Airport Drama....

That was one of those very few nights when i didnt mind being hit by a bout of insomnia. Lying in the bed...tossing here and there, i am sure even my countenance bore a big grin knowing that i'l be flying back to India the following afternoon and needless to say, absolutely unaware of the drama which was waiting to be unfolded at the airport.. I arrived at the Jeddah airport, completed all my formalities and was waiting at the immigration counter for the final exit stamp on my visa when lightening struck...the immigration guy took my passport..keyed in something in the comp and blip blip the lights turned red...he looked at me...rather scanned me with a look which i must say wasnt the most comforting, n then came the words....there is some problem..go to the police counter....pointing towards a series of glass chambers. I was like...damn..what could be the matter. Neways, i mustered enuf courage to walk in the pointed direction, remembering all gods and goddesses that to my knowledge and as per stories recited to us in childhood rescued harmless and good people when in pain/danger... The scene in the police cell was no comforting either and the presence of a group of abaya clad women standing there surrounded by police apparently interrogating them for some fault only meant that my turmoil was to last longer. So I kept on waiting with increased heart beat and palpitation. At this point, I looked across towards the duty free counter only to find my colleague being warded off by the police..God what will happen to me!!!! Then came my turn..i walked inside..somehow managed to bring a smile on my face and handed over all my documents to the police. He looked at me, checked the documents, gave me a very dirty look and screamed. ..VISA EXPIRED….U HAVE OVERSTAYED I was like…HOLY SHIT.…I was about to utter the F word but sanity prevailed and ensured that I didn’t commit one more crime in this foreign soil…I looked at him with a blank face..something akin to the face of a hindi movie actor on knowing that his sister has been killed by the villain. The next few minutes passed in a dizzy..i was visualizing how the detention centre would be..how the lashes would be…how would I recuperate from the wounds…what food would be there in the police cell…what other torture ways would they apply…etc etc…. He called up a few senior police on phone, asked me something in arabic which I couldn’t make a word off and then said…200 Riyals..Give me the money…. Trust me, never have I felt better on being demanded money…something in me told that since he is asking for the money, jail wasn’t on the scene..I opened my wallet to give him the amount but was asked to purchase revenue stamps n give..God what was this! How on earth was I supposed to get revenue stamp here…Nevertheless, my belief that good people exist in all parts of the world came true when an African came forward to escort me to the bank to collect them. Being present in an airport without a passport and boarding pass wasn’t too comforting but the fact that I still had the ticket with me was some solace. But it wasn’t over yet. On my way, I was confronted by the airlines people who then seized my tickets as well..and I was given an ultimatum.finish the formalities on 15 minutes or your luggage gets deplaned…Now this was agony..this was totally jale pe namak..but there was little I could do about it…the fact that the Air India guy actually spoke in Hindi didn’t help at all..much to my discomfort. Anyways, courtesy the African, the bank notes thing got done and we actually managed to come back in the counter to collect the ticket and finish the formalities, which took another half an hour or so..it was painful, really painful but nothing compared to first part..Thank God!!! I aint going to the jail…In the end I actually gathered the courage to ask the officer that how come there is a problem since in English its written validity 1 month and its been only 3 weeks..to which he pointed at my something in Arabic which apparently meant to stay for only 2 weeks. Obviously I didn’t have the balls to ask him what’s the reason for this anomaly. By the end of the one hour drama I was like totally drained and virtually gone blank. Spending an hour with police that also in a country like Saudi for a crime as serious as overstay aint a matter of joke. However, all’s well that ends well. And did I tell you that when I had the first sip of beer in flight after a month of hiatus and also after this incident, it was like elixir. The air hostess brought the tray table near me and asked, “Sir what about you?” and trust me, I was about to say, “Yaar kuch bhi pila do..bas tum pila do” but the turn of events in the last 3-4 hours made me measure each word before speaking. So I asked for beer and I actually kept it infront of my eyes and stared at it for sometime…a look typical of hindi movies when the hero meets his beloved after a long time…runs towards her but stops just short..stares at her with stars in his eyes before embracing her…it was exactly the same… I had just the same stars in my eyes…