Honey! I missed my flight!

Don't seek, don't search, don't ask, don't knock, don't demand - relax. If you relax, it comes. If you relax, it is there. If you relax, you start vibrating with it. - Osho

I don't know why I read this quote the day before my departure. It had a tremendous impact and I do not know whether that impact was required or not. But after I read this, I started relaxing consciously. The problem was, I relaxed too much and the world was not ready for it!
The flight was scheduled to leave at 06.40 AM. The boarding point was San Jose. And the destination being Bangalore, I had my connecting flights at Los Angeles(same day 11.30AM) and Hong Kong (sometime after I reached Hong Kong... Don't ask me when.. Because I don't know!). I had kept the alarm at 3.30 AM and after fighting with her to keep quiet by repeatedly pressing the snooze button, I finally gave up and got out of my bed half heartedly at 4.00 AM. Some things in life don't change by force and it is better if we start accepting things the way it is! A comforting cliche which my mind said to itself.
The previous day I had booked for the cab to pick me up at 5.00 AM. I relaxedly packed my stuff and finished it by 5.00 AM. At this juncture, my stupid mind stopped living in the present and started to move on to the future. And since fear and confusion is what one ends up when one thinks about the future, I also ended up on the same. Following were the exact thought processes which forked:

Hmmm.. What will I do after reaching airport?
This is going to be a long journey. What will I do in the aeroplane?
Will the flight consist of beautiful air hostesses?
What will I do in the transit terminal?
What will happen if my laptop battery drains out in the middle?

and so on...

By this time 15 minutes elapsed. She(alarm clock) started laughing at me. Still I was reluctant to close my laptop. After a lot of power struggle and a call from the front desk about the cab waiting, I forcibly left the room.

It was 5.30 AM. The airport was just 5 minutes drive from my place. I asked the cab driver whether was it too late. He asked what time the flight was and comforted me by saying that there were few people who started only 15 minutes before flight departure. Ah! What a beautiful soul. God bless him!

I reached the airport by 5.45 AM. Hmmm.. Still had time. I relaxed. I walked relaxedly. And moved towads the self check in machine. Now, I've to tell that this self check in machine must be one of the wonderful creations of mankind. With a beautiful 10 feet user interface, she was adorable. But what is the use?! As usual, like other devices which fail to help me in my life, she couldn't identify who I was and blamed my passport for the same. Hmmm.. When people can't accomplish some task, it is very easy to put the blame on somebody! The guy who programmed her must have thought that he was clever and superior. Stuffing a male thought process inside a female soul just disrupts the eco system.

I pitied the self check in machine and relaxedly moved on to the much more reliable and humane check in queue. The time was 6.10 AM and I wasn't aware.

When my turn came the officer greeted me and started looking at my itinerary. Slowly his face turned sour and he advised me to run towards the security clearance. My initial instinct was to run. After three quick steps of jumping, I immediately stopped as my mind started to tell 'Relax'. It was a mental struggle. When standing in the line for security clearance, my habitual instinct started showing its tantrum. When the queue started moving, I went on bumping with the guy in the front. After two times, he understood (might've got irritated) and generously offered to go ahead of him. Realizing my subconscious mischiefness, I smilingly rejected his offer and kept telling relax to myself. He got puzzled and forced me to go ahead of him and said even one minute saved might help. Awed at his optimism, I agreed to go ahead.

Although I was rushing ahead one part of the mind kept on ringing the 'Relax' bell. As I reached the boarding gate, the officer smiled and welcomed. When I came close to him, he politely rejected my boarding pass and showed the 'closed' sign on the flight information tv. All enthusiasm shattered! And to add oil to the fire, the stupid mind didn't stop ringing the 'relax' bell!

Helpless and cornered, I asked him when is the next flight to Los Angeles and informed him about my international connectivity. He said the next flight was at 9.00 AM and will reach Los Angeles by 10.30 AM. So I still could make it and was positively informing my calculations to him. He welcomed my enthusiasm and but asked me not to count too much on it as that flight was fully booked! He still insisted me to talk to the higher lady officer to see what can be done.

