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On this day, last year...

...I was on my way to Frankfurt. Actually I was going to Austria to attend a conference related to my work. I chose to fly to Germany and travel by train to Austria for quite a few reasons. Firstly, most of my friends whom I was meeting stayed across Germany. Second reason is more obvious...I love travelling by train.

Also, Train travel + Europe = DDLJ
Ok I didn't succeed in meeting my Raj, but there were plenty of other 'interesting' experiences.
One of them I have already shared here. I will write about the rest some other time when I feel like. This post is about something else.

As I was waiting to board the flight at Bombay Airport, thoughts of several kinds kept me busy.
I was excited as this was the first time I was travelling out of India and I was scared for the same reason too. I was happy that I was going to meet a few friends after a long time. And I was nervous for my presentation at the conference. And I was prepared to feel all this and deal with all these feelings as I had been thinking about all these things for more than 10 days before the travel. But there was something which I was not prepared for...

The flight was supposed to leave Bombay at 17:30 hrs but it got a bit late. At 18:35 hrs, finally the plane was ready to take off and it slowly started moving towards the runway. I couldn't get a window or aisle seat. So, i was ended up sitting between two fat middle-aged men. My mood was slightly off because of this and also because the flight didn't look like the international flight that I had imagined. It looked like I was sitting in an Air Deccan plane with many Indians and a few foreigners. I took out the book I was reading and began turning pages. Then I thought that I will start reading only after the plane takes off and I glanced out of the 'half-window' which my neighbour left unblocked.

The pilot made the final announcement that the plane is going to take off from Bombay and will be landing at Bahrain Airport after ~3 hrs. I don't know what happened to me at that moment, and tears welled up my eyes. I felt something which I had never felt nor anticipated to feel. The feeling that I was going somewhere very very far away from the place/country which i consider mine had suddenly sunk in. After that incident I don't know whether I will be able to stay away from my country if need be.

Overall that trip was really great and I got to meet new people and see new places. Two people I met on my Bombay-Bahrain-Frankfurt journey were Sussane and Gerd. They were German engineers and had come to India for some work. They shared their experiences in India. It was really good chatting with them. We sat at a small cafe at the Bahrain Airport and talked and talked for almost 4 hours. After meeting them and talking to them I felt much better and realized that basically all of us are very alike. Initially when I got down the plane and walked towards the lounge at Bahrain airport I saw so many people from different countries, wearing different kinds of clothes, having so very different facial features, that initially I felt lost and lonely. But after meeting these two people I felt much better. It was the perfect beginning of a perfect 2 week long trip.



Costa coffee at Bahrain Airport, where Sussane, Gerd and I sat and chatted for most of the time.

Comments

Koffee beanzz said…
I miss Bahrain! :(

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