First storm, then turbulence spoil New Town couple’s Sri Lanka hols
Times of India | 10 December 2025
Kolkata: What began as a long-awaited dream vacation to Sri Lanka turned into a spiralling ordeal for a septuagenarian New Town couple. From Cyclone Ditwah, airline disruptions to an exhausting train journey without the luggage, 73-year-old former banker Asit Baran Bhattacharjee and his wife Maya (71) faced it all.
The trouble began almost the moment the couple landed in Colombo on Nov 25 with 12 neighbours. Their holiday was quickly swallowed by Cyclone Ditwah, which struck northern Sri Lanka with violent winds and relentless rain.
"The storm lashed Jaffna. Roads were blocked by fallen trees, ferries were suspended, and the tour collapsed overnight," Bhattacharjee recounted. "We were stuck in our hotel rooms for four nights straight. A large part of the itinerary was wiped out," he added.
When the skies cleared, the group salvaged the rest of their tour, visiting Dambola, Kandy, and Colombo without further incident. By Dec 4, they were back on Indian soil, landing in Bengaluru — relieved that the worst seemed over. It wasn't, though. The group was scheduled to fly to Kolkata on an IndiGo flight the same evening. Their security checks were done, and their boarding passes issued. But the departure kept slipping — first by minutes, then hours, and eventually into the night. "It was close to midnight when we understood the extent of the disruption. IndiGo was cancelling flights nationwide," Bhattacharjee said. With fares on other airlines soaring to Rs 30,000, the group abandoned the idea of flying home and scrambled for train tickets. "We were lucky to find seats on a special train to Santragachhi," he added.
They attempted to retrieve their checked-in luggage — only to face another shock. "We couldn't find our bags among nearly 10,000 trolley bags piled up at the airport," he said. Airline staff assured them the luggage would be delivered to Kolkata. After a night in a nearby hotel, the couple boarded the superfast special weekly train the next morning — already delayed by several hours and jam-packed with passengers trying to return to Bengal after flight cancellations. The train finally rolled into Santragachhi at 1 am on Monday. The couple reached their New Town home by 2:30 am. Their two suitcases arrived on Monday evening. They haven't received the refunds for the cancelled flights yet.