Coming to US for the first time ..

It was such a great feeling ! man ! I cant forget that day (3 yrs back but I still remember it so vividly ).. I was so very much excited about coming to US ... to add to that - it was my first time for traveling by plane ! well, I was going away from my parents, my sister, my country but I realized that much later (after coming to US !)

So anyway, we (my parents, sis and a few close friends) were on the Mumbai airport. The final good-byes were done. I took a trolly and put all my bags ( I think there were two big ones and one small bag and a carry on bag). Well, it wasnt anything unexpected when NWA staff told me that both the big bags are like 2 kgs overweight and they cant allow that. (Lots of people had told me this but still my mom wouldnt understand... her argument to whatever I said : 'you will be all alone there, who will take care of you there .. at least let me give you whatever I can' .. what can anyone say to that ? ) so I knew those bags were going to be over the weight limit. Still I tried convincing the NWA staff in vain for about 5-10 minutes ... then I removed a few pickle bottles & a few other things which were in the lower half of my favourites list and rushed back outside. I handed them over to my parents who were still waiting outside (and left only after my plane left the airport). Still bags were like 0.5 kg over the weight but this time the guy at the counter agreed. whoosh ! I was good to go now ... oh no ! wait .. there was one more line for passport, security check ... thankfully I cleared that in like 10 minutes and moved ahead to the waiting room till the boarding starts ...

That 20-minute wait till the boarding started seemed like the longest wait ... how will the plane be from inside ? what will i feel when it will take off ? how will the service be inside ? these and thousands of more questions ! finally the boarding started ... I got in and took a look inside ... hmm , not bad I said to myself ... the plane looked alright ... I got to my seat, put one of my bags on the upper shelf and the other under the seat and placed myself comfortably ... it was a window seat. (I had specially asked for one ! as if I thought I could open the windows and take a peek outside !! :) but still in trains we used to die for a window seat so why not in a plane right ? )

I put on the belt and all ... introduced myself to the fellow passenger sitting next to me ... another student going to US ... nice ... at least I had some company .. captain made an announcement about the next stop being amsterdam & bla bla bla .. why cant they just start the plane I thought .. anyway, so finally the plane started to move ... soon it took off .. yeah just like that ... no thrill .. I didnt feel anything ... nothing special ...

In fact, after a while I got so bored of the plane .. I was thinking ' get me out of here guys' ... From Mumbai to Amsterdam, I plainly rejected anything the air-staff offered except for the meal & slept off for the whole of the flight... but on the second flight from Amst'm to Seattle, I thought of experimenting a bit ... but what happened on that plane made me even more nervous ...

the air-hostess came with drinks and asked what I wanted .. I didnt know what all I can order and since this was the first time on plane, I didnt want to take any chances. ' they will surely have water' I said to myself and asked for water. she replied, 'I am sorry sir, I didnt get you' ... 'Water please' I stressed harder on the first word ... ' can u repeat that sir ?' ... and I was like, why the hell is she not understanding me ? Lets try once more I thought. ' Can I have some water please ?' ... 'I am really sorry sir, but what do u want again ? ' ... and I had lost it by now ... ' water, water, can I have some water ? ' this time all those waters had different pronounciations ... guess what , she still had that question mark look on her face ... and I had given up ...

But then the american lady sitting next to me told her, 'he wants water'... and the miracle happens ! 'Oh I am sorry sir ! here is your water !! ' and she handed me that small cup of water ... I swear I felt like asking that air-hostess, what was wrong with what I said .. if not exactly same, what american lady said was very close to how I pronounced water ... cant she just guess ? I mean one of the 4 - 5 waters I said must have been pretty close to what she is used to hearing ... but that time alongwith getting angry, I was getting so embarassed .. 'All the people on the plane must be looking at me' ... so I thanked that lady next to me ... drank that cup of water in one sip and slept off not to speak one more word for the whole plane ...

3 yrs later now, all these things seem pretty funny but that time it was a great experience ...