Miracles happen.. and they happen at the least expected hour. One does not know the reason why everything is going in one's favor but the very fact it is happening brings smiles. And when such a rush of things happen, one knows there is someone/something which is making these happen. Savor these unexpected turn of events in April last week and early May:
1. The tatkal tickets got booked so easily as though it was normal booking. Summer time is peak vacation season and IRCTC is notorious for crashing all the while during tatkal hours.
2. Its 6:15pm the train and we are still 12kms away from the Tirupati station. The Narayanadri departs at 6:20pm and there is no way we can make it to the station for the train. We do the next best option, go in the cab to the next station and hope to catch it there. We go at 6:50pm to Renigunta, when the expected departure is 6:45pm. But Voila!! the train is yet to arrive when we reach Renigunta though it started on time at Tirupati. Another 15mins before it arrives.
3. Registering the apartment and going around the Registrar office is a painful ordeal. I still have to adjust for almost Rs.5L for the payments to builder and the Registration process. So with all the glim prospects I go to the apartment builder for negotiating a deferred payment but yet get the apartment registered. Voila!! He agrees with any discussion. The next thing when I go to bank, is that they let me know I can use another 1.75 Lakhs for registration. This blessing came even without asking anyone for help. Next is the date for registration. SBI is notorious for a long drawn processes. Upon request for registering the apartment, I was given a date one week from hence. And I do not have that kind of a luxury. I will be on a honeymoon trip subsequent week and then reporting to office grinding the piled up work. So by only bet was the next day. With a bit of persuasion, the officials accept for getting the apartment registered the next day with a small work around. The registration process itself happens in two hours, and when did Govt. offices become so efficient?
4. When things are looking good, they turn sour a bit, just to indicate that we need to appreciate the Miracles. I get back to Hyderabad (from Bangalore after successful registration of my apartment). The next day I am leaving for Hongkong for the honeymoon trip. Previous day, I kept all the passports, tickets, Android Tablet in my laptop bag which is like a second skin to me. But the morning I arrive in Hyderabad, two hours after reaching home, I realize I forgot my bag in train. Never in a decade of train travel, did I lose a thing. (not even a water bottle). But that day with all the other luggage, I forgot about my shoulder bag. It contained Laptop, Passports, Wallet with driving license and PAN card, Android Tablet, mobile phone. Losing passport means, my honey moon got cancelled, all my bookings are already paid for and more of disappointment. In gist its like losing almost three lakhs worth and also around three months of running around across govt. offices. In my mad rush I started back to the Kacheguda railway station hoping I have been lucky till date and I need that luck more than anytime now. The moment I reach, the AC coach attender, says he saw the bag but then he lost it again. He connected me to the train bed-roll supervisor, Deepak. After persuading for half an hour, they fetch me the lost bag. Voila!! Half an hour back, I was thinking my honey moon got cancelled leaving me disappointed, I lost three lakhs in all the bookings, Losing fav gadgets/laptops meant loss of important personal data and now I am planning when I need to book a cab to go to airport. Can this happen in real life?
5. My flight to HKG got delayed by three hours. Now it starts at 4:20am and arrives in HKG at 12:10pm. Earlier when I planned the flight bookings, it was expected to arrive at 9:30am. That would give me enough time to take the visa on arrival, collect baggage, navigate through a new city to go to the cruise terminal. But now by the time I arrive at the HKG airport, the cruise boarding would have already started. The last boarding call for cruise was 2pm. So I have 1hr 50 mins to get visa, collect baggage, buy MTR tickets and reach Kowloon and take a taxi to the cruise terminal. So I was not sure if we will be able to make it to the cruise in time. I gave up the cruise vacation and started planning for the alternatives through the five hour flight journey.We finished all this and also got time to pick a tourist SIM card for mobile and reached cruise terminal by 1:40pm, good 20mins before the final boarding call.
6. When I was telling my newly-wedded wife about the series of miracles that happened after the wedding, she was skeptical about the occurrence. But I being confident of it told her to test it out. She said if the wedding was trigger of miracles, then even our wishes should be granted. And one of my previous small wishes was to spot another ship from the cruise we were on. Given the vastness of the oceans, distance from any land/harbours, the pitch dark night with all the fog around, I had no hope of spotting. Breaking our discussion there we went to grab some drinks and snacks. After half an hour, we returned to the view point on the deck just to have one last glimpse of the black ocean before we retire to our room. Voila!! We can count at least six ships in different directions. Given all above factors even the impossible seems to occur, to prove my point.
7. After the other small "lucky" occurrences, we were finally boarding the flight back to Hyderabad. Both of us were visibly disappointed from the morning as the Honeymoon was coming to an end and after a great time we need to be back at work from next day. The series of miracles, though happened, looked very scary, as they put me to the edge. (I wanted miracles but not when I was at the edge of the seat.). With the mundane life starting the next day, I expected no more miracles to occur. Just at the boarding gate, the hostess tore our tickets and announced she is changing our seats. I got mad, I have done a web check-in the previous day, so that I can get the preferred seats. And here she is announcing change of seats without my permission. I raised my voice and said she cannot do that as we already opted the seats we wanted. And her response... Voila!! She declared, we are being upgraded to Premium Economy. Now that meant a welcome glass of champagne, choice of food, complete privacy and bigger seats and leg space. Now what more can I ask for than that signature sign off to those memorable days?
I don't know if it is the luck that the new-lady-of-my-life brought-in or the good wishes and blessings showered on us by the elders or just coincidental. Whatever be it, it brought good times and smiles. I will cherish these for life-time, while you can debate what made these miracles possible. :)
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