...And Again!

I bade farewell, took my "last few looks" and headed out the doorway, into the car park and withing minutes was watching my neighbourhood, the metro construction nearby, the cityscape, unbelievable traffic and other familiar sights go by...one last time...before I left. This time it felt like I'd be gone forever, since I was so used to only leaving "home" for a couple of weeks or a month on end WITH family the whole time. This time the whole 4 months I would spend away from home would be alone and in a totally different environment. I was ready. Excited. Yet nostalgic. But, I won't lie and tell you I didn't feel bad or wasn't holding back tears just to show you how "strong I am". I was sad, I admit. And the song being played on the radio that "one last time", just happened to be Avril Lavigne's 'When You're Gone'. Talk about mood music. =|

As my driver pulled up in front of the terminal I reflected on my last few days and my rather jinxed trip to college. We've been trying to catch a flight to the US since the 4th of August! Yes, the 4th. But, somehow things just never went our way. Either my mom fell sick, I fell sick, the travel agent failed to book the tickets for our connecting flight to Houston, Texas from London, the travel agent misinformed us about the baggage allowances and visas or Qatar Airways sucks. The bold and highlighted reasons are why we didn't manage to catch last night's flight. Yep, we missed that too! The whole nostalgic and sentimental moment was kinda pointless and ruined once we reached the check-in counter. Why were we flying Qatar Airways? Well, that's exactly what I asked my mom as well. Apparently all the other Emirates flights et al were booked and these four seats were the only ones available this soon. Damn. As long as we went right? Well, we didn't end up going, as you know, so that backfired pretty well. =P

Things were looking bad the whole day. There were lots of 'weird signs' and 'omens' which suggested that either we wouldn't go or we just wouldn't make the flight. Terrible thoughts yes, but there was no denying the negative vibes I was getting all day. Not that I particularly believe in such things. I somehow just got that feeling. Anyways, the first set of airport mishaps started off with the dude passing the luggage through the X-Ray machine, practically flinging my guitar in! Thank God the case was pretty protective! Secondly, the metal detectors started going wild as soon as I passed through the sensors (As usual...*sigh*). One by one I took off my chains etc. and placed them in the plastic box as I walked through the sensors again. The same loud beep filled the airport.

"Take your belt off."

I look at the security officer and raise my eyebrows. I took it off and passed through the sensors without a problem. Great! I watched as my guitar came out through the machine, and started wearing my 'bling' again and walked towards the check-in counters passing my belt through my jeans loops. Weirdly embarrassing but, what can you do right!? The line to the check-in counter was huge! And we were already kinda' late thanks to our slower driver. Sheesh! Even a Tortoise with polio could beat us when we're being driven in a car by him! However, we finally made it so...that was cool! After what seemed like ages: watching a little girl staring at me and my new and improved open hair look and guitar slung across my shoulder, and listening to my mom and Disha laugh at my 'airport theories', we finally reached the front of the line. That's when the major issues started. While the dude behind the counter checked us in, I watched as two Keralite men stood in front of the counter next to us. They were on a flight to Trivandrum and I smirked as a Pillai-ish thought came to mind. I labelled them as potential husbands for Astha and turned my attention back towards our own counter. Trouble was already brewing as my mom and dad argued with the Qatar Airways employee over the fact that our agent hadn't booked us connecting flights from Gatwick, London to Houston, Texas! He had also booked my seat some five rows behind my family. My mom evidently didn't like the idea of being separated from me before I went to college. And the whole muck up was uncalled for. She rang up our agent and deservedly reprimanded him! Disha and I stood idly in line observing other passengers and passing pointless comments about various things. The situation was in no way solved entirely but the QA employee was fortunately a very helpful and decent young man and made sure that he improved the situation by sending a letter to the airlines for our connecting flight tickets.

