Near miss HM Trip - Part-2-

Missed the first part... Read it here - PART-ONE

After a long 5 minutes, my phone started ringing.

She - "Mr.Sachin, I am so so sorry, there was a slight confusion over your travel plans"

Me(Feeling my HM trip is over) - "Oh what? How? How could you do that? Whats the issue now? What do I need to do now?"

She - "Actually it seems that your tickets were booked for the date 29th Apr and not today. Wait, let me try to arrange something for your travel. I will call you back in 5 minutes"

Yet another 5 minutes. Every minute passing by was just making things worse. Just could not understand what went wrong. I was wishing if only I could have confirmed with the Agent once in previous week. But then how could you doubt a reputed agency making such a mistake. Just when I was wondering about various things that could have avoided this confusion, a person from that agency came to me and asked "Are you travelling to Singapore? If yes, please follow me." He saw the bag we were carrying which was given by that agency and after seeing us wait from a long time, he probably thought we needed some help. Indeed we needed a lot of help now. I replied back saying "no" and also told him the situation we were in. He dived in to help us out of this situation and asked for my printouts. Just then, my agent called back. Then I told my agent that some person from same agency is trying to help me out here. She warned me to check his ID once and then let her talk to him once.


Then they both talked for around a couple of minutes and then I guess my agent was convinced of that person's identity and she suggested me to follow him. That person promptly went to that control room which we had visited before, talked to that control room person for a while and then something happened. He asked me to follow him again and he led me to that ticket counter. There he talked again to some people and finally led me back to control room. Time was already short. It was already 2-30am now. Then again in control room, he took out his credit card and gave it to the man in the control room. That man swiped it and then took some print out and handed it over to my person. Then that person gave me that printout and said, "Have a safe and happy journey. Enjoy your HM". I just could not believe my ears that I would be hearing that. Seeing my surprised expression, he explained me a bit - "I have booked you new tickets on same flight. Since the time is less, you will have to adjust for whatever seats are available. Also enclosed are your return tickets from Mauritius. You do not have to pay anything extra for this trip. Just go and enjoy your trip now. I have talked to your agent too and she will get in touch with you once you are back in India." I thanked him very much and rushed towards the ticket counter for the third time in last couple of hours and this would probably be the last time before our travel I thought. The lady at ticket counter promptly asked for my passport which I forgot to produce due to the ongoing events. Finally the boarding pass was in my hand and that meant we could now enjoy our trip without any further problems.


Thats just a thought, but then how can you be sure about your return tickets being proper now? No way right?. Well, this thought crossed my mind when we crossed our security checks and proceeded towards the flight to settle down in our seats allotted. Ofcourse we did not get the window seats which we would've wished for, but then after such events had occurred, the window seats did not matter anymore. Then the same thought and fear about the return tickets kept me worried for long time until we landed in Mauritius. One look at that wonderful island and everything about the return tickets was forgotten. For the whole of one week, we enjoyed every bit of that wonderful trip until the time when we landed at the Mauritius airport to return back to India. Now again the dreadful thought of return tickets came to my mind when I was standing in line for collecting my boarding pass. Again several thoughts came to my mind about what are our options here if the return tickets are not valid too. Finally my turn came, looking nervous I produced the print out again to that lady at the counter. She stared at my worried face and then asked for my passport. Yet again, I had to give my passport only after being asked. Finally she gave me the boarding passes and wished me a "Happy journey, Visit again".


I just could not stop smiling back at her and say "Thanks a lot" and happily hopped to my wife and proceeded towards the security check. A wonderful trip which was nearly missed came to an end finally. The guy who helped us at Mumbai Airport was named Abhishek. I would not like to take the name of that reputed agency here anyway.


The moral of the story as I think would be to make sure and keep the bag which your agency gives at the top of your baggage cart, because it was after all the bag which saved us this trip. And in case your agency does not give any bags, then make sure you double confirm the status of your travel tickets before the journey.

Near miss HM trip - Part-1-

"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

Skandagiri Night Trek

“Wow, looks like a lovely place” – I said looking at the Skandagiri hills, which was visible in the moonlight. It was cloudy and windy as expected but it was 2 days for a full moon day. The moon was playing hide and seek under the clouds. Also it was good that it wasn’t raining. So this was it, my first night trek with my office friends (Who forced me into this) was about to begin.

