Bombay to Madras

I dunked it ! I missed it !! I screwed it !!!

It was a monday evening. suddenly athimber (sis's husband) rang up. some urgent work. i had to leave for madras. he said he was booking the Jet Airways for tuesday afti at 3.20 PM. fine. but had some work to be completed before i could catch the flight.

Let me tell u frankly. a trip to home is itself a pleasant surprise. and going by air was like adding sugar to honey. moreover, it has taken 25 years of my life to make my first sail through the skies. so i was kind of thrilled! whats more, the first picture that flashed through my mind at the thought of going by air was....slurrrppppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brahmanaa Bhojana priyaaaa. father tells often. he could not have been wrong. atleast my case was perfect.

I left pretty early from SOM. at around 10.45 AM. had to get some immigration docs and then proceed to santa cruz for catching the flight. as there was enough time, i decided to kill time by waiting at the bus stop without any attempt whatsoever to get into any bus. after 45 mins, i decided it will get too crunchy coz of teh passport thing. so i finally entered one.

after all that traffic ( believe me, bbay is the only place on earth which could be crowded like hell even in aftis) , i did manage to get to that doc collection place ( also at santa cruz) pretty early....around 1.00 pm. now i was waiting for the concerned party to get the documents to me. i was left waiting for two hrs before the guy came there.

and i was supposed to catch the flight at 3.20. what kind of time keeping is this? anyway i was not at fault ( for the first time)....and moreoever this last minute thing was breathing around my neck. does it occur to me so naturally? every time. now i seriously wondered if i had to consult an astrologer abt what was technically wrong abt my jathakam ( horoscope) . this is getting a bit too much for comfort. well, managed to catch an auto at 3.10.

i reached the airport soon enough. at 3.15 pm. i hurried to the check in area where i was told that the boarding was over. and technically i had missed the flight!

what next ? had to wait for the 5.30 pm flight. and i had to get a fresh ticket ( ofcourse a discounted one). moved to the ticket counters. all teh counters wore long Qs. so decided to check out the counter with the prettiest face. alas, i cd not find any. all the 'faces' were puffed up with powder upto 10 mm of thickness. nothing notable abt them. natural beauty seemed just too impossible. sad for such an airlines company. and I thought airlines attracted pretty females. and my first assumption abt this airlines industry had just gone down the drain!

stood in a Q relatively small with some guy processing the tickets. he checked my ticket and said 3050 bucks xtra. WHAT? i bought a ticket for 400o bucks. and after discounted fare, he means i have to shell out 3000 bucks. he sure was joking. or completely ignorant.

and the latter was true as i later found out. the guy was completely confused ( but i was not amused) . after a lot of fighting up over the figures, i was told i had to pay out 1500 bucks.

The next bombshell. maestro cards are not accepted. i reached out for my credit card. and boy, i never had a clue that it had expired a year back!!!!

now i had to get cash. to get the ticket. reached for my wallet. 700 bucks only. i asked them to freeze my ticket. and that i wd get back in 10 mins. atleast they acceded to this request.

now i was frantically searching for an ATM. cud not find any nearby. i appraoched a person standing near a Corrola to ask abt any ATM that cud be there. he said it was not nearby though. however he said he was also moving out of the airport and offered to take me to the ATM.

in the car, i was talking to athimber abt the screw up ( in tamil). then this person addressed me in tamil. aha. somehow it felt so sweet. and he said that the car was actually the car of the chairman of JP morgan stanley and that he had come to drop the chairman's daughter and was on his way back. ( was the dad teh same guy who gave us dikshaa?....i was lost in thoughts)

we drove to what was actually the " first floor" of teh airport through a tortuous route.
i cud find a icici atm from wher i was able to with draw the money. the gentle man dropped me back at the ticket counter and made his way back.

this is where PERUMAL is there i stood thinking ( and thanking) !

got the tickets. completed teh check in formalities and waited in teh lobby watching the ongoing ind-pak test. awaiting my first flight journey. ( technically it is the second flight. my first flight never existed:)

as i was waiting to board , i was just sinking into a thought......

i got the car trip to the ATM right. but....

did i just miss the chairman's daughter perhaps......hehehe.......

PART 2 of flight journey after exams.