this blog might fall under informational category :-). this is to let you all know that I have grown bigger with time and started missing even flights :-) :-).
the only thing i would have missed in my life before were the local buses that fly between pmna and angadipuram.if you miss one,the other one will come within a minute.
in states,i have missed the local shuttles few times and had ended up waiting for next 30 minutes.
the only other occassion which i remember is a near missing of train in kottayam in 1992 after i was returning from sakhym's state camp. when me and my friend arrived in the platform,the train had just started moving and we some how managed to find ourselves inside the train and i lost my camp file in the process.
i had wondered when i used to read about instances where people missing their flights ( excluding the transit ones :-) ).
couple of times i have read news about people from kerala travelling to middle east ending up in the same airport where they started off from ...
reason is being "fell asleep"...
imagine you starting off a trip in a plane from point A to point B.
and you fell asleep..
plane reach point B after 4.5 hrs and all the ppl get out of the plane..all the passengers being keralites,i often wonder how some one didnt woke you up while he was leaving.
and the plane heads to point C..( well i missed another point..B and C are in 2 different countries :-) )
people board from C...still no one finds you sleeping or you dont get disturbed by the incoming passengers...
cabin crew never noticed you any time ...
and finally you arrive in A after some 8-9 hrs ... with some 3-4 meals served in between..to realise that you just took a longer nap than the usual one..
hard to believe??
i have read 2 such instances so far in malayalam newspapers.
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now comes my story..
last monday i had to catch a flight from ohare,Chicago at 7.50 am.
i told my friend to wake me up at 5.30 am. my calculation being 45 minutes to get ready and another 45 minutes to airport. so i will be at airport by 7 am. pretty simple, straight, maths.
i woke up at 5.30 and was out of the house by 6.15 am. every thing is as per plans.
i couldnt find the driving directions to airport in the car. but then i know how to get to the free way that takes me to airport.so i start off.
its winter out there in mid west and am not that familiar with mid west climate..
bad vision in the morning..i just missed my exit to free way but didnt take much to realise that i already missed it. made a U at the next possible intersection and got back to the right route.
as soon as i entered the free way i realised couple of facts..rather re collected :-).
ohare is the one of the most busiest airports in the world !!!!
well..the definition of world is relative for us..but is not so for the airports..they are running on absolute statistics..
for a very long time..world was perintalmanna for me..after some 15 yrs it slowly expanded in another 50 miles in diameter..after another 7 yrs ..it expanded exponentially and became, 250 miles in diameter!!!!
of all these places, we had just one airport and i never had any business with air planes...
back to point...while driving on the free way,i recollected ohare is the busiest airport in the world and the traffic towards the airport reinforced that piece of information..
i could only drive at 30 mph.
then i realised its a monday morning and traffic might be heavier than usual.
then i realised, i have rented a car and is supposed to return it at the place from where i rented it from !!!!
so after 45 minutes...i found myselves at the car rental place..
2-3 minutes for the formalities out there and i found myselves in the shuttle to airport..
another 3-4 minutes for the shuttle to leave..
the access road to airport is pretty crowded and shuttle cant move faster than 15 mph...
finally..
i arrive at the airline desk at 7.25 am..
i try to do an automatic checking and the machine told me to meet an agent..
i knew what the agent was going to tell me :-)
i went and met the agent and she told me "you are late !!...you cannot go by this flight"
and issued me another ticket for the next available flight.
and i realised that i have moved to an elite class...."the class of people who missed atleast a flight"
how many of you have missed it???? :-) :-) :-)
