Waiting at the airport
My friend who was going to drive me to Madras Airport from Pondicherry advised me, “No matter when the flight is, you should be there five hours before.”I fully agreed with him. I said, “Otherwise, something may go wrong.”
The plane was supposed to leave at 2:15 in the morning. He brought me to the airport at nine o’clock. I said, “Do not worry about me. I will read. I will buy some books.”
I went to the counter and saw that the flight number was 401, instead of 101. The stupid thing is that they do not mention the destination, only the flight number. They should say it is Bombay. Then I went and bought eight or ten books: books of wisdom, books of proverbs and all kinds of things. I sat facing the counter, only fifteen or twenty metres away. People were coming and going.
Around 10:30, long before the scheduled time, I went to the counter and showed my ticket just to check. The man said, “Your ticket says 101. Can you not see this is 401?”
I said, “Yes, it is 401, and mine is 101.”
The man said, “101 is a later flight.”
I believed him.
