[narayans80]

Never missed a flight or train, but there have been some interesting events over the years.

1. May 27, 2007 - Was to travel in Mysore-Tuticorin express to a friends' wedding and that day it rained. And Banngerghatta Road when I lived at that time was flooded in knee deep plus water. Not even buses were making through. I waded and walked till about Jayadeva. By this time I was sure I'd miss the train if I headed to SBC, so made a decision to catch the train at Hosur. Two buses and an auto later, I was at HSRA 30 minutes ahead of the scheduled arrival of my train.

2. Dussera 2008 - Yet another rained induced adventure. We were scheduled for the Bangalore Mail. Bus was moving in inches right from Double Road. By the time we were in Hudson Circle we had like 35-40 minutes and nothing was moving. Made a split decision to walk/run the remaining distance and that's what we did. We ran and reached the train about 5 minutes to spare.

3. September 2004 - Was staying with a friend at Montgomery, AL and had been to an interview in DC. Hurricane Ivan was pounding FL, AL and GA at that time. My flight from Reagan International was indefinitely rescheduled from the evening 6 pm. Eventually flew out from DCA next afternoon about 1230 pm to ATL. There was no way my friend to come all the way to pick up. So I took an airport shuttle till Auburn and he picked me up from there.

4. December 2011 - We were booked on a sleeper bus from Kochi to Madras. Bus was cancelled and another spot decision, ended up booking a flight while we were still on the cab to the city. Asked the driver to drop us at COK instead of Kadavanthara and took the flight home.

5. June 2012 - Almost missed the flight to Bologna because the Schengen immigration was dead slow at Brussels. Requested a few people ahead since there was only 10 mins to departure and there had already been announcements for me. Luckily the gate was less than 50 meters from immigration desk and I sprinted before they closed the gate.

[balpreetsingh]

Let me share my set of experience( quite a few actually):

Missed flight Skipped Train on Travel

This was in Sept 2009
I was coming back to India from a trip to US. This was an official trip. The US domestic flight from Detroit to Newark airport got delayed due to bad weather. And I missed my flight to Mumbai due to this delay. I was given a confirmed booking on next day's flight however accommodation I had to manage. Thankfully it was Official trip, so I connected with a colleague on project who was still in US, got details of nearest Marriott Hotel ( approved hotel as per my organisation) and went to stay there. Thankfully no surprise next day and I reached Bangalore with no further hassle. As onward journey. I had to reach Jamshedpur from Bangalore. For that I had a flight 5 to 6 hours after I reached home at Bangalore. And by the time I reached Kolkata that I was so tired that I myself skipped the train travel from Howrah to Jamshedpur and instead took Air Deccan Flight to Jamshedpur taking a current ticket This is my only instance, when I got a hand written boarding pass. And also my only time, when I walked from runway to arrival gate at the small airstrip in Jamshedpur with our luggage following us in a Tractor Trailer. A uniquq experience.

Almost Missed flight

This was in 2006. I Had to take a flight from Nagpur to Mumbai late in evening ( around 9:30 PM. However my initial part of trip was in Train from Bhilai ( Durg) to Nagpur which is a 4 hour journey. The train got delayed and I didnt have enough time to reach Nagpur airport from Nagpur Railway Station. In between I called up Jet airways, requesting them to allow me in a little late as I just had a cabin baggage. They didn't confirm on the same over phone. However I took a chance ( had no other option)
When I reached the airport I got to know, there is a VIP movement, the civial aviation minister that time has a flight to Delhi from Nagpur and hence my Mumbai flight was delayed. This is probably only time I didn't crib about VIP's delaying other flights.

Missed Train

This incident happened in 2011. My train journey was in 2 parts. Durg to Nagpur( 4 hour journey) then 4 hour halt at Nagur and onward train to Bangalore. However due to power failure in overhead wires we got stuck 2 hrs before reaching Nagpur. And when we finally reached Nagpur, saw the connecting train leaving from other platform on right time. In these 4 hours of delay, I had already figured out Plan B,C,D and so on. Finally I had decided to hire a vehicle from Nagpur to Hyderabad. Take few hours of halt at a relative's place. Then take overnight bus to Bangalore. Hence after seeing my Train leave at Nagpur, went out and fortunately found a Taxi ( Qualis) ready to drop me to Hyderabad. Started arfter mid night aroudn 10-11hours journey to Hyderabad. From there as planned sleeper bus to Bangalore. Reached home at same time had I travelled in train, however spending a lot more money than planned.

