Up, Up and Away!

 Not sure whether we can call it as post-covid yet or new world for that matter. Maybe current times would be a good start. The corporate world had frozen the travels for a while and the official ones had become a rarity. The taxi to pick me up came right on time as expected, triggering the start of an official trip. As usual I had managed to pack more than required for a one day trip, almost competent for a week. A morning drive to Bangalore airport was very relaxing and had a meditating effect. This is an unspoken local secret, to be experienced only if you manage to travel before the traffic settles otherwise notorious Bangalore roads. 

Before we get into the adventure, you need to be mindful about the not so exciting previous night. Indigo had promptly informed to do an online check-in and generate the boarding pass which I obliged without any challenge. However I assumed it is to avoid queueing in the airport, also for a fast drop out of baggage and I was proved right by the BLR airport. The airline had assumed that most travelers would have a printer at home to print the baggage ticket which might be not true. Still they managed to keep really responsive and quick systems in airport to bring the baggage slip before the baggage drop. Interestingly there was no difference in the length of the queue prior to covid times now that the queue was called baggage drop queue versus previously famous boarding pass one. There were quite a few people who did not know that instead of total kilograms the units of boxes is what is along restricted to one. It was a healthy debate in the baggage drop counters which eventually the passengers managing to win considering the length of the queue the staff gave up. This habit of people really has the potential to build up the queue and delay at least few flights.

After completing the baggage drop, the security check really was more interesting considering they needed us to now take out the laptop charger also from the bag along with the laptop. I was really wondering the use of this step but complying is the easiest way to proceed other than delaying your boarding with any sort of argument considering logic is not the strong point in this case but following process laid out by someone who would probably get a skip for this sort of check whenever they need to travel. I saw some of the passengers being asked to remove the shoes so that the stink of the reused socks can bless the air in the airport for the following 10Mins. Not sure why the world of technology is not improving to a level to avoid such troubles caused to millions of passengers on a daily basis. There was mandatory social distancing to enter the airport and that was it, rest all it was the distance that socially accepted in India which is one fist distance versus one hand in rest of the world. Let's blame it on the overpopulation for the moment for lack of better reason. I was wondering what was the last time they caught anything hidden inside a laptop or laptop charger or mobile charger(yes, it is the new addition to the list of funny thing screened). Every passenger complied to this ragging to avoid any delays to their travel. The intention might be good for security of the country but maybe time to devise better methods worldwide with more people travelling.

When I reached the terminal and gate, it was flooded with people mimicking the Majestic bus station of Bangalore. I really started thinking are we sure that these many passengers would be traveling this early to Delhi? At 7 a.m., the KFC store was very actively feeding the regular chicken burger breakfast to Indians. Some of them also was getting milk shakes with a froth of whipped cream to brush their teeth while waiting for the bus. Now that was not accident to call it the bus, the bus is what picks us up from the gate to the plane. Maybe its cost cutting or reducing traffic or really COVID effect. The bus crowded with people kept running through the runways for a long time before reaching the plane. The passengers in the bus had started to fear that they booked a bus to Delhi accidentally considering the distance it was running. I had to enjoy the bus ride longer as the doors opened only after other 4 bus load of people had boarded the flight. I managed to still reach on time, as usual the cabin baggage storage was flooded with valise with no owners around. Finally I got lucky the space under my front seat was empty and it was left for me to use. 

The airhostess came for their rounds requesting the group to follow the guidelines as usual. The crowd seems to be young and educated whom in reality didn't need to be reminded of the things to do. It was strange to find that a young lady on the opposite side of mine was busy playing music and refreshing instagram and whatsapp. Meanwhile the flight had started and took off, the lady seems to be successful in hiding it from the air-hostess who tried their best to pour sense into the deaf ears of the group. Don't mistake I could read anything on the phone, but if I wished I could and that is how close our seats are in the flight which are busy loading with bus loads of people. It led to me thinking about our hands which are glued to the phones and the eyes which are always peeping through the social lives of everyone around us. Few of the fellow passengers surveying the instagram zooming every detail of a person and their dresses made me wonder, is this to be done at the expense of safety risk to other passengers? Couldn't this wait until we land? Is this really the most important thing to check during the flight? Most of the celebrities who are busy showing nakedness in instagram really matter to us more than our lives? I wish I could have responded strongly but how could I prove they are using phone made me stay away from it all and just pray for a safe flight. Really people wishing to have a safe flight made more sense due to such passengers around us.

The old Indian habit of switching seats had begun in one end and many of them were in new seats which didn't belong to them. I heard one of the newest excuses for not switching a seat between two strangers. One of them mentioned they had paid extra to book that particular seat and aisle one. If he wish to switch, please pay Rs.1000 in cash. This action was not so popular as one of co-passengers of the one who needed the switched seat said, you keep moving around and make him stand-up everytime and he will only give the seat to you. Now who said Indians are not good at problem solving?

There was an interesting group of old folks(approx 50 of them) probably traveling to some holy place in the North, they kept doing video calls even during the take off and was showing who are the co-passengers and the take off itself. The air-hostess tried to reason with them without much success. The lights were turned off and I decided to take a nap. But the constant nagging about some family issues between passengers kept falling on my ears. Yes, I could have ignored it if at all it the volume was much lower but unfortunately my remote to lower the volume was with air-hostess. I request the cabin crew to help me with it and their suggestions to the fellow passenger aunties led to a school like situation where we keep quiet while teacher is around. I had to give up on the idea of sleeping during the flight and enjoy the saas-bahu story telecasting live on the radio on my right ear. Few of the charismatic travelers had brought missed to put the seat belts and decided to park it one of top of another to avoid air-hostess catching. They were not very happy if we tried to explain or help them how to put it. They found it inconvenient and often compared to the car seat belt which they avoid even if life is at stake. While landing the pilot and cabin crew had announced to be seated until we stop the plane. This actually was the trigger point for everyone to stand up and start pulling out their cabin baggages. The cabin crew tried to stop few which led to killer stares and they had to let go so the passengers don't create a ruckus there. Some of our mobile savvy passengers had already started the mobile and started their video calls to show family the landing in Delhi airport. One of the sensible kid on the other side was saying their old mom to not do that for which mom replied until they ask to stop, it is allowed and we don't need to worry. 

The pick-up bus was waiting to offload us into the terminals to collect the baggage to complete the journey. After the eventful flight, this was a very relaxing ride back to the terminal. The ones glued to phones continued to be on phone without realizing the world around them. The ones with endless home drama stories extended it to bus with the same vigour for others delight. The ones with natural distate to civic sense, continued littering resourcefully. The ones with never ending curiousity to stare at fellow lady passengers continued their browsing. Many had started to arrange their ubers for pick-up to enter headstrong into the busy lives of theirs. We all are so alike that we try to find differences so hard and ultimately relish being thought as special. I felt I had a bit of everyone in me and wished we strive to get better for the benefit of this society if not for us!