To save every penny that I could, I tried to pack everything I could think of. It became 52 kgs which was way more than what is usually allowed (23 X 2). I called Air India customer care to confirm the baggage allowance. As if the lady luck was favoring me, I was told I could take a third bag for free with me (Education rocks you bachelors and masters). The repacking made it a total of 69 kgs in 3 bags (this additional 17 kgs was contributed by food items). That pretty much tells you that I had everything to sustain for a year in case I can't visit Walmart in Atlanta. The flight was scheduled at 700hours IST and it took off at 0830 ST ;). That was impressive enough.
My co passenger was a generous person in his mid '60s. I call him generous because he gave a can of Heineken beer to the floor may be by mistake while opening it. After it was spilled, he asked the pillow to share the beer as the floor was not taking all of it. From there, the mighty pillow rested under my seat sucking the beer to the last drop. The Uncle loved Coke (coca cola you perverts), I can tell this because he opened the can adroitly and did not let even a single drop to mix with beer. Lucky pillow hunnn.
We had a technical (scheduled) stop in Germany. We reached Frankfurt but I can't recall what time it was. After some dilly dallying we continued and reached Chicago at 1630 hours local time. Here starts the interesting part. One officer (cop) accosted me before I could join any queue at Immigration department and sternly advised me few things. It was my first interaction with someone who had an American accent, honestly speaking I did not get most part of what he wanted to convey. However, I followed the crowd and joined a never ending queue. Few familiar faces right from my flight left this queue surprisingly and became a part of O'hare International airport...God knows why. Did I tell you I had to catch a flight to Atlanta scheduled at 1900 hours? I bet if I stayed in the queue I could not make it. I started looking here and there and when my turn came I was informed that that was the queue for American residents and Green Card holders. There was hardly 2 hours and I lost all little hope of getting into next connecting flight. I cursed my agent who said Immigration will take 30 minutes at the max. However, I managed to call another cop and requested him to give me priority over others as I had a flight to catch. Here is how it went:
Me (with a fake accent): Excuse me officer, I have got a flight to catch at 1900 hours. Could you help me make my Immigration process faster?
Cop: Everyone has got a flight to catch Sir. Please go back, stand there quietly and wait for your turn.
huh..nothing could be done. But I was happy that he understood what I said. Well, I got my passport stamped at 1830 hours. I asked the immigration officer if I would be able to make it to the next flight. He said "I doubt you can, make it fast!"
I ran to collect my bags and managed to get them in 10 minutes. I rushed towards American Airlines baggage check-in, only to found that I was late. I had already missed the flight.
What to do? Can I blame someone else for it? My agent? Naah..he won't return a single rupee back..he is an indian. Hey wait a minute..the Air India flight was delayed by half an hour. It is there fault. Eurekaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
I went to their desk, Only to find out that it was closed. I knew I was screwed. I had no phone and no coins to make a call. However, I did have a toll free number of a good friend of mine named Mitul (he is known as Meet now) and I called him up. He said anyhow get any Air India employee and talk to him as if you are talking to Vodafone customer care. They will sort it out. I asked a person, who was loading luggage for American Airlines, where can I get any Air India employee. He suggested me to check it in a staff room and I caught a lady there. I scared the shit out of her and told her that I am going through this ordeal only because the flight was delayed. She got afraid of my dyeing right there and requested me to let her check if she could do anything. She came back after few minutes with a bad news (to her) that there was no flight to Atlanta that day. She said what she could do now is to put me in a hotel and book the next available flight; which was on next morning. Believe you me I was treated like a valued customer (not like a Vodafone prepaid customer) and she was thoroughly polite during entire process. These yanks charge like anything but then they give you the perfect service. As I had no other option I agreed on that. Oh boy I dint know it was going to be a five star hotel. For the first time in my life I spent a night in a five start hotel. They even paid for my dinner and breakfast. I called my parents from the hotel (Thanks to Meet for his unending support.) and told them about me staying in a five start hotel. Everything was again getting better. I had a coffee there, had a good bath (as I had to use toilet papers there) and slept on the finest bed in the world though alone.
Next morning I reached Atlanta safely, waited on the airport for 3 hours and then a beautiful Indian girl named Geetali came to pick me up. She is the president of Indian Student Association here, and she walks as if she knows what she is. She helped me get to a place reserved for me as temporary accommodation. Thank you Geetali. That is all how I reached on this land. The week after that was filled with amazing experiences. The very first advise I got about Atlanta was this:
यह अलग मिजाज़ का शहर है जरा फासलों से मिला करो......
On that note I close this post here. Will keep you updated with all hot and happening here.