A few more near miss experiences too, however those stories for another day.

Regards,

Balpreet Singh

[shabih]

I have a reputation for missing flights. Let me share two such instances

Instance 1: My first ever flight!

I was studying in Ranchi at St. Xavier's college and was invited by a policy thinktank in Delhi to attend a seminar back in 2006. They sponsored the flight tickets, this was my first ever flight experience. Journey from Ranchi to Delhi was fine, it was my return from Delhi to Ranchi that became a nightmare. I took a cab from Hauz khas to the airport while returning. Got off the cab, paid and proceeded to the security where I faced the horror. Being a first timer at the airport I did not know that International and Domestic airports are different in Delhi, small town guy thought every city must have 1 airport, like Ranchi Anyway after this CRAZY new DISCOVERY I asked the humble CRPF guy what next, he said take a cab and go to domestic airport.

But Murphy wasn't too kind on me that day, I had maybe 50 bucks in my pocket and the Axis bank ATM next to the airport ran out of cash. I took a DTC bus which was leaving for Palam airport. I am sure you know what happened next.

Instance 2: Now I am a grown up man, still missing flights!

Last year I was travelling from Delhi to Kovallam for an event and had to take a 5 AM flight to reach early and proceed with work. Since I have a reputation for being late, this time I really thought I will wipe that 'kalank' off of my head So I woke up really early, got ready and reached airport around 3.30 AM. Got through security and everything and reached the designated departure gate by 4 AM, 1 hour to departure, so proud!

To kill time I went around looking for things to do, window shopping and all, finally stopped at a food joint and took muffins and coffee. Came back to the designated gate, it's 4.30 now and I don't see anyone on the gate, I was like what is wrong with the airlines, why is the gate not open yet nor do I see any airline crew. So I went to the next gate to inquire, but they had no idea so I went looking for someone from the airline I was flying. When I did meet one person - I got to know it's a silent airport so no announcements were made and they quietly changed the departure gate. They must have personally asked everyone sitting in front of the originally designated gate if they are flying to Trivandrum and then informed them of the gate change when I was busy stuffing my face with muffins.

But I got furious, these idiots should at least call me on my mobile to inform about the gate change if they cannot make announcements on the loudspeaker. To which they said it's against privacy policy:. Booked another flight which was 4 hours later and cursed myself again.

Kalank: 1 | Shabi: 0

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[neelkumar]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

I am a paranoid traveller and way to early for all my travel schedules.

Same here except for one case where me and wife almost missed our first flight together.

It was the 3rd day after our wedding and we had a flight to go to my in-laws place. Being a suburban place it is hard to get cabs near my home.

With the backup option that my dad would drop us off at the airport, I started searching for the cabs a little late. And of course I couldn't find a cab till the last minute. On the whole ride, I was on Google maps checking ETA (and constantly updating like a student waiting for his results on an entrance test). More than the missing flight or the money that we lose, I was tensed about the impression that my in-laws will have of me.

We reached the airport 30mins before the plane was scheduled to leave (and 30mins after the boarding time). But to our luck, they allowed us and we were on the plane in no time.

After this incident, we always plan to reach the airport at least 2 hours ahead of time and this also gives us the opportunity to use our card's lounge access and have food for 2rs.

[RahuKetu]

I missed my train once in 2011. The long story goes like this-

I was chased by India's biggest construction company to join them as they have entered a new sector and they didn't had enough required skill set of people in this new booming sector. I was working in a well known PSU at that time and was not keen to leave that organization. They offered me to visit Vadodara, spend two days where they had their main office for this particular BU and then decide if I wanted to join.

So me and my wife travelled to Vadodara for 2 days. They have booked return tickets from Vadodara to Delhi in August Kranti Rajdhani Express. The same train reaches Kota which is my hometown at 6 AM. I had planned to pick my mother and kid on the same train for Delhi and accordingly their tickets were also booked for next morning. Tickets were kept with my wife. I asked her about the departure time and she told me that it is 11 PM. So we decided to leave company's guesthouse at 10 PM as Vadodara is a Tier 2 city and has not that much traffic. Further, since the train was at 11 PM so chance of getting stuck in traffic jam was practically non-existent.

