Travel Travails

                                               TRAVEL TRAVAILS                                                   12.10.13                                                            

The Qatar Airways Flight QR 277 flying over 35,000 ft banked left parted the thick grey clouds and gently began it’s final descent. In the faint light of the early dawn I could just make out the rough outlines of the emerging landscape below criss-crossed by snaky roads and rivulets with shiny button-sized pools of lakes scattered here and there on a carpet of dull green fields dotted by match box like human habitations.Tiny mounds of hills and hillocks appeared randomly and before long in the growing light the familiar lush green canopied Tirusulam hills loomed into view and suddenly my spirits were lifted when the plane with a slight thud touched down, spot-on scheduled time and raced towards the Chennai Meenambakkam International Terminal even though its takeoff was delayed by 30 minutes because of an incident I am about to narrate. My mood changed swiftly to one of great relief and joy as I planted my feet on Chennai soil and the ‘Mann Vasannai’ of my dear motherland warmly engulfed me.Gone were those extremely unpleasant thoughts of anger and humiliation and those  mounting feelings of anxiety and tension that I had experienced at the Doha International airport the previous evening.

My son dropped me inside the Doha airport and left after my baggage check-in. I was travelling single since my wife wished to spend some more days at my son’s place. While waiting in the immigration ‘Q’  I was looking forward to picking up some items in the the duty free shop. There were a bank of immigration counters all managed by the local Arab men and women in their native attire. Men had those flowing milk white robes with  a matching red and white chequered head scarf encircled by a black band while the women hid behind their black burqas  with only slits for the eyes. The men wore serious deadpan expressions like police detectives as their eyes darted from the submitted travel papers to the computer screen and then to the person standing a few feet away in front of them, whereas the women peered through their eye-slits and nothing could be known about their facial expressions. There  was a separate ‘Q’ for the locals and for the Whites and the rest had to stand in several long queues. Doha was not only an important transit destination in the middle-east but it has a substantial immigrant population considerably outnumbering the locals. Therefore the airport had a mixed crowd but the most impressive of them all were the Arabs in their impressive costumes and their confident bearing owing to no small measure to their inheriting vast mineral resources.

• As mentioned earlier I was thinking that I would have an hour or so of leisure to do the airport shopping. But to my increasing impatience my ‘Q’ was moving at a snail’s pace. Perhaps I surmised that the official at my counter was one of those extra cautious persons and a stickler for rules. I was  fast losing my cool and I was almost impatiently nudging the person standing before me in the line. Finally my turn came and I rushed to the counter and handed over my papers and in my anxiety I stood too close to the counter.The man behind the counter shot an annoyed look at me and shouted something in the usual guttural accent of middle-easterners before looking into my papers. I did not understand and stood there confused.He again glanced at me and became visibly angry and shouted loudly in a shriller  voice gesturing at me furiously with his left hand. My confusion was made worse and I stood transfixed asking him weakly in english what he wanted of me. By now people in my line were getting impatient and everybody else in the other ‘Q;s ‘ also began to stare at me making me feel uneasy and highly embarrassed.But a kind soul in my line held me by my shoulder and gently pulled me back. Then I realised my mistake  that I had crossed the spatial boundary and not kept my distance before the counter. Meanwhile the man was repeatedly peering into my papers, and at the computer screen and then at my face with anger and suspicion like a policeman who had caught a thief red-handed. This was going on for sometime. Again he uttered something incomprehensible to me in his guttural voice and motioned for a security guard behind him to remove me from the ‘Q’. I was plucked out of the line rudely and made to stand separately to the immense relief of the rest of the passengers and the line now moved on without me, after being held up for more than 20 minutes.Meanwhile my papers including the passport was handed over to another official who disappeared with them behind a thick screen some distance away.To the person at the counter it appeared as though I ceased to exist. I could not dare to venture near the counter to enquire about my status nor did I have the audacity to shout at him.I simply stood helplessly transfixed my body wreathed in cold sweat. I now seemed to have lost my passport, visa , tickets. I did not make a note of my son’s phone numbers ( I had left the Doha Sim with him ) nor did I remember the exact address of his residence. Moreover I had no local currency in my pocket.To make matters worse I was under a virtual spot arrest without any support in an alien land and without any means to contact my family and friends. In short I was stranded. I stood there for nearly an hour silently mumbling a prayer and with my eyes fixed in the direction of the screen behind which the man had disappeared with my travel documents and papers.There was only 15 minutes left to board the flight. I lost all hopes of boarding the flight or retrieving my baggage which must have been already uploaded on to the plane. The final call for security check-in was already over and a pair of  airlines staff were motioning at me to be quick. I pointed out at the counter and made signs for them to help me. After a while they also left. The scheduled departure time for my flight had come and I slowly began to sink into despair. Over the airport noises I imagined  my flight with its roaring engines taking to the skies. Now somehow I wanted to reach my son’s place, but it appeared to me that I was being detained by the immigration officials for further questioning. A silent shiver began to take hold of me and my only source of sustenance was prayer. At that moment the man who disappeared with my travel documents suddenly emerged along with the two airlines staff and politely called me inside and with profuse apologies explained to me that due to a computer glitch my data was mixed up with someone else’s and hence the confusion. My head was in a daze and I half heard what he said. Then the airlines staff escorted me directly to the plane beyond the security barrier and led me to my seat past the other passengers who seem to have mistook me for some important dignitary ! It was all like a dream to me and the international flight QR 277 to  Chennai took off after a delay of nearly 30 minutes. I kept thanking God for the miracle and tears welled up my eyes even though the incident kept rankling my mind till it was instantly dispelled by the sweet aroma of my motherland as soon as my feet once again touched Chennai soil ! O what a great feeling ! But it is all in the game !   ……BAKIANATHAN.D.J