Location: Terminal 1 bench, London Heathrow Airport, United Kingdom.
Time: 4.20 am.
Date: August 24th, 2011.
I just found out my laptop didn’t auto-update the time. Another hour more.
The sign post outside the restaurant area in the hotel read, ‘Please wait to be seated.’ Although there were quite a few empty seats, we couldn’t take them as we were not a part of their group. It felt kind of outrageous that single travellers from our flight group occupied a table for three, reading. We waited. After a while, one of the servers walks up to us to let us know, regretfully, that the kitchen was now closed. Oh, the brouhaha she stirred by saying that! There were at least fifteen of us waiting for dinner after a long day at the airport and we were told that we couldn’t get it! What followed was a lot of haggling with the receptionist, the managers, the kitchen staff and the BA professionals. Finally, some of them had to work overtime, while some of the reception desk staff doubled up as servers. We were given 20 euros to spend on their a la carte menu and it sure was a great meal! The first sip of coke after about 5 hours of talking and convincing different people, felt blissfully relieving. The conversation itself turned out to be particularly interesting when I happened to share the table with a lady from Surrey!! THE Surrey from Harry Potter! I told her about how excited I was to meet someone from Surrey and she wouldn’t believe it. She also told me that she worked right across from the street which is used as Diagon Alley in the movies!! How cool was that! Another lady I met was this recent Masters graduate from the Cass Business School who didn’t have any positive things to say about the job market or the economy in London. Good luck to her. So after that very wonderful meal, I went upstairs to my inviting bed and couldn’t fall asleep. So, I flipped through some German TV channels for the first time ever while in Germany. One of the channels was playing Inception in English and I let it stay on the sleep mode while I slowly drifted off into deep slumber. Maybe it was just the great four-star bedding, or the fact that I hadn’t slept really well for the past few days, but all I remember was waking up with a jolt when I heard room service knocking on the door. Check –out time?! Where was I? Paris? Tübingen? I don’t get room service in my dorm room. I opened my eyes groggily and it all hit me. I scuttled for my phone amidst the sheets to check the time and good golly, it was 11:54 am. My flight to London was in 6 minutes. I was going to miss it. And, possibly the one to Chicago at 3 pm. Grim silence.
The inter-airport shuttle buses are back in service. I leave London in three hours!
I called the reception to order a taxi for me while I got dressed and rushed downstairs. Ugghh, even more delays for check-out later, I got into the cab which seemed to stop at every traffic light there was between the hotel and the airport. Gotta hate Murphy during such times when his laws actually make sense. I made it to the ticketing desk at half past noon and explained my situation. They wanted to give me the same option of 12 noon, 3pm for the next day. Although, this time, they refused to arrange for my night stay. Of course, it was my mistake then. I really should do something about my sleep, or invest in a new alarm. So I asked them if they could hook me up with the same connections I was originally confirmed for, a few calls later, I got a new itinerary for my flight(s) to Chicago. The third in 24 hours. Way to go, Shefali! Check – in was after 4 hours and going out into the city was futile so I decided to find a good spot in the airport to chill at. Hunger took me to the Burger King on the 2nd level and I opened my laptop to start writing…
I couldn’t believe when the gate finally opened and I was walking down the sky walk into the plane. That’s when I finally felt only sadness. I was leaving Germany with no concrete plans of returning. Germany, the country that did more good to me than I can ever imagine. In some very dramatic words, I perhaps found my inner calling there. This summer was definitely one of the turning points in my life. The number of people I would physically never be seeing. All I wanted to do at that moment was to turn and walk back…
Terminal 3 is lit up again. It looks like the middle of the day now although its only 5 am. Hunger pangs again and I need to catch my last flight to Chicago. I should really leave now. Spending the night on the seats here has been no fun. I see there are more flights to India in the morning, than to the U. I just wish I could take one of the three flights to Mumbai and go to my real home. This has been quite an ordeal. Left a country grudgingly to go to another country, equally grudgingly. But, life’s been good overall. I guess that’s what matters, right? I guess you can always call life, good. It’s just your perspective that changes your outlook. To quote Dumbledore from one of the Harry Potter movies, “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of the times; if only you know where to turn on the lights.” It is where and what phases of your life that you choose to look at, that make the difference. After all, it’s all about basking in happiness, innit? Hopefully, this thought stays with me in my final year of college. Bring it on, senior year! I’m ready. InshAllah!
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