A flight of fate

There are those who believe in fate and there are those who don't. I just don't have an opinion...

Once upon a time my wife and I had to catch a plane to Mexico via Amsterdam. We reached Bombay with all our luggage packed, filled with the excitement/anxiety that is closely associated with international travels. The thrill of a new adventure in a land far far away. By the time we reached our hotel, fate had made it's first move..A bl**dy volcano had erupted in Iceland of all places, spewing a smoke cloud so huge that the Schiphol airport and hence KLM had to shut down shop that day.

After the numbness of the initial shock faded, we began to evaluate our alternatives. We decided to take fate head on, called our agent who in turn ranted on phone with the airlines, eventually succeeding to get us an alternative route via Frankfurt on the same day. The joy of having punched fate in the face was sweet :). Little did we know fate, had already moved another soldier in place..

We reached the airport and were successfully through the immigration in a matter of half an hour, all smug and proud with boarding passes in our hands. After a bit of window shopping it was time to board. What we did not know was, that it was also time for fate's "agent of chaos" to take center stage in this drama. Right before the doors of the airplane one of the airlines personnel decided to check our passports. One look and his face lit up like a light bulb. He was about to demonstrate his meagre decision making powers.

It turns out that when an Indian passport holder passes through Frankfurt, whether he enters the city or not, he needs a transit visa (which we did not have). A fact, that joy of our small victory over fate in the morning, had wiped out of our minds.

From then on, things went from bad to worse. They promptly began the offloading procedure. We were asked to identify our baggage, taken back through all security and immigration procedures, glared at by fellow passengers as if we were terrorists, shouted at by the airlines personnel for delaying their flight, and ranted on by the duty manager for our ignorance about basic immigration rules. The serious question about how we reached the gates of the airplane through the immigration in the first place, never occurred to his thoroughly ordinary mind.


By the time we were leaving the airport, it was 4:00 am, and we were tired to the bones. However we had no choice but to go back to the hotel and pay for another night. Before switching off my headlights, I sent out a furious note to my agent for having gotten us into this mess. All thoughts about petty battles with fate had faded away...

The next day, the fate with its evil machinations, had moved on to another poor soul. And the day began to look brighter from the word go...

We got a mail from KLM airlines expressing great regret for their mistake and appropriate incredulity over our mistreatment. The smoke cloud had lifted, Schiphol was back on and we had two very comfortable Business Class seats in KLM with no additional cost. Fate, it appears had balanced out the matter....