My journey to a new land

There have been times when I desperately wanted something to happen, regardless of how it affected the people around me. I always knew while leaving for MS it sure is gonna make my parents emotional and there are very few ways to console them. So it all started at 0430 hrs at the Chennai airport. I waved goodbye to my emotionally drenched parents (Especially mom). Waving goodbye to them, knowing that the chances of meeting them in person is very remote for the next two years, made me mentally weak, though I was looking completely stoic in the outside. I entered the luggage lounge for weighing my luggage and all my grief jus evaporated. I had taken a huge risk by exhausting my package options and the luggage weight overshoot a bit. First time travelling abroad, I sure was tensed and spent the next half juggling the excess luggage between the multiple bags I had and decided with a heavy heart to discard a few things. I was seriously thanking my lucky stars, that three other college mates were flying with me, which reduced my possible “emotional athyachar” significantly. Once I got through the luggage part successfully, I had to do On airport check in and in reality I was very lucky not too have been questioned by the BA officials about my bulging Laptop bag and an incredibly heavy hand baggage ( a monstrous 17 kg ) . I am proud that I filled my bags to maximum possible extent, only missing out on a maximum 100 gms of the allowed Baggage limit. After this point it was like the entire universe was conspiring to help me complete my journey successfully. So we( myself, ashwin, Swami, Anto) checked in, luckily getting seats close to each other in both the flights we were to travel. Next was the immigration check and security check. In between we squeezed out couple of moments to again wave goodbye to our parents. The latter was nothing like what I imagined. The entire process was very smooth and once the security fellow understood that we are students, they did not create much fuss, and the entire process was done with in a flash. Couple of them even wished us luck. The time was around 0730 hrs IST and we had settled in settled in peacefully waiting with relief for or flights. I was very happy to see a couple of my friends remember my exact time of departure and to see their texts wishing me luck for my journey. Special thanks for them. I kept calling my parents at sporadic intervals till I entered the flight.

We Boarded the flight at around 0800 hrs IST. First we passed the business class and the look was very exotic. We settled in comfortably i our seats. While keeping my hand luggage in the over head cabin, I was frightened by one of the BA crew that I might not have a smooth ride during my transit hours because of the shear of volume and the size of it. Not exactly the smooth start I expected, but who cares. They sure are not going to throw off my luggage after travelling 5000 miles to London. I settled into my seat. It was a middle one and I had a foreigner with a funky beard to my right and probably a mallu NRI uncle to my left, who was off to sleep in a flash and slept for incredibly the entire flight journey. The foreigner spoke little English and my interactions with him were limited to odd “thank yous” and “sorrys”. The customary safety precautions and other trivial stuffs took up much of the next half an hour. Over a point I restlessly began to wait for the entertainment (video option) to start and I understood that sitting in the middle is so much pain and mobility is curtailed to a limited amounts of stretches. Once we took off, i was eagerly waiting for movies and food. But man I was disappointed by both. Food was a big letdown. We were served a tasteless masala dosa and equally grotesque Uppuma along 2 different bread varieties with cheese. Only saving grace was the brilliant coffee. The movies section also was disappointing. While they stuck to mostly “English” Hollywood movies, most of the sitcoms were American. So one episode of Simpsons and Big Bang followed by movies like, Butch classidy and the Sundance kid, The Ghost writer, The Boy side, Date Knight and a few other fill ins. After a fairly mundane 10 hours of flight¸ sparkled by free chocolates only, I was rather glad to stretch my legs in one of the best I airports in the word, the sparkling brilliant Londan “the Hethrew”.

Here again we went through an elaborate checking and were pleased to get thru without any hick-ups . The BA guys having butchered 2out of 6 hrs of our transit we sat in the Beautiful BA travelling lounge. Again it was pretty much uneventful. Luckily we got some wifi. Thanks to ashwin we had some food to eat. The airport was damn costly. I did chat with a few friends and also roamed ard the terminal 5 (BA’s home terminal). So after whiling away 3 hours we went to the gate through which we were supposed to leave. Another 20 minutes wait before we entered the flight. It was a very interesting flight as it was supposed to be only for an hour. But inreality we flew just for 40 minutes. We just had time to have snacks. Before we finished those we landed. I was hardly like a flight journey.

Then after we landed in Amsterdam, I was sort of feeling so happy. One reason being able to cut off from all the anxiety of a possible crash and other being getting to a new place and milieu that could light up my semi monotonous life that had numbed me for the past 3 months. The first things I noticed about the Netherlands once stepped into the airport was the noiselessness that had engulfed the entire place. It was not like the place was sparsely crowed, but the people hardly talked to each other. We were about half an hour early and now we had to spend a minimum of 10 hrs in the airport. We got our luggage safe and sound(hopefully :P. I am yet to unpack). Thank god there were four of us. My self and anto ate the chapathis that my mom made with out any side dish :P, while swami and ashwin went for Wifi Hunting. There were no free Wifi on offer. we settled ourselves nicely in a corner and slept on the chair. Ashwin was awake all the night safeguarding our luggage. And finally woke up at around 6. Almost all of us were awake. We brushed and finally set off to buy something. My first expenditure was to buy a cappuccino and an apple. The cost was 1.95 Euros. Man I surely miss the staff canteen :P. The welcome party arrived at sharp eight. We then registered and got our welcome packs. We were ppl with maximum luggage.

Hardly faced with problems, I got my first rude shock when I found out that my accommodation was changed at the last moment. I had never heard of the building that I am going to live. We went to delft in a Bus. Again the journey was short and sweet. I was one of the last persons to get off from the bus as my acco was the furthest from the university. Initially when the delft left there, I had to go to the 5 floor all by myself with 3 trolleys and a laptop bag. Thanks to 2 african students I successfully moved my luggage to mu room. The rooms were way better than the accommodation that I had actually paid for. After conformation from the university that no extra money will be collected, there was sigh of relief. But still I did not have net and had no means for contacting other people. Thanks my host (a student of TU Delft who comes to my room and makes sure I have settled in properly), I contacted the good news of arrival. After 2 days of roaming around delft, meeting new people I now have both internet connection as well as a mobile number. As wise men say, alls well that ends well. Looking forward to Study at TU delft. I will upload photos soon.