Are we Home now?

That’s what super-tired-completely-exhausted Gauri asked me when we finally sat down at our departure gate in Charlotte after being in transit for over 50+ hours changing several planes, having done atleast 12 or more security checks and being dragged every where on the airport at various ungodly hours for last couple of days…..

As some of you already know we had already missed our first return flight to US since I did not have a UK transit visa. Frankly, that was such a shocker for me and I couldn’t believe that was happening to us. Gauri was very sad and upset at why baba had not come to pick her up at the airport, poor thing didn’t quite understand that we were still in India.

Finally we decided to fly back via Germany since it didn’t require a transit visa. But it seems like trouble was spread like a battle-field mine in the entire journey. First, the plane from India couldn’t take off for over 4 hours due to some military issue. I knew we had already missed our connection from Munich to Boston but I was hopeful we’d get some flight back to US.

But upon landing on Munich airport, we were not allowed to enter the airport as the airport was shut down due to some security breach!! Great!! We were left at a place with little heat, very few chairs, no food, phone or even water. We waited for good 4 -5 hours when our patience started running out. It was getting very cold and kids were beginning to freeze sitting on the floor. I put down my shawl, coat etc to make it warmer for kids to sit . Gauri was getting more and more thirsty and couldn’t hold off any more. Upon asking a German immigration officer who spoke little English, he told that only place to get some water was from “the toilet” – are you kidding me was the expression on my face. But I had no choice, I went and brought some water from the T. At that point I literally got tears in my eyes; children who I have taken care so gently and carefully, I am now feeding them water from the toilet. I was desperate to find some help. Determined, I kept asking immigration officers to let me/ other passengers talk to Lufthansa officials. Finally they came – told us that there are no flights to the US for the day and we may have to wait at the airport with atleast 300 other passengers stuck in similar situation, but they could now take us into the airport. After about 4 security checks and stripping sleepy-cranky kids every time for the damn security check, taking care of our hand luggage, purse, passports and million other things we were inside the airport finally. Now the next hurdle – to get the first available flight to US (forget Boston, get me anywhere in the US, beggars cant be choosers). After another 2.5 hours of standing in queue, we were finally booked on a flight to Charlotte and another one from Charlotte to Boston for next day. Now the next hurdle was to fight for a transit visa so I could take the kids to a hotel and not have to spend the night with both kids and luggage on a terminal. Seeing the condition of my kids and literally begging and pleading we finally got transit visa to go into Germany (now 1 AM German time)
Again dragging sleepy kids with luggage from one end of the airport to another, to an exit, we finally sat inside a cab; to tell the truth I was Sh…scared at this time riding a cab all alone with kids and no phone, no local currency, no understanding of German language and absolutely no idea where the heck the cab driver was going to take us. But with fingers crossed and keeping Gods name in the heart we passed that 25 minute ride to the hotel. We were happy to be at the hotel and the staff there was extremely helpful and empathetic. We all had a nice 5 hour sleep and our back felt lot better and ready for another day of surprises.

Next morning we took our 10 hour flight to Charlotte only to land there and find out that immigration is going to take long and we will miss yet another connection to Boston – lovely!! Who invited Mr. Murphy to this trip?????
Anyway when sat at the terminal in Charlotte hoping that this be our FINAL flight in our attempt to reach Boston, I asked Gauri if she was excited to see baba, she said “I am tired mum, are we home now?”…. my heart went out to her and I gave her a big emotional hug, keeping my tears under control and thanking her for being such a cooperative kid during this entire mess. 5.5 hours later we were finally HOME!!
Happy Ending, Happy Faces...