Friday, May 24, 2019
Bombay-London-Buenos Aires
Leaving Bombay...
I awoke at 5.30 am feeling quite excited at the prospect of the long journey that lay ahead for me followed by the exquisite reward at the end of it—a sighting of Hubs after ten long months (the longest ten months of my life). I wanted to get cracking immediately, but couldn’t as I got a very early morning call from Shahnaz who needed the number of my Dad’s courier service. We ended up chatting for over half an hour by which time I had to start galloping ahead with my prep for departure. I finished all the last-minute items I had to pack, stripped my bed of its linen, went in for a shower and shampoo and had my breakfast—muesli and coffee. I made sure there was no food that could spoil in my fridge, I got my garbage bin ready for dumping, and I cleaned and tidied my small place so that it would look quite spic and span when I returned. All that done, I locked up my case and taking only my phone with me, I left to say goodbye to my Dad and Russel (whom I would not be seeing for the next 2 weeks) and I took my large laundry bag to their place so that my items could be laundered while I was away.
It was sad parting with Dad whom, I can tell, feels diffident about how he will manage in my absence. Thankfully, however, he has Rohit to help out and I am hoping nothing will upset the apple cart prior to my arrival. I spent about 45 minutes chatting with the two of them and then I hugged and kissed them goodbye and left.
I found a rick right on Perry Cross Road and I asked the driver to come with me to my building from where I picked up my suitcases and my back pack and went downstairs to start our journey to the international airport. It took about an hour to get there. It was while I was in the rick that I suddenly realized that I had not printed out my visa for Brazil for which I had applied online more than four weeks ago. I had received it on the eve of my departure for Uzbekistan and thought that I would print it out when I got back. But then I clean forgot and as Llew and I had not talked about the Brazilian visa again, it did not come back to my mind. Anyway, I have no reason to worry. I was able to retrieve it very easily on my phone and shall print it out at one of the offices at NYU-Bueno Aires in Argentina where Llew and I shall be spending 7 days before we leave for Brazil. So there will be ample time to get this sorted.
I reached at about 10.30 am; my flight would take off at 1.10 pm. I was able to get the window seat I requested at the back of the aircraft so that I would not be restricted by the wing. I cleared security quickly as I had checked in my bag and had only my backpack with me on the flight.
A Memorable Flight and Even More Memorable In-Flight Entertainment:
British Airways service was superb from the get-go and I was very pleased that I was using such a good airline for what would be a 28 hour flight in total: 9 hours from Bombay to London, a 5-hour layover at Heathrow in London followed by a 13 hour flight from London to Buenos Aires. This is probably the longest flight I have ever done in my entire life and I had made sure I had enough entertainment to keep me occupied right through it as well as a comfort kit to make it bearable.
The flight was also bang on time. I settled down well at my window seat and was so excited to find, even before takeover, that there was a load of fantastic British TV and movie entertainment on offer. No doubt, I would stay alert and far from bored through it all. I made a final call to my Dad to tell him that I had boarded and would be airborne shortly. Leaving at 1.10 pm we had a lovely clear take-off from Bombay on a day which, for once, did not seem to be hazy. The old Santa Cruz airport was clearly visible as we lifted off and said goodbye to Indian shores. We were over the sea for a very long time then. I was following out flight route on my screen, but I got ready to watch the first movie: Can You Ever Forgive Me? I was keen to watch it as it had been nominated for Oscars for both Best Actress (MelissaMcCarthy) and Best Supporting Actor (Richard E. Grant). I have loved Grant for years and years and am very familiar with his work. He had also endeared himself to the Twittersphere when he tweeted so exuberantly his utter joy at the nomination and his journey to Los Angeles for the Oscars. I believe he won a BAFTA Award for it.
So, it was with joy that I watched the story unfold of a middle-aged female writer whose work was no longer in demand and who could not pay her bills. Quite by chance, she meets Grant and strikes up a friendship with him. In an attempt to survive, she begins to forge letters from famous writers such Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward and sells them as genuine documents to dealers in the antiques’ world. The game works fine until Grant decides to get into the same game and they become competitors. Things go downhill when the collecting world becomes aware about her forgeries. She is indicted and convicted and has to do community service as part of her punishment. The story was very touching indeed in terms of the precariousness with which we can live in middle age when we choose to live the creative life and have no one and nothing to turn to when work dries up and we need to keep the wolf from the door. I was glad I watched.