At 9:50 PM, I asked my wife to get ready. In the mean time, I just saw print outs of ticket at dressing table and picked them up to have a look. The departure time was 10 PM and not 11 PM. We were in shock. We rushed to the railway station and missed the train as Rajdhani is generally on time. Our main concern was that we will not be able to pick my mother & kid in the same train from Kota and keys of our house were with us.

We enquired about Current Reservation at the booking window in any other train but availability was Nil. We wanted to reach Delhi ASAP so we purchased General Tickets and decided to hop on first available express train.

We were waiting for the train. I saw 2-3 TCs standing at platform. To give it a try, I walked up to them and told them about my situation. They demanded 4000 Rs. for both of us and promised me that he will provide us seats in Ernakulam Delhi Rajdhani Express after 3 hours and told us to wait. Now comes the service part.

Train arrives at the platform. TC told us not to bother. After 5 minutes he appears with TC of the train & a coach attendant and refund amount of our general tickets. Coach Attendant picked our luggage, Both TCs escorted us to our coach, provided two lower berths, handed over challans of booked tickets and said us good bye.

Although we reached 4 hours late to Delhi and my mother had to wait for such time, but finally we were happy.

[Vyas]

I often travel to Bangalore from Hyderabad and I had missed 3 flights so far. The main reasons, Which I have to admit are Poor time management, lazyness, and blind hope on airline boarding gate authorities. I blindly believe the ETA that Google maps mentions and plan according to that, without any buffer! I end up arriving late and start pleading at the boarding officer or gate officer to let me in as there's still some time for the take-off. I learned my lessons. Its been a year since I missed any flight and hope that doesn't happen.

[manmeetd]

This one time I missed my flight because of my stupidity. I wanted to travel from Chennai to Delhi and reached the airport only to find out that I had booked my flight from Delhi to Chennai instead.

This was a genuine mistake, the only major concern was that this happened during the Chennai floods of 2015.

[arijitkanrar]

Originally Posted by shabih

Last year I was travelling from Delhi to Kovallam for an event and had to take a 5 AM flight to reach early and proceed with work. Since I have a reputation for being late, this time I really thought I will wipe that 'kalank' off of my head So I woke up really early, got ready and reached airport around 3.30 AM. Got through security and everything and reached the designated departure gate by 4 AM, 1 hour to departure, so proud!

To kill time I went around looking for things to do, window shopping and all, finally stopped at a food joint and took muffins and coffee. Came back to the designated gate, it's 4.30 now and I don't see anyone on the gate, I was like what is wrong with the airlines, why is the gate not open yet nor do I see any airline crew. So I went to the next gate to inquire, but they had no idea so I went looking for someone from the airline I was flying. When I did meet one person - I got to know it's a silent airport so no announcements were made and they quietly changed the departure gate. They must have personally asked everyone sitting in front of the originally designated gate if they are flying to Trivandrum and then informed them of the gate change when I was busy stuffing my face with muffins

But I got furious, these idiots should at least call me on my mobile to inform about the gate change if they cannot make announcements on the loudspeaker. To which they said it's against privacy policy . Booked another flight which was 4 hours later and cursed myself again.

Kalank: 1 | Shabi: 0

I guess you should've fought for it. You had checked in already which means they should have waited for you or tried to page you. Being a silent airport does not mean one cannot access airport facilities and has to remain at the gate. Before citing privacy policy, airline should have asked you if you would like to be contacted for changes made to plan.

[shabih]

Originally Posted by arijitkanrar

I guess you should've fought for it. You had checked in already which means they should have waited for you or tried to page you. Being a silent airport does not mean one cannot access airport facilities and has to remain at the gate. Before citing privacy policy, airline should have asked you if you would like to be contacted for changes made to plan.

You're absolutely right and I fought with them quite a lot, however they didn't budge and I gave up!

[KL01toKA03]

I have been a relaxed traveler, and I plan to reach the airport or railway station well before the required time (usually 3 hours before departure for domestic flights, and 1.5 hours before departure for trains). Still, I once came close to missing a train.

This happened in 2017, when I was travelling with my wife, son (3 year old at that time), and a servant. My wife was pregnant and we were going home approximately 1.5 months before the delivery, and flights were not an option. So, I decided to use the chance and travel by first AC. We reached the railway station 2 hours before the scheduled departure time. The train arrived only 30 mins before the scheduled departure time. As soon as I knew the platform of departure, I walked with my wife and son to the platform, and instructed them to wait for me next to the foot over-bridge (which was at the rear of the train).

