Hey everyone, it’s Keny! I’m the business co-lead for BLIP. After many delays and almost missing our flight, we decided to call the Gujarati word of the day Dhiraj, which means patience.
We got up at the crack of dawn (4:00 AM) to get ready to leave for the airport at 5 AM (shoutout to Sai for driving us to the airport and getting us there on time). Once we got to JFK, that is when our true patience was tested.
We looked at the departure screen and realized that the flight was delayed for 2 hours. So naturally we panicked because we would literally have less than 30 minutes until the flight from Ahmedabad to Abu Dhabi takes off. Luckily, we realized that there was nothing that was in our control, so we decided to sit patiently and basically eat all the free snacks that the Etihad employees were giving out.
Boarding the plane took a good hour, and we ended up taking off at 5:30 compared to 4:10. Nevertheless, this was great bonding time for us and I was actually surprised by the fact at how patient and calm we were.
After we landed in Abu Dhabi, we basically had 10 minutes before our flight to Ahmedabad departed, so we ran through customs to get to our gate. Once we got to the gate, we were fortunate to see that the flight was delayed for another half hour. Somehow, we made it and were on our way to the final destination: Ahmedabad!
After landing in Ahmedabad, we waited a good hour and half for immigration and our bags (somebody almost stole Div’s bag) but it’s okay we got it back! We finally left the airport to meet our driver, Nattubhai, who showed true dhiraj. He waited at the airport for 3+ hours for us and then drove us to Baroda, which is another two hours.
We finally reached the guesthouse and ended the night with a delicious meal that Harishbhai had cooked for us. Naturally, after a satiating dinner, we all passed out after.
