Chapter 10

During the end of the year, you always have stories that take place throughout the year to narrate. However in my case, I am blessed with eventful happenings. My friend during my college days once told me, my life was so eventful (with no girls and still heart breaks), that they could have a soap opera on my life story.

During Christmas I decided to visit my sister in Chicago. Now usually, everybody gets excited when they go to meet a relative. And hopefully over-excited when its someone from the same family. I wasn't too excited to be honest. I had to skip 3 days of work (which is around 200$(i can get 2 girls drunk for 3 days and 4 nights continuous for that amount of money)). So after spending 5 days in Chicago it was time to come back. She stuffed my bag up with 4 kilos of food and i guess in 5 days stuffed me up with another 2 kilos in stomach (from packs to flab).

So on my way back in the airport I realized the importance of punctuality. Apparently there is a rule that you need to show ur face to the check-in counter 45 minutes prior to the flights take off. Now the lady at the counter said I was late by 2 minutes and so she couldn’t check 'something' in on that flight and that it would be checked on the next flight. Right before i checked in, the guy in front of me wasted 10 minutes trying to remove stuff from his bag to bring down the weight and stuff. To add to my annoyance, I wasted another 10 minutes standing in a counter just to be told, they wouldn’t take cash payment there. I wanted to shout at the lady and say ' LOOK ITS NOT MY PROBLEM IF THE GUY AHEAD WAS BUSY TRYING TO LOWER HIS WEIGHT BY TRYING TO GET HIS UNDERWEARS OUT AND OUT OF THE OTHER 10 COUNTERS THIS IS THE ONLY COUNTER THAT TAKES CASH AS IT IS WRITTEN NOWHERE!'. But i was all heart-broken. I had scheduled the flight such that I could save 40$ by avoiding to take the cab and take the local transport back home. But oh well, I cursed my luck, the 120 seconds which would cost me 40 $ extra (whoever said time is money was spot on) and that man who was in front of me in the line.

After security check I realized, I was put on the next flight! That something was me along with my luggage! I was furious! Why would I let go my confirmed ticket for a stand-by ticket on a flight an hour later that too because of no fault of mine! I knew the lady at the counter was eyeing me, but so much that she wants to look at me for the next 1 hour! I fumed around the airport so much so that; people looked at me suspiciously scared. If i had even a small stubble on, it would have been an icing on the cake, i.e., good enough to dial 911 and complain about a 20-25 yr old brown guy with a stubble on storming furiously and random in the airport (scary enough).

I was so busy fuming over the phone that I almost got knocked off by a vehicle inside. I had made up my mind, if not get on that flight, at least vent out my frustration on the desk at the gate. So I went there and before i opened up my mouth, she asked me for my ticket. I showed her the ticker and again before opening my mouth, she tore it and gave me the boarding pass for that flight. I was startled and looked at her like a kid eyeing a stranger who gives them candy.
Even before i could say thank you, she said she dint understand why i was put in the later flight in the first place. I just smiled and walked out of there.

I did manage to not spend 40$ on cab and the person who got me late was being frisked by the security personnel.

And PS: I really love my sister even though 200$>love for sister when you are a student.

I learnt two valuable lessons that day:-
1) 120 second can cost you 40 $
2) If a person standing ahead of you in line removes his underwear from luggage just to bring down the weight of his bag over weight by 10 kilos, its going to be one bad day.
3) For every 3 bad things, there would be one big good thing.