The Journey Continues

(...in continuation from the previous post.)

Right behind the baggage carousel, was the baggage claim counter. So, baggage miss is a common thing. That's a relief!

Deepa walked towards the counter and I dragged my feet behind with a head full of thoughts.

Did the fresher forget to tag my bag? Is it sitting cold and lonely at the Trivandrum airport tarmac? Sigh!

As we waited in a not so long queue, we heard another guy (in a line parallel to ours) complain to another lady at the desk.

“What do you mean you can’t find it in the system?”

Ah, so even software is of no use nowadays…

“How do I know till where it went? Why don’t you check your system and tell me?”

After more ranting, he said finally, “So, how are you guys going to get the luggage to me? I have a very tight schedule.” One day Zurich, one day some other country, and next day another country – it seemed.

The lady patiently said the airlines would get the luggage to wherever he was at that time.

She asked if he could describe his bag to her and if he knew the brand of the bag.

“How would I know the brand of the bag? I don’t try to memorize the brand of my bag. It’s just a simple black bag… Well, it’s got shirts and trousers and lots of shorts and knickers.”

Aha, sheri! Saayippinu nikkaru poyende sangadam aano?

Finally, he filled out the form, swore a bit – which I will not be describing here – and walked off.

And after a long while, the person standing in front of me moved and I reached the desk.

In the middle of all this, I did not fail to notice that the lady was extremely beautiful.

Unfortunately, for my male readers – I do not have a picture of her.

I explained my dilemma to the lady. That was the moment I realized I had noticed a lot of details of my bag - which I didn't know about myself.

When she asked to describe the bag, I was precise and quick like Benedict Cumberbacht in Sherlock Holmes,

“It’s a green Atlanta bag with the same size as my colleague’s bag. Dark bottle green. With red and brown ribbons tied at the handle. Not sure if the loose ribbons fell off. Please don’t make the ribbon as your mandate – blah, blah, blah…”

I was so impressed with my level of detail and that feeling lasted about a second and then the thought occurred to me - I need to get a life.

The lady checked the system and said she could not find the luggage anywhere.

I almost asked - Which idiot coded that software? Then I remembered - I did have a history in the airline software industry. Might not be a good idea to check on the idiot.

The lady asked me to go and show the form to the customs officer, get a seal and come back and she would explain how to track the missing bag.

Went to the customs officer, got the seal, came back. And then, she gave me a slip on which the details (including a Ukrainian number) were available.

I decided to take my mind off the luggage. That’s when I felt my feet were numb with pain. I’ve been walking on high heel wedges all day long. Of course I had a pair of flats. Now, where were they… oh yea, of course! In the missing luggage.

We decided it was time to take a break. So, we decided to go to Boryspil International Airport Hotel. Since it was just a 5 min walk, that’s what we did. We walked till the hotel.

On reaching the hotel, I felt it was some boarding house.

There was an old fashioned bell to call the receptionist to the desk. A lady wearing a uniform and hairdo from the 80s stepped forward and asked us what we wanted.

Prabakar asked the rates. Apparently, they had just a 6 hour package and then a 24 hour deal. We decided to take the 6 hour package. They didn’t have single rooms. So, Deepa and I would have to share. Well, Prabakar would take a double room to himself. We were okay with that.

Me checking my Matrix SIM at the reception

Prabakar asked, “It should be okay if we take some time extra from our 6 hours right?”

The lady smiled and asked, “How much time?”

“Maybe 5…”, seeing the lady not responding, “10 minutes?” Prabakar had a mischievous grin.

We all laughed.

A selfie in our room at Boryspil International Airport

Deepa and I took the ancient lift to get down on the 2nd floor. After that we walked a long hallway to reach our room. We opened it to find an old room with old style carpet, old TV and everything just old.

Did we just move back in time?

All my head kept telling me was - RUN!

I put my laptop bag down. And I thought for a long time and sat carefully on one single bed.

Deepa was going to put her jacket on the bed and I screamed, “Don’t!”

Deepa looked at me. “What if there are bed bugs there?”

