Good Morning India!

This blog entry was written on 25th May 2008. The posting got delayed due to multiple reasons including my laziness.

Good Morning India !
So finally, I am back in India, and guess what ? One of my luggages has gone missing :( Lets rewind a bit. So I get onto the Air India flight in Chicago and when I get to my seat, I see someone else sitting there. It turns out that I was allocated seat 43A(next to window as per my pref) and the person who was occupying my seat was allocated seat 43C. I politely told the guy that its my seat but the elderly lady sitting on 43B(probably his mother) started explaining to me that the window seat is 'C' and the aisle seat it 'A'. She appeared to be ready for a confrontation and in my better judgement, I called on the Air Hostess to sort out the matter. I was right: 43A was the window seat, and I was in no mood of being the Danveer Karna I usually am ! For one, I had to travel a long distance and needed the wall to place my head against while sleeping, and secondly, in the last few days, atleast 3 ppl had given me the feedback to get rid of my ever so helpful attitude and start thinking about myself first. Frustrated, the lady went looking for another window seat(which I guess she didn't find) and eventually moved elsewhere to sit and her son took the aisle seat, and all was quiet after that.
Miraculously, the flight took off right on time, and landed on time at Heathrow. On the Heathrow-Mumbai sector, a girl took the aisle seat. She worked with a major Indian IT firm as a QA analyst and was in London for past 3 months. Both of us being in the IT field, we found quite a few things to talk about. Overall, the 2nd sector was much etter than the first one.
If one miracle wasn't enough, the flight took off from Heathrow about 30 mins late and landed 10 mins before time in Mumbai. I was beginning to wonder if the people back in Chicago/Milwaukee were making sure that there shouldn't be any reason for stay longer than necessary at any place except Mumbai :p
But all good things come to an end. My trouble started on the conveyer belt when after waiting for about 90 minutes, I discovered that one of my luggages didn't show up.This suitcase was the more important one because apart from a bunch of valuable stuff and clothes, it also carries the tradition RTS send-off calendar. The calendar means a lot ! Anyways, I headed off to file a missing baggage report but the way things move for Air India, it took another 90 minutes(!!!) to report the lost baggage. Yeah, that's something I immediately drew a contract with how things worked in US. Hopefully, someday soon, things will be a lot more faster in India. Finally by about 4:30 AM IST, I was able to get out of airport and reached home by about 5 am.
The first thoughts after getting out of the airport was : its hot and humid ! For the last 2 years, I had lived pretty much in a controlled climate environment. Whether it be home or car or office or anywhere else, anytime I was indoors, it was all controlled through some or the other equipment. That wasn't the case in India. But I am not complaining;I have lived in this climate for 23 years: 2 years away from here isn't going to change me !
It's almost 5:30 am and the sun rays are appearing over the horizon. Good Morning India !