The longest journey back home

It was 30th April, when we were supposed to start the return journey to our home in Pune.
We started packing our stuff, selling used items and saying goodbyes to out friends in quad cities in last first week of march.

And then it all started. Covid19 was declared as world pandemic, India initiated the "world's largest" lockdown, International flights to India were haulted, NY became the hotspot. Till the end of February we were not hearing much news about Covid19, but suddenly it became a 24x7 trending topic on all news channels.

So we never got a return ticket. All of our return-plans were shattered as Covid19 increased its spread over the globe.

Then India announced its "world's largest" repatriation mission called as VBM - Vande Bharat Mission. We registered for it online on 1st May. Thousands of Indian people from all over the world registered for it. So ultimately we had to depend on some random selection algorithm to get selected for the flights from USA to India. In the beginning government of India selected critical and emergency cases like pregnant women, job-less people and students. We could not get chance in the first two weeks.
In the meantime, we shipped our household items through cargo.

I had joined couple of Facebook groups like "SOS Global Indians", 20 different WhatsApp groups created by people willing to travel and followed 50 different government official's Twitter handles to get latest news about VBM. Everyday brought some clarity with more ambiguity in the process, be it selection, ticketing, payments, baggage allowance, etc. Those were stressful days.

After phase1 of VBM was over, they started phase2 on 8th June where people were supposed to book the tickets on their own. Thousands of stranded people like us were online on 8th June 8:30am and hit the website of AirIndia in the hopes to get the tickets. But that website could not bear that load and crashed 5 seconds after 8:30 am. After that day, AirIndia kept adding flights and people tried booking those flights. Some lucky people got the tickets, and other not so lucky people could not get those due to either site down or payment gateway failures or just any other unhandled exceptions in that Java-mysql code.

I was also trying multiple times everyday to login to the App and Website and 23 June seemed to be my lucky day. Juilee was driving the car on I80 and we were near Cleveland. I was seating by her side trying not to give her driving instructions and she told me to try the Air India app rather than poking her driving skills. So i checked and found that there were 3 tickets remaining on SFO to DEL 30the June flight (those were the result of someone canceling their journey). I immediately booked those.

And after that 7 days went so fast in winding up all the things. It was difficult to close everything and leave a country. Closing credit cards, memberships, home cleaning, meeting friends for one last time untill I see them again, and all that.

On 29th June, mr. Uday dropped us at ORD where we boarded the flight for SFO. We stayed in SFO for that night.

On 30the June our flight was at 10:30am AirIndia told everyone to reach airport at 6:30am. I just assumed that everyone would definitely come at 6:30am and would form a long queue and then we would stand in the queue doing nothing. So we reached SFO international terminal G at 7:30 am. Many people were already done check-in and the queue became short so it took 30 minutes for us the complete all processes.

We first stood in line number 4. There embassy officer gave us forms to fill in. No need to carry any print outs. They had all forms ready. We filled undertaking form and indemnity form which says that I am responsible for all the cost and bla bla bla. As we handed that form to the officer, a nurse took our forehead temperature which came out to be 36.5℃. There were some embassy volunteers helping people who could not understand English. One non-traveler person per family was allowed inside airport for helping his/her family.
Most of the embassy officers, security staff and AirIndia staff was curious and kind.

After temperature check, we went to check-in counter. The lady at the counter weighed and checked in the bags.

There were some unwritten processes which got cleared after speaking with different people.... Like the undertaking and indemnity forms were needed in duplicate at the check-in counter.

After this we went to the security check. We packed all food items in a separate clear plastic ziplock bag (no aluminum foil) which helped us to clear the xray scanning quickly. Airport Security allowed dry food items like roti, rice, dry sabji and baby milk, did not allow the daal fry that one passenger bought may be because it was too fluid and too spicy.

All the process took around 1 hour.

There was one final temperature check amd then we entered the plane at 10:00 am. The air hostesses are in white cotton suit covering full body and with face shield.
On the seat, they have already kept -

1)
Snack bag: haldiram potato chiwda 16 gm, potato chips 16 gm, kurkure 16 gm, roasted almods, sprite.

