07 May’08
Dubai International Airport
Local Time: 1:50 pm
Zoom down to: Gate No. 27
Scene 1: Passengers waiting for security check and subsequent boarding of Flight No.EK-057, Dubai to Dusseldorf, Germany.
Monologue in the background: All the passengers are requested to report for boarding and security check at the security counter.
Scene 2 : Passengers, well, don’t quite make a ‘beeline’ for the counter, but a queue can hardly be less interesting , or less boring, for that matter. I am the 2nd entity in the queue. The first is a German family which clears its check; and I am the one up next.
--“Your Boarding Pass please?”
--“Here it is”, as I handed him over the pass.
--“Your passport?”
I hand him over the passport. Several seconds pass and the official is still inspecting my passport. Several more. My shoes are getting hotter. Well, several more before his rather effeminate voice makes a splash in the undulating ocean of silence.
--“Where are you going?”
Well, the only place I could’ve gone to had to be Dusseldorf, where the flight was going. Or did they intend to disembark me at a height of 4000 ft above sea-level, mid-way that is? Adventure sports anyone, eh? I manage to stay patient and answer “Dusseldorf”.
--“Why are you going?”
My my, was he turning on the heat!
--“Education, hmmm, internship.”
--“What company?”
--“Not a company. A university.”
--“What university?”
--“Fachochschule Aachen.”
--“What?”
--“The Fachochschule Aachen. FH Aachen.”
Please wait in the lobby while I scan your passport Sharma. (I found the absence of ‘Mr.’ Very conspicuous. The least he could do was perhaps be formal and courteous.)
I enter the lobby. Also trickle in other passengers gradually with smile on faces and passport in hands. I had neither. I am afraid that despite all my valiant efforts I might have cut a sorry figure.I mde it a point to sit at the very entrance of the lobby, the first row of chairs itself so as to be at ‘ready disposal’! More passengers trickle in and my prying eyes fail to locate a passport in not one hand. By the way, this exercise of looking for passports taught me a very momentous lesson: Passports are either red or blue in color!
Suddenly I get company on the hitherto uncoveted first row. A Sri Lankan lady nattily dressed in a business suit and hardly looking amused comes and sits with a thud on the chair next to mine. She tries looking away for sometime,labours a lot to continue doing so but then gives way under the pressure. She faces me and blurts,”Passport?” Alas, all the poor lady could manage was this one word. I smile at her as my reply. Silence does communicate.
Just as soon as this rather succinct conversation of ours was drawing to its quiet end, another man arrives and sits beside her. Two is company. Three crowd, right? I didn’t mind one bit! They start chatting away in language I could not understand much of, apart from a very beautiful word that caught my attention just too often for comfort- passport!
Monologue in the background: All passengers of Flight No. EK-057 are requested to board the plane through Gate No. 27. I repeat. All passengers of Flight…….
The lobby was suddenly empty. The plane full I guess! Remained inside the lobby just 3. 1 Indian. 2 Sri Lankans. We sat waiting for a correspondence. An air hostess waves at me from the end of the lobby to hurry up and board. I steal a quick glance at the watch and gesticulate back to her indicating my predicament. The time ,2:15 pm. Another 20 min and I could wave a goodbye to other passengers from ground.
Suddenly, almost as panic was beginning to assume gargantuan proportions, the same official calls out “Chinmaya Kumar Sharma.” I walk up to him pregnant with apprehensions and expectations. He stares at me, then at my photograph on the passport, then at my photograph on the visa. Repeats the exercise for what seems like eternity. And finally hands me over my passport. Words exchanged- none.
As I make a quick dash, a hushed-up argument falls into my weary and almost-numb ears. An argument between one supercilious immigration official and two harassed Sri Lankans.
Scene 3
Dusseldorf Airport
Local Time: 7 40 pm
Passengers alight from EK-057. Alights an Indian. Alight 2 Sri Lankans. Alight the rest. Whites. All.
