San Diego trip Day I - July 2026

 I rarely miss an opportunity to meet and greet my close friends. On the wrong side of 50 and Inching towards 60 years of age, I invariably look forward to such encounters as we never know what's in store for us in the unforeseen future. As the last line of the famous novel by Margaret Mitchell "Gone with the wind" and the movie based on it goes - "tomorrow if after all another day". Life is a lottery. It's ike a box of chocolate, you don't know what you are going to get. That said my short trip to San Diego, California after a long, hard couple of work weeks was exactly what I was looking forward to.

Arriving early at  the Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport, post checking in and clearing the security, I was starving and looking forward to a hot breakfast and a strong coffee to shrugg off my jaded nerves. I wanted to fill my stomach before I catch my coast-to-coast flight, because these days the Airlines offer peanuts, often literally. There was a long line at the Chick-fil-A inside the Airport but it was moving fast. The popular chicken based fast food outlet of Southern United States does brisk business anywhere it is located. But the price of the items was about 30% more than normally it would be. Food is invariably expensive at Airports. I remember seeing Samosa displayed at Rs. 250 a piece behind glass cover at New Delhi Airport, which reminded me a saying in Hindi - "BOSS PE BHAROSA AUR AIRPORT MEIN SAMOSA, DONO MEHNGI PADTI HAI" (Trust on Boss and Food at Airport could be costly).

As I was dragging my bag towards the departure gate, some one whizzed past me talking in thick Barhampuri Odia. The Doppler's effect which we studied in High School Physics forbid me to catch only part of the conversation as the guy melted away. But I could hear him saying "GHANTE ADHE EKKA" or "SADHE GOTE" as they say in unaccented Odia - both meaning "one and half hour". Wasn't sure if the man meant that the flight was at 1.30 or was late by 1.30 hours by his "Ghaante Addhe".

It was quite conspicuous that I didn't see a single Desi (a slang for Persons of Indian origin) boarding the aircraft, sans a Sardarjee (Sikh). It's said that Sardarjees and potatoes are found everywhere in the world. Neil Armstrong was greeted by a Sardarjee when he landed on moon. It was a rarity sight these days whether you fly domestic or international. The boarding was orderly and every one sat patiently and waited for their turn to stand in a line to board the flight. Didn't see a bunch of folks clustered around with multiple lines struggling to merge with the main boarding line, as if rivers Kathajodi and Kuakhai struggle to merge into the river Mahanadi.

The 4 hour long flight from Atlanta to San Diego on the South West tip of the United States was a full flight, considering it was summer weekend.
Summer had its challenges too. No sooner we boarded the flight, than we discovered to our discomfort that the the Air Conditioning inside the Airplane wasn't working. Passengers started fanning themselves with the aircraft safety guideline pamphlet. We were deplaned, diverted to another get and boarded another plane. The flight was delayed by 2 hours. Not too bad. It's better late than never.

As flight descended closing in to San Diego I peeped through the light, variable white fleece clouds flying below, trying to race with the jumbo bird. I looking at the vast California desert interspersed with gigantic wind mills which would have made Sancho Panza of Don Quixote novel proud. Looking from the top they looked like like pins fixed on a gray sandpaper. A few water bodies were around surrounded by grayish green, sand covered dull looking desert shrubs, far cry from the lushly green flora of Georgia.

The airplane finally touched down arriving after 4 hour flight duration it felt very pleasantly sunny San Diego at 73°F with dry light wind blowing. A drop of 20 degrees from 93°F plus humidity weather in Georgia felt a lot salubrious. A co-passenger sitting nexr to me, a proud San Diego resident beamed - "Welcome to California - tge richest state of America which by itself is the 4th largest in the world". More later...