Thank God It was Friday!

It was a Friday, and after a week long of monotonous and lonely office routine, I was going crazy. Then came the idea for the Delhi visit, and suddenly my mood was elevated in pleasant anticipation of excitement to visit a new place and see new faces, for once.

It was a crazy start of the day though, for first of all flight tickets cost about 10K, and then I realized I did not have cash.
Sometimes, a series of unanticipated problems just appear out of nowhere -
1. I did not have cash
2. I went to the nearby bank, only to find that the bank branch has been closed out forever
3. I take a rickshaw to the airport, and on the way I realize, I don't even have enough cash to pay the fare!
4. I ask the Rickshaw driver to take to the bank branch nearer to airport, and after reaching there I realize, he brought me to an ATM - my ATM card has not been working since my return from US!
5. I try all the other cards that I have, even my US bank account cards - none of them work :(
6. I ask the security at the ATM the address and location of nearest branch - luckily its very close by, we hurriedly reach there (though the rickshaw fare + waiting charges were increasing, that was least of my worries)!
7. The teller system in the branch is extremely slow, so no cash withdrawal possible ! :( God what else is in store - I might miss my flight !
8. Aha - an idea strikes me - let me use my US Bank checking account card at the ATM adjacent to the bank; Voila! it worked :)
9. I took the cash from the ATM, and rushed to the rickshaw - My God..... I did not complete and close the ATM transaction, forgot to take the receipt, and what if, the machine asked "For another transaction" and the next ATM user said "Yes"! I don't know whats going to happen, I can't turn back, its getting late for the flight! In God I trust - for there are more problems in store with that part of the story :(
10. Only 1/2 km to reach the airport, and the rickshaw is broke! What is in store today - I think of the astrology prediction I read this morning and it was not what I would have wanted out of a Friday, that had anyways started in a gloomy way :(

So I find another Rickshaw, and misdirect him..... what else !!
Luckily we realize the misdirection soon enough - so the driver reversed it and steered it to the right direction. Thank God - finally I reach airport in time :) First pleasant thing since morning !

Well, the series of unwanted happenings is not over yet - how could the flight start on time. It did not, it was about 20-30 minute late, that means I wont be able to keep the time I promised to my visitor at the destination :( God what else now?

Thankfully, there was no further delay after that, and I reached 30 minutes late than promised, but the visitor was there. First thing since morning that went right. Hopefully the rest of the afternoon and evening was going to be fine - and it did to some extent, except for some confusions here and there - and it ought to be that way, when it involves two confused souls! I was happy to see that SMILE and I was happy that I did not spoil it, which I was afraid of doing.

Driving around the city roads, then to a mall, then to a restaurant, and back to the airport for return journey, and as some great guy has said - anything that could go wrong will go wrong - you got it - the flight was delayed by one and half hours. Thankfully my host came back to accompany me, so treading through the city traffic, visit to another restaurant for a soup, then back to the airport.

Well, there were still couple of things that could have gone wrong - 1. the flight was delayed by another 20 min, 2. After boarding a further delay about 20 minutes before the plane was airborne. Tired of unwanted incidents throughout the day, I decided to take the nap throughout the flight - THUD! there it was, something hit really hard on my already aching head. It was the air hostess, trying to pull out some stuff from the overhead bin, mistakenly slipped the stuff that hit my head, and thud! I woke up baffled and my cell phone fell hard on the ground. The hostess was very apologetic, and I let the matter go - at least he will have a pleasant end of the day, which would have been otherwise, had I made an issue out of it.

Finally reached home at 1:30 AM in the night, brother came to pick me up. Reached home without any incidents :) and Thank God it was Friday - had the whole week to mull over the happenings and indeed, it must go into a blog, after all it was one hell of a Friday, and the most beautiful part of the day was seeing that SMILE after almost 5 years now! It made my visit worthwhile, and I'm sure I did not spoil that SMILE :)