The delays at Delhi’s busy airports — on account of the weather or, more often, the waits for landing clearance — are leaving officials and passengers rather short-tempered.

Some years back, my 8.15 pm flight from Delhi to Calcutta met a similar fate. Soon after I collected the boarding pass, there was the disquieting announcement of a two-hour delay. The passengers dispersed in different directions. Some made a beeline for a cup of coffee, others just sat like damp sparrows on plastic bucket seats, not knowing how to pass time.

At 9 pm dinner coupons were doled out and the passengers were taken to the nearby Hotel Centaur. That was the airline’s way of informing further delay in small doses. But soon after the dinner came the heartening announcement that the plane would take off at 12.30 am.

We finally landed at Calcutta at 2.30 am — an unearthly hour. I was among the last to collect my baggage from the conveyor belt. I expected that an office car would be waiting for me and the driver would know the hotel. The visibly tired, overworked official at the enquiry counter checked his papers and wrote down on a slip the car number and the driver’s name.

The driver was Mustafa who was known to me. He always sported a welcome smile and invariably received me at the exit gate. But he was nowhere. Perhaps tired of waiting, he had fallen asleep in the car. I spent quite some time in trying to locate the car at various points, but drew a blank. It was also likely that, assuming the flight was cancelled, he had gone back.

... contd.