I did experience, mayhem, fear and awe at Dubai Airport – a marvel of sorts.
Dubai robbed me of 177 pounds with which I brought a Digital Camera, as I thought it was sinful to go to UK without a camera.
After 2 irritating hours and a long walk I was on my maiden flight to Heathrow – London. A different time zone, a different weather and an alien place was open to me…My solace was that Vandana, my colleague and friend was already in UK for the past one month and her presence there was enough to pep me up.
The flight of the phoenix ended with me landing at Heathrow at 17:00 hours GMT.
I set foot on a foreign soil. The one small step, a giant leap to Turret House.
Will Post ……Till then you be all right.
I knew I was going to miss Dad and Mom but did not want to be an emotional freak and all that stuff. We reached right on time and were in fact at the airport 15 minutes before check in. I liked everything about travelling by plane.
I still remember, the way I used to go frenzy whenever I saw someone walking with a newspaper – the latest evening edition and a mineral water bottle usually a smaller one that is given in the flight and the tags hanging deliberately on the luggage as if they were some muse with price tags used for window dressing.
I always thought that the West was fascinating and for me a typical day would start with me walking in a overcoat with collars sniffing my ears and a leather bag in one hand and a Starbucks on the other hand with the latest edition of ‘The Guardian’ crumpled under the Arm.
I could see this happening, when all of a sudden, I felt something hot. It was Durai with a Cup of coffee that costed a whooping 25 bucks. There’s a poster stuck on the wall next to the cashier, it said…
‘All prices are inclusive of Taxes’.
The price you pay sometimes is not worth the catch. It was time for me to approach the baggage section and get my luggage checked in. I was taking the Emirates, and was in the beeline for Emirates check in and after 2 questions and three tags later I was relieved of my luggage leaving my hand luggage and me do all the talking. I was supposed to head to the immigration department in 10 minutes time. It was a point of no return. So I went back to dad and mom, assured them of calling them and patted Durai and Kumaran, my engineering pals farewell. I could sense my Mom wet her eyes, and could feel my heart sink in. I turned back and asserted my mom to take care of her health and dad to take his eye drops daily.
Two levels of Escalators later I was here being frisked by a Bihari guy with a metal detector. One thing you would never want to do in an Airport is not be yourself. It may attract unwarranted attention and indulge you in an impending doom. You know you are no Jason Bourne straight from an Espionage thriller that you can show a finger to the security and be out in the open.
Welcome to India guys, people are waiting to screw your plans. After half an hour on the net in the Airport lounge and a Sick samosa I was on the line for the terminal gate for Emirates - Boeing.
The flight was gigantic and majestic in its appearance. I could see a pretty gal in the line and already was guessing the probability of sitting next to her. Obviously my math was weak, as I was 10 rows behind her in the plane.
Before you enter the cockpit, you are allowed to pick free copies of newspaper dailies, one of the countries you are travelling from and one of the countries of your destination. As this flight was till Dubai, it made sense of me to collect the Khaleej times and the Hindu.
I could not help but my eyes did pop up when I caught two hostesses, one a Mexican and the other a Japanese. For the first time in life I could realise how lucky these cabin crew guys where …Having fun on the job…Will take this example in future in any of my management training events…Having fun at Work…The Emirates Way …By noted Management Guru – Raghu
At 9:30 my time I was hypnotized by a sweet lady to fasten my seatbelts, when the flight commander greeted us and informed us that we were about to fly at 38,000 feet and would reach Dubai by 12:30 pm. I was already thinking of the flight being hijacked and me stranded in a runaway with the Mexican…
The next 16 hours I could sense how inevitable it was for me to be patient and alert as I did experience, mayhem, fear and awe at Dubai Airport – a marvel of sorts.
Dubai robbed me of 177 pounds with which I brought a Digital Camera, as I thought it was sinful to go to UK without a camera.
After 2 irritating hours and a long walk I was on my maiden flight to Heathrow – London. A different time zone, a different weather and an alien place was open to me…My solace was that Vandana, my colleague and friend was already in UK for the past one month and her presence there was enough to pep me up.
The flight of the phoenix ended with me landing at Heathrow at 17:00 hours GMT.
I set foot on a foreign soil. The one small step, a giant leap to Turret House.
Will Post ……Till then you be all right.
1 comment:
Entertaining...
You have the writing prowes
Make the most out of it
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