More on my problems with Airports

This is a concluding part of my previous post - Why I hate Airports.

Also one has to deal with one or all of the following people - 1. Indifferent, 2. Meddlesome and 3. Moody. To fully understand my case, I have to explain my recent experience where I had to deal with all three kinds (Indifferent, Meddlesome and Moody) of people and the other baggage (pun intended) that comes with it.

We reached the airport at around 3:00 PM. The sign board at the ramp signaled that the Air India departures were at Terminal B. That was all good. But on reaching the Terminal B, there was hardly any space to stop. Nor was there a sign for Air India on the gates. I saw Jet Airways gate and that is where I decided my stop would be. I somehow found a nook to stop and put my hazard lights on. I unloaded the bags from my car trunk and took them into the terminal to find the Air India gate. I had asked a couple of airport personnel where the Air India ticket counter was. Both of them were indifferent. Finally a third guy responded that the Air India was level 2 and pointed to the right. I thought from his pointing that Level 2 was the far right end of the same floor. As I dragged along, my eyes fell on the elevator and I saw a small yellow sign reading Air India.

Apparently they shifted the Air India to the basement of the airport, I mean Level 2, while all the other airlines were at the main level. I handed over the responsibility of the bags to my wife and headed back to my car to park it. All this while, I was scared of my car being towed away. It had been parked for a long time without anyone in the car.

I drove to the parking lot, took the parking ticket and headed to the Air India check-in counter where my wife and mother-in-law were waiting. The line was huge as always. But in all this chaos I saw a digital weighing machine at the end of the line. There was a row of seats to the left of the weighing machine with two old men sitting. They appeared to be in their mid 60s. A few feet in front of the weighing machine were a few other passengers and their families. I took the bags and placed one bag on the weighing machine. This action of mine somehow generated an extreme interest in one of the old gentlemen. He jumped out of his chair and began to look at what I was doing. He saw the same thing I saw and he quickly blurted out said 52 lbs. He said that to me and his friend who was still sitting. He turned to me and said 'Its OK'. I took the bag off the machine and took it back a few feet where my wife and mother-in-law were standing. I came back with the second suitcase and laid it on the machine floor. This time I saw it as 25. I couldn't believe it. The old man who was still there jumped again and said in some broken Hindi 'I changed it to Kgs. It is now easy for you. 25 may be tough'. I knew that Kgs is short for Kilos or Kilograms.

I am already bothered now by the actions of the old guy. I brought the cabin bag and weighed. The old man said 'It is 8.8 Kgs you should be fine'. My wife took out the heavy hard cover books from both the suitcases. I weighed them again. The meddlesome old man now gave me a pass signal with for 23 and 23.5 Kgs each. I did not know if I was to feel happy for the help or feel aggravated at his meddlesomeness. But I couldn't be distracted by this; I had miles to go before I sleep. Yes, literally I have 125 miles more to go before I really sleep and that was hours away.

We waited in line at the check-in counter. When it was our turn, the guy behind the counter greeted us and told to place one bag on the pedestal to weigh it. I put on of the check-in suticase and for some reason it was already showing 2.0 Kgs and did not change. He rudely says to me in a low voice, 'Can you take it off the machine'. I had him repeat twice to understand what he was saying. I took the bag off and he reset the machine which showed 0.0. I replaced the bag and it read 23.2 Kgs. I was relieved when he took the bag in and said it was ok. The calculator inside was telling me it was overweight by a pound. I placed the second bag and it read 23.8 Kgs. This time also he took the bag in and said it was ok. I was really happy now as I had passed 3 pounds of excess baggage. It was kind of a sweet revenge from my previous experience where I had to pay the fine for excess bag weight.

He seemed to be in a pleasant mood. He silently came close to me said I could put any stuff in the 2 bags that were checked-in if I wanted to. I was surprised at his generosity and asked my wife to hand me the books she was holding, to put them in the bags. Before I could put them, he asked if I had carry-on bag. I said yes and placed that on the scale. It read 8.8 Kgs. He said 'You can put whatever you want in this bag and I will check it in also. You can pick them up at the Mumbai Airport'. I explained this to my Mother-in-law to see if she was comfortable doing that. She said no and wanted to keep it with on the flight. This must have pissed off the guy. He said 'I put the tags to the carry-on bag. Do not ADD ANYTHING to this after you go up. They will check the weight again and fine you'.

I should have noticed the change in his tone and mood. If I had enough Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ), I would have known not to bother him anymore and move away from there. But the Indian in me wanted to bargain. I asked if I could put the books for kids (I was using the sympathy bait too) in the already checked-in bags. He said ‘NO, that would make the bags overweight’ and that I had to pay for the excess baggage. Sanity prevailed in me and I took the tickets. We quickly moved away from there to the ticket issuing counter at the left end corner of the room.

From here on, my wife took over. I guess women have a better EQ or others tend to be nice to them. It may be a combination of both. The lady behind the counter was very courteous to us now. My wife even requested an aisle seat for her mom and got it. I am sure if it was me, I would have gotten 'NO AISLE TICKETS FOR YOU'.

So we went upstairs after collecting the tickets and stood in a long line for coffee and some food. For some reason, people go crazy over food in crowded places. It took thirty minutes to get a cup of coffee and Vegetarian flied lice (I mean fried rice) at a Chinese fast food vendor. I had to go vegetarian as it was an auspicious day. We said our goodbyes to my mother-in-law at around 6:30 PM, paid the insanely expensive parking fee ($3 for every 1/2 hour) and headed to the Bridgewater temple, and then reached home at 10:05 PM.

I thought that the ordeal was over. But life of late seems like a day in the movie 'Groundhog Day' where the lead weatherman lives the same day over and over again. I have to make a trip to the airport again this month. Only this time I will be picking a different person, my brother, at a different airport.

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As a side note, there is also a certification in Emotional Quotient. One of my friends recommended Daniel Goleman's 'Emotional Intelligence' which is on my list to read in the future.