So far my stay in the city of joy has been quite uneventful... The induction seems to be dragging on and the initial euphoria related to market visits and observing sales has been replaced by a sense of monotony...However, everything changed on the evening of the 18th of October. When I was leaving the guest house to board my flight that day, little did I know, I was unwittingly landing up in a never-happened to me before adventure, an adventure, that left me gasping for breath in the end.
It all began on the evening of the 18th, I returned early from office to pack up my stuff and leave for the airport straightaway. The original plan went thus-
1. Leave office at 3:45
2. Reach Guest House by 4
3. Pack, Relax, Sleep, Eat till 5:30
4. Leave for airport at 5:30
5. Stop at Ulta Danga wala Haldiram to shop for sweets
6. Reach airport by 7-7:15
7. Board the 7 50 flight and reach Dilli by 10
However, as my luck and Mamta Di would have it, that was not meant to be. Here is the sequence of events that happened that left me shivering and shuddering!!
1. Left Office at 3 30, reached guest house at 3:45
2. Decided to shop for sweets at Garihat itself (Had been bored sick of cribbing about Haldiram sweets, which incidentally are available anywhere in the country)
3. Returned to Guesthouse by 4:30
4. Packed and left the Guesthouse at 5:15 to pick up sweets from Haldiram only
5. At 5:30, the taxi comes to a grinding halt at a place around 3 kms from the Guesthouse, I don't even bother looking outside, assuming that it is an evening trafiic jam
6. 5 minutes later, as curiousity gets the better of me, I realize that its a "Chokka Jam" by Mamtadi, who is (as usual) prtesting about something
7. Its almost 6 now, when the whole picture becomes clear... Mamta Di, in her infinite wisdom, has decided to blockade all routes to and from airport and Howrah station. So, there is NO detour possible. My driver makes it a point to tell me " Agar aapki kismat acchi hogi toh aapko flight mil jayegi"
8. Nervous, I call up IndiGo people, planning to get the ticket cancelled and book an early morning flight, however, cancellatiojns shut 2 hours before departure, so I would end up losing money anyway!!
9. At 6:20 ,As I fret and fidget inside my car, I realize that something drastic needs to be done, if I am to have a chance of making it to the airport in time.
10. I take my luggage, and Off I am... Walking amidst the traffic... I would have walked some 2-3 kilometers, when I flagged down a rikshaw who drops me another2 kms ahead. By now, it is 6:50, 1 hour for my flight. I am now, around 30 mins away from the airport.
11. At this time, the traffic suddenly starts moving, someone in that perambulating mass of humanity yells that the Chokka Jam has been lifted. I flag down a taxi, and soon we are away!
12. Not for long though, 10 mins into the taxi ride and the Taxi comes to a grinding halt, once more. Now the Chokka Jam has been replaced by Traffic Jam, as all cabs try to jostle with each other in their rush to reach the airport.
13. At 7:20, we start again, taking the longer New Rajarhat route, which would be traffic free. It is a fast drive indeed, and as I start to settle down to the idea, that i will make it, the car stops once more. It is 7:30 now and we are hardly 10 minutes drive away from the airport.
14. As far as the eye can see, there are vehicles, of every type and colour with people inside them fretting and worrying, the drivers honking incessantly and peeping out of their windows to inform their passengers that it will be a while before they can "make a move"
15. Desperate, I call up IndiGo people again, begging them to "Hold the flight". Thankfully, I am informed that the flight will take off 10 mins later. That gives me a total of 20 mins to reach the airport.
16. The traffic crawls at a snail's pace. The whole plan of buying sweets has since long been abandoned. I am sitting in the car, praying, seating... Just hoping to make it in time, somehow.... Diwali away from home is not my idea of fun....
17. the car moves, slowly.... but steadily and I am at the airport at 7:55! My baggage is not checked and the boarding pass is issued in a matter of seconds...I am rushed to the security check, where I deposit my cell and my laptop in that dabba
18. By the time I am through with the check and go to reclaim my belongings, I realize that my cell is missing... someone else has picked it up (willfully most probably)...
19. I am now totally depressed... this is like the worst trip in the history of bad trips... I keep calling my no. (which I don't remember, so I had to first ask my folks what my number was!) which doesn't get answered...
20. Cursing, swearing and hating myself, I board the plane, dump my luggage, when I suddenly hear an old gentleman tellling someone over the phone that he has taken someone else's phone... I rush to him and ask him to hand my phone over... It turns out that he has returned the phone to the Ground team...
21. I rush out of the plane, with the Air Hostess trying to block me (the first time ever that I have elbowed an air hostess!) screaming "My phone"... " My phone"... Snatch it out of a ground crew member who is standing some distance away.... Flash my photo in front of him because he refused to buy the argumen that it indeed was my phone... and rush back into the plane!...
I am off the ground in 2 minutes!
