Okay another long thread from me.
31st December 2002. LaGuardia Airport. Close to midnight. I had just landed from Rochester and had to a flight to SanFran to visit a cousin. As a college student I was broke and the money from part-time job was to be credited next day. I had...
... a little over $10 in account I think. My stupid ass thought I will land and take the connecting flight without worrying about money. Hadn't taken into account that NYC has 3 airports. Turned out my next flight was from JFK. Either there was no free shuttle or it wasn't due
for a while. So I went to withdraw my remaining money from ATM. My second mistake was checking my balance first. That charged me a fee & brought my balance below what the ATM would dispense. So the remaining money was locked. I was fucked. I couldn't go back to Rochester either.
So I was just sitting on a bench outside the airport in freezing weather with a giant suitcase, my head in my hands. Suddenly I heard a lady asking me 'Are you okay?'. looked up and saw an airport employee standing there. She was Indian. I cant recall her name now. I told her...
...the situation and that I was 5 dollars short to get to JFK. She took out her wallet and handed me a $20 note. I told her I needed just 5 but she insisted that I keep the rest and buy myself a coffee and snacks. I asked for her bank details so I can return the money but she
refused. She also gave me exact instructions on which shuttle to take from where. Every New Years eve I remember this act of kindness. It is just one of innumerable times people have been kind to me. And each one just strengthens my resolve to help people wherever I can.
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Thinking about Mihir's family took me back to May when I was about to face something similar. Luckily for me, It didn't come to pass but it's not over yet. Unluckily for me, it's changed my life irrevocably since. This suits a blog lot more but it's past 1 am so here it goes.
Sometime in middle of May, I was in my office when I got a call from my Brother-in-law who told me it was time for me to come down to Lucknow. Just one day earlier I had found out that my mother was hospitalised but It didn't sound too serious at that point.
I was preparing for a multiagency pitch the new CEO of an existing client called for to consolidate two brands. We've been struggling to get back in black for a while & this was a chance to seal that. On the other hand if we lost the client we'd be too deep in red to recover.