Friday the 13th - the most dreaded and favored day of any good horror story setting... It has been that way since eons... but seems to me I got it all wrong... for it was not Friday the 13th when my horror story starts... It was Friday the 12th - the day before I flew from India to the United States of America. That day I guess, every thing that could go wrong went wrong ... I got my ticket at 3:30 p.m. and that was when I discovered, to my HORROR, that my flight was not (as per the official email) at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday the 13th ... it was at 1:30 am in the morning!!!
I was panic stricken... I had zillions of things to do ... some last minute shopping, bidding adieu to tens of friends, and of course PACKING ... not to mention the most important thing of all - clinging to family members in the typical feminine style and crying buckets... People at SDF II (a segment of my office) managed to calm me down ... to a great extent .. (Hey Ajay, Tanuja ..and all of you THANKS ...)
I went back to SDF V (another segment of my office) and it took me another 45 minutes just to get all my stuff, say bye and leave .. In hind sight I guess I just did not want to leave .. I did not want do say adieu to all the people who, in a very short span of time, had become an integral part of my life...
And so I rushed home. On the way I caught up with some friends who had agreed to go shopping with me so that we could spend some time together... and together we rushed through my last minute shopping list buying stuff ...
"War time Iraq" would have been a fitting description of my home - 6 to 8 people in, what at that time appeared to be a very small room, with all my stuff (and believe me there was tons of it...) strewn about. A general state of panic prevailed with everyone in a frenzy and a call coming in every five minutes... people had got so fed up with the calls that some one suggested disconnecting all the three phones (Cell, MNTL and Rel) at the same time ...
Any how, after what seemed to interminable hours of discussions, arguments, advice, we managed to get every thing packed up in two of the huge bags, one backpack and one handbag ...
I managed to change into my Go to War Gear... Jean, T-Shirt, Jacket, quickly grabbed a bite and then finally we were on our way ,,, we loaded the luggage into two cars .. and all 10 us managed to squeeze into the cars and those who could not ..decided to go home while we made our way to Air Port...
At Air Port, We reached terminal 2C for the air India Flight, (that was what the ticket and the mail had said), Cleared the initial weighing and security check .... only to be thoroughly puzzled as there seemed to be no sign of the flight being announced .. then I spotted some of the other guys who had been with me at the briefing earlier during the day ... .. Well they also appeared to be equally confused ... so I went up to one of the counters and asked the guy sitting there where the !!@@#%^%$@$@# flight was ... He also appeared to be equally confused and said the flight was at 7:30 in the morning, "But the ticket says the departure time is 1:30", I countered showing him the ticket. Then, came the great realization and understanding .. The Ticket was indeed an AIR India ticket but the flight was a Lufthansa Flight ... Which meant going right to the other end of the Airport to the other terminal.
So We grabbed our luggage (which all nicely tied up in secure wrap after clearing the initial check .. and practically ran ... imagine me with the bulky jacket a huge backpack trying to run [ I guess participating in the dream paid off ;) ]. Well we finally managed to get there after a lot of huffing and puffing .. I joined the long serpentine que for the check-in and checked - in ... sent my luggage on it's way to Chicago .. answered the that set of question which going to encounter again and again ... Whose luggage is this ? Who packed it ? where was it packed ? blah blah ...
Came back for a final hug and kiss and good bye ... told people to go home .. which they decided they would not till the flight was announced ... and slowly with a heavy heart, and aching shoulders ,, teary eyes and a hundred backward glances, looks and waves made my way slowly toward the security and clearance ..
Went through after what seemed to be an interminably long time and found my self in the waiting area.. there was a pay phone there and my pocket was heavy with coins so I decided to shed some weight and called on my mobile and chatted and chatted and chatted with every one till I ran out of coins...
Then joined up the rest of the Patni guys and spent some time in desultory small talk and a lot of interesting moments in observing the other 800 people waiting for the flight .. It seemed like a scene out of movie .. each person with some history some interesting story behind him ....
Well ultimately the flight was announced and we slowly trudged through and when I finally got to seat My first reaction was MY GOD !!! the seats in BEST AC bus in the morning are better !!! I managed to stow in my cabin luggage in the over head bins some how and tried to settle in .... (I had thankfully asked for and got an aisle seat so that at least gave me some freedom and leg room.) Chatted with the guy in the next seat , the flight took off .. there were the usual announcements and after some time they served some stuff (which was Indian veg) By that time I was a bit hungry (having forgone the lunch and dinner on Friday..) So, I managed to finish the "AIR LINE" food and promptly fell asleep....
By now I am getting the feeling that You are also ready to doze off ...
