The Vacation Irony

A couple of years ago I came across this quote about vacation.

“When all else fails, take a vacation.” 

But what if you wanted to take a vacation and all else fails? Well, that is exactly what happened to me.

After a dull year, I really needed a vacation. I had to get away from books and pump some positive energy into my life. While most of my trips are between Hyderabad and Bangalore, I needed something more this time. Few quick phone calls later, my sister, brother-in-law and I decided to take a 10-day trip to Kerala. This would be my second trip to Kerala in less than 2 years.  There is something very magical about that place; you can never get enough of it.

Tickets were booked and an itinerary was drawn. I was supposed to take a flight from Hyderabad to Trivandrum and my sister and brother-in-law who already left a couple of days earlier would pick me up from the airport. My flight was scheduled for 4 P.M.  from Hyderabad. My over cautious dad would always rush us when we are travelling. More often than not, this would lead to a lot of confusion and few angry exchanges. But this time, I was in control and planned everything to the tee. The airport is a 30 minute drive from my house. We decided to leave at 2 P.M considering all the traffic so that I would have enough time after reaching airport and as per the plan we conveniently reached the airport at 2:40 P.M.

 I saw that the check in at the Indigo counter has already started. When I gave my ticket, the pretty girl at the counter looked confused.  She looked at me and said, ‘Ma’am, the check in for this flight has been closed. The flight is about to take off in 15 minutes.’

‘How is that possible? The departure is at 4 P.M!’ I said with utter disbelief.

She pointed out the departure time on my ticket. It was at 15 hours. Damn the 24 hour format!

 I couldn't believe what had just happened to me. I could only think of my dad’s I told you so, my sister’s fury and all the lost money. I could feel the blood rush and my head throbbing.  I immediately called my dad who was still in the airport, to come back.  I ran from one airline to another, inquiring frantically about the next flight to Trivandrum. My only option was to take two connecting international flights. The first was from Hyderabad to Bangalore starting at 2 a.m and the next from Bangalore to Trivandrum at 8 a.m. I had to pay a little more than twice the amount I paid for my missed flight. On our way back home, my dad did not speak a word and I knew I am probably still not ready to plan a trip completely on my own.

It was 10:30 P.M and my dad wanted us to leave lest we miss this flight as well. I wanted to protest saying the flight would not depart for another 3.5 hours, but better sense prevailed and I remained silent. He dropped me off at the airport at 11 P.M and to my horror the flight was delayed by 2 hours. I called my dad again. He took my call and said ‘What now? There is no way you could have missed this flight as well!!’

When I told him that the flight was delayed, he said in a flat voice, ‘the next time I come to take you from the airport, it will be when you are returning from Trivandrum. Now go and explore the airport. It is beautiful’. Sigh!

I checked in my luggage and looked around the around the airport. It was indeed very beautiful but I was too tired and annoyed to enjoy it. It was pretty cold and the dry winter air blew across my face.   Three more hours to go and I couldn't wait for this nightmare of the day to get over. I took out a shawl and wrapped it around and decided to take a small nap. An hour later, I woke up to see few more people in my lounge. It was pretty quiet except for the occasional announcements. The T.V in the room was on mute and late night edition of news on NDTV was running. I noticed that my flight has been further delayed by an hour. Having lost all the excitement about the trip already, I just went to sleep. The light sleeper that I am, I kept waking up at regular intervals to check the time. Finally, the flight arrived at 5 in the morning. The only good thing about the whole trip so far was that I got a window seat. You are never too old for a window seat in a flight. Or for that matter anywhere.

It was still very dark outside and the well-lit city looked gorgeous.  The view was exceptional but my droopy eyes got the better of me as I spent the journey with another one of those little naps. The flight landed in Bangalore at 6:45 in the morning. I immediately collected my luggage and ran to the international departures to catch my connecting flight. I couldn't believe my luck when I saw that this flight was delayed by 2 hours as well! Annoyed, frustrated and sleep deprived (yeah, all those silly naps were not enough) by now, I just sat in the lounge doing what I had been doing the whole day – waiting. I was little happy to see few familiar faces from my earlier Hyderabad flight. I went and sat next to an old couple and decided to strike a small conversation. I spoke to them for a while and went around looking for the costliest coffee I have ever had in my life. I had to pay Rs 97 for a cup of coffee but then I really needed one to stop myself from smashing the cameras of all those chirpy honeymoon couple who were talking ‘selfies’ at 7:30 in the morning, at an airport, that too!

I walked around for a while and came to the lounge. The old couple were taking a nap. I, pretty bored by then, thought would strike up a conversation with someone around. But none of them seemed interested in talking to a zombie-looking me. But, hey, at least I had sparrows for company. That brought me to a question, why were there so many sparrows in the Bangalore airport again?

An hour later, pizza hut opened to rescue the hungry me. I bought garlic bread, a small pizza and lemon tea. Just when I was about eat my garlic bread, an air hostess came and rushed us all into the flight. I had to stuff my mouth with all the things I bought and in the process burn my mouth completely before running into the flight. Though I was little sad for not being able to enjoy my pizza and garlic bread, I was happy to be in the flight after endless waiting. The excitement slowly started kicking in again as I was just a couple of hours away from finally starting my vacation. But, considering how my luck has been till then, it was extremely naive of me to think that it was all over. The flight developed a technical glitch and did not start for another hour. So, there I was, waiting again, only this time, in the flight.

27 hours, 2 delayed flights, unending waiting and a burnt mouth later, I finally reached Trivandrum. I kept my excitement down because I couldn't afford to jinx the vacation again. And you know who else had to wait endlessly as well? My sister and brother-in-law, who waited for over 4 hours in the Trivandrum airport to pick me up.

Well, after such a terrible start, it was only fair that I had an awesome vacation later and I did.

Moral of the story:

1) Just let your dad plan the trip for you. They do an awesome job.

2) Ban the 24 hour format.

3)  When you have such experiences, never start writing a blog post about it. Even before I could realise, I spent endless hours on this post, much like the start of my glorious vacation.

P.S. The picture was clicked at the Bangalore airport to kill some time. Seems like the man had similar vacation too.