5:30 AM.
17 Aug 2009
I am at IGI Airport. Reached an hour and half earlier from my boarding time. So I have quite some time to explore this reincarnated airport. And I am surprised and so happy to see this world class airport. Even the domestic terminal looks so cool, stylish, internationalized with separate food/coffee lounges(Its refreshing to see Costa Coffee and not the regular cafe coffee days/Baristas etc), Kids play zone/ Odyssey book stalls around, airlines luxury lounges, foreign currency exchange counters. I particularly liked the street like ambiance at Baker St. bakery shop. And guess what, I found an empty place at the laptop station where I have a power socket and I can easily connect to the wi-fi provided by Airtel to spend my 1 hour waiting duration.
If the domestic airport looks so chic, I wonder how the international one would look like :)
I remember my days when this same airport had no air-conditioning, dirty walls, stinking toilets, 1 or 2 food counters and that's it....
2 years back, my flight from Delhi to Bangalore (JetLite) was delayed for 7 hours and I had severe stomach ache that day. Once I crossed the security check, there was not even and empty place where I can sit forget lying down...So crowded it was. What a terrible day that was.
Luckily I met an army wale uncle that day. He not only gave me his seat, but tried to distract me from pain by engaging me in his war stories in Sri Lanka and showed me his photographs with prime minister/president of Sri Lanka and India. Not only that, he pacified the angry waiting passengers and took control of the whole situation to get vacant seats, complaint forms etc for the angry crowd. All this while he kept telling me that- beta, no matter how tense your surroundings are, no matter how much pain you are in, do not lose your mind and mind works best when it is at peace. So keep patience and try to be cool and half your pain will be gone.
He truly was a gem.
I feel proud of our Indian Army whenever I remember him. Sad I do not have his contact number :( Has he also been to this same modernized Delhi airport? I wonder!
Many a times we meet people at strange places who leave a great impact on us....but the kind of creature I am...I never maintain those contacts and feel sad/bad later :(
2 comments:
fortunately i've been the one who flew from delhi the very first day new terminal started..
for me it was a more of a shock than a pleasent surprise to see al that..
Thanks and All the best GMR.. thanks for giving such a prized possession to ppl of delhi n india..
Well u rit, we get people who leave impression... i guess he is very much rit guy to said this as their life must have been passed thro so many times to work out things in right direction or else it takes just one shot to left with nothing...
Cherish and use those million dollar words in daily life..
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