July 29th
8 pm local time, New York : Delta Flight Number 118 took off.
9 am local time, Paris : I landed in Paris (transit).
11 am local time, Paris : Flight leaves Paris, scheduled to reach Bombay at 1230 am.
12:30 am local time : We are 32 km from Bombay airport (at an altitude of 10 km... you can use Pythagoras theorem to find the third parameter)
Suddenly, the "estimated time to land" increased from 6 minutes to 1 hour and 40 minutes. Some passengers pointed this out to the airhostess who said she hoped it was an error.
We kept circling around at a height of 36,000 feet. Then the captain made an announcement...that there were a lot of planes roaming around above Bombay hoping to land and that our plane had gotten a slot an hour away.
Finally we landed at 2 am. It was just like one of those movies involving air crafts... a storm was brewing... thunder, lightning, wind ... and a plane trying to land. We landed safely and the passengers clapped.
It took another 40 min to get the luggage and clear customs. Then I went to a relative's house to stay for the night. On the way I got to see the damage caused by floods. Lots of people had dumped their furniture which had been spoiled by the rain.. there were a few abandoned cars which had been washed away by the floods. We passed by Amitabh Bachchan's house which was also flooded.
I slept for 6 hours before returning to the airport at 1130 am for my flight. I ended up meeting my co-scholar there. Her flight was scheduled at 6 am but all morning flights had been delayed due to poor visibility.
My flight to Delhi had been cancelled, so I went and got a seat on a plane which was originally supposed to depart at 8 am but had been rescheduled for 3:30 pm. The situation at the airport was really bad... with several frustrated passengers shouting at the airport staff who had to bear with it. One of the flights initially didn't take of cos they had a plane but no crew... then by the time they got a crew, the plane had been used for a different flight so now there was a crew but no plane. The passengers on that flight must've been really frustrated.
They literally were using the planes like taxis... one official suddenly phoned someone and says "IC 164 ko nikalo aur Delhi jaane ke liye taiyaar kaaro".
Anyway my 330 flight finally took off at 730 pm. We landed in Delhi at 9:30 pm then I went to the station, grabbed a burger and fries at Wimpy's for dinner and got on the train.
The train reached Kanpur at 6:15. I got on the van waiting for me and reached the insti at 7:15 am. I somehow managed to unpack a bit and then head for my 8 am Mechanics of Solids lecture. I had breakfast during the 9am -10am break and returned for the lectures after that.
Back at the hostel, I'm having trouble with the Hall CC... apparently noone knew where the key was so they broke open the door yesterday. The inside is a total mess.... with three big patches on the wall where the photography people had put the switchboards.
Both AC's aren't working. Two tubelights are fused and another tubelight is missing.The floor is covered with dust. So in the end I guess the cc won't open for another few days. I complained about it. Hopefully, the electrical people will come tommorow for the repair work.
Anyway Im feeling pretty tired thanks to jetlag and of course dragging all the luggage from the ground floor to the 2nd floor.
8 pm local time, New York : Delta Flight Number 118 took off.
9 am local time, Paris : I landed in Paris (transit).
11 am local time, Paris : Flight leaves Paris, scheduled to reach Bombay at 1230 am.
12:30 am local time : We are 32 km from Bombay airport (at an altitude of 10 km... you can use Pythagoras theorem to find the third parameter)
Suddenly, the "estimated time to land" increased from 6 minutes to 1 hour and 40 minutes. Some passengers pointed this out to the airhostess who said she hoped it was an error.
We kept circling around at a height of 36,000 feet. Then the captain made an announcement...that there were a lot of planes roaming around above Bombay hoping to land and that our plane had gotten a slot an hour away.
Finally we landed at 2 am. It was just like one of those movies involving air crafts... a storm was brewing... thunder, lightning, wind ... and a plane trying to land. We landed safely and the passengers clapped.
It took another 40 min to get the luggage and clear customs. Then I went to a relative's house to stay for the night. On the way I got to see the damage caused by floods. Lots of people had dumped their furniture which had been spoiled by the rain.. there were a few abandoned cars which had been washed away by the floods. We passed by Amitabh Bachchan's house which was also flooded.
I slept for 6 hours before returning to the airport at 1130 am for my flight. I ended up meeting my co-scholar there. Her flight was scheduled at 6 am but all morning flights had been delayed due to poor visibility.
My flight to Delhi had been cancelled, so I went and got a seat on a plane which was originally supposed to depart at 8 am but had been rescheduled for 3:30 pm. The situation at the airport was really bad... with several frustrated passengers shouting at the airport staff who had to bear with it. One of the flights initially didn't take of cos they had a plane but no crew... then by the time they got a crew, the plane had been used for a different flight so now there was a crew but no plane. The passengers on that flight must've been really frustrated.
They literally were using the planes like taxis... one official suddenly phoned someone and says "IC 164 ko nikalo aur Delhi jaane ke liye taiyaar kaaro".
Anyway my 330 flight finally took off at 730 pm. We landed in Delhi at 9:30 pm then I went to the station, grabbed a burger and fries at Wimpy's for dinner and got on the train.
The train reached Kanpur at 6:15. I got on the van waiting for me and reached the insti at 7:15 am. I somehow managed to unpack a bit and then head for my 8 am Mechanics of Solids lecture. I had breakfast during the 9am -10am break and returned for the lectures after that.
Back at the hostel, I'm having trouble with the Hall CC... apparently noone knew where the key was so they broke open the door yesterday. The inside is a total mess.... with three big patches on the wall where the photography people had put the switchboards.
Both AC's aren't working. Two tubelights are fused and another tubelight is missing.The floor is covered with dust. So in the end I guess the cc won't open for another few days. I complained about it. Hopefully, the electrical people will come tommorow for the repair work.
Anyway Im feeling pretty tired thanks to jetlag and of course dragging all the luggage from the ground floor to the 2nd floor.
posted by Unknown at 9:54 AM
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