Bangalore and even more OMSB had given me a cultural shock of my life. Well I started settling in, time passed by, almost a year and came the time for a next cultural shock. As a part of the curriculum some of us had decided to go to France for a Joint Student Consultancy Project. This was OMSB’s one of the biggest USPs and introduction to the program by the Director Marketing revolved less on curriculum and more on how multicultural opportunity this program offered. I am not sure who many will agree with me, but I know there are some including me, who definitely feel “It’s Different”.
We boarded the then youngest airlines in India, Kingfisher from Bangalore to Mumbai. Beautiful hostesses with bright red min formal skirts (hope that’s what they call it), fresh ambiance, and an anxiety of traveling abroad, we were very very excited. For most of us this was our first trip outside India, and to keep our adrenalin rush high, our organizers told us that we will get the passport with VISA’s on the Mumbai airport, from where we were going to take our flight to Paris. The excitement did not end here, Shruti’s bag was by mistake loaded on the Delhi flight and thanks to our over emphasis on customer service and all swearing and abusing that we showered on the ground staff we had almost missed our flight.
I finally boarded the Air France, my first flight outside India. Since, this was long flight, and there came the morning, it was time to attain the nature’s call. This was also my first time visit a toilet in the airplane only to discover that there was no water inside. Although, using only toilet paper was a big point of discussion for all us since we decided to go to Paris, but a WC without water??? (Actually, since airplanes have to carry very calculated loads and that providing water for 200-300 passengers was not efficient; all airplanes used some kind of vacuum suction mechanism, to lower use of water.) I could not use it. We finally landed at Charles –De Gaulle Airport, Paris, France. We were welcomed by some enthusiastic students from ESC Dijon with banners and garlands. 7 of us from here were to go to Dijon by bus and rest to Pau by TGV. While the team to Pau proceeded, we waited for our counter parts arriving from Ohio, Athens, USA. While, few moved around to see an airport and life around worlds one of the biggest, developed, and most advanced cities and civilization…………….
