My grandfather was "rich" and "famous", relatively speaking. He was the first person in our family to board an airplane. He was a writer for the Bollywood industry and I remember the first time he had to fly to meet a director. It was a domestic flight, but a flight it was. Our entire extended family went to see him off at the airport. For whatever reason he had also a room at the nearby Airport Hotel. We all gathered at the room - all 20 of us. We dressed up for the occasion, of course. I remember that it was the first time we had seen a tub (as in a bath tub). My brother was in love! He insisted on taking a bath. No joke. There was a room service order or two, and then we all showed up at the airport, waving grandpa goodbye on our family's first ever airplane ride. I had to be about 6 years old.
Those were my only memories of the airport when I was boarding the flight to United States. It was my first time at the international airport. It was my first time in an airplane. I was cool though, I knew what to do - till I didn't. Seat belts on, the take off went without a hitch. I saw the buildings turn into Lego pieces and disappear in the clouds. The light went off to take off the seat belts. But in all my excitement, I missed the instructions on how to. So there I was, on a 20 hour flight, stuck in my seat. The beverage service came and went, snacks were served, and I needed to go to the loo. But I couldn't get out of my seat belt!
I sat alone in my isle, so I couldn't ask the neighbors. And I couldn't possibly contort to ask the person behind me. So, I contorted to reach the bell. The stewardess showed up and I was rescued. Turns out the stewardess was a friend of a friend and she recognized me from a party we had been to. She was super nice to me and gave me a bunch of sodas, snacks, and nick knacks to bring with me the the US.
I sat alone with my newely acquired goodies and knowledge of seat belt operations and such - till we got to Heathrow. We had to disembark there to switch planes. Heathrow was a strange place. There were Indians there who looked just like me but spoke with a unusual accent and were clearly not Indian. While I was there, a young man of Indian descent kept hitting on me - as if he had a chance at anything during a 2 hour layover...
On the leg to Fort Lauderdale, I sat next to a young Englishman. I had never met an Englishman before. They were supposed to be evil - my grandfather spent a night in jail protesting them; but this one seemed harmless. I was so bored by this time I tried to talk to him. I don't think he was interested in speaking to me. And what made it much worse was that I couldn't understand what he was saying so I kept asking him to repeat himself. I remember asking him what time it was and him saying something like "oit" - which I later realized meant "eight". I had no idea what that was - so I kept repeating myself - perhaps he hadn't heard my question. He looked quite irritated.
Looking out of the plane while landing in New York, I did not see the statue of liberty. What a rip off! We had to go through immigration in JFK. Then I ended up in Fort Lauderdale. It was nothing like in the movies.
No comments:
Post a Comment