It was the day of quitting Singapore. Last day of all - visa, phone number, roomie culture, Singapore pals and the brilliant phase. With mixed feelings, the airport was reached. Early check-in made the extra luggage pass through. Couple of friends who came in to send off had this idea to dine at the airport so a Thai restaurant was finalized on another terminal of the airport having a whopping 10-minute sky train ride.

90 minutes to boarding: Got a table after a 15-minute stint and ordered Mango Salad and Pineapple Fried Rice. The delay chain began from there. The waiter made a mess of inter-changing dishes across tables and took longer time to get our dishes than expected. Few hurry-up warnings made us gobble up faster. The clock started to look like a timer.

20 minutes to boarding: Friend paid and we all ran through the terminal for the sky train platform. Waiting time of 4 minutes sounded horrendous. To keep up the suspense in parallel, a common friend boarded the same flight I was boarding in and he gave a call, "Gate Boarding". Panic began. The sky train reached the terminal and I literally ran to the departure entry.

5 minutes to boarding: After that marathon, came the final immigration. And the group shift completed right at the time I stood in front of the counter!  Which meant one more delay. Fortunately, I was able to convince that guy to sit back and finish my procedures. He searched for my name and to my shock, the computer didn't show up any records!! Now tension quadrupled - flight was being missed and I didn't had one extra day of visa to stay back. Strangely, luck played it's part right there and my name popped up on his screen and he permitted to depart with that seal.

0 minutes to boarding: LAST CALL!! Tension now started to rise exponentially. There's no looking back now, not even as an option. If the flight departs before I sneak through the baggage check, I cannot even get out of the terminal as my visa was expiring in 30 minutes! Plus, the airport is so huge, I started to run on the wrong side of the exchange to mess up further!! Realized how a person gets into real, solid panic state. A line of shops and two 200 metres-long pathway between me and the gate looked like a track circuit with me behaving like Usain Bolt. The standard 12-minute walk converted into an exact 2.5 minute run.

-5 minutes to boarding: I thought I had missed the flight by now and entered the gate with a small hope and gushes of sweat and pain. The lady smiled to see me entering as the last guy before announcing that "Gate Closed" announcement. Not to forget the 10 kg cabin luggage on my back during this entire process.

Phew! Those last few minutes of that day can never be forgotten neither would be forgiven.

I should stop believing in luck now.