The Heathrow
I came out of the plane, along with my cabin luggage. I had to clear one security check before I could be allowed in the airport terminal. There I came to know that I could not carry things like scissors, nail cutter and blades. After my luggage was cleaned off these harmful things, I was allowed to go to the terminal. This was Terminal 4 of the Heathrow airport. I was lucky that my next flight was from the same terminal. I was supposed to wait there for another 7 hours. I had company with me, the person from my company, who was supposed to go to Boston from the same terminal. He had a stop over of 3 hours at the terminal. We made apt use of the facilities provided at the terminal. Once we were done, we had lot of time to spend on the terminal.This terminal had some 25 gates, and there were many such terminals in the Heathrow airport. I also came to know that there was some Gatwick airport in addition to the Heathrow. That proved that this place was visited by thousands of people, every day. It was also evident from the long list of the departures that were being screened on different screens on the terminal. Neither my plane nor the other person’s plane details had appeared on the screen when we came on the terminal. We spent some time seeing the BBC broadcast of the Tsunami again. The big windows made it possible for us to keep a watch on the air traffic on the airport. We saw many airlines besides British Airways, like South Africa airlines, Royal Kenya airlines, etc. I also saw some planes of ‘Red cross’. As per BBC, Red Cross was sending a lot of help to the Tsunami affected areas, from London. This made me jump to the conclusion that even these planes were going to the Tsunami affected places.
Sitting and waiting at the airport was as boring as it is to wait at the bus stand. Only thing is, these airports are air conditioned and you don’t see a person carrying ‘chai’ on the terminal, you just see ‘Starbucks’ coffee, clothing and other accessories from Gucci, Tommy Hilfiger, many different Swiss watches, Parker and other well known pens, Hallmark cards, cosmetics from L’Oreal, big book stores, etc… I did pass some time going through many of these shops. But I did not dare to buy any costly thing because I was not aware how much I will have to spend once I reach the US. One thing was for sure, the terminal at the Mumbai airport and the one where I was currently waiting, were very different, not only in the number of planes that they catered to, but also in the overall look and feel. Mumbai airport had many people, but this terminal surely had more people and was flashier. I did not see many international brands at the Mumbai terminal. While I saw ‘Sholay’ in Mumbai, I saw BBC and ‘Aladdin’ from Walt Disney at London.
I was left alone after my friend left after three hours. I used to sit for some time and then again start going through the same shops. After some time I think I had gone to every nook and corner of the terminal. I had to keep an eye on the departures, my flight details had started appearing. But it did not show at which gate. Finally after a long-long wait and just a few minutes before the departure of my plane, I saw my gate number and it was Gate 24. This meant that I had to go through a long tunnel that would bring me to the other end of the terminal. After rushing through the tunnel, I saw that my fellow passengers were still waiting as they were not being sent in. Soon the airport staff started their procedure of checking the boarding passes and the passport and letting the people on the plane.
The second part of my journey was pretty much the same, as I came by the plane which was of the same make and the same airlines. Though there were a few differences like, I did not see the familiar, Hindi channels, Indian airhostesses and neither did I get Indian food aboard this plane. I was served some food with chicken and fish. When I told that I had asked for a “Hindu Vegetarian” meal, I was told that “Hindu Vegetarian” meal contains Chicken and Fish!!! Now that was news to me. Later I got some food which consisted of boiled vegetables and some pasta like thing. So, this was a glimpse of what it would be like, in the USA.
I landed in Seattle at around 4 PM in the afternoon. It was very dark by that time. It was winter and the days were very short in this part of the world. Since Seattle was my “Port of Entry” to the United States, I was supposed to undergo emigration check at Seattle. A couple of questions from the emigration authority person and I was through, in the US, for the first time…
posted by Amol @ 2:55 PM
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