Vivek’s Blog

Hello folks! I got back to the US on Monday and have started classes already. Getting used to the new schedule will take a week or two as will getting back into the habit of doing work. But I’d rather not bore you with my education when I can entertain you with stories from my flight here.

Delhi airport is a mess right now. It has always been super-crowded but since they started renovating it, the mess is terrible. However, the good news is that the parts that are done look fantastic. Hopefully they can get it done soon. Check-in was a breeze but security took forever due to the limited, makeshift booths that have been set up during renovation. By comparison, the security check-in at Frankfurt went smooth.

The flight to Frankfurt was largely uneventful. The flight was not late. It was supposed to leave at 3:05am and we got going around 3:10am. However, we got into Frankfurt a few minutes after the due time because of traffic at Fraport. The flight to New York, however, was delayed by nearly an hour. Take a guess as to why it was delayed.

No idea? Try this on for size: there were too many aircraft in the British airspace and we were asked to leave half an hour late. Add that to the regular 20-30-minute delay in take-off from Fraport and you get a net delay that was too much for the pilots to overcome completely. We landed at 1:15pm, half an hour late and immediately ran into what looked like 500 more people waiting to clear immigration. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that getting past immigration took ages - two and a half hours to be precise. I got back to my dorm at 5pm. Amazing.

I was half-expecting to not find my luggage after all the delays I had already faced. Thankfully, that did not happen and I was able to easily locate my checked-in luggage. But I did have to wait a long time before getting a cab. It was freezing and I was probably under-dressed for the weather. It’s freaking cold here.

So that’s about it for now. Stay tuned because there’s more to come very soon.