The Journey Continues

(...in continuation from the previous post.)

Right behind the baggage carousel, was the baggage claim counter. So, baggage miss is a common thing. That's a relief!

Deepa walked towards the counter and I dragged my feet behind with a head full of thoughts.

Did the fresher forget to tag my bag? Is it sitting cold and lonely at the Trivandrum airport tarmac? Sigh!

As we waited in a not so long queue, we heard another guy (in a line parallel to ours) complain to another lady at the desk.

“What do you mean you can’t find it in the system?”

Ah, so even software is of no use nowadays…

“How do I know till where it went? Why don’t you check your system and tell me?”

After more ranting, he said finally, “So, how are you guys going to get the luggage to me? I have a very tight schedule.” One day Zurich, one day some other country, and next day another country – it seemed.

The lady patiently said the airlines would get the luggage to wherever he was at that time.

She asked if he could describe his bag to her and if he knew the brand of the bag.

“How would I know the brand of the bag? I don’t try to memorize the brand of my bag. It’s just a simple black bag… Well, it’s got shirts and trousers and lots of shorts and knickers.”

Aha, sheri! Saayippinu nikkaru poyende sangadam aano?

Finally, he filled out the form, swore a bit – which I will not be describing here – and walked off.

And after a long while, the person standing in front of me moved and I reached the desk.

In the middle of all this, I did not fail to notice that the lady was extremely beautiful.

Unfortunately, for my male readers – I do not have a picture of her.

I explained my dilemma to the lady. That was the moment I realized I had noticed a lot of details of my bag - which I didn't know about myself.

When she asked to describe the bag, I was precise and quick like Benedict Cumberbacht in Sherlock Holmes,

“It’s a green Atlanta bag with the same size as my colleague’s bag. Dark bottle green. With red and brown ribbons tied at the handle. Not sure if the loose ribbons fell off. Please don’t make the ribbon as your mandate – blah, blah, blah…”

I was so impressed with my level of detail and that feeling lasted about a second and then the thought occurred to me - I need to get a life.

The lady checked the system and said she could not find the luggage anywhere.

I almost asked - Which idiot coded that software? Then I remembered - I did have a history in the airline software industry. Might not be a good idea to check on the idiot.

The lady asked me to go and show the form to the customs officer, get a seal and come back and she would explain how to track the missing bag.

Went to the customs officer, got the seal, came back. And then, she gave me a slip on which the details (including a Ukrainian number) were available.

I decided to take my mind off the luggage. That’s when I felt my feet were numb with pain. I’ve been walking on high heel wedges all day long. Of course I had a pair of flats. Now, where were they… oh yea, of course! In the missing luggage.

We decided it was time to take a break. So, we decided to go to Boryspil International Airport Hotel. Since it was just a 5 min walk, that’s what we did. We walked till the hotel.

On reaching the hotel, I felt it was some boarding house.

There was an old fashioned bell to call the receptionist to the desk. A lady wearing a uniform and hairdo from the 80s stepped forward and asked us what we wanted.

Prabakar asked the rates. Apparently, they had just a 6 hour package and then a 24 hour deal. We decided to take the 6 hour package. They didn’t have single rooms. So, Deepa and I would have to share. Well, Prabakar would take a double room to himself. We were okay with that.

Me checking my Matrix SIM at the reception

Prabakar asked, “It should be okay if we take some time extra from our 6 hours right?”

The lady smiled and asked, “How much time?”

“Maybe 5…”, seeing the lady not responding, “10 minutes?” Prabakar had a mischievous grin.

We all laughed.

A selfie in our room at Boryspil International Airport

Deepa and I took the ancient lift to get down on the 2nd floor. After that we walked a long hallway to reach our room. We opened it to find an old room with old style carpet, old TV and everything just old.

Did we just move back in time?

All my head kept telling me was - RUN!

I put my laptop bag down. And I thought for a long time and sat carefully on one single bed.

Deepa was going to put her jacket on the bed and I screamed, “Don’t!”

Deepa looked at me. “What if there are bed bugs there?”

Deepa looked around and put her jacket on a table.

We went for lunch at the restaurant. I ordered pasta. Deepa and Prabakar ordered some veg platter with boiled rice.

First things first. I had to get the Matrix connection sorted out, else I could not call to track my bag. Luckily, there was a customer support number that got into my mobile along with the SIM. I called them up.

Meanwhile, the pasta came. It was covered in cheese. No salt. No spice.

The raw veg platter. :)

I ate while I explained to customer support my issue. They said I had to manually choose a network operator. I asked them how and after some explanation – I was confident enough to hang up and try myself.