Deepa looked around and put her jacket on a table.

We went for lunch at the restaurant. I ordered pasta. Deepa and Prabakar ordered some veg platter with boiled rice.

First things first. I had to get the Matrix connection sorted out, else I could not call to track my bag. Luckily, there was a customer support number that got into my mobile along with the SIM. I called them up.

Meanwhile, the pasta came. It was covered in cheese. No salt. No spice.

The raw veg platter. :)

I ate while I explained to customer support my issue. They said I had to manually choose a network operator. I asked them how and after some explanation – I was confident enough to hang up and try myself.

I tried to change the network operator. That didn’t work. Called customer support. They gave me the next step. Is this a game to you? Then it all made sense to me. The name of the SIM was – Matrix. Of course, what should I expect!

Finally, I managed to get the outgoing call working. Weird process. I call the number. A request is sent. And then a call from that number comes. I pick it up. And hey it starts ringing at the place I called. Tried a Ukrainian number – it said Invalid Format. Gave up the outgoing option.

Then, I needed to check the incoming. We tried the number on the pack. Didn’t work. I tried calling somebody to get the number. Didn’t work. Finally, we decided getting the incoming wasn’t worth all that trouble. Oh, yea! Incoming was free. After this kind of trouble, I see why.

Luckily, the hotel had free WiFi. I installed Skype, credited some amount and called home. Spoke for some time. Told about the missing luggage. Felt better.

I decided to check the status of my luggage online. It kept saying tracking is going on.

Calling them was not possible. So, I decided to mail them.

Got a reply from a Ukrainian address. Thankfully the content was in English. They had sent mails to all airports I had been to saying it was urgent to get info about my bag. I replied telling them to not stop looking out.

Finally, I realized there could be a chance that I lost the luggage forever. When I thought about it, it was just some old clothes. Favorites but old ones.

I checked baggage claim policies while Deepa slept off. One option said there could be a chance of getting 1000 USD for a lost bag. Of course, the bag should be missing for 21 days.

1000 USD is a looooot of money, baby!

Then, the word hit me like a bang – SHOPPING! That too in a foreign country! Puttu adikande!

Immediately, I mailed the airlines. Telling about how upset and inconvenienced I felt. If I needed a justification for my misery, this had to be it. Over aakanam!

I decided to rest for a while. When I woke up, I told Deepa about my findings. Deepa said we should split the money and have fun. I felt generous and we made a pact.

When it was time to run out of the hotel, I did so without thinking twice.

Caramel Coffee - which tasted like kashaayam

We checked out and went back to the airport. We ordered some Venezuelan cake, dumplings, cancelled something, ordered again – all the while speaking in English to a waitress who could understand very little. When we got our order, we realized she didn’t understand the cancellation part. So, we had to stuff ourselves.

A small airport snack

Prabakar and Deepa decided to buy Kievstar SIM. When they tried calling India with the new SIM, they couldn’t make it through. Deepa asked the lady at the counter, how she should dial the number. Was it with a 91 in the beginning? The lady shook her head and said, “Loose!”

Enthonnu?

“Loose! Loose!”

Then, she typed plus in front of 91. Oh, plus inu loose aano Ukrainian il. Appo minus inu ivide tight ennano parayuka?

Deepa said she meant to loose the extra 0 in the beginning, which she had added. To this day, it remains a mystery what the lady meant by "loose".

We went to check in our (mostly Deepa’s and Prabakar’s) luggage at the airline counter. Deepa and I were saying about how the people seemed a little too disdainful of us.

When we reached the counter we met a friendly guy. He was so friendly that when he saw Deepa’s cabin bag was heavy, he asked her to remove some contents out, weighed it again and marked it approved for cabin baggage. And said she could put the stuff back in. We started laughing.

He asked me for my bag. I said I lost mine. He was sorry – more so, because he asked.

Waiting for the next flight at Kiev airport

And finally, we started the last leg of the journey - we boarded the next flight to Kharkiv.

Off to Kharkiv - on Ukraine International

Kharkiv

Destination reached!

