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‘Ladies and Gentlemen – Indian Airlines announces the departure of Flight IC-471 from Delhi to Jodhpur. The flight is ready for boarding, please proceed to Gate 2, Thank You !’
This is what started that fateful journey to Mumbai via Jodhpur. The journey on which the airline lost my luggage. Normally i would only be carrying cabin baggage but this time, it was a multicity trip and over 3 days, hence i had to take along a suitcase. I got past the boarding gate and into the AC bus which whirled us away to the waiting aircraft. After the usual much ado in cases of boarding, we boarded the aircraft. Being July, the air outside was heavy with moisture from the rain in the morning and so the air being blown in through the aircon system on the plane was turning into misty white vapour over our heads. It looked so cool.
After the push-back from the gate, i relaxed with the day’s paper and then put it away as the engines spooled up to take off thrust. This happens with a delay after the power has been fed from the cockpit. So one minute there is nothing to tell you the engines are working but a low hum beneath you feet and outside the window and the very next you will be rocked with vibrations of the power coming from the engines.
Takeoff is always a rattly affair with something creaking and groaning in the aging Indian Airlines aircraft and you are left wondering in case a wheel came off and if you’ll will be able to land safely without it 
Anyways, the flight was normal. Hell broke only once i was waiting at the luggage carousel at 
Jodhpur. I waited and waited and waited and then waited some more. All the other passengers had gone before Iwent to the IA desk to enquire about my luggage. After the usual red-tape and communication with Delhi IA airport staff, the whole sky crashed around me when I was informed that my poor suitcase was currently in the air, on its way to Chennai. I almost fainted. I managed to convince the IA manager to get the best done to get my bag back and he assured me that it was ‘normal’ for them to have this. Apparently, his unfazed expression told me that this happens a lot.
Having no clean clothes in an alien city is a horrific experience. I had to shop for a few things and luckily i was staying in an upscale hotel which provided me my toiletries. I was on the phone with the Airport manager every second hour and asked my luggage to be traced to Chennai. Apparently the plane with my suitcase had developed a technical snag and had not taken off for Chennai. More calls and a whole lot of red-tape later, i got my bag recovered from the stricken aircraft.
The Jodhpur manager, may God Bless his soul, was very helpful and assured me that my luggage would be flown by the next available aircraft (meaning the same flight i came by) picking up my luggage and bringing it over the next day. The only problem was that i had a flight the next afternoon at 3PM from Jodhpur to Mumbai. And my aircraft would only land a few min before. So the IA manager got hold of the Jet Airways manager and struck a deal to transfer the bag between flights on the tarmac. The plan would have worked had it not been for the largely poor record of IA sticking to their on-time performance. Its a given that if the Govt. (meaning AI or IA) is flying you, its going to take it own sweet time to do so.
So the Jet Airways aircraft was boarding and yet IC 471 was still in the blue. I had to literally request the poor manager to have it sent on to Mumbai via the next flight. I must thank him again here for doing the needful. The flight carrying my bag was threatened to be hijacked and hence was rerouted to Pune. I was stuck for a day more before all the luggage was checked and the flight was allowed to 
move the next day. I missed my old suitcase with all its provisions.
My bag finally reached Mumbai the next morning. The only good thing from IA was that they dropped of the bag at my place rather than my having to pick it from the airport. The tag on the handle read. ‘Express Delivery’. !!! Next time i will send my bag with the courier company and take the plane.
