A couple of years back, I used to be a frequent flyer during my assignments. I was literally living out of suitcase. I used to travel alone. Perhaphs, that made me very friendly towards the fellow passengers. If he/she was also equally friendly sort of then the communication could go on for hours. I was single then and I would pray to God, that atleast this time let some handsome bachlor sit next to me. My journey would turn interesting chit chatting and if things worked out like a Harry Met Sally movie, I woould meet my Mr.Right in the flight itself. I realized it much later that my mom was praying secretly too. As god sent or shall I say mom sent, most of the time, a lady passenger around my moms age should be sitting next to me. The surrogate mother used to be very pleased having me around as I could help her fill the immigration form, could assist her to understand the instructions and if needed hold her purses when she had to attend the natures call. Some of them needed added service by assiting them to offload their baggage from the moving belt. I didnt mind doing any of these except my dreams of meeting my Price Charming in the flight would be ruined each time.

It was a Mumbai-Bangkok flight. Much to my joy, a Tall Dark Handosme man was walking towards my seat, he adjusted his cabin luggage above my head. As I was thanking my luck, he made himself seated behind my seat. I could sense that the Harry Met Sally dream crashing down. Then came a lady well dressed in her traditional attire and gave me her best smile while sitting next to me. I smiled back. I helped her to fit the seat belt.

I am going to Bagkok to meet my daughter and son in law. They got married just six months back. My daughter resembles you a lot. Nice to see you sitting next to me. I am Mrs Shah.

I had listened to this tag line a lot. I should have a generic mould which can perhaphs resembles anyone. Sigh!!! She seemed like a nice lady but I was rather upset on missing an opportunity right behind me I wish, the airline companies could apply a little common sense while alloting the seats. Atleast, they should have a programmes that allots all the married on one side and bachlors on the other side Passengers with small kids, at the front or at the backside of the flights. No small Kids and Pet tagline sounds perfect to me.

To take my mid off the mean thoughts, I carried on the conversation. While filling her immigration form, I casually asked her, if she got the new passport done a few days back. As if hitting the nail on the bulls eye, the lady began her story. It goes like this

She came from a wealthy family and committed a sin of falling in love with a poor boy in 70s. Hell let loose and her family disowned her. She ran away from home to get married to her sweetheart. Four years down the line, with no money in hand, two kids in toe and a family to run, her husband succumbed to drinking. She decided to take charge of the situation. Those days, imported items were in great demand and were not freely available in the Indian market. A lot of her acquaintances were into the business (?) of going to Bangkok and Hong Kong on a tourist vista. They used to buy the goods in bulk and sell them to the vendors in India at a high price. The money was good. It was a flourishing business in 80s, except that Government of India was quick to term it as smuggling. This act of smuggling would be caught at the custom point. With a reasonable amount of convincing power or under the table negotiations, one could bring the goods to cater to imported good starved janta. Not all the custom officers would be visionary enough to see the noble cause in smuggling and they would offload the goods and kick the ass of these middlemen.

Coming back to the story, the lady in question coaxed her husband into this business who readily agreed. The lady would buy sarees, undergarments, artificial jewelleries from the wholesale markets in Bangkok. She would wear the undergarments one over the other. Sarees one after the other till, no one got suspicisous that she should weigh atleast 10 kgs lesser than what she was. She would wear most of the jewellery and the remaining jewellery would hid behind the layers of clothing. On reaching the custom point, her husband would panick. She would ask him to wait behind. With lot of grit and determination, she would wind up the matter in a few minutes. Then she would signal her husband and the noble cause would be complete. On their way, to Bangkok, she would take a lot of Indian stuff to sell it to the Indian shopkeepers.

They continued their business till the point they were well off then decided to call it quits. Her husband then started a garment business which was doing very well They cancelled their old passport and applied for the new one. Old passport buried the sins deep in the grave.

I was amused and bewildered. It was a night flight, I did not sleep at all. Her story was worth more than my sleep..

Considering, we were meeting for the first time, it was too much of an information for my numb head. I was a bit scared too. What if she had some malicious intention of engaging me in the story and then abscounding me for a ransome. Afterall, you dont meet such people often. Then I thought, I am not Ambanis daughter that they will get a ransome by kidnapping me. All my doubts were put to rest when she gave me her husbands business card. She was gracious enough to invite me for a nice homemade meal while I was in Bangkok. This was not all but when I returned to Mumbai, I could buy denim from their factory at discount.

Perhaphs, I really resembled her daughter.

Post Script- I never visisted her while in Bangkok. But, as luck would have had it, I spotted the same lady on the airport on my return flight. Coincidence, as they say. This time, she asked me to request the fellow passenger to swap the seats so that she could sit next to me

Has it ever happned to you that you are seated next to the same passenger both the times? Or, met someone as interesting?