Coming Home

One of the roughest experiences I've ever had travelling was hands down trying to fly home from India during the coronavirus pandemic. To say that shit was rough was an understatement. But it was definitely an experience for sure. Since commercial flights were shut down, we had to wait about a month for the United States to issue emergency repatriation flights for citizens stuck in the country. I still remember how relieved I felt when I got the confirmation email, knowing that after 9 months of being abroad and 1 month under lockdown I was finally going home. I stayed in the city of Bangalore, and the airport in the city was shut down so we had to come up with the next best thing. We had to find a way to get to the closest airport from us. And that was all the way up in Goa, which was nearly a 12 hour drive from our apartment. And given our situation we had no other choice but to go with this plan. But somehow me and five other people were able to formulate a plan and get our asses back to the US.

We left our apartment around 10pm that night on a Tuesday. Since we were living in Bangalore which is down south, the nearest airport from us was shut down so we had to call in a driver to take us to the next available airport, all the way up in Goa near the central west coast of India. That meant we spent about 12 hours on the road. On top of that, we had to cross state lines too which took about another 1.5 hours to get past the police. Finally, we get to the Goa airport and we had to check in, which probably took about another 2 hours. Then we hop on the plane around noon to take us to Mumbai, which was about 1.5 hours. Not too long, but the layover in Mumbai lasted about almost the whole entire day because we had to check in and go through the whole process again. We finally get to leave Mumbai at 10pm on Wednesday, and from there it was a direct flight to Atlanta, which took about 17 hours. Finally, when we reach Atlanta it's about 5 in the morning eastern time. We have to check ourselves into the US and claim our bags, and that whole process took about an hour. From there I booked a separate flight back to Newark. I also booked the earliest one possible, which meant that I had about 90 minutes to eat breakfast and get to my gate. My flight left around 8am, and I finally get back to New Jersey at around 11am. I wait about another hour for my dad to pick me up outside the airport, and from there he picks me up and drives me home which took about 45 minutes. I finally get back to my house at around noon, which is about 9:30pm back in India. So the entire journey probably took about 2 whole days of nonstop travelling.

All in all, it was quite possibly the most exhausting and mentally draining journey I've ever taken in my life. Nonetheless, coming home was such a huge relief, as I was able to finally unwind and relax. But if it wasn't for this pandemic I would highly NOT recommend. Even during the pandemic this was an act of desperate measure. But oh well, at least I'm back home and safe :).