I hired a porter (the train had reached the station by this time) and accompanied him as he carried the luggage. The porter carried the luggage towards the bridge at the front of the train based on the coach position. So, I asked my servant to take the other overbridge (assuming that she couldn't catch up with the porter) and wait near my wife. After placing the luggage, I went to get everyone else. To my shock, my wife and son were standing at the spot where I left them, but there was no trace of our servant. Calls to her phone were also unanswered, and by now there was less than 10 minutes for the scheduled departure of the train. So, I asked my wife and son to board the train, and move to the assigned seat. Then, I ran up the bridge looking for the missing person. I found her at the spot where I left her. Apparently, she had not found my wife, and thought that it was best to go back to the spot where I had left her.

Then, we started running back to the train. That is when I realized that my servant could run faster than I could, and that I should have let her accompany me when I followed the porter on the way to the train. We boarded the train, and I collapsed on the first seat which I could find. We sat there for 15 minutes, and drank a lot of water. When I finally reached my seat, I found my wife calling my mother-in-law and getting advice on how to complete the journey in my absence.

[BLACNWYTE]

I'm meticulous to the point of being anal retentive while planning or leaving by road, rail or air. I had not missed a single bus, train or flight in my life since I started traveling alone at the age of 10 due to this behavior (I had a two bus commute to my school which was about 35km from from our house).

All of it changed in 2017 around July - August. I missed a train and then missed one again about a year and half later. This is going to be a longish post.

Incident 1

Me and my wife decide (and by me and wife, I mean the wife) to spend a weekend at her place in Trivandrum. Like almost all husbands I was not too keen on making this monthly ritual trip. Since I wanted to stay in the good books of the missus I played along. As usual the matter if booking the tickets was reminded to me for the 73rd time by the chief while I was hoping she will have an episode of amnesia and forget the whole thing. Anyway I use the IRCTC app and book our tickets for shatabdi train which reaches Kochi by 5:30pm so that we can both attend office on Friday and still make it to Trivandrum and get maximum time at 'home'.(rolling eyes and slight groan). So on the fateful day I race from. My office which is in the middle of the city to hers which is at one end and then to our home for the already packed luggage and back to the Railway Station which is again in the middle of the city and near to my office. Don't ask me why this skewed and inefficient plan, because it seems that a bylaw in marriage states that the husband shall not plan or the husband's plan is more like a guideline or whatever and can be ignored.

Anyhow, we each the station huffing and panting and board our train and settle down in our seats. Yes, I know I told earlier that we missed the train; I'm coming to that. Now to gentlemen approach us and politely tell us we are sitting in their seat and show us their printed tickets. I check our tickets and it seems we are also allotted same seats. Situations start to flash in my head, either they have a fake ticket (unlikely since its a railway printed ticket), some software glitch allotted us the same seats etc, etc. My wife was genuinely puzzled but had the look of come hell or high water I'm traveling in this train today. Then I checked our ticket once again and something caught my eye and knocked the wind out of my lungs for a moment. I, in my infinite wisdom and meticulous planning had booked the tickets for the 9:30AM shatabdi train to Trivandrum. I was trying to board the evening train with the morning train ticket. I had missed the train, missed it by 8 freaking hours. My train had already reach Trivandrum and was on its way back now. My wife being a very good person didn't scold, kick or yell at me in public. I was scared because it looked like the calm before a storm. I received a decent amount of telling off from my mother and then some from my wife for being careless and wasting money after we reached home. We took the morning train next day and my compensation to her set me back by a few thousand bucks and an evening carrying shopping bags.

What happened was that I booked the tickets while I was in office and between the constant reminders from dear wife and pending work on my desk. In my hurry I checked the availability on the correct train, informed my wife and while making the booking accidentally selected the wrong train. To this day she doesn't believe that this is what genuinely happened and says that I had intentionally booked the wrong train to delay or call off the journey. Maybe I subconsciously did so, who knows

Incident 2

This happened about a year later and this time we were traveling from Trivandrum to Kochi. This time booking was on the right train and we were all set to start well in time for the journey. Now, usually when we travel from her home to mine, we are dropped at the Railway Station by my FIL or BIL. (before we purchased our car and also till our son was about a year old when we started using the Panda regularly for our journeys) This day both of them were not available and my wife's cousin agreed to drop us. But there is a catch,
he has classes till 4 in the evening and will only be available after that. Our train is at 3PM. So I make a plan such that I drive the car to Railway Station and park it there in prepaid parking and he can come and take it from there. The car in question is a 2014 MS Swift Lxi. It was a decent plan and to this effect I gave him the spare key.