We reached Kharkiv and I kept thinking of my luggage. I had an extra pair of clothes in my hand bag. But that would be only for 1 day.

We went to the baggage carousel here. The lady at the baggage claim at Kiev had mentioned to simply check for my bag at the Kharkiv airport. I simply looked out. First bag came out. Next bag came out. The next came. And no sign of my bag. I decided not to keep any hopes up.

And there from far a very old bag with a red and brown ribbon came. Deepa jumped up and down in excitement.

There... came my bag!

Those idiots checked it in till Kharkiv – which was good, because I didn’t have to carry it around. But they gave me a tag on my boarding pass only till Kiev. So I went through unnecessary trouble and tension all for nothing. Well, if you think about it. You, my readers have also gone through the same.

And of course, I sent back a neat reply to the baggage claim section – Please don’t worry about it. I got my luggage.

Angane 1000 USD il Kharkiv pattanam, swaaha!

And then we set off to Premier Palace, Kharkiv.

Zdravstvyute, Kharkiv! The City of Wild Dreams.

Happy Tripping

20^th Aug, 2016 - Trivandrum

We stood waiting in the queue at the check in counter for Jet Airways. When it finally came to our turn, Deepa and I stepped forward grimly.

"Where to?" the flight staff asked.

A question I've been asking myself for a long time, I thought.

Deepa shared the whole itinerary with him – explaining that our flight route was TRV-BOM-DXB-KBP-HRK.

The guy checked the system and said, “Ma’am, we can give you a through check in only till DXB since that is till where Jet flies. After that, you have to pick up your luggage and check in again.”

“So, do we have to take a transit visa to collect our luggage?”

“No, ma’am! You just need to show your ticket at Dubai airport or ask for assistance at the terminal.”

We were happy and we collected our boarding passes till Bombay and walked forward to the security check.

After a very boring security check, the time was 1:05 p.m. Our flight was scheduled for 2:40 p.m. I hadn’t had lunch but I thought to wait for an hour or so till I was really hungry.

Prabakar called and we told him we were already past security check and that we were waiting for him. There was a TV at the waiting area and we simply looked at the screen with a blank mind to kill the time.

Deepa asked to set up the Matrix SIM that we had bought and check if it was activated. I put it in my mobile (which supports dual SIM). The connection was not active. I called the support. They said it would be active once I reached Ukraine. I was like “Ah, well… Looks like it is gonna be another uneventful, long and boring journey. Deepa, let’s have something to eat.” Deepa had had lunch already but she did not mind accompanying me.

Enter Prabakar after the security check. “So, did you get your luggage checked in till Kiev?”

We both sat looking at his boarding pass in disbelief. Deepa explained what the staff had told us. Apparently, some other smart guy got Prabakar’s luggage checked in till Kiev.

“How are you going to get the luggage at Dubai?” Prabakar queried.
“We’ll show the ticket?”, wondered Deepa aloud.

“But that’s just the itinerary. Just go and check with the staff again.”

Time was around 1:40 p.m. Couldn’t have picked a more suitable time.

We ran downstairs to the security gate. The security gave us a quizzical look. Deepa motioned she had to talk to the flight staff. And they motioned towards the head of security.

Deepa walked to his cabin. I followed in silence.

“What happened?”, the man asked.

Deepa explained the whole situation.

“See… through check-in happens when the airline has a tie up with the next carrier.”

That we know, dude!

“But our colleague got it checked in till Kiev…”

“Maybe it’s the same PNR number – See, I know how this works ‘coz I’ve been seeing this for the past 20 years.”

“Can we just confirm with the airline staff?”

“Okay…” cancelling the verified tags on Deepa’s bag, “but then we have to cancel the security check and you have to go through the whole verification process again.” Hmm… Well, after cancelling the tag, don’t you think the warning is a bit useless.

Deepa said it was ok. I gave my tags in silence.

The head told the subordinates to let us through.

We walked out of the gates and went to the airline counter. The whole security team watched us and I felt like we were part of some weird Bollywood movie climax.

