What's in a name, you say???

0515 am

"Uth bhaanc***d. We are late", said Avinash and kicked me. I woke up groggily and looked at my watch. I saw that it was only 430 am, so what the hell was Avinash talking about. Ok, so we were a little late, by a half hour, but we could still make it to the airport to catch the 7 am flight to IRMA.

I went to the washroom and after a little while, Avinash banged on the door, "Khol bhaanc***d. Late ho gayein hain hum".

0530 am

'Bhanc***d is such a nice word', I thought. It can be used in any sentence and yet, it doesnt change the context of the sentence. I came out and looked around me. Everything seemed hazy and slow. Only Avinash was on a roll, moving from here to there like the road runner cartoon. I couldnt make out why he was in such a hurry.

"Where is the cab. Call him and ask him why he is late?", I told Avinash

"He called six times around 345 am, and left. Its 530 now.", He replied.

"What?!!! Bhaanc***d. I was in the toilet for an hour?"

"Nahi bhaanc***d. We woke up fifteen minutes back. Now hurry.", he cursed

I picked up whatever stuff I could lay my hands on, changed into a pair of jeans, and rushed out with him in the lead.

0540 am

An hour and twenty minutes to go the flight. We came to the main road. An auto wasnt going to take us to the airport that fast. Luckily, an empty cab stopped by us and we got in.

"To the airport. Fast", we both shouted to the cab driver, and just to emphasis our point, "Bhaanch**d".

As we were driving towards the airport at a speed which was fast according to the driver, but still seemed slow to me, the events of the previous night came back to me in flashes. To celebrate our going to IRMA on an official trip to give a presentation, we had decided to bring a bottle of Blender's Pride, and some touching (snacks) items to go along with it. Around 3 am, both the liquor and touching got over, and all I kept thinking was we shouldnt fall asleep, we shouldnt fall asleep, we shouldnt fall.....zzzzzzzz.

0630 am

After paying the cab driver, we raced towards the check in counter. We thought we had made it, but were politely told that the flight was closed. Since, this was the second time I was missing a flight, it didnt come so much as a shock to me as it did to my friend who tried a lot to convince the people-who-think-they-are-the-PM-of-India behind the counter to let us in, but in vain.

0634 am

Losing the battle to the airlines, we decided to transfer our flight to the next available one which was leaving at 0930 am to Ahmedabad. With us was another man, Muhammad Quadir, who had missed his flight too.

To transfer the ticket, we had to cancel the previous ticket and book the next flight out. Muhammad and Avinash ran to the cancellation counter, while I made my way to the booking counter.

0636 am

The next flight out was a SpiceJet one leaving at 0930 am. I was told that there were only 3 seats left, and if we wanted to book them, we would have to do it asap. The tickets would cost us Rs. 3000 extra each. Since there was nothing to do about it, I handed him my credit card and told him to book two tickets. I filled up the application form and our tickets were booked.

0641 am

Avinash and Muhammad came to the booking counter. Our ticket was booked, and we started to make our way out to the lounge area. Muhammad was informed by the booking person that only one seat was available on the flight. He was handed the application form and asked to fill up soon since it was the last seat.

Muhammad looked a little dazed by the form, and requested me to fill it up.

"Sir, please hurry. The seat might get booked any minute now. Its the last one available on the flight", said the SpiceJet fellow.

The first question being name of the passenger, I wrote "Muhammad", but was a little confused by the spelling of Quadir. He told me to write "Q-U-A..."

"Sir", the booking person said, "The cost of the ticket has increased by Rs. 3000. It will now cost you Rs. 6000 more."

Muhammad let out a little sigh and muttered, 'Bhaanc***d', under his breath

We met another person who had missed his flight the previous night, and was waiting for the next one since the last 12 hours, but his is another story to tell. All in all, we swore never to get wasted again in life, or to tell you the truth, never to get wasted the night before a journey, bhaanch**d.