72 Hours - Journey of A Lifetime

Somewhere in a time when whole world is busy in middle of fighting Corona and all countries were closing their borders including India. Basically, last week just before our final business discussions with client, Pankaj Patil gets a notification

‘India is closing their borders on/ after 22nd March 2020’.

I cross validate this with MEA twitter account and real action starts from here.

Before I go further, our story does have Kumud Mishra (An Actor. He saved Akshay Kumar in Rustam and Airlift. He supported Dhoni too in M.S. Dhoni) as well. His role is played by our mentor, friend, colleague, manager (and any other role one can think in professional capacity) The NiLo, Nilesh Lohia.

We immediately called him and discussed possibilities. Even without sounding alarming, Nilesh Lohia initiated the thread to prepone our arrival. Our flight was booked for 21st March from JFK and would have landed to Delhi on 22nd March, on closed border day.

Somewhere there was a hunch that this flight will be troublesome

Now our journey starts to India. A good 7-hour drive from Huntingdon, PA to JFK NY. In normal day this would have been 4:30 to 5 hours of journey however due to foggy and hilly terrain it took an extra 2 hours.

After some rest completed all check in formalities and our flight started. As usual with AI, entertainment station was down, AC wasn’t working in flight and hence could sleep hardly for couple of hours in flight.

Earlier I thought it was COVID-19 safety measure to keep warmer temperature but then I saw switch boards on flight and ‘Malfunction’ indicator was blinking related to AC feeder.

Long story short, flight experience wasn’t that conducive, but we thought it’s okay because we are reaching India before its border closes everything is fine.

Somehow, we landed on Delhi airport at March 21, 2020 12:35 PM IST. Felt better when stepped out of airplane however it was momentary. Real experience starts from this point onward.

INFINITE MILESTONES

MILESTONE 1:

We were asked to stand in a long queue which wasn’t moving at all. This queue was meant to check temperature and let go ahead for immigration. For 2 hours this queue didn’t move, upon further inquiry, we came to know they have kept on hold because there is a backlog of 500 plus passengers.

Rather than waiting, roamed around entire area and found there are 2 other such areas where temperature screen is performed. Area 2 was already overcrowded and on halt. Area 3 was actively clearing all travelers.Pankaj, I and couple of other passengers went to Area 3, bypassed queue and cleared temperature screening. We felt at ease with this screening. Time was 3:38 PM

MILESTONE 2:

We got stamp on our forms which read ‘Quarantine’ however we were asked to wait in an area nearby. This was a staging area 1 for immigration. We waited for almost an hour and finally were let go towards arrival hall at 4:45 PM.

MILESTONE 3:

This is the toughest milestone of all so far as in area of 3000 sq. ft there were more than 1000 individuals standing to reach to immigration. It was sea of people. Social distancing was dissolved in this sea.

Assuming even if 1 person had COVID-19 effect he would have surely passed on to minimum 50 out there or may be all 1000.

Just to reach at a place where final line to immigration was drawn took us 1 hour 40 minutes. At 6:25 PM we were waiting for our turn to go to immigration counter.

By that time, we have been exposed to more than 1000 people.

MILESTONE 4:

Only to move from Arrival hall to Immigration counter staging area 1 it took another 1 hour 15 minutes and 100+ more exposure. By the time we reached this immigration staging it was 7:38 PM.

MILESTONE 5:

In another half an hour we were within immigration counter reach, but this was staging area 2. We spent half an hour or so there. Post which we were asked to get in Immigration queue. Time was 8:39 PM

MILESTONE 6:

Pace at which immigration was taking place was not so quick. On an average immigration officer was spending 5 minutes for each person. Not much of questions but validating details was taking time.

Pankaj Patil and I decided to go to same immigration officer so we can be in same group for medical test. To our misery, once Pankaj Patil completed his immigration, immediately medical test group was formed, and he was part of group 312. Each group consist of 10 individuals who cleared immigration.

By the time my immigration as over it was 9:47 PM.

I was no longer thinking about exposure and COVID-19. I was way above all this.

Our passports were taken by authorities and we will get back only after medical examination.

MILESTONE 7:

I was part of group 337 but before I get assigned to any group, I had to wait for another half an hour. My gang was of few undergrads from USA, seafarer from Australia, couple of students from USA and a UAE returned few employees. Time was 10:23 PM.

