Interpreter of Maladies
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
All hell broke looseJust when it seemed, I would be able to write a post on my happy USA stay story, it happened. I lost my passport-the night before setting off for home. All I could feel was desperation, wanted to kill myself for doing such a blunder. Just a week back, the local cleaner had lost two of my suits and the passport neatly tucked in the breast pocket of one of the suits slipped away. The flight was at 9.20 pm the other day and all that went across my mind in the morning was that I got to go home today. It was also my final day at work so there were so many bbyes to be said. After hurrying through a final evaluation, I ran to the embassy, only to find to my utter surprise that a plethora of documental and paperwork needed to be done for anything substantial to happen. I never cry in public..being the strong girl I have always thought I was. But, at that time I broke down. Nothing was happening and I felt so alone and lost in a foreign country. Missed home, missed friends and missed my country. With hours of running and hopeless crying, I was at square one even at 2 pm on the day, with not even a morsel of food in my stomach over more than 20 hours. It was then that Lehman reached out and talked to the deputy consulate general. The IIT-IIM connection sprang to action and in a moment, the consulate became extra genial to me. With most documentation taken care of, I was granted the duplicate passport at 4 pm on the same day. I was so touched by the support of a company, I was only interning for. I was also amazed at the kind of empathy an organization can show for its people and how much the IIT-IIM tag counts. I was relieved and burdened by the kindness. Running to the airport in a hurry, I was overjoyed at the prospect of seeing home in less than 48 hours.
Then, the bad luck wheel again poked its head up. I could not board the British Aairways flight bcoz it passed thorugh London and I did not have a valid transit UK visa. All I could board was a direct flight to India. Learning of this news at the nth hour..crashed me. It was so depressing that night, carrying back my luggage from the airport back home, not being sure even how will I ever reach home. I called up Lehman again, requesting them to fix a flight for me. With such a short notice, all I could get was a business class seat on Continental the only non stop flight between US and India. I wasn't crazy about travelling business class, knowing pretty well that all I earned in the last two months was being spent on this airplane seat just because I wanted to get back home ASAP. The service was excellent and the dinner was marvellous. I asked for a pinot noire Red Wine to soothe my nerves and drank a bit too much of it. Was utterly drunk in a few hours and slumped into the extendible seat. Opened my eyes, close to the time the plane landed. Being back at home was relieving and I wished my bad luck period had ended. I could not afford another round of misfortunes. What a last week !!
