Amrika! - Part I

For the first 22 years of my life, I had never stayed outside my home, Kolkata, never gone around anywhere alone and had only gone to not-so-far-away places for family vacations. And, then suddenly, I started seeing places! It's difficult at times, to adjust to a place outside the warm little shelter called home where you have stayed all through...but it can be a lot of fun too. And, for someone like me, who loves new cultures and languages, moving around is quite a bit of an experience.

I had stepped out of home for Hyderabad three years back. And then seen Delhi, Gurgaon and Chennai during official tours. Then, "Amrika" happened! First time out of the country, flying over the north pole, sitting in the flight for 17 hours, drinking wine with a cheers with a random person on the flight, paying $5 for a one minute phone call to home, can be weirdly exciting!

On my way to the Hyderabad Airport...I felt sort of strange. An intriguing, bone-chilling feeling, not only because of the nip in the air, bu also because of the haywire thoughts about what the next three weeks will actually be like.

After heavy words like immigration, passport, stamp, visa and "why are you going to the US", I made my way to the international terminal. I am now a confirmed traveler, with most of my belongings checked in, passport and boarding pass in hand, all set to fly.

19 hours in a plane...with a stop over at Dubai. I never imagined I could survive it, until I actually did. The black Kenya guy who sat in the next seat and wasn't at all a nice person, the friendly Dubai-settled Punjabi couple who loved Dubai more than India, and who spoke only about the dirt and dust of India, the cabin crew who tirelessly went on serving food and beverages, the endless list of movies on the TV, the warm blanket with which I cuddled off to sleep several times during the flight, the book that gave me company when I was bored of looking at the TV screen - these were all part of an elongated August day, elongated by the flight, flying over the world, taking bits and pieces of the same day from every country. I get extra time to live, I thought...I get the same day with more than just 24 hours in it!

Waiting at the SFO airport for my next flight to Irvine was tiring. By then, I no longer felt amused at anything...Jet-lagged, tired, sleepy, I just needed a bed to drop into. It's been difficult - to pass all the immigration, customs, security, to get back the luggage, to buy a calling card...search for entry to the domestic terminal, ask a hundred people on the way, everytime feeling irritated at their lack of knowledge and their inability to comprehend Indian English accent at one go. I had the first taste of American food at the airport - a cold sandwich. Going forward, I realized, how much of cold stuff these people always eat...do microwaves sell that well here?

I had an NRI helping me get a taxi from the airport. As I drove down in the taxi towards my hotel, I saw that the roads were noticeably different. Cleaner, much emptier, more greenery by the sides. Sigh! Can't India be like this too? No, I don't crave for the emptiness, but we could do with a little bit more greenery and cleanliness. As my taxi drove into the front yard of the hotel, I came out and shivered. Fall in California, more around the Orange County, is not at all supposed to be cold...but I guess Indian skins are used to more warmth.

My hotel room overlooked a breath-taking view! The back bay of the ocean was calm with a silent gushing sound and the serenity of the area that I could see from my 9th floor room's balcony was beyond imagination. I at once fell in love with the place and my room. After a subway dinner, I was soon sleeping peacefully on the eiderdown bed in my room.