Mumbai to New York

I was flying Air India from Mumbai - New York on Sunday. It was a non-stop 15+ hour journey and was convenient albeit tiring. And guess what? My beautiful wife dropped me to the airport. Actually she never bothered for the first 14 years of our marriage. But lately she’s been kind enough to insist that she drop me. Like a friend pointed out, either she’s becoming insecure or wants to make sure that I’m leaving, happy to be rid of me, albeit for a short period. Either way, “Thanks Ivy”, I love it when you drop me and say goodbye.

I have had a strange love-hate relationship with Air India. I love to hate Air India. And love to fly them especially on their non-stop flight to New York’s JFK. The fact that they provide some of the cheapest tickets helps the decision making process.

Of the 10+ times I've taken this flight my personal entertainment system has worked only once. On all other occasions there was some glitch or the other. This time was not to be 2nd. The remote control did not work. Luckily for me, the touch screen did, with some amount of force and pressure. It required a certain precise kind of combination and by the end of the 15 hours, I was able to get it right in 1 out of 2 tries. Which I guess isn't too bad.

I had booked an aisle seat and was hoping that the other 2 seats would be empty, making my economy ticket effectively into 1st Class. But that was not to be. A pretty lady occupied the other aisle seat. And I was looking forward to making 1 more (oops, I don’t have any) pretty friend. But like all of the other things, that was not to be either. She turned out to be as introvert as I was, and I’m willing to bet that 2 people who would have loved to spend some time exchanging thoughts and becoming friends ended up in wondering “What could have happened ?”

The flight was over 30 minutes late in taking off. After all but 3 passengers had boarded almost an hour before the scheduled take off. And no one bothered even keeping the passengers informed. It was with great difficulty and after a few hundred passengers asked what the problem was, a kind air-hostess informed that there were 3 missing passengers who we were waiting for. Wouldn't it have been so much nicer if they had bothered to make an announcement informing passengers of the issue? And that’s the number 1 issue with the airline. Communication. Even when they talk to each other, they talk via the media and via strikes.

We finally took off.  The food was as decent as airline food can get. And the service was as nice as Air India service can be. Which by the, way is pretty good by international standards. The air-hostesses actually listen in case you need or want something. The movies were few but luckily, I found a couple I had not seen. And the flight pretty much uneventful. Which is what I guess you’d like a flight to be.

Interestingly the only time we heard the pilot speak was at take off “Cabin Crew, take off stations”, and after landing, “Crew, disarm doors and report.” Why the pilot couldn’t spend a few minutes after take off, and before landing in speaking to the passengers is another one of those Air India mysteries. Maybe they weren’t being paid their “Speak to passengers allowance”, which as per their union, should be over and above the fancy salary they get for being obnoxious. Another one of the mysteries of life is how these very same pilots find their voices and are sweet as honey, when they join private airlines.

We landed at JFK about 45 minutes late, which was not too bad. But the immigration line was. It took me an hour to get to the counter, and I was 1 of the lucky ones. Now if this were to happen in any other country, they would have been the center of criticism. But I guess since the US is the destination of choice, they pretty much get away with anything.  I guess the US is trying to give their guests and visitors a message, “We don’t want you and we certainly don’t need you.” And this is probably true. But life has a funny way of changing things. Wonder how long before, they want us, and who knows maybe even need us.