Memoirs of a Desi American
Early Days of a Desi Immigrant Series
Part 1 — The First flight
Year 2021 marks my 14 years in US. It’s been a long time but I can still remember the vivid details of my first journey to US.
It was a sunny day of Jan 28th , 2007 and I was with my family and extended family members at the Islamabad Airport. Few meters away, my colleague Zee was standing in a similar huddle as we both were bidding our good byes before embarking on a long flight to US. Our hearts were filled with excitement and the fear of unknown.
With a heavy heart, we trudged towards the check-in and looked at our loved ones one last time. After couple of hours, we were on our way. Our route was from Islamabad to Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi to London and then from London to Atlanta.
We chose this route after a lot of brainstorming sessions with our travel agent. He, along with some of our friends advised us to go directly to Atlanta and avoid JFK. JFK is known for its long immigration lines and wait times. However, nobody considered the fact that Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson was also one of world’s busiest airports 😊
Our first stop was at Abu Dhabi where we had a long layover of 6 hours. 6 hours can be a long time when you are traveling. I reached out to the airline and asked for dinner coupons which they graciously offered. We took the coupons and redeemed at a local café at the airport. After our dinner, my friend Zee and I were roaming around the duty free. Suddenly I saw an airline staff approaching towards us. He asked me to accompany him. I was perplexed and asked him what was going on? He just said: “Sir! We need a little help from you.”
I noticed that most of the airline staff was of South Asian origin. This gentleman was from India. We walked towards a counter where an elderly Arab lady was standing with another staff member. She was trying to communicate with the staff member in Arabic. Upon seeing me, he requested that I act as a translator for the Arab lady.
I was confused and looked at the Arab lady who was now talking to me in Arabic. I must confess that my skills in Arabic are minimal so I looked at the airline staff and told them politely that I didn’t know Arabic. I was curious to know why they thought I could speak Arabic so I asked them.“Well you looked like an Arab so I thought you could help us”, said the staff member from India. I smiled and went back to my friend Zee who was anxiously waiting for me. I told him all was good. We concluded that probably our Northern Punjab features gave us away as Arabs. We had a laugh about it and resumed our window shopping.
After six long hours, we were on our way to London Gatwick Airport. This was a much bigger and nicer aircraft compared to the one from Islamabad to Abu Dhabi. Food was also delicious! There were less passengers in the aircraft so we took over the vacant seats :D After 7 long hours, the aircraft started its descend over the beautiful city of London.
The city of London was basking under the majestic glory of the sun. The air was clean and it was a chilly morning in London. We were excited to be in the city that boasted attractions such as West Minister Abbey, Buckingham Palace, London Museum, Madame Tussauds, Trafalgar Square and the statue of Lord Horatio Nelson. It was a pity that we couldn’t explore the city as we did not have any visa.
After spending 4 long hours at the London Gatwick airport, we boarded on the Delta Airlines plane to Atlanta, GA. It was a long flight of 11 hours. The plane was less roomy compared to the previous two. It was also packed with passengers. In our previous flights, we were offered food and snacks frequently but not in this one. Perhaps that’s the difference between a US and an Arab hospitality.
We were really tired by now and were wishing to have chosen the route from Abu Dhabi to New York and then Atlanta. But this “Siyanapunn” was costing us dearly now. We could not sleep well and felt little sick. 11 hours seemed to be an eternity but eventually we reached there. The plane started its descent over Atlanta. All we could see were swathes of green trees as it was one big forest. From far way we could see the Atlanta skyline which looked like an island amid the sea of green. We were here! Atlanta, GA, jewel of Southern US!
Waz Imran
https://medium.com/@wazimran
