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…
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!!
- The 15 minute walk to the Boarding Gates left me out of breath despite the walkalators.
- 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!!
- 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.
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.- Finally completed reading all the stories of Urban Shots. The stories are short, crisp and refreshing. A sure must read!
- 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.
9 Responses
Super at 1st, awesome at 4th, Glad you liked the stories @9th and ROFL at the 10th 🙂
real life Reliance card Ad what is that 🙂
If the guy was talking so loud I would have myself gone upto him takne my phone out and started shouting at the PHONE I am sure he would have got the hint…
🙂
so you went to leh wow
excellenteeee 🙂
Bikram’s
If one keeps the eyes and ears open while travelling, one might learn more things than learned while in school!
Crisp post as usual.
Travel is an experience where one experiences the most.We Indians are normally loud while talking and more so when on the phone.
The picture is so beautiful.
#1 I am so glad that the officials told those babus to go back to the queue – a little effort to control the bossy nature of these babus. 🙂
#4 Keep buying more and more….and read more and more. 🙂
#6 Total LOL !!! But arent mobiles banned from being used inside the aircraft ???
#7 Lovely lovely pic…. 🙂
Nice reading ur Ten on Tuesdays… 🙂
You have an eye that captures such interesting snippets of everyday life 🙂
As for patience, I think that is part of Indian culture. We cannot wait in queue, we demand preferential treatment as our birth right, and we have the bl00dy gall to say we are ‘cultured people’.
kudos to that lady!!
@ Prats: 🙂
@ Bikramjit : That’s an advertisement shown on TV for Reliance Datacard, where a lady is in so much of a hurry to de-board, that she kept on pushing the guy in front of him!
Ah, wish somebody could do that!! Just came back from the Leh airport 🙁
@ Anil : Oh yes, there are plenty of things to observe and learn and especially if blogging is constantly on your mind! 😀
@ BK Chowla : Thanks Mr. Chowla. Even observing people around while you are waiting in the lounge is a good fun time pass. I don’t know, but why do we do that?? I wonder!!
@ UmaS : #6 : That guy was talking before take off and then during stop-over at Leh.
Thanks 🙂
@ Writerzblock : Thanks… there is so much to observe around. Oh yes, just the other day, I was standing in a queue and a man comes from behind, without his turn and asks for the ticket… I wonder what he was thinking?? The others in the queue were bored of standing elsewhere so they stood in the queue before the booking window?? Irritating and weird characters!
@ Reema : Yeah, I liked her attitude too!