Wishkey, please

You are going by Air India?
That was the  question when I told someone, that I am flying to Cochin from Dubai by  Air india.

He said, I have stopped travelling by Air India.

Why what happened ?

Terrible service, once I asked for water and the air hostess looked at  me with a look of why should I give you water. That was the reason for low rating of the airline.

Well, I checked in, immigration over, security check done and board an Air India flight to Kochi from Dubai.

Takes a seat 26 D, which is an aisle seat in the mid row. Generally the first thing I do after taking a seat is to put on my seat belt. And then open it, stand aside to allow  the middle seat passenger in.

Today I decided not to put on my seat belt until my neighbour takes his seat.  There he is, did not even looking at me, simply crosses over and takes his seat and I did not have to get up. Wow, what does that mean, you don’t have to get up, there is enough space between the seats. Isn’t it different from other airlines, I have travelled ? I am impressed.

There’s a tv, navigated through it to find a program clicked on to music, boring , changed to movies, picked a malayalam film. Read the title, Ana kulam. Ana is elephant, kulam is pond, assumed it may be a place where elephants have a bath.

The air hostess came pushing a trolley and I was wondering what to tell her, orange juice or apple juice, ended up saying whiskey, please. Never had hot drinks in a flight before.

She gives me two glasses with a peg each and  soda. I want to return one glass  with a peg, exhibiting manners and she says, no, keep it , we will collect it, at the end.

I pour soda into both the glasses and takes a sip.
Very recently, I had seen a video by our popular actor Madhavan where he has shared his experience in a wellness centre in Austria.
A successful  actor, he became complacent, his body lost shape. He had heard about a technique, to get his body into shape, in Austria. He went there spending lot of money and they welcomed him.

Welcome Mr Madhavan for coming to us, spending lot of money to learn the techniques to get  your body into shape, which we learnt from India.

Drink your food, eat your drink, that is what he  was taught. Chew your food 40 times, making into liquid before swallowing and the liquid  you drink, put it in your mouth, move it around like eating and swallow.
Over to the flight.
Lunch was being served. She asked, veg or non veg ? While travelling I always say Veg, this time I said non veg.

One of the discomfort for me while travelling is the food. The cramped seating and various items, curries, the clumsy me end up in a mess.
The look of the look of the plate looked good, only 3 items, Fried rice with egg, a bun butter and a sweat,gulab jamun.

I start  my drink, half way decide to start eating my drink, rolling  it inside my mouth. Then I start eating, decides to chew till it became liquid, 40 times. I start alternating drinking and eating. Before I reach a score of 10, I started gulping it down.   I touched 20, once, my best score. Like any other tough sport, this requires enormous practice. Even meditation is same. In fact, this is one form of meditation.So far so good.

Relaxed seat, good lunch accompanied by 2 pegs. Table cleaned and folded, I decided to watch the movie which was on my screen and I was distracted from watching.  Never mind, now I wasnt understanding what’s happening in the story. I heard somebody saying ana kallan, in the movie.Ana is  elephant, kallan means thief. It does not mean elephant thief, what they were meaning is Big thief. Then I realised,  that’s the name of the movie, not as I said earlier Ana kulam, its ana kallan.The two pegs were working.

What a comfortable trip, I am having, I cannot recall any trip in my life to complain. Why do people criticize the services in an airline, after all what services are people expecting from airline staff. You are seated in a plane, you can read, watch something on the screen, hear music, sleep and snore, once in a while call for water (better walk up to fetch water, you can stretch your legs). They serve food as per schedule, you eat and relax.
If the quality of food is bad, you complain to the management, why scream at the crew.

I have seen, on many occasions, the crew helping mothers travelling with their kids with lots of patience and senior citizens.
It’s the young guys, with mischief as intention, creates all the noise. I like ….airlines because their air hostesses are pretty or sexy when the others have old ladies. These are some of the comments, you hear. It’s travellers with large EGO, in my opinion, who creates problem by demanding out of the way services and pressurises them.

One good thing I noticed is the dress, comfortably covered, the air hostesses were moving around serving freely.
It’s much better than others giving room for goggling guys to misbehave. I am not questioning the dresses of girls, an individual has their choice and right to wear what they want. My obection  is when companies decide on the dress code, with questionable intention.

There was this lady protesting, she did not like to sit next to a coloured passenger. The crew got together, after a meeting, and told the complaining lady, taking your view into account, we are shifting this lady’s seat. Turning to the victim, she said, Madam, if you do not mind, with due respect to you,  we are offering a seat in the business class at no extra cost and she was cheered by the rest of the passengers all the way to her seat.

Let us know why you do not like a particular airline

You may be a customer, it’s your need they are meeting, stop showing off your rights.