Thursday, July 31, 2008

An ode to the triple E

The title has no connection with the contents of this post but its a promise I made to a dear friend ;).

Anyway, I was looking at all these people speed past me, I was thinking of where I had landed and why I had to land there. It was not my fault this time, I swear. Ok I'll give you a clearer picture, actually a gist because I have narrated this story a million times. I had a flight from Bangalore to Detriot (via Paris on Air France) and my flight had got delayed by a crazy 6 hours! And I have to mention that my ultra-patient and ultra-sweet friends waited with me till 4 am. Anyhoo when I went to get on to my flight I was told that I have no connecting flight to Detroit anymore for that day and I would be given a British Airways flight. I made a thousand phone calls like I was some hotshot and told them I was ok with BA. I checked my baggage yada yada yada I changed my flight in London and then landed at Chicago. Thats where the shemozzle began. I claimed my baggage and had to check it in again. I did that with minimum confusion. Then I went from terminal 5 to terminal 3 a tad proudly (keep in mind that it was my first trip abroad and my first trip alone). At terminal 3 they asked for my ticket which I had kept in the pocket of my sweater. Yeah, I dint find it.

I either had to find it or get BA or Air France to do something and I could do all this only at terminal 5. So I had to take one of the transit trains back to terminal 5. My backpack, by the way, weighed some 5-6 kgs, a cabin bag to drag around, hungry, couldnt find a phone, was out of currency on my Indian phone, no one to clarify the 100 questions I had, angry with Air France and myself for always having been dependent on someone. I went to terminal 5, dint find the ticket, BA said they couldnt do anything and Air France counters were closed for the day. That was when I felt pangs of loneliness and fear. The only reason I dint break down was that half my family was waiting at the Detroit airport. So I went back to terminal 3. I HAD to get on that flight because my baggage was there. The only way was to buy a new ticket. I got on the flight finally. And suddenly when the plane took off I felt it was flying reverse. It was pretty funny actually. Or maybe it was my head.

Such things may happen to a lot of people and I also dont have any morals to give you. But if you manage to get stuck at the Chicago airport do remember me.