Flying with The World's Favourite Airline...

So the night came when I had to travel to Kuwait…I was really excited as I was travelling to an International Location after May 2005 when I went to Thailand and had one of the most wonderful times of my life then (I know what you are thinking and the related expressions on your faces!!!) plus I thought even if I didn’t get selected after my Interviews, at least I would get an opportunity to visit a country which I would never visit in my life.

I had an Emirates Flight via Dubai departing from Delhi at 4 AM…like a good boy and a new International Traveller I duly reached the Airport at 1 AM…went through all the motions and was finally in the Departure Lounge at 2:30 AM and had an hour to spend there…went to the Watches, Liquor & cigarettes section and just browsed through the items on display…the liquor section made me crazy, there were so many options and I am a Liqueur collector myself even though I am not a regular Liqueur drinker but seeing the new brands made me really excited…I even SMSed Dips at 3 in the night!!! And obviously there was no reply from his side as he is sane when it comes to sleeping and he sleeps early!!!

I had heard so much about Emirates and their World-Class service and just could not wait to get into the aircraft and finally the call came and I was in the aircraft and the first thing which shocked me was that there was a first floor in the plane!!! I never knew that before this instant…but that was only for a select few and I was guided towards the Economy Section, intelligently I had made a Web Check-In and I had booked an aisle seat for me which I always prefer over a window seat…

The in-flight system had believe it or not a collection of 550 movies in almost all the languages, 100 Recordings of Live Concerts, 50 odd Video Games and some 2000 odd songs collection of all the big artistes worldwide appealing to travellers from all nationalities…truly world-class I must say…as I was carrying my own headphones I was the first one to plug into the system and it surely got me bewildered looks of fellow travellers as they had to wait for the Cabin Crew to start distributing the Emirates Headphones…I get smart at times, even though this is very rare but when it happens, it comes in handy!!!

The food was extremely delicious and one of the best I ever had on a flight…and then the alcohol service started…unluckily they had the best of the brands for heavy liquor but only 2 options for Beer which I can take so I settled for Stella Artois and had 2 cans as I planned to sleep after that, the person sitting right next to me was in no such mood, he first took 3 miniature bottles of Famous Grouse Scotch Whiskey with 3 Cans of coke the first time and then took 1 each 4 other times and pissed the Cabin Hostess big time but he was not to budge, he thought he had every right to be rude to her as his expression seemed so!!! He was a native of Punjab and was working in Melbourne, Australia as a Taxi Driver and was returning back after attending his brother’s wedding and I am sure he would have had shit-loads of alcohol during the wedding celebrations but still his liquor appetite had not been satiated!!! One weirdo he was…and I hate anybody who is rude to people who are serving them and this time also it was no different…and one funny thing about him was that he pronounced Famous Grouse as “Famous Grooooose”!!! Would never forget that…

I landed in Dubai at 6:30 AM DST and then after the special security check proceeded to the gigantic Transit Lounge, they asked all of the travellers to remove their socks & shoes, remove all metal accessories which was a big task for me, my Che Locket, my 2 Kadas, watch and the waist belt!!! I almost injured myself while removing one of my Kadas…

The Duty Free zone was simply overwhelming and I had never seen anything like that before, everywhere there were shops selling almost everything and so much of crowd & noise…I had to pick up 2 cartons of cigarettes for my Father and Brother which I did…special Anniversary editions of Marlboro Regular & Lights respectively, as I was off smoking that time, didn’t buy any cigarettes for me… then I went to the chocolates shop and bought some for my nieces. The last shopping was for Arunima & Pravin for whom I had to buy Dubai special Magnets as you all know Pravin is a very passionate Magnet collector and he has a collection of almost 200 from all over the World so I had thought of gifting him some Dubai Specials!!! I also bought a beautiful artefact for my home and that was it, no more shopping I told myself as anybody can go crazy and spend thousands or even lakhs there but I was being prudent!!!


And then the moment of glory!!! Yeah I am so good at it…I am the best and I can safely say this…I had already thought that I would surely dump in Dubai and the divine intervention happened, I was getting pressurised!!!(Though it comes naturally to me, no special efforts required!!!) And to my utter surprise I found an Indian Style Washroom in the Dubai Airport!!! And I utilized it to the fullest…the scene was simply hilarious and the feeling of being victorious was thrilling!!! Here I was in the Dubai International Airport-one of the best in the world, dressed in my Business Suit with a Neck Tie dumping away to glory that too in an Indian Style Loo!!! Wasn’t it simply awesome…I surely consider it as awesome but I am sure all of you would be simply calling me a crazy asshole!!! And it became even funnier; the last & final call for the Dubai-Kuwait flight was announced as I was in the middle of my legendary dumping session so I rushed out and entered the aircraft!!! Sad to leave it midway and I am sure you all would empathise with me!!!

The flight from Dubai to Kuwait was a short one, just 45 odd minutes and it started on a great note, I saw the famous Burj Al-Arab Hotel & the Palm Islands from the flight and they looked simply amazing. Luckily I had the Window seat this time!!! Things were well-in place till now, I was lucky or what!!! The in-flight entertainment was not too great this time with lesser options plus a much smaller screen so I started to play a Video Game on quizzing and it was on the Intranet where I could play with fellow passengers and the person sitting right next to me was my competitor and we had a nice and close contest and he won!!! The flight went off without any other special moments except one, there was a middle-aged Indian Man sitting right behind me and he was gulping down whiskey shots like there was no tomorrow and his wife was constantly nagging him for this and even the Cabin Crew was pissed with him, they kept on telling him “Sir, this is a short flight so please give your order in one go but unrelenting he was and he kept troubling them for more whiskey!!! At the end of it all he was dead drunk and almost down & out and his wife was literally howling at him…

So my first Emirates experience was finally coming to an end…and I truly enjoyed it…I was about to reach Kuwait…explore a new country and give my Interviews…the excitement was palpable to say the least…