Airport Diaries 2: Apathy and Entitlement

 The queue was a little longer than usual, but since I was early at the check-in for the flight, I waited patiently, and without fidgeting. There was a bit of a commotion at the counter, as there appeared to be an argument between a flier and the person at the counter. 

I learn that it’s about being charged about excess baggage. “It’s hardly a kilo more!”, I heard the customer raising his voice exasperatedly. 

“But, Sir, the policy is you have to pay for every excess kilo. Your baggage weighs at 16.2”, the counter executive too had raised her voice. The man grumbled further, but relented, paid, and collected his boarding pass. “Indigo! If there’s Olympics for exactness, they’ll win all the medals!” 

A couple of minutes and customers later, it was my turn at the counter. I smiled at the executive, handed my phone and the ID Card, and said, “Having a tough day?”

“Every day we will have some who are tough on us, Sir. We are trained to take it in our stride”.  I smiled again, and said, “Very smart to remember”. 

“Please place your baggage now, Sir”, she too smiled. 

It weighed 16.4 kilos. “Now comes my turn to be told it’s excess and I’ve to pay”, I thought to myself. 

She nonchalantly tagged the bag, printed the boarding pass, and said, “Sir, your flight will take off from Gate 5”. 

I couldn’t resist. “You didn’t insist on my excess baggage payment?”

“You weren’t rude, either, Sir”.

******

There was a lot of time to board the flight still. I chose to pace up and down the waiting hall and collect my steps for the day. While walking, I noticed an elderly lady washing her plates and boxes at a water fountain. I completely lost it. How would anyone like to drink water from there while all that food stayed put!

Usually, I just bristle 99 times out of 100, and walk away from such scenes, cursing the uncivil ones. At best I might inform the janitors to do something. But this time, something snapped inside, and I sternly ticked off that lady. She said she didn’t know. Her husband who was just standing nearby told her, “You should be washing it in the toilet, not here”, in a language I too knew.

Me: You could have told this earlier to her. Or she could even see the board above  

She: I don’t know English. 

Me: Well, it’s also written in Hindi, and there’s a pictorial representation too. 

As they went quiet, and shamefacedly started cleaning the water fountain, their son walked in and asked what the matter was, to his father. Before he could say anything I interjected. 

“Isn’t it your responsibility to mind your old parents, and not make them do these chores at least at the airport?” By then people had begun to mill around to watch the spectacle. I grew both angry and embarrassed. Anger at our own lack of civic sense everywhere (heightened after my visit to Vietnam), and embarrassed as I hate being noticed in public. 

*****

The flight started boarding, and I occupied my aisle seat. There was someone at the window already, and soon a lady arrived to occupy the middle seat.  She busied herself with her book immediately after. 

Seat belt signs switched off after a smooth takeoff. The flight attendants started serving pre-booked snacks. I too had booked and I received it. Just when the attendants were moving away with their cart, the lady looked up from her book and called them out. 

“Excuse me! Can I have a spoon please?”

FA: Ma’am, we will come back to you after we finish these pre-booked snacks. 

Lady: But, I only want a spoon. You could surely give it and then go!

The attendants by then had moved a little more away. The lady started grumbling loudly again and again, “I only wanted a spoon. Can’t they bloody give before they serve others? What’s their problem??!!”, and when it appeared she would not stop, her neighbour told her, “Those who have pre-booked their meals will get first service. If you too had booked a meal, you’d get served”. 

She started her time again. “I am a simple person. I prefer to bring my own food. Simple”, she stressed on the word. 

“You know they don’t even have to honour your request. This isn’t a full service airline”. 

I thought this conversation might become confrontational, and hence intervened. 

“Excuse me, you could take my spoon. My Upma will take a while to be ready for consumption”, I added before she could protest. 

She gladly took it, and uttered thanks. I chose to bring my sting out then. “You say you’re simple. You could learn from Sudha Murthy. You know she carries her own steel spoons all over the globe?”

She glared at me, and opened her box of goodies. She was demanding a spoon to eat coconut laddoos of all things! I had a good mind to snatch it back. Thankfully, the attendant returned at that moment and saved any further escalation of drama.