Baggage Trouble

As i stood waiting for my baggage near the conveyor belt at Delhi, and saw a torn and dirty bag passing by.... to my horror i realized it was my bag, mutilated beyond recognition!!

I hastily retrieved it from the belt, and got my hands full of oil and mustard in the process.Yes, I admit I was carrying a weird medley of things in that bag, but I have done it umpteen number of times, and escaped without accidents. Don't most of us have one sturdy bag which holds all the things dropped in last?

I went numb looking at what had happened, since the bag contained most new vessels, supplies, and clothes i had bought in Chennai. I looked around for someone who would give me an answer.. and spotted a customer services counter. I dumbly stood in the queue there, until someone behind the counter saw my distress and beckoned me forward.

I showed them the bag, and they reacted as if people come there everyday with bags they have torn. I felt that moment like a naughty child, caught in my act... but suddenly i realised that it was their fault, not mine.. for God's sake, I was inside the aircraft,after handing over to them a locked, zipped bag. Ironically, the lock and zip was intact, and I had to hunt for the keys, to assess the damage.

By this time, I was getting angry about my own stupidity.. and this anger returned me to the world where behind a counter stood incredulous, indifferent but polite men, waiting for me to say something.

I finally found my tongue and launched a harangue about their mishandling of my baggage. As I opened the bag, millions of mustard seeds rolled out, all over their counter, in a pool of ridiculous smelling hair oil. The oil was a present for some relative in Delhi, from some relative in Chennai... but presently, it was causing a sticky-smelly mess at the airport.

After then, it was routine boring task, of making a list of all damaged items, and totaling the financial loss. The stocktaking was greatly helped by the fact that all items were brand new with price tags intact.

The funny thing was, Indian Airlines people took half an hour to find me a plastic bag to put these things. For me, the best thing about shopping is the glossy, colorful bags that stuff comes in. So I had lots of carefully folded empty bags in my luggage. All these bags were pressed into service, with things sorted as oily, not oily,broken and beyond redemption.

After all the mess up, these guys cleaned up their act admirably, settling the compensation claim immediately, and in cash. They filled out the forms themselves for finishing these formalities.

After everything was done, I began to cry, tears coming unbidden as usual...

All the shopping was for my US Trip in august. I am going to set up a new home there, and I had bought cute vessels, nice clothes, even some groceries with the enthusiasm of a child buying coveted toys. I started feeling bad about the inauspicious beginning to a new, ambitious project.

What was this incident but an "Apshagun"?? As soon as that word clicked, Came images of ridiculous K-Serials, where apshaguns happen all the time.. Photo frames falling, bangles breaking and the works...

I smiled instinctively at my my own crazy line of K-thought, and then the mist of worry and sadness cleared up, and I began to feel upbeat at the prospect of getting back home after 2 weeks, and giving everyone the gifts I had bought for them, and kept safe in the other suitcase...