Now this lady was a very good looking american middle aged woman. She was crisp and stern. More like a strict class teacher. As I approached her with a puppy face, she recognized me immediately as the guy who missed the flight.

'Mr. Srinivasan (My last name) I know you missed the flight and from the records I see that you've an international connectivity. But the next flight is fully booked and I don't know what is going to happen to you.'
Hmmm.. Add chilli powder to the wound. Very good!!

As the hour hand and minute hand made a 90 degree angle, I approached the lady once more as I saw many people boarding the 9.00 AM flight.
'I'm sorry Mr. Srinivasan. The flight is full and you cannot be accomodated. You've to wait till the next flight which is at 2.00 PM' she replied.
'Hey.. I've a flight at 11.30AM. If I board this flight, I'll be able to reach it on time. There must be something which can be done' I pleaded back.
'I understand but there is nothing which I can do. The flight is full and all have boarded.' she replied.
'Yes.. Maybe you just allow me to board.. I'll just sneak in the rest room and go.. What say?!' I responded giving my final conclusion.
She smiled and said 'No!!'
I had no other option but to just sit and relax! There was one more person of my cadre who had missed the flight and was pleading for the next one. As I saw him, he gave me a stern face and turned it the other side. Looked like I gave him tough competition! After sometime I wandered inside the airport and whiled away the time drinking coffee and a mexican burrito. At 2 PM, the airline finally agreed to pack me to Los Angeles but insisted to contact the connecting carrier for further travel.

The airline folks at Los Angeles had closed and had vacated the place. No traces of them! Again I just had to wait for the boarding of their next flight. I looked more like a patient hunter hiding behind the bush and waiting for the prey to come out.
After few hours, the prey came out finally. I quickly jumped towards them with a bright face and silently gave my boarding pass. The guy who attended me was very naive.
"Bliss in disguise" I thought.
He started searching for my name in the next flight to Hong Kong. After getting confused and wondering why his computer was not working properly and scratching his head, he finally figured out that I had missed the flight! He slowly started to explain the same to me. It was kinda funny! When you know the truth and you keep quiet and let people figure it out and make them explain it to you.. It is a sadistic pleasure which I had inherited from my maths teachers!

I said "Yes. And I need a place in the next flight." He got alarmed and asked me to wait and ran inside to meet the higher authority. Poor guy!

At this point there was another chinese lady standing next to me. She must be of my mom's age. Happy and living that moment. I asked why she was standing.
"I'm troubled. I'm waiting for getting a place in the next flight." she said with a confused face.
At one point I felt really happy and comforting to see that the world does have many people like me. But this joy was short lived. She said the flight which she was supposed to travel, got cancelled. So she had come for getting boarding pass for the next flight. I laughed and said.. "You know what. I'm also waiting to get a place in the next flight. Just that in my case I missed the flight.Now tell me... Who is in troubled position?!"
She was taken aback now.
"Boy! You are in trouble. And if you were my son, you would be in a bigger trouble...!"

The officer came and gave me two offers:
1) Wait in Los Angeles for another day and then take the flight to Hong Kong and board the flight to bangalore from there immediately after 3 hrs
2) Board the next flight to Hong Kong but wait there for 18hrs and board the flight to bangalore.

Hmmm.. Now these two options sounded more like the following to me:
1) Tour Los Angeles for a day and go back to India
2) Tour Hong Kong for a day and go back to India!

My immediate calculations were as follows:
I had been in the US for 6 to 7 months. Although I've never toured Los Angeles, I know how it will be. Nothing new. All artificial stuff. Hong Kong on the other hand is a place which I've not yet explored. A place where you don't understand what people speak and not many will understand what you want to know. Must be adventurous.

With this, I went for the second option and the officer confirmed the same.

