This real-life story depicts the experience of a young couple at the domestic wing of Kolkata airport late evening on December 31, 2017, starting with startling panic, moving to utter despair, followed by despondency and then successive phases of acceptance of fate, bitter self-blame and a final unexpected denouement.
The story began pleasantly at exit 3B. The duo emerged with baggage-laden trolley, spotted the family car and spent a minute to carefully store luggage in the boot with the driver's help. The start of the fairly long ride to their south Kolkata home was too trivial to merit thought.
Their journey was more than half way done when the husband reached for his windcheater and didn't find it. The backpack wasn't there either! A precious camera with countless shots of their just-concluded holiday as well as an iPad were gone forever! Despair and despondency took over as the reality of stupidly forgetting to pick up things from the wired basket of the trolley sank in.
The choice lay between either abject surrender or a return to the airport to look for the missing items. The chance of finding them, of course, was remote. Even so, they chose the latter option.
Both were aware none was to blame but themselves. Absent-minded, careless, callous are meaningless words in a calamity. Yes, a camera and an iPad are easily replaced but their precious contents, never!
The airport terminal hove into view. It was an hour-and-a-half since they'd been here and the place swarmed as usual with human streams. The concourse of Gate 3B was crowded. And there was no sign of the trolley they dearly hoped to spot.
They'd never find the satchel! The poet John Keats' glorification of "the magic hand of chance" was nothing short of bunkum.
The finale of the story unveils. Apparently at Kolkata airport, caution about bags left idle is enforced very strictly. Armed CISF personnel keep vigil under supervision of the Airport director. CISF staff quickly spot uncollected items lying on unclaimed trolleys. According to witnesses at the coffee shop, a sniffer dog was brought to check the baggage for explosives. Security personnel were relieved when the dog duly sniffed but showed no interest. The manager at the PHP office on Floor DL was polite and efficient. The dog-sniffing drama had been recorded on CCTV footage. Once activity on the concourse was over, the items had been brought to safe custody in PHP.
To the relief of the distraught couple, the satchel with contents untouched and the light jacket intact were right there, awaiting return to anxious owners.
06/01/18 Times of India
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
The story began pleasantly at exit 3B. The duo emerged with baggage-laden trolley, spotted the family car and spent a minute to carefully store luggage in the boot with the driver's help. The start of the fairly long ride to their south Kolkata home was too trivial to merit thought.
Their journey was more than half way done when the husband reached for his windcheater and didn't find it. The backpack wasn't there either! A precious camera with countless shots of their just-concluded holiday as well as an iPad were gone forever! Despair and despondency took over as the reality of stupidly forgetting to pick up things from the wired basket of the trolley sank in.
The choice lay between either abject surrender or a return to the airport to look for the missing items. The chance of finding them, of course, was remote. Even so, they chose the latter option.
Both were aware none was to blame but themselves. Absent-minded, careless, callous are meaningless words in a calamity. Yes, a camera and an iPad are easily replaced but their precious contents, never!
The airport terminal hove into view. It was an hour-and-a-half since they'd been here and the place swarmed as usual with human streams. The concourse of Gate 3B was crowded. And there was no sign of the trolley they dearly hoped to spot.
They'd never find the satchel! The poet John Keats' glorification of "the magic hand of chance" was nothing short of bunkum.
The finale of the story unveils. Apparently at Kolkata airport, caution about bags left idle is enforced very strictly. Armed CISF personnel keep vigil under supervision of the Airport director. CISF staff quickly spot uncollected items lying on unclaimed trolleys. According to witnesses at the coffee shop, a sniffer dog was brought to check the baggage for explosives. Security personnel were relieved when the dog duly sniffed but showed no interest. The manager at the PHP office on Floor DL was polite and efficient. The dog-sniffing drama had been recorded on CCTV footage. Once activity on the concourse was over, the items had been brought to safe custody in PHP.
To the relief of the distraught couple, the satchel with contents untouched and the light jacket intact were right there, awaiting return to anxious owners.
06/01/18 Times of India
0 comments:
Post a Comment