Come 2PM and I'm loading the luggage into the car, I don't know how pieces of clothing are required for a stay of couple of days for other ladies but my wife packs a minimum of 3 bags and then one for our 9 month old baby which is OK since he pees, poops and spits a lot. I personally could survive with a small back pack worth of clothes. I being the coolie have to lug it all to the car, from car to train and then from train to car in Kochi and then till home. So I start with the heavy ones first, well they are all heavy and I open only the boot of the Swift with key and usually I leave the key in the keyhole itself, but this time I kept it on the backrest of the seat and after loading a textile showroom worth of luggage I triumphantly close the hatch only to realise the horror that I have left the keys inside. Now the hatch was locked with all our luggage inside, the doors were closed because I so smartly had decided to open them after loading the luggage. I couldn't call her cousin since the cellphones were not allowed in his class and he will only see the messages or missed called afterwards. I was stuck, royally. (Our Creta doesn't let the doors lock with the keys inside,
the habit got carried over I guess). While I was standing there, flustered with everyone trying so hard to not laugh at me. My wife was graciously reminding me that this is the second time I'm missing a train. (I was not aware of youtube videos that show a how to handle this situation and also I didn't want to damage my FIL's car). 4 O'clock came and went so did my train at Railway Station. My wife cheerfully chirped that, it serves me right for making her miss staying at home longer the other time we missed the train. Who says that ladies forgets and forgives? We took the morning train next day and this time around she spared me of any compensation.

Sorry for the long post.

[blackasta]

Missed:

PHL - MKE (united) - Had a little too laid back Sunday lunch at my aunt's place, and when we finally drove to the airport, and I cleared security, the aircraft was pushing back from the gate. I went to the gate agent and she booked me standby on the next flight which was after 3-4 hours. There were a lot of open seats, so I took that one home.

MDW - EWR (southwest) - Had to drive from Milwaukee to Chicago on Friday rush hour, and faced huge traffic on the interstate. Literally begged other passengers to allow me through security before them, some of them obliged too. I ran with my shoes in hand after clearing security , and when I reached the gate, the gate agent ran towards the aircraft on seeing me. Unfortunately, she came back and said that the door was closed, and without an emergency it could not be opened. She booked me standby on a flight to LGA couple of hours later, and I had to endure middle seat. Lucky that my buddies were enroute to pick me from EWR, and had to take a slight detour to pick me from LGA instead.

Both times, it was completely the generosity of the gate agents that they chose to rebook me free of cost on the next flight.


Near miss:

MKE - PHL (delta) - Got way too late getting out of office, endured rush hour traffic, parked at the terminal at a higher rate (off airport is cheaper), and again ran with my shoes in hand. Was the last person to board the flight, and the gate agents generously allowed me a minute to put on my shoes before boarding.

MKE - ORD - EWR (united) - the first leg was delayed, and I had to request the flight attendant to let me disembark first at ORD. I ran across tarmac (MKE-ORD being a short distance, they operate small aircraft which is parked in non jetway bays), ran across terminals, and was again the last person to board the ORD-EWR flight, just in time when they were making the last call.


Interesting story:

ORD - HPN (united) - was supposed to go to white plains, join a friend, and then drive down to south jersey early next morning to join a bigger group. The redeye flight took off from chicago, reached white plains but could not land there due to dense fog, and came back to Chicago, much to the chagrin of all the passengers (there are atleast half a dozen airports close by where they could have diverted, but apparently the crew would have timed out, and could not have operated the later flight). No flights that night, so I asked the airline to book me the first flight to philly next morning (closest to south jersey), and had my buddies pick me up from there !

Never missed flights in India because I mostly traveled with family, so no last minute dashes. Also, the CCU airport is quite close to my home.

[Jaguar]

Not really a missed flight, but a near miss thanks to the morons in Air India.

I had booked an early morning flight with Air India from Trivandrum to Bangalore. Reached the airport well ahead of schedule and stood in the check-in queue for 10 min. When our turn came, we were informed that the flight was cancelled and if we rush to the Jet Airways counter, we could board their flight which was about to take off in 15-20 min (Air India had tie up with Jet). I was traveling with two senior citizens and had luggage to check-in, so the rude lady at the Jet counter denied boarding while letting through a couple of guys from behind us since they had only backpacks with them and were ready to run to the boarding gate. If only the Air India staff had been proactive and guided us to the Jet counter earlier or if the Jet staff displayed helpful attitude, I would have been singing praises of them instead of the rant.

