The return ticket

I was supposed to come back on March 4th, but in the morning I said, “Everything is over. Why stay one day more?” It was very, very cold in Moscow — minus 16 or 18 degrees — and at times it was snowing heavily. In addition, we were having such problems with the policemen.

When I went to the airport, the Aeroflot official looked at my ticket and said, “It is for tomorrow.”

I said, “No, it has been changed. I made a reservation for today.” Then he said, “No, no. You cannot travel today.”

I said, “It is a business class ticket. One can change the date.”

He said, “No, the rule has been changed. You cannot change the date of travel.”

I asked, “How can the rule suddenly change?”

Then this official said that my ticket was for a cheaper flight, so he could not allow me to change the date. This was utterly false. Then he informed me that I had to buy a completely new ticket. When I heard this, I was planning to go back to the hotel and wait until tomorrow. Why buy a new ticket? But my Kailash’s heart is as large as the Pacific Ocean. He just grabbed my ticket and took it away. The place to purchase a new ticket was not nearby. It was somewhere else. Kailash went to buy a new ticket, and it took him fifteen or twenty minutes.

I have to say that Sandesh and Duranta worked very, very hard. Sandesh also had a problem with the airline officials. He bought a ticket to return to New York on my flight, but they did not make the reservation. The flight was fully booked, so he was not allowed to board the plane. Finally, one of the supervisors allowed him, and both of us entered into the plane with no difficulty.