28th July - Pune to Delhi.

It was a crisp, cool morning when we started our much awaited journey. 9 of us (all of us are first or second cousins, and live in the same city) flew from Pune to Delhi on SpiceJet flight SG-204. Since the bookings were done almost 2 months in advance, we got good deals on round trip tickets. 2 other friends would fly from Mumbai to join us at Delhi.
I'd tried to reduce my luggage as much as possible. I still ended up with a haversack that weighed a ton and wore six-pocket cargoes with all six pockets bulging. I didn't want to go to the hassle of a cabin bag, so I stuffed a few necessities in my pockets. Little did I know I was just inviting trouble.
At the baggage check, I suddenly had a premonition. As my sack went into the scanner, I thought, They're going to ask me to open my sack. Because I had about 1 kg of Glucon-D packed in a ziplock, and it was surely going to look like heroin or cocaine on x-ray. Oh God! And sure enough, the official called out, "Whose bag is this?" Oh, the blue and black haversack? Well sir, that's mine. "Could you open it, please?" Sure, I love packing and unpacking and repacking.
I asked him anyway, "Is there a problem with my bag?" He called me to the scanner and asked me "What's this?" I turned to look, fully expecting my bag of heroin, I mean Glucon-D, to be displayed. Instead he showed me a weird shape like a bottle with a nozzle. Huh? "Is that hairspray?" Hairspray?On a trek? My cosmetics were tooth paste, tooth brush, bath soap, sunscreen and lip balm. Period. No, no, that wasn't hair spray. He then looked at me a little closely and asked, "Are you carrying vodka, ma'm?" Vodka! Me, a poor teetotaler! I racked my brains , but just couldn't remember packing anything that looked like that.
Then he asked a magic question, "Is that an oxygen cylinder?" Eureka! It was indeed an oxygen cylinder. With 2 senior members in the team and the trek reaching altitudes close to 5000m, it seemed prudent to carry an oxygen cylinder as precaution. Being an orthopaedic surgeon, my husband had procured one and packed it in my sack.
To cut a long story short, it was left behind at the Pune airport. It is pressurized oxygen, and not safe to carry on board a plane. Lesson 1: If you need to carry an oxygen canister, pick it up later in Delhi.
At the security check, everybody cleared the gates quickly. I entered the enclosure and didn't emerge for about 3 mins. My cousins gathered at the other end. Where has she gone? Well, I was asked to empty every single one of those bulging six pockets, and each item was scrutinized carefully. Lesson 2: It is better to carry a few items in a small bag rather than stuffing them in your pockets to keep your hands free.
The rest of the journey was uneventful and we reached Delhi at about 10:30 AM. In the evening we would catch the Ranikhet Express to Kathgodam in Uttaranchal.