At Uncle Sam's

Exactly 13,968 kilometers from a place that I have called home for the past 22 years and 11 months.

It is a Tuesday afternoon and I sit here in Folsom, CA finally kicking off what has been on the cards for longer that it should have. My fourth day in the US of A, technically the fifth. It does not take less than a years planning before the drive to the airport to board a flight which takes you to a land which, almost everyone who has heard about, aspires to go to.

I left home at 13:15 hrs on Thursday the 2nd of August 2007, my flight to Mumbai was at 17:00 hrs. The take-off was a little delayed due to some mist on the runway, the captain made up for it once we took off and we reached on time. Boy, I just love the take-offs. The plane taxis to the head of the runway, the pilot puts it in 1st gear (I think) and starts revving down the runway before becoming air-borne. Bolting down the runway sure gives me the rush.

This was my first flyin experience for all practical purposes because I hardly remember anything from my previous and only plane journey, so long ago that I dont remember when. I reached Santa Cruz Airport, Mumbai at about 18:30 hrs and it was raining there too, I picked up my luggage and stood in the queue for shuttle which would take me to Chhatrapathi Sivaji International Airport. I lugged the luggage to the bus and there was this porter who loaded my luggage into the bus. I stood there to ensure that he handled my luggage with care. He looked at me and said, "Kaun sa airport saab?"...I said "Malaysian" telling myself that this guy wasnt a grumpy fellow as one would expect. Guess I drew a conclusion too soon, he next said "bakseesh denge saab?". I mumbled something like "paisa nahin hai" and climbed the bus. It was a 15 minute drive to the International Airport and it kind of went along some airport owned area and that was why we dint really enter Mumbai city. There was a reasonbly long queue for the security check at the Malaysian airlines counter and the staff there seemed to be working intermittently! The guy who issued my boarding pass kept staring at my ticket and at his computer alternately, looking puzzled. He issued the pass nonetheless, it left us just enough time to fill out the immigration form and run to board the flight.

This aeroplane was naturally much bigger because it was a Boeing 777, the previous one I sat in was an Airbus Industrie. It had three columns of seats and a personal screen for every passenger. One got to choose from a host of TV programs and movies of all genres and languages. One thing I did at regular intervals was check out the location of the plane through an on-board GPS system and also other details such as speed and altitude. These planes can fly at speeds of 850 kmph (ground speed) and altitudes of 38,000 feet. It was only a 4.5 hr flight from there to Malaysia.

The Malaysian airport is quite stunning, the architecture is very different and intriguing. There are these trees just outside the airport at some places which are visible through glass walls from floor to ceiling, its like the airport is in the middle of some kind of vegetation.. rather difficult to explain. The roof has a wooden finish and is contoured in a neat fashion. After collecting my boarding pass for which there was a long queue, I got onto a internal shuttle (a train and not a bus like in india) to go to another part of the airport, before which I got some Malaysian currency. We got a transit visa issued and bought round trip tickets to KL Sentral after a lot of enquiring and contemplation about whether we had enough time to go out and come back. We also decided to carry our cabin baggages with us as we dint want to waste money on renting lockers. Malaysia is typically Asian, the roads are better than those back in India and there are a host of cars that we are not used to seeing but otherwise there are clean uptown areas and shabby portions as well. We caught another train to KL City Centre which is a mall in a building right opposite petronas which also houses a train station in the basement.

Petronas is quite a structure, it stands 88 storeys tall. We got a guide to take us to the sky-bridge on special request. A limited number of passes are issued each day for visitors. Pretty picture of the city from up there. We caught the trains back to the airport and decided to call home after eating chappatis I had taken from India. With barely had 30 minutes to board the plane we bought a calling card for 20 ringet (!!) to call home, it was a 40 minute card to add to it! We managed to speak for just about 5 min after figuring out how it was used. We ran and boarded the next flight, the plane was a Boeing 747. The flight to Taipei took about 3 hours roughly. The stop there was very brief, it was almost like being asked to board as soon as we disembarked.. We managed a visit to the wash room though. The next was the longest leg, it was a 12 hour journey from Taipei to LA. Wasnt too bad because I slept for the major part of it, there's not much room and its too cramped for sound sleep.. it was not too bad nonetheless. The food on Malaysian Airlines is not usually as good as its air-hostesses. Asian vegetarians are usually given some kind of rice, the steward dint know what I was given.. he just smiled when I asked. The side dishes are good enough to not feel hungry till they serve something next. The vegetables are usually diced big and they use very generous quantities of oil! The guy sitting next to me was an Indonesian who was 29 yrs old. His english was a little different and he said he was coming to the US for work, his name was Aria (Ariauda actually...geez, what a name!).

