Shoe trouble!

This past week I had the chance to go for the annual NSGC (National Society of Genetic Counselors) meet in Kansas City, Missouri. For a country that claims to be developed it is kindda funny that the geography in this country is quite confusing. So you have a state Kansas, but Kansas City is in Missouri. Now do we have a Maharashtra city in Assam?? No we dont, b'coz we like making things simple, something that Americans clearly dont like doing. But that's okay, I enjoyed telling all my friends, "Oh I'm going to Kansas city, no it's not in the state Kansas, it's actually in Missouri"...I do get pleasures in unusual things. Moving on....well it was a good experience. Honestly I liked the one in Nashville last year better in terms of content, but that's a different matter altogether.

So after 4 days of this conference and my annual over exposure to Estrogen, I was happy to be on my flight back home to Houston. After a rather long and may I add boring wait of 3 hours at the airport in Kansas city (which if you care to know, has like 2 plug poits in the entire waiting area, so sadly I couldlt plug in my laptop) I was finally boarding my flight. Now I had a stop-over at Dallas. I hate stop-overs. Well they save you money and I love money. My love for money exceeds my hatred for stopovers, so I choose this flight. Moving on...after a rather long flight I reached Houston airport at around 8.20, 20 mins later than the scheduled time of arrival.

Now here's my mental state....having lived in Kansas city for like 4 days, probably 12 hours of sleep in those 4 days, tired, overexposed to estrogen, wanting to just come home and crash...generally I was crabby. Could things be worse?? They could, I could be in Iraq for all you know....but that isnt important here. Well things did get worse as my luggage didnt show up. So in quite a pissed mood, I went up to the baggage claim area to see what we could do about this.

The person sitting across in the baggage claim area, the representative for the airlines happens to a desi aunty. 'Hey Bhaggu', I say to myself...just what I needed. So i trudge along to tell her what has happened. Obviously she has to ask me the most ridiculous questions. At times I wonder, is it written on my face, "You are allowed to ask me the stupidest possible questions?" (and for all those wonderful professors of mine who say, "no question is a stupid question"...well sorry but I disagree, lead my life and you will soon know). So the conversation that followed:
Desi Aunty (DA): Oh sir how can I help you?
Me: I was travelling from Kansas City (Grrr) to Houston and my luggage hasnt reached here.
DA: Which airlines did you fly?
Me: American airlines(why else would I come to your desk, I mean you are the American Airlines representative...am I a retard to come here)
DA: And you checked on the belt???
Me: Yes I did and it is not there (Grrr....)
DA: Ok I can help you (smiles)
Me: Thank You (thank God for small mercies)
DA: When did you last see your bags?
Me: At Kansas City airport when I checked in (this question sounded more like an interrogation to me)
DA: So you checked it in..
Me: Yes (No I just expected that my bags would fly with me and reach here)
DA: Ok what color bag were you carrying?
Me: It was blue.
Da: Blue?? Dark blue, light blue
Me: Dark blue..(you have the tag on the bag, just match the freakin number)
DA: What were you carrying in the bag?
Me: Clothes! (Actually I had 2 bodies neatly folded and there were 2 AK 47s also)
DA: Describe your clothes
Me: White dress shirt, grey trousers, brown trousers.
DA: No, no something more specific
Me: Ummmm...(a pair of bright red boxers with green trees on them)(no I dont have these but...)
Well there were 3 pairs of shoes....$%#@!!!
All 3 pairs of shoes that I have were in that freakin bag! What the hell was I going to wear to work the next day?? That's when it struck me! Never before in my life have I come across such a freakin funny and yet potentially serious situation before. I was so amused by it that for the next hour I was actually laughing about it. Two phone calls followed this and I was thinking of all the possible things I could say, to try and avoid reporting to work. Unfortunately none of them worked and I ended up showing up at work wearing my favourite, ultra-comfortable flip-flops (thongs, as they are called in Australia)! Shoe trouble anyone?!?!?!