Raipur and back

I was required to make a trip to Raipur, the capital of Chattisgarh, whcih turned out to be quite an experience. Waking early in the morning at 4:30 am was excruciatingly difficult, boy how I love my sleep. Then a flight to Raipur via Mumbai. The wonderful surprise came in Mumbai looking at the changed airport. Cool. Very cool. I certify "International Standards". And this is the domestic airport. Everything is changed. The floors properly tiled with granite, pillars are tiled with granite, the shops are remade and look excusite, the whole interior has AC that actually works, checking-in, security checks are all smooth. And more importantly the washrooms are clean by most standards. The outside of the airport resembles Toronto airport. This is the first sign of some progress made by a organisation that is gorverned by the central gorvernment.

Raipur being capital of a state of 5 years, has not shown an impressive pro gress. But going by what the local men say, it has made a little progress. This part of the state was a favorite industrial destination and is sorrunded by mining and steel industries. Since making the city a state capital has brought in politics but also crime in this once sober city. Oh, and it dosen't really look like a city. The hotel accomodation was very good I should say. Must be a 3 star hotel.

With work done, I was to fly back home via Mumbai again on my return trip. But I was late for the flight by about 20-30 mins. The gates were closed due to increased security on eve of Independence day. This was one of my nightmares that came true. I was always afraid of missing a train or a flight or an exam. But somehow, it was alright. I cursed myself and then just got on with making alternative arrangements. That was a miraculous to find myself not mad at me. A great (self-)realisation actually.

I called up the travel help desk but got no response. A private company boasting a 24/7 service didn't pick my desperate phone calls. This was more than a setback.
The Jet Airways ground staff supervisor was quite helpful and offered to put me on the next Mumabi-Bangalore flight if I bought a Raipur-Mumbai ticket from Indian Airlines. The Indian Airlines ticketing personnel were slow and initially gave a negative attitude to my condition. But with a bit of persuation and a little persistence, they did look at the case offering to book the tickets. The Raipur-Mumbai on IC had a high fare of 11K and 14K. Then he offered to put me on the Raipur-Chennai flight but couldn't because the booking was closed. So I asked for the Raipur-Delhi-Bangalore flight. Thankfully, I got both legs of journey at the lowest fares. I couldn't afford to spend one more day in Raipur for reasons that are a little off context here. So I brought the tickets and cancelled the Mumbai-Blore Jet leg.

The fiasco dosen't end here. The IC flight to Delhi developed a technical snag that delayed the departure by over 3.5 hrs. Hence, my connecting flight to Blore from Delhi would miss. (they both started at the same time). The Indian Airlines office helped by offering bookings for the next earliest flight which was in the morning. On reaching Delhi, the duty officer again started off with a negative attitude to the condition. But with a little persistence, he agreed to put me on a Kingfisher flight. I incurred some costs but I guess thats alright.

In general, the Indian Airlines officials, started off with a can't-do-it attitude but are helpful enough to go out of their way to do everything possible. Only with a little persistence.

You can get a driver's license without having to indirectly bribe via the agents, but takes much more persistence than said above.

A thought on the Delhi domestic airport, it was also cool as the Mumbai one. The Mumbai one is new and was more intact I should say. Wait and watch.

Verdict, the change in government organisations is setting in, albeit at a lower pace, but it is happening, starting from the central government. I can't wait when it grows fully and percolates into the state government run system too.

So, the disastrous day wasn't all that disasctrous but also opened me to the organistions around. Sitting in front of the PC trying to write a piece of code, and assuming the rest of world is doing fine was shattered but then it was also delightful to see the changes.