Or so I thought! When I finally set out for my 5 week vacation in mumbai, little did I know that the path was going to be treacherous and filled with dragons and goblins!! After boarding my plane in JFK, the flight didnt take off for almost one hour after the departure time, reason: A lady with her new born baby was on her way and was stuck in traffic, so 200 odd people were made to wait for her!!! Anyways, once we finally took off, it only then dawned upon me that my connecting flight from Paris was only 45mins after this flight landed. Almost immediately I knew that missing my flight was inevitable, however a Sindhi lady who was sitting behind me assured me that they would wait as there are many passengers who would be boarding that plane. With that matter laid to rest I proceeded to enjoy the rest of my flight to Paris.
Come morning, as we landed in Paris, I looked at my watch and it seemed like touch n go, but I really thought it was going to be Ok as I was accompanied by almost a dozen other desis. But it wasnt meant to be....upon reachin the terminal we found out that the flight had in fact taken off and Air France couldnt make the other 200 passengers wait for another 10mins for a handful of Indians (talk abt racism!) So after much anguish we were finally told that we wud be put up in a hotel, and the lady at the terminal was kind enough to make a transit visa with all our names on it. Only trouble we all had to be together at all times! I dont think anyone cared, neither did I. Having found a friend in the crowd I set out with him for a little sight seeing, and I saw the Eiffel tower. Never thought it would be with a complete stranger by my side :). The hotel was decent, but the food was horrible, but it was just one night so what the heck! Anyways, thinking that I am to meet up with the rest of the crowd at 7am next morning I head to my room, only to find an over anxious member from the gujju family who decided at the spur of the moment that we all should leave at 6, I agreed! The following morning however we made the mistake of leaving for the airport without one of the family's (once again on persuasion of the over anxious gujju). End result: nightmare at CDG!! Immigration officers take us to the side and refuse to let us thru until everyone whose names are on the visa is present, several attempts to contact the estranged family were futile...and then the unthinkable....that woman with her kids had somehow gone thru immigration without a visa and was actualy at the gate before all of us!!!! So after duly ntifying the authorities we were allowed to go thru!! I couldnt wait for the flight to take off, and when I finally reached mumbai I could only wish that things hadnt been so messed up. The silver lining to all this was that I got the chance to fly with an Indian model (who was very sick...she had a cold) so things werent all that bad!!!
So I finally am in mumbai after much anguish and dragon slaying...just hope its smooth sailing from here on!!! 
