Last time when I came to Delhi airport, I cudn't see it properly, as I was tired too much. And that was the first time i was there. But this time when I came to board the flight to vienna, I took note of many things. Soon some fotos will be placed here to complement this description. But I must admit that the place was awesome. It was hell lot of firangis. And quite expectedly , lot of sardars also, I guess they travel most frequently to foreign of all co munities in india. But the thing that irked me most that my family members who came to see me off were not allowed to enter in the airport. Atleast at guwahati airport I saw that there was a visitor'S gallery where people who came to see off could see the plane flying. I mean atleast for may family members this was a big opportunity. But then probably this arrangement is correct. Ater all, if such things are allowed , airport will very soon become New Delhi Railway station!!! Number of relatives of the travellers generally exceed the number of travellers there!!!. That leads to stampede, chaos and uncleanliness. Those security check people didn't allow me to take chilly powder and shaving razor and a small scissor in the hand bag. When I purchased a small packet of chilly powder in Austria, I paid 2 euros!!!. I took some snaps of the good paintings in waiting lounge . They put it there tp please to foreign tourists. I haven"t seen one at any Railway Station, or in many other govt. buildings. But paintings were indeed gud.
Air hostess roaming around were quite hot. Finally we proceeded to board the flight. I was surprised to notice one thing - air hostess here were quite old. or shud i say tht they were far taller or more well built than the Indian ones. But they were just not as cute as indian ones. But the plane was different from Jet airways. For one thing, we didn't need to go in a bus to reach the plane, i just didn't get when did i enter the plane and left the airport!!! inside also it was compartmentalised in a differnt way. My seat was next to a firangi. When i reached there, that guy was already there seated in his place. He was supposed to get up for me to get in and take my window seat. But this guy got up without me asking for the same. It was the first instance of courteous nature of foreigners, or shud i say Europeans? Many more were to folllow . (every day in austria, i witness many such incidents). Then afterwards , I slept . Bocoz i was too tired and in the dark outside there was not much to see even during the take off, which could distract me from my sleep.
I missed the dinner while sleeping, when I woke up, I was feeling hungry, everyone was asleep. I tried to call an airhostess, but the system of buttons was so complicated that I pressed all the buttons!!! she came. I asked if I cud get something to eat. She asked if no one had come to me for tht. She then offered - veg or chicken.
After food i slept again, when i woke up, sun was about to rise. There was a screen on the seat which was playing either some german movie or some news channel and then it was showing our location and timings etc. we were above Caspian sea (if I am not mistaken)!!! I looked below. Nothing tht spcl I cud observe. Now i thought of talkin to this firangi guy sittin next to me. I learnt tht he was going to Spain and was actually a Swede. I asked him the indian cities which he had been to. He had visited Varanasi. Tht place is indeed popular amongst foreigners bcoz of its spiritual charisma. This time he was in Delhi for buisness reasons. He was reading stuffs about Indian politics. I expressed my surprise at that. He said he was doing so because it was intresting and also, he felt that Indian was economy growing at a fat rate, and he found a good market in India. Soon we reached Vienna. I was in a foreign land. I was seeing through the window of the plane when it was landing.
I was trying to find the feeling of being in abroad. Ofcourse there were buildings and more buildngs. Big hotels also.
But they are there in Delhi also. But I felt main things that distinguish the two are cleanliness, automation and public transport. Roads were very clean. The airport was less crowdy. Very less. Most of the things were automated there. Human intervention was not required in many things such as getting a ticket or opening of doors etc. Then public transport was excellent. Buses were big ,spacious and had lot of technology in them. They had very big window panes, so that one can kinda do a whole tour of city while moving ina bus, or tram or any public transport. And as I said that it had lot technologies, I wasn't much aware of them earlier. When the bus came, a door opened, which i thought was the entrance to the bus as i saw a lady placing her luggage. I also put my bags there. Then I didn't know where to enter the bus from. I saw two Indians there. (Later on learned that they were journalists from India and were in vienna for 2 days for some shoot). I asked them where was the entrance to that bus. They told that bus wasn't open till then, and that place was for luggage only!!!! God I was embarassed like hell!! I was sure many more such scenes were to follow in during the next 3 months, after all, I had not seen such things in India. On the top of that I had not been a great movie buff, who wud see these things in the movies.
So here I was in the Mozart's land. Setting on for another journey, the final destination, for 3 months. It was Klagenfurt.
