Foreign Return

It was almost time for me to complete the remaining work at the office as the deadline was fast approaching. I had completed the work much ahead of the schedule for which the customer was happy (Okay, I know that this is not my appraisal form. What a pain it is to talk about self!). With just 2 days left after the beautiful Paris weekend, I had a relaxing time at office with just about 4 hours of work per day. I finished the final delivery of my project by late morning on Tuesday. Stinky was on leave for a week so I had to meet another smart German Project Manager regarding the delivery. He thanked me for having finished the project, I thanked him and his team for helping me, he thanked me back for finishing it on time and I again thanked him for the help Stinky had been for this project. At last, the thanksgiving was done with!

I met all the member's of Stinky's team, bid them good bye and left the customer's office for the last time. Pali picked me up at 2 PM, I had the rest of the day to do my packing and settling of the bill for my accommodation. Only when I started the packing did I realize that I had indeed bought quite a few gifts for my family and friends. The suitcase weighed around 19 kilos after the packing. Kusum had given me a few toiletries as gift but unfortunately I did not have space in my suitcase to keep all of them. I took the deodorant and the after shave lotion and left back the shower gel, some creams etc...

The packing got over in an hour and I started browsing the net to pass the time. In the evening, when all the colleagues returned back, we sat together and were chatting for some time and I had my last dinner of the trip. Post dinner, it was time for settling the bill, checking if the dates of all the bills was correct and of course, paying the final money to Kusum and Pali. When calculating the amount of the bill, Pali gave a discount of 10 euros for an unknown reason. We decided to leave home at 4 AM to avoid problems of traffic and changing schedules of the flights. I got up at 4 AM and we left Pali's place at 4:30 to reach the Hamburg airport at 5. The journey at 4:30 AM with a temperature of 2 degrees was amazing. Pali touched a speed of 210 kmph on the highway, what an experience it was! We reached the airport very early as there was no problems on the road, I thanked Pali for everything; so did he. I pulled out my suitcase and dragged it towards the check-in counter. After the check-in which did not even take 5 minutes, I had 4 full hours before my flight left to Frankfurt. The wait was really very boring, I bought a sudoku book and solved it for an hour, roamed around all the shops near my departing gate and had my breakfast at 7:30.

The breakfast was a vegetable sandwich and black coffee. After dozing off for some time came the announcement to board the flight. The Lufthansa aircraft reached Frankfurt in and hour and a half. I just had one hour till the next fight would take me to namma bengaLooru. I was really happy to be going back to MY place and share my experiences with everybody around. The immigration officer stamped the seal and allowed me to go out of Germany. The moment I came near the terminal for the departing flight, I suddenly felt as though I was in India. Most of the people waiting were obviously Indians, gave a homely feeling! The announcement to board the flight was made and I happily boarded the Boeing aircraft. My co-passenger, also an Indian kept to himself all 9 hours during the flight and I ended up solving a few more Sudoku puzzles and watched the movie Laaga chunari mein daag, what a horrible movie it is! If you haven't watched it, please don't dare watching it.

When we were almost near Bangalore, the air hostess gave us the immigration check forms to be filled up. I filled up all the fields but for one which asked me the amount of goods being imported in Rupees. I was in great confusion not knowing what to fill up for that field. Lot of questions were racing in my mind; Should I ask my co-passenger? How will he know what I have bought and how much it would cost? Should I tell him what goodies I have bought for my friends and relatives? Should I just write NIL in the field? Oh my God, please help me! Atlast, I decided to roughly calculate the cost of everything that I had bought and convert them into rupees and write the amount. The instruction on the overleaf said upto 25,000 rupees worth items are duty free. My calculation came upto 10,000 rupees approximately. I boldly wrote 10,000/- in the specified field and felt proud about myself for having solved the problem without anybody's help.

As soon as I finished filling up the form, a person sitting near me asked me for my pen. I gave him with a smile and just was seeing what he would fill for that field. I was dismayed when he wrote NIL for that column and returned my pen back. Minutes later, my co-passenger also filled NIL for that field. Should I tear this form and ask for another form? Should I tell them that it got tore by mistake? Will a duplicate form be issued to a passenger? What if the customs people detain me for buying goods worth 10,000 rupees? I did not even have the bill for all the items that I had purchased! Will I be asked to show all the items that I had bought? Will they take away all the gifts that my suitcase had in it? Why the hell did not I ask anybody what to fill? Why the hell did not I write NIL? SHIT!!

The plane touched Bangalore's ground bang on time and holding my passport and the immigration form, I came out of the aircraft to be welcomed by the warm weather of our city. As soon as I entered the building a long line was already queued up for the immigration clearance to enter India. Waiting in the line, I again started thinking about the justifications that I would have to give. Sir, by mistake I wrote something in the form sir, forgive me. Sir, this is the first time I'm traveling, I did not know what to write, sorry sir. Oh! Have I written 10,000, how stupid of me! Sorry Sir, I must have done that by mistake.

With all possible explanations ready, I went to a counter and handed the officer my passport and the form. He looked into my passport, saw the form, and gave me back a portion of the form which I had to submit to the customs official. Thank God, I'm allowed to enter Bangalore! The wait for the baggage was really hopeless. I stood there for almost an hour and then came my black Samsonite without any damages. I picked it up and at the exit door was a customs officer collecting the remaining portion of the form and letting the passengers walk out. I handed him the form with fear, he did not even see what was written! He simply took the form and nodded which meant I could go!!! Wow, a happy man I was!

My dad, brother in law and friend K had come to pick me up, the time was 1 AM. We talked, talked and talked till we reached home and back I was at my place!

It was an amazing feeling to see the beaming faces of my parents, their son is 'Foreign Returned'! One month of stay in Germany was truly a learning in experience in all sorts. An experience that I can never forget!