2)
Food box 1: spinach sandwich (not much tasty for indian people), granola bar, 2 cookies, strawberry yogurt, water bottle, cheez bar.

3)
Food box 2: croissant bread (very very dry), granola bar, 2 cookies, peach yogurt, water bottle, banana, raisins, cream spread.

4)
2 water bottles.

5)
Face shield, mask, 2 sanitizer sachets.

No extra food, no tea, no coffee, no juice, no coke. There were water bottles kept near washroom area, if anyone wanted extra water. But frankly speaking, the food boxes were sufficient for 16 hour journey. We had packed home made aloo paratha and besan laddo as well which added extra delight. So make sure to pack some tasty food for you. Make sure to carry few plastic bags for garbage collection and wetwipes for wiping hands, face, etc.

There was no active screen to watch movies, so we spent 16 hours eating and sleeping and playing with Radhika. Radhika is 8 years old and she enjoyed the journey. Masks were mandatory and she seemed to enjoy it. There were neither pillows nor shawls. So better carry your own. Also a powerbank is a must in case the USB charging point does not work at your seat. My seat quality was not that great. The recliner function was not working properly. There were stains on the seat which I wiped myself (thankfully I had Lysol wipes). Keeping mask + face-shield on face for 16 hours was tough. The people on the middle seat were made to wear white cotton suits to prevent the Covid19 spread. The air hostesses were humble and courteous.

The flight landed in Delhi at 3:00 PM. They asked Bengaluru passengers to deplane first (as they have connecting flight in the same itinerary). After that they asked other people to deplane.

And the waiting game started:

Wait at the boarding gate

We waited for 1 hour just at the boarding gate.

Wait at the connecting flights area

At 4:00 PM, someone from the wheelchair escort staff came and shouted "Delhi people mere saath aao.". There were some 100 people. We all walked with him for 500 meters (Thanks to fit-bit, it counted every inch I walked here). Then he made us seat on some chairs. At 5:00 PM, again some other wheelchair escort shouted "Jinka Mumbai flight hai wo mere saath aao.". Mumbai people went with him. Some 50 people with us waited for another 30 minutes there and finally everyone lost the patience. We argued with the man (dont know who he was, but he was holding the rope to stop us from crossing the counter) over their as there were many senior citizens and kids here and we need to move forward with the process. As he was alone there, he allowed us to go further.

Wait before immigration

Then at a counter, a person from Delhi Airport, collected the India Health undertaking form from us. He stamped it with the word"Quarantine". He handed over group of 30 such people to a Delhi Police Officer. He then took us to another area and made us seat for 45 minutes mores. Then he took us to Immigration counter. The immigration officer did his job in 2 minutes and collected one copy of the undertaking form and returned the carbon copy to us.

Wait at the baggage claim area

Then the same Delhi Police Officer took us to baggage claim area. We collected our baggage. Then he took us to a big waiting area, where we saw literally thousands of people waiting on chairs and with luggage trolleys. It was 7:30 PM by then. Here we found that Chicago-Delhi,Dubai-Delhi, Toronto-Delhi people were also waiting for last 7 hours with no clue.

Wait after the Customs area

At 9:00 PM, the same Delhi Police Officer took our passports and then took us through Indian Customs - Green channel, assuming we had nothing to declare. And then we waited for another 1 hour. He said he will return out passports at the end of the process which might take another 2 hours (and he was right, it really took 2 more hours).

Wait on the street

At 10:00 PM he took us outside of the airport and crossed the street and we formed another big queue in front of some Delhi Airport's Government Office called a Triage Area. It took 30 minutes to enter in the office - so for those 30 minutes we were standing on the street - open air. Thankfully it did not rain!

Wait in the Triage area

At 10:30 PM, we went inside this office where each state people were being called separately at respective state's counters. This office is really small and we were able keep social distance of maximum 27.2 inches (yes, me and my friend really measured it!). Many many people were arguing with officers over there to allow for home quarantine, but getting rejected. This was one of the factor adding the time in the process.

There the police people asked us to fill the form for home quarantine as there were very very few hotels vacant at that moment. (Isn't it strange? People wanting home quarantine getting rejected and we were told to go home!) We filled form and attached passport copy of my kid and also emailed it to an email ID they gave us. And they told us orally to go home and gave our passports back. They did not give us any certificate or stamp. So we took a photo of the request form. And that's it. It was 11:00 PM.

