Cast -
Fool 1, Fool 2, Fool 3, The Jet Officials ( International airport), The blessed Lads, The Stressed Mirchandanis, Santosh & Aditi - employees of India Tourism, Staff of hotel Solitaire, Boys, The Jet Guy, My Travel agent, The jet Officials (domestic booking counter), The Air India Officials & the stars*
Act 1 - The glory of 1st international vacation
Time: 2 years back. It all began the day our best friend Miss Lad went to Singapore. Our dreams were endless, but all seemed vaguely distant. we were 21 and above all girls. Will parents agree? Are they crazy! well...I guess they were....all parents are crazy if you believe me. so after 2 years of waiting, finally all 3 of us got the green signal to proceed.
Time: 3 months back. So now the planning begans, First, the passports, too many things were depended on getting all the passports done, But the most important element was an NRI eligible bachelor...who came right on time. Its not for you to understand why our passports depended on him. Life acts in mysterious ways. SO there he was and so were all our passports...ready to be stamped.
Secondly, Air tickets. We truly believe lady luck our best mate for Times Of India advertises Singapore airlines return fare from mumbai for only 11,500/- This put to rest all the mad options we were considering viz. taking bus/train 2 bangalore/chennai and flying tiger airlines etc. But fate had us booked in Jet. ALas! I shall fly in singapore airlines soon I promise.
Visa went in smoothly and our travel date was 13th august!! never shall i forget this obnoxious date.
Time: 6 pm, 13th August. All ready to leave, parents hugging and kissing us, daddys waiting on us till we clear the immigration and we move in smoothly and call our parents and tell them all is well. We finally see the Mumbai international airport. Time is 9 pm. Point to be noted. Every formality complete and all we have to do now is board the jet flight scheduled at 11.30. We have 2 and half hours to kill.
Act 2 - We miss the flight!!!!!!!
Why? we were too busy. Mumbai international airport is extremely intriguing. So many food stalls, brand outlets, wine stores, and best thing our phones still had range. so there were too many people to share this mind blowing experience with. Plus there were nature's calls to answer. Having idled as much as is possible, we decide to board the flight and move to the final counter and get on the air bus which was to take us to our aircraft.
Time: 11.15 pm. But as fools, after all this entire while, we re-check our documents in the bus only to realize we are missing a Visa. Well,it was only a piece of paper yaar, E-visa thing. How is it that when we were literally killing 2 hours, not once it occurred that we should check our documents and only in the bus!! Mind works in mysterious ways.
Now what...we get down and being fools, tell the jet officials about the missing visa. he ofcourse makes a mammoth deal of this and gives us 10 mins to get visa back or ........
Of all the fools, only i have excess weight, so i decide to wait while the 2 lean fools ran for their life all the way back 2 the main entrance in hope of finding the document. As i waited, time passed and the flight took off. And i waited. As i saw them coming back, with barely any breath left, i realized they both were smiling. The lost document was found.It had fallen down near the immigration counter.
The horror dawned on them as well. WE MISSED THE FLIGHT! For some reason, there was no energy in me to fight back.. to plead the officials to hold the aircraft..As it didnt seem fair, we blundered. one, we should have checked our documents and second, we should have just continued once we were on the bus, coz the visa was issued so there would not be any hassle. What happened had to happen.
Act 3 - The Blessed and the Stressed
Time: 00.30 am, 14th August. Our first job after this rude shock was to call the lads in Singapore. Aunty Lad, whom we'll refer to as Ladliji henceforth for she is a darling, did wonders that night. Its difficult to write all details for emotions so varied can hardly be expressed by an amateur writer like me.
Just a few pointers, when we called Ladliji, it was nearly 3 am @ her place (singapore)- middle of the week. Regardless, she was up the whole night. Her contacts allowed us smooth passage through another round of formalities which got our immigration to Singapore cancelled. Sniff! This was possible bcoz ladliji asked Santosh to be our guide. While we waited for our baggage, The mirchandanis called, all worried and oh boy! how we wished them to be all comforted. Its a fact we were in the doldrums of misery, especially Fool 1 whose visa went for a toss, but this was no reason to keep all these good people traumatized. But my god knows, hearing the mirchandanis was so much of a relief, for none of us had called home and they were the only people in mumbai who knew our fate.
