~LAX to MUMBAI~

That morning the air was fresh and the sun was shining, Troy was very excited, he loves to travel and what could be better than to travel, get paid and do what you love while in the company of your one and only soul mate? Wow. This was it. We were in heaven. Our friendly German scientist neighbors came out to bid us farewell and promised to keep an eye on our apartment. So we hopped in the cab and head out to LAX.

We boarded our flight to Amsterdam which was our only stop-over on our way to Bombay. On the way we met a lovely man that instantly became our friend. We shared our dinner with him, our life stories and exchanged emails. We even took pictures with him. Of course it was your typical one flight stand, we never talked to him again but we surely fell for his charming smile and irresistible personality. It made the endless hours more bearable. The line to board our Air India flight was long so we decided to purchase some Dutch products and honor Troy’s heritage, a few T-shits that read Amsterdam and a handmade heart shaped key chain I carry with me to this day. After a tedious search by the airport security we finally boarded our long awaited flight to reinvention land.

The entrance to the plane was a bit shocking, the smell was really strong already. A friend had warned me about the curry smell and I was finally getting a taste of things to come. We sat right behind an emergency exit which was perfect as Troy is a tall man and needs his legroom. We sat next to a man from Detroit that was headed to an oil rig in the middle of the Arabic sea, he spent 9 months out of the year away from his family at the oil rig, living in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of nowhere. The money was too good to turn down. So he flew once every three months for a week to see his family. He was going to be transported by helicopter to the oil rig in the middle of nowhere that same night.

We also talked to the air hostess who assured us our trip was going to change our lives, she was so excited and could not believe we were going to Bollywood to work on a film. Us filmmakers have an aura that seems to be irresistible to others. It would seem life behind that red curtain is nothing short of magic and glamorous. If they only knew.

Night had fallen so pretty soon we fell asleep. As we landed in Bombay our eyes opened and we realized the sun had been running away from us for over 20 hours now. It was the longest night of my life so far.

The airport actually reminded me of Mexico City right away, the people are similar physically and stare at you all the same. I guess the anonymous part is not going to work very well here. They especially stared at us because I look Indian and Troy is tall and white. I don’t cover my arms, I wear low rise jeans and tank tops. We hold hands and kiss in public and I don’t wear a sari or a bindi on my forehead which means I’m not yet married to him.

There is never a second chance to make a first impression they say, so I wanted a photograph of my first view of India. We exited the airport, I pulled out my camera and as soon as the door to the outside opened I snapped a shot. It was so humid outside the lens got instantly fogged up and in the blurry of all that fog you can faintly see the sign that reads, “Welcome to Mumbai”.