Fright or Flight

Beep...Burr!!!
Beep...Burrr!!

The alarm rang multiple times and I woke up with a start! It was the day I had to leave for China to attend the ASES Summit in Hangzhou; this was really exciting and I was going alone which was slightly scary!

After I got my visa with an inevitable, last-minute hustle I headed towards KIA with my family. We arrived at the airport and as much as I wanted to board that flight and explore the independence and the thrill of traveling, my arms wrapped around my parents seem to sing a different song!

Stifling all my doubts and bidding an emotional goodbye, I took my first step towards my solo, international stride and it was only the beginning to a roller-coaster two weeks of my life!

I took a flight to Kolkata and I had to then board an early morning flight to Kunming, China on the 4th of June 2017.

After I reached the Kolkata airport, I heaved a sigh of relief and my mind was then flooded with various other baffling questions, Am I on time? Will I find the right counter? Will I board the right flight? Should I call my parents? Do I have all my luggage, my documents?  These are certain innocuous questions which overwhelm a solo traveler and though they seem silly now, at that moment an answer to any of these deserved a Fields medal!

I managed to get to the counter where there was a mix of Chinese travelers and a few Indian businessmen but when I looked at the counter it didn't have the name of the airlines! Once I enquired and assured myself that the airlines would start check-in in a few minutes, I was relieved! Gushing with confidence and pride that I managed to locate the international terminal and sit at the right counter! Bravo, naive me!

All my confusions, agitations came to a temporary standstill when I saw this little guy, laying peacefully on the floor, with no care in the world!



And finally, my wait was over. Cruising through all the security checks, dropping off my trolley bag, I felt a huge load vanish! And I went on to board my flight!



And with an eager mind and a heavy heart, I said, "Goodbye India!" and the flight took off!





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 5 and Day 6: Khulja Sim Sim- a doorway to technology, final pitch presentation!

Image
Since the past four days in Hangzhou, I was so used to the routine of waking up early, having breakfast, heading out to the campus, attending all the sessions, group discussions, coming back preparing for the pitch and all the myriad of conversations and then going to bed early in the morning! As the days passed, a sense of familiarity, liking started to grow and the city felt more like home and it had just been four days. It was new, uncanny and I loved it. Day five was an embellishment to the entire summit! A visit to Alibaba group and in the evening to the West Lake- an ancient,evergreen for poets of generations to pass! And things could not have gotten better.                As the bus entered the premises, I saw a line of bikes parked perfectly in a row! Beauty.                                                           Enter Alibaba group! Ni hao! Taobao                             Hangzhou, the Silicon Valley of China is where Alibaba was launched and one lo
Read more

Day 4: of mock pitch, profound thinking and bizarre food!

Image
It was a bright, sunny morning and as per our routine, we all headed out to the Zhejiang University campus. And on my way to this beautiful venue where our sessions were going to be held, I noticed a few students happily clicking photographs with their graduation gowns on and for a minute or two my space cadet tendencies kicked in and all the memories of my three blissful years of engineering, the highs, and lows, precious moments with my friends, the joy of having chosen as a Melton Fellow and also the fact that I just had one more year left in my course and soon I would be in their shoes, making memories all the way,  but soon the mild, trickling sound of a bike shook me back into reality and I walked further to join my group. Our first speaker Mr.Zhou was an artificial intelligence scientist. Considering that this was a talk by an eminent personality, discussions, and tidbits of chatter filled up the auditorium and once this slide came up, the din diminished gradual
Read more

Ni hao!

Image
After a nice long nap, I woke up to the air hostess' announcement that we would be landing in Kunming shortly! Seats straight up and my mind contorted in musings, I waited for the plane to touch the runway and my dreams to take flight! Kunming!!! I was elated to see that all the signs were in English, the airport was very well organized and the best part was there were so many Indians traveling along and to get to the next step all I did was follow the crowd! After a much delayed and detailed immigration procedure, I rushed towards my baggage claim as it was a self-transfer. I had a flight to catch within the next hour and a half and thanks to the speedy baggage pick-up I was sweetly informed at the counter that check-in was closed! Completely unaware of the language, no one to speak to, for a second my heart sank and my mind was swirling with a myriad of thoughts;  Will I have to pay for the next flight? Wait! I have travel insurance, that will cover it, righ
Read more