The Terminal

“Sir, are you travelling by flight SG 219 to New Delhi……”

I looked up to find a Spice Jet ground attendant beaming artificially at me.

“Yes….”

“Sir, the flight has been canceled. Sorry for the inconvenience Sir.”

“Excuse me….what do I do with this?” I showed my boarding card which reserved the seat 33C for me in the canceled voyage!

“Sir, we will refund your fare on producing this…..”

As I headed for my refund I saw a stream of people swarming the counter.

“I need you to reschedule me in the morning flight….”

“Why is the flight cancelled?”

A host of questions flooded the flight attendants……

As I entered the Kolkata Airport, I found an eerie loneliness…..very few people, fewer open counters and even fewer open food stalls. I felt something was not quite right and as you would have it, SG 219 cancelled my appointment.

After collecting my boarding pass, I sat down at the lobby and looked around. I was immediately taken into rewind mode…..back to IGI at New Delhi!

The scenes were quite different in the two airports….. Kolkata was silent, serene, lonely and cold on the other hand IGI was buzzing, sparkling, filled with people and definitely freezing. In IGI there wasn’t even a single dull moment, I plugged in my laptop, got the headphones out and had a great time just observing people who were on the phone, people at the book shops, at KFC, at the laptop stations and of course in the toilets! Kolkata gave me a feeling of being Viktor Navorski from Krakozhia! There were hardly anyone around, the stalls were empty, no food, one water cooler in isolation and definitely no plug points!

Though my country wasn’t being bombed or I wasn’t being chased around by rank Dixon, the whole setting at the Kolkata airport did remind me of the Spielberg movie the Terminal…..though my flight was cancelled I loved the creepiness of the huge airport! Only wish I could have met my Catherine Zeta Zones!

Lucky Tom!