Movement 3-a

There is no better way to say this. And although I thought I would build up the tension and make my readers wait for it.. and then really wait for it and then wait for it some more till they reach a point where they cant take the suspense any more and can either stop reading my post or simply scroll down to see what is it that I am talking about.. but then I realised that the information that I am planning to give out, is such an "in-your-face" piece of information that I now feel even the last few lines were absolutely unnecessary! :)

Anyways. Its about 12:46 AM and I am at the Terminal B of the Newark Airport at New Jersey. Im actually outside the food court cause inside there is no charge point.. and so i cant keep my laptop running for a long time.

But anyways.. I am here because my flight from Ithaca to Newark go delayed by an hour. Which meant that my subsequent flight from here to Phoenix which was only 50 minutes later had already flown away while I was still waiting to reach Newark. Now , I knew that because I already had a ticket for the next flight to Phoenix from this place. Which is at 6:40 Am in the morning.

The airport attendant at Ithaca, for the airline company I was travelling probably realised from my sad, dejectet, frustrated and lost expression on my face that she should show some concern and so she upgraded my ticket to a first class. She whispered, maybe this would help you to get into the Club that they have in Newark.

It didnt

You see, apparently all American, or lets say US airline companies have this rule, (which I figure must be part of their fine print), that in case of a delay due to weather they do not compensate their passengers for any accomodation. They will reschedule your connecting flights but will not provide you a place to stay.. I dont kind of understand the rule though. I mean from a customer's perspective that rule sucks! Cause you may get a ticket but then you also have to run around for accomodation. Which is awful!! Anyway.. i did runaround too. Trying to show off my first class status to every "My Airline" personnel possible. I ran into a very helpful Indian lady who was convinced that My Airline was supposed to provide me with accomodation, and so called her husband who also worked at the same Airline. They suggested me to talk to the ticket and check in people. Which I did and they referred to the aforementioned rule.

I went back to the helpful Indian lady. This time she suggested me to go and talk to the First Class Customer Service. I did. They also referred to the aforementioned rule.

I went back to the helpful Indian lady again. This time she asked me to talk to the personnel who was incharge of the lounge. Apparently there is no lounge for Domestic passengers. Only international flight passengers or if I am a member of some Club ..... and obviously they too referred to the aforementioned rule.

This time I go back to the Indian lady again and it is only now she realises that I am a domestic passenger and not someone travelling straight from India and somehow a little bit of her pity vanishes...and she says well ya. if you are travelling within US you cannot go into the lounge!!

So much for the first class upgrade. So then I finally go back to the checking in personnel and then they give me the picture that since my flight leaves tomorrow they cannot check me in because I have a check in luggage with me. Which means I have to stay outside in the airport and not inside the My Airline Lounge. He however suggests me to go to Terminal B, which is where I am right now.

The way I do this is by taking the AirTrain. I kind of metro within the airport. I went up one level . Got on it. It went around all the way to the terminal B from P1 where I was and its quite a distance.. and then I reached the food court which is where I am now. Its been a while now. I have changed my position thrice. Ate at two different places... roamed around for a little and then finally have found a table near the charging points and am thus now typing this blog.

While I have been typing this, a lady came by and gave me a yellow card, a little bigger than the business cards that we have. Its yellow and on top it has Merry Christmas written below the picture of a Santa.

This is what the rest of the card say ..

HELLO !

I Am A Deaf Person

I am selling this....


Deaf Education System Card

...to make my living and to support my family

Would you kindly buy one ?
Pay any price you wish. Thank you! (Over)

On the other side of the card is a set of symbols . The hand symbols.

It says American Manual Alphabet for the Deaf

So this lady, comes up to my table puts the card and leaves. She does the same to the girl who is sitting in another table not far from mine. I am quite confused what to do. But then she comes back and this other girl gives her a dollar and I have to give a dollar now cause otherwise I would look like this crazy indian guy with no heart. So I too gave a dollar. Did find it weird though


Anyways.. there is a constant movement of people down this place. Not only because the Mcdonalds is the only place probably which is open 24 hrs but also because there are other people like me waiting for other planes. And its funny all of us, everyone here, except for the ones who work here, are in transit!


It does feel as if I am trying to be philosophical but actually its quite funny and deep.


Anyways... the girl who is sitting beside me also seems to be waiting for some flight till at least 4. How i know that ? Well its been a while I have been sitting here. The first time I had to ask her to let me use the charger plug because it was behind the place where she was sitting. Then, after sometime I realised I should answer the Nature's call that I have been ignoring, while she is here, cause once she leaves, I would not have anyone to leave my baggage in custody with.

This is how the conversation went........


Me: Hi. Excuse me. How long are you going to be here ?


Smile.. For quite a while . Till about 4 o clock.


Me: Ok. Good. Can you watch my stuff while I come back in a moment.


Sure.. Only if you can do the same after you come back.



Me : Sure. No problem..


(OVER)

So there.. random person.. but we are sitting here all by ourselves.. waiting for individual planes. Its not a big deal.. a lot of people do it and only few jerks like me probably make a big deal out of it. Well actually bigger jerks make movie out of such events !

Anyways her laptop cover says Property of Seton Hall University so I assume she is from there. I havent asked the name yet.. and dont think I will. I am happy with myself right now! :)

Anyways.. I guess I will stop right now and maybe end this post later after I reach Arizona..

What happens next......

Does Parag finally reach Arizona...?
Does he meet some other interesting people ?
Is he Safe and fine ?
Where is he now ?

To know the answers to these questions dont forget to come back to this place sooooon....

Till then Good bye and Good night!