New Years Day 2007

In 2005, I let the legendary Delhi fog and the associated snafus keep me from venturing out. Consequently New Years Day 2006 was a very cold, lonely and depressing. The hangover from the night spent drinking and celebrating with people much younger than I, underscored the folly of my decision and I only brightened up when I landed in the Ahmedabad sunshine for Utran in the middle of January. But that was 2005.

So this year - I snapped up the first invite I got to go to warm Mumbai, and rushed out of town. I purchased tickets such that I was only travelling in daylight. That way the fog would not stop me.

The plans worked out very well.. and the entire weekend was a whirlwind of activities, new experiences, old friends, good company, and mostly warm not hot, not cold, just warm - sunshine. No hangover, despite the plentiful Sula Brut, just the great warm feeling of a weekend spent among loved ones. Lots of drama and enjoyment - but that is not the topic of this post.

I caught a late afternoon flight, designed to arrive in Delhi right before the fog rolled in. We departed Mumbai on schedule and had an uneventful ride until our descent into Delhi. I started to congratulate myself on my great luck. And then, just like that , right after I could see the traffic on NH8, the airplane ascended and flew away from Delhi. Visibility had just dropped to an unacceptable level, and ours was the first flight to be turned away. The flight 70 seconds ahead of us was allowed to land. Clearly my calculations were in need of a little more calibration if I was to stay on the edge rather than fall over it.....

I braced myself for the nightmare ahead even as I reminded myself it would be more fun if I pretended it was an adventure.

A couple of hours later we alighted at Jaipur airport. We actually landed there an hour later, but they kept us on the plane for an extra hour. There was the usual mad melee of sorting out what was to happen next as 300 Type A passengers tried to find their luggage, the coach that would take them to Delhi or a coach that would take them to their hotel. There was a government official on board who had someone carry his bag for him. There were several folks returning from a New Year's Eve Party in Mumbai.... There was a smart young woman and her colleague who had a car waiting to take them to Gajraula that evening - I never could figure out what business she was in, but it sounded very very intriguing. It seemed that everyone was determined to get to work the next morning. There was much talk of taking the coach to Delhi.

I messaged my various well wishers and minders - some of whom were already aware of the fact that my flight had been diverted and had started making hotel reservations for me. I was advised not to attempt to drive into Delhi as the fog had turned really ugly and we could be stranded on the road.

I was impressed by the Jet Airways staff - they were polite, calm and collected. Not particularly organized - come to think of it I was itching to help them get the logistics together but very polite and unflappable. So I got my name on a list for the hotel and boarded the coach for the hotel, and sat in the seat right by the door so I could be the first one to get off. Silly me, I thought that would help me get the first room when we got to the hotel.

There was yet another unflappable, courteous and equally disorganized gentleman at the hotel counter. The general way of assigning rooms was to allow everyone to stand around and stick their boarding passes at him. Priority was given to people holding multiple boarding passes, as it was assumed that these would be people sharing rooms. Room after room was assigned to families and couples. But after the young lady from Gajraula finished getting her 2 rooms - 1 for the colleague and 1 for herself - "cos I cannot possibly share the room with a man" - I could not stop myself.

I asked the young man behind the counter to explain the system he was using to prioritize the allocation of rooms. The man picked up on my foreign accent, and decided it was too much trouble to explain - he just grabbed my boarding pass and assigned the next room to me. Relieved I went upstairs to my assigned room. Despite the modern lobby and the pretty christmas lights, the room was shabby - I got the distinct impression that the hotel was under renovation. For a while I was persuaded to spread my shawl on the sheets so I did not have to make contact with them. I told myself to get over it. The bathroom had all the appropriate plumbing fixtures, it even had 2 towels and 2 tiny bars of soap.

I went down to the buffet dinner that had been prepared for us. It looked like the stranded passengers were the only guests at this hotel. While we were eating the guy from the front desk came in and aggressively and tactlessly tried to get people to share rooms with some of the folks who had not been assigned a room yet. I left before he spotted me and decided to ask me to share.

At 5:45 am they knocked on our doors, and told us breakfast was ready, and the coach would depart at 6:30. Not having learnt my lesson - I was the first person on the coach at 6:20. I had the prize seat again and when the coach finally arrived at Jaipur airport at 8am - it did not leave till 7:30- I was the first one in line waiting to get my boarding pass for Delhi. When I got to the counter , it was the same lady from the previous night who politely asked me to wait till they closed the flight to Mumbai.

I hovered, and a young man politely asked me to make way for the folks going to Mumbai. Finally the Mumbai flight was closed and once again I joined the line. Meanwhile my co-passengers from the previous night had all lined up at a different counter. When I finally got to the counter they redirected me to the other line. I stood in line for an hour. When a passenger 2 places ahead of me got to the counter, they told him the Delhi flight was full and they did not have a seat left for him .

While the rest of the passengers engaged in a shouting match, I stepped aside and sought the help of one of my well wishers to get me a car to drive me to Delhi. She undiplomatically informed me that had I taken the car at 6:30 instead of now, I'd have been arriving in Delhi around now. After that I had a pleasant uneventful ride arriving home a full 24 hours after I'd left my parents home in Mumbai. New Years Day was almost over. The rest of the year can only get better.