BHUBANESWAR : The Biju Patnaik International Airport is rather laidback for an international airstrip servicing the capital city of a state — there are fourteen other airports in India that are far busier in terms of passenger traffic. But over the last few days, every now and then, all of Bhubaneswar seems to revolve around its two arrival terminals with the uncharacteristic hustle and bustle leaving unwitting passengers scratching their heads.
Argentina were the first team to arrive for the FIH Men’s World Cup on Thursday. Ever since, teams have been trickling in one by one. South Africa followed that very night while France chose an afternoon flight to reach Bhubaneswar from Delhi. China chose the very last flight of the day at 1am while Spain chose one of the first flights in on Friday morning. England and New Zealand even shared a flight on Friday afternoon.
But the one thing that has remained constant through all these arrivals is the now-familiar routine the airport goes through, every time a team lands in the city. Certain parts of the arrivals gate are cordoned off and the passengers are diverted away from the brief path the teams will take to their buses. Traffic is cleared along selected routes to enable team buses to reach the hotels as fast as possible.
The arrangements at the airport though start long before the teams even depart from their destinations. The Odisha police have established a 24x7 control room at the airport with the policemen posted there taking turns at eight-hour shifts. One man though is not as lucky. DS Pratap is the inspector, in charge of the station under whose jurisdiction, the airport comes under.
He has to rush there to oversee things every time a team or an important FIH official arrives at the airport. As he waits for the China team to arrive an hour past midnight, his eyes are drooping under the weight of sleep deprivation. “My day started at 8am today,” he says. “It will go on till 6am. And then the next day starts two hours later.”
He soon gets the message that the China team are nearly ready to make their way out and his team scramble into place, blocking off routes, trying to introduce the concept of order to the dozens of waiting journalists and preventing approaching cars from going too close the team bus, which by now, has started revving up its engines. Near the arrival gate, more than half a dozen volunteers in blue and orange tracksuits wait for the first glimpse of the arriving players.
Their job is to collect the team’s bags and kits and carry them into the team bus. But these kids are not ordinary volunteers, for the company section on their ID cards simply say Odisha Sports Department. Turns out, they are members of Odisha’s U-17 hockey team. “We have been coming here for every team,” says Deepak Gowala. “We have seen France, Argentina and South Africa till now and now we are waiting for China. It is very exciting to see all these top class players up close.”
He may be carrying bags now, but there’s every chance that at a World Cup not too far in the future, another young player may be carrying Deepak’s luggage. But what is arguably the most hilarious aspect of the whole exercise happens when the players are streaming out one by one. First, there is the mandatory photo shoot most teams are happy to pose for (sleepy China at 1am did seem a tad less enthusiastic). Then there is the small matter of the fifty or so waiting journalists scampering for a word or two from the coach or the captain.
Olympic champs Argentina may have been used to at least a bit of media fanfare back home, but for most of the smaller teams, walking out to the non-stop flashing of cameras and having mikes and mobile phones thrust into their face is a bit of a culture shock.
The French as they walked out were so amused by the waiting crowd that they began taking out their mobiles and filming the journalists. This resulted in a rather curious impasse that lasted a few seconds — journalists filming players filming journalists — before the captain and the coach separated from the group and mustered up the courage to approach the chaotic press. France captain Tom Genestet’s first words upon landing on Indian soil was spent trying to restore a semblance of order. “Don’t fight, don’t fight,” he told his wannabe-interviewers in vain.
Even coach Jeroen Delmee, who’s a multiple Olympic gold medallist with the Netherlands, was a bit taken aback by the reception. “We are all very happy to see you,” he proclaimed to the crowd. “This sort of thing doesn’t usually happen back home.”
One group who looked less than thrilled to see the waiting horde of journalists were the Chinese who quickly made a beeline to their team bus. As the press clamoured to have a word with the coach, tournament officials quickly conversed with a Chinese official, who informed them no one in the team spoke English and there was, unfortunately, no translator on hand. As the team bus pulled away, one of the scribes seemed to have a belated moment of clarity. “What language did she inform him in?”