Memories of the Kuwait War~Chapter 15~ Amman International Airport at last!

 

Picture courtesy: Google

We were up so early that day, and couldn’t wait to get on the plane. As arranged, everyone was out and began boarding the bus with so much energy. Each and everyone had a “going for a picnic” sort of enthusiasm. It was such a happy day. It was not just our bus, but another 4-5 buses too that got the permission, so again it was a train of buses making their way to the airport. 

The route was rather barren, as it was mostly through the desert land, but every single person in the bus was excited with the view. It was different from when we were going from Kuwait to the camp. I could hear people point to small shrubs and say, “Look, I think we are reaching the mainland, it’s starting to get greener!” And another voice said, “Look, that’s the Jordan river!!” Immediately all heads turned to that direction. I know the Jordan river was quite significant in Bible history and I wanted to see what it looked like. To tell you the truth, Jordan river would have been ashamed at this mistaken identity. It was really a thin stream they were pointing to. “Can’t be! It’s too thin”, reasoned another voice. “Well, there are not many rivers in Jordan”, the debate continued. I sat back with a smile. It was clear how excited people were about the flight that we would soon all be on. 

In about half an hour or so, we could see the airport in the distance. A black tail of a huge plane started to appear in our visual field. The silence in the bus was shattered by loud cheers of men, and violent clapping. My heart was racing and my eyes getting moist. It was like a dream come true. “Home, here I come!”, I heard my voice in my head. As we got closer, I saw the golden crown on the beautiful black vessel, Royal Jordanian! What a beauty!! I was searching for my own belle, among the large assembly of black beauties... and not once, but twice, as our bus made the turn, she peeped from in between the Jordanians, my very own Air India! Oh, the applause she got for that entry! The clapping, cheering, ‘Thank you chants’ to God, loud sobs....there was nothing else to be heard in the bus. My eyes let out happy tears as well. For the next few minutes, nobody took their eyes off the road, I’m sure. Everybody’s focus was on the airport. I cannot describe that feeling, I guess one has to go through it to really understand how that feels.

The bus stopped at quite a distance outside the airport entrance, not directly near ‘Departures’. Guess why? The queue was long, incredibly and unbelievably l-o-o-o-o-o-o-n-g-g-g!! There’s no other way I can describe that never ending queue, than maybe say it resembled a winding road with at least 6-7 hairpin bends. It was about 7 or 8 am, when we reached the airport and joined the queue. “When are we going to get to the front?! There are so many people here!!”, I wondered aloud, to have my brother reply in exasperation, ”Our plane may go! Oh no!!”.

We hadn’t had any breakfast since we started at daybreak. I don’t remember us having any biscuits or anything of that sort even. We stood outside the airport, under the merciless Middle-Eastern sun slowly getting stronger as he rose higher and higher. The queue was slow moving, with us pushing our luggage by mere inches every time we took a step forward. There wasn’t any place available to sit, so while I leaned on the biggest suitcase, my brother sat on the bag. Amma took breaks to go sit near the pavement with my sister as she wasn’t tolerating the sun or the wait. Poor child. Whenever my brother said,”Acha, I’m hungry”, I saw my father’s face go helplessly blank. There weren’t any kiosks or small shops outside the airport. There was no other way but to just swallow our saliva and keep moving till we could get inside.  

There was a family in our tent in Amman, a nurse, her husband and their two kids. We found the girl too dramatic, and the boy an annoying know-it-all! My brother and I used to make excuses to get away from them while in the camp as the son used to talk a lot showing off his ‘knowledge’. The perfect example of that boy would be Nivin Pauly’s character in ‘Hey Jude', particularly the scene in the car with Aju Varghese. Now, remember I said our queue was like a long winding road with multiple hairpin bends? So as we moved ahead in the queue, we came in contact with this family many times, and every single time, this boy had some wise discovery to announce. My brother would say, “Acha, my leg is paining, shall I go sit with Amma for few minutes?”, and tactfully escape. We used to take turns sitting with Amma at every interval to avoid the genius and his science class. Thinking of it now, it all seems funny. 

By the time we reached the doors of the airport departure gate, it was well past sunset, and we were all tired, hungry and filthy. We were let in after the police check, and finally, we got some relief from the outdoor weather. The AC was heavenly after a full day under the sun. Inside, everyone was rushing to the toilets to get fresh, so did we. Once we got back we saw many people having their first and only meal of the day, from outlets inside the airport. Acha quietly stood beside us, and I think I understood, he didn’t have enough money. He knew we were hungry, but he was helpless. 

After few minutes, I saw something that still breaks my heart. Acha walked forward to one of the men having food, and said, “Please can I have some too? I don’t have money to buy and my children are hungry.” “Of course, of course! Here take this, do you want some money too, take this...”, and he handed some sandwiches to my father along with some change. He accepted everything, thanked the man, and walked back to us with tears in his eyes. He first gave the three of us the food he got and went quickly to see what else he could buy with the change. I couldn’t eat that sandwich. Somewhere it pained me a lot, I don’t know where, I don’t know why. Acha came back with something to drink. “Why aren’t you eating, mole? Eat, you didn’t have anything since morning, right?”, and saying this he opened the wrap and gave me a bite. I shared my sandwich with him. He was crying and so was I, but we were both very discrete about it. 

~priya~