Diversified group with diverse geography exposure. What exposure? I wasn't even thinking about it.

MILESTONE 8:

Now we all were waiting for our medical examination. We had no idea how it will work but in process we learnt that there are more staging areas before we reach to destination. Our number got called around 11:30 PM

MILESTONE 9:

We were in one more staging area for next half an hour where we were standing in formation of 3x10 with other 2 groups.

We were asked to sit near another staging area before we were called for musical chair. Yes, there was a long queue and turns around chairs. Unfortunately, queue was moving fast hence didn’t get a chance to sit as well.

By the time this musical chair was over, and we were near medical examination center time was March 22, 2020 12:32 AM

MILESTONE 10:

Now comes surprise, we are not going for medical examination. 1st we must collect our luggage. Here, authorities combined 3 groups of 10 and gave us a new number so now 337 became 468. Pankaj’s 312 became 462.

Luggage was pulled down on belt 8 and arranged by airline. Entire area was full of bags. It was easy to get hold of bags. Once we got our luggage, we were asked to report on belt no. 14 where our leader 468 will be waiting for us.

By the time we reached there it was 12:53 AM. So far, we haven’t eaten anything. We 10 were surviving only on water and couple of biscuits which was in my bag pack. After this we managed to get few food packets which had muffin, chips, water and frooti.

MILESTONE 11:

Long wait before we will be taken to actual medical examination. Do you really think so? There were also 1 more staging area. Combining all this we finally ventured out of airport to medical examination facility around 3:25 AM.

MILESTONE 12:

This was final milestone, but this also had 2 staging areas. We were outside Delhi airport without our passports waiting for medical tests.

Long queue, waiting area, food packet, shifting to another sitting area, name calling, assigning us to doctor and finally listening to them and getting stamped took us another few hours.

By the time were out with our passport time was 4:40 AM

Yes, this was my life’s longest ever immigration queue where I spent 16 hours 10 minutes to come out of airport, more time than our actual JFK-DEL fight.

Journey isn’t over yet. We must reach to Mumbai.

MILESTONE 13:

Around 5 AM we went to reschedule our tickets to Mumbai as we had already missed our connection day before. It took another 2 hours to get our name added on the list of rescheduled passengers.

Here also we roamed from counter to counter. We asked if we could stay at hotel and collect our boarding pass later. Answer was NO. They said, we will not be issuing boarding pass, escort will take you inside the airport.

We asked for 9 AM flight which they repeatedly said is full hence they booked us on 5:30 PM flight.

MILESTONE 14:

After long wait, finally they took us inside around 8:45 AM. On the counter we asked for seat availability in 9 AM flight for the sake of it and their response was ‘9 AM Flight is empty, but we can’t book you on it as it is about to take off’.

I felt like being hulk at that very moment.

After much wait, we got our boarding pass around 9:30 AM or so.

MILESTONE 15:

Since we must wait till 5:30 PM, we took our lunch and slept for a while. In last 60 hours we had only slept for 4 to 6 hours. Surprises aren’t over yet.

At 2:30 PM, Air India staff comes looking for us and informs us 5:30 PM is cancelled and it is getting combined in 9:45 PM flight. We should go with him for boarding pass around 3:30 PM.

MILESTONE 16:

Wait for another 2 hours to get boarding pass. During same time we clapped for 5 minutes at 5 PM. Finally got reassurance from AI staff that this flight will not be cancelled at 6:00 PM.

MILESTONE 17:

Slept for another hour or 2 on airport and around 8 PM we got a news that 9:45 PM flight is getting cancelled. Next flight will be on March 23, 2020 12:30 AM.

We rushed to counter and had big arguments. I’ll save details for some other time however we spoke to AI manager, airport manager, AI senior manager and ensured they do not cancel this flight.

MILESTONE 18:

Finally, we were in flight around March 23, 2020 1:00 AM and landed safe on BOM terminal at 3:50 AM. Medical, immigration and luggage were done quickly. We were out of airport by 4:00 AM.

However, tragedy was still following us. We got ourselves booked on cool cab through desk set by RTO. After loading our bags, driver realized his keys are exchanged with another driver and not able to start car.

We waited for him to try all options, finally we gave up on him and he transferred us to another car at 4:30 AM or so. We made it to company guesthouse around 5:30 AM.

One gets to go on such journeys once in a lifetime. Hope you never such see journey anytime.