Return to India - The Farewell

We had some concerns about our trip home. The beautiful new Shamshabad International Airport opened last weekend but created major challenges to air traffic. The papers were full of horror stories. It seems the pilot of the first KLM flight was unaware of the change and attempted to land at Begumpet which is now closed. There is some question whether the airline was told of the changes before the plane left Amsterdam so it’s quite possible that the onboard flight computers were programmed for the closed airport. The pilot was circling Begumpet and after being told to land at Shamshabad asked the flight controller “What’s Shamshabad?” Due to bad weather and understandable concerns over safety he attempted to redirect to a new destination. After flying to Delhi and being denied landing permission he was redirected again to Mumbai creating major headaches for all concerned and a near riot in the airport. By then he had exhausted his flight time and passengers were stuck overnight in Mumbai. To make matters worse the roads leading to the new airport are inadequate. Traffic was horrendous, a situation exacerbated by 24 hours of uninterrupted rain. People waited for many hours just to get their boarding passes and their luggage arrived soaked. In advance of opening there was a lot of protest over the closure of Begumpet and certain officials made public assurances to stop a bandh. While government was out of session other officials forced the new airport open and closed the old one to circumvent opposition. The protests were based on a combination of concerns (labor, transport, etc). From the events of the last few days it seems the protesters had a point. My colleague called the airline and was assured there would be a plane on the ground to meet us. We hoped it was actually true but you have to be flexible in India. As it worked out our outbound airport gauntlet was incredibly easy. We left the hotel around 11:00pm and got to the airport in an hour after driving over fairly typical Hyderabad roads. Check-in was a breeze, they didn't even charge me for my overweight bag which looked ready to give birth. Security was both efficient and professional. We sat in the airport for hours waiting and met Lavonya, an American medical student of India descent whose father emmigrated to the U.S. many years ago. We talked about recent cultural developments in India, my colleagues Jewish heritage, her views on health care reform, and whatever else filled the time until our departure.

We left Hyderabad on flight 875 at 3:35am. As I write this I am in the air somewhere between Kharkov and Kiev about 2 1/2 hours out of Amsterdam, a city I first saw through wide eyes in 1979 and have loved ever since. After a half day stopover we will board a Northwest Airlines flight to Seattle and be home in another 9 hours or so. For most of my life I've wanted to be an expatriate of some kind. I've steeped myself in Conrad, Kerouac and Michener. My readings in the past few years included biographies on Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and other early Americans who built lives and contributed to society from an international perch. Here I am at 50 finally living that dream, albeit only a few weeks at a time. I've made more friends in Hyderabad than I have in the U.S. Perhaps that's a byproduct of the type of life I live, you have more time to make friends when you are living at corporate expense with a full time driver. Just the same I find it incredibly rewarding to travel and work in India. During my side trip to Bangalore I had coffee with a former colleague who took a position in media production. His first few months have him flying all over the world. His first quarterly business review was in Singapore. He told me "you know dude, you have an international network now". He's right and I need to figure out what to do with that, not only professionally but personally. That little voice inside my head is asking me what I want out of life and working internationally may be part of it.

This trip was different than last years with less focus on history and more on the way people live today. There was a part of me that wanted a more "spiritual" experience and we planned to visit Birla Mandir on the way out of town. Unfortunately it was closed for some reason so we ate a final dinner on the hotel patio instead. The manager, chefs and waiters all came over to wish us well as we downed more prawn kebob and chicken tikka. Bats swooped overhead flitting in and out of the lights above us. A dog slept in the grass in the cool night air. A cat wandered around the tables, too skittish to come close but hopeful of sharing our leavings. Last night my colleague saw a large frog hopping across the patio. When we left work earlier in the day our colleagues came all the way down to the exit to say their goodbyes and wish us a good flight back. It occurred to me as I sat on the patio talking to my friends that this trip was spiritual in a very normal way. A life well lived is just being in the present moment and living it deeply. Breathe in, breathe out...nothing special.

Thanks for listening