Ah! Back to comfort zone.. Now to put anxious people to rest. I first mailed my dad and mom telling that the flight got delayed. This will first ease the tension! Because I remembered a similar incident. Once I had slept and missed a early morning train to chennai during diwali. That was a shatabdi (a superfast luxury train in India) and that was supposed to be my first journey in that train. When I realized that the train had left, I called and informed my dad. Immediate instinct - An outpour of all my careless mistakes from the past! And the news had spread like wildfire to all my relatives there! The entire diwali was spent with all my relatives inquiring on how could I miss the train!!
After some time relaxing in the airport, I called my dad.
"Hello Dad. I'm going to tell a news. Nothing to panic. I just missed my flight. But things are totally under control.. Don't worry. My arrival will be delayed." I answered without any pause.
Sometimes people get bored of advising and give up accepting that some things doesn't change. Probably he must've realized these with my earlier bus and train misses. He was really cool and just asked me to keep him informed if possible. Phew! Now I didn't have to worry about my mom's panic. That is the beauty of a couple!
After trying American vegan Pasta, Japanese vegetarian rice rolls, food from thai cuisine, three scoops of Haagen Daz ice cream, lots and lots of coffee and spending time with the coffee shop girl, I boarded the flight to Hong Kong.

After I reached Hong Kong, I got the visa from immigration (Thanks to the liberal tourist visa rule for Indian citizens) and sat in a chair in the airport and relaxed for a while. And then started googling places to visit in Hong Kong in a day. Looks like there were many like me. While I wanted to try airbnb.com to get a place to stay for a night, somebody said it is better to stay at the airport and have a shower in the premium lounges as Hong Kong airport is voted as one of the best airports. Cost effective and sounded good! After 4 cups of coffee, an ice cream and some potato chips (Thanks to 7Eleven shop) the sun woke up from its sleep and asked me to leave the airport. I had a shower bath at the airport premium lounge and bid goodbye to the airport. An ardent admirer of Buddha's works, visiting the Buddhist monasteries in Lantau Island was the first in my list.

To go to this place you've to first board a bus (buses E11, E21, E22) from airport to a place called Tung Chung. And from there take a cable car to the hill top which is called Ngong Ping.
I came out and wanted to board the bus to Tung Chung. Now the problem with reading chinese names in English is the pronunciation.

If you see the name 'Tung Chung' you can pronounce it in four different ways:
1. Tung Chung [ tʊng chʊng ]
2. Tung Chang [ tʊng chʌng ]
3. Tang Chung [ tʌng chʊng ]
4. Tang Chang [ tʌng chʌng ]

If you're an american you can find zillion ways to pronounce! I'm an Indian and could figure out only four ways now.

While enquiring people standing there, I pronounced it like the one in 4. And no one recognized. Many got scared and started showing faces creating more pandemonium. The 'relax' bell in my mind started to ring back again now! After reading some of the sign boards I first boarded the bus E21. As I entered the bus I asked the driver whether that bus goes to Tung Chung. He started replying in Chinese. I started asking him again in english. And this repeated for 3-4 times. Finally he got irritated and asked me to get out and take the next bus!

I roamed in the bus stand for the next five minutes. Whoever I approached, tried to escape me! The next bus E11 came. I blindly boarded the bus, quickly dropped the change in the ticketing machine and quietly sat inside. No one asked! I was feeling blissful. It is like the feeling you get when you do some mischief and nobody finds it out!

Although I boarded a small fear did exist in one of the dark corners of my mind. A young chinese woman suddenly came and sat in front seat facing me.
"Do you know english?" I asked her.
"Leeetttle" she responded and smiled shyly.
"Do you know which stop Tang Chang is?" I queried again.
"I... I... I.. new this place.. I last stop... I.. I..." she struggled.
"Dooo youu know Tang Chang.. Tannnnggg Changgggg... Tangggg Chaanggg..." The neurotic anxiety disorder inside me tried its level best to make her understand.
She felt awkward. The 'relax' bell started ringing again inside me. Sensing her awkwardness, I comforted and thanked her and started looking around the bus. There was a digital sign board which indicated the next stop which the bus was approaching! My mouth was full of teeth!!
As the stop approached, I quickly went near the driver and said.. "Tang chang. Stop"
He corrected me as "Tung Chang![ tʊng chʌng ]"
Now everything fell in place. Why all the people I enquired were showing faces to me!

