"Geetu, are you sure you can manage? Travelling alone..especially to another country, I wish we had some relatives in Turkey, they would have looked after you and made the stay so very comfortable."
 
" Maaaaaaa....I can handle it..after all I am 25 years of age now !!" Geeta whined.
 
" Thats why my dear, thats why..." Ma continued with a furrowed forehead.
 
" Dad, I'll miss my flight, Ma has been going on like this for the last one week and if I let her continue, I sure won't be going anywhere apart from Nana's village alone, please drop me to the airport. After all, what is there to worry?, it is a 5 day official trip, will reach on monday, presentation is on tuesday and the next three days I'll sightsee the beautiful Istanbul and then back to home sweet home. All the reservations are confirmed, and the hotel has promised to send a car to the airport as well. Trust me it will be fine."
 
" If you got to go, you got to go." dad said in his usual philosophical tone and dropped Geeta to airport.
 
Geeta thought to herself, "If I had even given them the tiniest indication that my hotel reservation was confirmed only for a couple of days, then I certainly would not have made anywhere apart from nanu's house".
 
She gleamed with excitement as the flight took off. It always gave her a high to fly without wings.
She couldnt wait for the unravelling of the coming few days....
 
If only she knew...
 
Thankfully, the flight landed safely on Turkish soil and Geeta came out to the entrance, her eyes eagerly searching for the car from the hotel. No sign."Well, let me give them another 15 minutes, if still no sign, Ill give the hotel a buzz," she thought.
 
Fifteen minutes turned into twenty, then twenty five, finally half an hour. "Okay enough is enough, I better give them a ring". It took ages to find a booth and when she did, the chap in front of her, a tall middle aged pot bellied caucasian was rambling about how he had just lost his credit card while trying to make a phone call.
 
Lesson one, Geeta thought..."I better use coins"...which she took a few minutes to find from her oversized handbag stuffed with a big wallet, camera, cell, combs, cosmetics, address book, shades box...and finally, after much juggling around found some coins.
 
Next, time to look for the phone number...she skimmed through her address book and found the name.. Hotel Intercontinental. " Great, atleast I found the number." Thinking so, she dialled the number given on the card.
 
" Hellooo...Hotel Intercontinental. Eijaz at your service" a young male voice at the other end said.
 
" Well, you havent been of any service, I was told that a car will come and pick me up from airport to take me to the hotel and I have been waiting for an hour now." Geeta fumed with tiredness.
 
" I am sorry Madam, you have hotel reservation??...in Intercontinental ?? for today ?? "
 
" Then what !!!  in the name of Geeta Rao." she said totally frustrated now.

"Let me check Madam, one moment please, aaahhh, yez yez Mizz Rao...ok, you can come now...the room is ready for you." the man at the other end continued in a soft voice totally oblivious to Geeta's irritation.
 
" But, you haven't sent the car yet, Can somebody do that please? I'll wait by the entrance." she tried to calm down.
 
" Aaahhh !! you want a taxi to the airport ? I can send you one if you like, but it will take longer you see. Why dont you take a taxi at the airport and come over to our hotel. It will be quicker and cheaper." She could hear Eijaz sounding very happy with himself thinking he was trying to save her some money.
 
" But what about the hotel car? " Geeta asked totally out of wits now. " Aaah!!!  " he said. " I'll kill him if he carries on with his aaahhs one more time" thought Geeta but she was helpless and he continued " Aaahhh, we don't do car service to airport, you will have to take taxi madam."
 
Lesson two, not to book any tickets through that damn pawn chewing, yellow stained teeth agent near her house.
 
A new place, the chap was taking twice the amount of time to understand every sentence she was uttering, she decided to end the matter there. She slammed the phone down, bought a map of the city, hopped into a taxi and began her journey through the lanes of Istanbul.
 
"This is not going well" she worried " I don't know what lies ahead." but the drive through the lanes, the Marmara sea, the colourful streets cheered her up and she gradually relaxed and felt better.
 
It took her a good 40 minutes through the traffic which was worse than that in Hyderabad to reach her hotel. Atleast the hotel looked very nice. A saving grace, she thought.
 
" Mizz Rao?? Welcome to Intercontinental !!!...are you travelling alone?" an unneccesary grin on his face, she recognised the chap to be the same one who was on the phone.
"Yes, I am...I have reservation only for two days ...would you be able to extend it till friday please" She tried to flash her best smile hoping of hopes the magic would work..
 
" Let me see Mizz Rao...aahhh...we can do for thursday and friday, but I am sorry the hotel is fully booked for wednesday, so you will have to find somewhere else for wednesday, I can reserve for thursday and friday if you want. Do you?" Geeta nodded " Cant you do something for wednesday? Pleeeeasssssseeeee." she flashed her most seductive smile.
 
" I will try Mizz Rao, will let you know by tomorrow afternoon."  she thanked him.
 
The hotel room was nice with a good view towards the Topkapi palace. After relaxing for a while Geeta completed the final touches to her presentation and slept. The next morning was beautiful and sunny. Geeta devoured on every morsel of the breakfast and the Turkish coffee. She dressed in a smart black suit, the only jewellery being a pair of black studs on her ears, brushed her hair, a light touch of make up and she was ready.
 
The walk to the conference hall took her 10 minutes. She registered and skimmed through the list. Her turn was in an hour's time. She relaxed and looked around the room. Around seventy people from different countries were gathered there. She looked closely again. Very few women, maybe around ten to fifteen. She looked again, this time she realised that she was possibly the youngest there.
 