Done we were out of the process.

Through out this process, Delhi Policy and Airport Security were very kind and helpful. They helped people with the heavy bags and also guided people to right doors, etc. They just did not know details of the process. Immigration Officers were also quick in doing immigration formalities. The airport was clean and being sanitized and floor wiped every half an hour.

During all this process, there was no government official there to answer our queries or to tell us how much more time it would take. The senior citizens were tired, kids were dull and everyone was hungry. Some intelligent people (like me) already took the leftover food packets from the flight, which saved them. There was one vending machine which delivered Chips and Pepsi, which saved others.

There were no further flights to Pune, so we went to Aloft hotel in Aerocity (which was booked in advance by our company). It was a life saver. My kid was all exhausted and they served us fresh hot food in room which we enjoyed and then I wrote all this story.

The hotel was good. The check in was smooth. The manager asked home quarantine certificate. Thankfully we have taken photo of it (airport did not give any print). We forwarded that photo to hotel's mail id. The room was comfortable for 2 adults and 1 kid. They gave dinner freshly prepared at midnight, that was a releif.

Two nights went ok. The room was cleaned and sanitized before our arrival. There was no room cleaning done after we checked in. We had been given a huge garbage bag to throw the garbage. We needed to call room service for extra towels, but they did not collect used towels.

We ordered food from the menu which was tasty and fresh. Nicely cooked rice, steamy hot curries, fresh cut salads were there. TV was the best option to pass time.
On 3rd day, we checked out. There is no airport shuttle. So took cab and arrived at Delhi Airport.

Delhi Airport is deserted. At the entry

we passed our bags through UV rays machine. I don't know if that really kills Covid19. Then we went to Indigo counter G, where an Indigo person helped us to weigh extra bags and print bag tags.

The security check was smooth. Sanitizer bottles are allowed.

While boarding the flight, they gave us mask, sanitizer sachets and face-shield. There were water bottles kept at gate, but we forgot to take those. Later the Indigo airhostess told us that they don't have water inside plane. Pathetic!!!! They should have told this before boarding!.

The flight was full. Not even a single drop of water served inside.

As soon as we landed, immediately heard the click-clicks of seat belts, and people stood to open overhead bins and created crowd. Cabin crew could not controlled all this chaos. A lady loosed her head and started shouting on all the people in English, "hey you crazy people. Seat down. Don't you understand the seriousness? What is this crowd." Half of the people ignored her. Again similar crowd was there near baggage collection. All the bags were sanitized with some spray.

After this, indigo lady handed over a form to collect information about us and the travel. A person from Pune PMC were shouting, "international passangers come here.". He asked us to write our international journey details, passport numbers, birthdate of kid and show home quarantine certificate from Delhi. We gave this form to another PMC person. He stamped our hand with the words "Home Quarantine" and arrival date. (The stamp was totally unreadable and vanished in 2 days.)

We called our driver inside. Pune airport charges 60 rupees for 5 minutes to come for pickup and due to Covid19 parking is closed near airport.

We reached home and saw happy faces of our parents who were eagerly waiting for us.

So, this VBM was very good initiative of Government of India. I appreciate the job done by pilots, air hostesses, ground staff and security personnel as they risked their lives to get us back home. Some lack of co-ordinaion and mismanagement was seen in between different departments of Government of India, (like embassy said something and AirIndia said something else, even two customer support people of AirIndia gave opposite information) which need to be improved once for all.

But after all, It was a happy ending. What ends well is all well. Stay home, stay safe. Keep your city clean and be kind to others.

Please note that I do not intend to create a negative image over here. I am trying to document my experience. Your experience might be different. I read other experiences from other flights and some of those were very positive who had quickly made it out through this process. Be patient, be calm, be kind, help others around you with bags and forms and be nice with air port employees.

My list did help and is helping me to sustain in the journey and the hotel.


So in short for me, SFO airport and within the flight was good experience. At the Delhi airport I needed to build enormous patience to sustain with the delays and at the Delhi hotel wonderful experience.