November 16 - Travel to India by Air India. I had a ticket to Lucknow. Though there is still a soft corner for Air India in me, in spite of its government-sector-like service, and generally morose flight attendants. This time, it had more to do with getting the most convenient and most affordable flight. There was no direct flight to Lucknow. You had to get down, clear the passport controls, and then catch the connecting flight.
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Having come quite early, and determined to enjoy the lounge facilities, it appears that I forgot to notice that my sling bag was missing. As I entered the boarding corridor, I noticed that I had missed the bag. It was a bag now with me for more than 10 years, a gift from my niece. Very convenient to carry a book, reading glass, cards, and a small water bottle for public transport commuting. The airline staff would not let me out! I resigned myself to losing the bag.
And, the flight would not take off. Somehow, with the mild support of lounge wine, I didn't even realise that we had taken off. But later on, learned that it was delayed by almost 1 hour. So the flight was arriving also almost an hour late, making the next connecting flight a difficult possibility. However, I got to the airport, cleared the immigration, collected baggage, again deposited the same, and went through the security check and realised that my phone was missing. It just didn't occur to me that the phone might have fallen from my hand in sleep, and could have been on the floor. I was happy that I still had a phone, and the BSNL connection was active in that. I rushed through all the process and arrived at the departure gate puffing and panting, only to discover that of the 7 odd people to be transferred from our flight, I was the first to arrive and the plane would wait for others. That wait stretched to almost an hour and a half, and finally, we took off. It was just about 45 minutes flight. We arrived about 1 hour late.
I reported to the airline agent at the airport, and she was prompt with help, giving me the phone number and email of whom to report to. I narrated the loss of phone to our manager Fr Johny and registered baggage loss report with the office concerned. Then I also got back to Doha, to our alumnus and my neighbour, Alan, who promptly responded with the guidelines to report the loss of baggage at Doha International Airport. I did that and got acknowledgement promptly.
By then, Fr Manager had a call from someone in Delhi, from my (lost) mobile phone and after a while, the picture was clear to him. He responded positively, and the man who got the mobile insisted that I come to Delhi, call him up, produce proof of my travel and collect the phone back. It was good of him to do all that, and take the trouble to identify someone from the region from my address book and call him! But the demand that I should come to Delhi was rather unaffordable for me, as I had busy schedules for all the coming weeks. Next day, Fr Johny was to go to Delhi, and I made a phone call to Mr. Monish Khan requesting him to hand over the phone to my brother who would bring all the required proof, and he agreed to that without any argument.
Fr Johny reaches Ghaziabad, manages to attend the meeting he was supposed to, gets the help of our brothers in Ghaziabad, and they go exploring his place. It is a far far country within NCR, and with great difficulty they reach the place, as his phone was not getting connected. On reaching there, they are received by a woman, who is not all that happy to find strangers at the house. But when the matter of the lost mobile is mentioned, she is transformed into a courteous host, and persuades them to wait for Monish Mian to return from the evening prayers. He arrives after half an hour, and is very happy to receive the strangers turned guests. When he learns about our Christ University connections, he also hopes Fr Sunny could be of help to him in getting some of his issues with the government straightened. He is insistent that they remain for dinner, though no such preparations are found. They somehow, manage to excuse, collect the phone and get back on their pending schedules before the day ends. It is almost 11 pm.
I feel good about the goodness of people - though often we think we have only bad to be expected from people. Mr Monish Khan could have easily handed over the phone to the airport authorities, and gotten rid of his responsibility. Rather, he felt that this person should be helped to recover the lost property. And Fr Johny and others who took the trouble to get this phone back.
I do plan to give him another call - either in Qatar or here itself.
I have two phones now, as is the fashion nowadays - now in the last one month, I could manage rather well with one phone and one connection, though at times, I was troubled with the navigation of my old phone, especially during my long rides.
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And by evening, Alan has the bag collected, and reporting to me! Alan was confident from day one that I would get the bag back, and took the trouble to do all that was required to get that done.
Isn't the world still a good place - with people willing to help, and systems working well! Amidst several negative stories I listen to daily, these two experiences of one single trip make me really feel good, and responsible for being good to others - pay it forward?
As such, even when not being blessed with such memorable experiences, I ought to be good, and I trust that I do try, but ought to still do better!
P.S. On my next trip to Doha, Alan hands over the bag with all its contents intact, a happy ending!
Now, on this visit, for once, I have done some shopping. It's to reduce plastic pollution. While discussing Christmas celebrations and planning to distribute some chocolate to the students, I sensed it was going to generate a lot of avoidable waste (wrappers). Hence I take it upon myself to look for alternatives which could be safe, but would minimize on wrappers. And I end up having some additional 8 kilos of such stuff. with some other belongings, it is a full bag of some 14 kilos.
The baggage arrives in Delhi. I have to receive it at the carousel, and rush it to the next counter to catch the connecting flight. It is all facilitated well, but as I approach the boarding gate, I am stopped. There is some exchange between the officers, but finally, I am let in, with the piece of info that my bag is being retained. They ask me if there was some battery or charger in the luggage. I can't recollect any, and feel very unhappy. But he assures it will reach my home in 2 or 3 days.
In the flight I realise that it did have some battery infused stuff, which I had totally forgotten. Alan had gifted a kind of diary to take notes, which also had a sort of built-in power bank and a pen drive. I had forgotten all about it. That was the culprit. After two days of follow-up, some phone calls, the bag arrives at my gate - late in the night at 1200. The campus night is for the dogs - the fierce 'dobermen' are on prowl and don't tolerate anyone else. I can't risk going up to the gate. I have to awaken our administrator, with whom the dogs are familiar. He walks up to the gate, gets the bag to be brought by the gate security. I scan the contents and realise the beautiful diary with power bank was missing! Arrange for a tip of Rs. 150.00 for the chap who brought it to my doorstep, where I was even willing to go to New Delhi to collect it.
I regret the loss of the attractive diary with the built-in power bank and the pen drive. Hope it will still come back to me.
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