Delayed...

[This was a post that i started out almost a year back, but never got to complete it!! So finally better late than never!!]
There r days when everything that can go wrong.. well simply does go wrong!! June 23/24 2005 was one such for me.

I was in the Gulf Kingdom of Bahrain and was flying back to Bangalore. My team mates had left by an earlier flight and I was staying back with my cousin who works in Bahrain. I was scheduled to take a GulfAir flight from Bahrain to Mumbai and a connecting Jet Airways flight from onwards to Bangalore.

My flight out of Bahrain was scheduled at 10:30 PM and my cousin dropped me off at the airport at a quarter to 8. Went straight for the GF counters (surprisingly empty!!) and presented my tickets and passport. The gentleman at the counter, a Bahraini who spoke bits n pieces of English, asked me if I worked in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia. I said no I was there on business visa. He looks at me with a confused look and says " Passport no cancel"!! I give him an even more confused look and a civilized version of "What the F***?!!" .. when he consults the lady in the next counter and informs me that "Passport must cancel!!" .. Like tht was helpful.. I told him that I did not get what he wanted, when he points to his superior's cabin and says "Talk Supervisor".

The supervisor luckily spoke better English and after going through my passport, informed me that since I am on a 7-day visa I needed no such thing as a cancellation. Oh yeah "Passport must cancel" actually is required for foreigners holding a work permit visa in Bahrain. They need some sort of an exit stamping in order to leave the country!!

Relieved I walked back to the reservation counter, where the queue was now snaking three times over!! Tried being civil and waited patiently for my turn (Big Mistake!!). Scanned all the GF staff on various counter and finally went to one where the guy looked cheerful and spoke good English. He takes my ticket and passport, goes through the passport and starts issuing me a ticket without any questions asked!! Man i should hv come here in the first place.. I am looking forward to a comfy nap, when suddenly the guy at counter stares at his screen, the motions for his supervisor and they start talking to each other in Arabic. Totally clueless I ask them wht the matter was. Apparently the flight was overbooked and the economy class is full. That meant I would be on standby.

If I was at the earlier counter, I would have hammered that chap to death!! Anyways being the eternal optimist, I expected a possible upgrade to Business class and accepted the standby status. While I waited almost 15-20 people were added on to the stand by list.

The clock ticked past 9:30 and we still had no news. At 9:40 they opened 3 business class seats and there were almost 7 times that number on standby. As luck (or rather lack of it) wud hv it, there were two young kids and a very old lady who were given priority.

Alarm bells started ringing in my head!! Hv heard lotsa tales of Mid-East airliners ill-treating stranded passengers from the Indian sub-continent. I rushed to the supervisor and informed him that it is absolutely important that I reach India the next day blah blah blah. he assured me that he will try to do his best. After about 5 mins, my name is called out and I get my boarding pass!!

But, wait my boarding pass says I am travelling to Abu Dhabi, not Bombay!!! I start to point out the mistake, the agent hands me one more boarding pass - Abu Dhabi to Mumbai!! I am being re-routed via Abu Dhabi. 45 mins stopver at AUH and then from there a 3.5 hrs flight to Mumbai which lands at around 5:20 AM. Good enough I thought, still have more than an hour to catch my Jet Airways flight. My only worry now, was that I didnt hv enough time to grab some chocs at the duty-free!!

After a pretty un-eventful flight to AUH, we land at a remote bay and are taken to the terminal in busses. At the transit lounge, find out that the Bombay flight is delayed by 30 mins!! Prayers answered, I do my bit of shopping and arrive at the gate promptly.Boarding done and after abt 30 mins we are still on the tarmac!! Smthings definitely wrong.

The captain comes online and announces that there was a snag with the onboard computer and that they would have to reboot it. That meant they would have to switch off the powersupply to the aircraft and switch on again!! Wow.. I thot we did that only with our Home PCs!! Anyways all that done and Captain giving an all OK, we are pushed back and we start taxi-ing. On the main runway engines all revved up, the flight starts on it flight to Mumbai... but just as we lift off, we are back on the runway again.. Pilot aborts take off!! The same computer snag appears again!! Am not sure whether I was pissed off at this or relieved that the snag did not appear 10 mins later while we were mid flight!!

Anyways we were deplaned and after a good 12 hr wait at Abu Dhabi airport, we finally got back into another aircraft at 1 in the afternoon!! In those 12 hrs, got sick of staring at the blue tiles tht make up the Abu Dhabi airport!! Abu Dhabi airport is pretty much a poor cousin of Dubai. Not much to do out there. Called up home to tell them I would be delayed and later called up Jet Airways to re-schedule my domestic flight. The lady at the other end informed me it was taken care of and i just needed to walk to their counter and would be accomodated in the next flight.

There was this lady, Ms. Shetty, who was travelling back to India for the first time, after visiting her husband in Bahrain. She had been re-routed like me. We got chatting and found out tht we were in the same row. She wanted a window seat and I gladly exchanged it for her aisle seat.

The GF flight landed in the Mumbai with all the passengers "applauding" the airlines for finally making it to Mumbai. It was raining outside and we got out into the familiar "urinal-pointing" stench of Chatrapati Shivaji International Terminal!! At the customs check point, the customs officer pointed out tht I had a digi cam and would hav to pay duty on that!! That camera (Sony P32) was a good 2 years old and had bought it on a previous jaunt. Tried convincing the same to the officer, who wanted me to prove it was old!! At this point Ms. Shetty who wa swith me thru immigration and customs asked me if it was a new camera. Immediately the custom officer says ," See, even your WIFE says its new!!!" Shell shocked , both of us shout out, WE ARE NOT MARRIED!!! Visibly embarassed, the officer mumbles an apology and lets us go!! That was a nice way to end an otherwise disastrous journey!!

With some luck, catch a Jet flight to Bangalore and land up home at 10 in the night and simply crash into my bed!! Home Sweet Home!!