I had been thinking about it for over a week now. The consultant had been following up regularly, trying to convince me to come over. Finally I thought, "what the heck. Let's do it". I booked my tickets in a hurry. Plan was to travel to Pune on a saturday and then leave for my final destination the next day. In the last week of my being at office, I found myself walking in to it everyday with a heavy heart. Not because I'd be parting with my newly found friends, but because of the impending movement. A lot of things had to be taken care of: the bank accounts, the EMI's, resignation, relieving, motorbike servicing, etc. Now, the problem was, I couldn't have done all this in due time as I was supposed to be working till the last day f my stay in Delhi. Dad pitched in and did most of the stuff for me. I slept late on Friday night. My flight was at 9.45 in the morning. Ihad thought of laving home by 8.00 and reaching the airport by 9.00 so I could comfortablly take the flight. But damn the trffic, I reached at 9.30. After quickly bidding farewell to mom and dad, I rushed to the check-in counter. I approached the lady behind the Deccan Airlines desk. She smiled at me through her pearly white teeth, which brought a genuine smile to my face too. I was leaving Delhi for good. Me, who had thought would never ever leave the city, was standing at the check-in counter on a fine saturday morning, looking at the smartly dressed executive, ready to leave town. I fast forwarded all the thoughts coming to my hurried head and stuck out a printout of my tickets. It was a crumpled piece of paper which I had downloaded from my Gmail account. I shoved it over the counter and presented my PAN card for identification. The lady, I forget her name now, looked at me and then the ticket. "I'm sorry sir, we've closed the counter for flights leaving for Pune". I panicked. For the first time in the last week, I panicked, was scared, a thousand thoughts running through my head. Was this a sign, an indication from god saying "don't leave". I said "But the flight departure time is 9.45, how could you close the counter 15 minutes before the departure time". The lady looked at my baffled face and said in a stern tone. "It is clearly mentioned on your ticket that all passengers have to report atleast 30 minutes prior to departure, Sir". I couldn't say anything, I was left behind, the flight would leave without me on board. I had lots of baggage with me. I pleaded her to let me board, begged that I wasn't aware of the rules. But nope, all my pleading brought not even a change in reaction, forget the decision. I asked her for alternatives. She calmly said "you could take the 12.00'o clock flight to Mumbai. We can adjust you in that flight, but you'll have to make your own arrangements for your travel to Pune from there on". I knew by experience that this option would make me reach Pune late in the evening. Moreover, with so much luggage I didn't want to take all that hassle. I decided to move over to the Deccan front desk counter and ask for help.
The lady at the fornt desk was of middle height, about 26, fair, smartly dressed and very helpful. She told me of the possible options. Apparantly, there were no more flights that day for Pune in Deccan. I had no choice but either to go to Mumbai, or to change my sector and book a fresh flight to Pune. I cursed my luck and decided to change sectors on my current ticket. I booked a flight for Delhi for August. I was told that I would need to pay Rs. 500 as a rescheduling charge and the difference in fares. Luckily, there was no difference in fares and I got away with paying just the resched charges. I collected my new flight ticket moved to other airline counters to check for next available flights to Pune. By now, I was in a rage, ready to eat up anyone who dared to mess with me. Somehow I managed to stroll over to the Jetlite counter without getting myself in to trouble. On asking I came to know that they did have a flight at 12.30, and that the fares would be around 5k. I had no choice, plus I had recently acquired the power of a brand new credit card. So there I was, making yet another transaction on the card. I must mention that I absolutely detest using the card, but I didn't have a choice.
My wait began again. It was 10.30 by the time I was through with the ticket formalities. I must mention something that I saw here. There were two people who were standing outside the Jetite counter speaking in a typically Bihari accent. They wanted to book tickets for Patna. They spoke in hindi and were dressed in a manner as if running away from cops. The lady at the counter informed them that there were no "confirmed" tickets available. This was the first time that I realized that even airlines issue "wait listed" tickets. Similar to the railways, airline tickets too had a chance to get "confirmed" at the last moment. The lady informed them that the fares would be 9k each with no surity of them being confirmed. I was surprised to hear that the two gentlemen were ready to buy it. However, they did ask a question which would have made anyone roll on the floor laughing "kya hum khade hoke ja sakte hai agar ticket confirm nahi hua?". This elicited an unwanted statement from my side, purely from an information point of view "nahi, aap khade hoke nahi ja sakte hai".
I stepped out of the Jetlite office, in a somewhat better demeanour than I was in before. I decided not to take any more chances for the day, given my extremely bad luck. I checked in my baggages and cleared the security clearance. I had little under 2 hours to wait before my flight left. I found a place below an electronic hoarding promoting some sort of a holiday plan and sat down there on the floor. Primarily because there was no other seat available and plus I had to charge my cellphone, which was completely discahrged. The moment I entered the departure lounge, I went to the Jetlite guys to enquire about the departure time. Well, god bless me, the guy says "Sir, the flight has been delayed by half an hour. It will now leave at 1.00". I somehow managed to control my frustration and without saying a word to the dude, moved back to where I had kept my things. I sat there on the floor, which was on the way to the men's washroom. Lucky for me, the washroom was not immediately close to where I sat. I saw people people queing up every now and then to take the various flights to wherever they were going, looked around at all the fancy looking vending machines, dispensing magazines, newspapers, condoms, and everything one could possibly need on a journey. The time passed and finally it was time for me to leave. I neatly packed away my laptop, my phone and the charger and joined a long queue waiting to move out of the deaprture area on to the shuttle. I was finally out of the airport after all the travails that a traveller may possibly go through. I was happy that I was finally boarding the flight without any further delay.