**Flashback** 2 days ago, at my office –

“Hey guys, what is the plan for weekend. How about movie? – I said. Few responded with Yes and others a plain NO. Finally 5 of us decided to go to this movie Inception evening show on Saturday. Later the plan extended to a late night trek. 2 more people who would miss the movie told they would join for the trek. I had never been on such a trek before. So physically and mentally it was a challenge for me. But being a confident guy, I always thought I would come up triumphs on this trek and it would be a cake walk for me. Two days I did attempt a couple of warm ups like walking around half a km briskly and thought I had warmed up enough for the trek. Alas, if I only knew then that this was not enough.

**Flashback ends** In front of Skandagiri hills –

I had a backpack with a heavy windcheater which I had packed after one of my trek friend told it would be required for this chilly climate. So the cakewalk was about to begin. I was very confident of scaling down this peak within no time. So we started off on a trail towards the hill. Since this was my first night trek, I was pretty excited and with full energy I was at top of group. 15 mins into that trail, we realized that this trail was heading nowhere near the hills and we were totally on wrong trail. This happens when you are over-adventurous at times. So we had to trace back the same trail to the starting point again and had to start on the correct trail all over again. At this point, my energy level had suddenly dropped by 30%. For first 15 mins, I kept talking/chatting continuously with my fellow mates but then I suddenly realized I had to save my energy for the trek. My energy level was dropping down rapidly now as the time spent on trail increased. I realized that may be if I can stop talking and save whatever energy is left, I can probably make to the top of the hill. Suddenly half an hour later, I had to take a break. So it meant everyone had to take the break.

Took few snaps of non-existent scenery of the night. After a good refreshing break, we again set our foot on the trail. As the trail went on and on, my energy level went down and down. Looking at this, my friends started giving some words of encouragement like, “Its done, just few more mins and we will be at top”. Tough it sounded very good to the ears, the truth as it stood that the peak was not few minutes away but rather few hours. Consoling myself at every step, that I can still do it, I carried on. To help my condition, the weather was cool and windy so it was not that tiring. After sometime, I had to give my backpack to one of my friend and I carried on solo on the trail. Now my energy level was almost at zero and we were probably halfway to the peak and I had to break for a while again. This time, I did not have strength to take even few snaps of the non-scenic sight. Then we set on our trail yet again.

At some point of time, when you get very tired and you still have to carry on, the body reacts in a very mechanical way. This makes you look like a zombie. This was the time, I was walking like a zombie with no energy left. My body had become mechanical with only one goal “WALK to the TOP”. I was still confident of making to the top and when you know you are not the weakest in your group, it adds to your confidence even more. Yes, I was not the only one to feel like a zombie, one more of my friend was already considering not to continue on the trail and wait for us at this spot until all of us return back from peak. Anyway, the whole point now was to reach the peak and I was just counting on minutes when I will hear those magical words “Yes, here we are finally”. Alas the magic did not happen for next couple of hours. Few more breaks on the way when I could not feel my legs anymore or the pain in them. My energy level had already reached the negative level and was few more minutes away from hitting rock bottom. And then suddenly I could not believe my ears when I heard those magical words. Indeed we were at top of that hill, but then it was not the way I expected it to be. The time was 4AM and it was still dark out there and it was so windy that we could not open our eyes and see whats in front of us. The morning mist or thick fog was not making things easier too. This was the time, my backpack was most needed. I immediately took out the windcheater and put it on. Some relief finally and the dropped energy level suddenly went up after feeling the top of hill.

Then there was nothing much to do there, so we took a short nap until the sunrise (which we were expectant of watching). Finally the time came when we got up and expected to see the morning sun, but alas the cloudy sky had other ideas. We could not see the sun anywhere in the cloudy sky. Since we had taken some rest and refilled our energies to some extent, we broke into a talking session which went on for an hour or so. Then we decided to head back towards our cars and started our descent. Climbing down the hill was not so exhaustive and this time around we could take few good snaps of the existent scenery. The climbing up of hill took us around 4 hours while getting down took us just over an hour and a half. So that was it. I had scaled down the Skandagiri hill on my first ever night trek.

Altough this trek exposed lot of my physical weaknesses; it was a wonderful experience and a night worth remembering. I would love to go on more of such treks but only after doing a very good warm-up. Fitness sessions begin now and lot more of such sessions needed to scale down other peaks which are more adventurous than this one.

