Everyone keeps talking about how Air India flights of the Indian ‘National’ carrier, is going to the dumps. Being the staunch nationalist that I am, I always refused to go by the hype. After all, I had travelled a few times by Indian Airlines, the domestic carrier, and found the services fairly decent – surely its elder brother wouldn’t be as bad as people kept saying all over. Things couldn’t be so bad –the optimist in me always said.
This was my stand till my visit abroad with my family recently, when my tour operator fixed up a schedule that had the country’s premier carriers ferrying us from country to country. Choosing between Sri Lankan Airlines, Thai and being the nationalist by taking an Air India flight, I chose the latter – why not increase the revenues of my own country?
I wouldn’t be doing justice if this were to be a pure piece of criticism. To be frank, all was reasonably well till the time we were flying Indian Airlines. Leaving aside the fact the aircraft was comparatively small, there was fairly decent care and looking after. We arrived in Thailand pretty happily, and the onward journey to Malaysia was over before we could wake up (by then the famous tough schedules of the tour operators had taken over, and we were well and proper tired by the end of each day of our tour. The fact that we left our hotel at four in the morning didn’t help either).
It was on the return journey that our ordeals brought us to the famous Air India flight. In years of air travel, I had only heard about it, and was naturally mildly curious about what awaited us. ‘It can’t be so bad, darling’, I kept assuring my wife, who happens to be the more choosy one between us, and was fairly apprehensive about the five hour journey ahead of us.
Having enjoyed the famed beauty of the Singapore airport (wondering all the time why our very own desi airports couldn’t at least attempt to come close), we were sitting around the departure longue waiting patiently for the queue to lessen, when a ‘smart’, ‘young’ lady of about 45 years (fifty maybe), decked up as if there was no tomorrow, went into the express check-in lane. Sunken eyes, crow’s feet, heaps of makeup in a vain attempt to push back the advancing years – this lady was definitely not from the breed of air-hostesses they show on TV and in all those huge ads.
Now whoever says he does not look forward to the smart and well dressed PYTs that are naturally associated with top airlines, is telling a lie. I am human as well and a male to boot, and as my eyes widened in disbelief, I tried explaining to my smiling wife that this lady who’s just gone past us must form part of the ground staff. Not so, and the smile widened into a big grin when we entered the Air India flight plane and were greeted by the same person( pardon the use of the word – much worse adjectives come to mind, but I would rather not use them here). Aren’t we supposed to be greeted with a smile, I thought, but pushed the disturbing feeling into the background – the optimist in me told me the poor lady must be tired after her long flying hours in the Air India flight. After all, she had flown all the way from India to pick us up.
Well, one look around and I wasn’t too encouraged either – the average age of the air hostesses must have been well over 35, and one particularly ‘beautiful’ lady (calling them girls would be an insult to the latter) insisted on wearing a huge pair of spectacles. Fashionable? I don’t think so. Sure the government has fixed the retirement age at 58 and sure the air hostesses on Air India flights have won a court case, but there must be a way!
More disillusionment awaited us when the pot bellied, middle aged cabin crew Captain introduced himself. Since we were travelling with our six year son, I was looking forward to the standard fare of sweets making their appearance, but was not to be humored for the first quarter hour of the flight. When the staff of our Air India flight finally made an appearance, I was fairly fed up with watching Sanjeev Kapoor dishing out his sickening recipes on the one television that half the aircraft was sharing. Hasn’t anyone told them anything about LCD screens that are affixed with each seat these days? Well, my request to the lady X (for want of a better adjective to address her, lest I am tempted to use some unparliamentary language here) was entertained with an elusive smile, and we got to see some fitness lessons for the next 30 minutes, when finally someone decided we deserved some relief and put on a movie.
Food appeared, and I looked forward to the continental meal the non-veg menu promised. I like my meals, and since we were returning to India on board our Air India flight, I thought I might as well as enjoy some good food for which International airlines hire five star caterers. Only to be politely informed that the crew was running short of non-veg meals. Well, to be fair to them, they did manage to scramble one meal for me, which I was able to share with my son who had by then decided he wanted nothing but noodles.
The five hour Air India flight ended up being close to seven, as the airport at Delhi was too clogged to receive us in time. I am told there are improvements there in the offing, and only hope things take a turn for the better.
It’s a different matter that I am reminded of the sarcastic comment of our instructor ages ago when our cross-country team finished twelfth out of as many teams – “There’s lots of scope for improvement next year”.
If you thought this article has more or less ended, you have another one coming. Our ordeal with the Air India flight was not yet over, when my son forgot his attractive looking toy watch on the aircraft. On rushing back to the plane, his apprehensive mom was told in no uncertain terms that the ground staff hadn’t found anything. Now we were fresh from an international visit where things were clearly very different. Not so in dear old India, and definitely not in our flagship carrier’s Air India flight, who happens to be responsible for the ground staff’s actions as well.
Only when my uncompromising wife raised a storm of sorts and a co-passenger authenticated her version that she had actually seen the watch after we’d left, did the sole security staff ‘find’ the ‘missing’ watch several seats away from where it had been forgotten. It had obviously been dropped by the sole, nervous cleaning assistant abroad the Air India flight. He was hauled away for sure with threat of action, but I am quite certain he would be let off with a ‘stern’ warning, or a threat at most.
Compare this with the stringent action that would have been taken against such a person in the UAE. While I am definitely not for the excessively harsh punishments that the Middle East is known for, this person would have at least lost his job had he been in Singapore, or any other SE country. Which of the two actions would serve as a better deterrent, I leave to your better judgment.
The nationalist in me is still alive, and I am still a staunch believer in the fast improving ‘India Shining’. As for the national carrier Air India flights that showcase our country to the world and often is the first impression a lot of foreign tourists have of our proud heritage, I have only one thing to say – ‘There’s lots of scope for improvement’.
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