We made it!

Our last night in delhi, six of us relaxed at a lounge called Mocha, gorging ourselves on chocolate fondue and other yummy things. We then said goodbye to Krishan, and headed back to Sailaja's family friends guest house where we were staying the night.

We slept for one REM cycle and then woke up at three am to go to the airort- our last ride in a toyota qualis! We arrived at the airport with a total of six bags for the four of us. We took the free carts and headed to the bag security check. As we loaded our bags onto the conveyer belt we could see the screen which the guards watched to determine what was inside our bag. As we viewed Lindsay's bag go across the screen we were confused by these large black balls in her suitcase which looked very much like the bombs in looney toon cartoons. "What is that?!" the guard asked her. Lindsay, uncertain, looked at the bag for a second and then it dawned on her- "Oh those are just pickle jars." "okay" the guard responded. Only in India!

We then went to the ticket counter, waited for an hour, and finally got through to duty free shopping, where we attempted to use our last ruppees on phone calls to the states. After seeing Hum Tum, we were very excited about the possibility that our lives could become Bollywood movies. As we waited anxiously to go through the final check to the gate, we imagined that Shah Rukh Khan had gone through earlier to sit in the first class. We also had a connection to an Air India Pilot- would we be upgraded and find ourselves sitting next to him? We were severly sleep deprived...

We then waited at the gate and reminisced about our trip while watching the sun rise over the airport. When we finally made it onto the plane we discovered that our pilot friend was not flying that day, so no upgrades. We claimed four seats in the center of the plane and were very happy to see that mein hoo na (a shah rukh film) was playing. We then went to sleep. An hour and a half later we stirred from sleep by the Air India flight attendents who were insistent that we eat our plane meal. This reminded me of our first plane ride to India. Worried that she would not be able to fall asleep, Sailaja had taken tylenol PM and was completely knocked out. When she wouldn't wake up forher meal, the flight attendent vigorously shook her to wake her up. When she said that she wasn't hungry, the flight attendant told her that she should eat, and proceeded to put her tray table down for her and dish out the food. Air India food is the best plane food I have had, so I was not complaining. As the flight went on, we watched one of the worst movies ever- the one with the olsen twins. we then played word association- ever memorable from our time at TATA ISS. We were very tired so our vocabularies were a bit shot- popular words which came to mind included: "peace" "me" "mango" "yum" "water" etc. we also went through most memorable experiences (many which are only funny to those of us on the trip, so apologies to other readers). some of them included:

- the car ride back from Kasoli with Nikhil "What's going on, yaar? We lost them and now we are in this jam."
- trying to get in touch with SK Sharma ("Mera Naam elena gr* hai. Indian Express. English Bolo"
-Tour uncle- "The exterior even is too good.", other tour uncle "my friends, this was the harem of the man who loved wine and opium"
- Katie and Joel's accents, all of our fun accents
- the trains in Mumbai
- Saiba, coffins, and random singing on the 24 hour train.
-mango tasting
-the comedy trio of geja singh, ram, and nundin

We said goodbye to Sailaja in London, and Crissaris, Lindsay, and I boarded our next flight. we took little naps, ate some delicious food, and then it was time to land. We were in such a giddy mood- we made it we made it! The flight attendent must have seen us laughing and she thought that we were all Indian and one family, so she handed us one form for arriving in the US and told us that one of us had to fill it out for our family! We happily filled out our forms (don't declare anything! ), and hit the ground to be greeted by the gray sky and cool weather of New York. we waited for our bags anxioulsy, there were millions coming out of the shute! finally we retrieved them all and headed outside. Our family reunions were joyous, and we parted with hugs and promises of BIP reunions in the fall. What an amazing two months- I still can't believe it is over!