After having a quick veggie delite in the subway, I boarded the cable car to Ngong Ping. With glass bottom cable cars, the ride was beautiful and thrilling. I was accompanied by an elderly couple and their two young daughters. They were having a very good time. Since I was alone, they comforted me by offering to take a snap of me. In return, I took the elderly couple. The daughters didn't allow me to take a pic of them!

"You stay here? From china?" I asked.
"No. Korea." They replied.
"Oh.. I'm sorry! I'm really sorry!" acknowledging my ignorance. No offence intended.. But for me, finding difference between chinese, korean and japanese is like a guy stupidly trying to figure out what a women wants!
"Which Korea? North or South?" I queried again.
"Ah.. Aa..." They didn't know what to tell. They discussed amongst themselves. The problem was they didn't know what is North and South in english.
"Ok.. Are you from Gangnam style korea or No Gangnam style Korea?" I asked.
The girls got happier and responded "Yes.. Gangnam style korea" and delightfully gave a small dance step from that.
"South Korea then!" I acknowledged.

After the cable car reached the destination, the korean folks bid goodbye. The place was spectacularly serene. It looked as if I was walking in the sets of chinese kung fu movies.

Two places I wanted to see here are the Tian Tan Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery. The Tian Tan Big Buddha in agreement with its name was really big! And when you see something big and bold, you end up only in excitement. Like a excited dog with tongue protruding outside, I was climbing towards the statue with full josh as if I was going to become the next buddha. I was getting ready for enlightenment!

As I started going near, the excitement started fading away.. And then now what?! Nothing.. Back to normalcy! :-) But I've to tell that the temple had some of the old wooden slates of chinese buddhist preachings. Although I couldn't make anything out of it, I admired it as a beautiful piece of art.

After that I walked outside to move towards Po Lin Monastery. But there was this sign board which said 'Wisdom Path. Tea Garden Restaurant. Fun walk!' Wisdom! Tea! Fun!

The excited dog inside me came out again! As usual I fell for it and took that direction.

After few steps, I entered the Tea Garden Restaurant. Although the name had 'restaurant', it had nothing to do with a commercial eating place. The place was a thatched hut with notice board and menu made up of whatever you could get for free. A chinese lady who was doing something in the tea garden nearby, came running towards me and started speaking in chinese! Now this is fun!

"Hi..  I need some tea?" I replied
"你想要什麼？" she responded.
"I need some tea?" I replied.
"你想要什麼？" she responded.
"Tea.. Tea.. Teeeeee" I replied with action of drinking tea.
She went inside and showed me a menu of Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi and all other sodas you could think of!!
Hmmm.. I must have looked like a spoilt brat to her. I signalled her to come outside and took her to the board where a menu of tea were available. She finally understood what I want and went inside giving me a big smile!
After few minutes she came back with a tray containing a chinese cup and two kettles.

"這是中國的茉莉花茶。這是非常好的健康和你啜飲慢慢地放鬆，享受同樣的..." she started again!
The joy of happily shaking your head with a big smile when you understood nothing... Reminded me of my school days!
She kept the tray and waited for me to drink. For few seconds I stared at the tea cup. Although I didn't know which one to pour and how to drink that, I was reluctant to open my mouth as I clearly knew it will end up nowhere. I stared at the tea tray with an analyzing face similar to the one Inspector Jacques Clouseau gives in Pink Panther. Identifying my ignorance, she demonstrated the procedure to make tea and left the place. The next 10-15 mins was tea ritual. Breathing fresh air, drinking the tea sip by sip and enjoying the serene forest surrounding!
Once the tea got over I called her to give money.
"它將花費你25港元的..." she replied.
I gave her my purse and asked her to take the money herself. After that I signalled that the tea was excellent and bid her goodbye and left the place.
And then I walked and hiked and walked and hiked and finally got lost in the forest.

