My travel (mis)adventure

The week before the last weekend was a very eventful one for me. I had gone to attend the graduation ceremony on 17th December of my younger brother at Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was a story of missed flights, heart stopping moments and finally a sense of relief.

As always when I booked my flight there was a prayer on my lips that I shouldn't repeat history which had a not so glorious past. Yeah, I have been consistently missing flights, trains and buses :)

So when I booked my flight through Expedia.com, I went for the cheapest deal. The result was a mixed bag. Expedia with its motto of mix-n-match gave me 3 tickets. Out of that 1 ticket belonged to a different airline. So the itinerary was San Fransisco (SFO) to Las Vegas (LAS) - United Airlines, LAS to Dallas Fortworth (DFW) - American Airlines and DFW to Nashville (BNA) - American Airlines.

My first leg of the trip was smooth. Arriving at Las Vegas, even though I was aware that there was only a 50 minute gap for my next flight the photographer in me took over. As a result I ended up wasting around 10 minutes. Now I had to take a tram to go to the next terminal. The tram took its own sweet time. On board the Tram, I was confused as to which terminal should I get down. Once I reached the terminal I rushed to the American Airlines counter only to be shocked to find that counter was deserted. When I inquired at the next counter they informed me that the airline staff had already left. It was 12:33 a.m and I guess I was late. The flight departure time was 12:50 a.m.

I rushed towards the gate where I had to go through the security screening but the TSA agent wouldn't let me in without the boarding pass. My heart sank and I was cursing myself. I was destined to spend the rest of my night at the airport. There was a feeling of Deja Vu. I remembered the last time I missed my morning flight at Heathrow airport and had to while away my time till evening.

It was a very tormenting experience. My main worry was I didn't want to miss my brother's graduation ceremony and if I couldn't make it, my efforts would have come to naught. I kept wandering here and there in the terminal. The only people I could find for company was the airport night duty staff and some other stranded passengers. That was the only comforting factor in a despondent night. This was my first trip to Las Vegas and sometimes I felt like exploring the night life of Vegas but then again I wasn't sure about my next flight and so didn't want to take any chances.

It was 4 a.m in the morning. As the counters opened, I rushed to the United Airlines counter, the lady asked me what was I doing for 50 minutes? She said she would charge me $150 extra and that too the ticket would be only upto Dallas. I listened to her patiently and then when she kept on insisting the "50 minutes" lecture, I told her plainly that it was my first time and 50 minutes isn't that much time. To top it all, I wasn't given all the boarding passes at the first pickup point i.e. SFO. It cost me dearly. I told the agent I am not interested.

My only hope was the American Airlines counter. I told the Customer Rep about my missed flight and without uttering a single world, he gave me 2 tickets. I was delighted that I didn't have to pay a single dime and thanked the Customer Rep for his gesture. The airline departed at 6 a.m and I reached Dallas at 10:40 a.m. I thought my troubles were over. Now lies the twist. I was put on standby for my next flight to Nashville as the flight was full. What I initially thought was a boarding pass was a priority authorization. Now I didn't know what it was but definitely it wasn't a boarding pass. As the boarding call came, and the last of the passengers got in. I could feel a sense of breathlessness and then the airline staff told me to board the airline. I was ecstatic about finally making it. I thanked them profusely.

When I finally reached Nashville there was a sense of relief. As I was heading towards the exit, I saw a photo session with the Santa. This seemed to me like a good omen after all I have been through. I got a photograph taken. As you can see the photograph tells the whole story of a bleary eyed traveler.

My brother picked me up from the airport and drove like a maniac as the ceremony was scheduled at 5:30 p.m. My heart was in my mouth and I wasn't sure whether I came for the graduation ceremony or will end up somewhere else :) Luckily all's well that ends well :) I attended my brother's graduation ceremony and thanked the almighty that I made it.

