The Rainy Day

I had planned to travel to Delhi for taking a session for our employees. It rained heavily throughout the night of 19th Sep 2017. Again same goes for the morning, I woke up to a grey and cloudy morning. This was a day of mixed feelings as I was looking forward to a bright and active day and here I woke up to the morning with no sunshine. Just when I was leaving for the airport, I received a text from one of my well-wishers and colleague: "Is it that imp to go looking at the situation here in Mumbai".

I politely responded: "We only decide the importance of our work. I feel its important. If I don't value it, others will surely not feel its important ... on personal note thanks for your concern". I was determined to go as long as flights were operating.

I reached the airport on time but my flight got rescheduled, so this gave me time to sit and reflect on my surrounding. There were long queues on all counters as many flights had been rescheduled or canceled. People were struggling to know the exact status of flights and the airline staff were all up on their feet to help customers in the most polite and courteous manner. I had a #jetairways flight and I was happy to see work commitment and dedication of Jet Airways staff. It was an unusual day for them as they were handling huge rush of customers as well as emotions like anger, frustration, anxiety... they were handling it all.

In morning my flight status was "canceled" which was subsequently changed to "delayed". This change of status was a momentary relief as the airline started issuing the boarding pass. I got my boarding pass, completed security check and reached boarding gate only to realize that it’s raining crazily. It was visibly evident that it’s almost impossible for flights to operate under such condition.

My flight got rescheduled thrice since morning and now it was almost late noon. I decided to cancel my trip as the whole purpose of this trip was defeated. I went back to the reservation desk and realized that the same set of people had been working on the counters continuously. They were still managing people and their emotions with the same empathy and politeness. This was a big example of commitment and integrity at work and indeed an inspiration. Hats off to the people who work for Aviation industry and mostly are at the receiving end by customers in situations like these. I realized that day that life is equally tough for them and this article is my small effort to recognize their exceptional level of service orientation towards customers.

#LeadershipTrails