We went to the airline counter and stood in the queue.

The guy who checked us in, saw us from far and he was like asking with his hand, “What happened?”

We tried to answer back with our hands and then realized hand gestures are not enough for expressing - “our colleague got check in till Kiev and you gave us only till Dubai, you moron!”. So, we waited our turn to reach his desk.

When we were second last in queue, the guy could not contain his patience. He asked and we gave a summary. Halfway through, the guy sitting next to him said he would take care of it and that something more had to be done.

So, we went to the next counter. He took our boarding pass and explained the process to the other guy. And said to us he would check our luggage in till Kiev. He asked the first guy to hold our bags and to retag them.

When he started explaining why we needed this check in, we tried telling him we did explain the whole scenario to the first guy, he cut us short, saying, “Well, he is new to the job!”

Nice timing. Especially for our first trip to Ukraine. Like we didn’t have anything else to worry about.

So, we got that sorted out. Then we walked back to the security gates. The lady checking us, asked Deepa, “Where are you off to?”

Deepa said, “Ukraine”.

She – “Are you going to study in Ukraine?”

Deepa explained our situation.

When I caught up with Deepa I said – “Well, they still think you are a student.” Kya baat hai!

She was like – “Probably seeing us screw this one up… she must have thought we are some dumb students!”

Well, that bubble was burst.

We walked back to the terminal to see it was 2:20 p.m. No time to have lunch. So, I just took tea. Asked the rate, found it to be 50 Rs. Made a mental note it would be better to start a tea plantation.

And then we waited to board.

As we were about to board, our fresher guy, who initially checked us in, walks towards the terminal to help.

He saw us from far and had a sheepish look. And to bury his mistake, he quickly asked, “Oh, you guys did not have transit visa?”

Ummm… Wasn’t that the first line we said? Bloody fresher!

Thus, started the journey.

In the plane, we sat and paid proper attention to the emergency guidelines because of the recent event with the Emirates flight. As we took off, we felt a bit uneasy thinking about where we were headed. But then, we focused on our next destination – Mumbaiiii! One step at a time.

On the flight till Mumbai, we decided to relax a bit. As we tried to push back our headrest, we realized we were just in front of the emergency exit and those seats do not have the facility to push back. Hand picked by us and well selected!

Deepa and I discussed some general topics. It was a relief for me because I was hungry and I did not know what to do. Fortunately, they gave us lunch. Deepa wisely took the veg option. I took the non veg option – which was some bread with some turmeric taste to it. Since I was hungry, I devoured it without thinking too much.

Mumbai

We landed in Mumbai, walked a loooooong way. Reached the security check point. There were a lot of people. One security guy pointed us to a counter that practically had no queue. We walked towards that direction and saw the board, “Airline staff only.”

We walked back. The security kept motioning us towards there. And we thought he would know the airport better. There were other non-airline staff people in the queue too. So, we decided to go and stay at the airline staff line.

However, the airline staff kept cutting our line and going forward. Finally, someone started bickering and one thing led to another. A fight broke out.

You think this is an issue? A long line? We both are travelling to Ukraine, for crying out loud.

Finally, the airline staff complained to security. The guys in our line said the other security guy told us to stand here. He was summoned and we thought the matter would settle.

He came and stood scratching his head. The airline staff gave him their piece of mind and he said let these people through.

Somehow we managed to pass through.

Next comes the immigration counter. Deepa had asked me to take an extra form to fill, in case the first one had any mistake.


I kept my extra in hand and gave the other to the immigration officer.

He looked at me and asked, “Why do you need 2 forms? You don’t need to fill when you come back.”

“I kept it in case there is any mistake with the first…” (Onja chiri)

“What is the purpose of the travel?”

I answered matter of factedly, “Business.”

Meanwhile, Deepa comes to the counter next to me and explains the purpose in a very detailed manner – about how we have a development center in Ukraine and how important it was to meet our colleagues. And I was like – “Oh, ingane venamaayirunnu alle…”

My officer let me through after taking my photo.

