Lufthansa and the trip to USA

When I was very young, about 8-10 yrs of age, I heard someone talk “That uncle has just returned from foreign”. My small mind did a calculation, and decided that like India, Pakistan, USA, etc, foreign is also a country. My knowledge about geography was very poor :- ). Then some more countries got added to my world but foreign remained to be a big country where if someone goes then he returns with lots of money. This foreign dilemna got sorted much later in life. :)

Life moved on, I got introduced to Lufthansa, at first, it was the name that got my attention for being different, and then as I read more, I came to know that Lufthansa is the best carrier in the world for air passengers. I made an uncertain prayer to God that if I have to ever travel, please make me board it.

One day much later, about two months back from now, my boss called me and asked me to get ready for a USA trip. I almost ran back to my desk and search for tickets on Lufthansa. They were very costly, I suffered a heart break. I kept my patience, and kept holding on to that prayer of a kid who wanted to board a Lufthansa. Then the project dates kept delaying and uncertainty kept longing on. I kept my focus on the project asking God for all the help and energy that He can grant me with.

The dates kept changing and so were the flights, it was june and continental, july and some other carriers. Finally, things started rolling very fast and I was told to board a flight in one week’s time. I got busy with lot of work. One day, I received an email from HR manager, asking me if I am ok with a certain itinerary. Since I was busy, I said to her that anything is fine. Then in a break, I went and saw the tickets, gosh!! It was with Lufthansa. I ran 3 floors and straight into the cabin of Komala (my HR manager) to check if this is true. She looked perplexed about a 30 something man behaving like a kid, but she said, yes it is and you are going to travel with Lufthansa. I couldn’t believe that something of this sort is happening with me. I called up Nidhi and told her about it, she was excited too coz she knew about my thoughts. Then in a while when the whole excitement cooled a bit, I told komala about dream of a child that came true. She was excited too and was happy.

Though I had to focus on lot of work, I let myself bask in some glory of returning back to India in a Lufthansa. Then, the day came, when I had to actually board the flight. The plane was huge, a 71 mts jumbo jet. I couldn’t stop grinning, and kept on saying hello to everyone. I was so excited that I almost forgot to read the in-flight magazine. I had heard that economy class on long haul flights is not very comfortable, but I guess, it was due to my excitement that I didn’t find it tiring or maybe it was not the case with Lufthansa.

They served me good food, good tea, etc. I tried my hands onto some red wine too. The flight was very smooth and never shook at all. It climbed up to 38000ft and for most part of the journey remained at that level. The only turbulence we encountered was when we were descending for IAD. The touch downs and take offs were very smooth and the in-flight TV kept showing the route for us.

Exciting as it might be, I was very charged up when I landed at the IAD. Quickly went through immigration checks and was on my way to my apartment. Rest is all good, thanks to God to get me a chance to fly with my dream carrier and thanks to Komala for arranging whole of this.