It was 5:30 pm on a cloudy day of 5th Dec 2007 when I landed at EWR from Atlanta for my AI flight to Mumbai.
Filled with all exciting thoughts of meeting dear ones and few surprises, I wanted to pass this time asap. I just wanted to close my eyes n be there in arms of my parents & dear friend at Mumbai airport. Quite touched by the snow fall at Newark, I was in search of AI terminal. There was some chaos since the Delta flight from Atlanta was 1.5 hours late. Assistants were helping the passengers to find out the right way. I thought I can follow the signs and reach AI terminal, since it was mentioned to be the same terminal. I roamed for sometime, asked Security guard for the directions, they guided me for one floor down, but I was a bit reluctant to move forward and thought to reassure facts. Finally I took out the print copy of my reservation to find out the terminal and other details which very much matched where I was headed !!I stepped forward and saw directions for AI terminal pointing me to take escalator to one storey down & I took it, quite innocent to the fact that some mysterious moments are anxiously waiting for me to arrive :)
I reached the level floor, and was guided to the AI terminal, only 20 feet away but blocked by a wall. As soon as I cleared my vision, a whole new world arrived in front of me- A world full of Gujju people whether they be passengers, air crew, AI customer executives, ticketing officers, escorts, AI ground crew..all full of gujju people. I was amazed by this inflow of Gujjus in Newark, the capital of state of New Jersey & to add it, I hear this announcement about passenger needs to come to ticketing counter in Gujarati..I had a similar experience at US consulate in Mumbai when I went for my visa personal appearance, but never thought that this gujjus, sweet by nature will so gently and perfectly dissolve in an ever embracing culture of US. It was hard to determine who the native Americans are in NJ. I had to spend 2 hours there, and I was sure of this to be a different but unforgettable eve !!
I was in the queue waiting for my turn to come for ticketing and was exercising my neck 180 degrees around to get some glimpse of some gujju beauty, well I found one !!But once she started talking with her co passengers, I was taken aback !!
It was kinda being in some town in Saurashtra region of Gujarat !! I was watching many more families pouring in the Airport to depart for the homeland India, to b precise Gujarat !! The relatives & friends who came to drop were all over the place and bidding bye in native Gujju style. I eventually got to the Ticket counter wherein I was again startled when the cargo crew with no US like discipline talked to me in Gujarati !! I, then took my tickets and moved towards terminal, the security check in crew was all American, but the passengers were still Gujarati, and there started one more funny scene. The lady in front of me was not ready to remove the bangles and other ornaments when asked to pass through the metal detector, the security staff was shocked and upon insisting ,the lady argued that they are tight enough to be removed, the staff after enough discussion got frustrated and commented,' Ok mam, if this detector can allow u to go, we do not have any issues' , The lady was happy and tried moving in, & the metal detector started shouting and so the other fellow passengers. The climax came herein where the lady then removed all the ornaments with so ease and everyone including me could not control our laugh !!
I was so anxious to tell this to every friend of mine and I did the same when I reached terminal.I then had to stand in the queue to board the flight ,wherein I heard a shout of 'Hedo, hedo' from behind which pointed me to move on!! The on board crew announced the passenger with seats from 60 + numbers should proceed first along with the ones with kids. My seat # was 76 so I was ready to start, & the family behind me were the ones with kids & so they went before me, but to my surprise many other passenger with no kids also joined him as if it was a scene at a suburb of Mumbai metro. I eventually boarded the plane with all high hopes of having even more of a memorable time during the journey.
The AI flight could not take off owing to snowfall and everyone was getting frustrated !! But our Gujju families started eating the rice crackers (' Sev-Mamra') and passed it over my head to other family members seating behind me. I really could not believe that I was in this land of Liberty where the Gujjus are enjoying ultimate dominance whether it be business, profession or personal life !!
The flight landed in Paris and the french customs came to check for any unclaimed baggage. Since passengers were shuffled all over the flight to sit near by their loved members ( as always is the case with any train serving the western part of India) they found couple of such bags, One of them had a name written on it as 'Jaysukh Patel' & so did French authority announced. But they dint knew that the plane is bound to Ahmedabad, the capital city of Gujjus because they took that name as ' Mr. Patel'. At this one of the enthusiastic passenger commented that, 'Ahiyaan badha patel aj chey- Everyone here is Patel', All of the passengers laughed a lot at this. Another incidence which made this trip memorable was that no one ever followed the privacy for Air hostesses and in spite of those ladies puling the curtains every time, they went into their compartments. The passengers never tried to knock before entering it, forget about the continuous bells that they always rang !! Finally, when we landed Mumbai ,to my shock, the hostess told one of the passenger, when he commented that the service was very poor, not to ever board AI flight, since he just don't know how to behave!! I can neither forget the expressions on that hostess's face nor the hidden laughter on passenger's !!
I had all the glimpse of a typical gujju life and felt to be in India even before reaching the motherland
24 hours passed so fast..