Deepa’s officer called his superior to check if it was okay to let us go to Ukraine.

“Which are the countries restricted for immigrants? Is Ukraine one of them?”

The superior looked like he never saw Ukraine on a map. He said it would be okay.

Then he looked at Deepa and smiled and asked what we were doing. We said we are software engineers.

He asked again where we were going. We said, “Ukraine.” Spell cheythu therano, chetta?

He smiled more and said, “All the best!”

Athentha…?

Decided to have Paav Bhaji. Walked to our gate and saw a small restaurant. Decided to have tea too.

Had a chat, had our food and then asked for the bill. Tea would be 50 Rs, most probably.

Bill came. Tea is now from Mumbai airport - so it is 170 Rs.

Wow! Did you make this tea with petrol or something?

Prabakar reminded me that petrol was cheaper. And this is how business works.

Yea, right!

Got a message that there would not be an announcement since it was a silent airport. Huh?

 So, we just walked to our gates to find out that there was a silent final call. Weird, but true.

The second Jet Airways aircraft was bigger and more hi-fi with TV behind the seats and limited movies. There was good hot biriyani served during the flight. This was definitely a memorable leg of the journey, though I can’t remember much of it.

And as we were thinking of closing our eyes a bit, we landed in Dubai.

Dubai

We got down at the airport in Dubai and walked towards the connecting flight desk. They said we needed to wait for another 3 hours till Ukrainian International would open their counter.

So, we went and sat down and decided to get onto the WiFi.

When your boss travels with you, and there is WiFi available, you are always going to be working. And that’s what we did.

Slowly we became hungry, we decided to have a light snack. Went to McDonald’s and ordered some McSavers and coffee.

These bills looked reasonable.

Finally, we walked over to our terminal. And we waited, waited and waited.

Meanwhile, we were so bored that we started paying attention to all the English and Arabic announcements.

After some time I noticed, every Arabic announcement kept calling for a Wahid. A lady kept saying, “Wahid, wahid…”

I was like why isn’t Wahid going to the counter. Ethra neramayi villikkunnu…

When this continued for a while,  I figured Wahid wasn’t a person. Google gave an interesting statement that Wahid is another name for Allah.

Eh, for every flight why are they calling upon God? Are they not confident about their planes?

That didn’t sound right. And then I searched again to see that Wahid is Arabic for 1. So, when they would tell the flight number, there would be so many Wahids in it.

Deepa and me waiting @ Dufai airport

Finally, they opened the gate for our flight to Kiev.

As I walked towards the counter, they scanned my boarding pass to hear a very loud beep.

I didn’t do anything. I don’t know the Mafia. I don’t know how to wire a bomb. I am just cold and hungry and I want to go home!

Nearby Deepa’s boarding pass also set off the alarm. So did Prabakar’s.

We all were asked to wait while the others went through.

They questioned us. Checked our visas. Checked our whole itinerary to ensure that we wouldn’t settle in Ukraine.

Trust me, if I would ever want to run away from my country. Yours would be the last resort!

They held us as though we were being punished. And at last, they verified everything and let us through.

Cheh! Illel McD’s kazhikaan vendi Dubai vere verendi vannu ennu paranju naatil pokaamayirunnu.

We got into the flight. It looked old and unsophisticated. We sat down and slept off. We didn’t even wake up to have our meals.

I woke up 2-3 hours later when turbulent weather shook the plane. Deepa was still fast asleep.

I stayed awake to ensure that we were safe. Like that would help us in any way.

As we neared, we saw Ukraine like a big carpet from the top.

Kiev

On landing in Kiev. I tried the Matrix connection. It said to use another customer service.

What!

And then, we went to collect our luggage. Moment of truth. Deepa’s bag came out. We were relieved. Prabakar’s came. Then, we waited. Waited. Waited and… waited!

The next flight came… and we were waiting.

Finally, with a gulp I accepted the truth that I lost my bag.

So, there I was. In the middle of my journey, tired, hungry and with my baggage missing.

(To be continued...)