Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 10:27:03 -0800 (PST) From: deepak salwan Subject: The Flight Purser Chapter 5 Both of them were on duty during their flight to their respective destinations -- Manish for his training for the flight steward to New York, as he had been selected for the position for a flight steward for an American airline and Rajeshwar for his British Airways flight, coincidentally also to New York, though to the JFK airport, whereas Manish's flight was till the Newark Airport. Though they were to stay at different locations, and were flying different carriers, they did not worry much as they would be in the same city for at least a fortnight together. Manish was going to be in New York for six weeks for his training, and Rajeshwar who was on duty, would be staying in New York for about a week till scheduled to get on his next flight for duty. Just before take off, Manish messaged his best friend, whose flight was a bit delayed that he was going to New York, and also got a reply from his best friend stating that he too, would be in New York as his shift had been changed with another colleague who had suddenly fallen ill and instead of his flight that he would be taking to Seoul, he was now flying to New York, that being a more important route for the airline and he being one of the best flight stewards, was specially selected for the award-winning route of that airline. The flight was good, really comfortable for Manish, but not that much for Rajeshwar, as he was on duty and the flight stewards on board an international flight have a really tough and tiring experience satisfying the never0ending needs of their passengers. Anyway, both reached New York safely, and luckily and coincidentally for them, again, were allotted the same hotel for their stay by the two airlines, although they had been provided rooms on different floors. That the two friends did not mind much though as the distance they had been covering before to meet each other was much more than the distance they would have to cover now for meeting each other. But before anything, they needed to relax and get over the jetlag, which they had had. So, they both went off to sleep that evening and as they were so tired, got up only the next morning, absolutely fresh. Manish had his training beginning the next day, and he had to stay in that hotel only for the duration of his training period, i.e. fifteen days; and Raj was in New York for the same number of days, as he had his holiday overdue, and he had also flown longer distance, because of his colleague and that's why he had been granted the fifteen day, full expense paid vacation by the airline. Both the friends would be together for a fortnight in the same hotel, and were imagining what great fun they would be up to, as now there in the U.S.A., no one knew them personally, and they had no fear of anyone getting to know anything, the only thing that they had to careful of, was that the respective airline officials should not come to know about their relation, otherwise that would lead to serious problems for the both of them. So, to be on the safer side, they stayed in separate rooms, although they would be together most of the times.