Delhi
My sense of humor is wearing thin. The airport is packed. Flights have been delayed all morning long due to the worst fog they’ve had since 2003. To make things worse, the Indian Airforce closes the airspace every day from noon till 1:30 to practice drills for an upcoming holiday. Just so happens that the fog tends to lift at noon. Many flights are canceled. My flight is in Limbo. I stood near my gate for over 3 hours just waiting for some kind of announcement. It seems like every flight besides ours is being informed their fate. We were supposed to board at 11:30am and at 2:30pm we get an announcement saying our flight was delayed and “any inconvenience, of course, is deeply regretted”. They are not very apologetic in India. So time is running out. Planes are not allowed to land or take off from Srinagar after 4:30pm. People are now starting to get angry. At 3:00 things look hopeful. They check us in and we wait for the bus to take us to the plane. However, flights to more populated destinations like Mumbai and Hyderabad are getting preference on the Bus. So again we wait with no information for a bus. We make it to the plane and board. My least favorite part of flying is watching other passengers look aimlessly for their seat and try to fit their carry-on luggage in the overhead space. So I just close my eyes, so happy to be on the plane.
They cancel the flight. Turns out they never even loaded our luggage. It was just something the check-in department did to pass the problem on to another department. Well, now back to the helpless help desk flooded with now twice the number of angry people as yesterday. This time I run. I might not be a good pusher, but I will out sprint your average middle-aged Indian man. they cannot guaranty seats on the flight tomorrow because only one plane flight and now three days worth of people. And our luggage might be lost somewhere on the tarmac. I can deal with missing a couple days of snowboarding, but I cannot deal with missing every day because my bags are lost.
A tense hour passes until our bags arrive. Thank God. Back to the same shitty hotel with the same pushing, angry, impatient mob of Indian men.
This is like a movie. A bad Bollywood movie and I am stuck, surrounded by the jostling background dancers. I just want a cold beer so I walk down to the nearest market. The store is closed.
(This is the trash right outside my hotel)
It’s a smaller room this time for Tasneef and I. But there is hot water! Yes! Holy crap, yes. It’s the little things. Turned my whole day around taking that hot shower. Then a Russian I had met earlier bursts into my room with a cold beer in hand and says, “I have found one. We go drink”. Although I am incredibly tired, I decide to go with them to party somewhere. There are four of them- three guys and a girl. These guys like to party. They are passing around Jaegermeifter (they called it medicine) and laughing and trying hard to speak good English to me. Whenever I drink Jaeger I can’t help but remember the time I woke up without my two front teeth, so I take it slow.
We eat a spicy Indian dinner at an expensive restaurant. These guys want to spend money and I definitely do not. They want to carry on to a disco and stay out late, but I am literally using all my strength to keep one eye open. Super jet lag. I go home. Sleep never felt so good.
I woke up early this morning. I WILL MAKE IT TO SRINAGAR TODAY. I have detached from the group. They go slow and I always end up last in line. I am not risking that today. I leave the hotel in the dark for the airport. Dad, you’ll be proud. I showed up 6 hours early for my flight. I walk up to the Jet Airways ticket counter and get a reservation for the flight. Then I have to go to a different check in counter to get a ticket. The lady at this counter, looks at me, looks at my reservation, then asks me to step aside and wait. I ask her why, she just says does the typical Indian bobble head gesture and says “just wait” This gesture, by the way, somehow offends me so much that it wouldn’t be any different if they were to flip me off then stick their middle finger up my nose. Yeah, my sense of humor is lacking. So I wait 5 minutes. Then this really bad feeling sets on me and I just know today will be another day of waiting around, being kept in the dark. Screw Jet Airways.
I go buy a ticket with Air India for $100 and try to get a refund from Jet Airways (doesn’t look probably). Air India is a government-run airlines and I’ve been told they have preference for take off. I walk to a different terminal to check in. I’m standing in a seemingly well-behaved line with even spacing when all of a sudden a man cuts right in front me. No more Mr. Nice guy. I just grab him and throw him behind me. It’s king of the mountain today, boy. A smile gets you nowhere here.
Baggage fee was nearly as much as my ticket. I don’t care. I will get the hell out of Delhi today. Get nearly stripped searched going through security. I’ve gone through Delhi security 3 times now. Every time it is something completely different that they have a problem with. Today is was the harmonica- they were sure it was some kind of weapon. They made me play it. I don’t play the harmonica. I brought it last minute thinking I’ll have a lot of time on my hands, why not learn a new instrument. So I played some seriously complicated “Jazz” for them… obnoxiously loud.
I have a good feeling about this flight today, but I don’t hear the fat lady singing yet. New Airlines, new Indians, same fog.
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