Kolkata: Battle for the plane.

After 3 days of wedding festivities in Kolkata (of which I’ll write more about later), it was time to bid adieu to the city and head over to Delhi.

My friendly driver, Uttam, said arriving at the airport 1 hour beforehand was sufficient for domestic flights.

I got to the airport promptly an hour before my flight was due to depart, but what greeted me was a massive crowd milling outside the airport, people rushing to buy air tickets at the last minute at the counters, drivers honking other drivers for hogging the drop-off spot.

I hastily attempted to make my way into the check-in area, not before I had to make a large detour around the crowd to find the little entrance in the railings.

Then, another queue awaited. This time, to screen all baggage before passengers were allowed to go to the check-in counters.

Loud chattering echoed through the halls, lines formed all over the place for different airlines, people jumped queues randomly, and there was no sense of urgency to get passengers through quickly.

I started to panic. With 45 minutes to go, I was still in line to get my baggage screened, and no where near the snaking lines in front of check-in.

Then suddenly, all these Indigo flight officers started appearing and calling out for Ahmenabad passengers. Apparently the flight was leaving in 15 minutes and they had to get the Ahmenabad-bound passengers on the plane.

What ensued was an organised mess of people emerging from the lines waving their Ahmenabad tickets, rushing to the front of security screening, then being escorted to the check-in counter to get their boarding passes.

However, I was still relegated to standing in line and as I managed to get my baggage through, my next task was to find the check-in counter for Delhi.

Problem was, none of the counters indicated the destinations for checking in.

I stood at the end of the shortest line I could find, then managed to flag down an airport officer to ask for help.

He casually waved me towards another line at the end of the hall and proceeded on his way.

Not sure what to do, I looked haplessly around. Then, something caught my eye.

One of the counters had produced a sign that read “Delhi”. I picked up my belongings and rushed forward.

Funnily enough, I got through all the formalities with even 15 minutes to spare before boarding time.  No mean feat by local standards.

Being in India was a test of my patience. But also a good lesson for me to learn to chill and trust that the process will get me to my destination. Urgency is not a commonly-accepted nor understood concept.  

That lesson held me in good stead for the rest of my journey.