A nail biting start

While the phrase is generally used at endings, as 'nail biting finish', I can say we had it at the very beginning.

And nail biting can be nerve racking, so much so that I didn't even want to begin my Perth chronicles with the episode......I'm literally finding the nerve for it only now.

This is going back a few days, to the day that we were to leave for Perth. 13th July. At the airport.

We're in the line at the entrance, and the security guy is turning over Diksha's passport around and around, and I'm like " kuch problem hai?". I thought I was being rhetorical, until he says "madam, yeh tho passport expired hai".

And it's in that moment that Diksha and I realized that I had brought Diksha's old passport instead of the new one.

A moment of absolute shock.

The check-in counter wasn't opened yet, so no one to consult with. Within a couple minutes we decided that the only possible action was to go back home and get it. I chose to stay back and see if I could talk to the Singapore Airlines staff...... Diksha and Ravi headed back home.

From that moment onwards, everything became beyond regular, went into another zone.

In order to go to the check in counter, I needed to get my baggage screened, and I didn't want to do that. I thought I'd leave my baggage at the information kiosk, but they wouldn't let me leave it there. Little things which got tricky.

I anyways sweet talked my way through that and got to the Singapore Airlines counter, explained the situation to them....... they were empathetic, but said the counter closes at ten, and they had no flexibility there.

Diksha's GPS by then was showing forty five minutes to reach home and an hour to get back, making it an ETA of 10.45. At that point it was looking impossible. Even as they were driving home she started looking at alternative flights and dealing with the fact that she would be missing her mandatory first orientation session, and the disappointment, and all those difficult thoughts, though under calm exterior.

And I can tell it must have been only calm exterior, because I was also feeling exactly he same. Staying calm, finding out cancellation procedures, alternative flights.......but also very aware of the fact that this would be a very sad way to begin, and trying hard to not let those thoughts surface.

Each call to Diksha and I could hear and feel the stress in the car. Times I heard her saying "naana, careful naana, we'll die naana if you drive like this" "omg, what are you doing".......and ravi saying "tell amma not to cancel, we'll try till last minute" "deechuma it's okay if one lakh goes, at this time that's not important, mistakes happen".

I must give full credit to Ravi for that reassuring attitude, and not to mention his driving skills. Diksha said he literally belted....that his driving was insane.

My end, I was in constant touch with the ground staff, had already spoken to the security guys, the baggage screening folk, saying if she gets back on time could they please let her break queue....keeping things as set as possible.

This story turned miracle at about 9.30, when the head of the check in office stepped in. My stress must have been visible, he actually came up to me saying "tell me what happened". I explained.

And I cannot explain what happened from that moment. Even thinking about it is giving me goose bumps. In retrospect, I feel he turned despair into hope......hope that even reached ravi and diksha.

By then I was dazed, I was waiting at the gate....and he stayed in touch.

He came back at 10 saying, "ask her to send her location". She said they were yet on the flyover. He said "ask her for gps coordinates".

At 10.20 he is standing with me outside the gates, like outside the building. He in fact spots Diksha first .... asks "is that girl running with the trolley your daughter?". He calls out to her and has her enter from another side. He literally took over, through the baggage screening, picking up the suitcases, check in counter, he did it all......he got us in.

One of daddy's favorite quotes is "when in real need god lends an invisible hand".

I saw this come true.

It was above and beyond anything I thought could have been possible in that situation.

And what's more...the story didn't end there.

We're in, and rushing through security, running to the boarding gates as they were saying we were the only passengers not yet in. I'm telling Diksha "I didn't get a chance to thank him Diksha, we can't leave without saying thanks to him, ayyo, I don't even know his name"

We're on the escalator to boarding and Diksha's boarding card falls, it falls through the side of the escalator .....the crack in the steps, and it's gone". We can both only stare at each other in amazement.

And at that moment he appears again. 

I'm saying "instead of saying thanks, I'm asking for help again".

I can't recall what transpired then. Not even where I said that,  because we were on the escalator. Just remember him and another person going under the escalator to look for the boarding pass. They couldn't find it. It had likely got stuck inside the escalator.

He goes back up, takes a picture of the other half of the boarding pass that they have, and comes onto the flight with us..... shows the flight crew the picture of the boarding pass, comes aboard and tells the air hostess,  and that's how they let us board.

It was an unbelievable experience. Only and only thanks to Shyam that we boarded that flight.

Now you know what I mean when I said 'miracle'.

Infact only yesterday I wrote out a 'commendation on an outstanding customer experience' mail to Singapore Airlines, and when I sent the draft to Diksha asking if she wanted to add something, she's like "you remember all their names?"...... and I'm like "when you and naana spent a two hour nail biting time in the car, I spent the nail biting two hours with all of them, remember?".

Shyam, Osman and Shashi......you are etched in my mind, with gratitude, forever.