"Hi, Happy Journey" - the caller told me in phone.
"Thanks" - I replied.
"So tomorrow morning, you will be landing in mauritius" - caller confirmed the status
"Excuse Me? Sorry, I am on my way to Mumbai, I am leaving to mauritius after 4 days"
"Oh yeah, ok Happy journey to both the trips, bye" - caller said and the call got disconnected.
Well it was simple, Me and my wife were on our way to Mumbai, 4 days before our honeymoon(referred to as HM) trip to Mauritius. The caller was the lady who had arranged for our Mauritius. Previously I had given two dates for this trip, one was 29thApr which was this day and other was 5thMay and then finally had made up my mind to travel on 5th may for 6 days. So the lady probably got confused and wished me on this day. Our plan was to stay and meet relatives in mumbai for the first 3 days and then be on our way to HM. Alas we landed in Mumbai safely and off we went to my uncle's place. Being newly wed has its own advantages, ofcourse we got a terrific reception on arrival and the same ooohs and aaahs continued for next 3 days. Then finally the day of our travel came.
The flight was scheduled for 4am from Mumbai International Airport. So naturally we had to be at airport by midnight. My uncle dropped us to the airport and he left after seeing us in at 12-30am. Being the more experienced of the two for international travels, I was feeling a bit of pride in myself to guide my wife towards the ticket counter to collect our boarding pass. Then when my turn came, I produced my ticket print out to the counter and our passports before the lady asked. That counter lady seemed to be kind of worried for a while and then she returned my print out and said "I am sorry sir, your tickets seem to be canceled. Please step aside for others to proceed." I could not understand what the matter was. I asked her "Err... Excuse me? What?". Then she told me the same thing again and asked me to verify with the person in some control room.
I could not believe what was happening. This was our HM trip and how could I have overlooked some details regarding ticket bookings. Without wasting any time, I rushed towards the control room to check the status with that guy. He welcomed me with a casual smile and showed no concern over my disturbed face. I told him the whole story and then he replied back saying he will check on his system. After 5 minutes he came up with same answer saying the tickets have been canceled. Now I did not know what to do. It was around 1am now and I had to call up that lady who had booked and confirmed our tickets. Time was running out, I had to act now. Somehow gearing up the courage to call her, I dialed her number. No answer. I dialed again and this time luckily she picked up. Being half sleepy she asked - "Hello, who is this?"
Me - "Hello its me, Sachin. You had booked my tickets and I am here at Mumbai airport and people are saying that my ticket is not valid. Can you tell me what is going on?"
She - "Oh, just a minute Sachin, let me check and call you back in 5 mins"
I said ok and disconnected. These 5 minutes were looking like the longest 5 minutes in my life now. In these 5 minutes lots of thoughts came to my mind. "How could this be happening?", "How could my HM trip get ruined after 3 months of planning?", "What would my wife be thinking now?", "Maybe we can visit nearby places in Mumbai since our trip is now canceled." I had even gone ahead and short-listed places like Khandala, Shirdi, Nasik, Ajanta-Ellora etc in my mind. I had to be careful not to discuss these options with my wife, because I was not sure how would she react to this change of plans. I was so disturbed that my wife consoled me for sometime saying its ok, we will wait and plan for some other time. But I knew if we miss it this time, there is no some other time for an international travel. I again began to read word by word in that ticket print out to see if there is any mention of the cancellation and tried to recall all conversation with the booking agent if by any chance I had mentioned to cancel my tickets... but as far as I could recollect, there was no such incident.
Finally the longest 5 minutes came to an end and my phone rang....
To be continued.... Click Here
I could not believe what was happening. This was our HM trip and how could I have overlooked some details regarding ticket bookings. Without wasting any time, I rushed towards the control room to check the status with that guy. He welcomed me with a casual smile and showed no concern over my disturbed face. I told him the whole story and then he replied back saying he will check on his system. After 5 minutes he came up with same answer saying the tickets have been canceled. Now I did not know what to do. It was around 1am now and I had to call up that lady who had booked and confirmed our tickets. Time was running out, I had to act now. Somehow gearing up the courage to call her, I dialed her number. No answer. I dialed again and this time luckily she picked up. Being half sleepy she asked - "Hello, who is this?"
Me - "Hello its me, Sachin. You had booked my tickets and I am here at Mumbai airport and people are saying that my ticket is not valid. Can you tell me what is going on?"
She - "Oh, just a minute Sachin, let me check and call you back in 5 mins"
I said ok and disconnected. These 5 minutes were looking like the longest 5 minutes in my life now. In these 5 minutes lots of thoughts came to my mind. "How could this be happening?", "How could my HM trip get ruined after 3 months of planning?", "What would my wife be thinking now?", "Maybe we can visit nearby places in Mumbai since our trip is now canceled." I had even gone ahead and short-listed places like Khandala, Shirdi, Nasik, Ajanta-Ellora etc in my mind. I had to be careful not to discuss these options with my wife, because I was not sure how would she react to this change of plans. I was so disturbed that my wife consoled me for sometime saying its ok, we will wait and plan for some other time. But I knew if we miss it this time, there is no some other time for an international travel. I again began to read word by word in that ticket print out to see if there is any mention of the cancellation and tried to recall all conversation with the booking agent if by any chance I had mentioned to cancel my tickets... but as far as I could recollect, there was no such incident.
Finally the longest 5 minutes came to an end and my phone rang....
To be continued.... Click Here
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1 comment:
I know the remaining story...but still would like to read it here....;)
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