I tried to change the network operator. That didn’t work. Called customer support. They gave me the next step. Is this a game to you? Then it all made sense to me. The name of the SIM was – Matrix. Of course, what should I expect!

Finally, I managed to get the outgoing call working. Weird process. I call the number. A request is sent. And then a call from that number comes. I pick it up. And hey it starts ringing at the place I called. Tried a Ukrainian number – it said Invalid Format. Gave up the outgoing option.

Then, I needed to check the incoming. We tried the number on the pack. Didn’t work. I tried calling somebody to get the number. Didn’t work. Finally, we decided getting the incoming wasn’t worth all that trouble. Oh, yea! Incoming was free. After this kind of trouble, I see why.

Luckily, the hotel had free WiFi. I installed Skype, credited some amount and called home. Spoke for some time. Told about the missing luggage. Felt better.

I decided to check the status of my luggage online. It kept saying tracking is going on.

Calling them was not possible. So, I decided to mail them.

Got a reply from a Ukrainian address. Thankfully the content was in English. They had sent mails to all airports I had been to saying it was urgent to get info about my bag. I replied telling them to not stop looking out.

Finally, I realized there could be a chance that I lost the luggage forever. When I thought about it, it was just some old clothes. Favorites but old ones.

I checked baggage claim policies while Deepa slept off. One option said there could be a chance of getting 1000 USD for a lost bag. Of course, the bag should be missing for 21 days.

1000 USD is a looooot of money, baby!

Then, the word hit me like a bang – SHOPPING! That too in a foreign country! Puttu adikande!

Immediately, I mailed the airlines. Telling about how upset and inconvenienced I felt. If I needed a justification for my misery, this had to be it. Over aakanam!

I decided to rest for a while. When I woke up, I told Deepa about my findings. Deepa said we should split the money and have fun. I felt generous and we made a pact.

When it was time to run out of the hotel, I did so without thinking twice.

Caramel Coffee - which tasted like kashaayam

We checked out and went back to the airport. We ordered some Venezuelan cake, dumplings, cancelled something, ordered again – all the while speaking in English to a waitress who could understand very little. When we got our order, we realized she didn’t understand the cancellation part. So, we had to stuff ourselves.

A small airport snack

Prabakar and Deepa decided to buy Kievstar SIM. When they tried calling India with the new SIM, they couldn’t make it through. Deepa asked the lady at the counter, how she should dial the number. Was it with a 91 in the beginning? The lady shook her head and said, “Loose!”

Enthonnu?

“Loose! Loose!”

Then, she typed plus in front of 91. Oh, plus inu loose aano Ukrainian il. Appo minus inu ivide tight ennano parayuka?

Deepa said she meant to loose the extra 0 in the beginning, which she had added. To this day, it remains a mystery what the lady meant by "loose".

We went to check in our (mostly Deepa’s and Prabakar’s) luggage at the airline counter. Deepa and I were saying about how the people seemed a little too disdainful of us.

When we reached the counter we met a friendly guy. He was so friendly that when he saw Deepa’s cabin bag was heavy, he asked her to remove some contents out, weighed it again and marked it approved for cabin baggage. And said she could put the stuff back in. We started laughing.

He asked me for my bag. I said I lost mine. He was sorry – more so, because he asked.

Waiting for the next flight at Kiev airport

And finally, we started the last leg of the journey - we boarded the next flight to Kharkiv.

Off to Kharkiv - on Ukraine International

Kharkiv

Destination reached!

We reached Kharkiv and I kept thinking of my luggage. I had an extra pair of clothes in my hand bag. But that would be only for 1 day.

We went to the baggage carousel here. The lady at the baggage claim at Kiev had mentioned to simply check for my bag at the Kharkiv airport. I simply looked out. First bag came out. Next bag came out. The next came. And no sign of my bag. I decided not to keep any hopes up.

And there from far a very old bag with a red and brown ribbon came. Deepa jumped up and down in excitement.

There... came my bag!

Those idiots checked it in till Kharkiv – which was good, because I didn’t have to carry it around. But they gave me a tag on my boarding pass only till Kiev. So I went through unnecessary trouble and tension all for nothing. Well, if you think about it. You, my readers have also gone through the same.

And of course, I sent back a neat reply to the baggage claim section – Please don’t worry about it. I got my luggage.

Angane 1000 USD il Kharkiv pattanam, swaaha!

And then we set off to Premier Palace, Kharkiv.

Zdravstvyute, Kharkiv! The City of Wild Dreams.