Journey to the Far-East

by Dawit Kumilachew Yimenu (Ethiopia)

A leap into the unknown India

The day was Saturday, 16th November 2019. It was one of the best days of my life because that day I had my first international flight to India which I grow up watching its popular Bollywood movies and which I always wish to visit. I was one of the luckiest people to won the scholarship program offered by the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation for short term training in India and I was counting days since the day I received a notification of acceptance. At around 3:00 pm in the afternoon, we departed from Bole international airport (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) to New Delhi, India and then starts my life time adventure. After a half hour of flight, we left my loved country Ethiopia and fly over sovereign country's sky and my telecommunication network suddenly goes off for the first time without a warning. Inside the plane I saw different kinds of people from many countries; Africans, Europeans, Americans and most dominantly Indians. We were flying on Ethiopian air-lines, which has repeatedly won the best African airline award for so many years and which is still one of the best air-lines in the world. That remind me of my Ethiopian proud which is circulating in my blood from my ancestors. Sitting next to me was a tall gentle man who had some scarf over his head and I saw many Indians men wearing in the same style inside the plane. I remembered this kind of dressings in many Indian movies and I didn't know what it symbolizes or why they were like that until I arrived and stay some days in India. The flight took around 6 hours and we arrived at Mahatma Gandhi airport in New Delhi, India in the mid night. My final destination was at Chandigarh, North India and I was supposed to stay for hours in side Delhi airport. As soon as we landed in Delhi, Every body went to the same direction and for the first time I saw an airport that large and I feel like I walked for miles till I reached downstairs to the immigration department. Until that day I thought Bole airport (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) had the largest passenger trafficking till I saw the different kinds of human race at Delhi airport. After I finished the immigration process I chose to stay inside the building and visit many commercials as I have heard there was some kind of air pollution in Delhi at that time. After around four hours of stay, we departed Delhi airport to the north side of India, to Chandigarh with Indian airlines. In the meanwhile, I saw a stranger thing which I used to know differently in my country; the flight attendants were all male and I was surprised because in my country it's very uncommon to see male flight attendants. The flight took around one hour and we landed in Chandigarh early in the morning. As soon as we arrived in the airport, people from National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) received us and took us with a van to the institute which we will stay for two weeks. Chandigarh, as the Indians say is the cleanest city in India which is also called a Tricity which includes the union territory city of Chandigarh, and its neighboring cities of Mohali, Zirakpur, New Chandigarh (in Punjab) and Panchkula (in Haryana). Chandigarh is one of the best cities I have ever seen; which is very green, clean and beautiful with very kind people. During my stay in Chandigarh, I had the opportunity to visit sukhna lake and rock garden which are mirror images of nature in its beauty. One Sunday we were off the training and we smashed another adventure inside an adventure. We traveled to the historical city of Amritsar and the most famous "Golden mountain". That day I really felt like I was in a movie and I couldn't able to stop my hand from taking photos till it run out of battery. I also understood that those people who put a scarf on their head are the sick people and the Golden temple and the city Amritsar are their holly city. Journey Never Ends!!!