My son flies home

My son flew home to Calcutta (Kolkata) yesterday. He flew with British Airways. His college in America has closed for the winter holidays, so he will be home for a month. My wife was waiting with her sister and niece and a friend to receive him at Dum Dum airport -- now called Netaji Subhas Bose airport -- when the plane landed about an hour after midnight.

He has grown very thin, she said. That seemed strange, considering he goes to the gym in his college. But he avoids fatty foods, he said. We were speaking on the phone, for I am still in Singapore.

My wife and I didn't have a wink of sleep on Monday night (our time) when he boarded his flight. A friend drove him to the airport nearest his college from where he took a flight to Chicago. It was Monday afternoon his time. I called him on his mobile phone at the airport. He had already checked in by then and was having a chocolate sundae after calling his mum. She had been worried because he had not called her before leaving college though he had promised to do so. That's why I called him at the airport. I called her first to find out if she had heard from him. She said no and asked me to call him. But by the time I got through, he had already called her.

I called him again when he landed at O'Hare airport in Chicago. He was then having a BLT at McDonald's. By then he had discovered his bank card wasn't in his wallet. He suspected he had left it at the bank where he had gone to get some money before flying home. So he called his bank from Chicago. They told him they had found his card and wanted to mail it to his college. But they agreed to keep it for him to collect when he returns to his college next month. The bank is only a short walk from his college. So he didn't sound worried at all when he spoke to me, having already called the bank. He said he would check in after finishing his meal.

We know it takes a long time to check in at O'Hare. The queues are very long. So I called again half an hour later to find out if he had cleared check-in. But, no, he was still in the queue. He had to stand in line for a little more than an hour before finally getting through.

From Chicago, he boarded a British Airways flight to London. He reached London on Tuesday morning. I tried calling him at the airport but only got his automated voice message. Later, I learnt he couldn't make or receive calls on his phone in London. He used a pay phone to call home from Heathrow. He spent three hours at Heathrow before boarding another British Airways flight to Calcutta. He had a good time there. He met an old school friend, now studying in another college in America, who was also flying home the same day. His friend was flying to Bombay (Mumbai), where his father had been transferred, on a different British Airways flight. My son and his friend spent time chatting while waiting for their flights. They chat online while in college and knew they were flying home the same day, so my son had been looking forward to meeting his friend at Heathrow.

The British Airways flight arrived in Calcutta after 1 am on Wednesday. But my son had to wait a long time to get his baggage. My wife later told me she got very worried waiting at the airport so long for him to show up. She wondered if his baggage had gone missing like it did the last time when he came to Calcutta by Gulf Air in May. His baggage arrived only the next day then. But it arrived safely with him this time. He was carrying his laptop and digital camera in his backpack and his iPod and mobile phone in his pockets.

He was wearing a red Manchester United jersey which attracted some comments at Heathrow, he said. Some people made disparaging remarks about Manchester United. They must be Chelsea or Arsenal fans, he said. But some of the cabin crew on the British Airways flight told him Manchester United was a great club. That must have pleased him no end.

He laughed about another little incident. On the flight from Chicago to London, the cabin crew gave out little bottles of liquor. Many of the Indians on board took them. Some took two or more and stuffed them in their pockets. But they had to take them out during check-in at Heathrow. The airport officers weren't allowing passengers to carry such bottles. They had to leave them on a counter. An Indian janitor at work happened to see them and quietly sneaked off with a few of the bottles.