So what's the moral of the story? Firstly cheaper isn't necessarily always better. Second, plan your itinerary carefully and lastly don't goof around when you have less time to spare :)

(Image courtesy: http://www.creditcardchaser.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/airplane.jpg)

WikiLeaks

The HourGlass with a melting world has been the focus of various articles in the media especially the internet and print for the past few weeks. Wikileaks has become a sensation with its leak of US Diplomatic cables and Julian Assange its public face. There has also been fierce criticism that Wikileaks has endangered people and relations between US and its allies.

But for common people like me it offers a fascinating peek into what really goes behind the diplomatic niceties. Picture this...for instance there is a rash of news about how Pakistan is playing double game(s) with the US. As soon as questions are put across to the White house, it officially denies any differences and shows strong support for Pakistan as its ally. Now the diplomatic cables which if I do understand correctly are candid assessments sent by the US ambassadors posted in various capitals across the world tell altogether a different story.

So now we do know that behind all the photo-ops, smiles and handshakes there is the usual back biting and bit***** about various leaders, their governments, the bureaucracy etc. We all know about office politics where your boss has his/her favorites and then the co-workers some of whom derive a sadistic pleasure of bit*****/gossiping about their colleagues. Take the office context and blow it up on a bigger scale. There can be no shining example than the diplomatic cables.

Unfortunately the US which is supposed to be the land of the free and brave is doing everything possible to shut down Wikileaks and the US senators/representatives/top government officials want to hunt down Julian Assange. People have made nasty comments from execution to treason. In short Julian Assange has become The Enemy of the State. It's funny because when Google had a spat with the Chinese government over internet censorship, the top leadership of US from President Obama to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rallied behind the internet behemoth and said that freedom of expression of speech must be protected. And now that the boot is on the other leg, they are singing a different tune. See the article in The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article933915.ece)

This is not to suggest that what Wikileaks has done was morally right or wrong but yes it has opened a new chapter for greater transparency from an iron curtain called "the Government"

To cite an example, in Iraq two news Journalists from Reuters were killed along with other civilians by a US helicopter gunship. To persistent questions, the US was not sure about how the journalists or the civilians were killed. Reuters tried obtaining the video footage under the Freedom of Information act but its request was declined.

Wikileaks posted a footage of the video on 5th April 2010. To say that the video presented a disturbing picture is an understatement. The correct words would be chilling and horrifying. Some people are seen walking on the road along with the journalists. One of the journalists has a camera in hand.

The video shot from the army chopper clearly shows the people are unarmed. But what was shocking is the discussions the US army soldiers are having with their command center. They tell the command center that all the people on the street are armed and request permission to "engage the target" an euphemism for destroying the target. They relentlessly aim their guns and kill the people. A short while later a van stops by and people come out of the van to rescue an injured person. The helicopter gunship again requests permission to engage the target - the van. The ground forces converge and discover that there were two grievously wounded children in the van.

The US army soldiers in the helicopter gunship denied any knowledge about the children but a close scrutiny of the video grab clearly shows the children in the front passengers seat.(http://www.collateralmurder.com)

People would never have known the truth if not for WikiLeaks and the US Army Private Bradley Manning who now faces upto 52 years in prison (http://www.bradleymanning.org). The established media like print and television would have found it too hot to handle and washed its hands off. But the internet has emerged as a saviour for independent media. Back home in India, for example, take the Nira Radia tapes which was first available on the net. Even then almost all the major print and television networks(especially NDTV) blacklisted the news item. NDTV in this instance had a more compelling reason as one of their Senior news editors was involved. (http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?268214)

Wikileaks which has been suffering major cyber attacks and has been booted out of many servers may eventually go down but not before it spawns hundreds of such sites (which is already happening). There is a valuable lesson here. The government is bringing its might and marshalling its resources to censor the truth but the internet is a different animal. You shut down one site and there will be thousand(s) more. Remember the bitter rivalry between napster and the music industry and who had the last laugh :) The last site from which I had accessed wikileaks was (http://www.wikileaks.de).

I have always been curious to know about whether Aliens or UFOs did exist?. I am eagerly awaiting the Wikileaks next expose on UFOs. Governments officially have been denying it for years but we will hopefully know the truth shortly.

(Image courtesy: http://www.wikileaks.de)
(References: www.thehindu.com, www.collateralmurder.com)