That done, lunch was served and it was a delicious chicken with mushrooms and potatoes with a mango mousse for dessert. As it was a long flight, trays with snacks consisting of cookies, chocolates, crackers, crisps, etc. were available in the galley and we could help ourselves if we felt like a nibble.
I then began watching the next film I was keen to see: Bohemian Rhapsody with Rami Maleck playing Freddy Mercury of Queen. Living in Bombay has meant that I have been starved of good film entertainment this entire year. So I saw these long flights as a way to see at least some of the big nominees and winners. I must admit, at the risk of sounding very culturally ignorant, that I was never a fan of Queen and was not very familiar with their music. I knew a little bit about Mercury’s personal story as I am working on the contribution of the Parsis to Western Performing Arts in Bombay this year and Freddie’s name keeps coming up repeatedly in this context. Llew had watched the movie and told me that he loved it and was thrilled at all the early music that was also part of the sound track. I found the film very enlightening—both about his complicated personal life, his rejection of his family and close friends, his arrogance and conceit and his phenomenal talent. A very good movie indeed.
The hours flew by as we entered Europe. I followed the flight plan and was pleased to see that we were soon flying over snow-streaked mountains. Obviously, we had reached Europe. A little later, we were right over Austria and were following the exact course of the Danube. Far below me I could see the city of Vienna and I am sure that if my friend Ian is reading this, he doesn’t believe a word of this...but I was clearly able to see the city below me, astride the Danube and punctuated by its pretty bridges.
Then, I began watching a TV series that was recently shown on PBS in the US but which I did not instruct Llew to tape for us as I did not think we had adequate storage capacity. So I figured I would watch it through my local Westport Library when I got home. As I found it on board, however, it made sense to watch—and so I did. It was called Mrs. Wilson and it starred the inimitable Ruth Wilson who also wrote the screenplay based on the story of her paternal grandmother. The story concerns her grandfather Alexander Wilson who was a major in the British army during World War II.He worked as a translator and interpreter of Arabic and Ruth was hired as a stenographer to type out his transcriptions.
The first episode opens on the day of his death and leads to the uncovering of the mysteries of his life. His wife discovers that he led multiple lives, had multiple wives and children who come crawling out of the woodwork after his death. As the secrets of his life are revealed, Mrs. Wilson also understands that he might have been set up by the British intelligence services and then turned into a scapegoat and sacked after serving a prison sentence. As the viewer, I as unable to decipher lies and deceit on his part from possibilities of political intrigue on the part of the British government. It was completely perplexing but superbly acted with Iain Glen playing Major Wilson. What was amazing was that at the end of the movie, the entire clan of sons that he spawned were seen on screen as they are today with their children and grandchildren who number in the dozens. A really superb series. However, I saw two episodes of it on the Bombay-London sector and the third on the London-Buenos Aires sector (when I also watched Mary Poppins Returns with Emily Blunt and Lin Manuel-Miranda (and I loved it). What a delightful flight it turned out to be, in terms of entertainment.
Almost There—Arriving in the British Isles:
When I knew that we were just 45 minutes from landing in London, I became so excited to be back again in my favorite city. I followed the flight route map again and saw that we were north of France—in the region of Belgium. That meant that our crossing from Europe to the British Isles would not occur via the English Channel but the North Sea. I gazed outside the window as we flew over the salt flats of Belgium and crossed the many wind turbines in the North Sea. And soon, the shores of Great Britain came into sight—but magically, the cloudless skies of the Continent gave way to heavy cloud cover—this made me wonder: what sort of weather phenomenon causes the skies above England to be constantly cloud-filled? I have no answer, but again, magically (there IS a God!), the clouds parted just as we neared the city of London and, as sheer luck would have it, there we were flying just above the city in a wide and generous sweep that took in the entire panorama of the capital below me.
