According to my plan I would take a 1 hr 25 min Am Eagle flight to Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) at 1:45 PM CST and then a 3 hr 40 min American Airlines flight to San Fransisco (SFO) at 3:50 PM CST from DFW. I would arrive at SFO around 5:30 PM PST, Mani di would pick me up from the airport on her way back from work and I would be at her place in San Jose by 7:00. I never thought I would lose my bottle of Davidoff on the flight and that wasn't the only aberration from my plan on this flight.
6. She told me that due to a huge storm in the vicinity of Baton Rouge their flight had had to return. There was too much turbulence for the flight to be safe. Her flight would only be able to leave after 7:00 because the runway was busy till then. She was visiting her brother in Baton Rouge.
Iraq - Iran, erstwhile West Germany - East Germany, Ethiopia - Eritrea, South Korea - North Korea, India - Pakistan. I guess you see a trend here. Two countries who are vehemently opposed to the very fact that the other exists, two countries in an continued conflict of interest and at a or close to a state of war at all times. But take the common man out of a pair of these countries and put him outside the boundaries of his nation, preferably in the United States of 'merica (pun intended) and they can peacefully co-exist. I met this bubbly Pakistani girl, she would be around 13 - 14 years old, on my flight from DFW to SFO. She chatted with me for the next three and half hours about grad school, India, music, food and what not. I also have a good Pakistani friend I call Javed bhai here at LSU, a very down-to-earth person. Not the crazy indoctrinated firebrand who wants to "bleed India through a thousand cuts" (people who don't know what I am talking about should google it). I enjoyed talking to her. I relaxed on the flight listened to music and thought to myself barring any delays I should land by 9:00 PST. That would mean a delay of around 2 1/2 hours not bad considering if I had not missed the plane I would have been delayed by God knows how long.
One. With my best laid plans I left home for San Jose, California on the 4th of June. Hector picked me up from home, it had been raining all day, East Baton Rouge Parish was under a thunderstorm and flash flood warning from the National Weather Service. We decided to chill at Hector's place before we went to the airport because we thought I had enough time. With an hour left for my flight we left Hector's place. It was five minutes to my flight when we reached the airport.
The flight from Baton Rouge to Dallas is a very short one the plane starts its descent just about half an hour after it finishes its ascent. It was still cloudy when we took off but cleared out as we flew west from Baton Rouge. I spent my time talking to this nice Gujrati gentleman who lives in Dallas and works for some telecom company. I had to change terminals at DFW and catch the 7:30 PM American Airlines flight to SFO. I managed to grab a 6" Grilled Chicken Sub with ham and sweet onion sauce before my flight. Getting on the flight was uneventful. The stewardess went through the usual "What to do if we crash" procedure, as if there is anything to do if we crash other than maybe, die. On the seat next to me was Sabah, a Pakistani teenager who was going to San Fransisco to meet her cousin. 8
After I got into Hector's car he realized that it was low on gas. I was already running late so we decided to take a chance with whatever was left in the tank. With almost zero visibility we started and as we drove it got worse. It seemed like the Gods were inclement upon me missing my flight. Due to flash flooding some of the roads were closed and we could not get on the I-110 from Perkins. When we eventually did get on the I-110 we were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of traffic. To make matters worse Hector could not step on the gas for fear of running out of it. Somehow I made to the airport about 3 minutes before the scheduled departure of my flight.
She had been on the 1:45 PM CST flight out of Baton Rouge. If I had been on time for the flight and not missed it she would have been sitting beside me on the flight. And like her I would have had to wait till 7:00 PM for my flight out of Baton Rouge. God knows when I would have reached San Jose if I had to wait that long. Her name was Yu Jin, she was going to Salt Lake city and was actually from South Korea. She said she had to take the earliest flight out of Baton Rouge because she had a connecting flight from DFW to SLC. She seemed really tensed. I felt a sorry for her as I boarded my 3:30 flight to DFW, I could not help it. For me missing the flight was turning out to be good.
This entry does not follow a chronological or any logical order; for that matter; at all because I decided not to plan what I wanted to write and I wrote whatever I remembered from my trip whenever and however it came to my mind.
When I reached the boarding gate I was literally panting for breath. The guy at the booth told me that my flight had just left. I told him of what I had been through at the security check and asked him if he could put me on the next flight to Dallas which was at 3:30 PM. I had the forethought of asking him if he could check to see if there were any vacant seats on the DFW - SFO flight. He said there were so I asked him to put me on priority for one of those seats. I called Mani Di to tell her I would be late, called Hector to tell him that I had missed my flight which he did not believe to begin with, puggled into my iPod and started listening to Audioslave. After 25 minutes or so I saw the gates open and a stream of people entered the terminal. A nice Asian looking girl came in and sat in front of me. In my head I guessed she was from the far east, she looked Korean, my hunch was later proved correct.Shankar bhaiyya was coming to pick me up at the San Fransisco Airport. My flight came in ahead
of time so I sat outside the terminal and watched people coming in to pick someone up or to drop someone off. I saw them hug in mirth of seeing a beloved someone after a long time or in the grief of having to let go of someone for a long time. There are all kinds of people who go through the gates of an airport, they have various demeanors some look TENsed, some relieved some happy. I listened to Dream Theater and enjoyed the dry; just a tad warm California air.It was still raining outside. I was already late. I had five minutes to get through security and reach the boarding gate. But before that I had to pass through the bane and the savior of every flier; airport security. Three well built in blue TSA uniforms stared at me; as if the metal detector and x-ray machines were not enough and they had to perform an x-ray with their eyes. I put my bag, my shoes, my camera, belt and whatever; went through the metal detector. Then was handed my camera back and was asked to pass it through the x-ray again. Next I was asked if I had fluids in my bag, which I did. So I took them out and passed them through the x ray. All of this was eating up my time. And her eyes fell on the bottle of cologne. It was practically full and just over the 3.4 fl. oz. TSA limit. She decided she would keep it. She wanted me to go downstairs check the bag in with the cologne and then go through; but I was in a hurry to catch my flight and it did not make any sense checking in that tiny bag which; according to the new air travel restrictions on domestic flights; would cost me $30 and I would risk missing my flight in the delay. I decided to let go of the bottle and went through. I eventually did miss my flight.
I expected things to go according to plan that day. Clearly they did not. So also in life we plan and hope that things will go according to our plans, most times they do not. But like that day; the fact that they did not go according to plan shall not dictate whether they went wrong for better or for worse. You might just be pleasantly surprised when you watch your best laid plans shattered to a billion bits and you see a different future you staring at you from each one of them shattered pieces. 11.
[P.S. When I wrote this I wanted to make it random just like life. Thus the paragraphs are in no particular chronological order. But there are subtle markers in each paragraph telling you where in the sequence the paragraph fits in except for one. I wanted the you to figure the order out in their head. So you will have to read it all then piece it all together.]
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