Receiving people at the Air Port is a pain and I have been doing a lot of it this past year. First it was Surabhi’s wedding where everyone was arriving by flight and of-course since none were arriving at the same time I ended up making a lot of trips to the airport. To add to the ‘fun’ they were arriving at all times of the day, including one particular arrival at 3 am. After the wedding it was relatives coming to visit, Surabhi & Vinit’s flights in and out of town and a whole lot of others. Its gotten to the point where I don’t need to think about the way, I know it by heart.
I think its a rule somewhere that if I manage to get to the airport at time the person I am receiving would get delayed making me wait for a couple of hours and if I am running late then the flight would be on time.
Today Vinit and Surabhi arrived in Delhi and I had to go receive them. I made it there on time so they took ~2 hours more to get out. The airport parking is expensive so I usually stop before the Airport and wait for a call from the person I am receiving. Today I did the same but for some reason luck wasn’t on my side. At first I was parked on the road with my blinkers on (there was hardly any traffic on the road) and was reading a novel. About 1/2 an hour later a tow trunk approached me and asked me to move along. So I drove off and after a few mins of driving I found an area with a lot of buses and taxi’s parked so I decided to stop over there and wait.
After about 15-20 mins the same tow truck showed up and the guy told me that my car had been flagged for un-authorized parking and they would have to tow me. So I told the guy that I was waiting for my sister and would move the car if it was causing a problem. They told me that a call had come in for them to tow the car so they had to do it. I then told them that I would put it in the parking if stopping here was that much of an issue so he told me that he would tow the car to the parking lot and I would have to pay 700 Rs. as a fine. After arguing with them for a good 15 mins they let me go.
I was told that my car no had been flagged and if I stopped anywhere except in the parking they would tow the car forcefully. So I drove to the gas station and after filling up the tank stopped for a little while at the store over there. Then spent a little time just driving around exploring the area. Finally Vinit and Surabhi arrived and I could pick them up. It was the first time I had so much trouble over there. I guess it could be because I was driving the Honda City instead of the Esteem.
Then I drove to Connaught Place and spend 1/2 an hour baking in the Sun while Surabhi and Vinit finished some work in the Bank. Once they were done we we drove home without any futher issues and I was back in my AC room. Atleast the AC in the Honda City is very effective so I didn’t boil too much in the heat, plus the weather wasn’t that bad either.
Well that is all for now. Will post more later.
– Suramya