Travel to ORD (from AMD via FRA)

On 14^th of February, I was traveling to Chicago and the itinerary read Ahmadabad – Frankfurt – Chicago. The boarding at Ahmadabad was just the normal, huge weird queues with impatient passengers… however, all-in-all everything went smooth; pretty much as expected.

After a travel time of approx 9½ hrs, we landed at Frankfurt International Airport at 7 AM; the temperature read -4 °C… the security check and other experiences there were quite interesting which is why I think it is worth sharing…

So here it goes… “Just when I used to get irritated with the weird frisking in India, be it the quick frisk at the malls or the thorough ones at the airport… especially after being to USA, any sort of frisking just seems SO unnecessary; I witness an extreme case of a detailed search during the security check… they HAD to touch pretty much each part of the body! I wonder whether even they like their jobs or like us they too pretty much hate, sorry dislike it?? I mean which woman, straight woman, would like to touch women? Of-course for the greater good of the security of the passengers on the aircraft; this probably might seem to be a minute sacrifice (still trying to look thru their eyes; failing miserably I guess!!)… Anyways, so moving on… I thought this probably is the end of it but no! There was much more to this… they HAD to open the hand baggage and check everything in there… I mean imagine men checking the female bags in India! We would have cursed them left right & center… and here, we pretty much have no say what-so-ever! I did not see a single Indian woman cribbing about it!! Frankly, I was shocked, to the core… and I also had to take out both my laptops LL because, that meant a lot of extra effort in re-arranging the hand bag… ironically, each staff member wished good morning!!

Following the security check, we were all seated at gate# C8… the inside temperature, I believe would not be more than 5 °C… or maybe I was feeling very cold… whatever the case, the temp was definitely not warm… I rushed to the restroom and wore my thermals… turns out, the flight per the latest then; was delayed by 35 min… but nothing is helping… I thought it would be a good idea to wash my face and feel a little better with the warmth of the hot water, but no… the water was freezing cold!! Oh sweet lord! Where am I stuck?? To add to it, the 100% woolen thermals were not helping eitherL. Never in my life had I ever waited so eagerly for anything as I waited, prayed, etc for the flight to take off. The delay of the flight just confirmed the Murphy’s law… this is when I took out my company provided Toshiba laptop (Toshiba laptops are known for keeping you warm, at least based on my past experience, the processor heats up to a good temperature and makes you feel cozy during the cold days)… but alas! The laptop was fairly new for the CPU fan to malfunction i.e. the processor was not quite successful in living up to the standards the other models had laid; which meant I was still very darn COLD…

As all my attempts of staying warm turned futile, I decided to occupy my attention elsewhere… so I thought how about… umm say strike a conversation with amiable people around? I started looking around; think about this… An Air India flight, flying to Chicago O’hare airport… rings any bells? Well yes, it was definitely filled with desis and only desis… desis with a big family totally engrossed amongst themselves or the hum do – humara ek personified couples with a crying baby! So there I was shivering to the core having no one worth striking a conversation with :P…

Finally, the AI personnel announced the boarding of the flight from Frankfurt to Chicago; wow what a sigh of relief. It felt as though it took FOREVER and EVER to board; I did kind of regret opting for a seat near to the entrance (because the protocol of boarding usually allows the passengers with seats towards the end to board the aircraft first, of-course after the passengers with children). Post boarding, my shivering reduced and I started feeling pretty much normal in around ½ hr. The flight journey was more-or-less comfortable, watching movies, listening to songs, etc. as usual, the passengers besides me were engrossed in their own world; as such we don’t expect Non-Americans to begin a conversation with strangers anyways…”

At last, after all this, I reached Chicago O’Hare international airport, which unlike its Frankfurt counterpart had good warm temperature. I got through the immigrations and customs just fine… well, except, of-course the fact that I ended up filling my I-94 form four times, each time messing up with a completely different detail!! Once the passport number, then the address (which I had to literally hunt for in my carry-on… was about to open up my laptop and check the saved sticky note…), then the flight number and the city where I boarded. The last was a classic case since I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to write Ahmadabad (the initial boarding point) or Frankfurt and had kind of peeped into the person sitting beside me to confirm :P

