Getting home

The day was dedicated to trying to get back home. Figuring out the various options available and closing on one.

Options are:

1. Flying out of Toronto with Jet
2. Flying out of Toronto with Austrian Airways (where Mom, Dad had their original return bookings)
3. Flying out of Chicago/ Newark with Air India

Sheens put in a word with a senior guy in Air India Europe - and we almost closed on that one before the booking guy realised that AI flies only Jumbos out of here and getting into Business class involves climbing stairs. You no climb them on your own, you no go Business Class.

Chittaranjan Uncle came up with a plan to get Dad back under a special medical quota. Apparently Air India takes four economy seats and converts them into a stretcher. The task today is to work towards that. Saturday/ Sunday of course are deterrents. But yes, there is definite progress towards that.

On another note, one of my schoolmates from Bokaro, Vishy, got in touch - he was mentioning about a friend who had a very similar experience - and said that the entire journey was pretty much "heart-in-mouth". Flew back on British Airways and had to go thru hell on the layover in London. The other thing that came out in the discussion with Vishy is that these cases are not uncommon. Parents come in to the US, get seriously unwell and kids start networking - trying to chart the trip home. Guess that should have been obvious to me the moment we found out that AI has a quota for that.

Veens is here today and has been up and about since the moment she came in - cooking, pulling Rajju's leg (commenting on his sexy walk), doing grocery shopping and lifting up spirits. Usual angel stuff.

Keeping fingers crossed guys - hope to see you all in India soon. Insha allah.