Amrikka ka ‘Suffer’

“Arey waah! Tum toh Amrikka chale. Sahi hai”. (Oh wonderful! you’re visiting America)

“Bahut saari shopping karna. Humare liye bhi kuch le aana.” (Shop a lot. Get something for us too.)

“Photos zarur lena” (Don’t forget to take photographs)

This was what most people said to me when I told them about my trip to Denver. All this buzz surrounding my trip had left me pretty excited, and I was looking forward to it. Luckily for me, I could get a passport on time and start my visa application process well before my trip. Being from Microsoft ensured that the my visa interview did not have many questions, and so I did not have difficulty in securing a visa.

D-Day arrived!!!

Armed with two bags, a laptop, my tickets and passport, I was all set to leave for the U.S. Nothing out of the ordinary happened till we reached the U.S. Yes, there was the issue of sub-standard food. Oh, not to mention being stuck in a not very comfortable seat for around 18 hours. That too, with so little leg space, it would make Mumbai local trains seem very spacious. (Those who have not experienced a Mumbai local train, try fitting 15 people in 1 square meter, and you have what is called the lifeline of Mumbai.) However, our woes had only begun.

Trouble began after we landed down at Houston International Airport. We had a four hour stop there, but thanks to Continental Airlines, we could not relax as we found that our seats had been cancelled due to overbooking. (Seriously!! They overbooked the flight. Anyone making a ticket reservation system checks for the ‘all seats booked’ condition. They could be using a manual booking system for all I know.) Anyways, instead of lying down and relaxing after a strenuous 18 hour flight, we were running around the terminal, trying to find out how we could earliest reach Denver, our final destination. I will not say that the officials were not helpful, in fact, we reached Denver (albeit four hours later than scheduled) only due to the efforts of an official, Mr Stephen Tomkins, who was running around with us and got us seats on another flight. (In another, unrelated incident, one of my friends was delayed by three hours, as the airplane ran out of fuel and had to make a emergency landing for refuelling.) Yet, this incident had already made it’s way into my view of the trip; I would never say that the trip went smoothly. Hoping that things would go smoothly after this only turned out to be wishful thinking.

Sessions for Microsoft Global Conference were to begin at 8 am. Which meant getting up early. But that was not the problem. The problem was the breakfast. Getting up early and having to sit and attend a lecture with an empty stomach is not what I had meant to do on this trip. Thankfully, the sessions were interesting enough to keep me from dozing off. Lunch was similar (vegetarian food consisted of salad, which seemed to be made from vegetables which were weeks old). The session ended at 8 pm, which left us with little time to go explore the city, however, we stepped out and roamed around. This routine continued for the next three days, during which, we could have become very miserable, had it not been for the discovery of ‘Little India’, an Indian restaurant in the vicinity.

Then it was time for the Microsoft Global Exchange, the true purpose of our trip. And yes, it was good. The food provided was better than before, at least, it was edible. We could take out time for shopping on one day, when the sessions ended early, and the rest of the day had plans for partying and fun events for winners of various lucky draws. Remembering that I had to buy stuff, I took on this chance and spent the day shopping; little did I think that I could be lucky and win. It did not bother me much when later in the day, I found that I had been the winner of the ‘grand prize’ and won a ride in a jet!! A ride in a two-seater jet where the other seat carries the pilot is something most people don’t get to experience. I had won this and where was I? Miles away, looking at stuff which I did not end up buying. I laughed a lot that night, while a friend who was present at the place and had seen another person get in the jet and fly around, cursed me, for not being there, and for laughing it off. Indeed, it would seem to anyone who saw us that he had missed the jet and I was making fun of him .

And then, it got over. The trip had been good and fun, but like many other things, it had its ups and downs. We finally returned to India after 10 days, during the course of which we had gained a lot, however that is a topic for another blog post. For then, I was glad that my ‘suffer’ had finally ended.

Author’s note: I know that I ought to have posted this long back, considering that I visited the U.S. in July 2011, but as they say, better late than never. I began writing this post in August 2011 and have finally completed it today. 😉