Morning does not always show the day

Days of happiness pass away very quickly. My vacation of one month at home went away so quickly that I could not figure out what I did in the last 32 days as I was sitting on the bed surrounded by half-packed suitcases on the evening of my departure (The departing flight was scheduled at 2:50 AM). It occurred to me that a little while ago, sitting on the same bed, I was having a delicious breakfast consisting on hot kachuris and jalebis (that was on the first morning , a month ago !!) , and now, here I am, ready to stay away from home for at least one year living a dull and solitary life.

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, I have a typical relationship with aeroplanes, irrespective of the airlines. According to my opinion, there are very few people on earth other than me who are (un)fortunate enough to pass through the series of mishappenings as I did in a very consistent manner. This time, probably, fate decided to reward me in a very unexpected way.

In long-duration flights, I always prefer the aisle seat. As it happens, whenever I got a window seat, the person sitting next to me turned out to be a very good sleeper. Normally, I cannot sleep while on board, and so, when everybody else within the plane snores, I continuously shift positions and postures to make myself more confortable so that I can get at least some sleep in order to kill the time. Staying awake for a longer period has its own setbacks, I feel like going to the bathroom once in a while, and for that, I am forced to wake up the sleeping person which I dont like to. So, nowadays, I select my own seat while booking the ticket.

This time, when I finally boarded the connecting flight from Frankfurt to Chicago, I was surprised to see a person occupying my seat . He , very politely, stated that he wants to change his seat with myself so that he can sit with his family. Since it was an aisle seat, I told him that I can do so if his seat is also of the same type. At this moment, came the unexpected statement. The person announced that he has a business seat!!!

I was completely taken aback. I have never heard of an exchange like this before. So, not quite sure about what I heard, I double-checked with him, and also verified with the air-hostess, and when she confirmed that the exchange depends only on the respective persons and has nothing to do with the class, I retreated back, and occupied my seat in the business class.

It was a very fine experience........the seat was extremely luxurious, and it can be adjusted at will - upright, half-inclined, full-inclined, fully flat - and it took me quite some time to understand the features of the chair completely. As the plane took off, an air-hostess gave all of us a Menu card to choose our meal, which had a starter and dessert as well!!! Time and again, they were offering beverages.

For my part, I was able to sleep for the first time on board. It was a solid slumber of nearly 5 hours, which thoroughly refreshed me. It also helped me in another way. As I had less than two hours of time for my next flight, I was able to get out of the plane sooner and reach the immigration desk much earlier than I expected.

The immigration, customs clearence, luggage collection............everything went so smoothly that I was really surprised. Then came the second wonder! As I was about to tranfer my luggage, I learnt that the Wichita flight has been cancelled and the next flight is after 4 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do the erudite label this type of event as poetic justice?????????? I am not sure!