On Cloud Nine ??!! - Part Two

Long back I had promised to write about my return trip from Bombay. My second trip onboard an airplane. Ironically, my first experience of an airplane, was with Kingfisher Airlines, which was smooth. Usually, the first time is the scariest and usually turns out to be the worst. On the contrary, my return journey was sickening comparing the onward. My return flight was booked with Indian Airlines. Being a soft skills trainer, your time is never yours when you train. We were training in Bombay that day. Hours flew by and it was time for us to leave the session. We had to excuse ourselves early (we were attending a train the trainer, thankfully) and flew out of the room to change from the encumbering saris to comfortable jeans. We practically ran out of the building at 6.30pm to catch an 8pm flight, which normally we are expected to check in by 7pm.

The driver of the rick that we took, unfortunately, didn’t know his way around the city and got lost in the traffic. When we finally landed up at the airport, the time was 7.30pm. We ran all the way to the counter, got our boarding passes and crossed security check at record time. We reached the boarding gate (which was displayed on the board next to our flight number), gasping and puffing at 7.55pm and were informed that the flight was delayed by two hours and would leave only at 10pm. Surprisingly this information was not given to us anywhere, while we were making our frenzied way to the boarding gate.

Cursing the whole airline system under our breaths, we made our way to the waiting room seats. Not wanting to lug our bags around through security check again, my friend and I took turns using the bathroom and grabbing some dinner. Each time, we went through the security check to get our dinner and back in, we were persuaded by the now-ever-so-caring security guards to wait outside, since the flight was delayed. Both of us took turns informing them, that there was a friend waiting with our bags downstairs. Eventually, I went and got my friend and myself, a pair of books to keep us occupied. Finally, the boarding was announced at 10.30pm (half hour late still...) and we waited another fifteen minutes only to escape the manic crowd pushing and prodding each other past the boarding gate.

Finally, we got ourselves into our seats at 11pm. Ever had the feeling, when you are really tired, when everything starts seeming mighty funny. We were so tired, that’s what happened to the two of us. We were laughing like idiots at every small thing we came across. The flight instructions, the cute attendant who was staring at my friend everything threw us in fits of laughter. This made the attendant, so uncomfortable, that he actually asked if something was the matter. We laughed our heads off for that question too, shaking our heads for his question. Finally dinner arrived. Indian Airlines food is always known of as the worst in the airline industry and I saw for a fact that they stuck to their reputation. We were sick of it by the time we were through the stale chapatti and dry food.

Dessert, we found was a black round ball we couldn’t identify. A small bite of it and I realized it was a Gulab-jamun (A Bengali sweet). But it was so hard; it could easily pass off for a cork ball. I was so annoyed with the service (showing attitude already on my second time on a flight!!) that I called the cute attendant who kept staring at my friend and actually requested him to throw the sweet against the window. He looks at me puzzled. I told him I wanted to see if it actually bounced, since it surely resembled a cork ball. The attendant, embarrassed, explained that it was Taj caterers (one of the best caterers in India) who provided the food. But it was still so bad. So he excused himself. The rest of the journey was pretty much uneventful, except for my friend snoring loudly on my shoulder and the cute attendant, sitting across the aisle and staring at her.

We got off the flight at 12.30pm, got into our respective vehicles and waved ourselves off. Since then I have travelled plenty of times on a flight. But these first two times, will always remain in my memory. It is probably, the best in-flight experience I have had. In memoriam of the good times I had, as the Kingfisher Slogan goes.

For the Good times !!