While I was thinking about cash, I remembered having seen a CitiBank office in the neighbouring building. Maybe someone in the bank will help me somehow. I jumped over to the CitiBank office. The lady at the counter was very nice and gentle, but politely she refused to help me. “Sir, you have a citibank credit card but you are not a citibank customer, I am not able to help you.” No cash on credit cards, no ATM machines either, something no one will believe these days.
Unhappy, I came back to the TCI office, I was helpless and could not think of a way to produce so much cash. I decided to take one more chance. I went back to the lady at the counter. “Madam, I don’t have that much cash. As you know it is very expensive to travel to Japan, and perhaps this is my only chance in life. If I don’t get a JRail pass I will be confined to home. Only you can help me now, can you please do something?”
“Sir, I can not authorise a personal check, let me check with the manager.”
“Ok”, that means at least there was someone who could, I imagined.
She came back in just a couple of minutes. “Sir, my manager is not ready to authorise a personal check.” It was a firm answer.
“Can I talk to the manager?”
“Well she is busy right now.”
“Madam, you know my situation, you are the only person who can help me now.”
“Let me check with her.” The lady went inside, and came back with another lady, which should be the manager I guessed.
“Sir, we don’t accept checks from individual travellers.” She provided one more clue, as she denied my request.
“I am a senior executive in this company in Pune, TCI is our sole travel agent, and we do a whole lot of business with TCI, this is a very small amount compared to that. Your office in Pune was closed for a couple of days without any notice. Otherwise I would not be in such a bad situation.”
I could see a change on her face as I mentioned the name of my company. Also the fact that I knew so much about the business relation between TCI and my company, showed that I was really in a responsible position. “I agree with you sir, but I still don’t know you. Ok, I will accept your check if it is backed by a guarantee from your company on a company letterhead.”
That worked like a charm. From their office desk, I called up my office in Pune. Luckily Veera, the finance person was available to pick up my call. She talked to the TCI manager directly and confirmed that she will arrange for a letter in half an hour. Meanwhile, I told the manager about my flight schedule, and requested her to move fast.
Things moved swiftly after that, my check was accepted, the vouchers were prepared and stamped, receipt was printed. “Everything is ready, as soon as I see the fax from your office, I will give you your documents. Till then relax and be seated.” My flight was at 3 PM, check in time was at 12 noon, I was one hour away from the airport. It was already 11 AM by now. Where was the time to relax? But there was no option. I have to wait till the letter arrives. I explained to myself.
In about thirty minutes, we were all set and jumped into a taxi. “Man, drive as fast as you can, we are already late by 30 minutes.”. “I will do my best, let’s go zoom.” We must have reached Dadar in fifteen minutes and it started to rain. It was completely unexpected, unseasonal rain with gusting winds. No one was prepared, and that resulted in a traffic chaos. We must have lost about thirty minutes by the time we crossed the crowded area.
As we reached the airport, it was already very late. There was no time to look at the watch. “Thank you so much, keep the change.” Both of us jumped out of the taxi, and ran towards the main door. A lady with a white sari and with an “Air India” badge was waiting at the door. She looked at both of us. “Are you Mr Vaidya?”, It was surprising to see that she knew me. “We are all waiting for you. Can I see your passports? Here is your boarding pass.” As she said, I noticed the couple of boarding passes in her hand.
She handed over our bags to a bell boy. “Don’t worry about your bags, they will reach your flight. Follow me.” Running as fast as we could, and passing through the security and customs, bypassing the queues, three of us hurried to the gate.
“Bye bye, wish you a happy journey.” We were seen off, and before we could say anything to thank her, we were pushed into the flight. The door closed behind us, and the flight started to move just as we jumped in our seats.
* Though a lot of Indians complain about the services of Air India, I always had a good and pleasant experience with the airline. After this incident I have travelled several times by Air India, and I prefer the airline over others when an option is available.
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