A happy re-meeting at the Delhi airport Terminal 1 today

Sometimes you are just plain glad to see someone again; even if you’re trying to catch a plane.

That was the case for me when I saw Arpit today at the Delhi airport terminal 1.

He was occupied swiping the card of a passenger and issuing him the bill for excess baggage. I noticed that he had by today grown a small moustache.

Coincidentally I was next to his counter for dropping my check in bag and he didn’t notice me initially as I waved to him after putting my luggage in. But he eventually did and as I tried my best to say Hi, ask him if he remembered me and start a conversation with him in my less than rudimentary proficiency in sign language, he gestured to me indicating that he couldn’t hear me.

Till that time I had assumed that he was only speech challenged.

This was a good 5 months after I had first met him at the same terminal in September 2022.

Finally I gestured to him that he and I had clicked a photo together back in September and that’s when he recalled my face in an instance.

What followed was a couple of hearty shake hands with a good smile on our faces and a couple of thumbs ups back and forth.

If possible I would have offered him a hug as well given that he didn’t look as spirited as on 28th September last year. Maybe it was towards the end of his shift today.

I won’t know for sure. There was a line building up behind me and I decided to proceed for security.

But I must share the circumstances in which I first met him last year.

My father was admitted in the hospital at that time for a series of medical checks given his falling Haemoglobin levels and the problems it was causing. After the third test in the series I had to leave for Jaipur for my session with a group of senior managers of a manufacturing company.

I took the Uber after my brother took over from me at the hospital.

It was a late evening short flight to Jaipur and when I look in retrospect I am glad that my project team member had encouraged me to take the flight than the evening double decker train to Jaipur. She knew of my father’s situation in the hospital.

Terminal 1 wasn’t crowded that evening and I landed in front of Arpit. I went through the motions half aware out of sheer habit but also because of the obvious concerns and thoughts in my mind about my father as well as the high stakes session over the next two days.

The check in procedure looked uneventful till Arpit requested for my time and attention and pointed to the badge on his shirt and asked for feedback. And that’s when I really noticed.

I was of course now thrilled at the seamless experience and wrote a hearty feedback as well as some words of encouragement as well.

I also pinned a stuffed yellow heart 💛 pin on his shirt.

He read it and there came over a beautiful expansive smile on his face and he asked me if he could have a photo with me?

Who would say no?

At least I wouldn’t.

For me he was the celebrity.

His supervisor was only too happy to oblige and I saw a couple of other colleagues also join in and observe all this with a certain happiness on their face.

I appreciated his supervisor for doing a job well in supporting Arpit in his professional journey.

We shook hands and moved on.

I thought of writing about that encounter but each time there was something or the other that just kept coming in the way.

I’d like to believe that this note was destined to be written today with the photo taken back then; maybe because I was possibly meant to see Arpit working without any supervision today!

😌🙏🏽🙏🏽