Back to Ahmedabad and on the way to Kabul!!

finally i am in ahmedabad.... got the AUTO and straight to Passport office.....

wow.. so now new and bigger challenge.. how to get ECNR revoked sooner...?? i suddenly remember th at my brother-in-laws cousin is working in PP office.. i called my BIL and took his address/phone etc.. the good thing was he was living in same campus.. i just have to walk 50 mt. ..

i knocked his door.. he was obviously not there.. his father [paralytic but with good mobility] opened the door.. i introduced and explained.. i said i need to meet him soon... he was so nice to walk with me till office and handed me over to him.. i thanked old man for taining pain of climbing stair with left half of body is paralyse .. he was so kind and generous.. he smiled nad said.. it is a good exercise... anyway i have to do some more exercise..

i explained gentleman the problem and he said it can be done in one day!! wowwwwww first time the tight muscles of my face relaxed and a big smile appeared.. ..

i had all necessary doc... i submitted application.. he asked me to wait.. i waited till 5:00 PM in evening... i was the last one to get my turn..to go and see passport officer face to face.. i went in .. he was relaxed.. he asked me some questions and satisfied with my docs and answers.. he stamped my passport ECNR revoked:)

I felt "haaaasssshhh" this is like wining IInd world war :)

i was sooooooo relaxed.. had gone thru so much of ups and downs in one week that it has .. .. sucked all my energy out!!

well now only thing to do is go back to Rajkot take rest for some day and start my journey to Kabul.. the unveiling journey of hindukush mountains.. exotic terrin, iced roads.. and many more which i was unaware of!!!

so i got bus at around 6:30 and 11:00 in the night i was home... the feeling was just like coming back from a war!!

my parents too were relaxed as they too witnessed my struggle......

when i reched back i decided not to go by train :) this time i will catch the flight...

meanwhile... i came to know that Pradeep my friend who is working in Afghanistan is going to Kabul too.. so he said yeah it would be good that if i can go to his place and then we can go together.. it was so relaxing .. my parents and i was freed of tension.. as pradeep is already there..

hey by the way i have to write a separate chapter on pradeep.. so wil elaborate later on..

so pradeep helped me to book domestic flight from ah

medabad to

delhi.. he insisted me to reach to his place previous night because the flight to Delhi was morning 7:00 am

I reached to his place.. very warm welcome by his family .. and especially the figure i could never forget is his father.. his father was working with state police as Dy. commissioner of Police.

such a nice and light hearted man to talk with.

so i slept at his place and next day morning we went to airport and it was my first instance to board the aircraft.. i was so excited.. i told pradeep that this is first time i am on plane....

we landed at delhi airport.. we had to go to hotel start which is Pradeep's favourite hotel.. Our flight to Afghanistan/ kabul was next day early morning..

we took some rest and went to the city for pradeep's work, went around common markets and all.. came back and slept early as we had to wake up early.. we woke up at 4:30 got ready by 5:00 and reached airport in 10 min.

as the Hotel is just in the out skirt of airport premises..

this time i was confident .. i had pradeep with me.. which boosted my confidence and a good moral support....

we walked in the lounge.. checked-in ... no hurdle... no ECNR prob.. no emigration problem...

everything was smooth like butter... ... the flight was on time..

it was my first instance to board international flight..

pradeep was cool.. he was continuously briefing me about the services of aryana afghan... he said these flights are like local bus..

i too could see that... the aircraft was almost empty.. who will go to kabul in war time???

most of the passengers were NGO wokers...

the aircraft was huge with 320 capacity boing 747.. we were hardly 100 in it..

so it was looking specious..

we took off.. there was instruction of not taking pictures in flight or indian territory.. but some people took picts and pradeep also told me yeah ppl takes... so i too was encourages to take pict in aircraft... i didn take picture of indian territory though!!!

[Pradeep and myself in Ariana Afghan Flight]

Ariyana Afghan flight with pradeep

aha.... the journey was good.. the food was somthing very very different then i have ever tasted... a long afghani naan [a local bread] and some vegetables.. [you never get good choice as vegetarian in Afghanistan].. but it was ok.. it was just 1 hr. flight so i didnt bother much about food...

the flight was good.. we could see hindukush on our right.. a huge dignified object on earth.. woww.. amaizing ..

and 1 hr is over.. the aircraft lowering down.. woww.. i am excited to see afghanistan especially kabul from top.. i never had any imagination of kabul so with eyes wide open.. i was grabbing as much as my eye and mind could grab..... it looked.. just brown.. brown and brown.. hardly any other colour could be seen.. as most of the houses were made of mud and not painted with any other colour..

here are some pictures from air and kabul airport:

[Top View of Kabul] [Kabul Airport -car parking]

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