Ten on Tuesday – 9

Ten Things That Happened During My Recent Flight
Last week, I had to fly from Delhi to Jammu for a workshop at Patnitop.
My colleague and I were taking the Kingfisher Red flight which took off from Delhi T3 terminal and was heading towards Jammu via Leh! And this was one eventful journey. How?? Why??… Read on…
  1. While we were waiting in a queue for the Check-in process, 2 government babu kind of officials removed the barricade strips and along with them entered 2 elderly guys who went directly to the check in counter, ignoring the long Z shaped queue of passengers. A smart Kingfisher Red official immediately asked them to go back in the queue and reprimanded them for breaking the barricade. But our ‘Babus’ flashed their ID cards. Not to be intimidated by their rank or department, the lady was pretty assertive. And then 3-4 guys also added their 2 cents along with dialogues like, “Because of you guys, India is like this!!… blah blah… The Babus had to go back in the queue. And there were smirks all around.
  2. During her interaction with the passengers, the Kingfisher Red official found that the elderly gentleman ( looked like a first timer) standing just behind me was late for his flight and the check-in counter had already closed for that flight. The poor guy was asked to re-book his flight. I hope, he didn’t had to pay any extra amount.
  3. While, we were having our breakfast in the swanky T3 lounge, the 2 housekeeping ladies were busy chatting as they sat in a corner, on the floor, hidden, among the tables and chairs.  
  4. The most satisfying early morning shopping experience was at the book store. Some books were on a special offer… Buy 1 Get 1 FREE!! Bought 4 books for just Rs 390!! 
  5. The 15 minute walk to the Boarding Gates left me out of breath despite the walkalators.
  6. As soon as we made ourselves comfortable in the aircraft, we heard a co-passenger talking loudly and vehemently on his mobile. It was the most ridiculous and hilarious conversation I came across in recent times. Here’s the gist of the conversation. It happened so that he had to meet somebody important from his company at 10 am at Jammu. Now, the landing time of the flight was 11.35 am, which he realized after entering the aircraft.  So, he was busy allegating the travel agent and the admin guy that they had not informed him about the flight’s stopover at Leh. So, now since the flight was going via Leh, he wouldn’t be able to make it for the meeting. And this he kept on saying again and again to the guy on the other end.  Now my 2 cents on this idiotic conversation…OK, it’s possible that the travel agent and Admin guy didn’t inform him of the stopover at Leh, but it’s clearly mentioned on the ticket about the departure and arrival time along with total duration of the journey and also that it’s a 1-stop journey.Was he meeting some Ratan Tata or Barack Obama that the meeting couldn’t be postponed?? Looks like the guy at the other end was equally dumb for he couldn’t point out the loophole in his tirade!! And he continued his silly conversation even during the stopover at Leh!! Phew!!
  7. We flew up above the snow capped mountains! As far as the eyes could see from the aircraft window, it was just snow covered mountains with clear blue sky for quite some time! It was an amazing view.
  8. While the flight stopped at Leh for de-boarding and boarding of passengers, I wished, if I could de-board at Leh too and spend some more days in the enchanting and mesmerizing Leh. Remembered the week long holidays we had at Ladakh in 2009.
  9. Finally completed reading all the stories of Urban Shots. The stories are short, crisp and refreshing. A sure must read!
  10. It was time to de-board and patience was one virtue that people lacked completely. Everybody wanted to de-plane first and a real life replay of Reliance data card advertisement took place.

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