أنا عارفة من و أنا صغيرة إن كل مكان بنصلي فيه بيشهدلنا يوم القيامة. من أكتر الحاجات اللي بتحمسلها لما بابقى مسافرة هو الموضوع ده.
إني أنا واحدة من المجظوظين اللي تواصلوا مع ربنا في أماكن مختلفة في العالم ده.
:في الهند لما كنت بقطع في الصلاة كان علطول بيجيلي أحلام وحشة. هسيبكم مع الدوكيمنتيشن 
I hope I always manage to stay connected to God. And if not, I hope He always guides me back to Him.
Love,
Deena
Since day one and all the way until my last moment in India, encounters with airports have been dramatic. Not one was smooth. Below is a demonstration.
My flight from Egypt to Mumbai and my first solo flight ever. The plan was simple: I would land in Mumbai, connect to the public WiFi at the airport and text the person who is picking me up and voilà!
Reality was this: lost at the airport from 1:00 am to 3:30 am, poor guy waiting in the rain outside, unable to communicate with people because nobody speaks English, can’t connect to WiFi because I don’t have an Indian SIM card and -the cherry on top- unable to find my luggage.
Eventually-2 and half hours later-, I found an info desk and someone who speaks English. He explained that I was waiting at the wrong counter, gave me a WiFi voucher and, in other words, saved my life.
On the ride to Karmyo, I reflected on the incident and decided that this was only because it was my first time alone and I hadn’t been familiar with the procedures. It was a one-time thing.
Venue: Mumbai International Airport
Destination: Jaipur
Company: My Chinese colleague Meyo
We both happened to wake up late that day. We got ready and packed in 5 minutes and the cab driver was fighting the universe so that we wouldn’t miss the flight.
We finally made it 30 minutes before the flight and breathed a sigh of relief! We proceeded to the counter to check in. “Ma’am, you have missed your flight,”the guy at the desk stated and it sounded final and I didn’t understand.
He then politely explained that the counter closes 45 minutes before the flight and that although our plane still hadn’t taken off, it was not possible to board. I was very calm and collected and handled the situation very professionally—so much so that even I was surprised of my reaction.
We got lucky that day and were offered to catch the next flight without being charged anything. (Thanks to Go Air; the only Indian airlines that allow that.) We stayed at Starbucks for 8 hours until the next flight. That day, Meyo said that he is not sad and that he would have happily missed the flight and paid more for the lesson. (I will write more about Meyo’s approach to life soon.)
We discussed our futures and Meyo mentioned that I should start my pet handling business or flower shop soon. I mentioned that he should do sales. For the rest of the 9 hours, we just read.
I didn’t really click with Jaipur. It was all too commercial and too hectic for me. So much so that we only had 2 days and a half and I decided to spend my last half day home alone. I was looking forward to my flight back to Mumbai. My flight was not direct though. It went from Jaipur to Delhi then from Delhi back to Mumbai. But at that point, I was a pro. Nothing worse could happen, eh?
I arrived at the airport, checked-in early and waited at the coffee shop inside the airport. I ordered watermelon juice because I deserved watermelon juice. I had 45 minutes, and decided to read and make my last 45 minutes in Jaipur relaxing.
The staff were announcing something on loudspeaker that I was unable to hear because of the bad sound quality. I ignored it completely and kept reading my book. They kept repeating the announcement for more than 20 minutes that I decided to ask what it was. I listened carefully and realized that my name was being called. “Miss Osman Deena, this is the last call,” they repeated. I ran up there. A staff member shouted, “Ma’am! We have been looking for you everywhere!” in addition to some angry Hindi phrases that I was unable to understand. I was the last person to board and the passengers were giving the irresponsible person whom they had to wait for for 20 minutes angry looks also.
At that point, it was funny and sad and why?
I landed safely at Delhi International airport. All I had to do to be in Mumbai was divert to the other plane. I was given directions by people who barely spoke English. I stood in a long queue for 30 minutes and when it was finally my turn, the officer mentioned that this was the wrong queue. It was already past my boarding time and I was furious because not again—I hadn’t even recovered from the last airport! I was going up and down for 7 more minutes until finally an air-hostess knew what she was talking about. I reached the airline desk and the guy said, “Ma’am, we have been calling you for half an hour!” I was waiting to hear the “Ma’am, you have just missed your flight.” I held my tears and said, “I didn’t sign up with my phone number and I was given wrong directions. Now what?”
He said, “Ma’am, you are certainly being given right directions now.” and he sent someone with me to show me the way. We ran for 15 minutes—Delhi Airport is that big, yes. I was so grateful and surprisingly, wasn’t the last person to board.
Thanks to the guys from AirIndia for saving the day.
I believe everything happens for a reason. That’s why, my reflections before this one last airport encounter were clear. I had had enough bad experiences and it was fair to have a peaceful and smooth closure. I was dropped at the airport in time and there was nothing to worry about.
Once again, I was stopped at the check-in desk because of excessive luggage weight. I had been told I was allowed 48 KGs and had double checked that my luggage weighed less before leaving home, but at the airport, they introduced this new concept of “Yes, 48 KGs, but 2 bags allowed and therefore, 24 KGs each and you have 10 minutes to get rid of 7 KGs or else you will miss your flight back to Egypt.”
Again, almost crying, I opened my suitcase and randomly started emptying it into smaller plastic bags that I was going to carry all the way back to Egypt. I was finally let onto the plane. Something that I think is note-worthy here is that on this plane, it was my first time in 10 weeks to, again, deal with Egyptians on duty: male flight attendants. I was surrounded by and reminded of the sarcastic, racist and lazy way we handle things.
Long story short: Airports are not my cup of tea. I will always be scared and emotionally prepared for disasters in the future. 😀
Fact:
I had to wait 2 months to see an elephant in India. They are not as common as we are told they are. In fact, elephant riding is even illegal in most cities.
Why? It’s highly commercial and the elephants don’t like it.
These days, I keep having flashbacks from that day and feel extremely sorry for riding + painting on this poor thing.
Elephants are for being loved only. Thereby, I pledge not to ride any elephants in the future.
In Her Slippers 