We’re home now, back in rural northwestern Massachusetts, quite literally a world away from India, but only after a harrowing and frustrating struggle at the Delhi airport.

    It was something out of a bad movie.  When we entered the departures hall the crowd was thick and disorganized.  Eight or nine "lines" snaked around the large open space, converging haphazardly on the only two check-in counters that were opened.  There was virtually no information about which outgoing flight was being handled where, what "line" (which seems much too formal a term) to join, or what sort of procedures where being followed.  And we were relatively lucky: the tour company had sent a local fellow to help us negotiate the disorder, and he was helpful.  But the situation was bigger and badder than all of us.

     As it turned out, Air India, had canceled at least one flight the day before and had failed to resolve the travel problems of many of the people affected.  They were there in the check-in area, angry and demanding attention.

     We stood in "line" for a while, until we realized that people were regularly pushing ahead of us to move forward toward the counter.  Then, my old China instincts kicked in: you do not do well in these situations by being polite and reserved; you must enter the fray.  There were about seven of us and we arranged ourselves so that others could not easily cut ahead, and that worked fairly well, though some especially adept line-cutters did find their way in front of us.

     After about an hour and a half of little progress, our fixer directed us to a counter that was soon to open (he had gleaned this information from his airport contacts), and that allowed us some hope of actually checking in before our flight was scheduled to leave (and we still had long lines at immigration and security to deal with).  But as we got close to the counter the first of what would be several confrontations erupted.  An Indian woman surged to the front of the mass of people, hopped up onto the conveyor belt that takes checked baggage away, plopped her one year old child right in front of the harried clerk and started to loudly berate him and Air India and the airport administration and anyone else she could think of.  She did this in a combination of English and Hindi, so I could pick up a fair amount of what she was saying:  "look at these old people here," sweeping her hand back to indicate several people in wheel chairs pushed to the side of the room, "someone has to attend to them!  Who will solve these problems!  No, don’t tell me it is being handled, it is not!…."  And on and on.  Cheers erupted from the assembled throng.  It reminded me of the line in the movie Network: "I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!"   After about 15 minutes or so, she yielded the conveyor belt and check ins continued, with chants sporadically going up from the crowd seemingly calling for attention and redress.

     We finally made it out of the first level of this airport hell and shuffled through immigration and security, but just as we were picking up our carry-on bags from the scanner, another crowd formed and sent up a chant. People were clearly mad and getting madder.  They clapped their hands and shouted, pressing up against the barriers that separated those in the security envelop from those outside.  People inside came to see what was happening and they, too, joined the chorus.  We were getting pressed in on all sides and I decided the best course was to push our way though deeper into the terminal and away from the crowd.   

    That turned out to be the best move, as reported in today’s Times of India:

The IGI Airport witnessed
riotous scenes early on Sunday morning as hundreds of passengers of five delayed
Air India flights found themselves stuck for the weekend at the facility-starved
international terminal.

    The "riotous" quality of the events was evidenced by groups of ticketless and tired people kicking and pounding on the security barriers demanding answers.  Scuffles were reported.  Ticketed people by the gates began to argue, some calling for us to join with those less fortunate to force a solution, and others arguing that that would not really bring an end to it.  Lots of shouting, lots of chaos.

      In the meantime, our flight had been postponed, with no information given.  For a long time no gate was announced; then one of the signs indicated our flight would leave from gate 5.  A "line" formed.  We stood for about an hour until the sign at the gate changed to show another flight would leave from there.  Again, no information, no explanation.  This went on for hours.   Finally, six hours late, our flight was called and, somehow, we left the detestable Delhi airport behind.   Another fight broke out later, after we were gone. 

     Moral of the story?  I’m not sure there is one.  Air India gets a lot of bad press, and they deserved all of it on this day.  They utterly failed to deal with the various problems.  The disorganization and disarray were beyond belief.  But I’m not going to generalize about India as a whole from this sorry state of affairs.  India is too big and varied for that.  But I will say, if you travel there, make sure that you do not fly out of Delhi.  Go through Bangalore or Hyderabad or Mumbai.  If you leave from Delhi, you may be in for a very bad day.