It happened sometime back. We
visited our son and family in New York. it was my first trip abroad. After spending 5-6 months with them, it
was time for our return. It was a very eventful journey and I wish to share
with you the whole story of our return journey from the States.
Here it is.
After we boarded at New York, I
tried the control buttons to adjust the foot rest. But alas! the seat, instead
of the footrest started to raise. I was confused and kept trying some other
buttons. Raogaru was annoyed with me for being such a dumbo, unable to manage
even the simplest of simple buttons. But when he tried to help, he also could
not. I kept quiet for a while. Then ventured to fiddle with all the buttons and
lo, discovered that some buttons, which are meant for adjusting the seat
position were interchanged. Does it happen often? Anyway I tried some
permutations and combinations and finally ralaxed in a more comfortable
position and the rest of the journey was uneventful.
We landed at Mumbai at about
3:45pm, one and a half hours before time and cleared the customs easily. By the
time we came to collect the baggage, all our bags were already downloaded from
the belt and kept together. First we thought maybe they are not ours though
they looked the same, and that we were mistaken. And then thought maybe someone
else by mistake collected them. But it turned out to be the idea of an
over-enthu porter. He identified our bags by the yellow ribbons we tied to our
bags. Though it was done by us with the intention to make it easy for us to
identify our bags, it helped the seasoned porter more.
We had booking for the next day
to Hyd. But as the Hyd flight is at 6:45, we had ample time. So we thought of
trying our luck then itself. We had to go to the domestic airport, some 15-20 minutes
drive. We contacted the vehicle which was to collect us and as it is already on
the way, we decided to wait but it took longer than expected, adding to our
tension. Mumbai traffic, you know! Finally it arrived and our journey to
domestic airport also was very slow!
By 5:15 or so we reached there.
Raogaru hurried to the counter to try for the tickets. They are available but
the system was down and it took half an hour to get them finally. Then we
hurried to check in as the time was running, but the girl there said no seats
for us! It appeared to be due to lack of communication between the booking
counter and the check in counter. And we already sent the car away! After some firing
and some hectic activity back and forth and some very anxious moments finally
our boarding passes were issued. My security check was over fast but Raogaru
was not emerging for a long time. Ultimately he came out panting. It seems some
items in our bag are not allowed in the cabin baggage, which we cannot leave
behind! They are allowed in the check-in luggage. Fortunately I had a couple o
spare locks with me. So he had to run back to lock and check-in that bag also.
Then we called our daughter, Manju
in Hyderabad who was expected to receive us on the next day, to tell her about the
change. It seems there was heavy downpour in Hyderabad and she and Ravi were
stuck deep in the traffic on their way back home from offices! She was worried
whether they will be able to reach home before we land!
We boarded but to our panic,
found both our seats were occupied! One was from staff and so was promptly sent
to elsewhere. The other was a lady who, dont-know-why, took a fancy for my
seat! I sat in her seat and the airhostess talked my neighbour into exchanging
his seat with Raogaru, no, we didn't request her, and lo..we got consecutive
seats!
Suddenly I remembered to my
utter panic, that the last checked-in bag contained all our valuables, yes, the
gold and cash, Indian as well as American, as we intended to keep it with us,
for the sake of safety. I should have kept quiet but very naively mentioned it
to Raogaru and now it was his turn to panic. And how he panicked! Added to
that, he remembered to have noticed that the lock of one of our boxes was
already missing during the journey from New York to Mumbai, thus raising doubts
about the safety of the contents! Until we got that bag in Hyd with lock intact
he was tense and worried. Even then, after reaching Manju’s house, without even
bothering to say a hello to her, he immediately opened and checked its contents
the first thing and then only fully relaxed!
That was the story.
That is how our journey went
off. Quite an unforgetable experience really!
