Priceless!...

“Trrrrrrrnnnnnnngggg” blared my alarm at 3:30 AM in the morning. It was just half an hour back ,I had hit the sack after spending exactly 6 minutes to pack my bags ( I felt even those precious 6 minutes were too long to stuff in two unwashed pair of jeans and a couple of ‘god knows when last washed’ tee shirts.) I had an early morning 5:45 flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco….well…..had to settle down for such an ungodly take off time as anything beyond a 5:45 Am flight would burn my already empty pocket. I sat up on my bed after thumping my alarm down. Silence retuned in my room. The fire place was giving such a pleasant warmth in a cold December morning in an otherwise dark room. I peeped out of my window,…beyond the veil of the fog, I could see the neighbour’s Santa smiling at my plight…It was Christmas the next day..Poor me…I cannot afford sinking back into my bed which would have been the case any other day..but today was special……..certainly priceless…… The Plan was to catch up with my school buddy at the silicon valley for breakfast, whom I did not meet after moving out of school……eight years back….

Although we remained in touch after moving out of the “no worries” zone of school……we only managed to do that…..be in touch and not meet……..It was not that we didn’t care for each other, our priorities started shifting and being in the current circle mattered a lot…to some extent this was beyond our control….nevertheless…we were happy to be in touch and know each other’s progress….A year back, I moved to Los Angeles on an Onshore assignment and my friend reached San Francisco couple of months back………we exchanged phone numbers and continued to do what we were best at…..Stay In touch…… In one of those usual conversations, my friend invited me to san Francisco to spend that Christmas weekend, thereby end the jinx of not meeting for 8 continuous years…Now that gave a ‘feel good’ feeling for me….It was not a bad idea at all….after all I have an unenviable record of being idle during long weekends…perhaps time to fix that…..

My iPhone flashed that three hours and fourty two minutes have passed since Dec 24 was born. I jumped out of my bed and got ready to catch the 4 AM taxi. All the while cherishing our school days……..I rushed out of my home….Damn….I was trembling despite having a jacket on……it was cold and windy...fortunately, the cab was waiting…..we took the I05 West freeway and reached the Tom Bradley terminal….the clock tower screamed 4: 48 AM…….The check-in and baggage drop counter would be closed in 12 more minutes..and there were scores of visibiliy excited holiday travelers ahead in the queue…but did I care…?.not a bit…..I just had my hand luggage and headed straight to the gate, which was on the far end of the terminal……phew…a long walk indeed……I reached the gate well ahead of the boarding time…..had 20 more minutes to kill before the take off….Ideal for 4 of A R Rahman’s master pieces!.I plugged on my iPod…immersed myself into rahamanism….time flew……..suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. The American airlines lady furiously directed me towards the jet’s entrance…Not again...I was the last person to board…… I settled down quickly into my seat and relaxed myself for a little over an hour’s flight…I looked down the window when the flight took off……LA was still in dark..I was excited….a bit sleepy as well…..and actually dozed off even before crossing Malibu...minutes ticked down….the captain announced the landing preparation….

I woke up….and saw below, the SFO airport surrounded by the beautiful Bay at 7 :15 in the morning…….I gave a call to my friend…..there was no response…..I came out of the aircraft …the coffee shop in front of me was too inviting to resist…I persisted….I wanted to have that first cup of coffee for the day with my friend with whom my last meal together was 8 years back…… I continued with my long walk towards exit…

I couldn’t wait any more and wanted to give it another try to reach my buddy on phone…I noticed something strange on my phone…there was an unread Voice mail for ,god knows how long…….while still trying to figure out on how it missed my attention ,I checked it and…….was heartbroken…. It was my friend’s voice mail sent the previous day….

A disappointed voice conveyed the professional emergency and my friend had to leave the city for the next couple of days…I was dejected….

Was it luck….or….bad luck? ..So near yet so far? ...Are we destined not to meet for eight more years? Only time can answer……

I went back to the “inviting” coffee shop …grabbed a tall café mocha and settled down in a corner window, overlooking the run way…I sipped down the coffee and glanced through the wet window at a taxiing Boeing 737 amidst the beautiful San Francisco drizzle……The truth started sinking in…..certainly, being lonely, at times , helps retrospection……….I began to realize that despite not meeting my friend, which was my only purpose of this visit, over the past four hours of this day, there were little moments to cherish sprinkled all over…..Be it the cold LA mornings, the excited holiday travelers in LA airport, the joy of immersing into rahmanism at 5 30 AM waiting to board, a showery and overcast san Francisco airport and finally…the last sip of Café mocha ….

I listened to my friend’s voice message again…….I felt much lighter..

What is priceless?? Meeting my friend was not the only purpose of my visit to SFO…I have learnt to take a step aside, look at things around me and be sensitive enough to cherish the tinest of moments that happen around me....

Life is much better when you can see things ,which always existed, but ignored………