No Flight Plight
22 April 2010--We drove for many hours across Latvia and Estonia yesterday to catch a boat in Tallinn, Estonia that would take us across the Gulf of Finland to Helsinki. From Helsinki we were scheduled to fly this morning to Amsterdam from where we were to catch a flight to the USA.
After reaching Tallinn, before getting on the boat, I called Delta Airlines, the airline which had issued our tickets, to make sure that our flight would operate as scheduled. I wanted to make sure that we were not taking a two hour cruise across the Gulf of Finland in vain. I was told by the Delta representative that our flights would operate as scheduled. But to make doubly sure I decided to check with KLM, the operator of our first flight. The difficulty was that I could not, no matter which KLM office I called, talk to a live person. I tried their home office in Amsterdam five times. There was no answer and I was disconnected. I tried their office in the UK. Again, no answer and I was disconnected after a recorded message told me to look on the internet. I did not trust the internet information because one place on KLM's website indicated that my flight would operate as scheduled and another place indicated that it would not. I really needed to talk to a live person, something that is becoming more and more difficult in our highly technological age!
Finally when I tried the KLM office in Helsinki I was put on hold without being disconnected. This gave me hope that I might be able to speak to someone. Finally after an hour a polite gentleman from KLM came on the line. When I asked him about our flight he said that it had been cancelled. This was really uncanny because every other flight that day from Helsinki was operating as scheduled except for one flight. As fate would have it that one cancelled flight happened to be our flight.
"What to do now?"
I called Delta and was able to schedule a flight for next week. Where to stay? The best option was the Hare Krishna temple in Riga where I had just concluded a lecture series on how to achieve unlimited happiness through the amazing transcendental science of Krishna consciousness. We phoned Hrisikesh Prabhu, the temple president there, to see if I could extend the lecture series and got his approval. Now we had a long highway journey across Estonia and Latvia to get back to Riga. When we finally reached Latvia I checked my watch. We had spent twelve hours on the road and had gotten nowhere but back to point from where we had started at 6 o'clock in the morning.
The wonderful thing is that in spite of all this turmoil I can remain blissful always remembering that everything is happening according to the all-merciful plans of Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Now the latest update is that the Helsinki airport has closed again due to volcanic ash. This puts into jeopardy our new flight scheduled next week. What are we going to do? We are looking for other options.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Stranded in Riga
S.S.
Pune, India
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
After reaching Tallinn, before getting on the boat, I called Delta Airlines, the airline which had issued our tickets, to make sure that our flight would operate as scheduled. I wanted to make sure that we were not taking a two hour cruise across the Gulf of Finland in vain. I was told by the Delta representative that our flights would operate as scheduled. But to make doubly sure I decided to check with KLM, the operator of our first flight. The difficulty was that I could not, no matter which KLM office I called, talk to a live person. I tried their home office in Amsterdam five times. There was no answer and I was disconnected. I tried their office in the UK. Again, no answer and I was disconnected after a recorded message told me to look on the internet. I did not trust the internet information because one place on KLM's website indicated that my flight would operate as scheduled and another place indicated that it would not. I really needed to talk to a live person, something that is becoming more and more difficult in our highly technological age!
Finally when I tried the KLM office in Helsinki I was put on hold without being disconnected. This gave me hope that I might be able to speak to someone. Finally after an hour a polite gentleman from KLM came on the line. When I asked him about our flight he said that it had been cancelled. This was really uncanny because every other flight that day from Helsinki was operating as scheduled except for one flight. As fate would have it that one cancelled flight happened to be our flight.
"What to do now?"
I called Delta and was able to schedule a flight for next week. Where to stay? The best option was the Hare Krishna temple in Riga where I had just concluded a lecture series on how to achieve unlimited happiness through the amazing transcendental science of Krishna consciousness. We phoned Hrisikesh Prabhu, the temple president there, to see if I could extend the lecture series and got his approval. Now we had a long highway journey across Estonia and Latvia to get back to Riga. When we finally reached Latvia I checked my watch. We had spent twelve hours on the road and had gotten nowhere but back to point from where we had started at 6 o'clock in the morning.
The wonderful thing is that in spite of all this turmoil I can remain blissful always remembering that everything is happening according to the all-merciful plans of Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Now the latest update is that the Helsinki airport has closed again due to volcanic ash. This puts into jeopardy our new flight scheduled next week. What are we going to do? We are looking for other options.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Stranded in Riga
Answers According to the Vedic Version:
Question: How Can My Parents Be Satisfied?
My parents are such nice souls and good human beings, however they have been always dissatisfied with each other. How can I help them?S.S.
Pune, India
Answer: Teach Them to Satisfy Krishna
Regarding your parents, they must be nice souls if they have a brought a devotee of Krishna into the world. If you can teach them the great value of trying to do everything for the satisfaction of Krishna, they will naturally be satisfied with each other and will be able to always live peacefully and happily together.Sankarshan Das Adhikari
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