Indeed 11th April 2008 at Chennai was an unusual evening on our way to the airport. With the departure time beyond 8:00 PM we, Siby and I thought it would be a normal evening with just a few busy signal crossings on our way to the airport. But not willing to take a chance, the over cautious approach that I take when it comes to traveling, we left early by Chennai standards at 7:15 PM. Karthikeyan wanted me on a call with Ranga and that took us a minute beyond 7:15 PM. While we were on the call, I sent Siby an SMS to get ready and head towards the car.
To our dismay, the car driver had chosen to take a small detour of the surroundings as we had not informed him that we would be leaving at 7:15 PM. By the time we located him and he was able to get the car to the front gate of our office, precious minutes were just gone. The traffic was unusually dense that evening with no apparent reason. We tried asking the driver in our broken Tamil whether we would reach in 45 minutes….he readily said yes. As if it were a statement coming from God himself, we believed him and got into some serious conversation about the Humana visit and what else we could do for the client to earn further support for our expansion plans. When the cab was standing still for a good 5 minutes at a signal crossing, I began to panic. It was the same clammy feeing one gets when watching a horror film when you do not know what to expect next!! Flashes of doubt whether I would be able to reach the counter 30 minutes before the flight take-off kept appearing on my mind.
Siby, as usual, kept assuring me that it would be absolutely okay and we would reach in time. Since it was an Air Deccan flight, I thought maybe Siby was right. Seldom does an Air Deccan flight take-off on time!! Prabhakar in the meantime had reached the airport with our distinguished Humana guests from a trip to Pondicherry. He called in to confirm whether Siby was on the way to airport. We asked him to check at the Air Deccan counter whether the Chennai to Bangalore flight was departing on time? Surprise! Surprise! – it was indeed scheduled to fly on the dot at 9:00 PM. Fate was perhaps being cruel to me...this was another stray thought that crossed my bewildered mind, now fraught with pessimism.
After a long and a seemingly endless drive we finally reached the airport with 25 minutes left for the flight's departure. Would I make it…God it seems, enjoys once in a while playing a cruel game with his followers and believers. Between the flight and I, there was this devil at the counter who said, 'Impossible, the counter is closed.' We lost precious minutes explaining that the roads were congested and we were held up in traffic snarls. Aha!! Remarked the guy at the counter, 'pray, tell me how did the others traveling in the same flight manage?' Although it wasn't the time to give a lecture on time management, much less listen to an unknown Indian teaching the basics of keeping time from Air Deccan guy at the counter, well I had to. He was unrelenting and so were we, as stubborn as we could be.
This went on for a good 15 minutes until Siby asked him why he was being so adamant. His reply was "go and see the 'Q' at the security check". There were at least 150 people waiting for their chance to get through security clearance. Not wanting to be browbeaten by a nondescript guy at the counter, we ventured by telling him that we would manage the crowd and sail through the gate and that responsibility was just ours, not his. He spoke to his counterpart inside the plane which was in its final phase of preparations for take-off. Imagine our relief when the guy at the plane said. 'Send him in.' Our friend, was still unrelenting, he was getting some kind of a sadistic pleasure through this denial process: two guys wallowing in front of him requesting that one of them be accommodated. Tables apparently, had turned for Air Deccan I guess. It was time to tell people that Air Deccan meant business and that it was ready to shed its earlier image of a laidback airline meant only for holiday makers where time was not a premium.
We gave in and told him to hand over the boarding pass only after I got through the cordon of people at the security. While I was running, Siby had already reached at the head of the 'Q' and had made an earnest appeal to people at large to accommodate a colleague of his and allow him to pass through, ahead of the bunch. Couple of folks at the head of the 'Q' decided to play good Samaritans and allowed me to slip in. Only then did our friend hand over the boarding pass.
Rest is history. On hindsight, it was pretty comical…could we have avoided? I don't think so. I came to know from the other passengers in the flight that Friday evenings are a nightmare. Chennai has a huge floating population, thanks to the economic awakening that India is going through in the last 3 to 4 years. This floating population heads home during weekends. Coupled with a plethora of low cost carriers now crowding the Indian skies, all roads lead to Chennai airport every Friday. I am not going to Thank God anymore, if it's a Friday!!
Did I have an alternative? I am sure, there was. I could have traveled the next day by the same airline or could have bought myself another ticket in one of the three remaining flights to Bangalore the same evening. The 'Joy of Flying' (pun intended!!) in the same Air Deccan flight (now christened Kingfisher Deccan) which appeared seemingly impossible, was sweeter than tamely buying another ticket and building a plausible story to get the bosses approval for wastefully spending another Rs. 4,000.
Cheers!!
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