A Lonely Journey to the US (Part IV)

(links to: Part III)

Cell phone glued onto my right ear, I aimlessly walked on the grassy land.

“Please God, let us talk for the last time again,” I said prayer silently. Luckily, she picked up the phone.

“Oye (Hello)!”

“Hello! Where are you, still here?”

“Yeah, at Paro waiting for the flight! What are you doing today?” I asked her in a subdued tone.

“Nothing; I don’t feel like doing anything. I am at home, can’t study,” she replied.

“Oh is it? Don’t worry my dear, we will see happily after four years. Do study well all right?”

“Hope you will keep all those promises you have made to me, but anyway I will wait and see. I started to miss you already!”

“Of course, don’t you trust me?” I answered with a question.

“So far I have never trusted anybody like I trust you. Don’t forget me!”

The conservation just got deeper and more emotional. I promised her I won’t forget ever and together we prayed for our healthy relationship. In the meantime, the whole Paro valley shook by the thunderous sound as the Druk Air plane appeared out of nowhere from the tall Mountains, and landed on one of the scariest Airports in the world-Paro International Airport. I learnt that only those specially trained pilots with sufficient familiarity with the local geography are certified to fly to this airport.

Knowing that my wait won’t be that long now, I called off my sweet heart. How saying ‘Goodbye’ was such a hard task!

My niece teased me about flying with that white aircraft which just landed.

“Khochung (Uncle), are you happy to fly now?”

I smile back, but I was actually so nervous and shaking like a sick person fighting with a dreadful Parkinson’s disease! The same lady called me in again to check my cabin baggage in. When I reached inside an abnormally cold room, she drilled me as to what and how to go about through the security check. I thanked her and headed to the left side of the terminal building. I thought she was following me, but she had others like me to attend to, quite understandably.

I saw scores of people in line going through the security check-one at a time. I followed the suit and walked past the x-ray machine when a guy stopped me suddenly. He told me to take off my handbag and put through the x-ray machine. I obediently took off the bag, and placed on a roller feeding the machine. By then the people who were in front had already been cleared and long gone. Feeling lost at that place, I looked around like a baby deer abandoned by his mother in a thick jungle. Soon a guy from the side of room pointed to the direction where I was supposed to be headed. I was about to step onto the next phase of the security check when a gentleman tidily dressed in a neat black uniform with round cap, like that of an Army officer, saluted upon seeing me!

“Kuzu wai! (Hello, Good Morning!)” He greeted me.

...to be cont'd