Air India - Do U really wanna fly that:-)

Guess it was my first trip to India from here..
Had a overnight stay in Sing - I had flown there in a Korean Air flight
and from there to Madras by Indian Airlines...
.

That 3 hr journey, I realised never will I fly Air India again..

I had stayed overnight in my cousins place and she had come to drop me at the Changi airport (or watever that is called).

One look at the queue outside, you could have mistaken it for a fish market..

was sooooooo crowded with confusion all around that ticketing area..
It looked more like a vegetable chawl in India.

I looked at it in disbelief..and my cousin gave me a wry smile and she said, this is the reason why I was asking you yesterday, about not taking a sing airlines flight..

I consoled myself, thinking this is prolly cause, the rate by Air india/ Indian Airlines is 1/3 of sing airlines. Hence the crowd..and mebbe they dont fly as frequently as IA did...

WRONG...
some how got into the flight...

and as vi or some one else said...

At the ticketing counter outside, there were scores of ppl, waiting to get a seat, and they were being turned down saying NO place sorry..

Once I got inside and everyone had settled down( thts a misnomer..nobody settles down:-) more on that later )

I could spot atleast 4-5 seats that werent taken the whole journey...Talk abt wastage..shuks..

Now comes the interesting part..:-)

The moment u step in the plane, the feel and smell and the commotion..sacchhe mein..:)
reminded me of a Bus station in India..

ppl were like fighting jostling to get it...the others wont even wait for u, they will just twist their body and go past u.
No wonder I guess, that they airhostess seemed pissed of the whole journey..:-)

It was very sultry and I thought lets turn on the vent above us, No sooner did I do that., there was this thick white smoke coming out from them and all over the plane at all vents..
with a chlorox like smell...
shuks..

At my wits end, I asked the Air hostess wat this is all abt, she just mumbled and went off, prolly the guy next to me was a freq traveller on this flight, just laffed off and said..dont worry, u wont notice it when the plane takes off :D

and I thought he meant they will go...But note the words..U WONT NOTICE IT..:)

Then finally after a 30 min delay it took off though I shd say, they landed on time)...and unbelievable, the moment the flight took off...
ppl were walking here and there on the flight as if they were walkin in a train..
some with babies..in their hands that were crying no end...
and others with their lungies and munda banians..:-)

and others like me who wanted to cry but cudnt and only ended up cursing my travel agent...

apparently the airhostesses got tired of telling them to take their seats...they infact never bothered...
little wonder they wanted to get the business of food done pretty fast..

10 mins into take off, one of them a above middled aged 'aunty' brought a tray of eclairs...
I looked at it, and they were off various shapes..and sizes, not like the eclairs I had seen when I was in india..:)
One look, I decided I dont want it, and said no thanks. She gave me one frightful stare..:-s and shoved the tray right under my nose and said" TAKE IT"

Like a scared school boy, I took 2 lest she should shout for taking more than what I am allowed..
Man that make up she had...the less said the better..
all tht was probably because of the airconditioner barely working..
Mebbe she felt it even worse than me..what with sweat dripping over all that makeup :-)

Then came the lunch or mini meals or watever..
had 2 packs one upma combo for veges and other an omlet combo for NV.
I had ordered veggie and wanted to find out what the NV was..

she was like " what did u ask for. That s what I have given u. Eat it"
me : " no I dont want this. tell me what you have in the other box"

she: " no u dint order this. How does it matter to u"

I just got totally pissed off and glared at her. She then gave me the other one and said itz got omlette in it.

the one next to me was having that, and afterI saw how it looked like, I decided to go for the veggie again..

haha...u can visualize that..for sure..:) when I asked her for the veggie thingie again...

rofl, her expression said a thousand words..
thankfully she just gave it to me and pushed of..


Finally in 2.5 hrs it touched madras...and I heaved a sigh of relief....

and rather than thinking of the 3 month holiday ahead, I was thinking of what to do on the return flight..to see if I could change it to something else..


Now MAKE UP ur MIND... :)

PS: this was in 2000. Might have changed for the better now..hopefully:)