The weekend before our slated trip to India, I got a severe tooth infection that swell my face up. The elderly secretary at the dentist we went to declared that 'You will be on the floor of the airplane dying' if you go like that. While we were clear that she was attempting to get business, we decided to get the tooth pulled.
Jimmy(Manhattan) had offered us a ride to the airport and on the way let us know that he took an unpaid role as party to a board meeting for a yet-to-be-released movie Ivide(Shyamaprasad) and also showed us selfie photographs that he had taken with the good actors Nivin Pauly and Bhavana and also with the director Shyamaprasad.(Once in India, even while the subject of the movie sounded disastrous, we watched the movie partly to see Jimmy in the movie and partly to see Atlanta as the movie was shot in our neighborhood. We did not like the movie but we did see Jimmy!)
Bad weather at Dallas caused the flight to take an emergency landing in New Orleans much to the good fortune of a co-passenger who was scheduled to take a connection from Dallas to New Orleans.By the time the weather cleared and we reached Dallas, the connection flight from Dallas to Doha had left. We were sent to the re-routing counter from where we were assigned the route. Dallas to San Fransisco, San Fransisco to Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi to Kochi. Another Gujarathi mom and two girl kids were in the same plight/flight.
Once at San Fransisco air port, there was a long wait of about 9 hours from midnight to about 9 am. While trying to get to the terminal, the two families were pretty much the only ones in the plane train. We dropped off at one station and were wanting to move to another one. The next train arrived too soon and before we got our act together, the younger daughter of the other party got into the train and went off alone causing some panic. There was a phone at the station and we explained the situation to the officials.They sent the train back so that rest of the group could join the younger daughter at the next station. So we took the train and reached the next station.
We looked around but could not see the girl for some time. Then suddenly we noticed her taking an escalator up. The mom and the elder daughter chased her and got to her. There was some reason for the girl to take the escalator but I cannot recall what. The officials were very friendly and cooperative, the mother was of a different nature and not the most friendly kind.
With lot of time left in the airport, I called up Deepak(Dishk) and Sumesh(Manhatttan) in India while the kids played iPad games on their respective iPads.There was some ticketing issues now from San Fransisco to Doha for whatever reason and took about an hour to get the boarding tickets.
Finally we were leaving America after about fifteen hours delay. We had basinet seating with ample leg space and it was not all that tough with the two kids. I was curious to see what various places looked like from the clouds and was tracking the flight map and watching the places down. When we were above greenland, took a few photos. When we landed in Abu Dhabi, quite a few of the officials were malayalees and I already felt that I had reached Kochi. The flight from Abu Dhabi to Kochi almost felt like a domestic flight as the people waiting at the airport were all malayalees as were the passengers in the plane as were the people at the destination.
We did not get two of our checkin baggages. This was kind of anticipated. As we exited the airport with a few bags less, the humidity heat hit us. My parents and Divyas parents were there as were Akhil and Jemanty. It was GREAT to be back home and we did not feel in anyway out of place.
Jimmy(Manhattan) had offered us a ride to the airport and on the way let us know that he took an unpaid role as party to a board meeting for a yet-to-be-released movie Ivide(Shyamaprasad) and also showed us selfie photographs that he had taken with the good actors Nivin Pauly and Bhavana and also with the director Shyamaprasad.(Once in India, even while the subject of the movie sounded disastrous, we watched the movie partly to see Jimmy in the movie and partly to see Atlanta as the movie was shot in our neighborhood. We did not like the movie but we did see Jimmy!)
Bad weather at Dallas caused the flight to take an emergency landing in New Orleans much to the good fortune of a co-passenger who was scheduled to take a connection from Dallas to New Orleans.By the time the weather cleared and we reached Dallas, the connection flight from Dallas to Doha had left. We were sent to the re-routing counter from where we were assigned the route. Dallas to San Fransisco, San Fransisco to Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi to Kochi. Another Gujarathi mom and two girl kids were in the same plight/flight.
Once at San Fransisco air port, there was a long wait of about 9 hours from midnight to about 9 am. While trying to get to the terminal, the two families were pretty much the only ones in the plane train. We dropped off at one station and were wanting to move to another one. The next train arrived too soon and before we got our act together, the younger daughter of the other party got into the train and went off alone causing some panic. There was a phone at the station and we explained the situation to the officials.They sent the train back so that rest of the group could join the younger daughter at the next station. So we took the train and reached the next station.
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| Greenland from the sky(Clouds and Ice) |
With lot of time left in the airport, I called up Deepak(Dishk) and Sumesh(Manhatttan) in India while the kids played iPad games on their respective iPads.There was some ticketing issues now from San Fransisco to Doha for whatever reason and took about an hour to get the boarding tickets.
Finally we were leaving America after about fifteen hours delay. We had basinet seating with ample leg space and it was not all that tough with the two kids. I was curious to see what various places looked like from the clouds and was tracking the flight map and watching the places down. When we were above greenland, took a few photos. When we landed in Abu Dhabi, quite a few of the officials were malayalees and I already felt that I had reached Kochi. The flight from Abu Dhabi to Kochi almost felt like a domestic flight as the people waiting at the airport were all malayalees as were the passengers in the plane as were the people at the destination.
We did not get two of our checkin baggages. This was kind of anticipated. As we exited the airport with a few bags less, the humidity heat hit us. My parents and Divyas parents were there as were Akhil and Jemanty. It was GREAT to be back home and we did not feel in anyway out of place.
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