My flight from Singapore arrived an hour and a half late thanks to air traffic delays(?). I arrived in Mumbai around 12:30am. Customs went surprisingly smooth and I headed to baggage claim crossing my fingers that my bag would be waiting for me on the luggage carousel. I gave it a 50/50 chance. The time between my connecting flights in Singapore was less than forty minutes which usually seems to be the cut off point for my bags not making the flight with me on an international connecting flight. Since my flight was so late arriving, I also wasn’t sure if the driver my hotel had arranged to pick me up would stick around at the late hour, so I was eager not to delay things further with baggage issues.
I have a rather unique looking bag and in all my travels thus far I have yet to see another one like it. So, one the black and gray travel pack came came rumbling around the conveyor belt, I knew it was mine and was greatly relieved. To my additional relief, I also managed to find the waiting driver dispatched from the hotel and we made the 40 minute drive into the city.
Even at two in the morning, I was met with an onslaught of overly friendly staff at my hotel. The quickly checked me in and ushered me to my room. Exhausted, I threw my bag onto my bed to extract just what I needed for a welcome night's rest. Then, I noticed something peculiar. The lock on the bag was not the one I use. Another lock was missing entirely. Finally, a quick inspection of some of the items in the bag also revlealed that they were not my own.
It took my tired brain a minute to catch up, but I finally realized that this was not my bag. Seems my comfort level of believing my bag was truly one-of-a-kind had finally caught up with me. Instead of checking the luggage tag - also not mine - I just assumed I had the right bag. At this hour in the morning, I imagined that there was someone else in Mumbai making a similar discovery and they were not happy.
So, at 2:30am, I grabbed a cab and headed back for the airport. I was unsure if it would even be open, let alone whether my bag might be there. Even worse, I imagined that a now irate passenger might be waiting for me to call me on my stupidity in person.
Luckily, I arrived to find the airport open and fully functionally. More amazing, I spotted my bag sitting atop a luggage cart the moment I entered the unclaimed luggage area. I was estatic. I then set about righting my wrong. I found an airline representative to hand over the bag I had mistakenly taken. She eyed me with a bit of distain which I took to mean that the rightful owner may have given her a piece of his mind that was intended for me. Seems the bag contained the only belongings that the man had brought to India as he had no carry-on. Further, he was scheduled to take a connecting flight elsewhere in the morning and was deperately seeking the bag to at least change his clothes. I found out a few day later, that he had even called my parent's house, as it's the number listed on my bag tag, in an attempt to track me down.
I told the airline rep that I'd be happy to pay for delivery of the bag, his hotel or taxi, or any other measure to make up for the mistake. But, she dismissed such ideas with a firm tone and gave a glare that I understood to mean that I should leave immediately. I did just that, finally returning to my hotel at 4am. As I quickly fell asleep I thought that my visit to India just might be a bit more of an adventure than I was expecting.
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