A Thrilling Ride Over My Favorite City:
Can you even begin to understand how thrilled I was? I was literally floating on Cloud Nine! My camera worked overtime clicking every angle of the city as it revealed itself below me: from the winding curves of the Thames to the Oval stadium on the South Bank; from the London Eye to the cheese grater building; from the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf to the Shard (we were directly above the Shard and so I could not get a picture—and, by this time, I was literally hopping in my seat!); from the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben to the offices of Whitechapel (that I had just seen in the TV series Mrs. Wilson); from Pall Mall and the statue of Queen Victoria seated regally in front of Buckingham Palace to St. James’ Park behind; from the vast greenery of Hyde Park and the Serpentine to the Diana Pool; from Hammersmith Bridge to the Hoover Building as the plane swept west towards Heathrow and I craned my neck to try to find Hampton Court Palace astride the river (I did not spot it as it was probably on the other side of the aircraft )...and then we were landing at Heathrow and I completely got my money’s worth. There is nothing I love more in the world than seeing it from the height of 30,000 feet above sea level and when you are landing in a city and the plane has lost altitude and you can actually pick out the its familiar landmarks and when that city happens to be one you adore and miss with a pain that is almost physical...believe me, there is no greater joy than that! It was an auspicious beginning to my trip and I besides myself.
Passing Time at Heathrow’s Terminal Five:
I had about four hours at Terminal Five of Heathrow Airport and had made big mental plans for what I was going to do with my time As soon as I disembarked, I checked my connecting flight and found that the Gate was not yet announced and would not be announced until an hour before I took off. I did not go through Immigration but did need to go through Security and believe me, nothing is more irritating than Security at Heathrow because they make you take out even the smallest tube of toothpaste from your hand luggage and put it into a transparent bag. Anyway, that done, I got out into the shopping concourse and straight away spied Boots.
I spent about twenty minutes in Boots buying my No 7 Face creams for day and night and was delighted to find a lovely discount offered—buy 2, get the 3rd free. I also ended up getting a voucher of 5 pounds off if I spent 5 pounds: and I did have dental floss and panty liners to buy—so I found some more savings there too. A very successful shopping spree indeed (and now I will not need to spend time in Boots during my 9 hour layover on my way back!). Except that they did not carry the nail polish I wanted—shades by Max Factor. The sales assistant told me that they carried Max Factor, but not the nail color at the airport shop. Oh well...
Of course, then I asked for Marks and Spencer as I also wanted to buy some edible goodies ...but get this, although Marks is at Terminal 5, it is located after Immigration...so I was not able to get there. Bummer! Next I asked for Carluccio’s (as I thought I would get myself a grand dinner there). And guess what? That too was beyond Security...so there too my plans were thwarted. I was not able to access these stores which was a massive disappointment for me.
I spent the next three hours getting my phone and mobile charger re-charged. I suppose the biggest disappointment of all was that there were no charging sockets at my seat on the British Airways flight and the second biggest disappointment was that although there is free WiFi at Heathrow, it has almost no bandwidth at all and I was unable to access any of my email and was not even able to get WhatsApp—so it was useless having that WiFi!
I did the rounds of some of the stores—Terminal 5 is like being on Oxford Street or any other British high street: every store you can imagine is there from Reiss and Cath Kidson to the high end designer stores such as Prada and Hermès. I had carried a peanut butter sandwich with me from home and I sat and ate that while charging my phone. And then, I picked up a Hello magazine from WH Smith as it is a Royal Family special issue—which was great. A wonderful souvenir of my return to London after almost two years.
And Off to Buenos Aires:
My flight was announced and I made my way to the gate for my onward flight to Buenos Aires. This would be a 14 hour non-stop flight. As it turned out, I was given a window seat here too on a three-seater. Of the three seats, the middle was empty and the aisle seat was occupied by a female. I was able to stretch out in two seats and actually curl up and sleep (after a lovely dinner of chicken with peas and potatoes) and after watching the last episode of the absolutely wonderful Mrs. Wilson. I slept fairly well, I have to say. As we were flying north to south, we were not flying through different time zones. So, for the longest time, it was completely dark outside and dawn only began to break when we were about an hour from landing—a very interesting experience. Breakfast was served on board and I was in further heaven when I discovered that I could have a Full England Breakfast—one of my favorite things in the world to eat. I thoroughly enjoyed it as sunrise appeared over the Eastern horizon. We were bang on time (despite a half hour delay at Heathrow) and it was a new day—as Friday turned into Saturday—as we touched down in Buenos Aires.
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