The queue in front of me looked kind of really long. I got up with my thoughts; yes, it is a long weekend having Veteran’s day on Monday. So there is a crowd everywhere. After a wait of 15 minutes, I reached the officer who decides which zone I will move in. I was traveling to Minneapolis to visit my cousin from Atlanta. I had taken the printout of my e -ticket. The print out was a little small, may be half size of an A4 page. The officer looked at my passport, then into my Ticket and asked me
AIRPORT-Officer: “Do you have a reading glass for this?” and smiled.
Me: Nope, I was in a hurry, so did not get time to enlarge the font.
He wrote the number 4, that means zone 4 and line 4. The queue crawled across slowly. My mind was floating around about the things I have to take out from my bag and put on the tray. Also I was thinking whether my sox are going to stink. In US you need to remove your shoes while passing through the Metal detector which is really annoying. More annoying when your sox stinks! :D
Any ways, I reached the end of the line and waited for the tray to assemble the things over it. After two minutes, there was no one to give me tray and two folks, one with two kids and another lady were waiting. I moved to the next line and mentioned to the family lady that we have tray on the next line. I went ahead and picked two trays, one for me and another for the other lady. The lady in front of her said
Lady-in-Front: I need two more.
Me: What?
I had the strangest of faces I can make but it took a moment for me to digest. She has mistaken me for the line in help boy. Man not in US!!!! It had happened to me so many times in India that people in Bangalore central come around and ask me
‘Can you get smaller size of this T shirt?’
If the person requesting a pretty looking lady, mostly I will help her out to find the right garment and then say to her that I don’t work here.:)
If the person is some guy, the answer comes straight away …But I never expected to have such an experience here in US.
So I took three trays and gave one to the lady in front, another to the lady with kids and one for me. I started taking out my digital cam and lap top and other stuff. The lady in the front went ahead and cleared the detector. Next was my chance and I went in.
My bag began to give the annoying beep-beep sound and I was asked to go near it. It was the bottle of drinking water I had left. Officer told me no drinking water in the cabin bag and threw it to the dust bin. I took my bag, belt, shoes (some how the sox was not stinking any more) and moved towards the next seat. I kept all the things inside my bag and was putting my shoes. I felt a nice fragrance around me and I looked up. The Lady-in-the-front is standing in front of me with her strangest-face.
Lady-in-Front: Oh I am really sorry, I really didn’t know!
Me: It’s alright; it happens :)
LIF: I was totally out of my mind and you might have felt that I was rude asking for another tray. I am terribly sorry
Me: it is alright ms, It has happened many times with me.
LIF: I’m ms T. Nice meeting you…
Me: I’m R, nice meeting you….
LIF: Where are you headed? Which flight?
Then the conversation went to the next coffee-bar. But I would say it was a good mistake!
How many times you have been into such situation where you are mistaken for someone else? Like a room boy? A domestic-help? A sales man in a mall? I don’t know if it is my looks or the way I dress up or my personality. Many a times this has happened and initially I got a little worried also. Thinking ‘Do I look like a servant?’
AIRPORT-Officer: “Do you have a reading glass for this?” and smiled.
Me: Nope, I was in a hurry, so did not get time to enlarge the font.
He wrote the number 4, that means zone 4 and line 4. The queue crawled across slowly. My mind was floating around about the things I have to take out from my bag and put on the tray. Also I was thinking whether my sox are going to stink. In US you need to remove your shoes while passing through the Metal detector which is really annoying. More annoying when your sox stinks! :D
Any ways, I reached the end of the line and waited for the tray to assemble the things over it. After two minutes, there was no one to give me tray and two folks, one with two kids and another lady were waiting. I moved to the next line and mentioned to the family lady that we have tray on the next line. I went ahead and picked two trays, one for me and another for the other lady. The lady in front of her said
Lady-in-Front: I need two more.
Me: What?
I had the strangest of faces I can make but it took a moment for me to digest. She has mistaken me for the line in help boy. Man not in US!!!! It had happened to me so many times in India that people in Bangalore central come around and ask me
‘Can you get smaller size of this T shirt?’
If the person requesting a pretty looking lady, mostly I will help her out to find the right garment and then say to her that I don’t work here.:)
If the person is some guy, the answer comes straight away …But I never expected to have such an experience here in US.
So I took three trays and gave one to the lady in front, another to the lady with kids and one for me. I started taking out my digital cam and lap top and other stuff. The lady in the front went ahead and cleared the detector. Next was my chance and I went in.
My bag began to give the annoying beep-beep sound and I was asked to go near it. It was the bottle of drinking water I had left. Officer told me no drinking water in the cabin bag and threw it to the dust bin. I took my bag, belt, shoes (some how the sox was not stinking any more) and moved towards the next seat. I kept all the things inside my bag and was putting my shoes. I felt a nice fragrance around me and I looked up. The Lady-in-the-front is standing in front of me with her strangest-face.
Lady-in-Front: Oh I am really sorry, I really didn’t know!
Me: It’s alright; it happens :)
LIF: I was totally out of my mind and you might have felt that I was rude asking for another tray. I am terribly sorry
Me: it is alright ms, It has happened many times with me.
LIF: I’m ms T. Nice meeting you…
Me: I’m R, nice meeting you….
LIF: Where are you headed? Which flight?
Then the conversation went to the next coffee-bar. But I would say it was a good mistake!
How many times you have been into such situation where you are mistaken for someone else? Like a room boy? A domestic-help? A sales man in a mall? I don’t know if it is my looks or the way I dress up or my personality. Many a times this has happened and initially I got a little worried also. Thinking ‘Do I look like a servant?’
Then I started to realize the funny part of it. Serving the mistaken person and then letting them know that I was not the person they meant me to be. But this mistake, in US was really a lovely mistake which followed with a nice coffee chat with the gal!
I have to wait and see, next time I might be mistaken for a service boy in an elevator? :D
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