So let me just say .. the rest of the trip ... the stop over at Frankfurt ...landing at Chicago, getting a cab and going to the hotel had some interesting moments .. but that is as they say .. a story for another rainy day ... in case you guys feel interested .. and in case I get a response ... asking me to provide further details ( the chance of this happening is probably not as good as that of a snowflake in hell...) I'll write ... .....
I was panic stricken... I had zillions of things to do ... some last minute shopping, bidding adieu to tens of friends, and of course PACKING ... not to mention the most important thing of all - clinging to family members in the typical feminine style and crying buckets... People at SDF II (a segment of my office) managed to calm me down ... to a great extent .. (Hey Ajay, Tanuja ..and all of you THANKS ...)
I went back to SDF V (another segment of my office) and it took me another 45 minutes just to get all my stuff, say bye and leave .. In hind sight I guess I just did not want to leave .. I did not want do say adieu to all the people who, in a very short span of time, had become an integral part of my life...
And so I rushed home. On the way I caught up with some friends who had agreed to go shopping with me so that we could spend some time together... and together we rushed through my last minute shopping list buying stuff ...
"War time Iraq" would have been a fitting description of my home - 6 to 8 people in, what at that time appeared to be a very small room, with all my stuff (and believe me there was tons of it...) strewn about. A general state of panic prevailed with everyone in a frenzy and a call coming in every five minutes... people had got so fed up with the calls that some one suggested disconnecting all the three phones (Cell, MNTL and Rel) at the same time ...
Any how, after what seemed to interminable hours of discussions, arguments, advice, we managed to get every thing packed up in two of the huge bags, one backpack and one handbag ...
I managed to change into my Go to War Gear... Jean, T-Shirt, Jacket, quickly grabbed a bite and then finally we were on our way ,,, we loaded the luggage into two cars .. and all 10 us managed to squeeze into the cars and those who could not ..decided to go home while we made our way to Air Port...
At Air Port, We reached terminal 2C for the air India Flight, (that was what the ticket and the mail had said), Cleared the initial weighing and security check .... only to be thoroughly puzzled as there seemed to be no sign of the flight being announced .. then I spotted some of the other guys who had been with me at the briefing earlier during the day ... .. Well they also appeared to be equally confused ... so I went up to one of the counters and asked the guy sitting there where the !!@@#%^%$@$@# flight was ... He also appeared to be equally confused and said the flight was at 7:30 in the morning, "But the ticket says the departure time is 1:30", I countered showing him the ticket. Then, came the great realization and understanding .. The Ticket was indeed an AIR India ticket but the flight was a Lufthansa Flight ... Which meant going right to the other end of the Airport to the other terminal.
So We grabbed our luggage (which all nicely tied up in secure wrap after clearing the initial check .. and practically ran ... imagine me with the bulky jacket a huge backpack trying to run [ I guess participating in the dream paid off ;) ]. Well we finally managed to get there after a lot of huffing and puffing .. I joined the long serpentine que for the check-in and checked - in ... sent my luggage on it's way to Chicago .. answered the that set of question which going to encounter again and again ... Whose luggage is this ? Who packed it ? where was it packed ? blah blah ...
Came back for a final hug and kiss and good bye ... told people to go home .. which they decided they would not till the flight was announced ... and slowly with a heavy heart, and aching shoulders ,, teary eyes and a hundred backward glances, looks and waves made my way slowly toward the security and clearance ..
Went through after what seemed to be an interminably long time and found my self in the waiting area.. there was a pay phone there and my pocket was heavy with coins so I decided to shed some weight and called on my mobile and chatted and chatted and chatted with every one till I ran out of coins...
Then joined up the rest of the Patni guys and spent some time in desultory small talk and a lot of interesting moments in observing the other 800 people waiting for the flight .. It seemed like a scene out of movie .. each person with some history some interesting story behind him ....
Well ultimately the flight was announced and we slowly trudged through and when I finally got to seat My first reaction was MY GOD !!! the seats in BEST AC bus in the morning are better !!! I managed to stow in my cabin luggage in the over head bins some how and tried to settle in .... (I had thankfully asked for and got an aisle seat so that at least gave me some freedom and leg room.) Chatted with the guy in the next seat , the flight took off .. there were the usual announcements and after some time they served some stuff (which was Indian veg) By that time I was a bit hungry (having forgone the lunch and dinner on Friday..) So, I managed to finish the "AIR LINE" food and promptly fell asleep....
By now I am getting the feeling that You are also ready to doze off ...
So let me just say .. the rest of the trip ... the stop over at Frankfurt ...landing at Chicago, getting a cab and going to the hotel had some interesting moments .. but that is as they say .. a story for another rainy day ... in case you guys feel interested .. and in case I get a response ... asking me to provide further details ( the chance of this happening is probably not as good as that of a snowflake in hell...) I'll write ... .....
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