We finally moved on from the counter as there were barely ten minutes left to board our flight. Disha and I hadn't eaten anything the entire day, apart from a sugar donut each and were absolutely famished! However, there was no time to stop at the nearest McDonald's or anything...we had to make that flight! So, we rushed on towards immigration, the clock ticking and the crowd slowly ambling on like it was an Art Museum or something! Just as we were about to enter the immigration area, my mom remembered she had a question to ask about the visa requirement at Gatwick. She ran back to the aforementioned QA employee as we all waited and watched the planes take off and land on the tarmac from the window. I was slowly taking it all in, the Dubai atmosphere and people as I neared my departure. I had a nagging pain in my stomach. It wasn't hunger. It was something else. More like a feeling of foreboding, a warning. As I struggled to stay on my feet till we boarded the plane I saw my mom walking back with the QA employee. They seemed to be in a hurry and didn't look too happy despite the stupid and confused expression on my face. Something was wrong.

"There's a problem with the UK Visas, " said my mom frantically. "He says we need them to enter Gatwick! Even if we're not leaving the airport!"

We all gaped at Mom and the QA employee. My dad explained to the employee that we had travelled to Texas only a few months earlier for my head treatment via Gatwick and we didn't need a UK visa. The employee explained that his boss claimed they did. What!? Damn! There had to be a mistake, I mean if you're taking a connecting flight and not entering the country/leaving the airport, one didn't require the visa. But, apparently, now we did. Crap! =S Now what!? Mom and Dad took the man aside and they discussed the grave matter for a while as Disha and I bet as to whether we would eventually leave or stay back. All signs pointed to us staying in Dubai a few more days. That was great for me and bad! I mean I was happy to stay a while longer but, I mean, I was also damn excited about college and the US as well! And I really had some awesome plans for the US before I started college! But, thanks to this newfound dilemma, our trip would definitely be cut short! Bummer! And it wasn't even our fault! Geez! We had asked the agent many a time whether he was sure we didn't need a UK Visa if we were transiting and he had clearly said no. The QA people also didn't tell us that we needed one until we had checked-in and confirmed our tickets! Smart asses! My Mom was furious and my Dad threatened to sue the airline! Lol! They were pretty pissed off and stormed off to speak to the man in charge that night.

"Wait here!" My Dad had said, as he and my Mom followed the employee to the QA office. Disha and I stood watching them head off and settled ourselves down in nearby seats. I propped my guitar on a seat next to me, tempted to play some tunes while we waited. But, I decided I wouldn't be able to hear anything over the excessive airport chatter anyway. Besides, I was too afraid to see whether that man at the X-Ray machine had dented my guitar earlier! =|

We listened to music from my cell phone, and heard the announcer make the final call for our flight and minutes later we knew we had missed it. Crestfallen, yet excited with the mini-airport adventure we watched other passengers scuttle off in an effort to catch their respective flights VISA AND ALL! =S Lucky, indeed! I should have asked them for their travel agent's business card! =P As we waited impatiently for our parents to update us on the latest developments and take us for some grub, I started to sing 'Summer Love' by Justin Timberlake and 'Pop Goes My Heart' from the movie Music and Lyrics! Don't ask! =S I was quite engrossed in my singing when we noticed Eesha Shah, a girl from our school, approaching us. Neat! We exchanged pleasantries and passed our time chatting and discussing the summer hols and the disastrous trip we were having so far. The conversation was interesting, yet short-lived as, unlike us, she had a plane to catch and joined her family at the check-in counter. Brilliant! =S Mom and Dad still weren't here. I had called my good friend Anjali a little while earlier and had explained the situation to her as well! Excited that we could now plan some more outings together, I started planning the next few days in Dubai. Suddenly, Dad calls us and tells us to meet him and Mom back at the QA check-in counter. Oh boy! We gathered our luggage and my guitar and headed back the way we came. I didn't expect to see Dubai again this soon! =P We met up with our folks and they handed us some cash to go spend at the food court, which I enthusiastically added to the allowance already in my wallet. ;) We were starved and food was only a couple of escalators away! =)

