D-Day has many full forms
associated to it including Doom’s Day. But the day of my departure to the US
had been dubbed as D-Day by my friends (Departure Day). And true to the phrase,
the day was full of raw emotions. Each and every moment of the day was ripe
with feelings. I had not seen such a jumble of naked emotions even when a bride
is taken away to her new home from the marriage hall and I had been to a fair
share of marriages in these twenty one years of my life.
My dad, being MY DAD, had made
sure that most everything to be taken was packed by the night before, so I sat
down to go through the checklist I had made to ensure I wasn’t forgetting
anything. And lo and behold! As always, I was forgetting few of the most
important necessities of day to day life. Thus, I got another helping of my dad’s
temper as a farewell gift.
By the time I had everything
ready, I had got nearly 40 calls and a 100 messages bidding me farewell. And in
between all this, Jahnavi also calls me every half an hour asking me what to
take and how much am I done with. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8 in the
evening with dinner being served aboard. So, mom didn’t have to take any pains
to cook special dishes for me.
After having a simple yet
delicious lunch with my favorite Tomato Dal and Paapad, we sat down to check the
papers necessary for the airport. My babai and his family had also come home to
accompany me to the airport. Some of my closest friends had also turned up to
see me off.
We all started towards the
Shamshabad Airport as a procession of three cars by 3 PM and reached the
rendezvous point to wait for Jahnavi and her family. And 15 minutes later an
unofficial convoy of seven cars could be seen zooming through the P V Narsimha
Rao Bridge.
On reaching the Airport we were
surprised to see more relatives and friends waiting for us there. Many tearful
goodbyes and heartfelt blessings later, Jahnavi and I checked in to the counter
with our combined luggage mounted over two trolleys like rolling pyramids.
After collecting our proper tickets and getting our bags scanned, we roamed
around the interior of the airport waiting for the announcement of our flight.
Though we had entered the airport
hand-in-hand, it wasn’t long before Jahnavi had wrapped her arms around mine.
She was leaning into me and walking sideways while I tried my best to hug her
even in that awkward position. All through the time there were three thoughts
running through my brain. One was the thought of leaving my folks behind for an
extended period of time. Two was the excitement of the new sights and people
that I anticipated to meet on the other end of this flight. And last but not
the least, how to propose to Jahnavi in a way that wasn’t routine.
We had approximately two hours
before takeoff and we did not want to sit any where till then anticipating the
12 hours that we would be sitting in the flight. So we walked round and round
the airport checking out each and every shop and sometimes each and every
article in the shop.
I felt weird through and through
because of the way my mind was playing tricks on me. Whenever I was thinking
about the excitement of the flight and the new things I might encounter in San
Jose, it felt as if time stood still. And when I was enjoying or fooling around
with Jahnavi, time flew away as if it had rocket boosters attached to its
wings.
T-60 minutes and I had still had
no clue how to propose to her. I started listing out her likes and dislikes.
Then I started weeding out the ones which had no regard to the airport. As we
had already done 3 trips around the airport, I knew pretty well what all were
available over here. Believe it or not, Shamshabad Airport felt like a shopping
mall connected to the airport rather than an airport having shopping counters.
And then I struck upon a
brilliant idea that I was pretty sure that no one would have tried up till now.
But for that idea to succeed, I would need to convince lots of people and do
some radical things all within 30 minutes and without Jahnavi’s knowledge.
After thinking for some time, I asked her to go freshen up while I do the same
in the Men’s Room.
Being a girl, I was pretty sure
that she would use the full 30 minutes do “get fresh”. So, the moment she
closed the door on me I started running on fast forward mode. Lucky for me,
everyone agreed to help without any hesitancy. I was back with everything ready
and my face looking fresh and excited just as Jahnavi came out. She gave me one
look and shot a question, “What happened?”
I was like, “They announced our
flight. Come let’s go fast.”
And I took her through a
roundabout way to the boarding gate. The person at the gate winked at me and
asked us to stand aside for checking. They took Jahnavi inside a cloth
partition while one air hostess came from behind a pillar carrying a cake into
the flight. All of them smiled at me encouragingly while a thousand butterflies
flew around my stomach. I hadn’t felt tension this high any time in my life,
even for the VISA Interview.
That was when I understood why
everyone is so terrified about proposals. But then, as with everything I do, I
considered myself different from all the others. And accompanied Jahnavi into
the cabin confidently. The air hostess welcoming passengers on board felt
warmer than normal. So warm that I was afraid, Jahnavi might guess.
My first shock was all the red
curtains hung from the window. I hadn’t thought of this but someone in the
flight crew must be a better romantic than me. I thanked him or her in my mind
and settled down in my seat with Jahnavi beside me. After the routine safety
demo, the flight crew helped us buckle up and the flight aligned itself on the
runway for the takeoff.
Even from childhood, I am shit
scared of mechanical rides because of the sensations caused by the sudden pull
of gravity on my stomach. And a plane taking off gives the same feeling. Three
times I had travelled by flight up till now and still I had problems dealing
with overcoming my fear of this feeling.
But this time, I had Jahnavi with
me to hold my hand and give me the necessary strength to feel normal about the
takeoff. After takeoff, we sat back and admired the view while inwardly my
tension started mounting exponentially. Exactly at 9 PM, the captain addressed
us all through the speakers saying that the dinner would be served very soon
but before that there was a special program.
Luckily for me, our seats were
right in the front row. I unbuckled our seat belts and pulled Jahnavi to the
middle of the row so that we were visible to everyone. One air hostess passed
me a huge bouquet of roses arranged as a heart and I turned to a Jahnavi whose
eyes were so big with surprise while music from the infamous titanic tune
played over the speakers.
I knelt down on my right knee and
extended the bouquet to her saying,
“Jahnavi, I have
never been as happy as this before meeting you. Your presence beside me itself
makes me feel secure and confident. Would you like to join me in this journey
of life and be my girlfriend? Would you like to tie the nuptial knot with me
and be my wife, in time?”
Well, I wish I had something more
romantic but in the spur of the moment I just blabbered whatever came to my
mind. But I shall remember the expression of her face as she took the bouquet
and said, “I would love to!”
The whole cabin erupted in
applause and the flight crew brought the cake with “Congratulations!” written
on it and also presented us with a big greeting card too. We cut the cake
together and stuffed each other happily. I don’t know what came over me then
but I said, “Oh! I will get you the ring right after I get a job!”
Everyone burst into laughter as
Jahnavi pinched me hard. We settled down then and had our dinner in the midst
of murmurs. Many passengers sent us slips saying congratulations while some
others offered us their help and support in our endeavors.
Just as everyone was falling asleep, Jahnavi
kissed me again and put her head on my shoulder. My heart was in the ninth
heaven and I was at peace with the world as the plane zoomed out of India to a
land full of new opportunities for a couple of students.
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