I had only 1 hr 35 minutes layover in Dubai on my way back to Seattle. I was prepared for the race though. I made sure I got an isle seat closer to exit. I carried only one backpack to save exit time. As soon as we landed, I was ready to leave, and started pacing on the first chance.
I hurried past other passengers in the hall way to catch a glimpse on the gate from which my next flight was supposed to depart. It was B23. Then I started pacing towards the gate, trying my best to make optimum use of the travelators. Who knows how far the gate is? And I am walking, and walking, and walking, and the gate does not show up! Although I was sure I had enough time at hand, I did not want to delay. It still showed on the sign board that B gates are straight ahead. I kept crossing crowd of people strolling around the shops, and dodging them on my way. My legs started hurting and I was trying to motivate myself, "next turn", "hold on a little more", "after that pillar", "don't panic". I would stop by the flight sign boards, and it showed my flight was already "currently boarding". I was confused. From my mental calculation, I still had about 20 minutes for boarding to start. "What's going on? Did I lose track of time? Damn, there is no clock around here." I wanted to turn on WiFi, but thought it would be better just to walk fast. Did not have patience to do mental math of the time difference between Indian and UAE. Finally the B series of gates started. I crossed one gate after another with lot of pep talk until I arrived at my gate.
There were not many people. Weird! I reach at the counter, and the agent wants to see my boarding pass. I ask, "Can I get some water and be back in 5 mintues?" He says, "Boarding is almost finished. You better get in." "Whaat!", I say to myself, but meekly show my documents to proceed towards the gate. Once I go downstairs, I understand what the real deal is. There is another custom/security check, where they open up your bag and check your contents, scan your laptops, mobile phones (hmm... I remembered just then that they skipped that check when I moved out of my arrivals), and then there is a huge hall in which all the passengers were sitting. I finished my security check, and took a seat. I was not able to receive WiFi, and was worried about connecting with my family. I asked a fellow passenger, but she did not know. Damn! As I am looking down trying to connect to WiFi, somebody calls me, "Swagatika!". I shift my attention towards the caller, and the person is standing right in front of me. I look up. And it is a senior from IIIT! I was so excited!
All my worry and sense of rush vanished in a moment. I gave her a big hug. She was my senior in IIIT, and I always looked up to her and asked her for advice whenever I needed. When I left IIIT, she had gifted me a sketchbook in which I had sketched her. But I never took the sketchbook with me to USA until this return trip. As I was packing the sketchbook in my bag, I thought, "I will contact her after I go back to Seattle." And here she was standing right in front of me! Boarding started soon enough, and we boarded the flight. I could use her phone to connect to WIFI and reach my family too. Thank God! Once we got down, we chatted on our way back through security and custom. She was visiting Seattle on a short visit for job interview. We met again for short time and I showed her around Seattle Spheres, and we had heartfelt conversation on many topics during that period. It was great connecting with on of my idols, and her encounter was nothing short of any beautiful surprise!
As I bode farewell to her, I thought to myself, "I am gonna be happy for next two days :) " You don't meet amazing people everyday. And reuniting with them by chance is even more rare. It was definitely one of my lucky encounters.
