The flight before covid......
Let me preface this by saying under normal circumstances planes are my favourite way to travel. Quick, efficient, clean and not to forget the possibility of hot stewards on board! But not even this was enough to save this last trip.
Had i known a pandemic was looming on the horizon, perhaps I would have made an effort to enjoy my last plane trip instead of complaining about it the whole way. However, in my defense there wasn't exactly anything to enjoy about that particular plane ride - it was tiring, sickening and mentally exhausting.
It all began on 25th October 2019 when my mother embarked on the biggest adventure of her life. She decided to take her three children and her niece on a trip to Mumbai to visit their cousins. This was monumental because under normal circumstances she barely holds on to her sanity with her 3 kids, throw flying into the mix and things become real serious real fast.
To say the trip flew by in the blink of an eye would be an understatement. To her credit, my mother managed to keep three teenagers and one rambunctious child happy and alive throughout the entire trip.
Not surprising then that the day of our departure was met with a lot of disappointment and annoyance at having to leave one of the greatest cities in the world!
To ensure that our memories of the day were set in stone we clicked like a million pictures and took thousands of boomerangs to let the people on "INSTAGRAM" know that we were sad .
After saying our dramatic goodbyes we took a big cab to the airport (big cab because five people , six suitcases and four backpacks couldn't possibly fit in a normal cab). Now as far as our family history goes it's safe to say that our journeys have always been eventful. So I really should have not been surprised when we landed at the wrong airport.
For a city as great as Mumbai it could do with a little effort to try and make distinctions between the two airports so that poor people like me would not end up at the wrong airport!
We were relaxed up untill we reached the wrong airport because we expected the driver to know seeing as it was his job. It did not help that my mother and not I was in the passenger seat and already panicking about reaching on time.
All hell broke lose when we realized we were at the wrong airport. My mother panicked - not a simple panic but a full scale psycho panic. She started calling everyone on her contact list in between yelling at us to stick together. Little did she realize that she possessed a secret weapon aka ME!
Now, under normal circumstances I don't usually do well in stressful situations however under extreme circumstances I work wonders. So that's exactly what I did. I channelled all the frustration and panic I was feeling about leaving Mumbai and focused it on the situation.
Starting with my mother , I had to first calm her down and that involved a fair bit of yelling not surprising considering who's daughter I was.
The next task involved calling the "professional" driver and having him take us back to the right airport. As if to add insult to injury we ended up getting charged for our ignorance. In essence we were charged for expecting him to know his job. Still operating on panic mode courtesy my lovely mother we rushed through baggage security and almost ended up colliding with some other passengers. From there things pretty much went downhill. Standing in line to get our baggage weighed we were beginning to realize my mother's addiction was going to cause a massive problem. Her addiction, which I comfort myself by saying all mother's have is shopping. She dosen't LIKE shopping , she LOVES shopping, she adores it, it's her hobby, her passion, her reason for living. The one reason why she made us carry half empty bags while coming to Mumbai.
Coming back to our massive problem. So the baggage limit was 75kgs and our luggage was 73kgs and the last bag was obviously not 2 kgs. And because I have a tendency to let people believe I am stronger than I actually am I ended up carrying this piece of baggage on one shoulder 'coz you know two shoulders is not cool enough, obviously. (horrible idea, I know!).
Operating on pure adrenaline and panic, we literally ran through the airport in between trying to answer 28 calls from my dearest aunties before finally reaching the waiting area at 2:00p.m. I should have been crying in relief seeing as we had made it in time for our scheduled 2:20pm departure. Instead there were actual tears when we were informed that the flight had infact been delayed, so all that panicking and marathon running had been in vain. Now all of this would have been avoided had my mother been as glued to her phone as I am and seen the alert from the airlines, so this one's on my mother.
Considering how everyone seems to want to come to Mumbai, delay in flight arrival and departures are considered the norm. Most flights are delayed by an hour but to our miserable luck we ended up with a 5 hour delay.
Thankfully we got to spend those five long hours in an amazing airport, trust me most entertaining hours of my life. Unfortunately I was so tired from all the panicking I wasn't in the mood to enjoy it. But I tried.
Now in order to while away time we did everything possible, Went up and down the escalator (i was forced to do it as i said before i have an annoying seven year old brother),Went to the washroom a million times just to make sure my hair wasn't a mess,Rated everyones outfits And charged my phone.....repeatedly we also witnessed a public fight which was interesting cause we got to learn that men have finally realised that in times of difficulty only a women can find a solution-they either come up with a solution or see that someone else comes up with one and both ways include screaming. All the men just added to the crowd taking videos and showing their stupid muscular bodies.
Now finally after delaying the flight from 2:30to 3:40 to 5:30. Finally at 6:45 we were shifted to another gate. We waited in the line till 7:00 obviously cause it's us . When we finally entered the plane I was just about done when someone had the nerve to annoy me more by using the compartment for our bags to put his bags. Now for those who know me ,my voice is extremely loud ,and I cursed that guy a lot, later I found out he was sitting on the opposite side and probably heard me .But as tired as I was I didn't really care.
We finally reached home at 9:30 and for once in my life i was glad to reach home and sleep in my own comfy bed.
I woke up the next morning and i realised that even though the journey was exhausting and long we had a lot of fun waiting at the airport we giggled and complained and i got to finish two episodes of a tv show!, we made a lot of lovely memories , it was an imperfect ending to a perfect holiday.
That moment itself I made a promise to myself my next journey by plane would be less tiring , more relaxing and really soon..........................seven months later the corona virus came and threw my hopes of a peaceful journey out of the window.Unfortunately hindsight is truly 20/20!
