Thursday, April 8, 2010

The day when (almost) everything went wrong!

Well some things went right towards the evening, so that (almost) bit. By the end of the day, I was thinking if I had this story, back in my school days when we had to write never ending essays on the topic ‘The day everything went wrong’, it would have been a real help.

It was a Sunday, my uncle and aunt (in-laws) were scheduled to come to our house (my first meeting with them) they are pretty aged, uncle above 90 and aunt definitely over 85. Since morning I and hubby were busy trying to finish all our works, including cooking, so that we would be free, when they come in the evening, their flight was scheduled to land at 5 in the evening.

I was cooking lunch, dinner and also something for lunch the next day, as I could not miss office that day. Now just as I finished cleaning and chopping all the vegetable and started to cook, the first disaster struck, I ran out of gas cylinder…..I swear there were no advance warnings, suddenly the flame just went off and not matter what I tried, it just stove refused to light up again!!!

Getting a filled-up cylinder on a Sunday afternoon, is something almost unheard of! It was then my neighbor came to our rescue (god bless her!!) She gave me an electric heater, to temporarily (till I got a cylinder) take care of the cooking, so first disaster taken care of.well at least somewhat!

The next disaster was just lurking in the corner, waiting for its turn to happen. I was washing some utensils, and suddenly I felt as if I was standing in ankle deep water (well almost), a glance downwards confirmed my worst fear…the sink drain was clogged, so water flooded the kitchen. Within minutes, hubby and I were down on our knees and hands, trying to soak up the dirty water and dry up the kitchen…..ugh, what a disaster.

After that things were strangely calm, but little did we realize that it was the lull before the storm, alas!!! We were sinking into a comfort zone now, thinking what else could go wrong now. We reached the airport 10 minutes before 5, bought 2 passes to get inside. The display board inside said, the flight from Silchar (that’s where they were coming from, on their way to Dhaka) had arrived. We waited for about 30 minutes, still no sign of them, anywhere. The luggage counter was right in front of us, so absolutely no chance that they are still collecting their luggage.

Now, we were seriously worried…..there was absolutely no sign of them and the board continued to flash that the flight has arrived. So, we decided I would go out and look for them, while hubby will try to find them inside (they did not have a phone with them). I was made at least 5 rounds to and from the domestic airport to international, which took at least 5-7 minutes, every time. We kept calling each other over the phone repeatedly, but so signs of them. Just then my father-in-law called, but I did not have the nerve to take his call. I mean what do, I tell him...hello, we can’t find your brother and sis-in-law; well I simply did not have the nerve to do so.

After another half an hour, hubby came out and we made some other rounds again, domestic-international-domestic-international….it was almost never ending. We thought they must be nearby, but…!!!!

Finally I spotted them coming out of the airport, grinning widely…..after about an hour! Apparently the flight was late, but those idiots at the airport never bothered to correct the display messages….uffffffff!!! Thankfully we brought them back home and things were pretty much ok after that, but we had more than our share for the day!!!