The night she came

All my life, I wanted her…

Wanted her to search for me with desperate eyes.
To look all around calling my name, waiting, almost pining…
To come close and tell me with those inquiring eyes “kahaan thhey ab tak, sab tumhara intezaar kar rahe hain…” (English translation – Where were you till now, everyone’s been waiting for you…”)

And tonight, it happened.

It’s surprising how some of the most memorable moments start always so innocuously. I was having a comfortable drink in the Taj lounge at the airport of one of the most non-happening cities in India – Chennai. With friends of course. Whiling away the hours (few minutes actually) waiting for the 8:05 PM flight to back home. After a lot of words and drinks had been exchanged, we realized we hadn’t shown up even for the security check by 8 PM…

And then she came…
…With a walkie-talkie in her hand. The stewardess from Jet. A symbol of authority. A part of her responsibility being ensuring that errant passengers observing delays in meeting the law and the X-ray machines are gathered and sent into blue-tailed Boeings…along with their 30 kg hand-baggage of course.
She obviously insisted on carrying out her duties with a disturbing seriousness. Her behavior and reactions have already been described in the opening para of this post… It was the moment I had always subconsciously waited for, but had never deliberately anticipated its arrival.
Of course a consequence of this encounter was that they managed to depart the flight with only a ten-minute delay.

But my life, is now forever changed… Because her words still ring in my ears… :)