Had i known a pandemic was looming on the horizon, perhaps I would have made an effort to enjoy my last plane trip instead of complaining about it the whole way. However, in my defense there wasn't exactly anything to enjoy about that particular plane ride - it was tiring, sickening and mentally exhausting.
It all began on 25th October 2019 when my mother embarked on the biggest adventure of her life. She decided to take her three children and her niece on a trip to Mumbai to visit their cousins. This was monumental because under normal circumstances she barely holds on to her sanity with her 3 kids, throw flying into the mix and things become real serious real fast.
To say the trip flew by in the blink of an eye would be an understatement. To her credit, my mother managed to keep three teenagers and one rambunctious child happy and alive throughout the entire trip.
Not surprising then that the day of our departure was met with a lot of disappointment and annoyance at having to leave one of the greatest cities in the world!
To ensure that our memories of the day were set in stone we clicked like a million pictures and took thousands of boomerangs to let the people on "INSTAGRAM" know that we were sad .
After saying our dramatic goodbyes we took a big cab to the airport (big cab because five people , six suitcases and four backpacks couldn't possibly fit in a normal cab). Now as far as our family history goes it's safe to say that our journeys have always been eventful. So I really should have not been surprised when we landed at the wrong airport.
For a city as great as Mumbai it could do with a little effort to try and make distinctions between the two airports so that poor people like me would not end up at the wrong airport!
We were relaxed up untill we reached the wrong airport because we expected the driver to know seeing as it was his job. It did not help that my mother and not I was in the passenger seat and already panicking about reaching on time.
All hell broke lose when we realized we were at the wrong airport. My mother panicked - not a simple panic but a full scale psycho panic. She started calling everyone on her contact list in between yelling at us to stick together. Little did she realize that she possessed a secret weapon aka ME!
Now, under normal circumstances I don't usually do well in stressful situations however under extreme circumstances I work wonders. So that's exactly what I did. I channelled all the frustration and panic I was feeling about leaving Mumbai and focused it on the situation.
Starting with my mother , I had to first calm her down and that involved a fair bit of yelling not surprising considering who's daughter I was.
The next task involved calling the "professional" driver and having him take us back to the right airport. As if to add insult to injury we ended up getting charged for our ignorance. In essence we were charged for expecting him to know his job. Still operating on panic mode courtesy my lovely mother we rushed through baggage security and almost ended up colliding with some other passengers. From there things pretty much went downhill. Standing in line to get our baggage weighed we were beginning to realize my mother's addiction was going to cause a massive problem. Her addiction, which I comfort myself by saying all mother's have is shopping. She dosen't LIKE shopping , she LOVES shopping, she adores it, it's her hobby, her passion, her reason for living. The one reason why she made us carry half empty bags while coming to Mumbai.
Coming back to our massive problem. So the baggage limit was 75kgs and our luggage was 73kgs and the last bag was obviously not 2 kgs. And because I have a tendency to let people believe I am stronger than I actually am I ended up carrying this piece of baggage on one shoulder 'coz you know two shoulders is not cool enough, obviously. (horrible idea, I know!).
Operating on pure adrenaline and panic, we literally ran through the airport in between trying to answer 28 calls from my dearest aunties before finally reaching the waiting area at 2:00p.m. I should have been crying in relief seeing as we had made it in time for our scheduled 2:20pm departure. Instead there were actual tears when we were informed that the flight had infact been delayed, so all that panicking and marathon running had been in vain. Now all of this would have been avoided had my mother been as glued to her phone as I am and seen the alert from the airlines, so this one's on my mother.
Considering how everyone seems to want to come to Mumbai, delay in flight arrival and departures are considered the norm. Most flights are delayed by an hour but to our miserable luck we ended up with a 5 hour delay.
Thankfully we got to spend those five long hours in an amazing airport, trust me most entertaining hours of my life. Unfortunately I was so tired from all the panicking I wasn't in the mood to enjoy it. But I tried.
Now in order to while away time we did everything possible, Went up and down the escalator (i was forced to do it as i said before i have an annoying seven year old brother),Went to the washroom a million times just to make sure my hair wasn't a mess,Rated everyones outfits And charged my phone.....repeatedly we also witnessed a public fight which was interesting cause we got to learn that men have finally realised that in times of difficulty only a women can find a solution-they either come up with a solution or see that someone else comes up with one and both ways include screaming. All the men just added to the crowd taking videos and showing their stupid muscular bodies.
Now finally after delaying the flight from 2:30to 3:40 to 5:30. Finally at 6:45 we were shifted to another gate. We waited in the line till 7:00 obviously cause it's us . When we finally entered the plane I was just about done when someone had the nerve to annoy me more by using the compartment for our bags to put his bags. Now for those who know me ,my voice is extremely loud ,and I cursed that guy a lot, later I found out he was sitting on the opposite side and probably heard me .But as tired as I was I didn't really care.
We finally reached home at 9:30 and for once in my life i was glad to reach home and sleep in my own comfy bed.
I woke up the next morning and i realised that even though the journey was exhausting and long we had a lot of fun waiting at the airport we giggled and complained and i got to finish two episodes of a tv show!, we made a lot of lovely memories , it was an imperfect ending to a perfect holiday.
That moment itself I made a promise to myself my next journey by plane would be less tiring , more relaxing and really soon..........................seven months later the corona virus came and threw my hopes of a peaceful journey out of the window.Unfortunately hindsight is truly 20/20!
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