How I made it ..... Almost

14th August 2008 was the Independence Day of Pakistan and, the entire Mumbai was on roads. Not that they were celebrating Pakistan’s independence or staging a dharna against it, but they were all rushing to their nests in their hometowns. It was that long weekend, which each employee longs for…. And the preparations had begun almost a month back. All the trains were running high on waitlist and the travel agents were minting money with people ready to dole out huge sums for that tatkal ticket… All thanks to Lalooji for the 60 day window for booking tickets and inflation for the soaring flight fares…. And in the midst of all this brouhaha was a confused me still planning the trip home forr this extended weekend which coincided with Rakshabandhan.
After not much of a jaddo-jahad I booked a supposedly low cost air carrier for 14th August and a train ticket at a whopping W/L 91 for the return journey.
The moment I clicked the “OK” button on the payment gateway of the air carrier I took a deep breath of relief – ab jana to pucca ho gaya. How I ever got inspired to book at wait-list 91 cleared was another story and I wouldn’t delve into that for now.

Let me take you through a flashback of what I went through.

The day started early and around 9.30 I was at office. There were some mails from the client. By the lunch time I was through with all the mails and the deliverables for the day. I had called on the client and told him that there was a colleague who would be working for him in my absence. Post lunch I had done all the KT to this colleague of mine and had just packed my bags for the day when the an “URGENT” request came from the client. My watch showed it was already 4.00 pm and I had the flight at 7.45. Quite a margin, I thought, and I lingered on with the mail trying to figure out the solution. Soon I was at my wit’s end and I called up the client who was considerate enough to not to have held me back. It was not before 5.30 that I reached home. By the time I got ready and was done with the final packing the clock struck 5.45.

It was at this moment that I realised I had misplaced my flight ticket. And while I was searching for this, I happened to stumble across the train ticket and pocketed it, else even that I would have left back. After a phone call to the air carrier’s call centre and being assured of a duplicate copy at the ticketing counter I left and took an auto. Ah! I forgot to mention that I had no money in my wallet and had to stop by at the nearest ATM to get some cash. And then began the journey. Half an hour passed and I was still pretty close to my house. Another half and hour gone and still the airport was not to be seen. The suto-wallah took a “short-cut” to cut on time and traffic which was now proving costly to me. All calls to the call centre to get the ticket cancelled or postponed were futile. They wanted me to have done that 2 hours ago…. NOW, HOW DO THEY EXPECT SOMEONE TO ANTICIPATE A LAST MINUTE TRAFFIC JAM in those 2 hours !!! The best they could help me was to refund me Rs 225 in case I missed my flight!! Done with all this, my watch told me it was 7.15 and I should press the Panic button.
So off I was from the rick and was running like a mad man on the Western Express Highway. To describe my situation in a poets word would be

“Auto Auto everywhere, but none is able to move;
Auto Auto everywhere and am sure the flight am gonna loose”

And when my legs gave up and I could see the turn for the airport, there came another gentleman, dressed in White, in a rick and stopped at the wave of my hand. So in I went and was sson at the airport Terminal 1B. That day I didn’t have to stand in any queue. I was late and I got the full VIP treatment. And the moment I was done with the security check, I heaved a sigh of relief. The Muimbai Delhi flight 186 was boarding. And I was there at the fag end of the queue, calling up my folks at Delhi that I have finally made it…. Almost :)