Today a stray incident suddenly comes to mind. In 2005, on one of my work trips back from the US, I was returning home via New Delhi in the last week of December. When you go home after a stretch, you can hardly wait for that journey to be over. However, fate intervened, and our flight just could not land at New Delhi airport for hours due to fog. It got so bad that the crew took a decision to fly to Mumbai instead. Annoyed, tired, exhausted, when we landed in Mumbai, I did my best to request the airlines to give me a direct flight from Mumbai to Kolkata. To no avail! We were told, we would be put on the next available flight back to Delhi and then go to our respective destinations from there.
A long wait was ahead of me, and while I was speaking to the airport officers, another man from my organization (also going home to Kolkata) was making his own requests. So, naturally, we sat down on those plastic chairs (I hate them) and got to talking about which project, which account (Anyone working in IT would know the way these conversations go).
About 2/3 hours later we were put on a flight back to Delhi and then began the wait for a flight home. In the meanwhile, I discovered that my luggage had been nicely left behind in Mumbai and started filling all kinds of forms to ensure that it would reach Kolkata sometime after I did. Due to this I missed the first connecting flight to Kolkata and had to wait for the next one. The guy was decent enough to do the same. By then, we had gotten to talking about the weather, movies, the guitar he was carrying home for his son, and so on. When we reached Kolkata, I bid him goodbye and caught a cab and he did the same. Imagine my surprise when about 2-3 weeks later, I get asked out on a movie date by this very same person. I actually sat down and thought back to which action, gesture, or words of mine might have been misconstrued by him!
Anyway, I avoided this particular little problem the best I could by giving some lame excuse. But that is not the end of the story. A couple of years later, I was being evaluated for another onsite project and suddenly I discover that this guy was also in consideration to be my Project Manager for the same. Friends, I have never prayed so hard, not to be assigned to this particular project! :D
Thankfully, God was feeling kind enough that day to listen to this idiot's prayers, granting me my wish. How is that for a Puja tidbit from my corporate journey?
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