ARRIVING TO INDIA (AGAIN)

I

 was coming back to India for the 19^thtime, but after a hiatus of 12 years, and I was not quite sure what type of India I would find. Over the years that I traveled here regularly, I grew to love India, specially its people, who seemed to have an attitude of "there is always room for one more." I found the people in India to be patient and tolerant. I wondered what I would find this time. Had India changed in my absence? I remember when on one of my trips it was announced that India's population had passed the 1 billion mark. Now India's population stands at about 1.2 billion – that's a 20% increase in 12 years! Also, I would be visiting places that I had not been to before. How would they compare to the other places with which I was already familiar? I often say that there are many Indias, and one place can be the complete opposite to another. In fact, one place can be the complete opposite to the place across the street. Thus it is in India – a land of many contrasts.

                                

Let me start with the flight to India. I will say that the aircraft had seats. Lots of them! All crammed into an aircraft that's WAY too small to hold so many of them. I mean, I'm not a tall person by any measurement. If I cannot fit my thigh into the space between the armrest and the seat in front of me in order to get into my seat, something is horribly wrong with the way this aircraft is designed. Unless, of course, this particular aircraft was specially designed for people with no legs. I pitied the tall men on the flight, who spent most of the time standing in the aisles - even though they had aisle seats to start with. This had to be the most uncomfortable aircraft I have ever flown in, including the little 3-seater sea plane on which I flew from Vancouver to one of the islands nearby. As far as I am concerned, this is a new low in flying and El Al has definitely and successfully captured this niche market!

Now let me tell you about arriving back in India after an absence of 12 years. Mumbai's international airport seems to be in the process of adding a terminal. Either that or they have added a new terminal to the old building that I remember. We parked at the old building and it's pretty much the same - old, decrepit and not very efficient. But it smells the same! It's a short walk from the plane to passport control which is as inefficient as it always was. Long lines of passengers being processed by too few clerks, while lots of people are employed to make sure the lines are correctly perpendicular to the yellow line when needed and parallel to the yellow line when needed. Lots and lots of people attend to appearance, while far too few attend to substance. So, from that point of view, India is much the same as when I was last here.

The big improvement is in the transfer from the international airport to the domestic airport. Both airports share the same runways, but they are located at opposite ends of the airport. In the old days, we would clear immigration and customs, and then hop a taxi for the 45-90 minute ride around the airport through the morning traffic to the domestic airport. Now, there's a shuttle bus that takes you INSIDE the airport perimeter from the international terminals to the domestic ones. Something like they have at London's Heathrow airport.

So the process works thus: You clear immigration and pick up your bags. This part is actually very efficient, but results in chaos. What they have here are porters who wait alongside the conveyor belts and take the suitcases off the belt and line them up in multiple lines. Of course you cannot get your trolley through the multiple lines of suitcases, so instead of taking your bag off the conveyor and putting it on you trolley, you now have to park your trolley a distance away, go and climb over the lines of suitcase to get your bag, climb back over while holding your bag in the air, and the eventually plunking it on your trolley. In Japan there are also porters to take your bag off the conveyor. What they do there (with white gloves on their hands) is take your bag off the conveyor and put it onto your trolley for you, many then bow. Here, it seems, the main aim is to keep the folks employed. The intentions good, but the result is chaotic. 

So now you have your bag and you clear customs, change some money and then follow the sign that says Domestic Transfers. You are in a sterile area, but you need to have your suitcase scanned before your exit the sterile area and onto the bus. Whatever. Employment is the key. Three men then wait to put your bag onto the bus, all expecting tips - and asking for them. I suspect that here too, as in many places in the East, foreigners are looked upon as walking wallets.

Once you arrive at the domestic terminal, you are dropped at Arrivals, and must make your way through and out and up to Departures. Everywhere, it's crowded. Now, I know to expect that because India has a huge population, in excess of a billion people, and like China, it's always crowded. And there's no such thing as personal space. You can consider yourself fortunate if the person in line behind isn't actually touching you.

After I checked in at Mumbai domestic I wandered about the place. It's very different than it was 12 years ago. This is a new terminal, very modern and very nice. I had a diet Pepsi and then went to security for screening and to the gate. When it came time to board, they asked to see the stamped tag for my little satchel that I am carrying. They hadn't given me one when I went through screening, so they sent me back with a ground staff person for my bag to go through security again and to get a tag and a stamp on the tag. I then remembered that stamps are very important – in India, a uniformed man with a stamp is a figure of authority. So now with my bag tagged and stamped I went back to the boarding gate,  hopped on the bus and was the last person to board. 

The flight was uneventful - but full. It's a 2 hour flight from Mumbai to Delhi. We met with our Indian counterparts till about 9 p.m., and then we all went out for dinner to a high end pure vegetarian place. It was so nice that there and then we decided that this would be a place to where we will bring the group for a meal. The manager was very nice and accommodating and was willing to set aside a special table for our group. I also met with the chef and checked out the ingredients in the kitchen and decided upon what would be acceptable for our clients to have.

Then it was transfer to the hotel for a well deserved night's rest. I was already so exhausted having had such an uncomfortable flight from Tel Aviv that I simply flopped into bed and went to sleep.