LAST DAY IN INDIA
Our last day in Delhi was dentist day. At 9 p.m. before leaving for the airport at 4:30 a.m. I was still in the dental chair. First, Susie and Todd in the morning made the long rickshaw ride across Delhi to the Greater Kailash 2 colony to Dr. Kakar‘s dental clinic. The shiny Indian metro would have been faster and cheaper but since we were only in Delhi for a day or two at a time and because Indian bumper car traffic is so much fun (I counted eight lanes on a four lane wide one way road with motor cycles and motor rickshaws and cars and ponderous busses weaving in and out) and because you see nothing on the subway except the backs of other people, we always crossed Delhi by motor rickshaw.
Susie several cavities and paid $250, a little more than the cost of one filling at my dentist. Teeth cleaning, very, very thorough, was $50. But for me a crown and a cap for an implant wouldn‘t be ready until 5:30 p.m.. So I went then. 6:30 past and then Dr. Kakar came out to say that the lab wouldn‘t have them ready till midnight. We were leaving for the airport at 4:30 a.m. I had a stump in my mouth that needed a crown. What to do? So Dr. Kakar made me a crown with his 3D printer. I waited and waited, finally at 9 p.m., still in the dentists chair with seven hours to go before leaving for the airport, he polished up the crown and glued it in. With an implant crown in my pocket I got back to the Master Paying Guest House at 10 and fell in bed.
The next morning, lucky for us, we were at the airport three hours before our flight. But we couldn‘t get past the guard at the entrance. In the USA you need a passport to board a flight, at the Indira Gandhi International Airport you need a printed copy of your flight reservation. We searched through our email but after an hour and a half of offering various notices nothing would satisfy the guards at the gate. We were sure we were going to miss our flight. And then I found my flight reservation, made through Travelocity, and was allowed into the airport leaving Todd and Susie behind, sure that they would have to catch a flight the next day, if allowed. I rushed to Finnair checkin and explained our plight. They must have encountered this problem before. Seeing that I was legit and that Susie and Todd were on the passenger list they printed up three boarding passes and a Finnair attendant accompanied me back to Todd and Susie, who had given up, standing there helplessly, and escorted us in. From there it was a great rush to check a bag, go through passport control, go through security and arrive at Finnair just as the last of the people were boarding.
Twice now bureaucracy has caused me to almost miss a flight, once in Paris where I was almost kept off the flight because I didn‘t have an unrequired PCR test, a mistake they corrected during a bomb scare at the last moment. And now this morning.
There was a silver lining, sort of. When I had to change my Finnair flight because of prostate problems and then change it back again there was no change fee but the price of an economy ticket, bought on short notice, had doubled. I had to pay an extra $772, which was disconcerting. But the Finnair flight in economy to Delhi was comfortable. This time I knew that my seat would be separate from Todd and Susie because of my rebooking but when I was told to go to the left when they went to the right I found myself in business class, a huge surprise. I hadn‘t paid more for business class, I hadn‘t been upgraded, but here I was being offered a glass of champagne. For the first time in my life I experienced seats that would recline all the way back if I wanted, two pretty elegant meals with cold salads of crab meat and a salad of figs and pomegranate seeds and a hot course of salmon and delicious vegetables.
I slept for part of the trip. But when I counted up the perks of business class I realized that they weren‘t worth the cost. A glass of champagne and hot moist towel as I sat down, two airline meals which couldn‘t be as good as restaurant food, free drinks and snacks. None of that is worth the exorbitant price of business class. Also I knew that the amount of carbon this seat puts into the air is 6 times as much as a sandwiched in economy seat. The one perk that felt really good was the reclining seat which on an overnight Atlantic flight would be really pleasant. But if I am going to afford travel I am quite willing to be uncomfortable for eight or nine hours and realize that the more I am sandwiched in, the cheaper the cost of the ticket if I am careful. But while in business class I slept well and enjoyed it.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 