Saying Goodbye - Part 2


Location: Gate 113, Stuttgart Airport, Germany.
Time: 4.45 pm.
Date: August 23rd, 2011.

Third boarding pass, second security check, change of clothes and a new Band-Aid later, I’m back again where I was yesterday. Two more hours.

As they came closer I started walking further ahead so I could see it from exactly in the middle. That’s when all the hormones surged enthusiastically. How lucky was I to finally see it in person, to have touched it earlier, to have climbed all the way to the top. While we were sitting there for some time, a group of middle aged drunk women camped not very far from us, had employed two guitarists to sing for them. At the stroke of the midnight hour, to my astonishment, the Tower started dazzling in white sparkles. Imagine the great big Eiffel Tower, in all its golden glory – but, also sparkling white all over, as though a string of pearls suddenly came to life just so they could dance over it in jubilance. Just to make the moment even more magical, the guitarist started singing Cheb Khaled’s Aicha! Now, that’s coincidence! Think of the only French song you know. Now think of the only time you visit France, you actually get to hear a real Frenchman singing it right in front of your glittery dream. All this thanks to my parents. I wish they were here to see this with me. If they hadn’t sent me to study abroad to the USA, I would never have applied to RISE. If they hadn’t been encouraging enough to build the confidence in me to travel alone, I would never have seen this at the age of 20. Some people wait for years and years to fulfill their dream travel destination. The old man in the movie ‘Up’ waited his entire lifetime before completing his dead wife’s desire to visit South America. Teeny little me, am just 20. I don’t deserve this right now. My parents do. They slogged for years and years unceasingly just so we, their children could live happy lives. It’s about time they stopped, and enjoyed their lives now. I felt my eyes welling up. Is this the cycle of life? Man enters this world dependent on others, and then spends his life by returning the favor - bringing in more men to see the beauty of his world. Our earth is buzzing with this constant activity. Cycles of birth result in evolution. Cycles of evolution result in a different species. I wonder if there is indeed a species so highly evolved that they alone were responsible for the birth of our universe. I wonder if we have been living in a vicious cycle of universes wherein our universe is born every time this species does something which causes the entire realm of space to explode and hence be responsible for the Big Bang Explosion. Karma would then indeed be true, wouldn’t it? Universally, every action would then definitely have a reaction. Unfortunately for Newton, not necessarily opposite; but a reaction, yes indeed. I wonder if the objective of life as we know it, is nothing else except completing this cycle of our universe. Birth of the universe, evolution of the universe, destruction of the universe by its own organisms and then death of the universe for the cycle to restart. That would still not solve the timeworn origin of life conundrum, but would definitely tantalize us more.

Ding! “[Some German Announcement]. Attention Please! The gate to Lufthansa Flight 0925 to Paris has been changed to Gate 310.”

Yes, I was in Paris, excessively homesick. It didn’t help walking down the famous Champs de Elysée from the Arc de Triomphe as it so reminded me of North Michigan Ave in Chicago. Great, now I was missing both my homes. And then I saw a Louis Vuitton store. OH yeah, I remember the label: ‘Louis Vuitton Paris.’ My eyes count the number of their store windows. Six windows and then the store turns. But wait, they have a second floor. Oh no…the entire Louis Vuitton building was at least fifteen floors high! I was indeed in Paris. We passed a Peugeot showroom, a Mercedes Benz showroom and a Renault showroom showing off their snazzy cars. I thought to myself, this was where the high flyers of the world shop at. Now I know the secret of the French economy.  The French government loves their people. Strategically located beautiful parks, play grounds for children, well lined roads, pretty buildings, pollution control; it would be an absolute pleasure to live here and contribute to the economy. Even the many beggars who crowded their train stations were better dressed than the average middle class strata of people in India. The nouveauté of Paris charmed me. I thanked all the forces of the Universe, yet again.

 I see another BA personnel. The chairs are filled once again. The screen says expected take off time is 7.15 pm. We’ll see.

The last time I would see the brother-sister duo – ever. I said many good byes this summer knowing fully well that this was the last time I would see them, unless we were destined to meet. I wonder how destiny fits in with Karma. I don’t believe in chance. It is too chaotic and random. I do believe in ordered chaos though. The bus back to Stuttgart was scheduled to reach at 7 am. Although, I made it to Stuttgart at 8.30 am.  It wasn’t till 10 am that I finally reached my dorm room back in Tübingen. I hadn’t even started packing then. I was leaving Germany in 9 hours. 135 minutes of uninterrupted packing later, I called the Housemaster to hand over my keys to him and set off for the last time to my lab. I hated leaving. I kept mumbling to myself how I didn’t want to leave. I told my supervisors that I didn’t want to leave. I hated leaving. I could continue saying this on and on. Tired of handling my super heavy bag, I fell asleep in the bus. A nice co-passenger woke me up to notify me that we had reached the airport. I spend about an hour trying to repack my considerably overweight bag so most of the weight is carried by my poor shoulders on the flight as carry on. A surprise vegetarian burger at Burger King later, I faced security check which didn’t work to my favor considering I had to unpack my carry-on bags and stuff everything all over again. They took my Speculoos!! Speculoos is a really tasty gram cookie paste that is available only in Belgium and The Netherlands. I wanted my family to taste it! Slowly, I made my way towards Gate 113 where I would board my flight to London Heathrow and then to Chicago O’Hare tomorrow. I waited. I didn’t want to go back. I waited some more.
Still waiting. Should probably pack my laptop in. 6.49 pm.
Two hours after the scheduled time for my flight, we received a notice that our flight to London had been cancelled and that we should see the BA personnel at the ticketing desk for further help. I saw people dart back into the airport and without knowing any better, I followed. Yes, I panicked. I had never faced a cancelled flight before. I had no idea how I would make my flight to Chicago the next day. Where was my checked in bag? I didn’t want to pay more. I felt helpless. I checked my phone but I couldn’t call any one as I didn’t remember any numbers. The last call I had made was home. It was 1 am in India. I thought to myself, if not now, then when. Scared and stranded, standing at the front of a long queue at Stuttgart Airport, I called home.

The gate’s opening. Can this be it?

My brother read out all the legal fine print from the British Airways website on cancelled flights. Better aware of my options, I faced the lady at the help desk who gave me a new itinerary for a flight which would make me reach Chicago 8 hours late. I didn’t have an option but to accept it. From there, I stood in another queue to collect my hotel voucher where BA had agreed to give us accommodation and food for one night. 60 passengers stranded in an airport scurried to reclaim their checked-in baggage and then head to the hotel. There was another queue to get into the airport shuttle which was taking us to the hotel. I started chatting with an old English lady and a pair of teenage brothers travelling alone. We planned to meet for our free dinner in a few minutes. Luckily, it was a four star hotel and they had arranged us well. I dropped my bags into my spacious single room and headed down. Queuing seemed to be the order of the day as we stood in another queue for dinner.

 I need to go!!! Yayy!!

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