One of my biggest weaknesses is my callous carelessness, and on
2nd September, 2006, I went overboard with this weakness and nearly messed up so many things. It was with the pure grace of God and tons and tons of luck that I actually made it through and rejoined my parents in probably one of their most important days of their lives.
Well, to start off, I had a flight to catch at 11:15 a.m. and I had gone to sleep at about 4 a.m. that day after going clubbing with my friends from college. I knew while hitting the sack that I had a flight at 11:15, but I was so confident of waking up on time as I’ve always managed to wake up before 7. But I guess the fact that I was little drunk while going to bed and that I had tired myself dancing prior to that, made me over sleep, and I had slept till 10:30. Just 45 minutes before my departure.
I woke up with such a start. Hurriedly put on the same clothes I’d worn the previous day. Threw in a pair that I had selected earlier for the function. Grabbed my flight ticket and was out of the house in less than 3 minutes. Thankfully I found an auto just outside the apartment and I told him to rush to the airport and money was no object. He was going at a pretty normal rate though despite my hollering every now and then asking him to hurry up. On the way I turned on my phone which was switched off until then and was one of the biggest reasons for my not waking up because either mom or sin would have normally called in the morning. I see 2 messages from mom there asking me what’s going on. I didn’t have the nerve to call her back. I was just too tensed. The time was 10:40. I called Kingfisher help desk and told them about my predicament and that I was rushing as soon as possible. They told me that the counter closed half an hour prior to the departure and I would be able to make it if I made it to the airport in 5 minutes. I thought I would, but it was nearly 10:50 by the time I got out of the auto. Thanks to his slightly above average speed and the always reliable chock and block traffic of Mumbai. Anyway, I thankfully knew the counter of Kingfisher as I had traveled by it the last time and it happens to be in the older terminal and not the new one. So I asked the auto driver to go there, but he still takes a wrong turn and I asked him to just stop as I was all ready to run now. I got out of the auto and took out my wallet to pay him, and that was when I realized I spent the entire amount of 1000 bucks the previous night at the club. I was left with just 15 bucks. I gave this to him and asked him to go back to the place he picked me up from and I would ask my friend to come there and pay him the money, but as of then, I really had to leave. I didn’t even give him a chance to be understanding as I just left him after that and began running. On the way I even dropped some coins I had in my wallet and was now officially broke. But nothing mattered as long as I just made it to the flight.
I rush all the way to the counter and its 10:55 now. I cut the line and go straight ahead and they person there tells me I’m too late!
I was heartbroken. I didn’t know what I was going to do. There was a person next to me in the line who was trying to help me out by scolding the Kingfisher guy at the counter saying it’s their fault that passengers get late as they have so many counters and things are so complex and end up moving very slowly. That guy just said sorry, but there was nothing he could do. So, dejected, I started walking back. Wondering how I’m going to explain this to mummy. 5000 bucks down the drain, and I mostly may not even get another flight to Cochin and might miss the entire function. I was just feeling extremely terrible, when the guy at the counter calls me back and says he will print the ticket for me. I couldn’t believe what was happening. He asked me for a choice of seat and I told him “anywhere” and thought to myself “as long as I am on that flight”.
The moment he gave me the ticket, I ran to the security check, sent my phones in another persons tray and he was a sweet old man was telling me not to run away with his stuff. I told him that there is a good chance that I would leave behind my stuff for him because my flight was in ten minutes. The time was 11:05. After the security check, I began running and realized that I did leave my phone behind, so I ran back to pick it up and that was when Jeetu called me. I told her that I was running to catch the flight and that I might just make it. And when I reached Gate 6 which was for Cochin passengers, I didn’t see anyone there. I thought I missed it and when I asked the guard, he told me that the gates have not yet opened. That’s when I realized that probably the reason I got the boarding pass was only because I didn’t have a check in baggage and that the flight had got slightly delayed.
Anyway, I finally got time to breathe. Went to the toilet, washed myself up, waited till I started breathing normally, called bala and explained the situation to him, called mom and told her that I’m on my way, and soon, by 11:15, the gates had opened and I was on my way to the plane. Well, things didn’t stop there. My adventure was bound to continue. There were small glitches, like I asked for non veg meal and ended up with veg and only realized it when I was close to finishing the food. I was so annoyed with the fact that I didn’t even check the label on it before opening the food. Anyway, the way the day was going, this was not even anything to be upset about. In fact I was more than grateful to the Kingfisher guys to have at least allowed me to fly.
Well, I got off at Cochin at about 2. Walked out and was looking for a phone booth to call Raju uncle and just then I noticed him sitting in the waiting lounge and at the same time realized that I would have been able to call him anyway because I had even dropped the last bits of change I had while running away from the auto driver in Mumbai. Seemed like luck decided to stick around with me for a just a bit longer. Well, uncle was sweet enough to take me till the bus stop and put me into a bus headed for Kottayam. And just before alighting, he asked me if I had any cash! Thank God for that, because if he hadn’t asked me, I wouldn’t have been able to pay the bus fare and would probably have been asked to get down in the absolute middle of nowhere. That’s when I explained my situation to him and uncle gave me 150 bucks to keep. The bus fare was just 48. Anyway, got into a bus around 2:45 and it was really crowded, but I had no qualms and knew not to crib about anything after the irresponsibility I showed during the day. A normal journey from Cochin to Kottayam would have lasted about 2 hours, but this one took nearly 3 hours to get there, mostly because of the road blocks in lieu of the ongoing Onam celebrations. When I got off, Anita aunty was waiting for me and she told me that Jomi Uncle, Puttu, Vinu and Amachi were also there waiting with her, but since I was getting so late, they left and went back and only she was waiting. Well, the 2 of us got into the Tavera that was booked by dad for running the errands during this period and I reached the hotel by 7. Freshened up, wore the same undies I’d been wearing since yesterday as I forgot to bring a new one in the hurry I left home, ate my first decent meal of the day and then went to church.
It was finally in the peace and quiet of that church which I’ve gone to almost every time I’ve come to Kerala that I found peace in myself for the first time in the entire day. I was so thankful to have actually made it and rejoined with my entire family and was there with my parents on the day they were realizing their dream, that of building their dream home at Kottayam. And I was really glad I made it. Most of the family was there and we were all having a good time and I got to appreciate the work of my dad who had put in everything he had into making his dream come true and I was so glad I actually made it on this very special day of his.
