We arrive in India -- at least, most of us

Well, we’re in India. At least most of us are in India. Kellie’s plane from Springfield to Chicago was cancelled after five delays and a lot of frantic text messages and phone calls with Ashley. So she was delayed a day. I had oh so intelligently left my cell phone at home under the “what is sitting in a drawer in Milwaukee can’t be lost in India” theory, and my phone number was the only faculty number the students had. However, Ashley finally caught up with Bill Thorn at O’Hare, and we operated as a team from then on. Carole Burns decided to stay an extra day to accompany Kellie on the trip since Carole had made the trip a year ago and knew how to handle the tricky transfer from the international airport in Delhi to the Delhi domestic terminal and from them to Ahmedabad.
I traveled to Chicago with the Thorns on a bus (which was, of course, late leaving Milwaukee since it had been virtually filled with the passengers from three cancelled flights – an observation here, the airlines with their almost constant delaying and canceling fights have made flying much less reliable than in the past). But since we had allowed lots of time, we arrived and checked in quite early. Carole Burns joined us fairly quickly; Ashley came along not too much later, although she was involved in negotiating with the airline about Kellie’s problem and ended up with another passenger being assigned her seat, forcing the airline to reticket her. (Hint: foreshadowing here.)
The flight itself was a wonder, at least the first part. The initial flight from Chicago to Amsterdam and the connection on to Delhi were on KLM, an airline that continues to offer service. We actually got roast almonds for our initial snack, not some cardboard pretzel as has been the case lately. Hot towels were distributed before meals. The meal were good, with metal utensils at dinner. Furthermore, we were invited to visit the galley at any time if we wanted a snack or something to drink between meals. The planes were 747s so room, although tight, wasn’t nearly as cramped as on most U.S. flights.
The only hint of problems was Ashley’s double-booking, until we arrived in Delhi at 11:30 Delhi time (the time switch is 11½ hours later than in Milwaukee). By then it had been more than 24 hours after we left for Chicago. The first two legs of air travel were more than seven hours each in the air. Anyway, we get off the plane only to find extremely long and slow lines for the first immigration/customs checkpoint. As we’re standing in line, two young Russians start talking to Vince. Both were clearly drunk, and the shorter of the two was quite aggressive as well as staggering around. After too long a time (they also hassled some women not in our party), a uniformed solder showed up along with four civilian gate attendants. Then a second one, this soldier in full body armor carrying a machine gun. [Question: does soldiers in body armor carrying machine guns make you feel more or less safe?] As they questioned the Russian youths, the shorter one drops a knife he had been carrying.
We finally get through the customs window (after more than an hour), and head for the equally long lines packed around the luggage carousel. There’s a pile of bags off to the side, but an official waved us away from them saying they came from another plane. Of course they didn’t. After almost an hour of watching bags coming in on the carousel, we looked at the pile of bags and find all of ours but one. Of course, it was Ashley’s. So then we get another half hour of dealing with bureaucracy and filing a claim in which Ashley felt the KLM baggage folks weren’t interested in her suggestions that they look in Chicago. “After all that time, they gave me the same stuff they gave the six people ahead of me,” she said.
So we headed off to the Delhi domestic terminal, only to be stopped by a security officer demanding to see our tickets, which was hard since they were e-tickets and didn’t exist. So off to another set of airline officials, who handed us off to yet another set. Finally we got the tickets, took the shuttle bus (along with eight armed soldiers), and took an enjoyable Air India flight to Ahmedabad, where we arrived at 7:30 a.m., after a 31-hour trip. By the way, I slept a total of 20 minutes during this period. I don’t really enjoy sleeping on planes, which is odd since I can fall asleep at my desk without a problem. I think it’s because I’m afraid I’m going to miss something.