It's 27th August, afternoon. I was supposed to be back in Hyderabad today, back to work at the office, instead I am writing this from Aishwarya's room in Gandhinagar. I missed my flight yesterday.
I came home this time to celebrate Rakshabandhan, which was this Sunday on 26th. Took a much needed break from personal & office work. Baked a cake with Aishwarya on Saturday. Then went on a date to this place called "The Secret Kitchen", the food was great, we had a fun time. I was so hungry by the time we got to the restaurant that I spent most of the time focused on eating. She pranced in the rain while we were waiting for the Uber ride back home, & got cold the moment we got into the Uber, since the AC in the car was at a full blast. It was a fun evening.
I have been traveling in the rains quite a lot in the month of August. And in that time I have rather grown fond of doing that. The flight trips are fun due to the turbulence and the rants of people who are either first time flyers or are afraid of flying. I have been reading during flights & on the airport while enjoying a hot cup of coffee. Its become a thing, to find a nice spot on every Airport I visit to find a good coffee shop with a good view to sit and read at.
The Uber rides in the rain are nice too. Especially during the night. It's quite a sight. You see the tail lights of the vehicles ahead of you leave a trail in the wet road, making it look like you are living in a long exposure shot. Even the reflecting road signs leave an elongated reflection on the wet roads making you feel like the time is stretching by. The trucks in the opposite lane generate a fine spray of water as they go, which is illuminated by their side lights & their tail lights, and you are reminded of the scene from Rudyard Kipling novel, of the first time Mowgli sees the Elephants, the creators of the jungle, bustling along spraying water, and you the Mowgli in this jungle of concrete marveling at the trucks. Rains make trucks seem like whimsical creatures in the jungle of concrete, thats how awesome rains are.
So this Sunday was the first time in my life I had missed a flight. Aishwarya and I planned to leave home at 4:20pm, my flight was scheduled at 8:20pm, & I was supposed to reach the airport with 2 hours to spare. But I made a major blunder not anticipating the unavailability of Uber considering it was a festive day. So we improvised and planned to catch a bus. We reached the bus stop, but there was a huge line there as well for buses to Ahmedabad. Somehow we managed to get an Uber, but even the Uber was quite late due to the traffic. We left Vadodara around 5:20. I was so very anxious. Thank god she was with me being the voice of reason, trying to calm me down. We entered the Ahmedabad city in time, but got stuck in a gruesome traffic on the way to the Airport. It was already 8:20 and we were still enroute, the gates close 25 mins prior to departure, and weirdly enough the flight was on time yesterday. And hence I missed my flight. Aishwarya's landlady was kind enough to allow me to stay at their place. I was feeling quite numb when I reached at her place. I was going to miss one more day of work, but I was also going to get to spend a few more hours with her. She cooked Maggie and potato wedges. Once we had dinner I felt quite relaxed and happy. This was supposed to be one of the worst day, this was the 3rd flight I had to cancel/miss in this month. I was supposed to be annoyed & sad, but I wasn't. I was very happy that she was with me for the journey, I was able to stay with her for a few more hours before returning back to Hyderabad. Had she been not there, I would have probably broken down, cause it would have been a very depressing ride back home to Vadodara for another 2 hours.
She went to work today morning, I stayed in her room. Ordered some tea & Gujarati breakfast over Swiggy. Completed reading Origin by Dan Brown. I was very happy to see that my prediction of the antagonist in the story was spot on. Dan Brown's antagonists become very predictable after you read the first 2 books, and see the clear pattern. Still quite a gripping story. Now that I have finished writing this post, I will be leaving quite early today, will take a book from Aishwarya's collection or from the airport to pass the time during tonight's flight.
To the upsides of missing a flight!