Pushpak Viman Chronicles
If you are a frequent flyer, there
are certain things one cannot help but notice about the way people behave in an
airport and on board a flight. The pattern is so obvious that one has to be
blind to not make a note of it.
Let us begin with the airports. The
first rush is to screen the baggage. Once the baggage is screened, we move to
the check in counters. Many a time, this turns out to be a long winding queue.
Some of us who are not used to standing in a disciplined queue make the
frustration obvious by making random remarks. Most questions are rhetoric. “Why
aren’t all the counters open?”, “Are the staff on leave?”, “Do they know what
customer service is!” and it goes on and on. The person standing at the front
of queue is in an LOC kind of a spot. He/she needs to be really alert and go in
to the next counter which becomes free. Delay it by a second and the people
standing behind you will start producing random sounds and rhetoric like the
ones we saw above.
At the counter, the overworked –
exhausted ground staff gives you a forced smile and a welcome greeting. If one
is carrying excess baggage, one should pay for it. Instead what do we do?
Random rhetoric comes here again “This is not the first time I am flying!”. “I
am never flying by your airline again!”. During boarding, the ground staff
announce clearly that the rows at the back need to board first so that there is
less congestion inside the aircraft. But who are they kidding? Everyone from
rows 1 to 16 will be at the counter demanding to get in first, shouting and arguing
with them.
More interesting things happen
inside the aircraft. This starts with NOT greeting the cabin crew at the door.
Again the over worked – exhausted cabin crew greets each and every passenger at
the door. Most of us don’t even have the courtesy to look at them. Now starts
the efforts to place the cabin baggage. Ideally, one should quickly place it in
the overhead cabin and take one’s seat. But no! We take our own sweet time,
place the bag exactly above our head and then look around and stand in the way!
After getting everyone seated just when the cabin crew get ready for safety
briefing, we feel thirsty and if the water is not served in the next 10
seconds, starts the rhetoric again!
The safety briefing is the most
futile exercise I have ever seen. Right at that moment, many of us get occupied
like never before. Some of us will be reading the newspaper or a book, others
will be busy with the cellphones and some will look anywhere else but towards
the person doing the safety briefing. The underlying vibe here is that I am a
frequent flyer and I need not listen to the briefing! Don’t even get me started
with the food and beverage being served. Yes I agree that most of it is so
synthetic that you don’t feel like even chewing them let alone enjoy the taste.
But there is a menu card and these are the only options available. Why should
one start enquiring about the spread as if it were a 5 star restaurant buffet? Then
there are some people who would want to visit the wash room exactly during take off
and landing. I do not know what adrenalin rush they get from doing this!
The funniest part comes during the
landing. The moment an aircraft lands, people get up as if they are poked from
beneath the seats! They start opening the overhead cabin and pulling the bags
with absolutely no concern if the baggage is hitting an elderly person nearby
or a child. Everyone knows that the door will open only after a while and until
and unless people in the front rows get out, people in the subsequent rows
cannot move. But no, neither will they sit down nor will they stop taking out
their bags. You might think they are trying to save time. But these people have
to go and stand at the baggage belt till their bags arrive. However fast these
people arrive there, it takes some time for the baggage to reach the belt from
the aircraft. Not to mention, ignoring the cabin crew who thank us continues
during exiting the aircraft also.
We do all this and wonder why the
foreigners look down on us at the airports!
Haha, good observation, except I think these behaviours aren't exclusively of Indian flyers. Flyers across the world do act in similiar fashion. So this shouldn't be a reason for foreigners to look down on us.;) ;)
ReplyDeleteHowever ignoring the greeting part does seem an exclusive Indian act, because atleast I have seen other nationals respond very politely to the crew when they greet.So is the case with foreign crew, I do think they are more pleasant, polite and welcoming than most of the Indian crews I flew with.