The delayed airplane

We arrived at Madras Airport at 5:30 a.m. At 7:30 the plane was supposed to leave. Around 7:00 they announced that the plane would be delayed by three hours. A delay of three hours can easily become five hours. I knew that if I missed this flight, I would not get the connecting flight from Calcutta to Bangkok. So, as you can see, everything was going wrong.

But one of the workers, the deputy manager of the airline, liked me very much. He said, “Mr. Ghose, I will do my best to send you to Calcutta by another plane.”

So we went to Dominea Airlines. He was from Air India, but he was begging the Dominea people to help. They said they would help. They were all sincere people. At 8:30 they had a flight to Calcutta and if I could catch it, I would be able to get my connecting flight. Five or six times he was begging them in front of me.

There was a young man from Dominea, a Muslim named Mohammed Isman. He was also saying I could take their flight, but he would only be able to offer me a seat after eight o’clock. Right then he could not.

Once I tried to give 400 rupees to the deputy manager. It was only because of him that I had hope. He said, “No, I can’t accept that.”

I said, “Nobody is watching.”

He said, “Nobody is watching, but my heart is seeing it. I can’t do that.” He was such a nice man.

I said, “Then give me your card.”

He said, “You can take my card, but I can’t take any money from you.”