It was SJ’s seasoned vision that first noticed the prominent tattoo. His other colleagues, TK, SC and PU, all with considerable life experience, weren’t far behind in taking notice of the same. The tattoo added an aura of style and elegance to the already modish lady. As they say, quite often these days, men will be men; they stood behind her in the queue for baggage scanning in Kolkata airport. All these men had few things in common, they worked for the same organization, all middle aged, all headed for the same destination- Hyderabad and most importantly, all had paunch- though in different developmental stages. It is not known whether the song “Pyaar ki raah mein…” at all played in their heads and whether they held their breath to flatten their paunch but they smirked looking at each other, for sure. Dressed up in their best casuals, they were happy and excited looking forward to the journey. It was less of a business meet and more of a pleasure trip for the destination was ‘the beautiful’ Ramoji Film City.
The lady with the tattoo soon got lost in the hubbub of the airport, but not forgotten. Few glimpses stay for long. SJ couldn’t just waive off the waving image of the tattoo and, not to mention always, the appealing lady. Few hours forward, they landed in Hyderabad and after an hour arrived at the hotel, nestled in the lap of the bountiful greenery of Ramoji Fim city.
Falling back on the cushion of the hotel room bed, TK hummed a tune; he must have been particularly thrilled about the trip for he had brought everything new except for the old body.
“We must get ready now, the meeting starts at 2” KD his room partner opined.
“After such a lavish lunch, a little rest is needed, further we still have plenty of time” TK said looking at his watch.
“Let’s meet at 1.30 for a quick meeting before the event begins” the message was from the Boss. No one could ignore, and now TK had to hurry. He jumped out of the bed and pulled his trolley bag, a business suit had to be put in.
He felt puzzled; the number lock wasn’t there, but only the airport zip tie lock. On close monitoring, he discovered that it wasn’t a brand new- the one he carried from home. He sat on the floor, lost.
“What happened” enquired KD looking at the baffled face of TK.
“This isn’t my bag”
After a brief silence, KD suggested “We need to open the bag first”. After few moments of hesitation the decision was made, just a quick snap and the opened bag lay in front of them.
“How is it possible, where are my stuff, my suits, my traditional dress for the evening event, my casuals and even my shoes” TK babbled with his hand on his bald. A pair of shining Hush Puppies- yet to touch the ground was packed along with the shoe box. Now, all was gone.
“Because Samsonite didn’t make only one piece for this model” said KD “Now let’s explore for clues, this is a clear case of luggage mix-up”
Jumbled ladies dress material, swim suits, many other tiny garments and variety of beauty creams- the only visible contents. The fine details of the contents were however kept hush-hush to avoid further embarrassment and also to avoid the onrushing curiosity from several colleagues.
A copy of PAN card was the only document found inside the bag, it was of an old lady. Quickly she was searched extensively in the social media, she wasn’t found.
“Do you think such tiny clothes actually could belong to such an old lady” TK though loudly while dialing the number of the airline.
“We haven’t received any call for lost or mixed up luggage from any passenger, please wait for some more time” the statement from the airline was logical. Even the luggage tag showed the name of TK, the situation was becoming like a difficult riddle. It didn’t look like the airline was in fault.
Few minutes later TK dashed into the room where the boss was in the middle of the discussion, TK and KD were already late for the meeting, and narrated the sorrowful incident. While all eyes looked at him with intense curiosity, the boss looked for his laptop. It was not to be found anywhere and no one remembered seeing it since their arrival at the hotel.
It was a day with vanishing magic! All present in the room heaved a sigh of relief; thankfully they had the right bags with them.
PU played the Sherlock, got into trail tracing; he called up the cabs that ferried people from the airport. There were many such cabs, arranged by the company, and after several frantic calls could finally get the cab driver who confirmed that a laptop bag sat lazily in one of the rear seats. Soon PU jumped into a cab and zoomed to the airport. After couple of hours, PU returned, clutching the laptop in his generous chest, smile of victory in his lips and glory in his steps. The enormous data in the laptop in the meanwhile must have had some restful time.
This case was shut successfully but TK’s miseries were only mounting.
Ramoji Film City isn’t a great place for shopping; TK had to set off in the nearby village shops to buy anything ranging from toothbrush to shoes.
“Sir, we still haven’t received any complaint, in the meanwhile please check if that bag have any airline tag, maybe we can trace if you get something”
“But, I have already checked, the tag shows my name”
While putting on the newly brought dress, he studied the luggage tag again and to his surprise, the previous tag was stuck beneath the fresh one. The details were shared with the airline and in sometime they traced the person.
“What, you mean the luggage I’m carrying doesn’t belong to me. I will sue your airline, this is very pathetic, I’m going to….” the passenger on the other side, a lady, was furious. She simply wouldn’t listen to anyone. Finally, the airline guy called up TK and asked him to pacify the lady.
While everyone was busy in the seminar and then in the RnR- later in the evening, not only that, even during the tour in the film city, the following day, TK was busy in his phone. It was not for nothing that he had his hairs turned grey, of course whatever remained, he was good in charming irate customers and in this case it was an irate lady. It was child’s play for him. The profile picture of the lady, after a thorough search in social media, brought out glaring revelations. It was the same lady, the one with tattoo in Kolkata airport. She had flown to Mumbai with TK’s bag.
The tattoo lady soon flashed the social media with the incident and also the minute details of the content of TK’s bag. Both of them realized that they were at fault and not the airline. Differences were forgotten and turned into a friendship- birds of a feather fly together.
Finally, at the end of the trip, TK deposited the bag in Kolkata airport while she did so in Mumbai. A couple of days later both were united with their original bags.
But, how did this mix-up happen?
At Kolkata airport, TK stood just behind the tattoo lady, interestingly both had the same kind of bag. Such was the distraction, or the effort to impress, that the bags got swapped.
It took over four decades to repeat the Bengali movie Baksa Badal, this time in real life.
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