Came back to Air India, who in their usual attitude were not even apologetic and offered to put us on the next Chennai flight and from there to Bangalore. I denied this option and demanded a direct flight later in the day. One Indigo and Kingfisher flights were scheduled for Bangalore in a couple of hours and I was told that we could get tickets on the KF flight, provided it was not cancelled. This was during the final days of the Kingfisher airlines and it was anyone's guess on what would be the flight status. The KF staff had not yet arrived, but their customer care gave a half hearted confirmation over phone. After and hour of tense wait, the KF guys arrived and we got our boarding passes.

But it doesn't end here. The Air India flight to Chennai which was offered to us as an alternative was delayed indefinitely. Some unlucky souls traveling to Bangalore like us, who had opted for the original AI offer were left waiting while we boarded our direct flight to Bangalore.

Lesson learned: Never trust Air India staff and never fly Air India again.

[FURY_44]

Originally Posted by PontiacBandit

I had to come from Hyderabad to Bangalore from train, and I had to come through the train 'Garib Rath'. I had travelled alone in train only once or twice before. I reach the train station, see that my 8:30 PM Garib Rath is already in platform. I saw my ticket, and saw that the train number was the same. Well, almost. The last digit was different. I didn't really expect there to be multiple Garib Raths at the exact same time of departure from the same train station, with almost identical numbers. So, instead of going towards Bangalore, I was on my way to Vijayawada

Oh sir, we seem to have picked the same "Garib Raths" for our stories, here's mine. This was the 1st time I had travelled through train to Hyderabad and was really confused between Kacheguda & Secunderabad. My arrival was at Kacheguda and departure from Secunderabad, it did come back to haunt me.

Sunday night was my departure, casually had dinner since I had put up very close to Kacheguda, booked a cab at 7:30 and reached station (wink) by 8 or 8:15 something, quickly glancing the TV screens and voila I can't find my train number, I quickly check my train ticket and shows departure 8:30 from Secunderabad and I am at Kacheguda..

Out of all urgency booked a cab to somehow reach Secunderabad and requested the cab driver to reach as soon as possible, hats off to him to reach the station in 20 mins, I prayed and prayed there's some delay in the departure and while running towards the platform I quickly glanced the TVs and it showed "Garib Rath" on platform "X", thanked my stars and reached my coach and looked at the PNR chart and my name is not on the list, I quickly asked the TT who was right next to me, Is this Bangalore train?, No he said, it left 10 minutes back, this train goes to Vijaywada

I checked Red Bus on the availability of buses, all were filled or charging upwards of 3 or 4k for the last spare seat, remember it was a Sunday night. I also gave the IRCTC app a look to see if any trains are available, there was one from Kacheguda at 9:50 PM or something, with only 3 seats available in 2A, quickly booked it and took another cab to reach Kacheguda, all this running made me go hungry, ordered chicken biryani from the famous Bawarchi (hehe), the delivery guy reached the station just as I was, had it in the train and slept like a baby.

[Bsimhan]

I was travelling between Mumbai and Bangalore in 1997 and I got caught in a horrid traffic jam. I had work at Nariman Point and the usual practice was to take off a bit after 3 PM for a 5:40 flight to Bangalore. The snarl started around Wilson College and by the time we got to Pedder Road, it was over 45 mins. I was getting anxious and we slowly plodded along to the Haji Ali area. We were stopped here as the cops were not allowing traffic beyond this point. Some people said it was a building collapse. I later came to know that it was the Poonam Chambers that had collapsed. Got off the cab and took a train from Mahalakshmi. Some train commuters were sympathetic of my plight and told me to get off at Santacruz and asked me to an auto from there to the airport. I got off and literally ran for an auto (baggage and all). The auto guy drove like there was no tomorrow, but I missed the flight as the pilot had asked for the flight doors to be closed. In spite of having telechecked-in and I having only carry on baggage, the guy at the counter said it wasn't possible for me to board. The guy the ticketing counter got my flight rebooked for 6AM the following day. Back to the hotel and a sleepless night later, I got to see the extent of the damage at 3AM the following day. Terrible tragedy. I was travelling Indian Airlines then.