Stroke of luck

I am writing this blog from a small town called Dollard-des-Ormeaux, 20-km from Montreal in the Quebec Province, Canada. Arrived here today afternoon from Frankfurt. At the Montreal airport I was surprised by the fact that there were hardly any queues at the immigration section or for that matter of passengers at the baggage section in the arrival hall. It was quite an unusual scene for this airport but I thought that probably the afternoons were a lean period.

Later, after coming out of the airport I heard about the volcano in Iceland and realised that the Air Canada flight which brought me to Montreal was one of the last flights to take off from whole of Europe since all major airports across Europe had cancelled nearly 5000 flights due to the effect of the volcanic ash from Iceland.

I thanked God for the divine stroke of luck. I would have otherwise been stranded at the Frankfurt airport. Also, had the flight been 20 to 30 minutes late, it would have been impossible to cross the Atlantic because of the volcanic cloud spread and I would have probably been stranded somewhere else without any clue. Incidents like these reinforce our belief in the element of luck in our life.

The last time when I was here it was February and this part of the world was fully covered in snow. I have never seen such snow cover earlier in my life and it was a unique experience (picture). The temperature was minus 10 to minus 20 and I had to buy snow boots and jackets on arrival.

However, this time of the year there is no snow with the city getting the first feel of the welcoming spring – the best time of the year here.

Tomorrow I would leave for Burlington – a small town across the border in USA for a weekend.

ess bee