The Aiport chronicles

Up in the air

I have always found air travel enjoyable. And when my work profile over the years warranted that I travel often, I couldn’t be happier. Every travel brings with it some memories which I can only think back with a grin on my face.

The first time I traveled it was with a group of colleagues. I remember not knowing what a boarding pass is and questioning people that when you have a ticket why would you need another ticket to fly. Or the time when I was fumbling with the seat belt and not knowing what goes where and asking sheepishly for help from a kind air hostess.

There are all kinds of people one can see on flights. I have tried to classify this ever increasing flock of people to the best extent possible.

• The avid photographer – the person who has to capture every passing cloud, mountain, city, river and everything beneath him/her.
• The selfie obsessed traveler – Someone who has to capture those precious in-flight selfies and airport selfies with the perfect pout and head tilt. This group is further classified into single travelers and family/friends travelers.
• The airport look traveler – This is mainly for the ‘Instagram’ sub species. This is not necessarily a selfie and is usually shot in a high resolution camera focusing on every accessory the traveler carries. Trolleys, hand bags, clutches, etc need to be in focus and brands identified.
• The pathetic parents – Everybody knows flight travels are tough on kids at times. And parents travelling with kids have an ever-apologetic look pasted on their face in case their kid starts wailing at the top of his/her decibel level.
• The Gentleman traveler – These are the people whom Barney Stinson would love to befriend. Always in suit, they are suave, chivalrous, mind their own business, read Business Line or The Economic times, and scroll through their Blackberrys from time to time. They also cast nasty glance at you if you are type 1.
• The hot lady – This is a minority in terms of numbers. Every flight is lucky if it has one such lady. But she is the head turner. Every man in the flight wants to sit near her. But only one lucky uncle usually makes it to the coveted adjacent seat.
• The check-in traveler – This person whether or not he checks in to get the boarding pass has to do a Facebook check-in and let the world know of his where-abouts, God-forbid, in case, an alien ship abducts the whole flight and the world doesn’t know exactly where he must have got lost.
• Can’t-wait-to-get-out traveler – This is the person who has to jump out of the plane in the first few seconds after the pilot has applied the brakes (Is that what they call it? Brakes?) lest the cabin crew keeps him/her behind to clean up the aircraft. The very first click you hear, that of seat belt popping open will be his/hers. This will be closely followed by welcome jingles of mobile phones being switched on and a brief call assuring their loved ones back home that they have landed safely and the flight was not lost somewhere in the Bermuda triangle or Indian Ocean.
• The celebrity traveler – The celebrity with ill-concealed effort at being not recognized – dons large shades, sometimes a cap – all the while silently shouting ‘Look at me! Look at me!’

And the list goes on. As you might point out, I am also guilty of falling into a few of the above categories. Nevertheless, these are the characters that make the drama that unfolds up above the world ever so alluring not to mention the free food that Jet Airways and Air India have to offer! And yes, please feel free to comment about any other traveler type I might have left out.