My Flight To Mumbai...

I was happy to get a window seat. I felt as if I had won a million dollar lottery that day.

I was travelling to Mumbai from New Delhi and my journey consisted of only two hours but if the two hours have to be spent sitting on a middle seat, it becomes super tedious.

So I was travelling to Mumbai and had just got through with the security. Fortunately I was way ahead of time. I am usually never on so precisely on time but that day I was. Even I was feeling so proud of myself. I was one hour before time. I went around the airport, treated myself to a Starbucks cup of hot chocolate . All said and done, I had reached much before the scheduled time and I did not knew what to do with all that spare time at hand. I had nothing much to do, so I decided to proceed to the boarding gates.

I checked my boarding pass. It read boarding gate 16. I knew where that was. There was not much science involved here. Being a frequent flyer, airport was like home to me. I considered rechecking the same but then shooed away the thought. The rechecking would not while away more than a minute of my time. So it would not help me much.

I took the escalator and went to gate number 16. The boarding had not yet started. It was quite predictable. I was before time. How could it have anyways started.. My flight details were also not mentioned on the gate flash board.

There were no security personnel. I still went up to the boarding gate, placed my hand luggage near my right foot and started to wait. Guess it would have been a few minutes or more I don’t know. I was overtly engrossed in my thoughts. Suddenly there was a pat on my shoulder. I looked back. There was a lady behind me, and behind her was another lady, behind her a man and this continued. There was a huge queue lined up behind me.

The lady asked me if it was the queue to the Mumbai flight. I looked at her in despair. Why do people ask such questions I thought. Is that not clear from the boarding pass itself. I was trying to find an appropriate answer to her question.

Suddenly the TV screen flashed with the flight details. It was not my flight. It was the flight to Goa. Alas! I did not know what to say, I did not know where to look. The boarding gates for Mumbai flight had been changed. I now had to board my flight from gate number 7.

I quietly picked up my handbag and started walking to my new destination. The lady behind me ran up to me and asked if the boarding gates had changed. I replied yes and continued to walk but I knew there were several eyes that were chasing me. I did not look back.

A famous line from the movie flashed in my mind, Hum Jaha Khade Hote Hai Line Wahi Se Shuru Hoti Hai.