Flight to Paris (part I )

It was my first trip abroad, and is memorable for me in many ways…
… including how the travel agent played hide and seek with my visa until the day of my travel!

Yeah, I was sent for a month-long stay in Paris on a 'Business-Visa'. So, according to the rule book, I was not supposed to work!! Okay, let me be clearer, I should not be doing any work that is supposed to be done by a salaried employee… So, I was given a tour by my manager about different ways of bluffing the emigration n the immigration authorities ( I had thus far thought mgrs only preach honesty n sincerety!!). And who can better me in bluffing?? ;-)

My flight to Mumbai was at 3.30 a.m, and I reached the Bangalore airport by 12.30 a.m accompanied by Pradeep and thoughts of my family (they were very anxious for me, and even angry on me for not allowing them to come to Bangalore and send me off!!). I was nervous as we approached the airport. Pradeep, having come back from Paris just the previous day, convinced me that it’s waste of 100 bucks to take an entry ticket into airport for non-travelers. I entered the airport, for the first time in my life as a passenger, all alone and looking back at Pradeep as he was waving his hand from outside (I later realized how correct he was, Bangalore airport is one stupid airport of its kind!! At least in Vizag airport, you can see and wave at ur friends even as they are boarding the flight…).

After I checked-in my baggage and collected my boarding pass, I met the interviewer… the inspector of emigration dept.
“What r u?”
“I’m a software engineer with Infosys”
“Can I check your company id card?”
“Yeah sure…here it’s”
“You said you are working for Infosys Bangalore, but your id is of Infosys Hyderabad?”
“Yeah, I’m from Hyderabad.. but now working in Bangalore”
“You are from Hyd? But your passport says you are from Vizag??”
“Aaah… my home-city is Vizag, I’m an employee of Hyderabad Infy and now working in Bangalore!!”
“Ok..it’s so simple, why do u get confused??” (Huh.. so he felt it’s me who got confused… as u say sir!!)
“Why are you going to Paris?”
“To meet our client… on a project purpose”
“What is the purpose?” (Yesss… here’s my chance… go ahead Suddu, u r unstoppable!!)“Actually, you see.. eh… we have an agreement with our client for phase one of the project. I’m now going to show a detailed presentation on how well we did in phase one and discuss with them the business we can have with them for phase two of the project…” ( Isn’t it the heights?? A mere software developer beating the role of a business manager?? But hold on… the big one is yet to come..)

“Then why do u want to stay for one month for just a presentation?”
“Because, my meeting with the client could well end up with signing the contract for phase two of the project…I need to discuss the logistics!!” (Gosh… can anything get better???)
Probably, he had had enough… he just asked me to proceed to the security check.

Done with the formalities, as I settled in my seat in the flight… I saw a gracious gal walking in front of me, along with her parents in the aisle. I was sure she would sit beside her mom and leave her poker-faced dad beside me. But to my pleasant surprise, she showed the seats to her parents and sat next to me… we just exchanged a pleasantry look, and I’d be lying now if I say I could hide the smile, rather a grin, on my face!! It’s an odd time of the night (3.30 in the morning), she has fallen asleep. As I was getting amused at the tiny objects through the window… I felt some weight on my shoulder. For a fraction of second, I thought it’s the hand of the gal’s father!! But as my luck would have it, it’s the gal herself, deep in her sleep (or pretending to be so…) leaning her head on my shoulder!! Aaaaah… eureka kasa misa rasa basa… I was on clouds, both literally and even otherwise!! :))

But, as is it’s always, all good things end up so quickly!! And so was our journey… we reached Mumbai in an hour. We again exchanged the same looks and smile, only then I could realize how sweet a “hi” and a “bye” could be just with a look… And my thoughts were lingering, “if a flight to Mumbai could provide me with such a pleasant experience, how good the flight to Paris is going to be!!”
Stay tuned to know how good my flight to Paris actually was…