A first time traveler to a foreign country. Someone who's leaving the shores of his home (India) for the first time. The reason: education. Age: 22.
Excited, after getting his US visa stamped after all the running around to get the paperwork in order. So then starts, all the shopping to embark upon his new life in the land of the free, the land of dreams - America. Destination: Dallas, Texas.
On the 13th day of December, 2007 he has said adieu to all his friends and family. At 1 o'clock in the morning he is at Bangalore International Airport with all 3 of his bags, and passport, I-20, ticket, travelers cheques and cash- in a nice black leather passport wallet.
All excited about boarding his first international flight, in the back of his mind he's hoping its a jumbo jet- a Boeing 747. The itinerary: Lufthansa, Bangalore-Frankfurt-Dallas Fort worth. He gets through check in and waits in the boarding lounge for about an hour and half. Then finally the pilot and crew walk in through the gate. An indication that things are getting exciting. The whole Lufthansa cabin crew waited till the cockpit crew had arrived, and walked in order behind the Captain, followed by the co-pilot, then the head steward and hostess, and then the rest. He could already see the German discipline right there, and his future as an airline pilot. He looks out and sees a Lufthansa Boeing 747 jumbo jet parked outside, the thought of flying on the largest commercial airline in service on his first international journey was just "awesome". Then finally the boarding call is made and the gates are opened. Everyone walks through the aero bridge picking up their magazine of choice before the crew check the boarding pass, and then on to the aircraft. He walks in and its business class, at the time he's not sure if its business or first class, but he was almost sure that it was business class since the seats weren't the types to become flat beds! He continued walking towards the back on the 2nd aisle as the pretty lady had instructed him. After walking all the way back to the last section of the aircraft he finally sees his seat number. Puts his hand baggage into the overhead bin along with his jacket and takes his seat. In his mind all he's thinking about is the aircraft, wow its so huge - he decides that it was business class that he saw when he walked in and assumed that first class was on the upper deck. Then he wonders about how cramped the seating really is in economy, and that he's got to sit through this for 20 hours!
But he's still excited, most people around him are non Indians - he wonders whether he should start up a conversation, but then decides to keep that for a later time till after the flight takes off and everyone is seated.
The the flight takes off and he sleeps of almost immediately, and when he wakes up- he notices that the guy next to him is eating and the air hostess with the food had just gone past a couple of rows. He's really quite hungry, so he decides to press the call button on top of him. In a few minutes an air hostess comes and he says that he wants food! To his surprise the air hostess in quite a rude tone says that he'll have to wait just a while. But his spirits were too high for that to really affect him or bother him.
And then he gets served countless times with food, sleeps in between and then gets up. He notices that traveling economy is not such a good idea! :) He's quite unimpressed with the in flight entertainment and later understands why people say that German's are rude, from the experience with the air hostess. The only really good looking air hostess was the Indian girl! One of the Germans even had specs, and he thinks to himself that domestic air hostesses in India are way better looking that these foreigner's. Finally the flight lands at Frankfurt, before it did he goes to the toilet and gets himself cleaned up and all ready to get off.
He sees the Frankfurt airport while the aircraft is taxing off the runway and is amazed at how huge and nice it is. It takes them a long time to reach the apron and the bay, where the aero bridge is for this flight, he is in awe as to how huge and well organized and good looking the airport is. He gets off the aircraft into the aero bridge and its freezing temp, thankfully he had worn his jacket. Once inside the airport it was better. The airport had just put him in awe, the excitement of being in a foreign country had gripped him. Everything was so good, it was so clean and nice looking he thought. Then he decided to go to the next terminal and to the gate of his connecting flight ASAP since there was just an hour and a half to catch it. He asked the airport staff for directions and took the help of the sign boards to get till the train, luckily he was already told that he might have to get on a train to get from one terminal to the other. He was further excited when he reached the area to board the train. He had seen all this on tv, but it was just so unbelievable to experience it first hand. Then he got to the second terminal and he had to wait in the long check in Q, and was wondering if he would miss his flight.
But then he made it to the gate about 10 mins before the flight time, but he knew that there were a lot of ppl from his flight taking this connection and no one could have made it faster to the 2nd terminal check in. And he was right, he got through the gate. There everyone was in Q down this staircase tunnel, everyone waited for about half an hour in that tunnel till they got boarded on to the bus, which was again so good. The flight was obviously a bit delayed. This time around there was no aero bridge quite surprisingly, they had to board the plane the good old fashioned way - out in the open up the stairs. It was an A340, the second largest aircraft in service. He was thinking to himself how lucky he was to be able to fly in two of the largest aircrafts in service on his first trip abroad.
He boarded the aircraft and went through the same routine except that this time he was much more tired and sleepy. When the flight neared Dallas his eyes were shutting, he was absolutely exhausted. He decided not to travel in economy ever if possible. After the flight landed he put on his jacket and took his passport wallet in one hand and got off. The excitement had once again taken over him, he was not as impressed with the airport as Frankfurt. But then he saw Ben & Jerry's, the ice cream store (that was made famous in the movie Salaam Namaste) for the first time his life, he was in America. He couldn't wait to get out and meet his cousin and see what America was all about. He goes through immigration with those two forms, one being the i-94. Then moves on to towards customs after getting his check in baggage. Puts it all on a cart and gets out of international arrival door. He looks around here and there for his cousin, but doesn't find him. So he goes and looks for pay phones, he finds them and then decides to go make change for calling. Buys a bottle of water and gets his quarters, when he turns around he sees his cousin walking through the entrance. Water bottle in one hand and passport wallet in the other, he puts the passport wallet in the baggage cart and shakes his cousins hands and heads straight out of the airport terminal building without wasting any time chatting. They both walk towards the car as he sips on some water. They load everything quickly into the car, and before he turns for the cart his cousin pushes the baggage cart away and they both jump into the SUV and start driving off. Both are excited and in conversation, after 10 mins he wonders about his passport wallet, did he put it in??? He tells his cousin about his doubt and then checks his jacket pocket and feels a wallet and says "its here", too scared to actually check if it really is.
Then they arrive at his cousins office where his cousin had forgotten his laptop. Just to be sure he gets out of the car and decides to check on his passport, and its not there. What he had felt was his ticket wallet. He becomes more tensed than ever in his life, he prays to God and says "don't do this to me". He franticly looks everywhere in the car and searches his body and his baggage, but its not there. He checks everything again and again, but its just not there. He doesn't know what to do, he wants to cry. He's angry with himself. But he's also more tired and sleepy than ever, he can't even remember everything- like even what had exactly happened at the airport. The cold had also got him. He waited for his cousin to come back to the car. Half an hour had passed. Every minute felt like an hour, finally he sees his cousin - but he's on the phone, he tries to wait for him to get off the phone, but after 5 mins he decides to tell him. His cousin heard this and remained absolutely unfazed. In his mind he's thinking that maybe his cousin has the passport, and thats why he wasn't reacting(atleast he was hoping for that). But then his cousin gets off the phone and says lets go back to the airport and check.
The emotions going through him at this point are inexpressible in words, he thinks as to how he'll tell his dad. His biggest worry becomes that, breaking the news to his father. He prays to everyone possible, all the angels and saints, to mother Mary and Jesus to please let him find his passport at the airport. They look everywhere, they retrace their steps, they go to all possible people at the airport. After a 3 hour search they give up. They start driving back home armed with the lost and found departments phone number, the young man is in absolute disbelief and shock. He has never felt so bad or scared ever in his life. He wished that he could just kill himself right now.
He is in the United States of America without his identity, without any money or any documentation. He is a no body. In a country that is obsessed with identity, he is absolutely LOST!!!