Act 4 - The Stars*
Time: 2.00 am. Remember i said all happened that had to happen. Well Fool 1 shows no signs of recovery, guilt and pain over coming common sense that it could be any of us, so it was on Shilpa shetty to revive her. Yes! 2 am, international airport - she walks in like a fairy wearing a mask (2 in 1 utility - swine flu guard and anonymity. Fool 1's first line after 2 hrs of morbid silence "nice ass she got!"
Now if i tell you that next it was Shah Rukh khan and he smiled and waved @ us, and we gave him flying kisses which he RETURNED!! you will take this whole blog for a brag. So i'll continue, Diya Mirza hugged SRK and then passed by and the next morning it was Nana Patekar's turn to stamp it in us that all this was god's doing.
Act 5 - Solitaire Hotel & the Boys
Time: 4 am. Santosh took us to this lavish place in andheri and put us in a Double bed Ac room, Ladliji arranged the whole complimentary stay. NOW WHAT? We missed our cheap tickets!! Do we get any refund! are we going home?? DO we fly 2moro?? Our Two gorgeous friends Akshay and Arul were next in line to hear the whole drama. Due to lack of internet access, flight booking had to be through them. After many attempts of convincing them that this is not some devilish prank (esp. akshay who wudnt stop laughing... grhh!!) they tell us that all flights range between Rs.18,000 to 25, 000. We again ask santosh to book the lowest viz Rs.18,000 (Air India Alas!) and sleep knowing that we are entirely broke. Time 6 am.
Act 6 - Ladlijis yet another early chritmas gift & my agents extra helpfulness
Time: 9 am. Biggest act of blunder. Calling my agent, asking him to email the visa documents incase we lose it again. He empathizes and assures the needful will be done.
Ladliji calls and tells us that we can re-use our jet tickets!!!!!!!! Telling you, she is a diva! She asked a kind Jet guy to sort us out. I rush to the domestic jet counter and know all is fine, for we just lose a day and that is okk, we are still going but!!! Our old tickets show "refunded".
My dear agent (i truly appreciate his concern but can't help being mad @ him) felt it his duty to ensure us the money from the airlines ASAP as we had already missed the flight! so along with mailing me the visa, he got the tickets refunded coz all it took was a mouse click! So there...Ladliji's and the Jet Guy's (i know him to be an excellent photographer) efforts went in vain, but will always be wow'd.
At the domestic counter of jet, while my agent and the booking officers of jet were figuring if there is any procedure to cancel the refunded status of our tickets or issue same fare tickets again, another of ladlijis kind associate, Aditi was by our side holding the Air India tickets for us.
Time: 4 pm Finally we took that and paid Rs.54,000 again. But now we were certain, let hell hath fury, we shall board this flight.
Act 7 - If all this wasn't enough.
Time: 6.30 pm, 14th august. We call at the reception of solitaire hotel to confirm our checking out. He sends a bearer with a of Rs.7000/- Another session of frantic phone calls and after an hour we pay Rs.700/- and leave. There was no printing error in the bill, mind you. Only the food and phone call was charged to something of Rs.640 which we rounded. Rs.40 tip. Miss lad will definitely hang us after knowing this. But dear, it was excruciatingly tight situation.
Act 8 - Final Blunder
We take off that night and finally meet the Lads and call the Mirchandanis and the Boys. Uncle Lad couldn't stop clicking with his camera as we coudn't stop posing. In all the excitement Fool 2 grabbed some someone else's bag and merrily walks out.
Uncle Lad, Ladliji, Miss Lad, Jyotsna Moushi and We three fools were the merry messers of 7, Sarkies rd that night.
Time: Endless.
SPECIAL CREDITS
Anandji and friends plus chinkis