Life from a near-death

“Ding dong, ding dong”, the alarm went on in my mobile. Slowly opening my sleepy eyes, I laid my hand on my mobile and saw the time. It was 5-35am on 4^th of Nov 2010. Me, my cousins and one of my uncles were sleeping in a hotel room and had planned for a bath in the morning sea. So we had to get up early in order to enjoy the morning sea and return back just after sunrise. I called everyone to get up and then we were all set to move in next 3 mins. It was still dark outside when we started to walk towards beach. The beach was around 15mins walking distance from our place. So after 15mins, we reached the beach. For a moment, we stared at each other for a second. The vast Arabian Sea was beckoning us. The next second we were stripping our clothes and running towards the cold water. Recently I had learnt this new technique called floating on water with heads looking up towards sky. The beach looked very calm without much waves at the moment. I started my float immediately as I hit the water. “Aaaah… Awesome… it was a pleasure…” I thought. Indeed it was a pleasure watching the brightening sky upwards and then closing my eyes for sometime to listen to the wonderful calmness of the sea. Then got up couple of times and again went into my float. After what looked like a long time around half n hour had passed by.

“Hey come, its time to go home” – I heard someone shouting. Cursing the moment, thinking, the wonderful time is up let’s come tomorrow and start afresh, I slowly got up from my float position. Suddenly I realized that my feet were still floating under the water. I tried to reach the ground beneath, but then I could not. I saw the land quite far away from where I had started floating. It took me a moment to realize that the waves had calmly drifted me away from the land and here I was trying to think hard how to get to the shores of safety. Realizing I would drown at any moment, I immediately called my uncle for help. My uncle realized that and started swimming towards me. Suddenly one more of my cousin who was sitting on the shores also started coming towards me when he heard me call for help. Finally my uncle reached me, but then he also was not able to touch the ground beneath. He pushed me from behind and then he had to regain himself and push me again. After few pushes, we were still long way from the shores.

The ground beneath was uneven, the place where I started to float was at a much higher altitude than where we were now. That was the reason we were not able to find the ground beneath. The higher ground was towards our right. My uncle started pushing me towards that higher ground level. Whatever we tried, it looked as if the silent waves of the sea were pulling us towards itself and away from the shores. One more cousin of mine was standing on that higher ground level and shouting at me to try and reach there. My uncle was now tired, he started swimming back towards that higher ground. Maybe he would regain some breath and return again for another push. But since I saw him move out, I thought I must be too far away and was difficult to be saved. Thoughts came to my mind that this could be the end of my life and started looking at various moments which I had spent in my lifetime. Then one final time I started praying to the god and thought that this is it. Then suddenly I realized I was still floating, not drowning. This was weird. I was not drowning, at the same time I knew vaguely on concepts of swimming. So putting all my effort, I thought, one last chance let me give it to myself and started kicking my hands and legs to move towards the higher ground. Suddenly I felt some sand below with my foot finger, but I was still not feeling safe. I could not stand on the ground below and the waves were still pulling me away from the land. Then after few seconds of struggle, I could finally land my foot on the ground beneath the water and struggled to walk until the water level came down to my knee level. At this point, I felt completely safe and turned back to see my cousin who had dived into sea was double the distance from land from where I was at some point of time. It was merely impossible for any of us to swim back to him and save him. We could only watch in horror for couple of minutes when few village people gathered around. None of these people came for our rescue and instead they were scolding at us for going so far in the sea.

From nowhere in crowd, one man with 6.5ft height started undressing himself and started towards the sea to save my cousin. We watched him easily swim across the dangerously calm sea and catch hold of my cousin and then with the help of a long rope, we all pulled him back to the shores. My senses were not working at this point of time and at that moment realized that everyone of us were safe now. Somewhat regaining the strength to face the shouting and scolding villagers, we put on the remaining strength and courage to start walking towards our home. We thanked the hunk whose name was Martin and he was from England. He wished us back a “Happy Diwali” and for the next 15 mins, nobody talked and we were in state of shock. We were also wondering how to face the people back in home. Then our nerves slowly started settling down. We told all the people about this incident back home and then there were usual “I told you not to go…” speeches from our elders. Not that, we did not know about this before, but then some lessons are learnt in a harder way.

There is a saying “Calm seas are more dangerous than the roaring seas”. Even today when I see the calm sea and think of this very day, it sends down shiver to the spines of my body and makes me think how true the saying is. Also this incident told us not to underestimate the strength of a calm sea. Nevertheless, I am thankful to all people who came to my and my cousin’s rescue without which I would not have seen another sunrise in my life.