Flight Hungama

It was a Sunday evening and I was at the airport for a flight changeover. There wasn’t much time left at the airport, but I was wondering how I am going to spend the next 4 hours during the flight. I got into the aircraft and finally settled on my seat beside my cousin after a big lot of confusion created by the attendant there in finding the place. Then came the announcement instructing passengers to keep their seat belt fastened and switch off the mobile phones and other electronic devices. The aircraft moved for a while and then halted, but there was no indication of taking off for some time. While everybody was wondering what the problem was, there came the second announcement instructing to keep the mobile phones switched off. This time the announcement was repeated twice.

And now, the guy sitting in front of me got a call and was happily chatting with his wife (I thought) in his (mine as well) mother tongue. I was just wondering if he ever understood any of the 3 languages in which the announcement was made, or atleast did he bother to. My cousin and I made an effort to get his mobile switched off, so did the others around. Finally he stopped talking, though am not sure if he switched it off. But I was relieved that the aircraft was taking off now.
All was well for the next ten minutes, after which we could hear the same guy talking again. I looked at my cousin and he at me and we laughed together. Then we settled down eating our noodles silently, while the talking still continued. I went off to sleep after that and was then suddenly awakened by a well known Tamil Number. It was the same guy again, playing the song on his mobile in high volume. One of the ladies who had put her kid to sleep with great difficulty revolted and he stopped the music, but his mobile was not switched off. I wondered if he really knew how to switch off a mobile phone.

Now the next thing guy was upto, was to open up a can of bear in a non smoking and non alcoholic flight. The flight that I was travelling was a so called budget flight, so the crew won’t bother to walk through, except to serve a glass of water or to check the seating position before takeoff or landing. But now a member of the crew came to him and snatched the can and took away his boarding pass (didn’t know how that helped)

Almost time to land, the announcement to fasten the seat belt was back and I could hear several ‘clings’ at the same time. When I looked up from my seats, I found the guy had got up from his seat and was walking to and fro in the middle of the aircraft.