***

We were officially stuffed! Like Thanksgiving Turkeys or the Public Transport buses during the evenings! A couple of Veg. and chicken wraps, fries and Pepsis and we were on cloud 9, content as ever and laughing at the incidents that took place earlier. The laughing was of course mainly done by Disha and I, as my parents and Uncle were busy planned their next line of attack on the airline, not weapon-wise of course, but more like verbally and stuff. Apparently there was a lot of other stuff that went on in that meeting my folks just had with the manager. Anyhoo, it was now 3 a.m. and we were pretty damn tired since we had barely slept two hours the previous night due to some last minute packing. Our checked-in luggage had to be picked up the next day and I was hoping it would be picked up early next morning since unlike everyone else, ALL my good clothes had been packed in them and I barely had anything cool to wear at home! =S We soon got up and walked towards our car. It had been quite the eventful day and we didn't expect any more surprises that night! So, naturally when we saw Mrs. Murthy, Our school's Senior Supervisor Girls, heading toward us with her husband we jumped back with a start. A pleasant surprise, considering the trauma we had experienced that night! After formal hellos etc., my parents, Ma'am and her husband soon got into an animated discussion about the night's events. Hearing the unavoidable catastrophe over and over again was not helping and I zoned out for a bit. They spoke of how the Airlines should compensate us and that we in fact, didn't need UK visas if we were not going to exit the airport! Ha! We knew it! =P Then they joked about how since I had an American Passport, I didn't need a visa anyway and could have gone by myself while the rest of my family would have been stuck at the Gatwick Airport. A disturbing thought indeed! Disha and I kept shooting each other sideways glances and grinning as the two couples bonded. Ma'am had just dropped her daughter, Swati, at the airport, who was heading back to her own college and thus, the conversation then shifted to Universities. Ah well, it was bound to happen at some point, I thought and sipped my Pepsi.

After what seemed like hours, they finished their enjoyable, yet lengthy conversation and parted and we headed down the escalator half expecting to run into someone else or have something else surprise us! What a night! I couldn't wait to just fall onto my soft bed and sleep! The day had been quite eventful and rather peculiar, as we waited for our clumsy and rather comical driver to bring the car up front. [That by itself was a whole new adventure and deserves it's own blog post =P].

***

As we drove down I couldn't help but ponder and reflect on the evening and the disappointing events that took place that night. My thoughts then drifted to signs, omens, and destiny. Despite the unlikeliness of me foreseeing the mishaps. I couldn't overlook the fact that I had indeed felt something wrong and more specifically predicted the postponement of our already cursed and jinxed trip that afternoon. Strange. I smiled as I remembered 'K'ostradamus and my earlier predictions. Nothing as eerily accurate as this. I mean those were accurate too, yet this gut-feeling was strangely accurate. I can't explain it and at the risk of sounding almost mental, that night I actually believed in signs and superstition, if only for a moment. =| I was very pensive for the rest of the drive home and when my mom told me that we had got a flight a few days later directly to Atlanta, Georgia, my heart totally skipped a beat. That was the same state in which the equally prestigious, Emory University, was in! Now, let me explain why that was such a big deal. Among other Universities, I had been accepted into Emory University and it had been in my top two choices to accept. The second being NYU. Somehow, Emory seemed to be a great choice, but New York City and NYU just felt right to me. Yet, initially there was always a nagging thought that maybe, just maybe I had picked the wrong University for me even though everyone was impressed with NYU. Of course, now NYU is all I can think of, which is cool! However, there were various 'signs' pointing to Emory, including emails being sent to me despite me rejecting the University! Weird. I mean I couldn't avoid the rather strange occurrences! And now, of all the states I was going to fly to, we landed up going to Georgia! Wow. Call it what you want. Coincidence. Crap. Divine intervention. All I know is, there was something that night...and there is something about my University drop off...

As we turned into the building parking lot my dad turned back and grinned: "Looks like Dubai doesn't want to leave you, Komal!"

I looked at him and smiled: "The feeling is most definitely mutual, Dad...most definitely mutual!"

Taking a break from my signs theory, I shifted onto more frivolous possibilities: Either someone missed me so much they wished for me to stay, or I just had really rotten luck. Even though the latter seemed the most likely in my case, I sure as hell hoped it was the former! ;D

Blogtrack: Warning Signs - Coldplay

[This blogtrack is one to be read into...and the lyrics have a deeper meaning than is interpreted at first. Those who get it, that's great and for those who don't, no problem, just enjoy the song. It provides the perfect mood.]

Note: Some strange ideas have been tossed about. The situation and the events leading to it were definitely mind-boggling despite it's apparent simplicity. We later caught a flight as mentioned on the 16th to Atlanta and hopefully, we'll make it safely to the US this time without any further interference. As they say in theses parts, Inshallah (if God wills!)! This time it's REALLY goodbye! ;)