But I was actually not lost. Getting lost was like a momentary feeling. When you don't have anyone by your side and you don't know where you are going. But that didn't last long. As the walking kept continuing, I could see one or two people waving 'Hi' and returning back. So the getting lost part was just a state of mind. The fun part of this hiking is that you get to observe all the funny things of the mind. One more thing to observe about the hiking trail was that it was sloping. Either side of the trail had steep slopes. And one couldn't see what was there 10 feet behind and what we could encounter 10 feet ahead. The place was filled with dense fog. A path which had neither signs of where it led nor a clear return journey. After 2-3 hrs of mind gruelling hike I reached the top of a peak. Yes. The gruelling part was more of the mind. The atmosphere was too good for the body to get gruelled. Many times I stopped in between wondering why I'm climbing and was the climb worth?! But something prevented in returning back. May be my ego! I do not know and don't want to! Even if it is ego, let it be! At the top there was a sign board which said that the location as Lantau Peak.

I never knew that I was climbing Lantau Peak. In fact I never knew what Lantau Peak was. As I reached the peak, this time there was no traces of "Now what?" feeling. No excitement. A feeling of contentment which never subsided. And there was no feeling of a great accomplishment. Somebody had already created the trail and you just walked. Few others also reached the peak after 1-2 minutes. And one thing which everybody felt in unison is the sense of contentment. Happiness!

There was a small cave in the top. It had the following signboard.

Since the location was a peak, it sounded more than what it literally meant!

After relaxing there for about half an hour sitting in the edge of a cliff, I departed back. Coming down was easier as usual. As I was approaching the end, I met a beautiful couple.
"Where are we? How far is it?!" they asked.
They were lovely! I smiled and said "Please don't stop. Keep continuing. It is definitely worth!"
"Please tell us how far is the peak?! Is it too far?!" they asked again.
I smiled again at them. I know it was far but how can I tell that.
"Come on. Just tell us where we are?!"
"Ok. Then you are so close.." I tried bluffing and gave a very big smile.
"You are lying!! Pleeasse tell the truth!!" the guy asked again.
"Ok. It is bit far. But don't stop. You've come this far. Just keep going. It is definitely worth. If you are going to turn back, then you are going to definitely miss something phenomenal" I replied and left them. Yeah! I can hear you. I sounded a bit too much. But that is ok! Who cares! :-)

Although the mind was fresh and energetic, it is still a subtle part of the body! ahem...

If there is no strength in the body and mind, the Atman cannot be realised. First you have to build the body by good nutritious food -- then only will the mind be strong. The mind is but the subtle part of the body. You must retain great strength in your mind and words.
- Swami Vivekananda!

I love this guy! What else next?! Food!! When you are hungry, all one can think of is food! I quickly walked towards Po Lin Monastery. Not to see the buddhist temple but I knew there was one excellent vegetarian restaurant there! :D
After quick namesake visits inside the monastery, I found out the vegetarian restaurant. I quickly first ordered a vegetarian combo. It was the costliest in the menu so I expected something equivalent to the Maharaja Thali in India. But what came was a small plate with three different types a tofu curry!