We touched down in LA at about 19:30 hrs.. I got the I-94 card attached at the counter, it was like another visa interview.. simple. I picked my luggage up and followed directions to the terminal for my domestic connecting flight. I had to walk along the road...I did so slowly, soaking everything in while pushing the trolley. The airport parking lot which was on the other side of the road is huge!! I was about 20 metres from the terminal I had to enter when I saw a group of African American walking past.. they were dressed like typical rappers. One of them from that group who was about 12 yrs old came over to me with a box in his hand and held it out, it was quite obviously the first time such a thing happened.. I dint know stuff like that happend here too! He wanted me to put some money into the box, i said something like a "no"
and moved on. I walked up up to my terminal and I was about to turn in when an elderly man in his 50's approached me and said "excuse me sir".. he wore a hat and he had some kind of board in his had, I felt he was another such guy who would tell me a tale of woe and expect me to donate some money to some organisation or something. I instinctively said "sorry but I am in a hurry".. that was exactly when I noticed the badge he wore, it read "Airport Staff"!!! The board he had was a floor plan of the airport and he was meant to direct passengers. I think he dint really get what I said but I got what he said, I was to go to Level 1.

I boarded the next flight after collecting my boarding pass for which there was a terribly long queue of dissatisfied passengers, each was complaining about the slow service. The guy next to me in this flight was an American who was asleep even before I got on. The serve only coffee or tea on domestic flights, anything else has to be paid for! And by the way, this plane was a Canadair Regional jet.

We reached Sacramento at mid-night. I disembarked and came to collect my baggage only to learn that it had missed the flight! I was filling out a form for the baggage when I saw my brother walk up.. Boy! Did it feel good to see him. We walked to the parking lot, his white Honda Civic stood there looking as good as ever. It was something of which I had seen only photos till then.. he handed me the keys and said I could drive around in the parking lot. How exciting! Very few people get a chance to lay their hands on a car so soon after getting here.

It was a 30 minute drive home; took a shower after reaching, spoke to folks and slept after late dinner. I thankfully havnt had any jet-lag at all. Its pretty hot here in the morning, the sun doesnt set till about 7:30 PM! Guess its because people here are too lazy! We were home till afternoon on Sat and decided to go on a drive after lunch. We stepped out and I was told to pull the car out of the garage, I was too excited for words! There was this hedge that I had to go around to get to the garage, the was no way I was going to take those few extra steps.. i counldnt wait to sit in the 'cockpit'. I decided to jump over it not knowing that the ground on either side was at a different level, I leapt and landed on my right foot lengthwise on the right angle of a step. Ouch! It hurt...I limped back home. I had twisted my ankle sore. I knew it was pretty bad, it had swollen up and our plans for that day had to be cut short, not to mention calling off the drive to Bay Area the next day. I had to rest it and ensure it was better by the time I headed for the Univ.
I started writing this yesterday, today is Wednesday and its a lot better, I played Basketball for a bit last night.

The US of A is pretty much like the way they show in the movies, people here dont give a damn...the greet warmly though. The place is big, clean and neat.. not too overwhelming but, not for me atleast. Been pretty much at home, its been fun so far...we go out to places around here in the evenings. I leave for school tomorrow morning, quite a fresh start from there. Its exciting, looking forward to it...dont think i'll have time to invest for blogging once I get there.
Did I hear someone say "Thank Godness!" ?

Thanks for your time.

"The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose" I say its best to look at the rose and still be mindful of the thorns.
So long then.