I was walking out feeling grateful after an extremely eventful day which could ‘otherwise’ have been quite a topsy-turvy experience…
More than 9 hours had passed after the first delay of our flight to Nice was announced.We were whiling our time in so many different ways at the Zurich airport. Shopping windows , clicking pictures of the decorated Christmas trees a second and a third time, drinking tea,coffee, juice, water..
And all of the above again and again for last many hours …
After all, how creative can one be with the limited possibilities of entertainment at an airport and that too after having taken a long 9 hour flight and sleeping very little at night ..
We had arrived at Zurich at 6 am after a long flight of 9 hours from Mumbai on this Christmas Day(quite unaware of the series of events, Santa had in store for us)
Hoping that our flight departure will be announced soon as it was already 5 pm now, we continued making desperate attempts to keep ourselves entertained at the this hour.
Until that last ray of hope also turned down into a black hole – As we got up and started our walk towards the departure gate, we happened to see the information screen which said – flight to Nice delayed further.
Delayed further ..Oh my God, why again!!!
When we inquired at the information desk, we were told that the airport at Nice was shut because of bad weather. And they would not guarantee the departure time until the airport reopens .
Without loosing a minute. We googled ( sincere thanks to Google, life would be very blue without google on the blue planet) and found that a storm had hit Nice. The same that had hit England few days back/travelled south of France/Paris was without electricity on Christmas Eve/storm hits Nice…
Do we want to be received by a storm on Christmas?? Ofcourse we are still young and adventurous but getting stuck in a storm would be stupidity not adventurous , isn’t it..
And we are wise beings ..
But how about the hotel bookings.. And the air tickets.. The onward journey from Nice .. The rerouting charges.. Where would we stay in Zurich .. It’s Christmas Eve wouldn’t the hotels be damn expensive.. Etc etc ..
Within a second, the storm in Nice felt quite distant from the storm of thoughts that had hit inside us..
Though we all know that the only thing certain about life is that it is uncertain, Yet whenever we come across a situation when we come face to face with another uncertainty the mind is the first one to betray us. Like a best friend behaving like a stranger suddenly…
Took a deep breath In (to energise) and then a long deep breath out (to relax) -thanks Guru for this magic mantra a deep realisation is what followed- there was no use struggling.
Patiently taking one step at a time we started unknotting this challenging new puzzle. What is the best thing to do.. Let’s see
Number One….
Number Two….
Number Three….
The outcome that followed was a patient, well thought decision of staying back in Zurich. Took exact 10minutes to make all the changes, few calls and few online bookings and we were almost sorted..
Yes Almost.. Remaining was only the last mile to be covered of cancelling our booking and getting our luggage (which was through checked in earlier in Mumbai). Which we were suppose to only receive after reaching Nice.
This should be simple-
After visiting a few airport counters ( all of us are quite aware of these formalities aren’t we) we finally seemed to have reached the point where the destiny of our luggage would be announced by the airport ‘God’ (of course that was God for us, after all he had our luggage/ our life with him). The airport God announced- “I regret but it’s Christmas, we are short of staff today, no one to sort your luggage and so you shall only get your luggage after the flight departs to Nice, which is uncertain, we are hopeful may be after 4-5 hours from now’ .
Wow! such kind words from God! Just 4-5 hours more..
Siddharth immediately intervened and asked “Could you please send our luggage to the hotel” to which God kindly replied “Yes , but it will reach you only by tomorrow”
Have you seen Tom and Jerry, it’s Shashwat’s and my favourite cartoon. All my jackets are in the suitcase and it was really really COLD outside, I imagined Jerry’s condition after being abandoned in a freezing winter..
When nothing works one thing surely does and so, I just closed my eyes and prayed from my heart, a sincere/deep prayer .
YES!!! I saw ‘the airport God’ talking over the phone with his colleague – explaining something in German.
Yipee.. I knew the prayer was heard and something will soon happen. And I told this to Siddharth “he is getting our bag” Siddharth thought, I was hallucinating… No I was not 🙂
Within 20 min the luggage came, yes a miracle had just happened for us. A prayer had just got answered .
I removed our jackets and we were soon walking towards the exit, with a grin..
With gratefulness in our hearts and with a feeling of being taken care of , feeling warm and comforted, We walked out.
The Christmas tree bears so many colorful gifts. I had just unwrapped one, on this Christmas Day and so there was a big grin on my face.. After an eventful day like today the heart was full of a Gratitude for the care and love God bestowed on us .
What a beautiful Christmas gift, Gratefulness itself, I thought to myself….. 🙂
Vasudha Jhunjhunwala 
Nice 🙂 Enjoyed. Keep sharing more 🙂
An amazing note
Please keep writing….. :):)