Flying
Abroad – Fly by a Low Cost Airline – For some it’s a Party !!
Dinesh K
Kapila
We flew to a most enjoyable eleven or twelve days
holiday at Turkey around a month back. Our travel agent booked us on a low cost
airline from Delhi to Istanbul, saying this was the only option. Friends said
we would regret it. It started with a regret. The airline (Indigo) had an 11 am
flight which it just merged with a 530 am flight without even caring about our
reserved seats and well were we apprehensive.
Anyway we managed seats on the emergency section and got around it. But
I can say its all in the mind, the lack of screens or entertainment or paying
for your meals or having seats without footrests. It’s a party for some. And
the airhostesses are ever so friendly and always ready to serve up whatever
catches your fancy.
Groggy like hell, we got in for the nearly
seven hours flight. Two guys caught my attention, just in my row, across the
aisle. One was tall, lanky with a handlebar moustache, spectacled, lost in his thoughts. The middle
seat was vacant and then there was another guy, short, a smooth talker – we had
chatted a bit before boarding. Well Mr M (Mt Moustache) and Mr S (Mr Short)
were to be my way to pass time on the flight.
As the flight got underway, most of us tried to
sleep or at least just try for some closed eyes time. I could see Mt M and Mr S
were meeting for the first time and chatted a bit before take off. Then a few
minutes into the flight they got talking and kept on talking and talking all
the way upto Istanbul. It was crazy. I would open an eye and see them only
eating or talking. My son, a lawyer, LLB and LLM to boot, told me to I was
violating many laws by my quiet watching, but I had to. These guys started with
tea, then had a rava or upma each. Then after some time they had a coffee each.
It seemed they had no sleep deprivation, as they discussed politics and
business between India and Turkey, they had a sandwich each and then thirty
minutes later, a coke each. I was going crazy, definitely in their fifties,
they had to have cast iron stomachs. Then one guy got out a packet of
paronthas, he even sweet talked the air hostess into heating them up, I suppose
she had to, they were running up such a huge bill ! They even offered paronthas
to the fellow passengers in the row behind them, they just pleaded helplessness
after a meal. Well, they munched and munched and talked and talked. The piece
de resistance was ordering a box of cashew nuts before landing and apple juice,
I would love to know how they had this stamina. It was one long party for them.
And then there were others too, out of sheer boredom perhaps, they munched now
and then, but not like the two guys I just described.
Both ways, coming and going, the air hostesses
were ever so polite, correct and always ready to have a small chat. On our
outward flight, when my wife, unable to sleep,
walked up to her and asked for tea, she just gave her a freshly brewed
tea, and no charge. The carts keep moving around the aisles, there is no
stopping that. Coming and going, the passengers caught on that most
announcements of bad weather were just to make them sit, so they just ignored
them. Its an electrifying atmosphere and very very Indian, people standing
around, the carts moving around, people chatting in the aisles, near the
washrooms and in the space around the emergency exit. Well, we have a party.
On our return leg, the time being 530 pm, the
party continued nearly all the way. There was a group from Bengal, they
occupied six seats in a row and nearly competed with Mr M and Mr S of the
outward flight. Ate, ate, ate and ate some more. They literally ran thorough
the Indigo menu. Then many had wine and whiskey in plastic glasses and watched
movies by hanging their mobiles from small hooks. A guy in a skull cap, perhaps
he was to meet his girl friend at Delhi, he would get up every fifteen minutes,
comb his hair, apply moisturiser and then perfume. Two ladies parked themselves
around our row, and out catted each other on places travelled and the luxury
availed, I enjoyed the polite but venomous cat fight. In all that chaos and
repeated orders for tea or coffee, I overheard a guy say happily that he had
not been billed for his coffee. A poor old European, sitting next to me, could
just look around perplexed and in wonderment.
The full fare airlines, its drinks or tea and
dinner and pass your time. Here it is so lively and full of life. The hours
just pass watching people doing just about anything to pass time. And the
majority eat and drink. Next time, just don’t bother, board whatever you have
to !!
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