Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Sunday, 7th May 2017
A disturbed sleep, thanks to the uncomfortable pillows (at Hotel Niranta Transit, Mumbai airport). Hence, the alarm was rendered redundant and we checked out at 07:45; made our way by lift to P10, gate 4 of Terminal-2 of Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport, Mumbai. Found the Etihad airways counter and presented ourselves. Some confusion in our seats (we had got them changed online) delayed our check-in so once it was through, it was a rush. There was no time to soak in the airport atmosphere, as we were part of a serpentine
queue for Security. As the boarding time approached, I went to the head of the queue and requested a gentleman to allow us to proceed. he willingly agreed and then we breezed past immigration. Walked briskly in the direction of boarding gate 67A. The last few steps were literally a run, with the final call for EY-213 ringing in our ears. Urmila gave the people at the gates a mouthful, suggesting that security and immigration needed to be speeded up. The poor guys had no answer!
The flight was fun; watched the good old movie 'Die Hard' starring the good old Bruce Willis. Though the take off had been delayed by 30 minutes, the touch down at Abu Dhabi was late by just 7 minutes. Immigration and baggage claim were quick(probably the first time that our bag was waiting for us on the conveyor; normally it is the other way round), so was security. Thus was our exit. Had to wait for almost an hour for bus A1 into the city centre, as the ticket vending machine was being repaired and we had to miss the 13=00 bus. The next departure was at 13=40 or so and after a long ride of over an hour, we arrived at the last stop - City air terminal. The ride afforded great views of the city- huge roads, lines
of palm trees lining them, skyscrapers competing with one another to touch the heavens; and disciplined traffic. The only negative aspect was the heat, but then we had chosen to visit during the month of May, so couldn't really complain.
My friend from my Somaya days (1983-1985) Jaydev Nair was patiently waiting for us at the city air terminal. He had shifted to Dubai decades ago; and had now driven down all the way from there only to meet us! That was really wonderful of him. Jaydev had hardly changed since his Somaya days. He took us to hotel Kingsgate, located just behind the terminal. We checked into room no. 409 on the fourth floor and were quite impressed. The room was spacious, well-equipped and afforded views on two sides - front and right. A hurried wash; and we joined Jaydev in the lobby.
He took us to the restaurant of hotel Ramada, diagonally opposite. We caught up with all that we had missed over the last three decades (almost). Apart from Somaya, I had two other connections with Jaydev - he was from Jogeshwari, the same suburbs where my wife had lived, before marriage. The second connection was M's Philips India, with whom we both had started our careers. We had visited Jaydev at his home at Jogeshwari during our 'Philips' days and he had visited me at Nashik. It was simply great! He dropped us back at Kingsgate and immediately left for Dubai. A great pity we could not spend more time together.
We retired to our comfortable room to rest. Must have fallen asleep by 21=00!!