The Journey Started

8^th March 3.14 PM, Heathrow Airport, London

Not a good start mate! Not at all a good start. May be I should have guessed it coming after getting the seat in the 13^th row in my flight from Bangalore to London. But before reaching London let me start from the beginning!! 

The day started pretty early for me. In fact it started around 10 AM on 7^th March in Bangalore. I did not sleep last night as my office work continued past midnight and I had to take a shower at 3.30 and leave my home for airport at 4.25 AM.

There was a good enough queue and when my chance finally came the guy in the counter had an issue with one of my hand luggage (Shala Suor!! Will explain later!) . For him it was too big to keep in the overhead box and he insisted and finally almost forced me to give that bag also in my cabin luggage. The problem is the only handbag I am carrying with me now has my two laptops and my camera, book etc. but no extra jacket and me wearing just a half sleeve shirt can do quite well with a jacket now.

The flight reached Heathrow on time in a typical Rainy London afternoon, in fact when I first show my ticket for the next destination (Chicago) in the counter, I was told I am too early. But the truth was revealed pretty soon and the fact is that my flight is going to be an hour late. Problem… Problem, because if my flight reaches Chicago exactly an hour late I will only have just more than an hour to do all my immigration check and baggage claim and customs before catching the flight to Richmond. I was nervous. Talked to couple of the attendants in British Airways desk, who gave me two bad news,

                    1.       My flight from Chicago to Richmond is in a different terminal

                    2.       If I miss my flight to Richmond, they can only provide me a flight on next morning.

Although she has confirmed that they would provide me hotel accommodation but still it looks like a bad start. And as many of you know many, if things are really bad and completely out of my control, I become brave. So I am not at all thinking about my delayed flight. I am just roaming around, had a sandwich and juice, the lady in the café called my name as ‘Tapaa…broaat….’and then she gave up, and her expression clearly stated that this must be one of the most difficult words she has ever pronounced!!

Now I am writing my travel journal, sad that Heathrow does not have any free wifi, even some of the computers kept in the food zone asked for money (a pound for every 10 minutes!! I tell u these British people; we just don’t call them ‘benias’ for nothing). So it looks like I will only be able to contact Shreya in Facebook or post this one in ‘The Rear Window’ only after reaching Richmond but still I decided to write it down now. Gates will be open in another 32 minutes, so I have some time.

Heathrow is a very BIG airport and a busy airport, people are moving all the time. Again after a long time I am seeing people of various countries, various races and various cultures! It’s awesome and I love it. The guy sitting beside me looks like an aged version of Brett Lee and some of the ladies roaming in the lounge are more beautiful than some of those actors. Obviously Indians also have their own presence. But yes the memory I am going to carry from Heathrow is from a store of musical tools like CD, MP3 player, headphone etc. That was the only store from which loud music was coming out and Which usic was that? Punjabi!! I have actually seen quite a few Sardars in the airport and most of them are staff here!

Hope I can reach Richmond on time and can post it from Richmond before going to sleep. Cheers!!

[To be Continued...]