On my First Trip Abroad

I was very elated when a research paper of mine was accepted for presentation at the University of Bonn in Germany. After all the hassle and a load of documents which were required for the Schengen visa, I was very happy that my visa was approved within 4 days when the usual duration is about 2 to 3 weeks and that too, the German Embassy was kind enough to grant me the visa without having to pay any fee for it.

This was my first trip out of India and obviously, I was very excited and a little nervous too. When I reached the IGI airport in Delhi, I stood in a queue as was the norm for a boarding pass to Air India flight AI121 flying directly from Delhi to Frankfurt. Oh, well all was fine until this young man at the counter asked me where is the luggage that I would like to check-in. All hell broke loose.

I prefer traveling light and as usual, I was only traveling with hand baggage which was about 5.9 kg. I think for the man at the counter, this was not a usual sight and was probably not trained well enough to handle a situation of the sort. He kept on asking me as to why I was carrying so little luggage when the baggage allowance provided was much higher. Interestingly, he did check my return ticket and also my invitation from the conference organizers and was still not convinced as to how I was traveling with so little luggage. It was also kind of funny for me to listen to him assert that if he were travelling, he would be carrying a lot more luggage.

I don't understand, why I would care what he wanted to do and how much luggage he would carry. It was one of the most irritating, annoying and most illogical reasons while being harassed by being made to wait for over an hour to be handed over my boarding pass. They later gave me my boarding pass after a very NOT transparent verification process.

I was going to Germany for a conference and not for a fashion parade let me point out and it should not concern anybody how much luggage I would like to carry. That I am pretty sure is absolutely my choice.

I am not sure as to what was the actual reason that I was profiled the way I was - was it because - I was dressed very simply or was it because of the address in my passport or was it a combination of all that - I don't know. When you have been victimized the mind looks for reasons to justify your treatment and I think I over thought. Frankly, I don't think it was any of these reasons - Bhai (man at the counter) ko toh hero banna tha 😂 pakka (The man at the counter probably wanted to become a hero 😂 for sure).

It is very tough for me to comprehend if my emotions are that of anger or I am plain sad to rant about such an experience online but I am very sure what I have experienced will probably be one of my most traumatic experiences ever. Thank you Air India for such a traumatic experience which I will remember for the rest of my life and NO, I will probably never want to fly Air India anymore.

On a lighter note though if I ever have to travel Air India I will carry 30 kg bricks and as far as my knowledge goes I don't think there is any restriction on carrying bricks in your checked-in luggage and of course not claim the baggage at my destination - that will be my gift to Air India 😂.

By the way, I was not given any compensation whatsoever that would at least elate my mood a little after that hour-long traumatic ordeal. 

Also, for the information of the man at the counter - I survived with 5.9 kg luggage and was, in fact, able to explore the cities even better because of the little luggage.

And now some photos to make the text seem a little interesting.

P.S. - It would be very nice if the readers of this post could share similar incidents that they had to face on their trips abroad or anything they wish to share in the comments section. Thank you for bearing with me.