A pop corn for an elephant's appetite! (யானை பசிக்கு சோளப்பொறி!) I went back to that restaurant multiple times and ordered few other food too! After the stomach started relaxing, I slowly started towards 'The Peak' which was next in my list.
I was never interested in going there. I know it will be nowhere near to the place I just visited. But since I had decided and one part of my mind begged me not to have prejudice about anything without trying, I reluctantly started going to 'The Peak'.
'The Peak' - Nothing new... It is a place for photographers! You get to see the entire hongkong from a bird's eye view. And you get a ride in a century old tram to the top. That was probably worth! But it still looked mad when I had to wait for more than an hour in the queue to board the tram. People are no different in any parts of the world when it comes to standing in queue. Pushing and trying to enter the tram first to get a seat although the journey would last just two minutes! Sigh! The top had some of the greatest malls and shopping center. Any boy who had brought his girlfriend would've ended up returning as a pauper. Since I was alone globetrotting, I was lucky! :-)
My return flight was scheduled at 10.40 PM that night. But I was standing at 'The Peak' and the time was 7.00 PM. The total distance from 'The Peak' to the airport comes to roughly around 48 kms. Realizing this I started to return back. The panic signally beast inside me slowly started to rise waiting for this opportunity all this time. Giving him a pat on his back, I moved towards the airport. The initial plan was to board the much cheaper ordinary train and go to the station next to airport and take a bus from there to the airport. Although I appeared calm, the panic signalling beast forced me to board the superfast airport express train not allowing me to take any risks. The airport express rushes straight into the airport but comes at its own cost. It has lesser stops and travels at high speed.

I reached the airport at around 8.15 PM. The flight departure time was 10.40 PM and boarding time was at 10.10 PM. Ah.. No one can now stop me from boarding the flight to Bangalore. I slowly reached the boarding gate region, took a seat nearby and the time was 9.00 PM. As I was composing this post which you are reading, around 9.50 PM my mind slowly gave an idea.
"The time is now 9.50. Why don't you take a quick power nap for twenty minutes and board the flight? Now that you are just 20 steps away from boarding the flight, no one can stop you now. Set the alarm clock and take rest buddy!" said my mind. Sounds good! Yeah.. The hiking and walking and especially the heavy eating had made my body very tired and dizzy! More than that, when the mind says everything will sound good. I set the alarm for twenty minutes and I dozed.

Now the problem with present day alarm clock is 'The Snooze!'

If you snooze, you lose! - Chinese movie

That too the alarm clocks which come from your super smart app store in your smart phone.. Stupidly intelligent! It auto snoozes!

And I dozed and dozed and dozed. After some time, something was slowly crying in my pant pockets. The alarm clock lost energy trying to wake me up. When my eyes opened, to my surprise no one was there. The boarding region was empty with all the crowd gone. I took my mobile to switch off the alarm and guess what the time was?! 10:40 PM!!

Not knowing what to do, I moved towars the gate having little hopes of boarding. The problem with entire humanity are the rules! Although sometimes rules help, most of the time they fail and prevent people from thinking. And this is how people who are idle sneak through!

"Life, by contrast with inert matter, is usually regarded as essentially busy, active, and dynamic. But maybe life is not different from inert matter. Perhaps life, just like inert matter, does the minimum - and we would gain a deeper understanding of life if we saw it not as trying to busy itself, but seeking to be idle. Perhaps human life, human society, technology, ethics, law, and religion have all arisen as an attempt to minimize effort. If so, the imperative of all life, and of human life, would not be 'Keep Busy' and 'Do Something', but 'Keep Still' and 'Do Nothing'. This is the speculation of Idle Theory.
http://www.idlex.freeserve.co.uk/"

The airlines have a very good rule! Never carry the baggage if the passenger has not boarded!! But my baggages were already boarded. Now they've to take it out, which is again a pain. The airline folks were very well aware of this. The ticketing lady hitting her head hard, hurriedly let me in and ran along with me just to ensure that I ran and didn't walk! Yes. Literally she was just doing that. Pushing me from behind to run. And that is how I sneaked in!

As I entered the flight and walked towards my seat along the aisle, everybody were staring at me. And the person who sat next to me (and who eventually became my friend) to my surprise said my name. Looks like my name was announced many times! Now the stare which all the folks gave to me when I entered.. sounded more like "Ah.. So this is that lazy latecomer!"

I reached bangalore safely after having a very good talk with my friend. Although this is the end of the story, I still wonder now..
"Why didn't I miss the flight from Hongkong to Bangalore?!"