A memorable boarding
I was in India for 2 weeks for home warming and to bring my wife and daughter back to Singapore and it was a beginning of 2007. We were expecting our second child, while our first daughter was only 1 year old.
It was chilling month of February in north India and our ticket was booked with Air India. This was the first time I was going to fly with Air India.
Meeting up with friends and catching up with family and those 2 weeks just passed like seconds. To spent more time with family, we decided return to Delhi a night before our flight. To make it clear to you let me mention that my home town is Allahabad, approx 650 KM away from Delhi and it is a 9 hours journey by train to Delhi.
We reached Delhi in the evening before day of flight. After a little reshuffle of baggage I was finally ready to board Air India for the first time. This little reshuffle was required as I was the only person who will be dragging luggage till boarding, so my plan was to have as less number of baggage as possible and check-in as many as possible.
Our flight timing was 6 AM and my brother dropped me at Indira Gandhi International Airport as early as 3 AM. It was chilling outside of IGI, at the same time too crowded. I some how manage to pull a cart and placed all our baggage on to it, while my wife was taking care of my daughter. We have entered into airport.
There was a chaos at airport. There were just queues everywhere and all of them long too. IGI Airport was having 2 more security checks than other airport at that time, moreover there was some construction going on which has taken almost half of the movement area of first hall and reduced immigration area to half also. Someone of IGI staff told me join a queue for baggage security check. It took me 40 minutes to reach at the end and when I finally reached there, the person in-charge informed me this is not the right queue for Air India passenger and I need to join another queue next to current. I have taken a look at the length of other queue it was as long as my current one, I thought I will end up here and will never be able to board the flight at any cost, we were not having any choice but to join the other queue. Another 40 minutes and we were finally done with IGI security check.
Our next target was to get boarding passes and check-in baggage. Yes! here again, a long queue was waiting for us. I was little pleased that I have successfully cleared the security check finally.
We have reached to the boarding pass issuing officer and given him the ticket, the tickets I have booked from an agent in Singapore. "Your tickets have been canceled!" the officer informed me. "You just go back and wait. If we have sufficient seats available we will take you!" he has kind of scolded on me. "How can this be possible, I never canceled my tickets" I asked. "You have to reconfirm your tickets before 24 hours of boarding, else your tickets will be canceled", he reverted. "I have just returned back to Delhi last night and I was not having any time to reconfirm it!", "Here you go, you tickets are canceled because of that!". I was shocked and was looking at him with my eyes wide open. He has shown me my way back. I pushed the cart back to my wife who was resting on a chair near. This was the time when flight should takeoff, but they were still issuing boarding passes.
"What will happen now?", "Will we able to reach Singapore or not?", moreover I was worried about my wife comfort and my daughters needs so decided to call my brother back to Airport to pick us. Before I start searching a public telephone booth to call him, decided to make another try. By this time flight was late by 1 hour and there were only those at ticking counter whose tickets were "canceled". They were all arguing with Air India ticketing manager.
"Can you please get few seats for us?" I asked politely, showing him my tickets again. He looked at me and then booking. "OK, get your baggage, we have few seats left!". I thanked God and returned back quickly to push my cart back to counter.
Now the next problem. "This bag has 5 KG extra weight" pointing on my one of the 3 bags, a new information comes from ticketing officer. "How about sum of all baggage weight?" I asked. "Sum is ok but you have take out 5 kg from this adjust it somewhere else". I was not carrying any extra bag, else I could have been adjusted it to that. I informed this situation to him and also my limitation of carrying number of bags as my wife was unable to help me. He was not ready to listen to me, suggested me to buy a bag from Airport and adjust the weight. "You can not get a bag at airport", told a helper standing near me. "Pay me Rs. 500 I will get one for you" he offered. I left with no choice but to accept the offer. What I have got in 500 was dirty, used, tangled and very small bag. My wife helped me to open the bag there it self and stuff few cloths in that dirty bag. We did same practice 3 times to get the exact weight what they wanted. Finally they approved it and issued me the boarding pass. I was sweating in chilling month of February after this shuffling and my shirt was completely wet.
There was a continuous announcement going on for passenger to board on plane while they were still issuing boarding pass at the counter.
My next queue and the longest queue was the queue of immigration check. I requested those who where in queue already to let me go first as plane is about to takeoff, thankfully they allowed me go first. I dragged my wife from one hand and daughter from another, carrying 2 bags on back to immigration officer, I was ready to face his queries. There were almost no question from him and we have got our passports chopped.
We were finally needed to undergo a last security check before entering into plane. My wife entered into ladies section while I have entered into gents. I have pushed my bag inside scanner and entered from gate. "Is there any liquid inside your bag?" asked the CISF security personnel, his tone was dry and rude. "Yes! There is some milk and boiled water for kid.", my reply. "You know bringing liquid is not allowed on plane?", he scolded on me so loudly that every one else around that area started looking at me. This was limit of tolerance, "Are you not living in Delhi? Are you not aware of problem sewage supply with drinking water in Delhi? I don’t think I am doing any wrong and if you think you can simply take milk and water out and throw it.", I scolded back. There was a eye to eye contact between me and the officer for sometime, and finally he let me to go without any more questions. Another CISF officer standing near to me tries to calm me down. During this hot exchange of words, I could not listen cry of my daughter who got separated from her mother for security check. My wife somehow manage to finish security and we moved towards plane.
Flight was 2 hours late by the time we have boarded the plane and we were last to board.
I am still going through Delhi for my visits to home and noticed they have improved the system a lot with time. There are fewer security check and security officers are more considerate than before, the contraction is over and we have a lot more space than before. And to end, I never traveled with Air India after that day.Â