She took a deep breath and tried to control her nerves. Soon her turn came, the initial few seconds she trembled but, as she went through her presentation, she relaxed further. This was her baby, she knew it in and out and she had worked on it for the last 2 years. It took her 10 minutes to complete her talk, there was a strong round of applause and a few questions that were fired on her, which she answered gracefully and the ordeal was over. She had successfully done her first international presentation at the age of 25 years. She was proud.
 
A few moments later, she walked out free wanting to taste the life of Istanbul. As she put her shades and walked along, she saw a few good hotels, she went to each one of them to enquire about a possible availability of a room for wednesday. The whole city was filled with tourists attending various conferences, the answer was NO everywhere.
 
Alarm bells started ringing in her head, " what if ", " what if I dont find a place for wednesday, I better sort this out first." Thinking so she went back to her hotel after grabbing a quick bite.
 
On reaching the hotel, she asked at the concierge if any new developments had taken place. Eijaz promised her that something will definitely turn up by the next morning as some guests were planning to leave.

She could not do anything apart from wait as she had called a few more hotels and nothing was available anywhere. She spent the evening sampling Turkish cuisine, a drive through the sea and looking for more hotels. The only place available was an executive suite in a 5 star hotel which would have put a major hole in her pocket. She decided to wait for the Intercontinental to come up with something.
 
Next morning Eijaz, the young man was stationed again at the reception desk. He smiled and informed her that although there were no rooms available in this hotel, one of thier other branches about 30 miles from the city had some. He asked her if she would be interested.
 
Geeta gladly agreed and gave a huge sigh of relief. At that moment if Eijaz had asked her for a hug, she would have given it, she felt so elated. Eijaz informed her that this particular branch would not have the room available until 2100hrs in the evening. He suggested she take one of the guided tours that the hotel organised and to return to hotel after dinner to pick her luggage and go to the other branch by taxi.
 
She agreed without blinking her eyes twice. Eijaz also told her that he will not be around at the reception desk in the evening but he would leave a message for his colleague who will be taking over from him about all the details.
 
Within half an hour, she was on her way touring the different places in the city, absolutely relieved she relished every moment of the trip. After having a quiet dinner at one of the small restaurants nearby, she returned to the hotel at 2000hrs.
 
Obviously, she didnt expect Eijaz to be there. It was Ahmed another young man at the desk. She asked him to book a taxi so that she could reach the branch of Intercontinental in Taksim area as Eijaz had confirmed her reservation there. Within a few minutes the taxi arrived and Geeta was on her way to Taksim. The cab driver tried to make some simple conversation with her but it was difficult to understand him as he was conversing in the local language and could not speak english.
 
It took them an hour to reach the hotel and Geeta explained to the gentleman at desk that she had arrived from the other Intercontinental for an overnight stay here. The gentleman at the desk gave her a confused look. She explained the whole story again.
At this the man at the desk looked through his register and said they were not aware of her. She was shocked, " I am sure Eijaz must have explained everything to you, I need one room for overnight stay." He said they were fully booked. " Any room, small or big however expensive would do" she sounded desperate and anxious.
 
He said there was absolutely nothing.
 
It was 2300 hrs now and Geeta was angry and frightened. Her inexperience in such matters showed. She was trying to work out whether to plead with him or create a big scene to help her out some way. She decided to plead first, " Please help me out, I am travelling alone, where will I go at this time of the night ?? " He was totally not interested, " I am sorry Mizz, there is no way I can help. We are fully booked. You will have to go somewhere else."
 
His disinterest made Geeta try for the second route, " I would have definitely gone somewhere else, but one of your colleagues at the other hotel convinced me that you have rooms and that he has booked it for me. Now, if you have given my room to someone else, you are responsible for it and I AM not leaving here. You have to make some alternate arrangements now. Is this how you treat a woman who is travelling alone at this time of the night, I am sorry,but this is totally unacceptable." Her heart was in her mouth hoping this anger would work, praying he would create some magic and a room will become available. She knew he was helpless, but for her safety she had to disguise her desperation as anger.
 
The man shook his head exaggeratedly " I really don't have anything, what can I do?" Geeta knew she had no choice, but, she decided to give one final go bringing in as much rage as she could onto her face " FINE....., if you give me a room great!!!, OTHERWISE I am spending the night here at reception and I wont leave you or Eijaz in peace tomorrow morning."

He raised his arms up in the air helplessly and asked Geeta to sit down. He offered her turkish coffee which she politely refused.
Then, that unnamed man started making phone calls through the city hotels trying through his inside network. After about 20 phone calls he managed to find a place for her a few miles from the Intercontinental where she had stayed the previous two nights. She cursed under her breath, it just had to be a bad night for her. All the while there was something available nearby and she had been on a ride through the whole city.
 
She accepted and made him write all the details on the hotel card and took his name, "Mohammed " he said. She smiled for the first time and thanked him like never before in her life. The taxi driver who had dropped Geeta was still there enjoying the whole drama and he was willing to take her to this another hotel.
 
Without further hindrance, she landed safely at the new hotel at 0100 am on thursday and slept.
 
The next couple of days she visited all the places in Istanbul, shopped for spices in the spice bazaar for her mother, bought plenty of famous Turkish painted pottery and finally landed in Hyderabad airport.
 
She waved to her parents who were waiting to take her home.
 
"Was the trip good Geeta, you did not have any trouble, did you? " Ma inquired.
 
"No Ma, it was wonderful..the people there are so helpful." Geeta chuckled with a twinkle in her eye.
 

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