However, my bad fate didn't just end there with the flight being delayed. I had travelled in a Jetlite flight before and had had a good experience. Since my last flight was at night , we were given dinner on flight, and somehow I expected the same to happen again that day, lunch this time. As I approached the flight, I set my eyes upon the smallest most dilapidated airplane one can ever imagine. I had no choice. I cursed everyone I could think of under my breath and boarded the flight. I was reserved for an aisle seat, which I soon found and sat down to avoid any more trouble for myself. The flight duration was to be 1.45 hours. By then it was already 1.15 and I was yearning to leave. After having sat there, looking at the airport through the window, flights taking off and landing, other co-passengers sitting around, I waited for my flight to take off. After half an hour of squirming I had to ask the hostess what the problem was. She coolly says "we're fifith in the take off queue and would soon be taking off". This pissed me to no extent. By the time we took off, it was already 1.50 pm. I to stay calm and instead read a newspaper that I was carrying. The entire journey passed with my face dug in to the newspaper, gobbling every piece of news there was. This was propbably after a very long time that I had read an entire newspaper. We finally reached Pune at about 3.30. With this came an end to my ordeal.
The lady at the fornt desk was of middle height, about 26, fair, smartly dressed and very helpful. She told me of the possible options. Apparantly, there were no more flights that day for Pune in Deccan. I had no choice but either to go to Mumbai, or to change my sector and book a fresh flight to Pune. I cursed my luck and decided to change sectors on my current ticket. I booked a flight for Delhi for August. I was told that I would need to pay Rs. 500 as a rescheduling charge and the difference in fares. Luckily, there was no difference in fares and I got away with paying just the resched charges. I collected my new flight ticket moved to other airline counters to check for next available flights to Pune. By now, I was in a rage, ready to eat up anyone who dared to mess with me. Somehow I managed to stroll over to the Jetlite counter without getting myself in to trouble. On asking I came to know that they did have a flight at 12.30, and that the fares would be around 5k. I had no choice, plus I had recently acquired the power of a brand new credit card. So there I was, making yet another transaction on the card. I must mention that I absolutely detest using the card, but I didn't have a choice.
My wait began again. It was 10.30 by the time I was through with the ticket formalities. I must mention something that I saw here. There were two people who were standing outside the Jetite counter speaking in a typically Bihari accent. They wanted to book tickets for Patna. They spoke in hindi and were dressed in a manner as if running away from cops. The lady at the counter informed them that there were no "confirmed" tickets available. This was the first time that I realized that even airlines issue "wait listed" tickets. Similar to the railways, airline tickets too had a chance to get "confirmed" at the last moment. The lady informed them that the fares would be 9k each with no surity of them being confirmed. I was surprised to hear that the two gentlemen were ready to buy it. However, they did ask a question which would have made anyone roll on the floor laughing "kya hum khade hoke ja sakte hai agar ticket confirm nahi hua?". This elicited an unwanted statement from my side, purely from an information point of view "nahi, aap khade hoke nahi ja sakte hai".
I stepped out of the Jetlite office, in a somewhat better demeanour than I was in before. I decided not to take any more chances for the day, given my extremely bad luck. I checked in my baggages and cleared the security clearance. I had little under 2 hours to wait before my flight left. I found a place below an electronic hoarding promoting some sort of a holiday plan and sat down there on the floor. Primarily because there was no other seat available and plus I had to charge my cellphone, which was completely discahrged. The moment I entered the departure lounge, I went to the Jetlite guys to enquire about the departure time. Well, god bless me, the guy says "Sir, the flight has been delayed by half an hour. It will now leave at 1.00". I somehow managed to control my frustration and without saying a word to the dude, moved back to where I had kept my things. I sat there on the floor, which was on the way to the men's washroom. Lucky for me, the washroom was not immediately close to where I sat. I saw people people queing up every now and then to take the various flights to wherever they were going, looked around at all the fancy looking vending machines, dispensing magazines, newspapers, condoms, and everything one could possibly need on a journey. The time passed and finally it was time for me to leave. I neatly packed away my laptop, my phone and the charger and joined a long queue waiting to move out of the deaprture area on to the shuttle. I was finally out of the airport after all the travails that a traveller may possibly go through. I was happy that I was finally boarding the flight without any further delay.
However, my bad fate didn't just end there with the flight being delayed. I had travelled in a Jetlite flight before and had had a good experience. Since my last flight was at night , we were given dinner on flight, and somehow I expected the same to happen again that day, lunch this time. As I approached the flight, I set my eyes upon the smallest most dilapidated airplane one can ever imagine. I had no choice. I cursed everyone I could think of under my breath and boarded the flight. I was reserved for an aisle seat, which I soon found and sat down to avoid any more trouble for myself. The flight duration was to be 1.45 hours. By then it was already 1.15 and I was yearning to leave. After having sat there, looking at the airport through the window, flights taking off and landing, other co-passengers sitting around, I waited for my flight to take off. After half an hour of squirming I had to ask the hostess what the problem was. She coolly says "we're fifith in the take off queue and would soon be taking off". This pissed me to no extent. By the time we took off, it was already 1.50 pm. I to stay calm and instead read a newspaper that I was carrying. The entire journey passed with my face dug in to the newspaper, gobbling every piece of news there was. This was propbably after a very long time that I had read an entire newspaper. We finally reached Pune at about 3.30. With this came an end to my ordeal.
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