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I had completed my two weeks of official training trip at the headquarters that included a two-day free sight-seeing trip thrown in. My suitcase filled with souvenirs for the near and dear, the camera filled with hundreds of memories, I was all set to go home. 

I checked out of the hotel reached the airport and showed the printed copy of e-ticket. I patiently waited for the boarding pass. A few minutes later... “Sorry Sir, as per your passport you have the wrong type of visa. You cannot take this flight.”  A gentle cajoling followed by a frenetic pleading, and escalating matters to higher officials had a telephonic clarification with their head office and the concerned immigration officials. The end result was a big NO.

Now the ground reality hit me in the face. I went and sat down and apprised myself of the situation.

It was early Saturday morning and my office will reopen only on Monday. I cannot make a call to the logistics lady one reason being that I did not bother to get a local SIM and did not have international calling facility. Two I did not even have her number, my memory being what it is, I can’t remember my own telephone number leave alone hers.

I went out of the airport and smoked a couple of cigarettes racking my brain to get a solution. A glimmer of hope... I might have it somewhere in one of the official emails. I managed to connect to a free internet in the airport. Fifteen minutes of desperate search later I managed to find a mail from her with her personal mobile number.

Using the public telephone I woke her up and asked her to come on Skype. The good lady ‘God bless her’ in turn woke up a groggy travel agent....

An hour later, I received a fresh e-ticket through another airline that did not have an issue with the Visa type on my passport.  Run Sai, you barely have time left for the check-in, the logistics lady pinged me. I ran with my laptop open to show the e-ticket at the counter....

Yes, I got my boarding pass at last. The bonus being that, I would land straight at Hyderabad instead of Mumbai.

Important lessons learnt (well I am not really sure if I really did the first)....

Write down all important telephone numbers, get a local SIM. 

Never travel by British airways again.

It is not the Romans who are crazy as Asterix says, it’s the English.

Forget the bitter and remember the pleasant.

All I remember now is that I had Macaroni for breakfast in Milan, Frankfurters in Frankfurt for lunch and Karela ‘n’ phalli curry with rice for dinner at Kukatpalli home.  Oh did I mention “forget bitter” somewhere! Well make Karela an exception.