The Adler Planetarium - 75 years old and counting!!!!We stood again, at the counter, after being insulted, shouted at, left to wander around aimlessly, and lost for info, and then, fed - probably out of pity; the previous day and yet, there we were... We reached the gates of hell after baggage check and luckily, we got boarding passes for both the legs of the journey :) (I'd actually confirmed earlier on, about this). Then on, Emigration, security clearance and then the wait for the call to board the aircraft...
But that too, wasnt destined to happen without hiccups :) After a while (the duration is fuzzy to me already) we were asked to board the plane and we did, happily, given the chance to leave for one of the most sought after landing strips in the country in the past few days. We were given seats and breakfast and I promptly went to sleep, trying to catch up on some lost sleep in the previous day :)
But when I awoke, I was astounded to see that we hadn't even taken off yet! Half way between the terminal and the runway, our plane was suspended and for the past 4 hours! When asked about it, the airhostess (She was pretty miffed about something.... dunno what) told me in curt words - Bad weather at Mumbai. and Turned away... In retrospect, I guess she'd have answered the same question a million times while I was busy dreaming and so, the weariness...
I went back to my seat and contemplated what next I could do. By then, a few irate passengers pulled the co-pilot, who was wandering around, and asked him what Air India was doing about this... Some pretty tough questions along the line of - Why not put us on another route? Or Bypass mumbai altogether, or put us on another airline!!! were fired and was followed by some pretty useless accusations like - Air india's useless and nothing's being done.... While this ended, we were asked en masse to de-plane and wait at the security encloure... for our "comfort". Well... So, anyway, surprisingly, in 15 minutes, while I was wondering why pati's phone was perpetually busy, they announced that we should board the craft cuz they'd obtained permission from Mumbai airport...
We rushed in and for once, the plane did take off...
Coming up... Part - II
