If only life were always about happy endings despite the hassles!

My friend and I reached the airport well ahead of time and I was mighty relieved.  My flight was on schedule too.  Chatted till the friend's boarding time and returned to my gate.  

I had more than enough time to get myself a veggie-burger at the kiosk, and now it was boarding time.  No activity at the gate, however.

It got closer and closer to the departure time and there was no sign that we would ever be allowed through the gate.

Bad omens, I decided.

It was now five minutes past the scheduled departure time.  I walked over to the desk.  A young mother, with her four or five year old daughter tagging along, asked me whether there were problems.  "I am trying to find out whether we are flying at all" I replied.

The only female of the five airline staffers, who also seemed like the boss there, softly said, "the flight has been canceled, sir, because of technical difficulties.  I can re-book you on the 6:15 flight."  That was almost six hours later, and would certainly derail the appointment that I had been looking forward to: meeting and dining with Ramesh.

"But, I have a meeting at 7:45."

"I am sorry sir.  Only now we got word of the technical problems and cancellation."

"Is there an earlier flight?"

"That is full, sir."

No options left.  She assigned one of her deputies to escort me, and the young mother and daughter, past the security to the check-in counters and re-process our reservations.

When I returned, there was confusion at the desk.  "You are not treating us like human beings" yelled one passenger at the staff.  The female boss and her aides carried on with their task without replying to the remark.  "You expect me and my wife to drag our two kids all the way up and down because of your faults?" yelled another frustrated traveler.  The staffers kept doing what they had to do.

I called up Ramesh and updated him.  He offered to move the reservation at the restaurant to 8:30.  "You come over when you get here.  No problems."

After a few minutes, the rest of the passengers had been escorted out for re-processing of tickets.  I noticed there was another airline flying out well before the 6:15 hour.  One of the staffers escorted me back to the counters.  I bought a ticket on the earlier flight.

The staffer suggested that I get a full refund on my original reservation.  "No, I want to hold on to it, in case this flight at 5:00 doesn't work out" I said.

He looked straight at me.  "I am telling you, sir, that maybe even our 6:15 flight can get delayed or canceled.  But, that other airline will never cancel their flights."

That level of honesty convinced me.

My flight was not canceled.  In fact, we took off a couple of minutes before the scheduled time!

As the young stewardess walked past collecting the trash, I told her I had a question for her.

"Yes, sir?"

"Your name, Taralyn, is quite unique.  What is the story there?"

She smiled one of the biggest smiles that I had seen on the trip in a country where people seemed to smile very, very rarely.  "Thank you, sir.  I am from Shillong."

I looked out the window.  The sun was beginning to rapidly descend.  The sight of the glorious sunset almost wiped out all the confusion related to the flight cancellation.  I did what I like to do in such situations.

I took photos.

All is well that ends well, indeed.

And, yes, I finally got to meet with Ramesh after more than 33 years.  We were joined by two other friends. I hoped that the other passengers also had happy endings of their own.