Must say, all-in-all an interesting experienceJ

Vaishnao Jan @ Starbucks :o)

It is a pleasant evening… sunny, windy and 60s making it a perfect combination… the best evening I could ever imagine after a highly sluggish morning (well though it was afternoon when I woke up!!). We did our groceries and decided to go to Starbucks by our house and sit for a couple of hours… there was a very annoying desi trio conversing in their regional language at the top of their voice! If anyone still thinks it is the fairer sex that annoys other thru their chattering they ought to have seen this trio and change their belief once and for all! I was kind of hoping someone asks them to get their asses out of the coffee shop! But like most of my wishes, this didn’t come true either! Maybe they kind of heard my thoughts and after a torture of more than half hr, they decided to spare me and all the others and walked out… wow my headache just disappeared :D

Minutes after that, I hear lovely Indian music, yes, you read it right, Indian music in starbucks… Lovely Lata’s voice in Vaishnao Jan followed by amazing all-time-favorite tracks by Rafi, Mukesh etc… I was SO mesmerized “Oh my God!!” is all I could utter… it did take away all my tensions for some time for sure J.

My Birthday 2009

October 30, 2009

It was 29^th Oct late night, my birthday eve, and our team (of-course including me) was still in office working hard to meet the deadline… As the clock struck midnight, everyone came to wish me and friends called and gave me wishes. It did make me feel a less disastrous; finally I reached home one and a half hr past midnight!! First of its kind for me on a birthday! Surprises weren’t over yet! When I reached home, a yummy Lava cake was eagerly waiting to welcome me homeJ… It is the yummiest cake I have ever tasted in my life J, baked in a bakery called Crumbz in Mangalore, one of the finest creations to suit the taste buds of those with a sweet tooth. And if you like chocolate flavor; believe me you ARE missing something eventful if you haven’t tasted it yet! Back to the cake cutting, so as I blew the candles next was the turn of face painting… my heart broke into tiniest pieces as I saw the cake getting wasted on my face! I doubt if I can possibly explain better in words.

My colleague composed a very lovely email on my birthday and had written very good lines about me (read praising me)… I was surprised, how could someone ever come up with nice lines about me?? That is supposed to be only in novels ain’t it?? But then according to him, we should be nice to people on their birthdays!! :D That did make me smile in an otherwise overwhelmingly hectic day. Lunch consisted of eating out at a not-so-great restaurant with a group of close friends. A friend of mine raised a toast for me, an unusual, one of its kind… it did not consist of a speech and neither did our glasses contain champagne!! Later in the day, the team had planned to have a cake cutting for me in the evening which is usually accompanied by the face-painting tradition. I loved painting other people’s faces on their birthdays but when I was the canvas, my opinion changed slightly: I think we are wasting the cake ain’t we?? However, my work obligation did not quite permit me to hang-out with my friends on that night and what could possibly be termed as the most hectic birthday EVER, I came back from work at 4 AM; yes you read it right, 4:00 AM 31^st October!!

Plan for 31 October was planned. Go to St. Mary’s… That was my wish since past 3 months which possibly could not have been fulfilled in a better way!! Roads in Karnataka are pathetic; nonetheless the journey was awesome; after all it is the people that matters the most, who cares about the roads!! My friend was driving so unfortunately I do not happen to pay attention on the route details from Mangalore to Malpe Beach. The journey from Malpe to St. Mary’s Island was in a ferry. That was a lovely experience too… the sea was very calm and the water was very clean. We reached our destination in about half hr. St. Mary’s Island is known for their distinctive geological formation of columnar basaltic lava. The landscape view of the Island together with the sea is mesmerizing to say the least. My friends had got the Lava cake and we had the cake cutting ceremony at St. Mary’s. It was a fulfilling trip indeed!!