Fortunately || Un-Fortunately

I have had pretty bad experiences when it comes to me getting a chance to travel outside India.May 2014, a project I was a part of, gets selected to be delivered as a workshop at Fab 10 conference in Barcelona, Spain. So I apply for the visa, taking help of travel agent, with proposed travel date on 1st June. 2 weeks after visa application, I get to know my application has been rejected, less than 72 hours before I was supposed to start packing to fly. This was the first time ever that I would have traveled outside India. Since I am a strong believer that something better is always out there. I forgot about this, or atleast I thought I had.

Past forward May 2015, a workshop I proposed for Fab 11 conference, this time in Boston, Cambridge, USA, got selected. I was super duper happy this time too! To be able to present at MIT was a dream. I wanted to, for once, be surrounded by the best of the engineers, scientists, researchers and polymaths, to be able to understand about their process, their way of work, their biases, their weaknesses , their approach to creating solutions for world's toughest problems. I was super excited, I started my application process. I finally get an interview date for the visa in the mid of July. I was all ready, super excited, dreaming about being there every conscious moment, little did I did know what life had planned for me.

3 days before I was supposed to fly to Chennai for the interview, I started getting this very high fever which left me unconscious for a day, horrible body ache and killed my appetite .It was only 48 hours later that I found out, I had been down with Dengue fever. I could barely move out of my bed. I could not go for the interview, which meant I could not go again. Funnily enough, a mosquito decided my fate this time. Who knew?I think more painful than the body ache and insomnia was the pain of re-living the memories from a year ago. I recover in the coming weeks finally.

I rejoin work in 3 weeks, apply again and finally I get another date for the interview. I knew no matter what happens, I will not be able to get the visa in time to be able to present anyways. So I had to cancel my talk. It still kills me to even think about that. But I am writing this story not for telling you that, but to tell you what happened next.

5th Aug, I was supposed to fly to Chennai for the visa interview to the US. I called an Uber to pick me up from my office. It was 5 mins away, at least according to the mobile app. Waited for it for 30 mins, it did not turn up. I was to report at the airport at 6pm. I called the Uber at around 3:45pm. It was 4:20pm now, and the cab hadn't turned up. The driver couldn't find my location, I was just 1 km away from where he was, but well he did not want to find out where I was, funny how the best of the technologies in the world could be beaten by not-so-smart people.

The only thing that fails technology, I know now, is people.

Anyways, I was a little fidgety now. My cab hadn't come. So I did what I could do. I called another cab this time. An Ola this time.

I was so hopefully about this one. Time on the clock was 4:45pm now. Ola had just turned up at my office door and I was in it.

I did what I always do, I sat on the back and fell asleep. Time was passing by quickly, I had almost started dreaming when suddenly I realized I couldn't feel the subtle movements of the car under my bum anymore. I usually tend to sleep because I feel like I am in a cradle while I am travelling in a car or a bus or anything that has wheels.

It was getting a little hot in there. I had started sweating because of it. I smelled something burning. It was pungent , I couldn't take it. All the chemistry I have known, if something makes you uncomfy and smells like something is burning somewhere around, it is highly likely there are mono-oxides somewhere. So I got up trying to open the windows. It was then that the huge noise of car horns finally hit me as hard as it could.

I opened my eyes to see , there was nothing but a lot of white smoke coming out of the bonnet of the car and yes, it wasn't moving. I was confused, trying to figure out what just happened. I couldn't understand it.

I turned my face around and saw a huge line of cars and trucks honking their asses off.

I turned around again, and this time there was nothing but white smoke in the front with an ever more pungent smell. It was getting unbearable, the driver was out, trying to extinguish it, but it did not seem to work.

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Well, that is just how it is with me, more often than not. People say there are no miracles, no one is watching you, no one is looking out for you, but well, I know, someone or something is there, something that is beyond any

Sometimes it feels as if god likes to f**k with me, time after time after time.

So here I was standing in the middle of nowhere, but the only thing I could do was to smile, look up and think "you done bro? Let me reach now ?". I take a long look on the road again, nothing anywhere, no buses, the phone still not working. I look up again and think "well played bro, well played". And then,something happened, out of nowhere, absolutely nowhere comes a Kempegowda International Airport bus. Vayu Vajra as it is called here. I smiled, I climb in, get the tickets, still trying to process all this.

Time? 5:30pm. I was around 30kms from the airport. I sit down, hoping I will make it, somehow, anyhow.

Suddenly I feel this weird vibration in my pocket, the phone somehow came back to life. I looked up, smiled again "What is the point of all this?". Of course I heard no response, so I fall asleep. Now, time was 5:35 pm. Still a long way to go.

I was dreaming, in the dream I was at the airport, magically, and someone was trying to wake me up. I suddenly feel this jerk, driver saying something loudly in Kannada. There was no noise except that. Bus had come to an halt, I could feel it. I couldn't sleep anymore, I wanted to, somehow I couldn't. I still thought I was dreaming.

I actually felt the jerk again. It was the conductor who woke me up, in reality. I looked around.

To my surprise , I was there, I had made it to the airport. Frantically I look at my watch, it was 5:55pm. just how the heck?

Yup, I somehow magically reached all the way in record time. I just could not believe it! Can you? Would you, if I say this really happened? I know I wouldn't. But guess what? It did, it really really did!

Fortunately I reached in time, unfortunately it was not as boring as most of the people hope travelling to airport should be.

Well, that is just how it is with me, more often than not. People say there are no miracles, no one is watching you, no one is looking out for you, but well, I know, someone or something is there, something that is beyond any explanation, a light even in the darkest of dark times. I call it destiny, someone calls it fate, I call it magic. So I call it Magic, because frankly anything else wouldn't make as much sense as this does. What do you think?